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Episode 4: Drinking Azaleas and Making Cameos with Steven Galanis

Published Mar 18, 2021, 7:01 AM

Erin and Charissa welcome Cameo co-founder and CEO Steven Galanis to the podcast to talk about the explosion of the platform that allows fans to make a personal connection with their favorite pop culture personalities. But first, they talk about the happenings down in “Tompa" Bay and the curious activity of drinking plants?

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Calm Down with Aaron and Charissa is a production of I Heart Radio. We are Back, Ladies and Gentlemen, Calm Down Podcast. I'm Charissa Thompson. She's Aaron Andrews. And before we started rolling, I already got my ears are hurting. Were not with us on the last episode or saw our socials? Aaron had her ears pinned back? What's wrong with you? Now? Well, it is a little chili here in Los Angeles. I know you're in Tampa Bay right now. It's chili, and I feel like I don't have the heat on in here, and they are sensitive below sevent dy degrees. That's something we didn't clear up. Plus these earphones are hurting them. So yeah, I'm a headcase right. Oh my god? How do you ever work games where you have to wear like the ear muffs and like the Green Bay games where we see you all bundled up. What do the ears do in those climates? Just fall off? No? No, no, you always have to wear a two situation and I'm wearing an I f B, which isn't so dramatic like these headphones. But yes, once it gets past below seventy, I'm in trouble. Like we were walking the dog yesterday and it was really chilly, and I've forgotted to as they like to say in Oh Canada. And uh, I was complaining the whole time that my ears hurt. Because yes, so again for those of you guys that didn't listen to our last episode, Um, Aaron had her ears pulled back in what were You in High School? I was going into ninth grade. It was a really big deal. Changing of schools. Yeah, changing of schools, ears pinned back. Fun fact I didn't know about her. But one of the many reasons we love this podcast because we get to learn things about one another that we didn't know. After a friendship of over ten plus years, UM calmed down. A lot has happened. I haven't seen you in over a week. Normally we check in and see each other in person at least once a week. I am in Florida, as you mentioned, Tampa Bay. I'm down here visiting another mutual friend of ours, Sarah Walsh. But Tampa is a buzz and sister, your hometown is so excited right now? Oh my god, who didn't they signed back? We got Lavonte David's back, Shaquillebert. Yeah, Well, Gronk. Everyone is back, Tom, Tom, Tampa, Godwin, Lavonte, David Hello, back with Devin White. Yes, please sign us up. Yeah, there's rumors. My dad just sent me a rumor that the Patriots may think about sending James White to Tampa Bay. This is crazy news. Yesterday Drew Brees finally retiring up finally, but there was obviously rumors since our game the NFC was it the divisional game? Did you see the announcement from his kiddos? It was so cute, right, and of course there was that very very touching moment the last you know, you guys you worked that game on the field where Tom Brady came back out of the locker room and was on the on the field with Drew Brees and and his kids. A really touching moment through his kid A monster passed like on the money. By the way, did you see that one of these kids jumped up and grabbed it. The other one was getting tackled by his sister. It was awesome, so good. We have a great podcast coming up today. Steven Galanis. He is the co founder and CEO of Cameo. Aaron has been trying to get me on cameo for what over a year? Two years? I'm obsessed with it, and I was like, Aaron, no one cares about whatever video. I said. She really is going to try to recruit me. She hasn't been able to close the deal, but maybe Stephen can convince me. Um, with Aaron's help, because apparently you get a Finder's feed. There's like a whole thing here built in. We will get into all of that and a whole lot more later on in the podcast. But um, we mentioned Drew Brees. Do you have a memorable Drew Brees story, because I'm sure that the listeners would want to know, as you've spent a lot of time, uh down there in New Orleans. Yeah, Drew's awesome. I mean the one that I did a ton of Saints games obviously with him playing again my ears hurt and fixing my headphones. Um yeah, you know you remember the ones the playoff games that I was gonna try to get Drew live right before the Minnesota miracle like and obviously that didn't work out. But um, I have a funny Drew Brees story where Drew is so serious and there's some guys that you can talk to you in the pregame warm ups, like the pre pregame warm ups before they put the unis on the pre pre is like, and they've got their own stuff on the flashy cleads, their FaceTime and their people. You know. That's where like I find and I don't know about you, you can get the great stuff. Oh yeah, and this is like to two and a half hours every time before like around that up right, like the couple hours before kickoff yep. And that's where we go out on the field. People love this kind of stuff that we go out on the field. We can talk to them and you can grab so many people at one time and just kind of get the vibe. Hey, if something happened the night before, talk to the kickers. But anyways, when I first started in the NFL, I didn't know that Drew doesn't really talk during those times. That is, he is a guy that is so dialed in. There's some players you can talk to, you there's some that prefer not to and they'll let you know. And he's one of them. And I went up to him and I was like, I think they were getting ready to face like the Rams and the defense, and I was like, Hey, what do you think about that, and I just got the uh huh, and I was like, oh shit, like and you feel bad because you're like, he's in the middle of a whole like choreograph section where he's doing his arms, his you know, warm up and everything, and I had no idea and I think a him and saw me attempted and he goes, how did that go? And I was like, oh my god, I had no idea. But Drew's awesome. He always was, so, you know, wonderful with his time, always is so accommodating. I remember the game right before we did the Rams game at home where he actually heard his thumb. He called me that Saturday, you know, because we didn't have a chance to meet with him and give me some stuff. So yeah, great, great guy, but very very serious. During the pre pregame warm ups. I remember a sit down interview you did with him. You offered to bring brownies or something I did because I found out that he was gluten free. He changed his diet um like a year or whatever before, and he was talking about, you know again like all these guys like TV and whatnot, like changing their diet and