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Chad Paris
Today's guest is Eric Schultz. Eric, welcome to the show. Tell us a little bit about yourself and and who Eric is today.
Eric Schultz
Hey Chad, how you doing? thank you so much for having me on the podcast. I'm very excited to talk to you. so I live on Long Island outside New York. I got two two daughters. One's 12, she just turned 12, she thinks she's a teenager. I have a nine-year-old and I live with my wife who is upstairs working hard. she is an enterprise sales for Shopify. Very proud of her, very successful up there.
Chad Paris
yeah.
Eric Schultz
My my business partner, Craig Radau and I founded World's Fair Communications about two and a half years ago. we worked together at the Soul Group, as you mentioned, one of the biggest companies in the creator economy. And they're the parent company of Five Minute Crafts. So when we were working there, they had no communications department at all. so we pretty much built a communication strategy from the ground up and we helped them get to the point where their reputation was was good enough where they were working with big name companies that you've heard of. They worked on a Transformers project with Hasbro. They worked with Crayola numerous times. So we're really proud of the work we did with them. We continue to work with them. And we we kind of built our agency with them as our first client. And now we're taking on other clients, helping them tell their stories and kind of helping mainly B2B companies figure out their story and how they can tell that to key audiences, build partnerships, build revenue, reach their objectives.
Chad Paris
I love that. And we're gonna dive a little deeper a little bit later about comms and what that looks like in a company and why it's important. Cause I th I think there may be people that just don't understand comms and communication and what that is and why it's important in a company. So we are going to hit on that just a little bit later. But before we get into that, I think I would think it's be interesting to kind of talk about, you know, you know, people I I I introduced you a little bit about working with some of the news channels and some of the stuff that you've done, but
Eric Schultz
Mm, yeah, of course.
Chad Paris
what what leaving the new newsroom 'cause this changed a lot, let's just be honest. Leaving the newsroom before it left you, I want you to I want you to kinda talk a little bit about your time there, what it was like, and then, you know, how the changes happen in communication.
Eric Schultz
Yeah, absolutely. So it it's funny because I've been in PR now for more than a decade. And when my mom introduces me to her friends that I've never met before, she still likes to talk about how I was a news producer. Cause that's the interesting part of it, right? Right. That's the tangible thing. She could wake up when, you know, one of my first jobs was at Good Day New York and she could watch that show every morning and call me afterwards and be like, I can't believe that happened.
Chad Paris
Yeah.
Eric Schultz
And and now, you know, when you're when you're doing public relations, it's a little bit different. Like it's not as tangible to talk about. so yeah, I remember what the the story I like to tell is one day I was I was in the CNBC pit, which you may recognize if you watch the show Succession, because they filmed a lot of the news stuff in the CNBC pit. So imagine a big open room. There's studios on one side, there's studios on the other side, the big boss sits up the stairs in the glass room,
Chad Paris
Yeah.
Eric Schultz
On the right side. It's a really it's it's like when you think of the big newsroom, that that's kind of the picture that comes to your head. And I I was talking to someone across the room, and then I looked around and I was, you know, 35 at the time-ish or something like that, maybe 34. And I'm like, wow, it feels like everybody's either younger than me and you know, fighting for their positions to get some influence here, or significantly older than me, meaning they're the bosses. But there wasn't that many people like in their late 30s, 40s, maybe early 50s. and I'm like, well, what am I what am I gonna be doing in 10 years? And my boss was sitting, you know, 15 feet over to my left. And I'm like, do I want her job? Her job seems pretty hard, and I'm not sure that I want that. And do I want the big boss's job? Certainly not. That to me was not where I wanted to be at that time. And then obviously this is like 2015.
Chad Paris
Yeah. Yeah.
Eric Schultz
So we're talking about a time, a transition in linear television. I think we're all still seeing it. I don't know if you're still connected to to the cord here. I am, I can't get rid of my DVR. But we we saw the writing on the wall that a lot of this was going to whether it's YouTube or whether it's just digital websites and things like that. And I kind of was looking for an alternative where and then eventually, you know, trying to be my own v boss down the line, which I am now. Where I didn't want to like be working for somebody else. And if I do great, they make millions and I make thousands, right? So part of that thinking was how can I what how can I use these skills that I've gathered in in more than a decade producing news and bring that to something else? And I immediately thought of media relations because when you're a line producer at CNBC or at Bloomberg or at Morning Joe, you're constantly getting pitched by companies, by representatives, people trying to tell their story on your airways. And I thought I could really Help companies kind of figure out better ways to tell those stories. So that's how I ended up in PR. Does that answer your question well?
