My Biggest Challenge was My Ego with Fritz Colinet

Welcome to the show, folks. Oh, my goodness Travis is already flipping people off. It’s going to be an interesting show. He’s already in the mood. 

I’m Carol Carpenter, and that is my co-host, Travis Johnson, and we have a special guest on our podcast today. His name is Fritz Colinet, and Chris is the executive at Fritz, Colinet Media’s creative director, has over 25 years of experience as a creative director, designer, and brand builder specializing in strategic communications and providing both offline and online marketing solutions. Welcome Fritz

Hello, how are you guys doing today?

Freaking fantastic. 

Everybody sounds great and looks great. I can’t wait to get started.

Yeah, let’s dig in.

Exciting stuff everyone! Are you at home, Fritz? Because Carol and I are both gallivanting in other places.

I’m currently in the office, so this is how my office is set up.

Your house appears to be set up as a home office. Right? 

Away office from the home

Right now, there’s a lot of construction at the house, so…

Yeah, good call. Someone tried to call me in a crowded coffee shop for something like a zoom. What makes you think I can use this?

That’s right, so they’re like, “Oh.” Yeah, it works well for me in my ears, but they don’t get that they have noise cancellation in their air pods

No, no, yeah. We’re going to start right away by asking you, Fritz, what makes you a Titan.

Yeah, so that’s a great question. 

The first thought that occurs to me is to my mind, this is what makes me different… The challenges that I have had, I look at myself and go, “OK.” You know what that’s just minuscule. I can overcome that in my life. 

Well, growing up, there were challenges, right? And I overcame those challenges. I think everybody else may think something else. I believe that with this, but the “can do” attitude that “can do” attitude involved everyone’s attitudes team or around me. You understand that the challenge is fair. A challenge is not an obstacle.

I like to call those speed bumps just minor speed bumps.

That’s why, no. I’m going to have to use that. 

In life, we always have these challenges, personal challenges, business challenges, and everyday challenges. It’s their job to divert your attention to something else or put a stop to whatever your goal is, you have to dig in and say, “OK, you know what, forget about it; I’m just.” I’m going to go and do what I have to do and a lot of times, fear.

So, Fritz, don’t you think it’s about perspectives too? I mean, if your mindset is like, “Uh, you know, it’s a speed bump, Yeah, I know it sucks, but we’ll get you through it, right?” It’s your perspective. If you treat that challenge as something you can’t overcome. What are you going to do? I mean, at the end of the day, you’re never going to overcome it because that’s what the challenge is going to be the wall that you can’t get past

You’re right, you can’t feed the fear, right? 

Similarly, we all face difficulties or fears, it could be speaking in public, or showcasing your creativity and someone not liking it, or someone you respect telling you that you’ll never get anywhere. 

Oh, God, we’ve all had those moments. 

I mean, you talk to actors where you know the actor was told at some point…. Like, yeah, you stink don’t ever go into acting, and then they become these celebrity superstars, right? 

Don’t listen to people. At the end of the day, you know yourself best. If this is your dream, you are the best judge. If this is your ambition, don’t you believe that it is your duty to at least try, if anything, the greatest part is proving people wrong, right?

I love that!

I tell myself this…. Would I be upset with myself tomorrow that I didn’t do XYZ today? And if the answer is maybe, or yes … maybe is a guess. Right, so I will be upset with myself. Then whatever you must do, you must do it every day.

I tell you to split it up into three categories. It’s 3 segments: 8 hours a day, so get 8 hours of sleeping, 8 hours of working, etc. 8 hours for you. I refer to it as ****, showering, and shaving. And Netflix and everything else, right? 

And you could only take hours from those, so it’s not going to come from work, right? Most people are not going to take from sleeping, or you know your way of life, right? You got to figure that out. Right, so dig in and do what you have to do, and then strategically position yourself for the future.

I love that, Fritz!

When you have that perspective, you’re able to look at the thing and say, “What is it that’s going to have a long-term impact?” What is that thing? Is what happened really what happened? Do I need to attach a motion to that? So, I need to have that wreck my whole day or my whole week. 

I was talking to a friend of mine here in Vegas, and he was talking about like levels of attachment. You know it’s whatever level five attachments your NFL team loses, you know it’s a level one attachment you’re like—you know it’s a thing your kind of interested in. And then you’re like, “you throw a tantrum for like 3 weeks,” like “level 5 attachment,” like that’s part of your identity. If they don’t win, you know that if they lose, it means you’re a loser. If they win, it means you’re a winner, as there are people who will let your very little circumstance dictates who they are as a person and how they treat others, and that’s just no good. Right? 

Exactly, you’re right. 

You have to be able to compartmentalize. You know how they react to certain situations in life, whether it’s to you or someone. How are you going to do that? React to what you’re going to say to that person and, more importantly, how you want the outcome to be. A lot of time times were not thinking about the outcome. 

You know, as a creative and as an artist. I went to Pratt. And I attended high school. Bar and design and One thing that they do not teach Any artists, and if how to talk about their work. How do they pitch their work? How do you talk about their work?

Oh, isn’t that amusing given what you’re doing? Because in a way it’s marketing, and yet they don’t teach you. How do you market yourself? So, isn’t that a slap in the face?

The highest department So I draw, sculpt and paint. So as an artist, a younger artist, and even someone starting the design field Everything that I had to do to get a job was all about my portfolio, so When I went to school to get into high School-boring design was My Portfolio’s first mistake, right?

