Ep. 107 Marine to Marketer: Aaron's Local Impact Leap

Carlsbad, people, purpose, and impact, an essential podcast for those who live, work, visit, and play in Carlsbad.

Good morning, and welcome, everyone. My name is Brett Schanzenbach I'm the president and CEO of the Carlsbad Chamber of Commerce. I'm your host today, and I'm excited to have with me my friend, Aaron Gobitis. Aaron is the owner of Go Be Rewarded.

Good morning, Aaron. Thanks for joining me.

Oh, thank you for having me.

It's good to have you. Good to have you back. I know we've had a couple good discussions over the years, and, it's, always great to sit down and chat. And for those that don't know you, I'd like to kinda get some of your background in there because I think it's impactful and important. Because you and I met back, gosh, around 9 years ago.

Yeah. You were exiting the marine corps around 2015 ish?

Yep. 2015.

Yeah. And so we met at at the Vista Chamber when I was over there. And you were in this cool space of, like, knowing you were leaving and already had the entrepreneurial hat on and getting ready to launch a business.

Yeah. You know, it was interesting because, I mean, it's a kind of a testament to even just joining your local chamber that, you know I I remember, for some reason, I was still a little bit confused because I thought that, for some reason, joining the chamber was kinda like getting a business license. So I thought I had to join the chamber, so that's why I was the like, I got my LLC and I'm like, okay, I have to go to a local chamber of commerce and join it real quick. And but, I will say that that was, you know, that that was a really good first move because, you know, not, you know, being you know, transitioning from the military. I'm from originally from Ohio.

It's not like I have business contacts or, you know, I can call up all my uncle's clients or something like that to get something started in the community. It was really just starting with the network of my local chamber and expanding from there.

Well, I wish more people had that same confusion you had and just got their business license and came down to the chamber and signed right up. But it did, start a great chance to get to know you and to get to know your business. And and you jumped right in with both feet, which it was just great coming right out of military service. So tell everybody let's tell everybody a little bit about what Go Be Rewarded is in case some of the folks listening have not heard of you guys before. And you have so many great services.

Well, you know, I will say that, you know, to to say what what Go Be Rewarded is, we are nominated for business of the year, and I wanna thank the nominating committee for that. You know, I wasn't sure who was on that one, but definitely thank you for that. And we were the best place to work couple of years ago. So Yeah. We've had a lot of really great involvement in the North County community and here in Carlsbad.

But Go Be Rewarded as a company, we do website, social media, video, Google Ads, SEO, and podcasting for about 200 businesses here in the San Diego area. Yeah. Man, I always say there's 2 things that make us a little bit different than most other companies. 1, we focus on working locally. That's so clients can come to our office and meet our team, and they're not having some guy on Fiverr in Bangladesh or something like that doing their project.

It also allows me to send my photo and video crew out to clients' locations, so we use original photo, video, and written content for everything that we do. And, also, all of our work is done in house, so we don't sub contract any of the work. And I think that it actually we we actually have, I think, 5 people at this point that are from Saint John Paul the Great. Yeah. John Paul the Great University, you know, working there.

But people are looking to be in media, in film, in web design. But they don't have to move to downtown San Francisco to get a good job that they can, you know, have all the things that a, you know, a real adult job's supposed to have as opposed to just freelancing every once in a while, maybe picking up a wedding here or there.

Yeah.

So

No. That's great. Yeah. And, John Paul, the great it's a good I it's obviously, it's become a good feeder for you guys.

It's it's literally it's probably like, if I see that on a resume, it it probably bumps it up, like, 50 to 60% whether or not they're they're gonna get hired, or I don't find a place for them to be hired. Because I will say that it's kind of a a bit of a gem of North County Yeah. Where you will get such a versatile, young human being from that universe. There's they have, like, 2 degrees. But for some reason, I've had somebody from I've had someone almost either head a department or be hugely involved in a department that has in each one of my departments, even though they all had, like, the same

Yeah.

Degree. Yeah. So it's just the very I know college is supposed to make you a well rounded person, but I will say that that college particularly does make you a very well rounded, person, at least for my business.