Chad Paris
Absolutely. No, that's that's fascinating and and you're right, you know, the C N B C Bloomberg, it's sexy, right? I mean everybody knows what that is. But you know, it's interesting.
Eric Schultz
You may be the first person to ever call Bloomberg sexy, but but I'll let you get away with that one.
Chad Paris
Well, it it it can be for for those that, you know, when you look at that, right? And you think, yeah, that's kind of cool or whatever, you know, but the reality is, and you said something there, and I think it does not only in you know, in in media and T V, but it's kind of what's happened across communications, period. In in even in b even in small businesses, how you communicate, how you interact with people. That's what communication is. Communication is getting your story out, right? It's telling the story. It's who you are. It's your brand. It's what you do. It's being able to communicate that. That's what communications is. Obviously, a lot more than that, but I kind of dumbed it down for for myself. but you took a lot because you you you had to be, you know, being on a show like that or being involved in that, even at your age, you see a lot, you learn a lot, you see what works. pretty quickly than you do in some other smaller companies. What did you take from from being in that seat to kind of what you do to now when you're looking at that into your PR and what you what you do? Did you did you take any of those things you learned or experiences that you learned and brought those into that?
Eric Schultz
Yeah, there's a coup many answers I can give to that that are all perfectly relevant. number one, project management, right? You you you have to you have many, many bosses to answer to, whether it's your actual boss, whether it's the on air talents who you are are aiming to please, right? If they're happy, generally everybody's happy. And then there's, you know, the boss of the station, but then there's the customer, the viewer, right? And I think that that is something and bringing this to bit to business. I think sometimes you have conversations in in a meeting room or in a conference room or on a call like this, and you forget that really the end game here is to speak to your customer. And whether that's a viewer or whether it's a B2B buyer or whether it's somebody who's gonna buy your gadget, it doesn't really matter. You need to think from their perspective and what's gonna move the needle for them. So whenever I was thinking of news, I was sure, do I wanna make my anchor happy and do this story? Yes. Okay. How do we do this story in a way that will also make the viewer interested and engaged? So I think those stories and that exact line of thinking is how I what I bring to PR as well. It's like, okay, what does this company do well? What is their unique selling proposition? Okay, I get it. How do we tell that in a way that'll engage their target audience, whether it's a buyer or whatever it might be, and get them to consider them as their, as their product, as their client, as their partner.
Chad Paris
Yeah. You know, and and something on that that I you know, I'll I'll I'll say this and and and take it down to to business and day-to-day business. And from my my own experience being on the, you know, inside what I call the day-to-day blocking tackling inside the businesses is one thing that I that I see is is it's very often a lot of companies are sitting at a place. Maybe they're right now some some executives sitting in the room and they're thinking, okay, you know, what is our strategy going into 2027? What are we going to do? What are we going to do in the marketing? How are we going to brand? You know, are we going to have a new product out? What what are what what is happening? What are we going? And I find it very interesting oftentimes that they miss one of the most important parts, and that is what the market is wanting. or what your customer is wanting. And you kind of alluded to that, which I I'm glad you did, because I think it's such a very valuable point that believe it or not, gets missed a lot of times. They, they, they, they're so busy building something or they got something really they're excited about and they're like, we're ready to launch this. But they they never go and say, and what I mean by is is is what do you offer that the consumer who you're selling it to or B2B or whoever is palpable to? What is it they want?
Eric Schultz
Absolutely.
Chad Paris
What is that? And is it is it the right audience that we're talking to? Is our is our communication actually speaking to the audience that we want or is it what we want? It gets very convoluted. I see many, many companies sometimes that they speak on their product or sprinkle or whatever they're selling, whatever it is, based on their excitement and their beliefs, but not what the market is telling them that's acceptable for their audience.
Eric Schultz
Yeah, and I was at a B2B marketing conference this week and I heard a story, and maybe you maybe you've heard this story before, but I hadn't heard it before, that in in meetings, Jeff Bezos leaves a chair open and that chair represents the customer. I'd never heard that before, and I'm like, that makes a lot of sense because it is a physical representation of somebody who's not at the table, but who's really everything you're doing at the table is for that seat.
Chad Paris
That's good.