So, they never really met me. They met my portfolio. So, then my portfolio spoke for me. and I wasn’t. Then there’s Phase 2. Let’s meet the person. behind and creates this work. Right where everyone else is, it’s the other way around. You meet the person. You can see their resume. You meet the individual. It’s kind of hand-in-hand here; you just drop your portfolio off and they tell you to come back next week.

Wow. 

Can you imagine if your interview went that way for any other job? It would be really interesting, wouldn’t it? 

You know it does, right? You drop off your resume and the work that you’ve done, and then they call you in for an interview, it works the same way.

Just to some degree, but you’re talking about artistic work, right? You’re not just talking about a resume of what you know, where you worked, your duties, and your responsibilities. That’s completely different. You’re talking about your creativity, artwork, and personality. You know you put your heart and soul into it, and then you drop it off for others to view, and then they decide whether or not they want to have an interview. With you and that, that’s got to kind of be a strange phenomenon, right?

It’s odd because when you do meet someone, you’re talking about your work. You must always speak about your work. So now you’re explaining to someone what this is, and if someone doesn’t like it …  early in my career, I would create something and show it to a supervisor, and they’ll say, “Well, I don’t like it” So I would never ask why you didn’t like it. They know better than me, right? 

So, you’re not taught to conduct thorough investigations. So, push comes to shove. I just got tired of It as do you know what? Why do you dislike it? OK, this is OK. This is the reason why I did XYZ. This is the reason why I chose this color, psychologically this color means XYZ. See this? I chose this font because it evokes this kind of emotion, right? So now I’m able to tell the story behind why I’m creating it. A lot of creatives don’t do that even today. For young creatives, for example, I will ask them why they used that color. And I’m not interested in hearing it because it was the closest one on the palette. Right? Or because the client doesn’t want to hear that! 

There must be some meaning. When I name companies, it’s really interesting, like, for me, when I name a company, it has to mean something very deep. Like, Iron Dog. For me when I name that company. It was because I was born in the year of the Iron Dog; the year dictated which element I was in, and I was born in the year of the dog. So, when I founded this company, I used, you know, that name. It’s extremely personal. Even the colors were chosen with care; it means something to you

Right, it’s a story, so everyone loves a story, but we humans remember stories now. When I look at the Iron Dog logo, now I have this story in my mind about everything else that you’re talking about right now. Yeah so. That’s it.

It enhances the individual’s and the company’s personality. It shows how much they care that they think down to the minute elements. I believe that for people who care so deeply, everything they do has meaning.

Uh, yeah, I fully agree. Fully onboard. I don’t know if you’re aware, but I enjoy discussing politics. With a lot of people, if they can articulate why they feel the way that they do and it’s not a level 5 or stage 5 clinger, I have an opinion about who they are as people, and I can talk about it. 

Whatever your political stance, I am assuming that everyone else has at least a slightly different take on it based on all our experiences. And if they’re willing to walk me through the story so I can get a little bit of perspective, I may not agree with them, but now I have another little touch point. A little bit of reasoning of why they are the way that they are and how they think the way that they think and it allows me to connect with them so much better. 

And it’s the same thing with art. If you can walk through your reasoning, If you truly understand why you do things the way you do them and can communicate that to someone else, you can do anything. And that’s what’s important. 

You know, even when you’re primarily discussing a company, everyone names it. Everyone has their personal brand Right? So, you and should everyone know what your name means 

OK, so tell me, what does “retina media” mean?

I know Retina Media, so the retinal eye, so we see things differently. So that’s why we called it Retina Media. So, when we’re going to create an advertising campaign or a strategy for positioning, we think differently from everybody else.

Unless you’re Travis, who is wearing sunglasses and doesn’t care, you know he didn’t give a **** and just vanished.

So, there you have that thing. Is the person who just said he had that thing true? I just got to speak at the military influence or college in Vegas, and I had these sweet yellow shades with me everywhere I went, and they became a prompt and part of the story of “Oh, you’ve got to be Travis the podcast guy gotten a picture with his shades” And so, everyone wanted to do this.

Oh my gosh.

I’ve got another friend here. The guy I’m staying with Is using one of those old old-school nick boomboxes from the early 1990s?

No no. 

We dressed up as hip-hop artists. We had the gold chains, which I had to do with the shades on, you know, like the gold louvered shades. We went down to Fremont Street because he has a collection of him, and then we did an impromptu photo shoot on Fremont, just like which got my attention when I was speaking at the conference. It was something different. People are putting on the shades as if it’s part of the show, so it’s probably going to end up as a prop, along with all the other things I’m doing now, especially since it’s yellow, right? 

Fritz knows about color, right? 

Why Yellow?

Yellow is considerably bold, and most people think it just won’t look good on them. So, when they look at it, they ask, “Oh, why is it yellow?” and I say put it on. We take the photo and ask him, “How do you look?” and it always gives him a sense of “being, that’s not too bold for me anymore. That’s something I can wear. That’s something I can pull off. That’s something that I can do” Because yellow sunglasses aren’t something that you see every day. 

Bold statement man. 

Bold color, right? It says to slow down if it’s cautionary, and they also say it looks like it’s some kind of, like,

No, come on, yellow can speed right through.

For you, I bet it does.

There’s still time.

Carol considers both green and yellow lights to be green.

