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Sam Taggart 00:22
This is Sam Taggart, with the D2D podcast, and I am here with Sean Bingham, the founder of Adventure Hunt. And cool name by the way.

Sean Bingham 00:29
Thanks, Sam.

Sam Taggart 00:29
And Adventure Hunt means what? Like why, like, What is the name? And then our explained like,what it is, love it.

Sean Bingham 00:37
Basically, you’re hunting for an adventure. You’re on the hunt for adventure. So it has nothing to do with hunting. Don’t get confused with that.

Sam Taggart 00:43
You don’t know, animals?

Sean Bingham 00:46
I actually never have. But yeah, so yeah, that’s the meaning behind the name is you’re on the hunt for adventure.

Sam Taggart 00:54
Cool. And you’re a vendor at D2DCon. And it was fun to have you there and sponsoring our March summit in Vegas, which we’re very excited about. I’m pumped. So we have the sell summit. So anybody that’s part of our Elite Comm programs, we host these events. So door to door cons like a big one, the elite is an intimate event where we have 50 to 100 sales guys all over the country, different industries. And it’s in Las Vegas. And what they do is they put on, like a scavenger hunt type thing. Yeah. So tell us about your business as a whole. And then we’ll talk about how we’re going to leverage it and

Sean Bingham 01:28
Yeah, March so the the best way I can describe it as it’s kind of like a scavenger hunt on steroids. Or if you’ve seen The Amazing Race, you know, you’ve seen a TV show. So it’s like The Amazing Race, but a mini Amazing Race. So it’s localized. So for years, we’ll just be in Vegas. And so you’ll break up into teams and you’re solving clues and completing challenges to earn points to unlock more clues that eventually guide you to an actual buried treasure chest. So we’ve got a treasure chest we bury put swag and different prizes and stuff in its private events. You know, the company comes up with the main prize, but we always provide some cool adventure hunt branded gear like water bottles and sunglasses and waterproof cell phone cases backpack stuff like that. Yeah, so it’s Yeah, it’s like a mini Amazing Race as the best way I can say it.

Sam Taggart 02:11
Yeah, I mean, guys, he sees an opportunity in the marketplace. And this is cool, cuz he’s an entrepreneur. He’s worked and started many businesses. And this one just kind of took off, which is cool. Yeah. Was it featured on Shark Tank?

Sean Bingham 02:23
Yeah, we were on Shark Tank, which is awesome. Yeah, that’s actually a really cool story. So the events originally started, I had a sunglasses brand called kz, kz gear calm if anyone wants to check it out. But I don’t own it anymore. So that’s a promotion for the new guys. But we eventually sold it. But we wanted to come up with a cool event that would promote the kz lifestyle. And so the kz lifestyle was outdoorsy, adventurous travel. And so we just were thinking of all these different ideas, how can we like, you know, run a marketing campaign that would get people to like, buy into the brand more. And we came up with the idea of adventure hunt. And so Originally, it was, you know, an event owned by this other company that I had, but it was so well, I remember in Huntington Beach, setting one of these up and sales were skyrocketing. Like, we were selling a lot of sunglasses online, because the rule was you had to own a pair of our shades to participate. And so when all of the challenges he documented, you had to be wearing a pair of our sunglasses, you know, in order to get the clues to, you know, find the treasure chest. And I was like this is cooler, this event is like cooler than the brand it represents, in my opinion, like it’s more fun for me, it fits my lifestyle more. And so I thought, let’s just try it as its own event next year, where it’s its own company, we separate it entirely charge a registration fee, kind of like a color run or a tough mudder or something like that. And just see how it goes, you know, as a side project, and it went really well. And it was a ton of fun. And so I thought, you know what, let’s let’s go for it. So we sold kz. And we had tried to get on Shark Tank with kz and got to like the final cuts and did indeed get cut. But this is the power of social media. So I I post to Instagram, like hey, sold my company really exciting. I’m going to be focusing my full time efforts now on adventure hunt. And the head of casting at Shark Tank just sent me a DM on Instagram and said, hey, we’ve been following you ever since you applied? Congrats on selling kz. We’re actually really interested in your new business. We’d love to have you on the show. You don’t even have to audition. And so we got on and you’re like, Alright,

Sam Taggart 04:26
did you take a deal?

Sean Bingham 04:28
Yeah, you need to watch it. We did. We did a deal with Robert herjavec. So we had multiple offers. It was a fantastic episode. And if you

Sam Taggart 04:34
just some of them are embarrassing you watch like how the you’re like, oh my god. Yeah, he’s now nationally shamed and it’s like, Oh, darn,

Sean Bingham 04:43
yeah. Now ours was really good. It was really funny from start to finish. You know, Bethany Franco was the guest shark that was on our episode. She started skinny girl and she’s on like Real Housewives of New York. Things like that. Anyway, she was she and I were like flirting, which is like adding like a lot of humor to it, you know, because it was like open flirting we’re like Mark Cuban and Robert herjavec are like you should go out with Bethany you know kind of thing. It just made the whole episode really fun. But more importantly, we got multiple offers. You know, every shark has something positive to say about us. And we got multiple offers. They kind of like, fight over us a little bit.

Sam Taggart 05:15
Yeah, it’s got to feel cool.