Yeah. No. The focus their focus is on, definitely on business and media, and that's your focus. So it's a sounds like a really good match. So I wanted to chat.

You you touched on it a tiny bit, but talk about the evolution of video podcasting because I know it's a big thing in the past

you're doing. So it's weird that I, you know, I'm on a podcast talking about a podcast, live inside of a simulation, you know, all these different things. But so a a big development that we've had, and it's something that I'll even admit. I at first, I was reluctantly getting into it because I was like, oh, you know, podcasting seemed like a very, maybe, 2015, 28 sure sort of thing. There's a few reasons why I think that it's kind of launched itself into the current, you know, business world is, for a couple of years.

One is the is the video aspect of it. Yeah. Because as you know, even with this podcast, you know, audio yeah. You can have audio podcast. You already have a followership and people who are already subscribed to you on, you know, Spotify or Amazon or something like that or on Apple Podcasts.

It's a really great way to keep in touch with your audience. But as far as gaining a new audience, you know, in order to get on these social media platforms, in order to even, you know, get in touch with people, It need there are video platforms, such as YouTube, TikTok, Instagram. And so, you're gonna need video content to get on there. But the most interesting thing I found is even when you're talking about big time YouTubers nowadays, you know, I'm not gonna go through, you know, you know, Gen z is gonna kill me for this, but I'm not gonna go through all the ones who have recently done it. But there's been a lot of big time YouTubers even that have even started going away from the standard kind of YouTube format, and they're doing podcasting now and stuff.

Interesting. Because it's something that I think from a content creation standpoint, you can get a lot of content. And I think things are also it's kinda doubling up with things that are also going more for the long form content. You know, I think from 2015 to 2021, 2022, it was like, how short could we possibly get the content? And I think it was really taking content creators and business owners, especially, and it was taxing for them.

Because how are we gonna talk about industrial boilers and solar companies and chambers of commerces in a 5 second TikTok, you know, or something like that? Like, that's just gonna be impossible to do. Right. You know, and that's why you had, like, health, beauty, restaurants, stuff like that. They could thrive in that environment because it's just immediate like, oh, wow, look how good this before and after makeup job was or something like that.

But, you know, I think that, especially, it's coming more from the content creators of expanding to going back to the long form content. And I think that it's also another thing too, where a big difference between, you know, 9 years ago and today is you're most likely listening to a podcast while you're doing your dishes, while you're, you know, people have long commutes to work, people around trains, people, you know, even when I mean, I'll admit, even when I'm putting the kids to bed, you know, usually, I'm listening to a podcast because I'm gonna have to hang out in there for an hour. I've got 3 small children. But, you know, I have to hang out in there for just to make sure they're all asleep and not gonna get back up. Yeah.

I I I don't want you to relive those 2.

That's right. Starting to twitch over

here. But, yeah. So I think it's going back to the long form content. You know, I think that it's bringing on, what's, you know, being called content stacking, which is essentially gonna be, you know, as I mentioned, some of these bigger companies, you know, they have to be on social media now. Right?

And, you know, it's not an option, you know, if you're a biotech company here in Carlsbad, it's not an option to be on social media or not. But then the big problem is, like, you're a biotech company in Carlsbad. What information are you putting on social media? Oh, happy pizza day and have a picture of a dog eating a slice of pizza and say, hey, you know, we're also, you know, taking parts out of cells and and doing it for the mass harp pharmaceutical market. Like, that's not you had a few years there.

I think of, like, you know, a dark age of, social media where, you know, you just go on LinkedIn or you'd go on, you know, on Instagram or something like that, and you'd be like, all these people are just posting random stuff that doesn't even apply to their business. Whereas, I think when you're talking about video podcasting, you can have an industrial boiler company, you can have a biotech company, Have an or a, even a superintendent of a school or something like that, have on a guest talk very deeply about a topic or about a philosophy that their company wants to get out there and that can help them get more business or be well known more well known in their industry. And people are actually gonna consume it if it applies to them. Yeah. And so, you know, it's also another thing with the content stack.

