Eric Blankenship
Building an Agency From Scratch in a Global Crisis | Eric Blankenship
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"I realized I'm not scalable. Like there's only so much of me to go around. And to be fair, my goal is not to work 60, 70, 80 hours a week again.
Key Takeaways
- ◆Eric launched Mindstone Marketing during COVID by reaching out to people in his network who he believed would use the shutdown to strengthen their brands before reopening, landing three to four clients within the first couple months.
- ◆He worked himself out of early clients by recognizing when they needed full-time specialists instead of consulting, such as recommending they hire an in-house social media person rather than keeping him on retainer.
- ◆It took Eric three to four years to accept that his agency was not scalable because clients were buying Eric Blankenship the person, not Mindstone Marketing the company, which meant losing one client meant losing a large chunk of revenue with no backup income stream.
- ◆Eric built his client base primarily through referrals by staying in touch with past colleagues and distinguishing between contacts, which are many, and relationships, which are the few that matter.
- ◆Managing people proved to be both the hardest and most rewarding part of his corporate roles, and once he got the right people plus systems and processes in place, the team accomplished exponentially more than he could alone.
- ◆Six years in, Eric still experiences peaks and valleys but views each one as a learning opportunity rather than a failure, and refuses to forget the non-financial value he gained, like time and flexibility for his family.
- ◆Build systems and processes for routine work so you can handle the unexpected curveballs that come every single day instead of drowning in ten problems when you could handle three or four.
Full transcript
Show
Chad Paris
What's up, everybody? Welcome back to Process Over Pressure. I'm your host, Chad Paris. This show is not about the highlight reel. It's about the scars, tissue, the bad hires, the clients you shouldn't have taken, the moment you realize you were the problem. Today I'm sitting down with Eric Blankenship, founder of Mindstone Marketing Group. Eric spent over 20 years in sports marketing, VP level roles roles with the Tampa Bay Lightning, the Philadelphia 76ers. Big arenas, big budgets, big pressure. And then in the March of twenty twenty, right as the world shut down, he walked away and started his own thing. We're going to talk about what the leap actually looked like, the gap between the executive title and the first year of entrepreneurship, and what he wishes he had known before he made the jump. So let's get right into it. Eric Blankenship is the founder of Mindstone Marketing Group, a marketing consultant agency he launched almost six years ago in Tampa, Florida. Before that, Eric spent over two decades in sports and entertainment marketing. He started with the Tampa Bay Lightning, moved to Philadelphia to work for Comcast Spectac Spectacor, opened a new arena in Seattle, ran marketing in Portland, and eventually became VP of Marketing for the Philadelphia 70 Sixers. After three years with the Sixers, he returned to Tampa as chief marketing officer for Ruth Eckert Hall, one of the busiest performing arts centers in the country. Then he went back to the lightning as VP of marketing, overseeing brand advertising, digital, social, retail, creative, and more for over five years. He left for a hybrid CMO role covering three companies, and when COVID hit, he made the call to start his own agency. Eric's still in Tampa, still in marketing, but now he's building it his way. Eric, welcome.
Eric Blankenship
Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.
Chad Paris
Absolutely. Looking forward to getting this conversation going. So so we'll start right in. this take take me back to that twenty twenty. Let's start there. COVID came in, you were the VP title, you almost a year in this hybrid role as a CMO role and you know the world was shutting down and and you decided, hey, I'm I'm I'm gonna start my own consulting agency. Can you take us back to that moment, that time, what it was like?
Eric Blankenship
Yeah, absolutely. As you know, the world was a crazy place. and there was no end in sight. If we go back during that time, no one really had an idea of how long this was gonna last. Maybe we were gonna be all back to normal in a month, or we were gonna be chasing zombies in the streets, right? I mean, no one knew what was going on. So, you know, I had left twenty plus years in sports. I was recruited away and I had a very unique position as chief marketing officer for
Chad Paris
It's true.