Sean Bingham 05:16
And then it did it felt really good. And then we did a deal with with Robert Hershey back in the end,

Sam Taggart 05:20
has that been a positive? You know, you always see the Yeah, they’ve got to do they’re like now what is I’ve never seen anything follow up, you know? cuz I’ve been

Sean Bingham 05:29
working with them. It has it’s been it’s been awesome. So that the main thing it’s done, because people always ask me, what’s the biggest, you know, advantage you’ve seen or biggest benefit you’ve seen since you went on? And for me it takes it takes a cold call and kind of turns it into a warm lead almost. Where I can email just about anybody or, you know, even at the door to door con, we just put up the video of us on Shark Tank on a 55 inch TV at our booth. And people naturally wanted to come talk to

Sam Taggart 05:54
us instantly. It’s like, oh, we’re legit enough to at least make it and get an offer from somebody that Yeah, legitimize is our business.

Sean Bingham 06:01
Yep. Yeah. So I can I can have a conversation. We’ve had companies as big as Amazon and SpaceX reach out to us about doing events with their, you know, for team building for them. USA we’ve done several for them. So multibillion dollar companies are trusting us to do events. for them. Ancestry has done several Vivint, Solar’s and several. And so and it’s all I mean, you show him a clip of billionaires telling you how legit you are and how they want to invest in you and companies will listen to you know, that’s cool.

Sam Taggart 06:25
Yeah, that is way cool. That’s been good. No, it’s fun. Because a lot of people listening to this have these ideas, or they’re entrepreneurs, or they’re like, I want to chase a dream. And they’re like, how do I make money on an amazing race? little skit thing? You know? Like scratch paper sunglasses, and then you’re like, wait a minute. Yeah, this could be really cool. And then all sudden, it blows up. And now you do them nationally. So how many events a year do you kind of host so

Sean Bingham 06:50
we originally we were doing kind of a public events traveling like a tough mudder like a color run or any of these other Saturday morning events you see traveling around the country during the summer especially? And those were going really, really well. We did, we did our first year when it was like part of kz we did 10 the next year when we separated as its own company and charged a registration fee. It was we did 15 cities. And that was when we decided okay, let’s really go for us. And we did 48 cities The next year, all of which were in North America, I think three, three or so of those were in Canada, but most were in the United States. The next year we did 60. And we opened up five in Australia and one in New Zealand. And so anywhere where people were speaking English, that we could use our marketing materials, you know, and like on our website, and I have to worry about changing too much. We just kept opening up. So we’ve done several in the UK. We’ve now done like 12 in Australia, a few in New Zealand and well over 200 in the US you repeat Sydney sometimes

Sam Taggart 07:52
ends up like Darren I missed that one. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that like, the first time you go around, it’s people are like, what is this? Second time? They’re like, dude,

Sean Bingham 08:00
you gotta come. You gotta come do it. Yeah, yeah. So we definitely have repeated cities several times. And this last year, we’re probably gonna announce a few of the public events again here shortly. But this last full year since Shark Tank aired, so Shark Tank air January of 2019. And so this last full year, or at least at least from May to now, so eight, nine months or so, we’ve been really heavily focused on private events for Corporation like what

Sam Taggart 08:25
we’re doing in Vegas. Yeah,

Sean Bingham 08:27
exactly. So instead of selling 500 people to sign up at 50 bucks a pop, I saw one person on trusting us to do it for his team. So we’ve had a lot of a lot of success. So as far as you know how many events we do per year, it really varies. You know, like we’re this last year, I think we did. This last year, I think we did 20 public events, and then I think we did 32 private events. So we did like 50 is somewhere between 50 and 60 events this last year. That’s awesome.

Sam Taggart 08:57
Okay, so now we’ll talk about so in Vegas, for example, we’re going to set up a sales scavenger hunt, which is going to be quite I’m excited. I did it with you like in the south. Yeah. So if you’re interested in the sales summit, DM me or comment on here and be like, how do I get part of that? It’s a very high level sales, leadership training. And we’re going to leverage some experiences. And tell us a little bit about like a private event. You You, you go in and why would a company more so what you do, but also the psychology of how it creates team building, how it creates culture, how it creates an experience, because how many people go it’s like, we’re gonna send our team to Cancun this year. And like, if I go to damn Cancun one more time, I will shoot somebody. It’s not even the coolest place in Mexico that now.

Sean Bingham 09:47
That’s the other thing we do is we do sales incentive trips, but yeah, so to answer your question, so it’s fully customizable. So, you know, when we did one with ancestry, it was a lot of it was like a lot of their scientists teams and So we’re dealing with a totally different demographic than we’re used to. And so a lot of the challenges that we would typically include in the event weren’t really resonating with that group when we were doing our kind of our intake meeting. And so we had, we came up with a whole slew of scientific challenges like building molecule out of mush, or not mushrooms, but marshmallows and toothpicks, you know. But usually, we put in a wide variety of challenges that way everybody can feel involved. And so it’s all within our apps, we’ve built out an app. And within the app, you’ll see on you know, the hunts day, you’ll see this whole list of challenges. And each challenge has a point value attached to it. So say you and I are on a team, and you’re like the really athletic one. And I’m like, maybe the Brainiac or whatever, you know, even though I’m not but just for example sake, there might be some or maybe you’re like super comfortable making a fool out of yourself in public. And I’m like, totally shy. And so like, maybe there’s a challenge where you have to go do a funky dance move in the in the middle of the mall, singing, you know, Britney Spears song or something just makes people laugh and makes you feel dumb, but it’s like really funny to watch, you know, you go tackle that one. And then you know, maybe I’m solving some riddle or I’m doing some sort of athletic feats of some sort, whatever, you know, kind of thing. So there’s athletic things, there’s, there’s really funny things. There’s service oriented things where we’ll say, you know, go give a meal to a homeless person or go pick up litter in the park, or you know, what would be some other examples of

