During this week’s episode of the Oakley Podcast, host Jeremy Kellett is joined by Adam Vazquez of Heard Media. The Heard team helped to get the Oakley podcast off the ground and Jeremy and Adam talk about podcasting, the expansion of social media, and more.
Key topics in today’s conversation include:
- Oakley Update: Trailers are coming! (3:11)
- How the Oakley podcast got started (5:24)
- Expanding the audience through YouTube (14:43)
- Drivers at Oakley who tell their story through videos on YouTube (17:41)
- Shorts vs. Long-Form Content (21:03)
- Final thoughts and takeaways (26:17)
Oakley Trucking is a family-owned and operated trucking company headquartered in North Little Rock, Arkansas. For more information, check out our show website: podcast.bruceoakley.com.
Transcription
Adam Vazquez 00:13
There’s just a huge amount of opportunity for even drivers. You guys have learned this in leveraging people to build a brand through YouTube through social media. And there’s just a million different ways you can monetize that. I think a lot of drivers would be interested to hear about this.
Jeremy Kellett 00:30
Welcome to the Oakley podcast, trucking, business and family. This show is brought to you by Oakley trucking headquartered in North Little Rock, Arkansas. The purpose of this podcast is to communicate with Oakley owner operators and their families by giving them up to date information concerning Oakley trucking and the trucking industry. From business advice to safety updates to success stories, also to give an insight to outside truck drivers that might be interested in joining the Oakley family. Hi, there’s Jeremy kellett director recruiting here at Oakley trucking. I’m your host for this podcast. This is episode 134 and on today’s episode, I’m gonna sit down with Mr. Adam Vazquez and we’re gonna sit down with Derek when he runs off the left but they’re with Heard Media. And they’re a company that we do business with that actually started the podcast, I reached out to him and I helped start this podcast. So we’re gonna visit with him a little bit about actually about our relationship but also about the podcast world, the YouTube world that goes on out there that a lot of you know about, of course if you’re watching this so it’s amazing how it’s taken off in the last couple of years and we’re just going to talk a little bit about that. So we’ll do that for sure. But first, let’s give you an Oakley update sponsored by Arrow Truck Sales. Let’s listen to one of Oakley he’s owner operator experience with Arrow Truck Sales
Commercial 01:52
called Kenworth offer for 40 called Peterbilt. Call Freightliner. None of them wanted to work with me. So, Jeremy kellett got me and got me over to Trey. Trey visor, me and him had a conversation. He’d sent me to Keith Wilson and never looked back from that point. I was upside down 29,000 and change. They paid off all but $5,000 of my loans on a blown trust. That right there said a lot to me. You know they’re willing to step outside of their comfort zone to get my deal done. I’ve never felt like a customer. Yeah, it was more like a family feeling. He took care of every aspect of the deal. He was completely transparent. There was no hidden, no hidden nothing.
Jeremy Kellett 03:00
So if you’re in the market for a used truck, you owe it to yourself to call Keith Wilson at Arrow Truck Sales in Springfield, Missouri. Tell him you heard it on the Oakley podcast. So here’s the Oakley update a lot of you will be interested in because I get asked this all the time about trailers. We’re getting trailers coming in when we don’t get some new trailers. What’s the plan? You know, we sail in any? Well, so we have got new trailers coming. And we’ve got 60 of them coming, which is great, you know. And they’re going to be here’s the breakdown first because they’re going to be coming in stages after the first of the year. But we’ve got 20 Hopper bottoms coming. We’ve got a witch Oh, no, I’m saying Hopper bottoms growing trailers 20 Brand new, those come in. And they’re tempis. Then we’ve got 20 Regular, I call them square end up drivers that you pull them, we got 20 of those coming, they’re all spread axle. And they’re all Mac trailers. And then we got 20 half rounds. And you know, for y’all don’t half rounds, kind of common term we use around here, but some of you might not know what I call what we’re talking about when we say a half round driver is like a tub trailer. You know, it’s not a square bottom. It’s a tub trailer. So we got 20 of those to come in. And they’re actually spread axles too. So I got some new equipment on the way and I know that’s exciting for everybody. Because, you know, for years, we’ve always tried to keep new equipment coming and get the old equipment out. So that’s what we’re doing here. So hopefully, you know, first of the year. I hadn’t looked at the schedule really well. But you know, Toby gives me this information to go off of but you know, January, February, March. Those times will be coming in so good news on the trailers. Okay, let’s visit with Mr. Adam for a little bit and talk about Heard Media you want to get in what’s going on what’s going on? You know, we had So for the listeners out there, Adam and Derek came and visited us last night and got here yesterday from Carolina. Yep. fed us real good last night at those eat places in Little Rock, Arkansas. Famous point. So you gotta go, you gotta go. Everybody gotta go, we got these huge Porterhouse steaks that were fantastic. So I had a good time but, and now I’ve been here, you know, all morning talking, we’ve been talking about the business and your business, and how you help us and help the has helped us a lot. I can remember having the crazy idea that, hey, let’s start a podcast. And
Adam Vazquez 05:44
I know you’re asking the questions, but what made you think that?
Jeremy Kellett 05:48
You know, I don’t, I don’t even know. I kept hearing it on the radio, I heard people advertising their podcasts, you know, so go to the podcast, go to our podcast, listen to this podcast on like, what the heck’s pocket? What are we? What is that everybody’s going to, you know, do a little research on what it is and, and I instantly think that’s a great tool to communicate to truck drivers, because they’re driving all day, and I can listen to a podcast. Yep. You know, and so I told Cory, that, and he’s, that’s, I don’t know about that. So I don’t know how to do it. And so you know, we start searching trying to figure out how to do this. And luckily, I came across your information. Yep. of hard media. And I just reached out to you. And, and it was, you know, we talked a little bit. And then the best part is you came over and visited and you helped coach us and figure out what the best way to do. Yeah, that’s great. Yeah. So what hard does Adam do for us as we record podcasts, and then we actually send it to them through Google Drive, and you guys edit it and make it cut out all the stuff, make it pristine for us, and make it look good intro outro? Well,
Adam Vazquez 07:12
yeah, you guys make it easy. But I have to say thank you for having me, because I’ve listened to probably 100 of these. And it’s cool to be sitting here and sitting in this new beautiful building that you guys have last time I visited you guys, you’re over in the older spot.
Jeremy Kellett 07:28
I mean, we did get it. I can’t believe it. We started the first few podcasts. I remember out of that handling mall door. Oh, and that office
Adam Vazquez 07:38
is a loyal audience of people who have stuck.
Jeremy Kellett 07:41
Yeah, of course, I guess then, you know, we weren’t coordinating. So they couldn’t see it. Right. Right. I don’t know what we did. Through the video video. We’re not Yeah, I think we did. Maybe I can’t remember how I donated. But anyway, it’s just for everybody out there to know. I mean, hard media has been a great contribution to the podcast and getting stuff out there for us. It’s helped a lot. And how did you guys’ business get started? You know, kind of give us a brief overview of Adam?
Adam Vazquez 08:12
Yeah, well, I mean, it’s a really cool subject, especially for all the drivers listening, because there’s just a huge amount of opportunity for even drivers, you guys have learned. So leveraging people to build a brand through YouTube through social media. And there’s just a million different ways you can monetize that. I think a lot of drivers would be interested to hear about that. So sure, we’ll talk about some of those things. But the way that we got started was just I was I came out of the ad agency industry working for a bunch of New York based advertising agencies, and my business partner, Derek who fled before we could start recording. He had started a company called strap fire, and was building websites, essentially, for local businesses, and we got connected and met up together. I thought if we combined forces, we could help, you know, expand it from just being a company that built websites to being a more robust Agency, and the way that we quit my job, you know, started, became his partner. And the way we started getting clients was we started a podcast and just started trying to reach out to people who we thought we might need a podcast or might be interested in our other services. And long story short, podcasts kind of blew up a little bit like people know, you know, when you start creating content regularly, it gets out there the word gets around, thankfully, and we started having people come to us and say will you help us do that? And thankfully, we said yes, I figured it out from there.
Jeremy Kellett 09:45
Good. I mean, now your business seems to be booming and doing a lot better.
Adam Vazquez 09:52
Yeah, I mean, we’ve launched and or our producing over 30 shows. We do a bunch of that we have a bunch of Have other video and ad type clients now and will turn six in the spring so at least
Jeremy Kellett 10:07
Are you still doing or is it one that you were doing a Philadelphia Eagle player at one point?
Adam Vazquez 10:13
Yeah Torrey Smith actually. Yeah, Torrey Smith played for the Eagles and for the Ravens and the 49ers. I only care about his tenure with the Eagles but I’m biased. I’m from Philadelphia and I actually sold him if you remember from your old office, because he called me.
Jeremy Kellett 10:31
I remember him calling you while you were here visiting us. Yeah, you were kind of excited.
Adam Vazquez 10:36
But I was thinking I felt bad even taking the call. But I was like I said, it’s Torrey Smith you so yeah, that was cool that we launched that for him. It’s called trending thoughts with Torrey Smith. Now for some reasons. Tory’s listening, he knows he needs to be a little bit more consistent and needs to take the Jeremy kellett playbook of being consistent when it comes I guess Yeah, creating episodes. But that’s been awesome. Just to be a part of that.
Jeremy Kellett 10:58
I bet it is. But it is. You know that? I know you haven’t. You had a little bit of transportation you drove off into and you had a couple of clients. It was doing something of a supply chain supply chain. Yeah, stuff. But I think this was your first I guess, introduction of what trucking is, you know, to get down in the trenches with trucking and as well we do here at Oakley. So what’s your first impression of the trucking world two years ago? Through these two years? Yeah,
Adam Vazquez 11:30
I mean, it’s been. It’s weird. Derek and I talk about trucking, then the types of people who are in trucking. And then we do advertising like we were just having a conversation downstairs with Ken. He was making fun of his shoes for Myles because he doesn’t wear the right cowboy boots, you know. And I tend to be more. I came up in the industry of more being with maybe what Myles was used to write, not as rugged, not quite as outdoors, all those sorts of things. But for us, people who work in trucking are just our people. We’ve just really connected well, I mean, it’s like our relationship we’ve been able to, we share a lot of the same values of family and loyalty, those sorts of things. And so a lot of times we feel a little bit out of place in our industry, just because it’s a little bit different. It’s a lot more transactional. And coming into working with a company like Oakley and the way that you are and really the biggest eye opener for us was I got to go to Matt’s with you. Yes. In a year in Carleton, Louisville. Yep, Carlton. We met you guys there. And it was just so cool to see first of all that, that’s just a crazy sight that’s a little bit overwhelming. And take it all away. No, it was wild. But you know, the consistent feedback. And I think I told you this last night at dinner, we’re even trying to poke at people. Everyone’s mom likes it. You really, really like Jeremy is not here, you know, you know? How do you really like working at Oakley, and the consistent thing is you know, that they take care of us. They pay us the best. They’re loyal to us. Those were just over and over again. And so anyway, it’s just been cool to be connected with a company like yours. Yeah,
Jeremy Kellett 13:10
Yeah, because there are a lot of people out there that, I mean, you think about it don’t know about the inside of trucking. And what goes on with trucking, and they just know that they’re in their way. Sorry. Oh, are they gonna throw one range Brian and McCain see if they’re taking up too much. I mean, that’s what the majority of people think when you talk about trucking, but when you get inside of it, and you get to meet the people that are involved in trucking and even get to meet the owner operators and truck drivers that do it every day. I mean, they’re people just like us. Yeah, I mean, it’s not, you know, they’re making a living and doing a heck of a job doing and trying to navigate out there. But it’s a new world for people out there. This never, you know, never been into it.
Adam Vazquez 13:55
Yeah, it was awesome to see. And it was awesome to see the commitment that those people had to their career to their lifestyle, you know, and Oh, yeah. All those guys
Jeremy Kellett 14:04
are in the prod Polish show. Yeah, that was a clean truck. McCormick’s? You saw you met them? Yep. At the truck show and how proud they are? Absolutely. A year and a bit ago, there you know, their equipment. And I mean, there’s a lot of pride that takes place. Yeah, truck driver in the trucking industry for sure.
Adam Vazquez 14:21
And rightfully so, I mean, you all who are listening are the ones who are moving everything that we use and do everyday. us on this side of the things we’re just hitting some Qlik keys on a keyboard, you know, so it was cool to see actual real value being delivered by his phone. So
Jeremy Kellett 14:37
what, speaking of clicks on a keyboard, I mean, this when we started we were just audio, you guys and then we got it we decided hey, we need to be on YouTube. YouTube is a great source now to get your brand out there. It’s right. I can get your product out there and whatever you do, it’s turned into a great recruiting tool. So I can simplify YouTube down in terms that we can understand that a lot of people don’t understand.
Adam Vazquez 15:09
Yeah, it’s it actually, they’ve done the job for us in that. Everybody’s familiar with Google. Google is the biggest search engine in the world. YouTube is the second biggest search engine in the world. And Google bought YouTube. So it’s Google with videos, you know, anything you search any product you want any interest you have, instead of getting a normal Google result, when you do it, you get a video explaining the thing to you. And obviously, we’re just humans. We’re visual people, we’re, we’re interested in learning that way. And so that’s why it’s such a huge opportunity for YouTube, specifically. For us, I think a lot of truck drivers that you know, your lifestyle, and the occupation that you all do is so unique to most people. You have so many adventures and different stories and crazy stuff. So it inherently is a visual job, what you’re doing throughout the course of adventures and loads to different places.
Jeremy Kellett 16:05
I think that helped us take the next step to reach more people and for sure is going to YouTube doing the video part and saying, “How can we do this and make it better? Yeah, that and it’s crazy, I guess, because I mean, I guess your goal, when you get on YouTube, your goal is to have a lot of people watch your videos. Yeah. Um, yeah, for sure. Ultimate goal, because I guess eventually, you get enough, you can start getting paid by God, yeah, to get it. But I guess it’s gotta be pretty much an elite group. But yeah, in
Adam Vazquez 16:42
between those two, there’s, you know, literally millions of creators who are running businesses, just like Oakley, where they’re building, you know, good, sustainable, loyal audiences and are able to either recruit like you guys are doing or sell a product or build partnerships or whatever. And so, you know, you don’t have to have a million subscribers for YouTube to be an effective tool. You just really have to be a consistent creator.
Jeremy Kellett 17:08
Now, that’s a good point. I think about that. Some, because, you know, you start doing it every week, something new then people start looking forward to That’s right. And it’s taken off for me with the help of you guys has done great for us to be able to do stuff that we couldn’t do. We had no idea yet. But you know, we’re not able to do what you do. Yeah. And editing and putting out on all these other platforms, too.
Adam Vazquez 17:35
Yeah. And it’s Who are we just looking at the YouTuber that was in here?
Jeremy Kellett 17:39
And Jimmy Evans? Oh, no. Yeah, Jimmy’s Road Life. Jimmy Jimmy’s really incredible story right there.
Adam Vazquez 17:43
Just started it not too long ago and already has 600 700 followers, something like that. Getting, you know, a lot of people thinking about the thing I always say is, when you’re thinking about it, if you had to go stand up in front of a room of 700 people, that’s an intimidating route. You know, that’s a good size. And if you would want to make sure you have something important to say, you know, he’s getting 700 People watching his videos every time. And it’s just you don’t think of it that way, when you’re making it or anything like that you think it adds only 600 or 200, or whatever, but even 100. That’s a movie theater that you fill with people to listen to what you have to say. So it’s a pretty it’s a pretty powerful tool.
Jeremy Kellett 18:24
It is. Yeah, I didn’t think about it like that. I guess it’s standing out in front of that many people when you wouldn’t love that. There wouldn’t be as easy as Yes, I was standing in front of you having a conversation right about the podcasting. And you do and all that. I mean, it’s pretty, a whole lot easier. Yeah. So it’s powerful. We’ve got some, you know, we’ve we started a little bit with Jimmy’s row life, we encouraged him to start YouTube video, which he wanted to, also and that’s turned into a great thing of having some influencers to help your brand and your company, which, you know, we’ve got him and we’ve got Tanner sighs Rob Holly. And now we just acquired another guy that least on with us that had already had a huge following. Paperboy Drugger. I mean, that right there is gonna, that helps get the word out about you know Oakley to everybody. Because I guess our listeners might be thinking, Well, why don’t you want to do all this? Well, because as I tell you, there’s three and a half million truck drivers out here and I want them all to be listening to this podcast. Because when you get something that’s as good as this place you want to, you want to offer it to everybody. And this is a great platform for YouTube to be able to do that because everybody can go to YouTube. You know, most everybody if they know, you know they have that option of going so you want to be out there on that platform and getting recognized because we talked to so many people every day is never Out of Oakley trucking never heard of Bruce Oakley. They don’t know what it is. And, you know, we don’t think about getting in here. And here, we think everybody knows this. Right? But they don’t. I mean, it’s, it’s something that you continually want to push to get out there. And the YouTube channel has been and this podcast has been great to be able to do that.
Adam Vazquez 20:19
Yeah, and it’s the same with watches. For the purposes of the drivers who are listening like those, you mentioned, those four or five people who are investing in their own brand and building that out and talking about Oakley along the way, but they are for however long they decide to have that they are going to have an kind of invaluable asset of an audience of people who are building relationship with them, and who are listening to them. And that’s valuable for tons of different things for finding new work, for selling products, for having sponsors like you, it’s its own business, you know, and meanwhile, they’re just showing how they’re going about their day. So it’s pretty cool.
Jeremy Kellett 20:58
What’s the next 10 years gonna bring?
Adam Vazquez 21:01
I mean, if I knew I’d probably be a little bigger. I think though, you know, your content, you’re continuing to see the content condense. Now you’re seeing people spend endless hours on TikTok, you’re seeing you to emphasize shorts, we’re talking about that earlier. If you haven’t checked out Oakleys shorts, when you go to their YouTube, there’s a little tab at the top, those videos are 60 seconds or less. And people are getting so good at putting an incredible hour’s worth of value into 60 seconds, right? Our attention span is getting worse and worse, unfortunately, and the technology is getting better and better. And so I think there’s going to be you know, all of those platforms are really pushing those quick, short hits. I think that’s gonna continue for a while. But I think alongside of that, there’s going to be a lot of desire for people who do really good, really long form content, because there’s a desire for something real, not just, you know, but like, the way we talk about it is those little tic TOCs, and YouTube shorts, everything you have to do, because the platform’s are pushing them so hard, but they’re kind of like candy, they just give you a quick hit of some people still want meat, people still want something that they can really think about and is helping them progress as a human, you know, in their life. And so that’s why you see Joe Rogan doing three hour podcasts or other people doing really long form, because I think that trends will come back where people want that longer, or media relationships as well. Yeah,
Jeremy Kellett 22:31
yeah, I think you’re out there. How can you know, we talked about this earlier about getting reviews? Yeah, we’re making ours take off a little bit better. And you’re talking about getting reviews really helps for whatever reason, I guess that’s the algorithm Yeah, with YouTube. But getting comments, and getting likes and doing reviews. I mean, that’s something that sounds I guess important, but really don’t know a lot of people don’t know how to do it.
Adam Vazquez 22:59
Yeah. Well, listen, if you’re listening to this, you like Jeremy, you like to listen to him every week, you got to leave a review, at least you can do, you got to give a little review. But what everything has turned into on the internet is everything now is a social media platform, essentially, right? There used to be that, like, you had social media. And then over here, you had the news. And over here, everything is social media. Now, what that means is the way that it works, you know, the way that all of these platforms signal, whether they should show more people content or not, is based on the engagement that content gets. So if you have people coming, and if you’re listening to this right now, and you know, you like the Oakley podcast, and you are like, I don’t want to give it a review. Even though it takes three seconds, you’re limiting how many people can hear the Oakley podcast, and a long tail sense. Because the internet takes that as a signal as Oh, you know, 100 people like this, we should show it to another 100 people, where if you just listen, and you think of it for your own, you know, you enjoy it, but you just kind of keep to yourself. Unfortunately, that actually does kind of limit the amount of people that can ultimately see it. So yeah, engagement is huge, especially on all of these new media sites.
Jeremy Kellett 24:08
So and I mean, it’s simple, you click on comment, right? Yeah,
Adam Vazquez 24:12
That’s right. Comments, or if you’re listening on Apple podcasts, or Spotify or Google Play, whatever, just pull it up. And there’s five stars right there, always hit five stars, don’t mess around. But yeah, that’s
Jeremy Kellett 24:22
right. It’s the same reviews. That’s right. Yeah. Yeah. Well, you know, it’s, it’s, you know, this is more a little bit of a breakdown, I think, to explain to our listeners of, of what’s going on in the world of technology with you to social media. I mean, it just continually takes off in different directions. And I don’t know what 10 years from now is gonna bring, I don’t know you’re gonna still be doing a podcast if they’ll even be putting out podcasts for 10 years. I don’t know. I don’t know. But you never know. But I appreciate you keeping us on the cutting edge. You: So what’s next? Because
Adam Vazquez 25:01
Well, that’s not really up to us. That’s, you know, we, I tell you this all the time, and I’m not blowing smoke. It’s rare to have someone who is as engaged and as committed as you all are to providing this type of content for your drivers, and it shows the commitment you have to them, because so many people won’t want to do it, or start to do it. But over 70% of podcasts don’t make it through Episode Five, they just give up. What episode are you at?
Jeremy Kellett 25:27
134.
Adam Vazquez 25:30
So, I mean, that is a commitment to your drivers to be in there and showing up for them each week and providing that value for them. So,
Jeremy Kellett 25:38
and I didn’t realize, you know, until I got into this that some people have seasons, as right. So I guess you do season one and you have so many podcasts. And then I guess that’s so they can stop and take a break.
Adam Vazquez 25:51
Yeah. Yeah, that’s typically that’s more for scripted things, or Ohga, or things that have a definite sort of finite storyline to it. So it starts here and it ends here. And then we research or write more and then do another season. But yeah, seasons are a great way to bake in some rest, but we just can’t. You can’t put it out. You can’t hit three and a half million drivers if you’re arrested.
Jeremy Kellett 26:15
And that’s our go. That’s right. We gotta get it out there and get it to everybody who’s driving a truck they see who wants to listen to those podcasts. I mean, what else are you gonna do? You’re driving great content, right. Man good stuff, Adam. I appreciate you guys coming and visiting coming on away from yeah, thanks for having me. And stay and spend the day here with us and getting to know us. That means a whole lot for us doing business together. And to be able to continue to do that and keep us informed on you know what’s going on in that Google YouTube podcast world that you do in helping loosen Hilbert miles with some stuff, and it’s gonna just all get better and keep going from here.
Adam Vazquez 26:55
Love it. Thanks for doing it with us. And everybody better. Subscribe.
Jeremy Kellett 26:58
Subscribe and comment. That’s right. If you do not know how to do that. You’ve got to figure it out.
Adam Vazquez 27:04
If you don’t, if you don’t have something to comment on, it is a little nugget for you. Miles has never seen a smoking bandit, right? That’s right. So maybe a drug or this is one really good too.
Jeremy Kellett 27:14
I think we might have already said this. He’s never seen Christmas Vacation. I mean, how do you not I don’t know who the Griswolds are?
Adam Vazquez 27:22
I don’t know, somebody get in their comments and encourage him.
Jeremy Kellett 27:25
We’re gonna have to, I’m gonna make him watch it and then at the office, so I know it’s been worth while he’s so miles done. We tried to cut this out. Good stuff, Adam. I appreciate it. Derek to Derek. If you listen to this episode, appreciate you coming over. It’s really good to meet you too. And enjoy what you guys do for us and, and you’re well known. Yeah. Thanks, Jeremy. All right, man. Thanks for listening to the Oakley podcast. I appreciate you guys every week and what you do to help make this podcast get out there to our listeners. And I hope it helps you. You know, if you’re just driving down the road during the week and listening to it, I hope it gives you some reassurance of, hey, we’re here for you. It’s a good communication tool that we use to get to our owner-operators and their families. And a lot of you told me that you watch it when you get home. Some of you just listened to the audio going down the road. And that feedback helps us a lot. It sure does. And I’m just you know, you’re the reason why we do this thing. So keep up the good work. We appreciate you listening. We’ll talk to you next week. Thanks for listening to this episode with Oakley podcast, trucking, business and family. If you enjoyed this episode, be sure to rate or review the show in the podcast platform of your choice and share it with a friend. We love hearing from our audience. So if you’ve got a question, comment or just want to say hello, head over to our website, the Oakley podcast.com and click the leave a comment button. We’ll get you a response soon and may even share some of the best ones here on the show. We’ll be back with a fresh episode very soon. Thanks for listening.