trying to squeeze as many years out as they possibly can in the league, and like how much weight he lost, which, as somebody who fluctuates weight on the daily, I am like ten pounds swing, you know, every other day. So it's dramatic but kind of close. Um. And so I was like, okay, so tell me the benefits, like do we love being gluten free? And then I think I tried being gluten free for like three days and then I got over it. But he was always so nice to your point, because it was so nice, so classy. Even when look when the headlines and the things that he said weren't always the greatest, he rose to the occasion. He stepped up and he said, you know what, I want to be better. I want to be more educated in this area. And whether it was on the field or off the field, you can't help but look back at that career and you know, hats off to a guy like him, which I found out. I'm so excited for I'm going to the Masters this year because I have a wonderful opportunity to go back. I know, I'm so excited. So I get to bring Scott Thompson again, my father who because the Masters, you know, reconfiguration with COVID and everything. Last year. My dad we went three years ago to win Tiger one. Lionel Ritchie's performing this small intimate concert with like sixty people. I like, get on stage like a total lunatic and I'm like singing with him condo. Lisa Rice's mom was there, like John Hammett was like a whole amazing. Then my dad and so then I'm like, sorry, take my dad to the Masters, which is like any daughters, like, you know, Dad, you're never getting a Christmas present, You're never getting a Birthday present, Like this is it, buddy. Then Tiger wins the Masters and I'm like I remember walking off Augusta National and I was like, well that was pretty good, right Dad, And he's like that was amazing. Then this wonderful guy, his name's Drew, he's the CEO of Mercedes. He was like, Scotty, you gotta come back and golf next year. And I was like that means I have to come back. And I know most people will be like, oh, you have to go back to the Masters, dude. I was there from Wednesday to Sunday, like it's it's enough golf from me. But I found out Drew Brees, Wayne Gretzky, and Joe Montana. I'm going to moderate a panel with those three beauties. The Master's going. I'm looking forward to that. And did you know how that goes? Those guys once they have a few cocktails and hang out, they're they're always a good time. So I will let you know how that goes. That's awesome. I have to brag about you really quick because my husband loves this story. Go back to when you went to the Masters. You were in that prime spot. I'm so ignorant when it comes to golf. My husband is dying when he sees you on television and you're in a lot of famous pictures. Tell a story about how you got it go. This is amazing, all right. So the Masters, you know, in the words of Jim Nance, a tradition unlike any other. And I'm telling you what is the most Jim whisper it. It's a tradition like no other, a tradition like no other. I should learn to whisper my yiling um. So the Masters, you have a ticket into the tournament, but you don't have like a signed seats, right, It's unlike you know, any other event where you're like looking on your ticket and you're like row three, seat a whatever. You have to wake up at the crack of dawn and go get in line right outside the gates of the Masters, and then they open up the gates at like six am, and who's ever standing there first? You don't run to where you want to put your seats down. You have to walk. And I'm like on a speed walk here at like six am with my two little on chairs so my dad can have prime seating on Amen corner. Now Amen corners a turn very like famous at Augusta because it's where it either makes or breaks the tournament, very like tough terrain. You have to hit it over the water, the whole thing. Well, this was actually the turn where guys just like kept going like hip like there's like a bunch of guys that fell off the leaderboard, and all of a sudden here comes Tiger Boom. He's like in contention and he just nails it. So then we turn and we go to sixteen. I think he birdies sixteen, hands up winning the tournament. But he was already in your spot. We were sitting front row an corner, and I like looked over at my dad and my dad's like, this is amazing. So again that why don't we just accept the walk off grand Slam we got from a couple of years ago. But no, if Scotty gets to golf in August of this year, so we're going back and it will be great. But yeah, any man that loves golf. My husband loves golf, and he's like, hey, if your dad ever doesn't want to go, I'm like, he's never not gonna want to go, Kyle, it's amazing. I went, and we could save that for another time. Um the North Andy North, Sue North, wonderful people. I was in Atlanta. I drove up and I again, I know nothing about golf. It embarrasses my husband, but it's fine. I drink more Azaleas than I think one should drink syas. That's a plant. No, it's the drink that they have the masters drinking. Yeah, I was, and I had way too many and it was fantastic. And I was like they were getting ready to start it and I was like, hey, let's go watch the puck dropper kick off, Like, let's go see this thing. It was cool. I loved it. I had a good time. No cell phones allowed No, the Masters is incredible. One thing about the Master's real quick. And then we got to get going. Here the bathroom lines, no other bathroom line. I don't know know if you remember this as someone who was also drinking copious amounts of alcohol, clearly more like Coore's lights or whatever they were. Um, I had to go to the the bathroom all the time. But they run those bathroom lines so efficiently. They like hold up a thing and they're like three minutes, and so you know how long you have to wait. I was so impressed the way they ran this tournament. Also, you're not allowed to have your cell phones in there, so it's the only event where everyone's actually paying attention. It is a tradition unlike any other I didn't have a bathroom line because with the North I got to go to those private cabins. Here we go. How does it feel to be rich? I No, we'll talk to somebody who's also rich. Coming up because of his incredible company cameo. We've got Steven Galanis. Don't say Galantis, it's galan Is coming up next. Great show ahead for you, Calm Down Podcast. Subscribe, join us on our Instagram handles. All the things. We will be back with more after the grabbing Azalea. I don't think that's the name. It is what's up everybody. We are back and we are pumped for our next guest, Stephen galant Is. It is not Galantis, it is Goanest. Ladies and gentlemen, don't let that second a fool you. But he gets an A plus in business. He's the CEO and co founder of Cameo. For those of you that don't know what cameo is, of course, it's the leading marketplace