Eric Blankenship
a food and hospitality entertainment venue, a real estate district, and a restaurant group. So it was a very unique position. It was a pretty massive position. And it was an opportunity for me to kind of take a little bit of a pivot away from the sports and entertainment world, which is awesome. And I we could have a whole podcast on that. but you know what? It it's 50, 60, 70 hours a week, nights, weekends, holidays and My wife and I, we have two young kids who are getting to be very active. and I don't want to miss them growing up, to be honest with you. So I needed a little bit of an adjustment. And this position as CMO kind of came at me and they recruited me away, and everything was looking good for about nine months. COVID hits, changes the world. I that company laid off several hundred employees right away. And I even told my wife, I'm like, you know what?
Chad Paris
Yeah.
Eric Blankenship
I'm the newest executive hire. They created this position. To be fair, I was comp very well. I told her, we're shut down. I don't think I'm gonna make it another month. You know, in fact, when we had internal conversations, I could absolutely see and understand why I would be someone that would be let go because I was in marketing and there was nothing to do, quite honestly, at that point in time. So I bring up that part of the story only because I give a lot of credit to the person that has a stable, safe income and they decide to go out on their own and do their own thing. God bless them. That is awesome. That was not me. I was kind of thrown into the mix of figuring out, well, what am I going to do now? Because no one's hiring marketing people. Everything's shut down.
Chad Paris
Yeah.
Eric Blankenship
But I relied on one thing. And that one thing was is that, you know what? Yeah, I have skills and experiences and successes, but relationships, I felt like relationships matter. And I was going to test that. And I thought to myself, you know what? If you're a business that's shut down, you have two choices. Either one, you're shut down forever. And let's be honest, a lot of businesses took that choice: shut down forever. But some businesses were going to reopen. So, my thinking was this, and I was basing this more on my intuition rather than data analytics. But I was thinking, you know what? If I had my own business and I was shut down, and I'm not gonna stay shut down forever, then wouldn't I wanna use this time wisely? Why don't I use this time to look at my brand, make sure my brand is in a real good place, and then let's look at the overall strategy I have.
Chad Paris
Yeah.
Eric Blankenship
how I'm going to grow my business. That thinking led me to believe that, you know what, if I could just find two, three, four, five clients that think the same way, I might have something here. So I rolled the dice. And to be fair, I didn't have a lot of other options. I needed to figure out what it was going to do because no one was hiring. So again, I give credit to people that walk away and figure it out on their own. I had to just figure it out because there was no other choice.
Chad Paris
Mm-hmm.
Eric Blankenship
So yeah, fortunately I found enough clients that thought that way, that felt that way. And that was kind of the genesis of Mindstone Marketing. You know, I was gonna help people really get their business in a good place so that when the doors hit hit open, you're running now, right? You're running instead of catching up to the other businesses that have been doing just that, preparing for the reopening. So
Chad Paris
Yeah, that's that's good. Yeah.
Eric Blankenship
That's the genesis of mindstone marketing.
Chad Paris
No, it's it's it's great. and so you know, I I'm the guy who had the nice income that walked away. I'm the other guy. So I'm the crazy person. and I'll tell you, it's some days I look at the mirror and go, have I lost my mind? But it's the best thing I've ever done. And and you know, you you you you make such a a good point there is you know, we we often have forgotten about covet. And say we've forgotten about it, but we've forgotten we've kind of moved past that time and so
Eric Blankenship
Good for you. That's awesome.
Chad Paris
you know, to to think back on those times and what was happening, you're right. There was so much uncertainty happening. Nobody really business owners like for sure, like didn't know whether we were gonna get I mean, I didn't even care what you did in the United States, it was affected everybody. Everybody. and so there was, you know, there's companies today where there's buildings that are sitting empty because people figured learned that hey, we can work just as good being remote. And so the the the dynamic has definitely changed in our country, and I'm sure across the world, of how people operate and how people even focus. But I love the fact that you really thought about that brand and and that taking that time and and using it rather than being doom and gloom, like how do I how do I reset this? How do I how do I figure out how to make ourselves better when we do pick back up, right? That's good. So, you know, Y you you mentioned your family was probably all very excited to have you home because you know, it's one thing I think people f don't understand. We all talk about like, you know, the outsider looking in, man, this guy's works for the seventy sixers, he's got all these great cool jobs. And we hear this all the time, right? But what they don't know is the man hours and time in those positions and the demand on those jobs, what it takes. and it can be a real toll on anybody, year after year, twenty plus years of you know, sixty hour, eighty hour weeks is is is is tough.