Eric Schultz
And there's it's it's very rare that the company can dictate to the customer what they want. like I can think of a few examples, maybe the iPad. I remember when the iPad came out, it was like, well, we already have the iPhone. Well, we need this bigger. Well, they were kind of right about that. A lot of people are using tablets these days. So for the most part, what you need to do and what what companies need to do is figure out that target, figure out the problem that it's solving, and figure out a way to tell a story so that people understand that their product.
Chad Paris
Hundred percent.
Chad Paris
Yeah.
Eric Schultz
is is going to be the best solution for their problem. And again, it could be a SaaS thing where you're you need you need help with with organization within your company. It can be a a a widget. It can be literally a tech gadget or it can be PR services. Like how how can my company help your company achieve its objectives? And sometimes it's a mismatch. Sometimes it doesn't work. But for the most part, listening to what the client wants, listening to what the customer wants
Chad Paris
Yeah.
Eric Schultz
en tailoring what your skills are, what your product does to that, as opposed to being like, here's what my company does, you figure out how it fits in. Here's what my product does, you figure out how it fits in your life.
Chad Paris
Yeah.
Chad Paris
Yeah, no, and it's and it and it happens every day. And and I would say there's a lot of businesses that's sitting there doing that right now. They're getting ready for 2027 and they're thinking about, you know, do we put out this? Do we do this? Are we gonna have this? And and the one thing they don't, they just stop and don't ever ask is is like you said, the Jeff Bezos store, the customer in there. And and and what is it how how how does if you're selling something that a customer would use, like if you're selling to a B2B, how does that be that be s how do they sell it? You know, how they sell it to market because if you're not if you're missing the communication, you're probably gonna be like, well, we didn't have a great year. And it happens every year. Every year at the end of the year, people are going, you know, what can we do differently? What can we do better? You know, what happened here? and a lot of times it's a misunderstanding of the the communications. It's a very valuable point that needs to happen. So so building comms from scratch, you know, you you you
Eric Schultz
Yeah.
Chad Paris
You would talk a little bit about that because I think it's important for people to hear this. you know, at at the soul, you kind of built it from scratch. Tell us a little bit about that and what what you mean by that and and what that process looked like.
Eric Schultz
Okay, so if let's hypothetically say that you were my client, Chad, the first thing I would ask of you is, okay, what are your objectives? What are you trying to do? And if a lot of companies make as much money as possible. Okay. All right. So that that sounds great. How are you going to make as much money as possible? How is that going to happen? And they'll tell me that strategy. Okay. Then I will look at the tools in my toolbox, the tactics that I have, the strategies that I use, and I will cater those. to exactly what that is. Now, if it's a B2C client, am I going to focus a lot on LinkedIn? Probably not. If it is a B2B client, probably yes. So it all comes down to like where do your stories need to be told. And then now in in the modern age of AI and what we've seen in the last two or three years with going from Google SEO search to almost everyone using something like ChatGPT or whatever your AI of choice is. If if they're searching for a mobile phone, I mean they're probably gonna search iPhone, right? So does your product, if you're a competitor to iPhone, does your product come up in whatever the most common searches are? Yes? Okay, that's great. What does it say about your product? Does it recommend your product, right? What I like to say is, and what I've heard a lot of experts say is SEO reports what you say about your product or your services. GEO reports what other people say about your product and services. And frankly, if the GEO, if the AI comes up with nothing, then people are probably saying nothing about your company, which is a problem of its own. So starting from scratch, understanding what the company is, understanding what the product is, that would help us tell our story. So I would start with you. I'd say, let's do, let's do an hour-long conversation. I'm gonna learn about your business, I'm gonna learn about your clients, I'm gonna learn about your team, and I'm gonna pull some interesting stories out of that. And then I'm gonna work on some strategies that integrate. these these interesting tidbits and and these unique selling propositions and make it into one story that you can tell that your number two can tell that your junior salesperson can tell and you can all be telling similar stories and again if you're using link if you're a small company using LinkedIn is a great way for your cross team to be telling similar stories that way AI that some AIs actually use LinkedIn some don't but the ones that do they'll see a consistent messaging
Eric Schultz
And that becomes what your company is about. Hopefully, we can get some client testimonials to say similar things. And then something that my company focuses on number one is earned media, where I come from. How do we get your company in? I don't know, if you're in consulting weekly, I'm gonna I'm gonna make up a an outlet. How if that's an important outlet to you, how do we get you in there? What other stories are they telling? How can we make your story fit with that outlet? Now and and what if your goal is to be on the cover of the Wall Street Journal?