connecting fans directly with tens of thousands of pop culture personalities in the form of customized messages. Aaron Andrews is on Cameo. You can find her there and so many others. Stephen, we are pumped to have you. I know Aaron in particular, thank you for having me. I'm so excited to meet both of you guys. We're stoked. Man. What a successful you know. Aaron can speak to it. She's been trying to. By the end of this interview, if you will let me, I will join Cameo. But she's been trying to convince me to get on this platform for a long time. Ready all the time, a. Troy Aikman is the one. We were in a meeting room in Minnesota getting ready for a Vikings Thursday night game, and he's like, hey, aarent you ever heard of a thing called Cameo? And I was like, what is this? Mike Pereiro words right there. I mean, he was ready to throw a flag and I got invested. And I've been trying to get this beauty on for a year and a half and she doesn't listen, Steven, she just doesn't care. You care, but you don't get it. If if I can't convince her to come on by the end of this interview, then I should be CEO anymore. Exactly. Well, let's back it up then, you know big picture. I gave the intro of what cameo is according to your bio, But how would you describe cameo when people come up and you're like, hey, I'm the CEO and co founder of Cameo and someone says, what is cameo? What's your definition? Well? Number one, I think you nailed it. So I love everything that you said. Cameo is a marketplace where we helped fans connect with tens of thousands of the most exciting people in sports and entertainment and pop culture. We primarily do that through our first product, which is the cameo personalized video message. When we had the idea four years ago, the idea was the selfie is the new autograph. And you know, I know plenty of people that have run into you guys over the years because when they meet you, they put a picture on Instagram and that is better than the memorabilia that's on the back of the wall behind you there. And um, it really started with the idea that the selfie was the new autograph. And the problem we were trying to solve was how do you take a selfie with someone that you're never in a room with, that you never actually meet in real life. So the cameo was a way to basically remove distances of variable in getting an autograph from someone are getting a selfie from someone. And it all started with a Seattle Seahawks player, right, which, by the way, full disclosure and we'll get into Russell Wilson either staying with Seattle or going to your team, Stephen um Arrissa, Like I said, she's from Seattle, So can you explain how that all happened? Yeah, this actually crazy story, and funny enough, today is the exact four year anniversary of us launching actually offline. I'll send you, guys the tweet that Cassius Maybe I'll retweet it and I'll tagle both of you guys, but I'll show you the tweet that Cassius Marsh sent to actually kick it off and the story behind cameo. My grandmother passed away. My co founder Martin flew in from Los Angeles for the day to Chicago for my grandmother's funeral, and we were catching up. We had done some movie production stuff together and we'd always wanted to work with each other again. I was working at LinkedIn at the time, and Martin had decided to become an NFL agent, and his big idea was if he could find a big defensive lineman that had a big personality, he could get him in movies. Because my uncle is a pretty big movie producer. He did Rambo and Conan and One Survivor, and he's done a lot of big action movies. So he really felt like, if I could sign Cassius Marsh, maybe I could turn him into the next Rock. Right, I can like kind of backdoor into signing the top movie star on Earth, and interestingly enough, Martin could not find any type of off the field income for a Cassius Marsh in year one and year two of being his agent. And in fact, there was a story that one viral back in seventeen Cassius Marsh had had his car broken into it the Seattle Seahawks facility and like thousands of dollars of magic the gathering cards were stolen out of the back of his car. He put a tweet out and he said, hey, twelves, I don't care what you thought was in that bag, Like what was in there was more important to me than money or jewels or or anything else, Like just give me my my Pokemon cars back room. I been gathering cards back and they all press target. So this set off like a storm. You know, it was on p T. I was on bar stool, like everybody's having like this crazy you know time with the fact like a two d sixty five pound jack defensive lineman is breaking out about his magic the gathering cards gotten stolen, and Martin tried to get I think it's called Wizards of the Coast, Who's a Seattle based company that makes magic the gathering the sponsor Cash is Marsh, and they wouldn't you know, they wouldn't do it. They're just like no. And it's funny because today, like cards are so hot n f T. You think of like all this stuff, all the things that people were nerding out about four years ago that couldn't move like now if now Cash this Marsh actually has opened a card shop and like as a whole thing going. But at that time Martin was so frustrated that he couldn't find any off the field income from this guy. And ESPN had a thirty for thirty that year called Broke that came out and in the documentary it said that of NFL players go broke five years after playing their last game. This is a problem I passionately cared about. I was an athlete at Duke. I have a lot of friends that made the NBA or made the NFL, but like not all of them like had the you know, fifteen twenty year career and a lot of them. You know, one story in particular, I have a really good friend who months after winning the National championship in texted me to ask if I could Western Union him three hundred dollars because you know, the NBA was in lockout, he didn't get drafted, like all this stuff was happening, and and you know a couple of months earlier, he was selling out, you know, the Indianapolis Stadium at the National Championship, cutting down the nets, right, So I was always really this was something that was really personal to me because I had friends that had been through it. But this whole idea of being able to delight somebody without like interrupting them personally, Like how many times have you guys been sitting in restaurants and you see your fans are staring at you, and like, you know, they might work up the courage to come and talk to you, and like, you'll take the picture when you can, you'll sign the autograph when you can. But sometimes you're having a conversation you just like can't be bothered, and then everyone's gonna be like, oh yeah, Like Aaron I walked up to two in a in a restaurant and like and she was she was so mean that she didn't like I've had four