Eric Blankenship
Yeah. I mean, I will say like the sports entertainment industry, when you're single, it's awesome. And you're young, it's awesome. You know, when you have a significant other, still pretty cool. It really is. I mean, it it's a lot of fun, it's a lot of work. But you know what? When you get kids, it it's it starts to take a toll. And I remember a mentor of mine, you know, he was in the industry long before me and is still in the industry.
Chad Paris
Yeah.
Eric Blankenship
And we had conversations and he saw both his boys grow up, graduate from high school, and then leave. And I'm thinking to myself, is he is he happy that he literally was at the arena way more hours every week? And now his kids are gone. And we all know that, you know, 80% of the time you'll spend with your kids is before the age of 18. I didn't want to be in the industry another 10 years. Our kids leave and I'm like, boy, I I'm glad I got to work all those extra hours when it really doesn't matter, you know. so I kind of, you know, it took me a little while to kind of see it that way, but I'm glad I saw it when I did, because it allowed me to kind of almost recapture time that I would have never been able to. So it just worked out the right way.
Chad Paris
Yeah, that's great. I mean, and that's true. You only get one one chance to raise kids and then you after that it's you know, you don't get that anymore. So that's true. So so something nobody likes to talk about, and I wanna I wanna dig a little deep here with you, is is no one likes to think nobody likes to go back and think about that first year opening up you know, being being, you know, mindset mind you know, minestone, you you you know, brand new. What
Eric Blankenship
Yeah.
Chad Paris
Like month one. Can you remember what it was like being in month one? Just, you know, am I doing this? What am I doing? Like what
Eric Blankenship
Yeah, so you know what? It was kind of interesting because remember, I was in a in a place where I didn't have a choice. It was like either figure it out or or else. There was nothing else, right? so again, so my story of how everything started is actually a very positive one because once I made the decision that okay, this is what I'm gonna do, quite honestly, based on lack of options, I'm gonna do this.
Chad Paris
Yeah.
Eric Blankenship
I was very fortunate. I I latched on and I was able to grab, I think, three clients right away. Like I'm talking within the first couple months, I was off and running. so actually, because I started my company probably around June, July, technically. And by the time I kind of put my website together, you know, social media and logos and all that stuff.
Chad Paris
Well it's
Eric Blankenship
know couple months had passed. So by the time fourth quarter hit, I was off and running with like three or four clients. And I'm like, man, if this is the way it's gonna be, this is awesome. So the end of that first year and even the next year were really, really good. It wasn't until the following year where I started to drop clients because I kind of like, you know, there was there was a There was a fallacy in what I was doing. And it took me a little while to figure it out, but I would, you know, fix some of these companies from a brand standpoint, develop the overall strategy, and then I was kind of done. You know, so I kind of worked my way out of certain clients in more than one example. Like there was a time where I was helping one of my clients with social media, getting it off the ground, putting putting the route foundational things in place. And then it got to the point where, you know, I went to the client and I'm like, you need to hire a social media person. Yeah, I can kind of keep doing it, but I don't want to. I know someone that could do it better, faster, cheaper. You kind of need someone full time, and that's not me. So I kind of recommended myself out of that opportunity. And that happened more than one time to where I was working myself out of these projects. I'm like,
Chad Paris
Yeah.
Eric Blankenship
Now, year two, if we want to jump to year two, I had to figure out, okay, well, now I actually have to go out and get clients who replace clients have lost. And that was more challenging now because, like I said, I kind of hit the ground running with two or three right away, and I was like, this is awesome. And then the reality is it took me at least three years, maybe, yeah, probably three years. To realize my single biggest challenge. It took me at least three or four years to A, realize it and B accept it, or some combination of that. And that was this is whenever I got a client, they were buying me. To be fair, I was selling me. You know, mind cell marketing didn't mean anything. It was me, Eric Blankenship. My skills, my experiences, my successes, my relationships. That's what people were buying. Well,
Chad Paris
Yeah. Yep.