Chad Paris
Yeah.
Eric Schultz
Now that's going to be a little bit longer of a journey to get there, but okay, let's figure out how to do that. Let's see what steps other similar companies in the space have made, what stories they're telling, and how can we find a pathway for your company to get there? And again, sometimes these are quick fixes, like I spoke with a company the other day that had a name problem because their company is named exactly the same as another similar company. And if you Google search them or if you search them on ChatGPT, you get the other company. That's a major problem.
Chad Paris
Yeah.
Chad Paris
Yeah. That is a problem, yeah.
Eric Schultz
Right. Now you now you know the name of the company you want, but you still can't find them. So that would be an an easier fix in terms of like, okay, I think we need a name change at this point. We're always stage. But there's other things where there's negative publicity about you. How do we combat the negative publicity? And something with earned media, you'll find that usually it has about a three-month shelf life in terms of news stories that come out, right? So that means what we need to do is compile some positive news stories that tell the stories that you want to tell, and they will. soon overtake and push down those other results that are are less positive. And you know, you're never going to be able to eliminate anything from the internet. If someone says they're they can do that, there are some powerful people who have some pretty negative stories on the internet. So I don't think it's possible to ever erase it. But what you want to do is is deprioritize those negative stories or those stories that aren't exactly what you want and get a whole bunch of consistent stories out there that tell the story that your company wants to tell.
Chad Paris
Yeah. Yeah. Sure.
Chad Paris
Yeah, that I man, that what a great job explaining that. And it and it's and it's and it's so important. And you know, I think it's a step that's missed. I think it's a step missed to the detail of what you just explained for a lot of businesses. And and and and there's a lot of businesses that are like, okay, well, well, man, this is great, Eric, and this works, you know, when you've got a big budget and you're you know, you're doing millions of dollars, but us small business guys are s our little you know, us little people, how d how do we afford something like that? And and and I and I think, you know, they you get in that mindset and say, well, I don't know that I'm ready for that, right? But communications, and and I'm gonna let you talk a little bit about that. But I to me, I I can't stress this enough, the the communication side and the PR and that is one of the most valuable pieces. Cause if you're not good at it, if you if it's not something that you are Have had years of experience at and you're really good at, finding someone to help you with that is worth the money. And I'm not pitching because you do it. I'm just saying as a business owner myself, I can tell you that you as a business owner, you spend more time telling the story about your business to try to get more business than you do actually sometimes doing the business.
Eric Schultz
Yeah, and and and the ROI on on communications isn't gonna be, I had this spend and it led to X amount of leads, which led to this amount of business closing. Unfortunately, I mean, sure, you we can have affiliate links and things like that, and you can have surveys. And there is, I mean, we're we're we're data driven as well, and we we follow what works and what doesn't work. But I think it it's it speaks to kind of the bigger picture. That you don't what you said, you don't need to spend millions of dollars on communications, but you need to be thinking about communications. So we had a client whom this is back when I was at Golan, and we would deal with their CMO directly. We would deal with a lot of their marketing officers, vice presidents, that that type of level. And we would discuss their great unique selling propositions. There, there are things that they're doing that competitors weren't doing, and this is a CPG company.
Chad Paris
Yeah.
Eric Schultz
And then their CEO would go on CNBC and not talk about any of those things. So we can work on it all we want and we can have this great communication strategy. But if everyone on the team, particularly the most notable spokesperson, is not keying in on those messages, they become much less effective. So in this era of AI, what I like to really emphasize is consistency. If you're telling one message here and another message there,
Chad Paris
Mm.
Chad Paris
Yeah.
Eric Schultz
AI is not going to know what to make of any of it. They're going to synthesize confusion. If you are saying one thing and you're the CEO and your CFO tells something else to a media outlet, and then somebody else posts something else on LinkedIn, again, it's not it's going to be you're crossing messages. But if all of you are saying, and again, I don't want it to be identical. I don't want you to say literally the same words, but your key messages focus on similar things. Your proof points are similar. And generally your focus messages are are on point and consistent. That way, A, your, your, your AI notices and B your your target audience and your clients notice.