drinks and I know what's wrong to talk to people? You know, it's like, give me a break here. Yeah, Like I saw I saw him the bar and like we wouldn't so you know, they're such bitches. They wan't talk to me right, And we wanted to end that because if you consit in the comfort of your home, you know you can go and serve more, you know, delight more of your fans and and you know, it's such a magical moment. Like you've seen some of these reaction videos that people get, like thirty seconds of your time could be the best moment of you know, that person's day or the best moment of their life. I remember one case that I'll never forget. Early on Camera's History, Brett Farban made a commercial for this girl who was the areas of a major company in Wisconsin. Her father passed away and at her wedding, you know, she would go to Pavery Packers game with her with her dad. At her wedding, Brett was like, your dad so proud of you, Like, I'm sorry he's not here, but hopefully this is there. She's bawling at the greatest moment of the greatest day of her life. Was a Brett Farve can amazing by the way Brett Farve big winner on cameo chop, Like guys, right, isn't he right up there with Carol Baskin. Yeah, I mean he Brett's Brett stun fantastic, And I think part of it is that, um, he just loves doing him and he's kept his price at a pretty affordable rate, Like he's four hundred bucks. He was number four, so he added a couple of zeros. You know, there's certainly people like he could charge way more. He really loves doing the videos and he has a lot of fun with him. That's awesome. You mentioned you guys are just your four year anniversary. Then today I was gonna start drinking before noon, but now forget it. We got sharing to celebrate. So congratulations. Are you surprised, Stephen? You know, obviously you sit out and Aaron and I. Aaron has a very successful women's clothing line. I'm starting out in an interior design company, and a lot of the reason we wanted to start this podcast was to get into different areas of our life, which is that entrepreneurial side of us that we like to do. And for you, you know your background and then starting this company. Are you surprised even to yourself and to Martin and Devon about how successful this has been in such a short amount of time. I mean, it's such an interesting question, right because like, look, as an entrepreneur, and you guys both know this from your other ventures. You don't start something if you don't think it's gonna work, right, Like I absolutely thought it was gonna work. I quit my job at LinkedIn three months before we sold the other one. I just had that conviction and one question in particular. For the last three months I was at LinkedIn, I was telling everybody around me about this idea, and probably half of those people work for cameo at this point. Pretty funny, but I'll never forget. It was New Year's Day seventeen and I was sitting in a hot tub in Nicaragua with a bunch of people that I was working with them, and one of them asked, They're like, Stephen, this idea is like too good. Like if you don't take this shot and you stay at LinkedIn and somebody else builds us and it becomes a billion dollar company, could you live with yourself? And the truth was the answer to me is absolutely not, And I just had to go. Like, mentally, I knew that this was my time. Nobody had asked me that question before, but I knew I had to take the shot and and look in some ways, um, you know, despite how fast Cameo has grown, Like I look at it, and to me, it's like, why aren't we going faster? Like why aren't more? Like like, I think that's just a natural thing. As the CEO or an entrepreneur, you should never be satisfied with because you know you can always do better, you can always go faster. There's five million people in the world, including you, that could be on Cameo that aren't right now, right, we have so from my perspective, it's the top of the second ending here, Like we've been off to a great start, but we're building a company that we think, you know, has the opportunity to be revolutionary and in the way that you know, talent and fans, interactive scale. And it's also just such a fun company because like we make people happy, right, Like, I think about how much negativity there is and social and I've seen it for both of you guys. You guys have been through that ship that's happened online, like people doing stupid, stupid things, leaking things, all that stuff. Like this is all about positivity, right, It's like your biggest bends in the world getting to go directly through them. And you know, there's a million people in both of your d ms that like have asked for this in the past, but because it's zero dollars, right, like, you can't answer all of them, and there's no like good way to open the d M up, Like you open it up then they can talk to you. And then even if you make that video for them, if you take them out of your d M, then they're like mad at you. It's like you might have that have done it. So it's just been like a really good, safe thing that works on both sides of the market, and that's why it's gone as well as it has. I think my mind is blown. I'm like jumping up and down, like we're like doing a Tom Brady interview here, So what crisis said. We're both in the middle of, you know, with these startups, and I think, like you said, you know, you're in the second inning or top of the second with me, And I've discussed this with Kevin Hart. My mind is always like this, and I'm trying to like write it all down. I'm trying to push my people for someone that has been successful in four years with this startup. What are some keys here for you know that we should be following or to deal with all these voices in our head? Help me out here? Well, Number one, I think it's about making sure that the business you're working on is your e key guy and ekey guys. This Japanese philosophy I've learned about from other entrepreneurs. And if you were to make a vent diagram, right, so imagine like a two circle VENN diagram, but imagine one with four circles, so there's one on top, one on the bottom, right and left. You need to find the intersection of what do you love to do? What is the world need? What can you get paid for? And uh? And what I'm sorry, hold on, uh, I can't believe a scoony key guy up right now the world. You have so many brilliant thoughts you can't you really are. So it's it's it's what are you great at? What does the world need? What do you love to do? And what can you get paid for it? And it's the intersection of that and for me, like I love sports, I love entertainment. My nickname since Kindergarten has been the mayor, I bring people together, like this is what I like to do. And I think you just need to make sure that your business is a real personification of who you are, what your values are, what you're