Eric Blankenship
The reality is I could only handle three to five clients at a time. Which means when I lost one, that was a big chunk of my revenue was gone. And I didn't just have someone else to replace it because I was doing more big ticket items, right? So it took me a little bit longer to get that next client. So I realized I'm not scalable. Like there's only so much of me to go around. And to be fair, my goal is not to work 60, 70, 80 hours a week again. That's not what my goal is.
Chad Paris
Right.
Eric Blankenship
If anything, I want what everyone wants. I want to work less and make more. I mean, I make no bones about it. That's what I want. So it took me a while to realize that. and now I'm going into year six. Now I'm starting to do more things that are a little bit more scalable, that I can manage a little bit more. So I'm still doing some of the consulting, some of the like fractional CMO work. I'm still doing that because I enjoy that. But now I supplement and complement that with other scalable things that I could do. So now collectively together, it's a little bit more sustainable over the long term. At least that's what I'm hoping for.
Chad Paris
Yeah. Yeah, that's good. No, I was and I was gonna ask you, you know, you're six years in and you kind of talked a little bit about it, like companies evolve, right? It changes. And I think, you know, this is a prime example of every company that has to do these things. It's not just these single entrepreneurs. This is this is the real reality of any business that you have. There's no there's no there's no blueprint to what it would look like successfully.
Eric Blankenship
Yeah.
Chad Paris
There there's a working frame, but things change, right? Things happen and you have to adapt and you have to be willing to to change some approaches sometimes when they don't work out the way they're supposed to. and you're you're constantly evolving. And I think we as humans are constantly evolving. Same thing with a job, with a company, whatever. They're gonna constantly change and you gotta be willing to kind of pivot and and do that, right? I mean, that's the what makes you last longer than two or three years.
Chad Paris
So what was you know now
Eric Blankenship
Yeah, you know what? I mean, I I was gonna say, I say this all the time, you know, I've made plenty of mistakes. And as long as I'm learning from each one, it's fine. I'm gonna I'm gonna adapt, I'm gonna evolve, you know, continue to figure it out. One of the things I say all the time, you know, I may not know the answer, but I'm gonna figure it out. You know. and I've had to do a lot of that, you know, because You know what, I'm a one man show. I have a lot of partners I use and I work with for different things depending on what the client needs. But fundamentally, it's me. and I kind of like it that way. I've often thought, do I need to bring on some other people? And I kind of just like working with certain people at certain times as I kind of need them. So there's a lot of things I can do myself. And if I can, I will. but like I said, there are many times where I know someone that's faster.
Chad Paris
Yeah.
Eric Blankenship
you know, cheaper or just better. And that's when I'll bring them in.
Chad Paris
Yeah. And I and that's and that's important, right? To know know what you can handle and what you can't handle. And y y you you you mentioned this a little bit. I just want to kind of kinda 'cause I think people are people are out there, this is a real question that people would have. Is there ever a time in those first three years where you were sitting there going, Man, I hope I can just make I hope I can just pay myself something. Did you ever have a moment like that? I know I've had it.
Eric Blankenship
Yeah, I'm I mean, I still have that, you know. I'm six years in and look, I I'm an open book. I'm not driving a Ferrari, but we're my family and I we're in a we're in a good place. I have a lot more time back, I have a lot more flexibility back, and for me, those things have a lot of value. And I I make sure I don't forget the amount of value that those other things have. but yeah, I mean, you over my six years.
Chad Paris
Yeah.
Chad Paris
They do.
Chad Paris
That's true.
Eric Blankenship
I've gone through multiple peaks and valleys, ups and downs, a couple sideways here and there, you know. and that, you know, I look at all of those as just learning opportunities, you know, to try and and figure out a better way to do it.
Chad Paris
I like you said that. Because I think it is. I think it's I think it's you know, you you have to you have I think the tough times is what's make what makes us better entrepreneurs, better business owners, better decision makers. I think it helps us to to evaluate. And you know, I don't I don't know that sometimes I I I say this all the time with clients, like you have to be willing to kind of put a pause and evaluate where you are. and it's very hard sometimes when you're the sole entrepreneur and you're the one who's kind of the you know makes it go, to stop and reflect and say, what are we doing or where are we going? Is this to seal the same path that we were going before? Are we changing here or what where are we? and I think that's that's an important thing. I don't care if you make twenty dollars or fifty million. It's it's it's an important part that you need to consider and do.