Chad Paris
You know, absolutely. And and and for practical like a practical step for for people listening is I mean I can speak from experience on on not only being in an executive but also being a consultant and working with companies. One of the things that that I see most often and it's it's believe it or not, it it happens is the misrepresentation of what they do. I always love to ask that question, can you tell me in one sentence what you do? or two citizens in what you do. And I've done this with companies when I when I was an executive and then when when also being a consultant. And it's amazing. And and I don't just interview the CEO or the owner. I I like to talk to everybody, all the way down to the person that may be cleaning the the building, you know, whatever, to the to the shop floor, to the salespeople, you know, to the HR as Get what they say we do. Like two sentences, what do you do? Right. Most anybody and everybody could tell you in two sentences what you do. And it's amazing. It's amazing at how many different answers you will get. And and and I and people f don't realize that. And and they're wondering, the question is they're wondering like, I don't understand like why people are not buying or they're not finding us or they don't understand what we do. And
Eric Schultz
Absolutely.
Chad Paris
If your own people, think about this, if your own people that work for you can't describe, and it doesn't have to be word for word, that's not what I'm saying, but if you can't describe in two sentences what you do and you get a variety of all kinds of different answers, you probably got a messaging problem.
Eric Schultz
Yeah, yeah.
Eric Schultz
Yeah, you're right. And I I I know that you ask this question often on this podcast. So I was thinking about it, I was refining my answer. Can I put you on the spot, Chad, and ask you what you do?
Chad Paris
Absolutely. Yeah. Absolutely. Thank you. No, yeah, so be being have s have sat in these rooms and hired people like yourself and and marketing people and you know, people to come in. and and what I've noticed is is that there there's there's this there's these things that break down. And I c I call them processes. I I I I know that word gets used a lot, people hear it and
Eric Schultz
Mm-hmm.
Chad Paris
But it but it really comes down to if you want to make it even simpler than that, it's the blocking and tackling of of your business. And oftentimes it's there's something not correctly smooth. It's not go, you know, you you you may have a a spot in the business where you're like, hey, there we're missing here, or we're or we're we're doing something workaround, or it's not in line with the rest of the system. And that's what I do. I go in and look at some of the process gaps that may be there and come up with I don't just tell you what they are. I I share those with you and I say, okay, here are the roadmap and how we're going to accomplish it. And then start helping to find those and build out the modules or whatever it is that needs to be built out and and and start putting these in place so that that we get everybody moving in the right direction. And then where AI automation can work, then I start layering that as a tool to help.
Eric Schultz
Mm-hmm.
Chad Paris
versus just saying, throw AI to it and it's not going to work because the process is chaotic and you're just making it more chaotic. So that's what I do.
Eric Schultz
Well, I I f I think that was longer than two sentences, Chad. Your own rules. You gotta follow your rules. All right. I'm gonna get I'm gonna give you a second bite at the apple. Two sentences. Let's see it.
Chad Paris
That's it.
Chad Paris
I fix people's problems.
Eric Schultz
okay. All right. my garage, did one of the chains fell off the the garage. Can you fix my you know, I bet you could. I couldn't. so what I like to say, what what World's Fair does and what I what we do is is we help companies tell stories that include their their most important messages that speak directly to the correct audiences. That that's that if I was gonna say it in I think that's two sentences, maybe there's a comment in there.
Chad Paris
I think so.
Chad Paris
I can fix it. I could fix it. I could fix it.
Chad Paris
Yeah.
Eric Schultz
But that's what I like to say. And I and I think that that communication is so key on every level. You mentioned HR. I think I maybe I'm in some algorithm on LinkedIn, but but every day I'm seeing a st a nightmare story about HR and how they mishandled a great candidate, or maybe the candidate wasn't great, but it doesn't really matter because now the story is out there that this company doesn't really value candidates. And that's just not where you want to be, even if you're a huge conglomerate. You want everyone from the top down and you said the cleaning person too, like everybody needs to kind of have pride in the place that they're working, at least at least in theory, right? At least the attempts being made and communication is so key to that. And that works for both internal and external communication.
Chad Paris
A hundred percent. So as we as we get close to the end here, let let's let's give some practical real world for people. Like let's take a an it a situation that may have went bad or or or something was was not work right with a company or you know, I always say let's let's talk about a real world problem that may have happened in our business and so people can see that hey, just like anybody else, we we We all make mistakes, but it's it's kind of what you do with those mistakes and how you learn from I don't like this always to be the feel good story, but let's talk about some scars. You got one to share?
