We Be Moving & Shaking At VOMP Studios - Joined a “mile challenge” and walked/ran 60+ miles the first 5 days of August. Spent this past weekend at a family reunion in Newport Beach, CA. Now I’m in Dallas, TX helping Strong Coffee’s activation at the 2024 Crossfit Games.

This week’s riffs for the creative vandals, outlaws, misfits, and pirates of the internet:

• Create Cooler: A new AI-powered video app taking over the podcast game

• Build Better: The art of deck-making

• Earn Easier: Looking outside of your market to stand out

• Break The Rules: This one car dealership might get its own Netflix Show

• The Hit List: Music to turn up and tune out

Starting A Video Podcast Just Got Easier

I’m talking way easier.

Like way fucking easier.

Back in the height of COVID, Kaleb Fossum and I started a podcast called Be Uncommon.

We loved it.

But the post-production was so draining that we took a break from it.

Then we got busy, moved states, and decided to retire the Pod.

A few weeks ago we started toying with the idea of bringing that content outlet back with a new spin.

It’ll be a new pod with a new name, direction, and content output.

No More Post-Production Struggles

One of the ways we’ll be pushing content out like an 1861 Gatling Gun is because of new AI tools.

The key tool?

Detail →

Detail allows you to wirelessly connect two iPhones in the same room or remotely to capture guests and multiple angles, in one project.

It gives you an automatic edit of your interview or podcast recording that switches speakers

Then you can easily navigate your podcast using the transcript, select sentences to group and share as a short clip, or get AI to do it for you.

When the core focus of energy can be on the realness and rawness of the content instead of the technological aspect…

True, quality stories get told.

And that’s the whole damn point.

The Art Of Deck-Making

I used to think the term “deck” was a super fancy tech bro term that I didn’t understand.

Then I worked at an agency and realized it’s just a fancy term for a PowerPoint presentation.

But that simplifies it a bit too much.

A great deck tells a story and sells an idea.

It’s helped teams I’ve worked with raise millions.

It got Kaleb Fossum and me an interview with Rob Dyrdek.

And helped me land handfuls of clients the last few years.

There’s A Process To This Shit

I’ve found Canva’s Deck templates to be a great starting point for deck inspiration.

The content in each deck is the most important part.

It’s got to be delivered in an order that tells the story of the idea you’re trying to sell.

BUT…

The visual hierarchy plays an important role too.

There’s a certain “feel” that the best high-converting decks have.

Branding, fonts, colors, and imagery allow you to pour your perspective and personality into the “look” of your idea in a way that words and graphics can’t.

And I found a beautiful deck on the old interwebs this week that explains the art of deck-making better than I can.

Give it a look here →

You Don’t Always Have To Be Better

Sometimes you don’t have to have better content or a better offer.

Better is a subjective word. It allows each person’s personal experiences to form an opinion on whatever the idea is.

Because of this, sometimes you just have to be different.

Don’t Get Caught Up In The Wave

It’s easy to see other successful people in your market and want to copy what they do because it works.

But that’s a race to the bottom of the saturation barrel.

Whether it’s style, delivery, or the exact offer.

When you become exactly like your competitor, the only thing to compete on is price.

And if everything is the exact same between competitors, consumers will most often choose the cheapest option for them.

This leaves the lowest-priced competitor with less profit and ultimately fewer resources to compete.

Look At Other Markets

Look at the SYSTEMS that have proven to work in your own markets first.

Then find creative inspiration for what’s working in other markets.

For example, DTC landing pages don’t typically have long-form copy-driven landing pages but business development courses do.

Use the systems that work in your market already and then combine the aesthetic and content hierarchies of other markets to create your own category.

The same goes for branding.

Coffee houses and brewing companies often use similar fonts and color schemes for their logos - yellows, oranges, and browns with serif fonts.

Athletic brands do it too with sharp serif fonts and black, white, and gray shades.