about, because it's just too damn hard to run a company. And if the company's mission and your own mission are not like one and the same, or the values that you're you know, espousing and as a leader are not the ones you live by every day, Like your employees are gonna be like that's bullshit, Like you don't say, you know, roll out the red carpet is a core value of Cameo and Steven. If you're not doing that, if you're not that person that's always trying to make people happy and bring them together, like it just doesn't work. There's too much cognitive dissidence. So I just think it's all about making sure you're doing something that like really fills you up fully. I love all of that, And I'm looking at all your accolades here. I mean, Time Magazines fifty Most Genius Companies, Fast Companies fifty most Innovative Companies. Hollywood recognizes, Uh, you got you as the top innovator. I mean, there's all these things that have come with this idea, this authentic idea, and then you've put it into action. What's next for Cameo? And I only say that not because you're not happy with the current status quo, but because you are that innovator. What is next? What does Cameo look like to you in five years? Yeah? Well five years um so I think I think a lot of people have also wondered, like the even what is cameo really at its core? Is this social network? Is that a marketplace? I believe we're creating the first social marketplace, so then has aspects of like an ETC or an eBay or Uber or door Dash, but it also has a lot of the social aspects as well, of like an Instagram and TikTok, and I think it's scale. We have the opportunity to build the world's first social marketplace that's not based on an ad revenue model. So you know, like on Instagram or TikTok or Twitter, you guys are creating content every day, you're getting famous and you're getting distribution. But they take all the money, right like they sell ads against the eyeballs that your content is bringing. Aster. Because our business model has always been talent centric, like we don't have to figure out, Okay, we've got this golden juice, how do we pay and how do we pay? Like how do we pay you? So that's big and and really if I had to like zoom all the way out, I think we're building the marketplace for people's time for rex amount of money A fan should be able to pay you or aeron, uh, you should be able to pay to do why activity was the person that you love? And the core cameo is just the first of many different interactions that we're going to roll out. Give me an example, So like if somebody wants to go to a game with Aaron that she's not working, Like, give me an example. Yeah, I'll give you a great example. One of my best friends from is Lance Thomas played for the New York Knicks for a long time and Lance is an avid fisherman, right, he's got He played for New Orleans for the first couple of years and got set up. You know, he's he's from New Jersey, like you know, six foot eight, like big black guy from New Jersey and he ended up coming down to New Orleans and befriended some fisherman and now his life is like his fishing boat in Venice, Louisiana. How cool would it be if you're a Knicks fan and that you know also want to do and like this is your guy. You go set with Lance and like Louisian in Louisiana, go catch fish in the gulf. Like these are the types of interact exactly right, but like or I even think of you know, like one that we're releasing right now is called Cameo Calls, which is a v I P meet and greet product. And I don't know if the team's told you about it, but you'll be able to say, like, hey, I've got an hour right now, I want to meet forty my fans for two minutes each. We're gonna have a FaceTime like this and now we're gonna take a selfie together that you can put on Instagram. So that's like one of the next things that we're we're rolling out. Very cool and of course you have the philanthropic arm of this as well. Why is that so important for you? Cameo Care is raised over a million dollars and how does that work, Stephen? So we've always enabled talent to do this for charity if they want to and uh. Actually, one of the first big viral moments that we had as a company was during Hurricane Harvey in Houston, and we got dozens of our talent, like they were probably only forty people on the platform I the time. And I remember like Trey Wingo was one of them. He had come on the platform and then ESPN like kicked him off for a bit and now he's got But the bottom line, like, we got all this talent to come and say, hey, we're gonna match Cameo is gonna donate a hundred percent of its earnings to Hurricane Harvey relief. The talent. We're excited about it. They did it, and and you know it was cool, like for a tiny little company. I think we raised like forty grand or something, but you know, we had like four employees at the time. And from that moment, we realized, like, hey, charity is something that you know, everybody can get behind. Um, you know, people some talent like you might feel like, hey, I make so much money, like I don't want to charge my fans for something. But one of the big things is that that we know is that if Aaron was Frete, she would get books so much that she wouldn't be able to do any of the videos. So the reality is prices a necessary friction which enables fulfillment. And if if she decides to take that money and send it to a cause that she's passionate about, that's amazing. So you mentioned, Aaron, you get to set your own price, right like we do, and I have so much I need to ask you about it, but go ahead. CT No, No, that's what that was my part. Like, you just get to determine the price, which is great. Right. You're not saying like, oh, if you're this tire, you charge this much, because that kind of puts you in a weird position. Aaron. If you're like, I don't want to charge that much, or I, you know, want to charge more or whatever, go ahead. I'll tell you a funny story about pricing um. Because again we're creating a completely new market. So what was the comp for a cameo? Is it like how much you charge for an autograph a picture at a meeting? Grade we had no idea. A funny story back in when we were getting going, a max salary player in the NBA came up and said, Hey, I want to do cameo. But I make million dollars a year, and I recently got paid like fifty grand to show up at this kid's bar. Mitzvah, I think I need to be like ten grand trader by background. So I walked him through the map. I said, you don't need ten grand. You make twenty million dollars a year. Divide that by two thousand hours in a work here fifty weeks. Divide by sixty and guess how much money you make per minute? If you make million dollars per year, do you have a guess you had to divide by two? I don't know. You make two hundred and eight dollars per minute, so carry the one. If you charge a