00:39:54 · Ian Dallimore, Michael Provenzano
[00:39:54] S0: And I I ran into you coming, coming in and out of meetings and I kind of made the comment to you because I I wasn't there meeting you. And I I made the knowing what was going down with you. And I said, this has to make you so proud. And you just kind of looked across. [00:40:08] S1: Yeah. Yeah, it does. It feels great. It's it's amazing to see so many people together, pushing towards the same vision, aligned, and again, to a vision that's that's resonating with an entire ecosystem. [00:40:20] S0: Yeah. What... I I know you're a very modest person. What you've done for the industry has really kind of, you know, to your point, like disruption, but disruption in a positive way, you know, we'll get past the the conversation of, the early days of trying to sell through. Trust me, like, I jokingly say, like, I have more errors in my back than I... Internally than I do externally. But, you know, that had to have been a lot of fun just to sit back. I I think in my mind, in your career, outside of this acquisition, the early days, you being on stage at the O triple a, leading the moderation of the big three CEOs. Yeah, the big dogs with, you know, with, Jeremy Mayo, Scott Wells, and Lamar Sean Riley, and you're moderating that. [00:41:06] S1: Yeah, it's crazy. [00:41:07] S0: Yeah. But it... But the early days you could never have imagined, like fourteen years ago, Michael, they're like, hey, the whole industry is going to love you and accept you. [00:41:16] S1: Yeah, no, I would have been like, right. [00:41:18] S0: Yeah.
00:41:18 · Ian Dallimore, Michael Provenzano
[00:41:18] S0: Yeah. [00:41:18] S1: Get out here. I'm like, is there something about you have to enjoy being the outcast a little bit too sometimes? I think that's a little bit of the entrepreneur's journey. Yep. I'm sure there's a lot of companies that start and people kind of love the product from day one. They're excited about what's being built and you... Kickstarter is probably a good example of this. People do things in Kickstarter like you're only hearing about what people like who want to actually invest in what you're doing. You don't hear about the people who saw and then were like, this is fucking stupid. Don't to do this. [00:41:44] S0: Yeah. Yeah. [00:41:44] S1: Right. Like, you don't get that feedback as clear. But when you run a business like ours in B2B, people tell you very clearly, like, I have I have a bunch of old emails that maybe one day I'll release that are pretty amazing, that, you know, it's from the agency side, the owner side of people being like, this is dumb, don't email me again, like, never gonna happen. And it's like, I don't know if you if you've ever been a competitive person, right? Like we both were athletes, like, you just get fired up, you're just like, F that, like, I'm gonna go, I'm gonna prove you wrong, I don't even know who you are, I'm gonna prove you on. This was a blind email, but I'm still gonna prove you wrong, you just get fired up, I don't know.
00:41:44 · Michael Provenzano, Ian Dallimore
[00:41:44] S1: Right. Like, you don't get that feedback as clear. But when you run a business like ours in B2B, people tell you very clearly, like, I have I have a bunch of old emails that maybe one day I'll release that are pretty amazing, that, you know, it's from the agency side, the owner side of people being like, this is dumb, don't email me again, like, never gonna happen. And it's like, I don't know if you if you've ever been a competitive person, right? Like we both were athletes, like, you just get fired up, you're just like, F that, like, I'm gonna go, I'm gonna prove you wrong, I don't even know who you are, I'm gonna prove you on. This was a blind email, but I'm still gonna prove you wrong, you just get fired up, I don't know. [00:42:25] S0: I have some printed, right here on my desk for the audio actually one of them is relation to selling Vistar day... Year one. Oh, god. But no, that's... But again, I love that because it's the fuel that kind of kept you guys going, where a lot of leaders in your position may have been like, hey, guys, this is really tough industry, we're barking up the wrong tree, like, we we need a backup.
00:42:25 · Ian Dallimore, Michael Provenzano
[00:42:25] S0: I have some printed, right here on my desk for the audio actually one of them is relation to selling Vistar day... Year one. Oh, god. But no, that's... But again, I love that because it's the fuel that kind of kept you guys going, where a lot of leaders in your position may have been like, hey, guys, this is really tough industry, we're barking up the wrong tree, like, we we need a backup. [00:42:48] S1: We've had those nights. We definitely had those nights. Early on, there were a few nights where you just say, like, I'm tired. And Yeah. This is like a lot of pushing pushing pushing and not really feeling any give from anyone. And look, that's a hard, I think there's a little luck in that for us, but I think there's a lot of startups that keep pushing, pushing, pushing, and they never get their break, they never get their chance, and they're they're fifteen, twenty years in, and haven't scaled revenue, aren't maybe even profitable, and still struggling. And there's a moment where you do have to decide like, is this is this the right thing? Is this... Was this a good idea? Is this a good product market fit? Like, if I'm getting so much negative feedback, there there has to be something different I need to do. Mhmm. So so I do think that like, as tough as some maybe some of those early years were, I'm glad we kept pushing because clearly it was worth it. But I don't know if it's always worth it. Yeah. There's definitely companies that maybe should have stepped back at some point in different industries, of course.
00:43:51 · Ian Dallimore, Michael Provenzano
[00:43:51] S0: Well, and you're you're disrupting an industry right at, like, the evolution of a... Of technology. You know, again, we're talking about an industry that's fifteen years ago, twenty... We'll call it twenty years, twenty plus years ago, was still taking maps, putting stars where their billboards were, and faxing them over to people. So, you know, one of the big things you're also doing is you're trying to introduce yourself as, hey, we are not replacing this process Yeah. Or the evolution that was happening on, you know, faxing fourteen years ago, but there were still... Some people were. Yeah. Some people were. Jesus. But those people probably still aren't on the Vistar platform. [00:44:31] S1: I'm sure there's still faxing.
00:44:31 · Michael Provenzano, Ian Dallimore
[00:44:31] S1: I'm sure there's still faxing. [00:44:32] S0: Yeah. There's still faxing. But you're also trying to change not only the mindset of of an industry that's done something for literally probably sixty plus years. It's like sign, billboard, I want that. Yeah. And you had you had the vision because there's other media that exists online, mobile at the time, and a little bit of social that was selling this audience base, this impression So based twofold, you're trying to introduce yourself as like, hey, we're Vistar Media. Oh, and by the way, there's this thing called programmatic advertising that you you aren't even automating what you do today, but we wanna we wanna automate. And, by the way, I don't wanna sell your specific panel. I want to sell a conglomerate of panels and I'm going give you some data, some carrier data, and we're going to do. So the challenge there... There's a lot.