Eric Blankenship
Yeah.
Chad Paris
So so something here, y you know, you were a VP row, I I've been in that seat before, and I know I have an answer for this, but I'd love to hear yours. What what is it that, you know, having those jobs, VP rows is you know, obviously there's a lot of responsibility. What's something that that that role may have not have prepared you for being an owner? you know, where maybe You know, you did this as a as a V P or whatever, but it didn't prepare you to be an owner. Was there was there anything that you could think of?
Eric Blankenship
Yeah, I mean there's a few things and it's it's honestly one of the things I miss. and it's this is that, you know, I'm I'm on an island and that's both good and bad. You know, it it's me. There, you know, no one no one's helping me. You know, I'm I'm kinda in it for myself. when I was a VP or a CMO, I had a team. And the thing one of the biggest things I miss is having a team and and that
Chad Paris
Yeah.
Eric Blankenship
For two reasons. Number one, I thoroughly enjoy coaching, managing, mentoring, growing people. And I was very fortunate to be in a lot of different organizations where I was giving I was given the opportunity to hire and train and coach and and and grow these individuals to the point where I see them out now doing big things. In fact, they're in similar positions I was in now. So, you know, it's fun to see that and to know that, you know, hopefully I played some small role in their overall development. So I miss that part of what I was doing. And I still do today. You know, I I I miss being part of something bigger than myself. and sports and entertainment inherently gives you that. When you go out to that sold-out concert, where you go in that big playoff game and the arena's filled with people. And you're in marketing, so you naturally feel like you played some role in that. You're you're part of something bigger than yourself. And I miss that all the time. the other piece of the puzzle, and it's more of a function, I was someone that got to the point where I learned how to use my team properly. When I first started managing people, I was definitely the person that was still doing a lot of stuff myself.
Chad Paris
Yeah. Yeah.
Eric Blankenship
And realizing that, you know what, I have a team that can help me. By the time I left those roles, I could really focus on overall strategy and then allow the implementation to be done by my team. And then I realized how much more we accomplished as a team than as a singular person. So I missed that. Yeah, that's a huge thing that I miss now.
Chad Paris
Yeah. Yeah, there's no doubt about it. Yeah. Yeah. The a t a tea. A team is, you know, that's that's the thing I think for me too. You you said that you know, when you're when you're a single entrepreneur, you're on an island by yourself. I mean it's just you, right? we're we're being being in those roles, you you're right. It's it you know, the the being able to go into the staff meeting with your team and and and have strategy on what what you're gonna do over the next several months.
Eric Blankenship
Yeah. Yeah.
Chad Paris
You know, those are fun times because you 'cause you do like and and I I relate so much what you're saying. I've had people that that now have moved up that are still people that I've that I've mentored over the years that still call me and ask questions and and I love that. I love that they still feel comfortable being able to do that and I hope they never stop. But it it's also rewarding and to see them do well and and and excel in their career and
Eric Blankenship
Yeah.
Chad Paris
You know, you probably have those that you know I knew they were gonna be really special. I mean, you just kind of know it when you need right? I always yeah. My one of my hiring philosophies was always to hire people to take my job. I I I always did that. And I I I'd say to any business owner, it that's not your mentality, you you should change it. You should hire people that could take your job. That's that's how you that's how you get really good is having those people that
Eric Blankenship
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, absolutely.
Eric Blankenship
Yeah.
Eric Blankenship
Absolutely. Yeah.
Chad Paris
You know, you sitting around those meetings and having some really good in depth conversations and challenging. You know, they're they're they're challenging you on different tactics, which is great. It's how you get better.
Eric Blankenship
Yeah. Yeah. Well, and to be fair, as awesome it was to have a team, out of all the things I've ever had to do throughout my career, managing people is still the most challenging one, too. It's also the most rewarding, but it's the most challenging, right? So once you figure it out, you have the right people, you combine that with the right systems and processes, now you're achieving exponentially more than you would have ever achieved before, right? So
Chad Paris
hands down.
Chad Paris
Hands down.
Eric Blankenship
There's a plus and a minus to it, but once you figure it out, the plus far outweighs the minus.