You know, yellow becomes a suggestion that you might want to…

I have a friend who describes it. He gets pulled over like yellow lights are going for him too, and he’ll get pulled over, and depending on what part of the country he is in, that wasn’t even Auburn orange yet; that was still Syracuse…If you make the cop laugh, they let you off with a warning.

Well, if you make Everybody laugh, they will agree with you

If you can make a cop laugh, at the end of the day you have made his day.

Can you imagine what their jobs must be like? I mean all the jerks they have to pull over and deal with.  If you can make a cop laugh, that is. At the end of the, You just made his day; I can’t imagine. What do they have to go through every time they pull some ******* over Make him laugh if possible. If you could make just him chuck a little bit. Can you imagine the highlight of his day?

Fritz, you were doing a 55 and a 35, sorry officer, and I was doing a 75. A 35. I think the hardware is defective. We’re going to have to do this again, let me start…. Let me start back. Let’s look at this correctly.

Oh, that’s great, friends.

Fritz, when did you start to discover this creative side of you, or were you always creative and you just kind of, you know, fell into it? 

I’ve always created, so I’ve always been artistic; I’ve always drawn or painting, so I was an entrepreneur as a child. I think most creative people are entrepreneurs, right? 

My brothers, when we come home from school, go out and play, and I come home because I told myself that I had to draw whatever it was on an 8 ½ by 11 sheet of paper from edge to edge, I had to fill it. 

So, I did that for years. I would always miss out on going out and playing too late. Right, but I always challenge myself, like, “Hey, come home.” This is what you have to do after school.

So, what was your first job?

Oh, well, my first job involved painting jackets for folks in the neighborhood

So, this was your entrepreneurial young self.

That’s exactly how my first nine-to-five job was way later on down the road, I was attempting to make money by painting jackets or painting jeans pants. You know that’s what folks wanted a particular type. of design on their pants, and they want it to be different or their name, so I would do that. You know, when I was younger and early teens, and they’re like, “Oh, you know that.” He’s that kid. could knock it out for you. He does it well. So, because I only practiced on my stuff, I had this reputation for doing it very well at a high level, but I made sure I charged them enough if I messed up…. I could replace the jeans or the jacket.

I’ve not heard of this. I’ve not heard of painting clothes or jackets. And I heard of bedazzling because, you know, sparkly, but I haven’t ever heard of actually painting jeans. Like, what year, what time frame? Was this a big thing?

Okay, in the hip/hop world, you would have your Jean jacket, and you would paint your name or embroider it on your Jean jacket. So, I thought I was pretty good at graffiti. So, I would graffiti their jacket.

For reasons, we won’t get into… I was good at graffiti, yeah.

I was pretty fast too, right? So well, that’s You know it helped me to draw letters and understand the composition of letters and positive and negative space well, right? So, graffiti artists have that talent that you can put letters together that you would not normally put together, especially from a design. 

So, I designed Jean jacket, and some people wanted them; you know whom I am talking about, some people want it to look like New York, the Bronx, or any other city’s skyline or they wanted other characters, right? So, they either wanted Disney characters or they wanted Marvel characters. 

So, I was learning how to draw before, I learned how to draw using classical or traditional drawing techniques from teachers or professors. Do you learn how to draw in all of the Marvel ways I would dare ask You know? One of the Marvel characters or through the whole thing.

But then you get to work, A spin, right? Because if you already have the talent, then you go to school for education, you know, traditional education, you’re just adding another element to it, but you’re almost twisting it to your style because you already have that developed.

And this is one thing that a lot of folks have realized. 

Trainers or teachers, teach you during a certain time frame, right? If you want, You must put in the time to become an expert in your field. You have to put the time in, on your own time. Everyone can get better at their craft if they practice. In your classroom, if everyone is doing the same, and investing the same amount of time, others will follow the crowd. And it’s fine if you are good with following the herd. But if you want to outpace the herd, then you’re going to have to do things on your own.

You’ve got to do the work, man.

Exactly, you’ve got to get your hands dirty, roll it up, and there will be things that you want to do in life, like, “Hey, I want to go over here. I want to go outside and play.” Well, no, but you got to get this done if you want….

What’s your priority at the end of the day? Do you want to outperform everyone else? Because time is the only asset that we have that we can’t get more of. You have a limited amount of time each day and in your life. You can’t squeeze out more time, no matter how you try to do it. So, if you want to improve, you must learn to control it and use it to the best you can.

And all the parts that we all of these components have an expiration date. You recognize yourself u haven’t worn these parts in a long time. These body parts are organs. You’ve got to feed it the right thing. You must move it in the right direction while also providing it with the necessary education. And do what you need to do.  That was what I did when I was younger, my first job… my first real 9 to 5 job was working for a check cashing company.

Fritz the predatory lender, and that’s what I’m talking about, yeah.

All right? 

So, in a nutshell, they cash their checks at check cashing establishments, you know, certainly within our banks.  Right so. 

Oh, I’m thinking payday loans, not checks to cash. So, your loan shark, it’s like, “no.”

No way, no how.

So, you’re like in Houston now, but you were originally from—was it the Bronx?

I grew up in the Bronx. Born and raised in New York, I grew up in the Bronx. Four blocks away from the Bronx Zoo. And I’m going to tell you, playing tag at the Bronx Zoo is fun.

Playing tag in the Bronx Zoo

Yeah, elaborate. 