Yeah. If you're the biotech company, you don't need to have 5,000,000 followers. Right. You need to have just a few 1,000 people in your industry that follow your content. And now, when you're coming out with something new or when you're trying to promote something, now you're the thought leader in that industry.

Yeah.

That's interesting. That's where I think video podcasting has really completely changed the landscape of how businesses are interacting with the general public.

Very interesting. That comment you were making about the long form is interesting to me. You know, one of the most famous podcasters out there, you know, is this Joe Rogan show. And I had never heard any of his podcasts, and my wife sent me one out of the blue, some doctor he was interviewing about something that a health issue that we've been in discussion about. And so I listened to the podcast.

It was a 2 hour episode. Yeah. I could not believe it. I'm like, seriously? 2 hour pod I mean, interview?

I was shocked, literally. I mean, it took me like you were saying, I kinda like get ready for the day. Yeah. It took a few days to get I'm not even sure I finished it yet, to be honest. But, you know, took a few days to get through the kind it was really good discussion they had.

But, man, 2 hours.

But the interesting part, I think, about the landscape as well, and a lot of people don't necessarily think of it this way, but I think due to, you know, podcasts being so popular, there is actually a shortage of content creators.

Uh-huh.

I would say. Because a lot of people like to think, oh, well, there's too many there's too many podcasts out there. It's like, no. Sure. There's not enough because yeah.

Maybe 3 to 5 years ago, you maybe listened to a podcast, like, every once in a while, but you'd probably listen to music or, you know, if you were working out or something like that, you'd be no. Everybody's listening to podcasts now. Most people do not have like, you go through your YouTube feed even, and it's like stuff you already watched. Yeah. You know, it's like there's actually not enough people creating content compared to the I would say not only the number, but the amount of content people consume on a daily basis.

That's crazy.

So if it's something that I would say if it's something that your business has ever thought about getting into, this would be the time to do it because this is the time that yeah. Again, there's you know, I ask people all the time, is there anything you're listening to? Is there any channels that you're following? Because I'm out of it, and I don't even think that I watch or listen to it's not like it's 8 hours a day I'm doing it. It's like I feel like maybe for, like, an hour or 2 a day while I'm doing something else, I'll I'll listen to a channel or a podcast.

And I I still run out of content. So I would say that, yeah, there's I think just because the amount of content people are consuming, there's just there's this complete shortage of content out there Very interesting. People are wanting to consume.

And so you guys, I mean, I know we're talking about podcasting and video podcasting, but you guys are really strong on video for all your marketing services, with your video studio and whether it's, you know well, anyways, I wanna come back and have you share, like, all the different ways because you you mentioned a little bit, like, high quality on-site, but talk about video in general as far as its role in marketing.

So yeah. I mean, I think video as its role in market I mean, back in 20 16, we opened up our video studio, and we had a full time videographer on staff. And I remember even back in 2016, it was like, everybody asked us, like, well, you're a marketing company. Why do you have a Right. Videographer on staff?

And, like, is it to make TV commercials or something? Because really at that time, people it wasn't all that long ago. Back in 2016, you couldn't even post video on Facebook.

Right.

It was like, where are you even putting this this this video? It's like, no. No. It's for your website and people are gonna watch it and, you know, think your company is really cool. And it's like it's like, wait, so it doesn't go on the TV at all?

It's like, no, no, not at the TV at all. But I have to say that, yeah, that sort of, developing that original content in the form of video, you know, really became more of a thing, I'd say, yeah, probably closer to 2018, 2019, when when all the articles are predicting, hey, in 4 or 5 years, you know, 90% of the Internet is gonna be video. And it's really kind of, you know, launched the point where, yeah, if you don't people are so used to consuming video content on the Internet now that if your business is if you don't offer that platform to people, then there's a lot of people who are gonna pass you up.

Yeah.

So that's why we've really focused on having high quality video for basically all the projects that we do. Mhmm. It's morphed and changed a lot throughout the years. Obviously here to stay, and it's just gonna be getting it's mainly and I think this is another reason why the video podcasting thing is a is a is a big deal, you know, outside

Right.