hundred dollars or a hundred fifty dollars per minute, you can do two cameos per minute. You can actually make more money per minute on cameo charging a hundred a hundred fifty dollars. Then you could being a max salary player in the NBA. And imagining that mother in Detroit that wants to take her kid to come see you play at a Pistons game, it actually costs her more to buy tickets and parking, and you know, sodas and and and everything hot dogs to go see you play. Then you like wishing the kid happy birthday, which way more well. Also in brand is so important. It's got to help your brand when you you have access. If someone you know loves Aaron so much and she they want this video, it's like they don't have to have that impression of you from the bar, like, well what a batch Like it's like, oh, I love Aaron, she gave us this video. So I imagine it helps people's overall like appeal to absolutely. Um. We all have interacted with so many you know, you guys have interacted with the million talent. I have interacted with the million talent. You remember those people that like go above and beyond. And there's actually a pretty funny story that I have in my family. So, uh, the Lakers had just won the game the championship in game seven, the Lakers were all in Hawaii like resting up after like a crazy finals. I was an infant. My grandparents were walking on the beach and they saw Magic Johnson. And Magic Johnson. Uh, They're like, hey, will you take a picture with our grandkid? And he said no, And my grandmother dropped me on Magic Johnson's lap right took My grandfather was a professional photographer, took a picture. This is back in like the late eighties, so you had to go to like twenty four hour photo, you know. My dad drove across the island, tried to get it signed, and Magic was like you crazy people like way right. So it's been like urban legend in our family that like Magic Johnson was like kind of a dick and wouldn't take him. But twenty five years later I ran into him again. I showed him that picture, he signed it. We had a huge laugh about it. But like imagine if I had never had the opportunity to get in front of him again, like for the whole life, my family would have been like, yeah, Magic is great now, but he was like pretty mean in this, you know, in that situation, wouldn't take a picture with like a seven year old baby. I think one of the interesting there's so many interesting stories about Cameo, but I read an article where you talked about you know, the Soup Nazi and Brian I can't say his last name from the office are crushing it, and you're like, look, it's not really about the A list celebrities. You know on cameo, which is great for me. Who's your dream celeb to get on cameo? All right? So you guys will you guys you got to kick out of this. Uh So. I grew up in Chicago and and despite like doing a duke, I'm actually a hockey player more than a basketball player. I love the NBA, I love basketball, I love football, love baseball. But like the black Hawks for my team growing up. And I always say that if the dream cameo for me, and only like the guys that I played hockey with since I was like four years old would know, this would be Eddie Bell four because he was the black Hawks. He was the goalie of the black Hawks when I was a kid. Like that inspired to me to be a goalie played in my whole life, Like that would be my guy, right, But you know, outside of that, I think like the obvious answers, like you could imagine like Obama or Arnold Schwarzenegger, Like there's just so oprah, Like there's just so many like amazing people that could be on. But for me, it's would be Eddie Bell four. And one of the cool things about Cameo is like only my oldest friends, and I guess now all your listeners would know that. So Eddie, if you're you're out there, like comes comes see us, you know, contact air and then she'll get through referral. But at the end of the time, that's what's kind of fun about CANDO is it's not just about getting the video, but it's like picking out of this list of all these people, how do I know that you know ct like you really would love like expert, you know, ex person. Uh, and hopefully it's it's not Russell Wilson because we need him on the Bears. Well, we don't have enough time to get into that whole specific situation. Um, but you mentioned the referrals. Okay, So we're at the super Bowl in Miami and Troy and Joe and Terry Bradshaw, myself and Aaron were all in the room and Aaron and Troy are trying to convince Terry and I to get on cameo and I'm like, no one. I'm like this is embarrassing. It's gonna be like five dollars for a video, Like, no one's gonna get cameos, And and Troy's like, you want the referral, Like like this referral thing. What is this all about? Don't give Achman your referral? Damn it, I'll be what does it mean you're gonna get the referral? Uh So one of the things that we found in the early days was that the agents, of course, we're not helpful at all and like getting this on. In fact, we would pitch us a Cia and w ME and and UT and everybody, and they just were like, oh yeah, we talked to Aaron about it, and like she wasn't interested. And then we would meet you guys in real life and they never got to you. So one of the things we realized was, well, all the talent on Cameo they love they love it so and if instead of going through like middleman, if we just have them tell their friends to get on, like, let's compensate them for that. And since the beginning, we've had a referral system where every talent on cameras on the same financial split. It's a seventy percent split to you to us, but in a case where Aaron refers to you, you still make seventy percent, but Aaron's gonna make five percent for one year. And then Cameo makes and and she needs to be a closer, She needs to be Trevor Hoffman and close the deal here. Yeah, yeah, but this is but this is just a thank you for the people that have been there, done that, who love the product, want to be evangelist, Like I never ask anybody to do anything for free, Like I I deeply believe that, like you should come in and and if you're helping us out, like I wanted to be lucrative for you too. And a lot of the biggest town we've ever gotten they come from referrals. The funniest story that I like, one of the funniest stories I have, uh Ice. He was was recording in New York with Snoop Dogg and then our old office we used to have this big monitor that would kind of show the cameos as they were coming up, and we look out on the monitor and like Snoop is like in like making cameos within a cameo, and creator on my team ends up texting, uh, I see, and it was like, hey, you know, if you tell Snoop to get on this thing, um you know, like you can make the referral from it, and like you know, he said, he told Snoop about it. About fifteen minutes later, I get a FaceTime from