Sam Taggart 11:30
compliments? Somebody? Yeah, yeah, flower to some Yeah,

Sean Bingham 11:34
yeah, different things. It’s like a do we call it the do good feel good category. And then some others would be games you might see at like a tailgate party, if you go to a college football game, like so we’ve got like cornhole ladder, ball, football, target toss, like things that don’t require a ton of athleticism, anybody can enjoy trying to toss them, you know, and we’ll have a whole station of that stuff. And then we’ll do some of the stuff that really hits well with people is promotional challenges, which would be to give an example we did when it was part of kz, one of the challenges was going to your local surf shop, and film yourself talking to the manager telling them that they should carry kz sunglasses in the store,

Sam Taggart 12:14
you know, that’s the salesmanship, we’re gonna create. So literally, part of our challenge that we’re going to think through in Vegas is going to be a lot of that, like, it’s going to challenge your natural and unnatural sales ability. Yeah, in a lot of different ways and captured on film so that we can all watch it in the app. And like, Oh my gosh, like last year, I told you, like we sold no soliciting signs door to door. 100 of us, we bought 700 no soliciting signs, it’s 100 of the best door to door guys. And we sent them in the streets of Vegas, and we say go and we filmed everyone. And then we watched them all that night. And we said, Hey, who had the best pitch who had the funniest experience. And we literally voted. And we made like $800 in like three hours. That’s amazing. designs.

Sean Bingham 13:00
So I did door to door for five years, as you know, and those are my favorite doors to knock Yeah, just like I remember one guy has total tangent from adventure and stuff. But he had a no soliciting sign. But then, like, right above it, or somewhere on the door near it, you know, was like the Stephenson’s or whatever their last name was, I don’t remember. And he was just one of those angry guys, you know, the second you are talking to him, and I’m just plowing through it pretending I don’t, you know, can’t tell that he’s doesn’t want to talk to me. And he just keeps pointing and pointing. He’s like, can’t you read? And I was like, Oh, yeah, sorry. The Stephenson’s you must be Mr. Stevenson. Sorry, I’m Sean I should have mentioned this, but you know, and he’s like, You sent him a B. Those are like you just got to plow through that stuff. And

Sam Taggart 13:43
well, I think I think that’s what’s fun about our job. And this is like one of the parts of like, why I wanted to bring on the show was not only like moving from door to door to successful entrepreneur and a few different things. It just the the creativity it takes to create, you know, whether they work with you or they are trying to plan if I’m a regional or CEO trying to plan a company wide trip or something. Yep. It’s what are the elements of implementing this adventure hunt? This gamified element like what have you seen as far as benefits and companies? So there’s,

Sean Bingham 14:19
yeah, so there’s there’s really two things just to for those listening, watching. There’s two things that we’re really really good at. One is these team building scavenger hunts. Because when you’re when you’re doing these funny challenges, are these athletic challenges or you’re solving these clues and you’re spending three hours with a group of people like trying to problem solve and like reach some sort of goal. There’s massive team building there, you know, so that that goes without being said it’s way better than taking them to Top Golf or to the bowling alley or whatever other stupid things people do for team building. This is like genuine team building. You know, it’s funny, it creates memories. Nobody remembers the time they went to the bowling alley with the office. They don’t care. They don’t know they you know, this you remember you No. And so that’s the biggest thing. It’s also a fantastic recruiting tool for those that like would maybe, yeah, use it for that where you can invite them because

Sam Taggart 15:08
like a market your private event? Yes. Like, yes,

Sean Bingham 15:12
like, right I for me like March right before the summer hits, and you got a lot of guys that are going out on the doors, and you want to like retain all of these people, you know, because I recruited a bunch I noticed like right before the summer comes to watch 10 guys bail, you know, to go somewhere else, or they go to a different office because they have better friends. They’re, you know, they want to be with their friends. So this is an event that helps create real friendships. And not only that, but maybe one of the challenges is in advance. You tell them like, hey, bonus points for whoever can bring in the most friends with them that are not signed up. Yeah. And that’s how I got into door to door. I had no intention of doing door to door. I’d heard about it for years, turned it down for years, eventually got talked into joining buddy of mine. I didn’t know that they were doing. It sounded fun. I was like, yeah, I’ll come with you. I think they were doing like a basketball tournament or something like that. And I was like, yeah, that actually sounds fun. I’m gonna come be part of that. And you know, he, he had the ringer ready to go when I got there. Because he knew I’d be good at sales, which I was I was number one in the company, by the way.

Sam Taggart 16:14
Boom, I dropped.

Sean Bingham 16:18
But he had the ringer ready to go. And when I needed it. So we went together. My friend picked me up, we went together. And then on the drive home, the the ringer got in the car with us.