You know, to have, but those can also be very expensive to produce very well. And the reason why the podcasting format's great is because you have someone come into your studio or a studio that you rent or anything like that. So it's in one place. And then even if this was a video podcast the whole time, you know, we may have 3 cameras here. Sure.

You're not moving anywhere.

Right.

We're not having to shoot any b roll. We're not having to have, you know, other people on frame. We don't have to really storyboard this piece of content, but you can still get a 45 minute, hour long, or 2 hour long Yeah. Worth of content. And you can still cut that up, put it on social media.

You know, basically, you have more content than you even know what to do with

now. Yeah.

And you've kept costs relatively low. Because I always like to think of it, you know, and this might be older numbers. I know my executive producer's gonna kill me on this. But, you know, if I always like to think of, like, a full minute of, like, fully edited video where you have, you know, the sets, the microphones, the b roll, and everything like that. I like to think of it to be around $1,000 a minute by the time it's all set and done.

Sure. Screen production, production, editing, color correcting, the whole shebang. You know, just as a general rule of thumb Sure. You know, when you're looking at podcasting, you're looking at almost dollars per minute of fully edited content. If you're talking about a 2 hour podcast

Yeah.

You know, yeah, it's it's actually it's it it completely changes that dynamic of having good, high quality video content to then post, share, and also have a library of. And that's, I think, something companies need to think of as well is, how valuable it would be to have a library of content where let let's say it was even a school and they had a podcast and they were talking about, well, you know, what's your philosophy on what what's the thing that makes everybody mad with the math? Oh, Common Core? Common Core. What's your philosophy on Common Core and why is it, you know, in in your school

Yeah.

System? Yeah. You know, you hear about it on the news for 5 minutes, and it's like, oh, well, you know, this is horrible and everything like that. But I'm pretty sure if you talk to an educator who goes to all the conferences, who writes all the books and everything like that, if they had 2 hours to explain why Common Core is, you know, great or how, you know, it's funny because I even have my 6 year old. I see the way that she does math and I'm like, it's very weird.

I'm not going to say it's bad. I'm just saying that, like, I I I have to do research in order to help her with math. Yeah. Because I'm like, I'm circling all these things and, you know, putting things into groups. And it's like, well, I always thought about math in a weird way anyway, but I guess it's a way but if they have a chance to actually explain that content, that's really good content.

That's gonna beat out anything you're gonna do with, like, a boomerang post of somebody waving a sign around or, you know, that sort of content library that you can then, you know, let's say someone in your school district has an issue with that. It's like, hey, you know what? Here, actually, our superintendent had a whole podcast talking to doctor Leibovitz or whatever, you know, about this whole subject. Why don't you listen to it? And then if you still have some issues with it, you can come see us.

Yeah. You can come see us.

Yeah. No. That's great. We're gonna take a quick pause. We're talking to Aaron Gobitis, the CEO at Go Be Rewarded.

When we come back, we're gonna continue to explore some of their their content, but also some of the ways they get engaged in the community. So stay with us. We'll be right back. So, Aaron, before the break, we were just talking about you guys constantly innovating as a as a digital marketing company, talking a lot about video. You guys are also really engaged in the community, and that seems to be a really important thing for you.

So talk a little bit about that and why do you guys get so involved in the community.

Well, you know, I think, community involvement, that's one that's one of the reasons why we like working locally is because, you know, let's say I even did a really awesome it's not necessarily helping my immediate community. And I think that's one reason why even people who used to work for GoBWereWarded and they went to work on for bigger companies, they do say that they kinda miss that, that they they miss being able to go out in their local community and see all the work that they've done or all the business owners that they've helped, you know, or, you know, just running into, you know, the HVAC guy who you got, you know, his Google My Business up and running and his SEO really well and he's, you know, doing really, really good with his Google Ads, you run into him at the store. You know? You run him at Home Depot or something like that. Like, it's so it's it's one of the things that I always really enjoy.