So, you know your neighborhood kids, right? So, neighborhood kids, we know where all the entrances and exits to any nearby building are, right? Back then, kids played in the streets. Today no kids play in the street. So, when you’re outside, kind of walking around like, “Oh, there’s a hole in that fence right there, where does that hole lead to OK?

Oh, dear God. 

So, it’s like, “Oh, so,” “Oh, so,” you can get in without having to pay anything.

Into an animal enclosure.

No way, no how.

OK, OK. 

You know so.

Are you attempting to replicate Carol’s actions on Safari? Is that what? You’re trying to do

Oh, God. 

I’m not trying to make you think about that.

Yes, I understand. I got up close and personal with the giraffe.

Giraffe, where have you gone? 

South Africa, so when, uh, I was engaged to my soon-to-be husband, now ex-husband, one of the things I wanted to do was go on safari. So, we ended up in South Africa at a private game park named Sabi. And one of the things they do is have a night safari and go on safari.

But the night safari has this. It’s very civilized They ask you what drinks you would like. They have a bar that they take with them. It is amazing, and it was awesome. So, we got to the place where we were going to do what we called the sundowner and watch a sunset and have a cocktail. 

But I’m the only female in the group. And I had to use the restroom. So, I said, “I need to pee, can I go?” and they said, “Oh yeah, just walk over here. “Just make sure that you can hear us. That way if we need to help you, there’s a tracker with a gun, right? 

So, I’m sitting here, and everything’s going great. This is my first thought as I’m, you know, squatting to pee, so I’m peeing, and next thing I know, the guys hold up a spotlight. And I’m like, “This is not funny, dude.” I mean, this is not cool. And I’m like, “What are you guys doing?” and they said, “Look up.” And I look up, and I’m peeing at the foot of a giraffe!

And I’m terrified because I’m thinking he’s going to stomp on me, and they’re like, “Yeah, no worries, don’t worry about him, he won’t bug you.” I have never been that close to a giraffe and it was both terrifying and fascinating at the same time.

You don’t realize how tall they are until you get close to them.

They are giants.

Like when you get close to athletes. Like a man, you’re a lot bigger in person, right? Or if you’re like, a lot smaller in person, yeah?

Yeah, I get that a lot. I get you’re a lot smaller in person, and if you haven’t met any friends yet, I had the opportunity to meet Fritz earlier this year, and he is a tall dude who is bigger in person than I expected, so I appreciate the chance to sit and talk with you. Amazing. He’s just an amazing guy. If you want to learn anything about, branding, and marketing, I mean, you know, pick his brain. He’s awesome. 

Yeah, well, thank you. We had a great time sitting down and talking; it gave us some time to sit down and meet with you and hang out because I don’t think that we’re going to have that time.

But we got lucky. But what happened was that Travis didn’t hear about this… there were a lot of people to meet and spend time with, but

Oh yeah. 

You can’t meet and spend time with every single person. So, Fritz was one of the people I didn’t get to spend much time with, but we ended up going to the airport around the same time. So, we all got into a car and got to the airport early. We spent some time talking. 

My connection was also in Dallas, right? So, we ended up We had a huge amount of time even getting on the plane, and afterward because I had a layover before I could get into Seattle, we had plenty of time to talk. It was awesome.

I think there was almost the same experience we had when I met friends, except that I think he was dodging me the whole first time. 

Oh, no, really.

No, no, no, I never doge. You know, I just observe a lot and wait for things to sink in properly. Right? That is my artistic nature, observe, digest, and then interact.

Observe, digest, and interact. 

For those of you struggling, figure out how to do life. Observe, digest, and interact. That’s got to be pretty helpful. So many people are just primed to react especially for that state stage 5 clinger level as if everything triggers them, and then, as we learn from Mario, they’re just addicted to those chemicals, even if they don’t want to even if they know it’s wrong, they get addicted to the chemicals that they’re getting based on their behavior. 

People who enjoy this type of drama. Oh, I’m not a big fan of drama, and I’m pretty sure you cause a lot of it every single day. If you don’t love drama, you must love the chemical reaction that you’re getting from that being a thing. 

Seeing people like gossip—whatever it is—you become addicted to it, and good luck doing anything else.

Oh, you’re right; that’s why everyone loves car wrecks, right? They love car wrecks and reality television, and they enjoy both because there is a car wreck, right? It’s intriguing due to human nature. We don’t realize that we are more the same than different.

The truth.

When everyone else is trying to be decisive, you just listen, believe me. Everybody wants the same thing.

One of my favorite things about traveling overseas is spending a year in the Middle East, and I didn’t know this, based on the news media coverage, there are families over there. Husbands, wives, and kids doing family stuff. I had no idea.

Everything you see on the news is all hellfire and brimstone, that someone has a nuke, and that there is terrorism, and you go there. And you meet the people, and it turns out they’re just people. They just want to be relatively polite, safe, and secure. They want to have a good job. They want to have good things for their kids and have them better than they do. If you’ve got kids, it’s amazing.

Nobody is any different from the rest of us.

There’s no difference between all of us. We want to get that initial acceptance into the group, and then we want to be praised for our individuality.

No, You’re Right. 

Growing up in the Bronx is difficult for me because being creative.

When I was in high school, you can’t look cool on the train for 45 minutes with a T-square. And you just threw a four-foot portfolio out there, right? So that’s whom you’ve got to go into these neighborhoods with a T-square in my backpack a black portfolio that was 4 feet long. 

I was a little guy. So, I take a look at my son, like I was like his height, right? On the frame, you have this. In addition to the backpack, and this portfolio briefcase, everyone like, why is this kid in the way? It’s like his stuff is in the way.

Yeah, oh man, oh man.

What did that do to you? What was that? What was that feeling? You are a child. You can’t possibly look cool. I think you’ve solved that problem, and then you’re in a Way, what does that do? do to you as a person.

So, if you have to learn how to fight with a T-square on the train, right? So, you must learn to fight #1 correctly or be able to stare at someone in the same way or differently, so precisely like that they’re like “OK, he might use that T squared on me.”

Right, you almost have to be polite. They leave you alone because they think you’re insane.

Exactly, so you don’t like the big victim until you get to a certain area, then after that, you’re familiar with the area. That, like your representative, could go away, right? So, you have your representative outside. All the walls come up.

Even in business, right? And this is the same thing as having a representative who meets the clients and interacts with them, right? I try to Make sure that there’s no representative. I’m certain of it. Is that who you’ll be getting? Whether I’m happy or sad, or whether I’ve got good news for you or bad news, this is how I’m going to tell you, right? 

I’m not going to sugar-coat anything, you’re not going to meet my representative, right? I’m going to observe, digest, and react.

So, Fritz, what would you consider one of the biggest challenges that you’ve overcome? 

And then, what would you consider one of your biggest triumphs?

You know my biggest challenge was my ego.

So, I was at a point where as a creative person, I was quite successful in New York. I was hired by an agency in the Midwest. And I did, you know, all the cool stuff in New York, right? Spend time with the cool people you know I went to all the cool events, and, how do you know, I didn’t have to wait anywhere in the line, you know? So, if I wanted to go to Tao, you know I wouldn’t wait three weeks to get a reservation. I could get in that day

You weren’t in. You were in with the cool crowd

I was egocentric when I went to the Midwest, you know. So, I was hired to bring some cool factors to certain clients they had. 

So, they needed a different look; and I was the one who was going to provide that look. Right? And this is the interesting thing about anytime someone hires you, they say, “I love you; I love you, I love you,” and now they want to change you when they hire you, right? So that’s good. You can’t do that Fritz, you can’t do that. Hold it, but that’s what they want to do; they hired me to do it.

Right? 

I was understanding something in a portion of the work that I just thought, like, “Hey, you know what?” That’s because I’m too cool to do that. Like, why am I doing that stuff? Like, why am I doing this right? Isn’t that how it works? I was doing photo shoots. I was on the road. I was like, “Why am I doing that work?” 

I was irritated. I was kind of in the… It wasn’t Fritz’s Place to be in. 

Was it no longer satisfying for you at that point?

I just didn’t find it satisfying. That is the voice in your head telling me what kind of direction to go in a different direction, since they’re giving you this crap work, then you just do some crap work for them.

Oh wow. 

So, you hired me to do this and now you want me to do this. So, I’ll hand it over to you. This other thing, the way that you’re used to having. It comes right from these creatives. I’ll do it exactly. I like them, and that’s all there is to it. Right? 

How did that happen? How did that work out? for you when you did that.

It did not.

I got the same thing. I got the same nonsense work, right? So, I asked myself, “Why am I doing this crap work? “Well, that’s what you know, I,” I say. I think the answer is that everyone has to go through that.

It’s like you have to pay. Your dues will be collected eventually. You have to pay for it, right?

“Holy cow, you didn’t hire me to pay my dues; I already paid my dues,” I said, and you can’t roll in the places I was rolling and the creative that I was doing or the strategy that I was creating. So, what brings me here to pay my dues?

So, this is where your ego played into that.

Exactly

And the apartment that I was living in, like one whole wall with all of my drawings. So, I just go and draw because I have all these drawings. So, it was like 40 feet of just drawings, right? And I was sitting there with my canvas, probably drinking a glass of wine, and I just said, “You know what? “I know what I’m going to do. I’m going to just flip it. I’m just going to say, everything that I do It’s going to be super sexy from now on. It’s going to be incredible like you’re going to get Fritz on steroids. 

And that’s saying, like, if I’m here, why? I mean, why am I here? The Midwest, here too…

Make a difference.

Make a difference in how people perceive new specific brands and forget about this person who is digging out the work. I’m going to do what they want? That’s on strategy, but the way that I see it should be right, I’ll do exactly what you want. Not a problem, what?

However, you will place your thumbprint and fingerprint. It’ll be yours if you put your name on it.

Exactly so. 

Right? 

I changed my mindset. And I realized I was a lot happier, right? I looked at the work differently. I looked at who, you know, the client was targeting, and I was, you know, jumping into their shoes and understanding the reason why I was working

I began to create all of the advertising and marketing that have that kind of specialness. 

You approach it differently, right?

Yes

When you look at it from that angle, you approach it differently than if you were thinking, “What the **** am I doing here? “What am I doing for this **** job? Why am I doing this marketing for, well, God knows what in the Midwest? When was I doing this cool **** before?

Like I was saying, I’m hanging out with basketball celebrities, right?

You know why that happened, right?

Why did that happen?

You were in acceptance in New York. You had paid your dues, and you went to a whole new market a whole similar industry, but no one knew you. You reverted into obscurity, and I know exactly what that feels like. 

I went into my military career, built up a pretty decent reputation for myself, and got to be known as “the guy.” to get my stuff done, everyone came to me, and I was like, “You know what I want to make a little bit more than when I got commissioned?” Went through flight school, got back, and they’re like No one knows you, bro. You already did those 12 years at 13 years in the military, we can’t tell. We can’t see that in you. We don’t know about that stuff. So, here’s all the crap work again.