Sam Taggart 16:28
He sat down with Shawn. So he

Sean Bingham 16:31
sat in the backseat, let me sit shotgun. He’s like six foot four crammed into the back of this little sedan. I was like 22 at the time 23. And anyway, he just was super cool and chatted me up. And before I knew it, I was like signed up to go to Minnesota that summer. And I did it for five years after that. And so it’s a great recruiting tool. It’s a great team bonding tool. So right before people are going out this spring, I think it’s a fantastic event to do to bring recruits together. Create that friendship in advance that’s outside of like, let’s go knock doors preseason together, like Yeah, do something fun, where they actually want to be around you and they want to like hang out with you. So can we get used for that?

Sam Taggart 17:10
And it’s something it’s different enough. I remember I hosted a bubble soccer tournament. You know, it’s like, where are you going to go to a bubble soccer tournament? So to bring such a weird element to an event? People are kind of like, where in life? Are you ever going to get to do an amazing race type thing? Yeah, come in, all you need to do is just get him in front of your ringer. That’s all it is like, yeah. And I think that people don’t get creative when they come to, you know, recruiting like this. I think that i think i’m glad that you brought that element in.

Sean Bingham 17:41
Yeah, well, the beauty of it too, is like all the challenges are documented with a short video. So all these things we talked about, whether it be the athletic things, or the funny things, or the service oriented things, or one of them is you know, as a team, make your best 15 second commercial for, you know, whatever company it is that’s hosting it. And so all of it is documented the short video and posted to an instant Instagram story. So they can either use their own or if they want to create a team one, but most people just choose one person in the group to use theirs. But it’s a funny enough and fun enough event that multiple people will usually be documenting it. And everything is tagged, you know, and shareable. DTD, or whatever it is, you know, whatever company it is, you’re getting tagged. So now, you’re not just getting the people that are at the event aware of what you’re doing and how cool and fun you are and creating that culture of like, Oh, this is like a fun, cool company to work for. Like, I know, I can make money knocking doors at any company. These guys are really fun, though. Yeah. And that’s where the culture comes in. And so now it spreads on social media. We’re all of a sudden, you know, Billy is seeing that Sam’s doing this super fun event with all his friends. And it’s like, my job sucks. Like, these guys. Yeah, yeah. And so it can really spread on social media, even for those that don’t show up, you know, they can, they’ll have to watch and see how much fun you had. So there’s a lot, there’s a lot of advantages to it. But then the other thing, the second thing we do is the incentive trips. So we originally partnered with a resort in Panama, where all of our winners would win a trip to go there. And when we were down there, like several different times, I’m like leading groups of 100 people, you know that one from all over the country, and like, we’re all leaving, or you just go to our website and look at reviews. It’s literally 100% five stars. Everyone’s like, this is the best trip of my life. I’m never gonna forget this. And that’s when it dawned on me we should do this as like a corporate retreat, sales incentive. And so we’ve done a couple of those now we’re just kind of getting into it. But it’s like the most incredible week of your life. It’s better than kin kin. It’s something different. You’re looking at private villas with infinity pools. We do like scuba diving, zip lining, private island tours, snorkeling with dolphins and it’s all included and we’ve done it, you know, five different times now with big groups and so we you guys just show up and we take care of the rest and

Sam Taggart 19:53
sometimes it’s having somebody just handle that. Yeah, because people don’t really like I’m planning Costa Rica, right Now I’m playing in Vegas and planning Zion I’m planning Bear Lake. I have like seven events I have to plan this year. Yeah, I think about it. And I’m like, oh, man, part of me is like, we’re doing this wrong. I need a buddy to just run this. Yeah. And it’s really not even that much more. I don’t even know if it would be more pressing the same. Like, the reality is your efficiency of probably whittling down price on all the other excursions and saying our own group and you already know the context. prions of cost neutral?

Sean Bingham 20:27
Yeah, because I mean, I mean, I’ll just say the price ours is about 1500 bucks per person. And so I don’t know people are typically spend it on these top 20 get top 20 reps, top 50 reps,

Sam Taggart 20:37
like our champions club, your top 10 taking them doing Cool School, so hit him up, guys, if you’re interested in kind of planning a trip or, you know, having an experience, you know, definitely hit up Shawn and adventure, guys, that’s what they do. So I want to like, let’s kind of shift gears a little bit to entrepreneurship. I think that, you know, we a lot of people, you brushed over this I was a top Rep. I you know, did this for five years recruited big teams. I think a lot of people don’t realize like, you know, there are a lot of people get their start in door to door, you know what I mean? And yeah, where do you see your door to door ability and that learning that you took the five year education that you learned in this and how did it translate when getting in front of the guys at the shark tank? Or, you know, pitching investors this and that, like, Where’s that helped you in? entrepreneur

Sean Bingham 21:30
game? Yeah, it’s huge. Like the, the skills you learn talking to strangers that ultimately don’t want to talk to you 50 to 100 times a day like is just incredible like to the art of sales is so fun for me, like I get a real kick out of it. And there’s no there’s no better way to learn it. Then knocking doors because you’re literally like an unwanted party crasher. Most the time, you’re interrupting dinner, you’re interrupting something. But dude, we’re out there we get we get sales done. It’s like anybody can close someone who just calls them up and says, Hey, I want to buy an alarm system. Yeah, it’s like pretty hard to, you know, or pest control, or whatever it is people so. But man, this the stuff you learn during the cold call. I mean, it’s been everything to me. Like it gives you so much confidence, talking with strangers, pitching to the sharks, public speaking, there’s so many things where I’ve fallen back on that and even the tenacity like when somebody, you know, gives me a lead. I’m a real big believer in like what I call polite persistence, and sales where, you know, door to door stuff, it was maybe a little different mentality. It was like, I tried to get people right then and there, or I’d moved on. with bigger ticket items. You know, if people are looking to spend $100,000, for a huge group to come to Panama, I don’t expect the same damn, you know, want to like, give him a chance to think about it.

Sam Taggart 22:47
There’s none of that.

Sean Bingham 22:50
But polite persistence is something I have really learned. But you just you just got to keep plugging away. Like you just keep marching and doing it. And I don’t know, man like that those five years were invaluable. Like, you will never hear me say anything bad about door to door sales, because like, not only did I make a grip of money, and make a lot of good friends, but I learned a ton of skills that I still use to this day and probably will forever use. Because if you can sell something you’ll never be unemployed. Amen. Amen. Yeah.

Sam Taggart 23:20
So what have been some of the challenges like, you know, obviously, a lot of people get afraid to, you know, and I’m not promoting this necessarily, but it’s something to talk about is like that transition out of door to door, I’m sure there’s a moment where it was like, making really good money. And now I’m going to leave to go to sunglasses, whatever you trade. You know, but it’s like, there’s an element of like, what, what kind of challenges or roadblocks or success or failure? Do you feel like you’ve seen as you journey through this entrepreneurial tunnel?

Sean Bingham 23:51
Well, that’s the other thing that I didn’t really touch on, but the confidence that gives you when you can go out and be good at door to door sales, like, I honestly went into entrepreneurship with just like, Well, of course, I’m going to be good. Yeah, I was gonna be good at it, you know, which is probably a good naive thought to have, because it, it helps with just pushing through the hard times, you know, because there are ups and downs with entrepreneurship, you know, there’s, and I would actually argue that for most people, like you’re probably better off continuing to keep selling, because it’s probably a better fit for you because, and that’s one thing I do miss about door to door is I could get the sale, and then I could pass that sale off to a well oiled machine. But now I have to create that well oiled machine, as well as doing the sales as well as being the janitor, as well as being the CFO and the CEO. And he’s like, there’s just when you’re starting a company, you have to put on a million different hats and do it all 100%

Sam Taggart 24:40
I mean, this morning, I’m with Greg, the marketing team, we’re mapping out design and we’re mapping out branding and I was managing ops and I was like sitting down saying, We’re our customers and I’m like, fan this a lot. And then it’s like podcast and then all sudden after this I’m a sales and marketing meeting. And it’s like, it’s just a lot, you know, and then you have to pay the payroll, you know, Do you have an overhead? Yeah, I was jamming with a guy last night, who’s also a business owner. We were on the flight together from Denver. And we were just talking about this. And I was like, dude, every time you hire a guy for 50 grand a year, it’s like, that’s 50 grand. Yeah, that’s just straight up. Yeah. Whether you produce or not, you’re in a payroll. Like, I think I i’ve been just like, Whoa, I thought say it like it didn’t realize well oiled machine. Yeah. What they had created. Oh, yeah.

Sean Bingham 25:27
Yeah. So valuable. You appreciate them a little bit. You do. And and you’re you. So there’s times where I personally love entrepreneurship. I’ve been doing it now for almost 10 years since my last summer selling my so I did summer sales, or door to door sales for 2006 789 10. And so from 2011 to now I’ve been kind of doing my own thing. So I started a business called top blip or gig. It was like an online American Idol. Essentially, we sold that after two and a half years. That was a good, nice base hit. And then that’s when we got into the sunglasses gig did that for four years, sold it. And now I’m on adventure, which I’ve been doing for about two or three. So So yeah, I mean, it’s a I forget what the original question was about, like transition into entrepreneurship. Yeah,

Sam Taggart 26:11
the transition and some of the challenges that you may be faced.

Sean Bingham 26:15
Yeah, one thing is, you know, I don’t know exactly what what you want me to promote here.

Sam Taggart 26:21
I don’t care where you promote people. This is just life. I’m not sitting here to promote you, dude, I could care less. I think anybody watching this, it’s like speaking out is like, if somebody gets mad at me for being like, dude, move on. If it’s the right move, it’s right. No, I’m not gonna be like, like, for me, I get excited about door to door sales. And I tell people, I do it a lot longer than you probably think you should do it. You know, a lot of people, you probably had a good nest egg saved up to go start your first business. Yeah, able to invest in that it was a good base hit. And then that gave you some money to go do another business. And you know, life’s all about progression. If you feel like you’re stagnant. Yeah, maybe it’s time to make a move I got Yeah, yeah, it’s just is,

Sean Bingham 26:58
I would say this. Like, if, if for anyone that is thinking about doing it, like, you know, don’t be what I used to call it. And this is a term at all anymore, but it was 10 years ago, we would call them the $40,000 millionaires, where they’d make 40 grand and then come back and spend like they were a millionaire. And so they’re

Sam Taggart 27:16
one of my reps made 40 grand and spent 32 of it on a BMW. I’m like, you bought a Beemer you made 40 grand Dude, that’s like less than the normal like salary after graduating college. grads.

Sean Bingham 27:32
I know that’s, that’s where like, as a manager, like sweet, I guess he’s selling the next year.

Sam Taggart 27:38
Keep it up.

Sean Bingham 27:39
So I was I’ve always been a saver, so but that money that I earned doing door to door sales, like most of it’s still sitting in my bank, honestly. And so the amount of money you can make if you work hard, and then you save and you spend wisely and invest wisely and save money, then you can make that transition, pretty risk free, because I didn’t have to worry, you know, like my, you know, I had summer, several summers, where I was making well into the six figures, you know, and as a single guy in Utah, it’s like, how much do I need to live a good life? You know, like, what it was right? And of that

Sam Taggart 28:13
tempting to be like, Let’s buy an $80,000 car.

Sean Bingham 28:16
Yeah, you know, but I didn’t, that’s just never been me. And so I didn’t do any of that stuff. And it allowed me to go and because when I first my first company, I started, we didn’t pay ourselves a dime for like 14 months. So we went 14 full months of like, we will not take anything, we’re just gonna build this, you know, and I think this is where, and I’ve had several stints where it’s like, Hey, dude, like, things, turn it off. Like let’s turn off payroll, let’s turn off salaries. We did that. Waiting for shark tanks air, we didn’t pair sales for eight months, just waiting for shark tanks to air and then we sent you know, of course, paid ourselves again. But you’ll go in stance where it’s like you either believe in what you’re doing. And you see that long term, you know, vision, and you enjoy what you’re doing. Because if you don’t enjoy it, I can promise you like, if you’re not passionate about it the second like hard times come you’re gonna bail. And a lot of people will go back to sales, which is awesome, because they’re making money and they like it. Yeah, so anyone who’s thinking about doing it, I would, if you got that itch, you know, you want to scratch it, scratch it, but maybe keep doing sales on the side to make sure you still have income. But yeah,

Sam Taggart 29:17
yeah, I think that a lot of people don’t realize they all have this whole vision of like, I’m gonna knock hard for five years or 10 years and then start a business. Right. I think I’ve heard that at least 1000 times. Yeah. And at least I look at them and I go, what is your actual savings plan and strategy? Yeah. And same here. It was about 15 months before I ever took a first paycheck starting this and, and I was building my dream home at the same time. Yeah. For like, you’re making so much money. I’m like, No, that’s all from D to D and I just bought an apartment called. I’m like, that’s all from D to D do like none of this. All of that was from Smart Investing. Yeah, none of this was from the business I currently run. So, you know, I make less than some of my guys I pay like, yeah. And it’s always hard. Like, they don’t see that ability of, I rather take, you know, two marshmallows later and not eat any of the marshmallows for a while, you know what I mean? Yeah. And that whole example of patience. And I think that in our industry, the problem that I watched with the people that are seeking out this entrepreneurial itch is they’ve been trained with such quick dopamine hits, that they’re so addicted to quick instant, like money. And I,

Sean Bingham 30:33
I still 10 years later, struggle with that since 100%. We’re like, wait, like, I get my sales pitch. And I’m good at sales. Like why isn’t he buying? You know, you’re supposed to I’m supposed to walk out of the door with 100 bucks right now. You know? Yeah,

Sam Taggart 30:43
you’re so used to just this immediate I print money every day. Where I think that a lot of people with that, like you said, if you’re not passionate and driven with a bigger purpose, a bigger, why a bigger motivation than just, you’ll make more money in the next two years, most likely just staying where you’re at? Oh, yeah. And

Sean Bingham 31:04
why look at guys that stayed in the industry when I got out. And I don’t know how much they’re making, and they don’t know how much money I’m making. But if you know, some of these guys, I would imagine some of them are, have made a lot more in the last 10 years. Oh, wow. Yeah, cuz I’m still I’m kind of chasing that unicorn. of like, I’m gonna sell a company for 100,000,001 day or something, you know, and I haven’t done it yet, unfortunately. But if I had stayed in DDD, I probably would have made more money over the last 10 years. I don’t know. It’s just gonna be sixes. But no, you’re wrong with being endorsed.

Sam Taggart 31:36
And top reps in 2006 789. You look at the evolution of like, who you were buddies with. And here you’re competing with and you look at some of those guys still around. You’re like, yeah, that guy’s guys doing pretty well. You know what I mean? Yeah. So it’s, I think that people in but you chose that path and you own that path. And you go, you probably had a lot more fulfillment and challenge and your own ways. And you saw it like, that’s the game you play. Yeah.

Sean Bingham 32:00
For me, it’s for me, it’s been awesome. And I you know, adventure hunts going really well right now, so that’s good. But I would go back door to door sales, honestly, like if I if push came to shove, like, I’m not above it at all, you know, I love this. They’re, you’re making money. Like, what’s wrong with making money? You know, like, I think that was the biggest thing. And I and you know, I don’t know if that’s something people struggle with now. But 100% people, it’s like the image of it. Right?

Sam Taggart 32:25
title of entrepreneur. Sounds so much sexier. Yeah. Then the title of Rep. Yeah. Door to Door, you know, yeah. And they’re like, but I’m an entrepreneur, and you’re like, would you rather be broke as entrepreneur? Or do you have to be a rep that’s like crank and making 500? grand? Yeah, it’s like, at the end of the day, what do you do work for? Like, yes, provides a vehicle like, yeah,

Sean Bingham 32:45
so I have those thoughts. You know, especially because your entrepreneurship is and you can relate to I’m sure where it’s like, one minute, you’re like, I’m rich, I’m on top of the world. And the next day, something happens, I gotta go get a job. I’m broke and get going.

Sam Taggart 33:00
I hope we were able to do

Sean Bingham 33:02
littlest things that can can you really throw you up and down? It’s like, I remember, you know, my first summer selling I was a I was a pretty like, no bagels guy. But I my first No,

Sam Taggart 33:14
no bagels, shame on you means a zero day.

Sean Bingham 33:16
Yeah. Which you shouldn’t know. Because you should never do that. Yeah, don’t go work for free. But I did have to my first week, I had two great days, I sold three then I sold two then I sold one. So it was like three to one. But then it was 00. And I remember those days, I was like, I’m never gonna sell again. Like, I’ll never be able to I forgot how to do it. Nobody wants it. I found everybody that wanted it. You know, like, you have these doubts. And then you have to like, push through an entrepreneurship is like that. So frequently. Yeah, you’re like,

Sam Taggart 33:44
I’m getting worse at this. Yeah, I’m progressing to the downward. Why? I thought, but that’s the nighat and like, I call it like this power of naiveness that you said like, man, I had all the confidence in the world because I was a top rep and I was killing it and entrepreneurship and that probably got you through a certain like, yeah, the naiveness of like, oh, like I would have thought too much. I would have hurt myself. Yeah, I’m glad I just blindly just went for it.

Sean Bingham 34:13
Yeah, and the other thing you get is boldness right like my story about being a kind of a jackass to the guy but I kind of needed that for mental edge on the doors. Like this guy was not going to buy from me there was 0% chance but instead of tucking my tail and walking away I wanted to admit I’m not encouraging you to ever be rude to people but I needed to do something to like yeah, I need to do something like always, like I needed to leave the door feeling like there was some form of like a you didn’t get the better me you know, and that doesn’t mean everyone buys you know, because not everybody does obviously but this guy was being pretty rude and I’m you know, I knocked on his door and had a no soliciting sign but I did that every time I saw one. And I needed something to like give me that edge but so I’m not encouraging you to be jerks because you shouldn’t be but but the boldness You get from door to door sales and dealing with situations like that all the time and dealing with people that can be pretty rude and pretty condescending. You just learned to be really, really confident and bold, and push through that. And it takes that in entrepreneurship. Like there’s times where I’m like, there was a, there’s a story I had, there was a big client we were trying to get a deal with. And we were really close. And so I emailed and I was having a hard time, it’s like the communication was starting to fizzle. And I didn’t like that. And so I was just like, I had the idea of like, I’m just gonna, like, show up. And so I just emailed him was like, hey, like, I’m actually gonna be in town. Like, we should just get together. And they’re like, oh, what are you gonna be here? And I wasn’t gonna be in town. I was just gonna fly down there if I could get him to Yeah, you know, I was like, oh, like, all next week? What day works best for you? Yes, headline. And so they’re like, oh, Tuesday would work. And I was like, perfect night. This was like, on Friday, I’ll fit into my schedule that I happen to be down here for. So I literally just bought a ticket flew down there and the face to face meeting, like, close the deal. And I flew home that same day. And they never knew they didn’t need to know like, because I was in town, you know, idea. Yeah, I was in town for them, you know? And there’s been other times where I’ve just literally just shown up, you know, you just you learn how to like, approach the awkwardness where like the guy’s watering his plants in the front yard and he likes easy common and doesn’t want to talk to you and she like let him down it smile and own it and be confident and the second year timid or bashful, you’re gonna get owned, you know? Yep. And the same things apply in entrepreneurship, like sales is sales is everything sales is business sales is the one thing that’s like never gonna be taken over by like robotics or things like that. Like it’s always it’s so it’s funny to watch. Like, this is where everybody’s like, door to door is dying, online. marketing’s winning. And I’m like, yeah, definitely is as an it’s a tool that’s very effective. Yeah. But I’ll tell you, if you think you’re gonna get rich by just trying to push a service or product just by creating a magic funnel that has zero salesmanship at all. Yeah, like you don’t I mean, it’s like, I’m just gonna send you out an email campaign until you buy my stuff. It’s like,

Sam Taggart 37:10
no, like, I’m not gonna work it we’re not gonna sell you $100,000 deal by never having a belly to belly or FaceTime or zoom or something. Yeah, that is going to transact and make you want to buy me Yeah, by my company and buy my product like exactly it is salesmanship isn’t going anywhere. No,

Sean Bingham 37:30
well, and even what you just, you know, talked about with the sales funnels and online marketing, that’s still sale, it’s still that’s you’re gonna do go get really good at that, you know?

Sam Taggart 37:41
Like, I’m literally taking online courses right now on branding and copywriting and building personal brands and psychology of taglines and headlines and, you know, hooks, and it’s like, that’s sales that’s like, you have to persuade via What are they reading, watching and seeing where on my web and this and it’s like, it’s a whole different world. For me, it drives me I’m like, dammit, I just went knock on your door. And I’ll tell you.