And I think it also is something that it you know, if you have a high amount of community involvement, I think it naturally holds myself as well as my employees accountable. You know, because, I mean, you're not gonna be around for 9 years if you've been doing bad work for people or you've been scamming people or anything like that. Whereas, you know, unfortunately, you've seen, you know, at least in the last 9 years since I first went to the Chamber of Commerce, there's a lot of marketing people who come and go. Sure. A lot of marketing companies who are, you know, the really big thing, and then it kinda, you know, dies down or you don't hear from them anymore.

And that's because, yeah, dealing with the local community, you're forced to do your best work. Yeah. And so that's why I think the community involvement is a, you know, massive piece. And then also another community that I've recently started to get involved in, and this goes into some of our content. I have my own podcast, the, Go Be podcast, where I talk to veteran owned businesses or people transitioning out of the military

Love it.

And looking to get into business ownership. So we've had some really amazing guests on. We actually just had a guy who is a 24 year old Reserve Marine Corps officer, owns the Ace Hardware in Oceanside. But, you know, but then when you're again, when you're talking about the community, the fact that I can even name drop something like that and, you know, go go to that store, you know, talk to him and, you know, be involved to help his business and, you know, help my business, That's the type of business I wanna be in. Yeah.

You know, I don't wanna be in some, you know, lake house in Tahiti or something like that and, you know, deal with basically, you know, people that I might see on a Zoom call.

Yeah. Oh, I think that's amazing. I mean, and that's one of the things that always impressed me so much about you is you transitioned so well from, you know, active duty to entrepreneur, business owner, and successful business owner. And that isn't always the easiest transition. So I think that's so cool that you have a podcast focusing on that for our military community, military veterans, etcetera, which, of course, here we are in North County.

There's a ton of.

It's it's a it's it's funny because people are like, oh, you know, like, won't you run out of, like, guests or topics or something like no. I actually I I think I have my next 100 episodes already planned out Yeah. Because there's you know, I I feel like I should almost be filming twice a month for it to get the amount of requests I've had

That's great.

You know, to go through.

And you guys, you know, you support Solutions For Change. You guys are supported, like, Pathways. So many great places. Your members I saw on your website members of 12 local chambers of commerce. That's amazing.

Yeah. Yeah. I try to stay active as I can in in most of them, but I find, you know, being part of your local chamber, you know, has a lot of benefits. So, you know, as I think as you always used to mention in your in your new New member. Orientation.

It has the active benefits and the passive benefits. Yeah. But you'd you'd be surprised on the actual number of even passive benefits, even if you're not super involved Sure. In the chamber. Just even from, and we can always get into it at another time, but even just from an SEO standpoint, the most credible backlink you can get locally now granted, if Forbes Magazine said Brett Schanderenac is the, you know, greatest chamber, you know, president, you know, of all time.

That's a that's an amazing backlink. Right. But, you know, if you that as far as a local backlink goes, that's going to be the most credible local backlink that you, your website, and your online presence can get. So, even if you don't show up to 1 mixer, you've never bought a raffle ticket from any of the princesses or anything like that, you'll still get you'll still show up way better than some, you know, dude who sends you a random email saying, I've got 500 quality backlinks that I'm going to get you for your website. Don't pay for that.

Take that. Put it in your chamber membership. You'll get a much more higher quality backlink for your local area than any of these guys could ever get you.

Man, I'm gonna take you around with me everywhere I go. That's awesome. No. I I appreciate that, and we appreciate you guys as members. And as you mentioned, you guys are a finalist for our business of the year this year.

So that's coming up in our CBAD Awards, March 27th. So if we get this podcast out in time and you haven't bought your ticket yet, make sure you join us and come see how, GoBe Rewarded fares. Well, thank you very much, Aaron, for taking the time to come be with us today to, explain how your business continues to evolve and advance. I really appreciate it and appreciate you guys as members.

Yeah. Definitely. Thank you for having me. Me.

Thanks for joining us today on our Carlsbad People, Purpose, and Impact podcast. If you got value out of our episode today, please hit the follow button on your favorite podcast app, and please tell a friend. Can't wait to see you next time on Carlsbad People, Purpose, and Impact.