In this Business Blast Podcast episode, host Tyler Wagner interviews Jeff Sass, CMO of .CLUB Domains and author of Everything I Know About Business and Marketing I Learned from the Toxic Avengers. Jeff shares how his childhood love of writing and performing shaped his career, emphasizing the importance of integrating early passions into professional work. He explains the value of new generic top‑level domains (gTLDs) like .club, .shop, and .marketing, illustrating how meaningful, correctly spelled domain names can serve as shortcuts to products, social profiles, or personal branding (e.g., toxicavenger.marketing). Jeff offers broad business advice centered on active listening to peers, customers, and employees, and stresses that listening uncovers opportunities. He advises his younger self to trust instincts and act without fear, warning that hesitation leads to missed chances. Discussing happiness, he highlights attitude and gratitude as controllable levers, encouraging living in the present. Jeff mentions his own book as his most impactful read, cites Steven Pressfield’s Nobody Wants to Read Your Shit for writing guidance, and shares a favorite Mario Andretti quote about staying slightly uncomfortable to avoid complacency. He concludes by directing listeners to his personal sites, jeffreysass.com and jeffreysass.club, for more information.
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Welcome to the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. This episode is brought to you by Authors Unite. Authors Unite provides you with all the resources you need to become a successful author. You can learn more about Authors Unite and join the free community at authorsunite.com. Now let's jump into the episode.
All right everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Jeff Sass with us. He is the CMO of DotClub Domains and author of the fun, funny, and inspiring business book Everything I Know About Business and Marketing I Learned from the Toxic Avengers. So welcome to the show, Jeff.
Thanks, Tyler. It's a pleasure to be here.
Of course, pleasure to have you on, man. We'll dive into the first one. The first question I have for you, Jeff, is what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
Well, I guess it's not really a story, but I'd say my childhood. I think that one of the things I've learned is the stuff you liked as a kid is probably the same stuff you'll like and be good at as an adult. So I think it's important to find ways to recapture those things and work them into your work. So for example, I always liked writing and performing, even when I was very young, you know, 8 or 9 years old. And so while I started my career in the entertainment industry as a marketer, no matter what industry I've been in ever since, I've always managed to make writing part of my job description, whether it was writing ad copy or newsletters or whatever. I always had the opportunity to write creatively like I did as a child. And I always managed to scratch my performing itch by being in a position to speak publicly and do media interviews, etc. So I've always managed to, to work these things that I've been loving to do since I was a kid into my job. And I think that that's an important thing to recognize, you know, the things you liked as a kid are probably the same things you like and are good at today. So keep doing them.
Yes, I agree. And what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?
Well, I think, Tyler, as you mentioned, I'm CMO of.clubdomains. So we're one of the new top-level domain extensions. And I think a lot of people aren't aware that right now, whether you're a business or an individual, there are hundreds of new domain name extensions like.club,.shop,.blog,.tech, and many others. And what's interesting is many of these new extensions have meaning that can help people understand what to expect from your online presence. So with that in mind, there's no longer any excuse to make up words or drop vowels or deliberately misspell words just to get a domain name. You should be able to get a domain name that's spelled correctly, that's easy to remember, and that's relevant to what you're trying to get across. So if you're all about membership and community, a.club name might make sense. You know, if you're doing an online store, a.shop name might make sense. And a good example is my book. My book, as you mentioned, is called Everything I know about business and marketing I learned from the Toxic Avenger. So I registered the domain name toxicavenger.marketing because there's a dot marketing extension, and I use that as an easy shortcut to the book on amazon.com. So if I— if someone goes to toxicavenger.marketing, it takes them right to the book's page on Amazon, literally one click away from buying the book. And that's the kind of thing that anyone can do. You can even use a custom domain name to point to your Facebook page or your LinkedIn profile, and instead of making people search for you where they might find the wrong thing or get distracted by other results, you can use a meaningful and relevant domain name as a shortcut right to your page.
And what is your best piece of overall business advice? You're not necessarily industry specific.
I would say listen, right? Listen to your peers, listen to your partners, listen to your customers, listen to your employees, and really listen. Hear what they're saying and think about it. You don't necessarily have to like what they're saying or agree with it or even act upon it, but you're missing opportunities if you're not really listening. And this is a skill that's good not just in business, but in life in general, right? Listen to your kids, listen to your spouse or your significant other, listen to your family and friends and really hear what they're saying. Becoming an active listener is a very valuable skill, not just in business, but in life. A lot of times we don't really, we act like we're listening, but we're not hearing what people are saying. We're not thinking about it.
And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
Ah, my younger self, which goes back a long way. I would tell myself to trust your instincts and run with them without fear. I think that hesitation is your enemy. If you feel it's right, just do it and everything will be fine. I think if I look back and if I'm honest with myself, there've been a number of instances where I hesitated or procrastinated, and as a result, I missed an opportunity. So I think it's important to be happy where you're at this very moment. And your life and career is a long and winding road, and every twist and turn is ultimately part of the journey that shaped you and got you exactly where you are right now.
And that is a perfect leeway into the next one. So in your opinion, what is the key to happiness?
Well, Tyler, I think the key to happiness is your attitude and gratitude. Right? Your attitude is the one thing that you can always control. You can choose to let something drag you down or not. You can choose to let something bother you or not. You can choose to appreciate things and the people in your life or not. So you can choose to be happy right now in this moment. And really, I think living in the moment, I know it sounds trite, but it's really true. Like, right now is all that really matters. I can't change the past. And the future is uncertain, but now is everything. So I think it's, it's really important to have that positive attitude, be grateful for the things you have, and be grateful for the moment you're living in right now.
And what is the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from that?
Well, selfishly, I'm going to say, although it's not necessarily the best book I've ever read, but it's been the best for me. And that would be my book, Everything I Know About Business and Marketing I Learned from the Toxic Avenger. And that's because the process of writing the book and revisiting a great time in my career from the perspective of the lessons I learned at that time, and then successfully sharing those lessons with others through the book has been very rewarding. And I think that whole process, I really love the fact that I was able to do it. Not counting my book, I read a lot of books about writing, and I really enjoyed Steven Pressfield's short and sweet book called Nobody Wants to Read Your Shit. And it really inspired me in why and how to write my book. His chapters were really short, pungent, to the point, and humorous. And I think I tried to emulate some of that in my book.
And what is your favorite quote and why?
The race car driver Mario Andretti said, and I always like this quote, "If everything seems under control, you're not going fast enough," or something close to that. And I like that quote because I really think that, you know, the right amount of unease is good for you. A little bit of stress is healthy because it keeps you motivated and moving forward. Complacency is the enemy. You have to live your life a little bit like a shark where you gotta always keep moving. If you're too content and don't feel a little bit of unease, a little bit of stress on the edges there, you're probably not pushing things as hard as you should be. So I always like that quote.
Yeah, I love that, man. Thank you so much for coming on. The last question I have for you before we let you go is where is the best place for people to find you online?
Absolutely. So my personal website is jeffreysass.com or jeffreysass.club. They both work. And there are links there to my book, to.club, and to all my social links, etc., and probably more information than you'll ever need or want to know about me.
Perfect, brother. Thank you again for joining us. We appreciate it.
Thanks, Tyler.
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