Snoop Dogg and the first thing he says, he goes, Steve Cameo is brilliant. This thing is awesome. You gotta let me on this so we can billionize this ship. And I'm like, all right, you're so good, say no more, Stephen. Can we this is my one request from Cameo? Can we please get a filter on it? Because I will say the one reason why it's so true. But listen, guys like Troy and Farv and all the guys, they just do it with their baseball hats on, which I've done a few times. But then you feel really bad odd when people are people are paying you money to give them shout outs. I don't wear makeup that much, so can you give the girl a top look like flawless? Filter? Here, I'm just saying filters. I never met a filter like my co founder Devon's right on the other side of that. Tell them this is coming right from you and we need to do this. But no, in all seriousness, one of the really interesting aesthetic decisions we made early was to prioritize authenticity over high quality, which was so like you can imagine when we were getting started, people are like, well, you need to do lights, camera action. You book Aaron for a day, you know, get all the requests for a year, like record them all here and make up all that. But you know what's kind of fun is like people like seeing the cameo like selfie video, Like they want to see like, well, what's in that bookcase behind? Like what kind of like who are those two people standing up behind here? My friends kids? The cardboard cutouts like that. That's the things that are like kind of fun. But we hear you loud and clear, and and actually the one who it's hardest for is really like drag queens are really popular on cameo, like it's a big deal to get in. And as we're thinking about some of the new things like the twenty four hour expedient bookings, that's harder because like some of them would say, on Thursday, I'm going in drag and I need time to like be ready to do this because I want to give my my fans what they want, which is means not me rolling out of bed. So we hear that loud and clear, and we're working on but we could talk to you forever. We know that you're busy and have a bunch of things going on, but just real quick before we let you go, you want Russell Wilson, We'll get your Russell Wilson. Okay, we forget that. How bad I want to hear you tell Charissa why he should be in Chicago versus Seattle. Are you like, I'm I'm thinking this is going to go down? Don't let's take do I'm just saying down. I was. I was. I was pretty cool being um, you know, being at Super Bowl this year. And one of my friends from college is actually one of Brady's quarterback coaches, Daddius Lewis. He's a longtime NFL player, and it was so interesting talking to that about how Brady just coming in transformed everything. This was a championship ready team and it just needed that captain to come in and and bring it all together. And I think the Bears, you know, are that they really are one of those teams one player away like the Bucks were, and uh, you know, I don't. I don't think anybody. I think Russ also, you know, coming from playing in Wisconsin, like he can handle the weather there. He did a fantastic job at Camp Randall. And you know, we'd love, we'd love to see him in a hat like this pretty soon. We still we still, we still need Russell in Seattle. Of course, Russell Wilson is you know, once in a generation guy. You're not gonna just like handover, but will be interesting to see how it plays out. Cameo a once in a lifetime opportunity that you created and have seen it flourish and you're only four years in. That's the scary part, man, you're just getting started. Well, thank you, And the Seahawks are my second favorite team. Special it's a very special team to Cameo, right. It started with Seahawks fans. Yeah. If it wasn't for the twelve, as I swear to God, we wouldn't be here today. So um, you know that's so. I don't want to take him from you that bad, but I love to see I love to see a super Bowl. Hey, do we want Stephen to give a calm Down Award? Crisa? But yeah, why not? So just to fill you in case you're familiar, we hand out calm Down Awards on this show. Kevin Hart told everyone they need to stop being so sensitive. That was his Calm Down Award. Aaron gave one out for the Golden Globes attire that we saw a couple of weeks ago. So would you like to give out one. You can give it to John Schneider and tell him to calm down and trade Russell Wilson to the Magic Johnson whoever you want. Yeah, let me think about it. I mean, there's just so much crazy stuff going on right now, but um, I think I think my Calm Down Award actually goes out to everybody on to jump the line for vaccines right now. Like it feels like there's just you know, like I loved hearing what President Biden side a couple a couple of weeks ago about like, hey, by may anyone that wants one, like they'll be able to get it. And the data is so clear that like, you know, who really needs to be careful and who would probably be fine if they got it anyways, and like let's make sure everybody that really needs the vaccine goes and gets it first, because the cavalry is on the way, and you know, hopefully this summer we can get fans back in stadiums. You know, I know we've been thinking about l A super Bowl and like fun things we can do around that, and so sad being at super Bowl this year compared to you know, Miami the year before, Atlanta. Like I just hope that l A is ready for you know, hopefully, like that's like the first party when everybody's back and um and you know, let's get let's make sure everybody gets the vaccines so we can get back in stadiums and sports can be just as fun as we remember super Bowl party. I'm I'm pumped. I live in l A. So does Carrissa, Like we're all host you like, let's go, let's do it. Let's see what we're thinking about it. We were planning to do it this year and then obviously that didn't happen. So this will be our fifth super Bowl. And you know Martin my co founder. I don't know if if either of you guys have ever met him before, but he's kind of our main guy that's in l A. Like always just going around all the talent. I'll never forget. We're in the Minnesota super Bowl. You know, it's so cold, and there were like ten people on cameo and we were going up to anyone big and it's like you play in the NFL, right, and then you fast forward to like last year at Miami and you know, Troy Aikman and Brett Farve and like all these It was my dad's seventieth birthday last year, and I brought him the Super Bowl, and I don't think my dad really got it until like Isaiah Thomas came up to and was like, that is your son is the smartest kid here because we all worked for him now and it was just like they grew up in Austin on the West side of Chicago together, like same high school and everything, and and you know my dad, like you meet in your own Bettest and