Mixing fonts, colors, overlays, design, and aesthetics in the brand origin stage can help young brands stand out in ultra-competitive markets.

Take a step outta your (brand’s) comfort zone.

It could really pay off.

Think Liquid Death.

Instead of a typical plastic water bottle, they decide to deliver their water in Tall Boys that look more like a Modelo than a Dasani.

Then you look at their 90s grunge rock-inspired branding and see how they combined the systems of the CPG water market with the aesthetic of other markets.

The result?

A water company valued at $1.4 billion.

Not too shabby.

Ducks, Deception, and Dealership Drama

Picture this: Tiny rubber ducks mysteriously popping up around the office.

A rogue employee raiding the potluck lunch without so much as bringing a bag of chips.

An award that inflates an ego faster than a dealership blowout sale.

Or my personal favorite: an undercover mission to scope out the competition, complete with a dodgy disguise.

Welcome to The Dealership, the latest TikTok sensation brought to you by Mohawk Chevrolet of Saratoga County, New York.

It’s Like The Office, But…

Think of it as a love child between The Office and your local car dealership.

This weekly series has racked up nearly 6 million views in just a couple of months.

Mohawk might be peddling Chevys, but their marketing team? They’re cruising in a Ferrari.

The mastermind behind this digital juggernaut is fresh-out-of-college whiz kid Grace Kerber.

She's the wizard behind the curtain, handling everything from scripting and directing to graphic design and strategic planning such as their TikTok-specific landing page.

And according to one particularly whimsical episode, she's even a choreographer.

But let’s be real—viewers just know her as Grace, the series’ star who bears an uncanny resemblance to Dawn from the original UK version of The Office.

Grace and her partner-in-crime Ben Bushen cook up each episode from scratch.

"We bounce around ideas—sometimes straight from the wacky stuff that actually happens at Mohawk—and whip up a rough storyboard," Grace explained.

She insists her colleagues don’t need much direction because they’re "naturally hilarious."

The Cast & Crew

What makes The Dealership stand out? Grace is irresistibly charming.

The rest of the crew—Jasmine, Lukas, Michael, Ben, Justin, George, and others—aren’t half bad at playing pretend, especially when you realize they’re winging it with pure improv.

Ben’s shaky cam and DIY lighting bring the authentic, gritty vibe of The Office.

The sound? Shockingly top-notch.

Sure, the show’s got its rough edges. But with episodes clocking in under five minutes, the laughs are fast and furious.

Then there’s the team’s cheeky nod to a nationwide ransomware attack that took down thousands of dealerships: they handle the chaos with a blend of poise and humor that’s pure gold.

Grace says their goal is to "promote our dealership in a way that most dealerships don’t," aiming to boost car sales.

And given the spike in online traffic, it's working. But Mohawk’s achieved something even bigger: they’ve made their workplace look like an absolute blast.

A Different Kind Of Work Culture

Grace might be single-handedly demolishing the case for remote work.

Great company cultures like Mohawk’s can’t be dialed in from home.

While Grace rightly basks in the spotlight for this genius marketing ploy, let’s not forget the dealership’s owner, Andrew Guelcher, who presumably greenlit the project.

Many business owners would balk at the idea of buying fancy equipment and letting employees spend hours each week making TikTok videos, let alone entrusting it to someone barely out of college.

So, will we see Guelcher emulate Michael Scott’s infamous George Foreman grill foot injury? Office Olympics? A cameo from Steve Carell?

There’s already been a cameo with the CEO of GM.

With this kind of buzz and Grace’s knack for storytelling, nothing’s off the table.

One thing’s for sure: sales are gonna spike, and there’ll be a queue of people itching to work at Mohawk Chevrolet.

But there’s gonna be an even longer line of brands trying to poach Grace for themselves.

She deserves it.

Different creative pursuits call for different music to jam to. Here’s what I jammed to this week on The Vomp Playlist: