Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Jumpstart Episode 1: Rex Hammock
Dave: Welcome to Jumpstart. I am your host, Dave Delaney. My guest today is Rex Hammock, founder and CEO of the content marketing and media firm, Hammock, Inc. Hi, Rex!
Rex: Hello, Dave! How are you today?
Dave: I’m great, man. Welcome to the podcast. Thanks for joining me.
Rex: I’m honored that you invited me.
Dave: Well, it’s great to have you man. Let’s–– let’s begin by telling me a little bit about Hammock, Incorporated and what is it that you guys do?
Rex: Well, you just said. We are content marketing and that’s up.
Dave: (Laughs)
Rex: What does that mean, however? Now, 20 years ago, when we started the company, it meant primarily that we work with companies and associations that produce magazines that went to their–– magazines or print newsletters that went to their customers on an ongoing basis, primarily to existing customers to build a deeper relationship. Now overtime, and frankly we date way back, we thought of ourselves as helping companies and associations build deeper relationships no matter what the format or media would be. So we naturally progressed into interactive media and then online media with CompuServe, forum management.
And over time, it’s a nice mix of both custom magazines, custom newsletters that are delivered via print, and then a nice complement of everything that we now know today as either interactive media or digital media, or e-media, or social media, all designed to help a company tell it’s story and develop deeper relationships with it’s customers. It’s a sort of a popular thing now but 20 years ago, building a one-to-one relationship or relationship directly with the customer instead of going through traditional media was somewhat a radical concept. Today, everybody is in content marketing. In fact, we call ourselves content marketing because the market calls it that. It’s not our–– we became content marketers by doing the same thing we’ve been doing for 20 years (laughs).
Dave: (Laughs)
Rex: It just so happen that everybody else started having a name for it.
Dave: Right, right, right. And so what year–– what year exactly did–– did you guys––?
Rex: We start–– we started in ’91, so that’s–– we are 20 years old this year.
Dave: Wow, congrats! That’s great. That’s a huge achievement. And you’ve been–– you’ve been blogging now at rexblog [dot] com since August 2000. So an early adaptor to blogging, I would say. (Laughs)
Rex: Um, I, you know I, I–– maybe I started this business. I stumbled into it. I stumbled into blogging. I stumbled… Actually what happened was, again it goes back to what I was–– I was just saying about we were doing things a long time before they had names (laughs).
Dave: Yeah.
Rex: And one of the things that we did and I have personal passion about was online community. We had managed CompuServe forums back in the early 90s and so I got involved with some people around the country who were trying to understand the nature of, back then Listserv, or things that today are sort of predated the web and the browser-based web, especially. So–– and this is probably very apropos to the audience for this natu–– national entrepreneurs. Especially in ’99, 2000, we at Hammock spun off a company called SmallBusiness [dot] com that at the time was–– I mean if you go back and look at the screen grabs we have of the–– you will see it.
It was a social network that we would–– as you would envision it today. It was just predated names like social network. So I was very immersed in both the community that was developing really around the country, ways that you could update forum, and ways that people could establish identity and community. And a part of the group of people that were–– were very involved in that were some of the early bloggers, people who created the blogging platforms. And so they were friends and people where I followed and as soon as I saw someone like Doc Searls, for example, is a friend, create a blog. I didn’t know what it was. I didn’t even know it was a blog. But I created one just to be like him.
Dave: Uhum (laughs).
Rex: And frankly, it took me a couple of years to realize, “Gee, somebody other than the employees at Hammock are reading this which is what I intended it to be about.”
Dave: Right. So and that’s–– that’s done–– that’s done wonders for your business, I imagine. I mean the––
Rex: Yeah.
Dave: –– just the content alone, I mean your–– I subscribe to your blog. I love your blog, so.
Rex: Well, thanks, Dave. You’re one of the 12 people.
Dave: (Laughs)
Rex: I’ve always said that and frankly, I’ve–– I’ve written several times that I was lucky that I started it before people knew what blogs were, before I knew what blogs were because I didn’t have a–– and still don’t have a business plan or a marketing plan or even the–– the sort of thought out reason for blogging. But people need to do now. In fact, the way we think when we help our clients do blogs, we do a tremendous amount of research and look for opportunities and have a–– have a very structured plan. Mine was just I didn’t know if it was a personal thing or a professional thing. I had no idea what the content would be about but I just wrote about what interested me.
Dave: Right.
Rex: And my personal life and then professionally, and it turned out that there was an audience for that, and yes, while it was not thought of by me or ever as a–– it has probably more recently but it was never thought as sort of a business thing that I need to be doing. It has led to lots of business opportunities over the year, very significant business opportunities. So I have to say it’s been a great tool for business. It’s just not the kind of tool we do now and for our clients that’s a lot more thought out and strategic.
Dave: Sure. I think what blogging nowada–– I mean, you’re talking about the essence of blogging really as far as doing it for the passion of doing it and just–– and creating content and compelling content without actually just doing it because you love it and enjoy doing it rather than doing it with any sort of strategic marketing initiative (laughs), or any sort of plan specifically.
Rex: Well, I–– I, I think when we’re working with the clients and–– that use it in business, we–– we look for people who are naturally passionate about what they do. In fact, we do a–– some sort of coaching or help on a blog that I’m thinking as a true professional-oriented blog but the CEO loves the topic of his business and he’s an expert. And all we do is help channel that, that path into a forum that’s right for blog. It’s not we don’t–– we don’t write it. We don’t–– we make–– we just sit down with them and help and develop a plan for how to do it, but gee, he’s just as overflowing with ideas.
Now, the CEO is rarely the person who can do that but, but, but there’s usually someone who has a gift for educating or teaching or sharing or taking pictures or whatever it is that––
Dave: Right.
Rex: –– that’s spreads the passion of the company, so.
Dave: That’s cool. And what–– kind of going back to you becoming an entrepreneur and starting Hammock, what like–– at what point in your career early on did you decide to do it alone and kind of do your own thing?
Rex: Um, that’s–– I think there are something to–– well, let me first say this. There–– I believe there’s a difference in being an entrepreneur and being an independent business owner. And it has to do with motivations and what your vision is and what you want to accomplish. I think entrepreneurs in my mind, although I’ve–– I have a big umbrella. I think anybody who wants to be independent is now called an entrepreneur, and that’s fine. But, but I think my goal at the time was more about doing work I had a passion for in a place and in an environment that was specifically designed to do that, to build a team that was–– that had the talent and was focused on this opportunity that I’ve sort of explained about helping build deeper relationships.
Dave: Uhum.
Rex: So what was more about the number one thing I had was a customer or two or three clients who were willing to do that. I had a relationship with a pre-existing business, and this is another important thing I think for entrepreneurs. The research shows that a lot of the most successful businesses, their first client is their former employer.
Dave: Yeah.
Rex: Their employer may want out like downsize but they still want them to provide a service so they become an outsource provider of a service they already understand and a niche they already understand, and then they just grow that. They–– they have a–– so I had a good relationship with the more peer sort of advertising marketing PR firm that I had began doing the types of work that later became Hammock. So, but, but both I and they realize this was a special niche in a different business model from the work I was doing. And so perhaps, in a very amicable way, we–– we separated that and I carved out this little biddy piece of it that wasn’t going to be much of a threat to them anyway. And they didn’t really want to do it, just to be honest, which was something I was passionate about.
Dave: Yeah.
Rex: And that’s how we got started and again, I don’t think we had any grand plans of building a large company and frankly, I–– I, I’ve–– we’ve had to wait, in many times, for our time to come. We have to wait until the market was right for what we are doing. In fact, I looked ahead now and see as being more entrepreneurial than we’ve perhaps have been in the past 20 years because we now have products and services and processes that can be scaled up, that can be–– that I don’t even think I was–– was–– it wasn’t a motivation probably at first.
Dave: And you gave a little advice there. What–– what three things would you–– would you–– what three things would you suggest that every entrepreneur know like before go–– or every–– yeah, every entrepreneur should know. (Laughs) Three tips.
Rex: Well, there’s probably got a hundred things in that list you should do.
Dave: Yeah.
Rex: Maybe the best advice is like don’t (laughs)–– don’t read that list because it will scare the heck out of you.
Dave: (Laughs)
Rex: But I would say that there is a difference in creating a product and creating a business. There are a lot of really cool products that I see people do but I’m–– I mean even like something like Twitter. I think that Twitter was a great product and service, still is. I’m still sort of the jury’s out if it’s going to be, you know, what is the business when you try that many people obviously you can make lots of different businesses. But I think understanding the difference of those between the product you’re doing and what is that business and figuring out, “Okay, how am I going to make money doing this? How am I going to go attract customers? How am I going to attract other people to help me make this vision true?” That’s more about business.
The–– the other thing as I was just saying to understand the difference and what is your end game and again, the words may not matter but are you–– is it independence or entrepreneurship that you’re wanting to focus on? And if those–– if it’s independence but you want–– but your idea is something that depends on entrepreneurial things like attracting finance and attracting talent and scaling to be big and developing partnerships with companies around the country. Then your–– that’s not an independence play (laughs).
Dave: Right.
Rex: You will have more bosses than you’ll ever have working at a company once you start down that path. If however, I mean and there are lot of people, even in this town that are very successful and very–– by having businesses and you can see them win in that field, there’s some models here of some independent artist who have figured that way to have a very lucrative career but still they are not what I would consider in the business of growing gigantic and having record label. People like [Belo Flock-00:13:27] is a great example of someone who has a great independent business but is it–– is he going to one day’s–– it’s built around having a deep relationship with a fan base who support him in many different ways.
And that’s I think the two paths. That’s one or two paths you can take. So understanding the end game and what you need and then sort of how you go into that, and then if I–– if I’m limited to three––
Dave: (Laughs)
Rex: –– then I think that the most important thing to have especially in Nashville, if you’re doing especially something that’s a technology-related startup, you need to have a lot of domain experience, meaning you need to have a lot of experience in the industry that you’re startup is in. And the obvious ones would be healthcare, I guess.
Dave: Right.
Rex: If you–– you can attract or you can convince venture capitalist to invest in you if they believe in your understanding of a need that exists in an industry that you’re going to help solve and the–– the technology is just a means to help solve a very definable–– a very definable problem that exist.
Dave: Right.
Rex: Where you’re going to have more trouble in Nashville is having sort of a pure play cool technology that you’ve got to go convince people who are in other financial centers that, that it makes sense for someone in that field to be doing.
Dave: Right.
Rex: It certainly can be done and it has been done but it’s just a harder–– it’s harder to climb that mountain.
Dave: That’s great. That’s very helpful advice, I’m sure. Well––
Rex: I hope it is. I just––
Dave: No.
Rex: –– waste people’s time. (Laughs)
Dave: No, no, no, it is. It is. It’s great! Hey, Rex, where can people find you online?
Rex: Well, you can find the company at Hammock [dot] com. You can find my blog that you were mentioning at–– it’s easy to remember, RexBlog [dot] com. And you can find me on Twitter at the letter “R”.
Dave: Yes, that’s a great–– that was a great one. (Laughs)
Rex: I, you know, I–– I wish there was a really cool story about it. Well, there is but, but that’s another day and another time.
Dave: (Laughs)
Rex: I will say that if you’ll ask me, I think it’s going to be on my heads on. I can talk to tech people.
Dave: Yeah.
Rex: Nothing I’ve done in my entire life matters. The first question is how did you get that letter, you know?
Dave: (Laughs) I thought people reply to me when I reply to you saying, “Whoa, you know R?” (Laughs)
Rex: (Laughs) It’s so–– I will it mad. It’s like the only thing I do that looks like I’m a rockstar.