Sean Bingham 38:04
The one thing I’ll say about that, because I’ve got I’ve gotten pretty good at like the online marketing thing, because we do a lot of it. It’s a lot of work. And the one thing that you got to keep in mind is it’s always changing, right? Like we were, we were at a point, you know, at one point we were making for every dollar I spent on like Facebook and Instagram marketing, I was it was like clockwork, I would get $4 back. So I was just like, Oh my gosh, I can just just let’s just pour as much money into this as we can, you know, but then Facebook decides, you know what, people are making too much money. Let’s we should charge more, we can see what they’re converting. So Facebook all sudden, like triples their rates, you know, on your, for those that do online marketing is CPM, which is cost per mil or cost per 1000 impressions. So it cost per 1000 impressions went for like $4, like $12. It’s now for every 1000 people to see your ad, you’re spending three times as much as you were before. And I mean, dude, that just destroys margins. And so one thing with face to face sales is it’s always up to you, right? Like, it’s always you are fully in control. And with a lot of these online, things like Google or whatever, they change anything they want. And yeah,

Sam Taggart 39:11
you’re Dude, I look at my brother. He runs an online furniture store for the last 10 years. And it’s been like two years ago, had his best year ever. Literally just called me. He’s like, dude, I might have to look for another job. Yeah. And I’m like, what you were like, you just bought a new home, you crushing it? And I’m like, just like that within two years because of the SEO change with Google and Facebook changing their algorithm or this and that, like, he’s like, dude, I can’t read crack what I did, and it’s different now. And yeah, and you know what I mean? And it’s just like, I’m like, well, there’s a I don’t know, dude, go door to door or something. Good luck, man. I’m sorry. He’s got like, eight kids. You know, that’s a hard phone. Yeah, like, and, anyways, I I but that’s business. Like even in door to door, like, we get innovated in some little ways, there’s doorbell cameras now, you know, yeah, well I do, there’s a next door app or like, I’m sitting there going the end of the day you show up and smile. And you say I’m here to frickin offer you good service. Like people are people, people don’t change. And if people

Sean Bingham 40:17
like you, they’re going to pick you, you know, love them. So if you if you’re the likeable person, they want to people work with you, they like, you know, and so that’s we’re face to face is going to beat out. I try and get face to face meetings with every single possible person I can. If they’re in Utah, I always am offering to come to me. And if they’re not in Utah, then then I’ll do a phone call, but like, I got to get out of email, he then at least hear my voice so that I can sell and I’m like that with with every aspect of sales like even in the I’m still single even in dating. It’s like,

Sam Taggart 40:51
dude, get me off Tinder,

Sean Bingham 40:52
get me off text DM me are off Instagram DM me, and let me like talk to you in person. I’m gonna have a much higher success rate, you know?

Sam Taggart 41:00
Yeah. So um, no, I love this. Okay, so last, let’s wrap this up. So yeah, and this has been fun. And, guys, this is an interesting one, because it’s kind of an ex DDD guide that has now taking those skill sets and created multiple businesses have been successful. And it’s fun to always interview people like you, you know, young hustler that just made an app and Yeah, got on Shark Tank and frickin does amazing race things for frickin fun. makes money doing it. I’m like, when I met you, I was like, are you effing kidding me? So many out there. How do we do this? So I’m pumped for Vegas. Vegas will be fun. But yeah, if you could give our industry one piece of advice, you know, you know it? Well, what would be the advice?

Sean Bingham 41:42
Oh, man. One piece of advice. There’s, there’s several that that are coming to mind. But one that I just said was, you’d be the likable person. If it was one though. It would be like, don’t, don’t give up. Like, I know that sounds cheesy. But like, if you just put in if you give it everything you’ve got, like everything, I mean, everything you’ve got, like when I was going out to sell, I wasn’t just gonna like knock doors and hope that I ran into the lay downs. You know, I was like studying everything. So that’d be my piece of advice would be give it everything you’ve got, you know, Kobe Bryant, we all know, he just passed away. And he that guy’s like a, I wasn’t even a huge fan of his but he’s just like, such a tenacious leader. And like, everything he touches just turns to gold. And it’s not because he’s, you know, his name is because of how hard he works, you know. And he gave that good quote, where he said, you know, rest at the end, not in the middle. And so given everything you’ve got, like study training manuals, take notes, like when people would say no to me on the doors, I would literally take 30 seconds and be like, this is what happened. And I’m going to study later tonight. I would take notes on every single person that said no, so that I could get better encountering that next person, like where did I lose them? Like Where did the sale go south? You know? And so, if you just give it truly and sincerely everything you have, you’re not going to the movie theater during the you know, working hours. You’re you’re not sitting on the curb. I was the guy that was the annoying guy. That was like I’m knocking doors until the car picks me up. So if it’s 10pm I don’t care i’m not gonna sit on a curb and wait for somebody to come get me like I’m going to be the person they’re all waiting in the car at the curb while I finished a sale, you know? 100% and so group hated me.

Sam Taggart 43:24
I’m not in Sam’s car group. We’re not like 12

Sean Bingham 43:27
Yeah, but you probably made an extra 50 sales as a result you know than they did 100% So that would be my piece of advice is truly insincerely give it everything you’ve got and everybody right now listening or watching knows what one aspect they’re not giving it their all in, whether it be the studying or the staying outlet or the getting in getting out early. Whatever it is. Give it everything you got.

Sam Taggart 43:47
Love that. Okay, well if you guys got some value from this, give Shawn some likes and share this and go follow the DDD podcast on any of the podcast apps. We’ve got tons of good episodes and content and then they can find you at adventure, adventure hunt, calm adventure, hunt, calm and if you’re interested in booking a, you know an experience a hunt, trip to Panama. They’ve got great Panamanians in Panama Panamanians Panamanians. Go hang with the Panamanians sounds like Yeah. Anyway, but thanks for being on the show, man. Thank you, man. Thank you. Okay. This