Eric Schultz
Yeah, so I mean, a f a few years ago, we were working with a client that we really had a lot of passion for, great client, in the entertainment space. And we we worked for them for a while. We were kind of we saw them as a long term client and we in the in in my business we say overserviced. I think that's probably something you say as well in your business. Spent a little too much time because we liked them and we liked what they were doing. And Our contract was low and you know, we were okay with that because we were building towards something bigger. And sometimes I'm sure you'll do this as well, Chad, where you're like, you know what, this business can't afford my full rates right now, but in six months a year, maybe they can. So I'm gonna give them everything I got right now and and look to the future. They got some new leadership in. We were bringing results, but you know, again, World's Fair is not, you know, Weber Shanwick. We are not the household names in in public relations at this point. We're a small shop. And and you know, again, something that we always like to say at World's Fair is if you hire World's Fair Communications, if you hire Eric Schultz, you will see Eric Schultz on the calls. I worked at at a big firm. You didn't always see the person who made the sale who convinced you to go with their firm on the weekly calls. So anyway, we put a lot of work and effort into it. we did really great work, but when it came down to it, they had a leadership change. And our contact was still there. Our person we were servicing was still there, but he lost control of the PR budget and then went with a much bigger agency at a much bigger budget. We hope we were hoping to get a piece of that budget, but we we didn't. And you know, i the lesson I would learn here is
Eric Schultz
You can't plan for for everything, right? I I I wouldn't necessarily have changed my philosophy of overservicing them and doing going above and beyond what they were paying us for, because then I would have had regret about not getting the business. But now we didn't get the extended business, we didn't get more, but at least I know I put it all out there. You know what I mean? Like it wasn't because I wasn't doing good work, wasn't because I didn't work the extra hours on it, it was because they decided something internally.
Chad Paris
Yeah.
Chad Paris
Yeah.
Chad Paris
Yeah.
Eric Schultz
was was different. There was nothing that we could have done differently. So the the learning there is that like don't don't count your don't count your chickens before they hatch, I guess. And you know, go in with an open mind and and and be prepared for hope for the best, prepare for the worst, right?
Chad Paris
Yep.
Chad Paris
Yeah. You know, it it it's so good to hear you say that. And I I I I even th I think about listen, it's easy to do, right? It's easy to if you're passionate about what you do, you have a tendency to overperform for companies. I've I I'll sometimes look at and say, Okay, you know, you may have a retainer for this this this much for this many hours, but then you look and you're probably doing twice as much as that. And and it's it's Look, I'm guilty that too. But it's because I I'm passionate about it. And so when I start working with a company, just like you do, like when I work with them, I feel like I'm part of that team. Like I'm part of it. Like I don't I don't ever want to be in a situation that it's like you and us. Like, no, we're it's a we. It's it's we're together. And I work on their behalf and I and I'm gonna put my blood, sweat, and tears into it. And I would prefer to be that way. I don't know any other way not to do that.
Eric Schultz
Yeah.
Chad Paris
So if if I can't give them the full attention. but there's situations where that happens, right? Where where you're like, man, you you work so hard and then it it falls out. People have clients that do that. People that are listening. You have clients that you have been long time relationship. And look, don't you think for a minute that people won't leave you over $20 because they will. If you, if you, if you don't believe that, you're something's wrong because it happens. But at the end of the day, all you can control is your company.
Eric Schultz
Yeah.
Chad Paris
and and your vision and your style and who you are, that's all you can control. You can't control whether a customer goes, Hey, you know what, we're gonna go with a we're we're not gonna use you anymore. If there's reasons, okay, that's an area you can work on. But if they just say, well, we're just gonna have leadership change and we're gonna go a different direction, there's nothing more you can do. And that's okay. Just go to go back to work tomorrow and try to find new clients or try to find new customers or whatever it may be.
Eric Schultz
Absolutely. It's a great takeaway.
Eric Schultz
Yeah.
Chad Paris
That's part of being in a business because it's going to happen. That's not going to stop.
Eric Schultz
And and I love what you said. And I think I think sometimes like we're both kind of consultants in a way. And being part of the team and being part of a long-term strategy when it comes to communications, I imagine it's the same for what you do, is much more effective than, you know, I had a client earlier this year who hired me specifically to get them press at a specific event. We got them great press at the specific event. And we're like, well, this is gonna we we we're really great. We we did exactly what we wanted to. And they were happy. And we were like, okay, what's next? And they're like, thank, thank you. That was next. I thought I was like, we're gonna, this is gonna be our client forever. And that you know, that it didn't work out that way. you know, they they paid us well. It wasn't no what there was no hard feelings at all, but it was one of those things, and I we we I remember my my partner Craig and I were were talking about all these amazing ideas that we had for them in the long term. Like, once we get past this conference, we're gonna do this, we'll do that, we'll do the other.