meet and Brett Farve and like me and all these guys and and everybody to a t saying like I love Cameo, thank you so much for you know, for this. And then the funniest one for him was Brian Lacker ran up to me and gave me a bear hug. I've never met him before, but I was wearing the Cameo T shirt. And it's just like my wife loves you because it's finally forcing me to like interact with the fans, you know, on radio row and that was I missed that? And hopefully we're back at Radio Road next year and and fans are in the stands because that's what everybody wants right now. Of course, Steven, approximately how many people do have on cameo right now? We have just over okay, well just over forty plus one. Consider it done. I will I will finally do what you've closed the deal. I will give Aaron the referral and again I'll charge a dollar and I'll donate it all. I don't care, but there can I press up in like a costume every now and then because I'm big on like whatever you want this is. You know you want to see the authentic version. Well that's a big mess. I'm authentically a mess. So like if I like go into costumes or like you know, day of the week St Patrick's Day up for like, I'm really into theme. So you know, if I can do that, I'm all in. Well, yeah, we'll get the St. Patrick's Day special tomorrow. You know, people be fighting over your basically your rookie cards, your cameo first, your first one, so we should do I'll never forget my first on my cameo. Now, if that's how we get people. Stephen Glanes, we appreciate your time. Congratulations to you, to Devon and Martin on an incredibly successful company that's just getting started. Really a pleasure talking to you. Thank you. Awesome, Thank you guys. Love you both and so happy to have both you. The cameo, Aaron, it finally happened. Among the fourth anniversary. Happy anniversary. It's a big day. That's like pop the cameo Cherry Yeah, pop it welcome back to calm down, Steve Gohannest. He was awesome. I'm I know your mind is blown and my mind is blown just because we are part of this whole startups that suation. What'd you take from it? Well, I mean, first of all, he's so likable that I had so many stories to him, like storytime with Steve it I mean settle in because every time he was like, I got a great story about this, I got a great story about this. I'm like, and he's so I get it and I loved what he was saying. Aaron. Then it's like, there's so much bad in the world, like to be able to create something that sends positivity and like the story about the bride at the wedding, crying because her dad would have been sober. I mean, come up forget. I wanted to tear up because no, you know how much we care about our dad. So it's like, if we can, you know, just give our fathers or anyone we care about, just a little, like, you know, hint of something. I remember Ryan Rousillo or good Buddy. For his birthday, I had um three cameos um. One of those was Jack's UM. I had him from from Vanderpump because he's a closet Banderpump band and like Jack's did a video and like three minutes into the video, Jack's is like, hey over, so if you ever like want me to come on the podcast, Like, I'm happy to like this, I can turn it this whole thing. And it was great. But clearly the company has had success. The vision has come to Fruition, and I can't wait to see what he does with it. The one thing we didn't get into, and we could have talked for two hours, was they crushed it during COVID and the biggest reason was because everybody was out of work and they were willing to you know, make money, and also that was their way they could connect with the fans. Um I heard, you know, read different stories about guys that country music stars raising money for their bands and you know, just cutting cameos left and right. So um, he was, you know, one of the many companies that did crush it during quarantine, and good for him. I loved it. I I loved what he said about, you know, just staying true to yourself. And I think that has a lot to do with what we do for a living. Look, it's hard traveling on the road, living in hotels, taking four flights a week. You gotta love what you do, and we love what we do for our side hustle, for your interior design company, for house and home, and myself with where Uh. You gotta love it because we have so much on our plate right now that to have something else take up a lot of our time, it has to come from the heart and it does. This guy is awesome. The Magic Johnson story where he's like, are you freaking kidding me? And it's like throws him on his laugh. That was amazing. Yeah, it was cool. Let me ask you somebody. I mean, now that I'm new to cameo, I can't wait to discover this. But why you know you get asked to do a lot of different things. What was it for you about camy, because how long have you been on it? Over a year? I've been on it for a year and a half. So what was it about the platform that you're like, Okay, I'm willing to do that. That sounds like it's because you have to vet out some of these you know, odd requests. Yeah, and and that's the one thing that's I guess I need to let my hair down, no kidding in life anyways and have a little fun with them. And that's I guess how people have had success on cameo. But I always get a little afraid, you know, you just never know how people are going to use it. And it sounds like his team has vetted out the bad people and they've kind of, you know, made sure it's a safe spot for celebs and d listers like or F listers like myself. Um, yeah, it's just cool. You know. I love doing them when I'm on the field, like right after games, I try to pop out of people. Love that. Yeah, like, hey, just at the Cowboys game, but wanted to say happy birthday, Gina. And I get a ton of them for fantasy football, a lot of them because companies are doing their virtual like seminars like we do at Fox, or their awards ceremonies. Um I pass out awards. Uh yeah, it's a major award. What a treat tree. More Calm Down podcast coming at you next week. As we tell you every week, subscribe, swipe up, swipe left, just like the podcast. Thank you for listening, and we hope to continue to bring you episodes that enlighten and educate and entertain and find me on cameo in a costume. Oh hell yeah and me is the first thing to do. I can't wait. And by the way, check out our graham for the kids out there. I mean, I think we're putting up great content. Nobody commented about my minute photo I put on the story. It's probably nor thanks by'all. Alright, So Calm Down with Aaron and Chrissa is a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcast from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Calm Down with Erin and Charissa

Calm Down With Erin Andrews and Charissa Thompson is all about the conversations you would have with 
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