Dave: (Laughs) R for Rockstar.
Rex: Yeah. But it–– it’s, it’s just fun. That’s the only thing I can describe it. I think it does give me a little more influence than perhaps just because of the same reason people–– The Wall Street Journal actually did a story a few weeks ago about people with one letter. They left me out but they did––
Dave: Ugh!
Rex: You know that there two couple–– there’s a couple that’s married that by the letter K is married to the letter R, I mean not R, but the letter, or something. It’s kind of––
Dave: Was this a rela––?
Rex: [inaudible-00:16:54] by the way.
Dave: (Laughs) That would be hilarious to have a tweet up with just single letter Twitter accounts.
Rex: It’s funny that there’s a–– there–– a lot of people have created Twitter list.
Dave: Yes.
Rex: Of one letter things. So I’m–– I’m able to follow the other folks.
Dave: What the–– okay, tell us the story. Is it a–– tell us the story. How did [they] be R?
Rex: I–– I wanted–– I wanted the name Rex. I’m a, I’m a–– like you Dave, I am immersed in social media. I can say like you that I have a professional interest in sort of [start] clients that I say that, but there’s a lot of just personal passion and interest that goes way back. And so I’m a chronic looker at “Hey, there’s something new.” I’ll always go sign up for it. So, and then I’ll realize six months later when I see something I’ll go and I can’t sign up for it because I’ve already signed up for it and I forgot.
Dave: (Laughs) Yeah. I’ve been there.
Rex: But I–– like everybody who signed up for Twitter, I didn’t know why I was signing up and I, in the first time I actually saw it in use, I defined what it was by that and then by the time that I actually realize. But I use–– I wanted to do Rex and it wouldn’t allow me and again, we’re talking Day 1 of Twit–– or month 2 or 3 of Twitter.
Dave: Right.
Rex: I signed up for Rex and they wouldn’t allow anything under 4 letters. Well, a few weeks later, I saw an @Rex and so I turned out to be friends with the young guy that, that got that but I–– I direct messaged him and said, “Hey, how did you get the letter Rex? I mean the name Rex and they wouldn’t give it to me.” And he said, “Well, I called them.” (Laughs) You know, this was when Twitter had two employees.
Dave: Right. (Laughs)
Rex: Yeah, then you can call them on the phone or whatever, and. So I–– he said. “But the letter R is still available. Why aren’t you ask for that?” So I literally, when there was only two or three people working, I–– I contacted them and said, “Can you let me have the letter R?” And they saw that I was somebody who use Twitter and they didn’t think one day, we’re going to have 500 million people who want this.
Dave: Right.
Rex: Op–– Rihanna, or somebody who’s going to want it and it’s going to be much more valuable to them and they gave it to me. The trade-off was I was an early active user and helped a lot of people understand that early on, or not understand it. Frankly––
Dave: (Laughs)
Rex: –– it’s no–– it’s still un–– not understand it.
Dave: Very well. We’re all still trying to figure out Twitter (laughs).
Rex: It’s how you use it.
Dave: Yeah.
Rex: It’s how you define it. And there’s–– it can be used in so many different ways.
Dave: Definitely!
Rex: That’s another–– that’s another podcast.
Dave: Okay. Well, folks find, find Rex @R on twitter. That’s your fastest, easiest way or Hammock [dot] com or RexBlog as well. Rex, thank you so much for taking the time with me today.
Rex: Dave, it’s always a pleasure. I like–– I follow you anywhere (laughs).
Dave: Oh, (laughs). Thanks again, man. Have a good day.
Rex: Alright. Thank you!
Dave: Bye!
Please subscribe to Jumpstart podcast in iTunes.
Jumpstart theme song “DLDN Instrumental (ft. Onlymeith, Mellotroniac)” by: St. Paul from ccMixter.
Posted on March 20, 2011
Categories: Blog, Podcast
Tags: @r, Doc Searls, Hammock, Jumpstart podcast, Rex Hammock, Rexblog, smallbusiness.com, Twitter