Chad Paris
Yeah, I I I s I still be being a consultant today and working with businesses, I will tell you that I I believe hands down, hands down, the hardest thing that's that where businesses are sitting at today, and I don't care if you're small or you're a two hundred and fifty billion dollar company, don't care, is is is the managing of people. That is the hardest thing. And it will be.
Eric Blankenship
Yeah. Yeah.
Chad Paris
It's it's a challenge. It's a challenge because you you, you know, I I think about a sales team. Like you, you know, how many how many companies have you been in that you could sit around and say, you know, it it we we we we need more sales and so how do you train the sales team when you know it's always more and more and more and more? And that's a very hard, challenging position. It's just tough. Tough. So so one of the things and then kind of the next thing I'm gonna talk about is because this is kind of this is kind of you, you know, you went from the sports industry, you know, marketing the 76ers is a whole lot different than marketing Eric Blankenship. And you had to, you you went from, you know, a a a household name. Let's just be honest. I mean, you know, 76, everybody knows the 76ers and the other places you would, you know, other places you were at, but
Eric Blankenship
Yeah.
Chad Paris
You had to you had to market Eric because you said it earlier. That's really what you sell is you and your services. Tell us a little bit about that.
Eric Blankenship
Yeah, you know what? Again, I was I was a product of the environment and a victim of circumstance when I decided my do my own thing, right? I had to figure it out. And for many, many years, whenever my boss told me to do something and it was challenging, or I didn't know how to do it, or I didn't think I could do it, you know, my answer was, you know, I'll figure it out. There's a I've said this before on my social media accounts. but There's a lot of value in being the guy that says I'll figure it out. and now for the first time, you know, I had to figure it out because there was no other, there was no other option, right? I have a wife, I have two kids. it wasn't like I could rely on that study paycheck to come in two weeks, regardless if I figured it out or not. so you know, because after the Sixers, I came back to the Tampa Bay area. My wife and I wanted to get back. somewhere where it's warm and sunny and and and start a family. And I worked for Ruth Eckert Halls you mentioned before, which which is a which a pretty it was a pretty big position. Unbelievable organization there. And then I got the call to go back to the Tampa Bay Lightning, which was arguably the the best, and it probably was the best position I've ever been in. I had the, you know, a lot of responsibility, but I but I had a massive team and we did some amazing things that
Chad Paris
Yeah.
Eric Blankenship
That I was there. And then I had that short stint, like I said, afterwards before COVID hit. but yeah, the shift quickly focuses to me, you know. So now all of a sudden I need to talk a little bit more about myself, you know, in social media, for example. I need to start reaching out to all the different people that I've interacted with over the years and kind of give them a little bit of a refresher of who I was and what I do, and kind of remind them, hey. unless you know unless you need help, keep me in mind for some that you know. And that's how I kind of did what I did. I was really relying on my relationships to carry me forward. And you know, if one person didn't need help, then that person knew exponentially more people, right? And I think that was how everything was getting started. And to be honest with you, today I still get clients, number one way is still referrals.
Chad Paris
Yeah.
Eric Blankenship
People that know me that know somebody. it is rare that I get someone just email me out of the blue that says, hey, I want to hire you. I get a little bit from social media because I'm a little bit more active on social media, and I've definitely gotten some clients from there, but the vast majority come from people that I know and people that I still stay in touch with, whether it's again, I think it's I think there's a huge delineation between a contact and a relationship.
Chad Paris
Yeah.
Chad Paris
Yeah.
Eric Blankenship
Many of us have contacts, but relationships are what matter. So now more than ever, I try to make sure I'm staying in touch with all the people that I know much more than I would if they were just a contact, right? So I think that's important now more than ever.
Chad Paris
Yeah. Yeah, I agree. And and it's hard. I mean, I'll tell you, you know, I could talk about a a product, I can talk about a company all day, but when you start talking about yourself, it kind of gets uncomfortable a little bit. I for me it has been. And and I'm learning, you know, I I'm I've I've not been one to be the the face of anything. And and so you gotta do you got but you have to be that when you own your own company and your own brand. You you have to be the person that people know and and engage with. And it's takes some getting used to, taking some learning to get to do that. takes a little while. but it's but it's important and it's and it's vital to to what you know what you have to do in order to grow. same thing with with with a company. You have to you have to do some things sometimes makes you a little uncomfortable, but that's okay.