Exactly, and then I just, you know, changed my mindset and everything started falling into place, and I did some creative work that, when they presented it to the client, was like, “We like this and we want it,” and it was something small, right? But whatever it was, it was something small, and they were like, “We want everything to look like that.”

Oh wow, isn’t that funny?

We had campaigning we wanted everything to look like it. Right, so that happened once, then it happened again. And then the group’s creative director was like hold the **** This is happening way too often. Let’s get Fritz in the room early so we don’t have to do this twice.

Oh yeah. 

Ha ha ha ha!

Yes, yeah.

And that’s where you and I differ. That’s why I tell everyone to change their mindset. 

There are two people on your shoulder. One is going to tell you one thing in your ear, and the other is going to tell you something else.

You have to drown out the person who is not telling you what will reach your goals. The voice that won’t reach your goals is going to be the loud one. Trust me when I say that person will be loud. Make certain that you drown that person because whatever you tell yourself, you’re always right. Right? 

That’s it. 

Tell yourself that you are always correct.

You’ve got to trust yourself.

Right now. I love that.

You must also have faith in your decisions. Yeah, you know, I think most of us question our choices too much, and that’s where things can get muddled.

We don’t trust our instincts, especially in our society. What about the other? It is what society and cultures believe it is. Just up there, right now, instinct is something that we don’t trust. Right, so we have to…

Why do you think that is?

Ah, maybe just programming, right? So, you’ll have… Let’s say you get on the train, and you get a vibe. And someone else gets on the train, and you know that person just feels like …

Energy, right? The energy you feel

You stay there. 

Or, for example, when you enter an elevator and the door opens, there’s a one-person elevator, and this is me telling my daughter while my wife listens. You go somewhere, the elevator door opens, and there’s somebody in there that you’re not comfortable with, do not get an elevator. I don’t care. Just don’t; that’s all you usually like. Don’t be afraid of offending someone, because your instinct {The vibe you are getting tells you not to be.

It’s all about ********’s safety.

But why are you just like that?

Yeah, I think women, though.

So, if… 

Fritz, don’t you think women are better at instinct because it’s part of our nature? 

I mean, we need to protect our children. I know this as a mom, it was very instinctual for me to read people’s energy in the room because I wanted to make sure my children were safe, and I think that’s part of our nurturing; it gives us this ability to have that intuition.

I would agree with mothers, yes.

Yes, I wholeheartedly concur.

I would say that that’s something that they have to learn, like, “Hey, it’s OK for me to say no, and it’s OK for me to not put myself in a situation because I don’t want to hurt this person’s feelings.” I can hurt that person’s feelings, which I can apologize for later.

Why, for example? Why do you even have to hurt that person’s feelings simply because you chose not to take the elevator? Or do you choose to get off the elevator? It’s not hurting that person, right?

But we were trained to almost feel that way.

Ah no!

We talked about this with Amelia Antonetti. She said it was late 2, or 3 in the morning and the door opened and there were a bunch of dudes in the elevator, and she was just there by herself. She paused because she didn’t want to get in and said, “You know, sometimes it’s OK.” You’re aware, black man. All black men are bad, and she was like No, it was not because you were a black man. It’s because you were men and I’m a single woman. Because they were able to actually articulate the conversation and not just leave it at the initial feeling, right? Because they said what they were feeling, they were able to get past it easily, and I hear that. You know Snoop’s not that bad in person, so it worked out.

He’s not that bad. He’s not that bad.

it’s one of those things. So, you’re in there. In Houston now, you are Haitian, is that right?

I’m half Haitian and half Dominican.

Half Haitian and half Dominican. In New York, that seems like there’s a huge population. The Dominican Republic, Haiti, and much of the Caribbean end up in the New York area. Is it the Same with your job in the middle because you were in Nashville for a while, right?

I know I was in Louisville, KY.

Louisville, yeah, right up the road. What was it like coming from there to being part of the whitest part of the country?

From a friendship standpoint, I had like one of the best times of my life as an adult, right? So, some of my closest friends are from Louisville, KY, right? And you know, we did drink a lot of bourbon.

How did you end up in Kentucky?

So, I was. Recruited, so I was working with that agency on weekends, and they’d fly me in, and I worked on all devices, alcohol, tobacco, firearms, and then healthcare, correct? America’s Heartland.

So, you know it’s interesting because once you’ve figured out how to market between New York and LA, that’s where you make your money. You can keep your cool factor in the cost if you will, but you’re going to make your money in between New York and LA as a brand.

The United States is the number one brand builder on the planet, hands down. Without a doubt, I had a client or a potential client from Mexico. He had 400 chicken places in Mexico, and he was like, “You know, everybody knows us.” I’m OK in Mexico, everybody knows you guys in the States; he’s like, “Oh, in Mexico.”

Right? 

KFC, you know, we’ve killed KFC. You know, all the tourists love our products, and I’m like, “OK, great. I said let me tell you about brands, especially American brands. I said I could go right now in front of your headquarters, and you pick whatever you want. We want to go to Mexico City, fine. Okay, I could tell anyone I wanted to. Anybody who’s walking in the street of 10 American brands would know them all. I’ll even tell you and all the celebrities you created. I said they all knew Levi’s, they all know Apple, right? They are all familiar with Michael Jackson, Michael Jordan, and Mike Tyson. They must all recognize them, right? So, I went down that they are also familiar with Elvis, according to the list I provided. They all like the list of American brands that are globally Coca-Cola and Pepsi Cola both enjoy that we, as Americans, built.

Right? 

I’d like you to give me something so you can leave right now; you can ask me and my staff, or you can go downstairs. So, there’s no bias, ask them about 10 brands that are from your country and throw in some celebrities. I’ll include Salma Hayek. OK, I’ll throw it in Corona, right? So, what you have left is eight.

How’d that go?

They’ve made and brands are similar. Dude, nobody knows. Nobody knows them outside of your country. I think America builds brands. That’s good, as well as luxury brands then you have France and Italy, right? So outside of that, everything is niche. America builds brands hand down.

Oh yeah, yeah. Without a doubt, something like this was the brainchild of the Titan Evolution Podcast and what we wanted it to be and what we wanted it to stand for. These are really valuable conversations with guests like yourself who want to go deep and talk about that stuff. 

We spent a long time deciding what kind of Titans we wanted, and we wanted to make sure Hara and Zeus were the first to appear. Because it matters, right? It does. It’s not about us; it’s not about me. It’s not about Carol; it’s fully focused on you and your experience in your journey. Because people talk to you about branding all day long, right? But if they ever get To find out what the laid-back Fritz enjoys, Caroline, I know, yeah.

So, should I have coffee, hot chocolate, or tea? What should I drink right now? What’s your favorite color, Travis?

My favorite color is green.

Green Carol? 

Green means go; green means money. Green means you’re envious of me.

Green is one of the colors that you and I tend to perceive easily or first. Hence, that’s why we have green as our color.

Green is a prosperous color in Chinese culture.

I was listening to I can’t remember the comedian’s name, but he was like, “We don’t even say happy New Year.” We just say “like.” I hope you make a lot of money. Have good money this year. That’s true; have you heard this?

Are you talking about Asian culture?

Yeah, as far as I understand, I’m a Norwegian from Minnesota.

It’s about prosperity and wealth for the new year. Yes, yes, yes.

So they’re walking around.

You know they don’t wish you a happy New Year

They don’t want to start a new year.

Happy New Year!

They’re like money. You want money—money, money, money—and I hope you’re doing well and that your kids are fine, but they’re like money. I hope you have a great financial year.

It’s I hope to have a prosperous year.

True, but the comedian added his spin to it. The joke is, “Yeah, yeah, yeah.”

I got it.

Yes, everything we do in the new year, including setting up the house for Feng shui and all the stuff we do with colors and specific corners, such as a fortune tree where a Buddha needs to sit. All of these things are extremely important. How do we conduct ourselves for the new year? 

If we want prosperity to enter our homes. We have to make the home a welcoming environment for it too. Come in and stay there because you can have prosperity come into your home, but you can also have that prosperity leave your home. It’s all about keeping the money in.

I know a young lady by the name of prosperity.

Where did she strip at?

Oh, Jesus. Here we go. It just took a nosedive.

Well, I mean, I’ve been in Vegas all week, so the topic of prosperity has come up.

Oh, OK, and how about destiny?

Tiffany, prosperity is destiny, all my favorites without a doubt.

Just make sure you have the right credit card with you

Oh, Jesus. What’s that one movie where God appears? Who was it and were, uh? Was it Jennifer Lopez and the other ladies who, uh, were like? God, do you remember that movie?

It was about 

They were ripping off the guys they liked. They were drugging him and ripping him off and always crazy.

You’ve got to watch your drinks. Everywhere you. go, especially to Vegas.

So true. 

The first person I met when I arrived was a friend who said, “Oh, this is my friend Caitlin.” Right, we’re talking, and she’s like, “Look, you know right away that I have a pretty high roof tolerance if you’re not going to invest at least two roofs in me. “Just don’t even waste your pills.” And I’m like, Oh, my God, I was so glad we met. You were like that. I have a three-roof tolerance. I can’t believe that you know that about yourself. That is good to know that it is valuable information. She’s like. Yeah, don’t waste one of them. 

introduced to a friend of mine because my buddy is just like that. We’d go outside, and he’d have a moment with Jesus, and everyone would say, “Listen. I’m going to get drunk and offend someone. You, you, and you “cause” me to exist. Just think that you guys already do. I’m sorry about the movies right now OK, and I’m going to disappear. So, if it’s no, we’re going to disappear and not come. Back for an hour, he’s not going to freak out. But not in the race. Look for me; he knows. I’m coming back.

I love that. and I love that. I love that we mentioned the drink thing. My son just turned …He’s a freshman in high school, and he’s completely oblivious to women, yet he’s completely oblivious to most of the terrible things out there… like women, and he was going to a party.

Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

I’m right here, Travis. Just a thought. What the **** was that all about?

It’s hilarious, and so is anyone listening, If this is your first show, I’m sorry about that comment. Go listen to the rest of them. I adore women and women’s empowerment. I just haven’t jabbed at Carol. We had last week off, so I haven’t been enjoying jabbing with Carol recently.

That’s true; you, didn’t you? You still need a little tweak for me yet.

No, he went to his first appointment. He’s going to his first party, and I’m like, “Well, I need to sit down and talk to him about that.” You know, drugs, alcohol, sex, all those things. Leaving your drink is like setting your drink down and walking away. It’s a new drink. It’s a new drink, and I told him why. 