Chad Paris
Yeah.
Eric Schultz
They're like, all right, thank you. Thank you very much. And I'm no no shade on them. They're doing great. Their their PR is awesome. I wish that we were still working with them. And again, we did great for them in in their road show, if you will, on in the US. But, you know, it's one of those things. You were I was like, I thought we were part of the team and then we weren't. But next time, you know, we'll we'll continue to good do good work and I'm sure great things will happen.
Chad Paris
Yeah.
Chad Paris
Yeah.
Chad Paris
That's it. You have to just stay true to yourself and who you are and and and you know, things happen. This is part of business. That's what happens. But at the end the day, you're the one that has to lay your head on the pillow at night and go, Man, I gave everything I had and and I did the work that I said I would do and I and if I went above and beyond then then kudos to you. I never want to be in a situation where it comes down to a fight over y no, I'm only gonna do what you tell me you want me to do.
Eric Schultz
Yeah, for sure.
Eric Schultz
Yeah.
Chad Paris
I don't think that's productive. I think I think when someone needs your help, they need you, someone who has been in this situation to put that hat on, to give them your thoughts, your solution. I always tell people, and I and I'm I'm a firm believer in this, if you ask me something, if you ask me a question, I'm gonna give you the answer. So you need to be willing to understand I'm gonna give you a reply. I'm gonna give you an answer. I'm also never gonna give you a problem. without a solution. and so if I tell you there's a problem, I learned this very early on. Like, don't ever bring me how to boss. Don't ever bring me a problem without a solution. You can bring me all the problems you want if you got a solution, but if you just bring me a problem, I'm not listening to you. And I think that's invaluable is that if you're gonna bring a problem, I'm gonna bring you, I'm gonna say here's where the problem is, but guess what? Here are the solutions. Now you don't have to take the solution. But I'm gonna give you one and then you choose if you want to go that way or not. I think that's that's important.
Eric Schultz
Yeah.
Eric Schultz
Yeah, and and and something you said brings me back to to AI because you know, if you just want a yes man to accomplish things that you tell it to do, AI's pretty, pretty good at that. If you can give good instructions, AI can come back and give you do that task that you've asked it to do. But whether or not it can give you good advice and and l experience that it actually has had and bring that to you, that is what you're bringing to clients, Chad. That's what I hope to bring to clients too. Like
Chad Paris
There you go.
Chad Paris
Absolutely.
Eric Schultz
I've I've received a pitch like this before, and this is all about your company and not about how it's gonna help my viewer. So I don't see why my viewer is gonna care about this story. Now reframe the pitch a little bit and be like, this product helps this, that, and the other. Or here's the problem that needs solving, and here's how this product solves the problem. There you go. That that might be a story we'd consider telling. But just saying this product's great, look at how great it is, not gonna sell.
Chad Paris
Not it on sale. I agree. Well, Eric, thank you so much for joining me today. We believe it or not, we're at our time. if someone was out there and they're like, Man, we need to talk to this PR guy, we need to get some comms, we need to get this, like how do they get in touch with you?
Eric Schultz
Okay, well my website is worldsfair communications.com. So that that hopefully that's easy to remember. And my name is Eric Schultz. I'm easy to find on LinkedIn. So hit me up on LinkedIn. Happy to chat, strategic comms or New York Knicks, whatever you're into. Nixon Five.
Chad Paris
Love it. There you go. There you go. Well, look, guys, thank you so much for joining today. It was a great show with Eric Schultz. really enjoyed the conversation today. I'm Chad Paris. I'm the owner of Stonefly Consulting. But this podcast is called Process Over Pressure. If you like what you hear, subscribe, share. Love to get the message out there. If you have some business owners that are like, man, they need to hear this. Would love for you to share it. again, this is what we do. We have multiple shows like this coming up or already some past shows. But love to have people to do this. And if you're ever want to be a guest and you've got some good ideas, you you can go to my website at processoverpressure dot com and you can fill out the intake form and I will get in touch with you to see if we got a show there. Until next time, see ya.
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