Eric Blankenship
Yeah, absolutely.
Eric Blankenship
Being uncomfortable is a good thing.
Chad Paris
So yeah. So we're we got we got we're running into the last bit here. It's called it's called the quick fire round. So there isn't it's just a I'm gonna fire off a question and whatever pops into your mind you get to say. It's just it's called it's it's kinda fun. It's we call it the the little five question quick fire round. So you ready for that?
Eric Blankenship
Okay.
Eric Blankenship
I think so. Let's do it.
Chad Paris
All right, first hour of your day. What does it look like?
Eric Blankenship
First hour of my day is honestly getting up, making breakfast with my son, who's waking up early either to go to summer school to get ahead on some classes, or he's gonna go work out because he's pretty focused on hockey. So I'm getting him up and I'm making him a good healthy breakfast to start the day, and then usually taking him to either school or the gym.
Chad Paris
Nice.
Chad Paris
Nice. Most expensive mistake you you'd happily make again.
Eric Blankenship
That's a good question. Most expensive mistake.
Chad Paris
Yeah.
Eric Blankenship
Hmm.
Chad Paris
That you'd happily make again.
Eric Blankenship
You know, it would probably be Probably starting my own thing. And when I say most expensive is it what it was more about not necessarily ex on the expense side, but the revenue side. I mean, for that small amount of time, there was a massive dip. but I would do it again knowing where it got.
Chad Paris
That's awesome. Yeah, me too. I agree. A tool or an out or a ritual you couldn't run your business without today.
Eric Blankenship
Wow. I mean this is a cop-out answer, but I remember the the days where a cell phone didn't exist. And email on your phone wasn't a thing, and text messaging wasn't a thing. Like I remember those days. So I I absolutely couldn't get away without my actual phone. I'm always on it, I'm always available, I'm always doing something work related. on my phone. And again, that gives me a little bit more freedom to do some other things throughout the day. So it's kind of a cop out answer, but it would have to be
Chad Paris
Good. No, it's good. It it it it's good. It's it's there is no right and wrong answer. two more. What would you tell your twenty five year old self about pressure?
Eric Blankenship
Yeah.
Eric Blankenship
my gosh. I've I've said this before, so I have a good answer to that. Pressure means that people are counting on you. And if people are counting on you, you're valuable to them and that matters.
Chad Paris
That's good. I like that. That's really good one. That's awesome. So last one, what does process over pressure mean to you?
Eric Blankenship
my gosh. At the end of the day, you're gonna get thrown a bunch of curveballs all the time. I mean, there isn't a day that goes by that there's not at least one curveball, probably a slider, a cutter, and a changeup thrown in there too, right? So I think the most important thing is there are a number of things that you can build systems and processes for. Not everything, especially when you're kind of a one man show, right?
Chad Paris
Yes.
Eric Blankenship
But I think the most important thing to do is figure out the things that you can build systems and processes for so that you can kind of tuck those away so you can handle all the off-speed pitches that are coming throughout the day, right? Because the worst thing you can do is not have any systems or any processes. And now you have 10 things to deal with instead of maybe having three, four, or five things to deal with. So I think that's it. Just prepare as much as you can so that.
Chad Paris
Agree.
Eric Blankenship
You can handle the things you didn't see come.
Chad Paris
That's good. That's good. Well, Eric, thank you again so much for being on the show. Great guest. Really appreciate you. If people are are looking for marketing, who how can they reach you?
Eric Blankenship
Yeah, pretty easy. So my website is mindstonemarketing.com. I'm also on X and I've been on X for a while at eBlankenship. I'm easily found on LinkedIn. I believe it's Eric Blankenship74 or eblankenship74. So I'm pretty easy to find on on both social and my email address. Once again, very easy. Eric E-R-I-C at Mindstone Marketing.com.
Chad Paris
Awesome. Eric, thank you so much for being a guest on the show today. It's awesome. and as always, guys, pr process over pressure. I'm Chad Paris, owner and founder of Stonefly Consulting. Thanks for watching.
Eric Blankenship
Thank you very much. I appreciate your time. Thank you.
Eric Blankenship
Thank you very much.
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