If you find yourself in a situation that you don’t want to be in, you’re going to call me, and I’m going to come to get you. I might not be the happiest person. Right, give me a minute to calm down, like there’s going to be an initial reaction like, Oh, right, let me calm down. I love you. I’m on your team if you want to try this stuff I understand, but let’s talk about it beforehand. Don’t just pretend that it doesn’t exist.

It’s not going to happen to you because trust me, it happens to everybody.

Yeah, yeah. 

I know it’s happened to me, and I never thought it would, so it’s a very interesting thing when you have those discussions with your kids. I never felt like I had to, and I didn’t get roofied until, like, later in life.

Were you in Vegas with Matt Russell when he got roofied?

What he got roofied!

Yeah, it was like the whole thing. Yeah, he went to that first course that was in Vegas, and I forget, but I think it was. It might have been Larry Green that was with me; he wasn’t feeling so well and started slurring his words.

Oh my God. 

He was like, “Man, I’m just really tired.” Our guys, you know, people we know got him up to the room, and he didn’t come out until noon the next day. And the only explanation we could think of was that he got roofied.

Yeah, and it’s fast. I mean, when it happens and you start making excuses like, “Ah, maybe I’m really tired, you know? Or I’m stressed out”, and you can’t explain the way you feel because usually you can down two or three drinks. And here you can barely finish one, and you’re all over the place. It’s not even that you’re coherent. It is fighting.

Yeah, and you also have to wash it out. Some of those drinks are at certain places, as you know. You have no idea what they’re putting in it. Right? If that makes sense.

Yes, they do have mixologists. They’re going crazy. You never know. 

I had a strange experience last time. I’m not going to get really into the bizarre situation there was a missing phone. The staff ends up sitting, along it and then we end up finding it and getting it back, but I wanted to talk about bourbon because there was Blantons on the wall and I was like I love Blantons.

This is the strange part, it cost $17.00 per shot. And for those of you listening who don’t know, I paid $85 for a shot of Blanton’s So I was completely surprised… completely surprised that it was so low.

Yeah, that doesn’t sound right.

It doesn’t sound right at all, and the math didn’t even add up.

You know one or two things. Either They entered it incorrectly into the system.

Oh, OK. 

that what’s inside of it is not.

100% yeah. 

Or they’re ripping off the owner of the bar. It’s probably the third option.

Or, yeah, that’s another one, that they’ll buy it and You know they’ll stop, but

Yeah, it was crazy, and as we’re getting ready to wrap the show-up and come to a close here, Fritz, I want to know a couple of things from you.

I want to know, like, what advice you would have for someone out there who’s struggling right now. How can we help them get there through that? And then #2, what is the one place you want people to find? You connect; I connect with you.

So, if anyone is struggling with Challenges or business challenges, don’t be afraid to reach out to someone you know, trust, and respect. Because a lot of times we do not want to reach out, and it’s always good to have a tribe that you can trust and that’s not going to judge you. 

They’re going to see you for who you are, and they honestly want you to win. We have this thing where the ego won’t let you ask for assistance, right? And we should realize that the people around us are our tribe. You know they want us to win, right? 

And you can identify who doesn’t want you to win. That’s easy. Right? You just have to trust someone to be vulnerable enough to say listen, this is what’s going on, and I need some assistance with it.

If someone wants to reach out, they can always go to me, branding and marketing, being found online—you know we help a wide variety of businesses get found online, especially small businesses, right? That’s near and dear to my heart, right? You can also reach me directly at fritz@retnamedia.com Fritz is like Ritz but with an F. 

retnamedia.com

Yeah, I like it. I like it

You also told me last time we spoke that you do this cool thing where you’ll help people get all of their online presences updated as phone numbers change, locations change, or LLCs or DBAs change. Entities exist in the world of the Internet, but no one can find them. They may or may not find one of those old things and not be able to connect with you. That’s something you do too, right?

So, what are we to do? Is our company’s listing in such high demanding so? We correct your online business information across the into there are over 166 business listings, indicating that you can start a business you have this telephone and this address, address and then a year later you change the telephone number email e-mail, and then you have something like a Bing, or They obtain that information. Attorney, they scrape they obtain that information. 

Now they’re pushing Bad information, So, whether it’s YELP or not, I’ve corrected places were customers on Yelp that their phone number is incorrect. 

And we take care of it for you. And it’s just a monthly month we’re fixing three or four at a time, right? So someone who does that manually or on their own will need between 40 and 50 hours. You know, just to get that done. that we do that for you consistently, right? We also assist you in developing your Google business profile. In doing so, Well, and it’s not that expensive either, so

He’s lying, which is extremely costly. All of his *** is of high quality and appears to be inexpensive. It’s only about 10 GS per week. We’ll get you hooked up.

No, it’s not. It is 397 

Oh, that’s like, super reasonable. Well, hey, Fritz! Thank you so much for being our guest today. Tell your brother Stalin that I loved him when he was playing for the Vikings in the late 90s. had a great job at Carroll. anything you would like to add.

No, Fritz is the best. I love the dude. He’s the real deal. I’ve had the opportunity to speak to him, and he speaks from the heart. He does things from the heart. I love the guy.

Thank you for your time, guys. Thank you for having me on. You know, I can’t. Wait for this. This is going to be incredible when it airs. You two are just Titans in the industry and heroes. So, thank you again.

Thanks so much, brother.