Podcasts about John Wren

After dominating news headlines throughout December, and likely well into 2025, it is all still possible for the Omnicom-IPG merger to fall through, repeating history from 2013 when Omnicom failed to merge with Publicis Groupe.Campaign's editor-in-chief Gideon Spanier sat down in a global exclusive interview with John Wren, CEO of Omnicom, and Philippe Krakowsky, CEO of IPG, after they announced the all-stock deal on 9 December to create the world's biggest agency group. Since then, the share price of Omnicom declined 15%.In this episode, Spanier is joined by editor Maisie McCabe and media editor Beau Jackson to ask the $31bn question: will the merger really happen?Hosted by tech editor Lucy Shelley, the team discuss the regulatory obstacles the holdcos need to hurdle, a shrink in share prices, and the potential for divergent performance of Omnicom and IPG in 2025. Is the merger an attempt to "fight scale with scale", says Spanier, to compete with the power of tech companies. The team asks where it leaves R/GA and Huge after being held for sale last year and any signs that adland might see a repeat of the attempted Publicis merger.Further reading:The $31bn Omnicom-IPG deal has industrial logic but also many caveatsOmnicom-IPG merger: how the holdcos stack up in the UKInterpublic sells digital experiences agency Huge'The industry doesn't need another behemoth': Stagwell CEO on Omnicom-IPGPublicis Groupe CEO Arthur Sadoun says Omnicom-IPG deal is 'real opportunity'Omnicom and IPG 'huddling together as cold winds blow': Martin SorrellEverything we know so far about the Omnicom-IPG mega mergerComing up in the Campaign calendar:Media Week Live, 29 January Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In a Campaign feature on hybrid working, Thom Binding, co-founder of the Creative Communications Workers union, said culture is “a manipulative term defined by management”, often to enforce compliance, rather than genuinely foster a positive work environment.In this episode, the Campaign editorial team talk through the culture conundrum, with examples of manipulative culture as well as supportive, and why bad practices still exist. Hosted by tech editor Lucy Shelley, the studio welcomes features editor Matt Barker, media editor Beau Jackson and deputy editor Gemma Charles. The team discuss how culture impacts creativity, what the new generation want and what agency leaders can do to improve.Further reading:One in six agencies increased number of office days in 2023Is hybrid working killing creativity?Publicis makes in-office attendance mandatory on Mondays and eliminates consecutive remote work daysOmnicom's John Wren on the future of work, the business and succession plans Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

John Wren always wins cause John Wren never loses. Wash ya hair. CHECK OUT HORROR FLICKS AND GUITAR PICKS Podcast on instagram @horrorflicksandguitarpickspod, and https://www.patreon.com/Horrorflicksguitarpicks HOMEWORK ASSIGNED: Alex: Defense Wound - Hymns of War The Verve - A Storm in Heaven Wren: Wormed - Omegon Whores - War Dennis Stand Up on the Spot - Ep.49 Moisturizer - Dumb and Burnt Out Already Tommy: Chip Chantry - Move Closer Ill Breed - Sorrow Soothes

Jonathan Nelson, CEO of Omnicom Digital, works with clients at the world's largest organizations to shape the future of marketing. He's spent his career picking the winners: deciding which technologies to invest in to help his company get an edge in the increasingly competitive marketing landscape. In the AI space, he's partly doing that by not putting all his eggs in one basket; instead, his company has partnered with major players like OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, and more. He explains why you need to be all in - but also be able to pull out as things shift in the weeks and months ahead. For Further Reading:Learn more about JonathanJonathan Nelson, CEO, Omnicom Digital converses with Neeta Nair of IMPACTInside the Omnicom-Flywheel merger with John Wren, Jonathan Nelson & Duncan Painter Listen on your favorite podcast app: https://pod.link/1715735755

On this week's Tiny Terror minisode, my monthly co-host John Wren takes over the show to give us his spoiler filled thoughts on the recently released Immaculate starring Sydney Sweeney! Immaculate is now playing only in Theaters! To Support the Podcast : https://www.patreon.com/Horrorflicksguitarpicks

On this special movie driven episode, we are taking 5 beloved movie franchises and giving our REAL thoughts about them... as well as 5 underrated/box office FLOPS that we love dearly. https://patreon.com/irrandill/ HOMEWORK ASSIGNED: Matt: Paw - Dragline M:40 - Arvsynd Wren: Scalp - Black Tar The Hirs Collective - We're Still Here Dennis: Horsehead Nebula - Worship at the Altar of Diablo Creepout - Svvines and Heretics Tommy: Lewis Black - Tragically, I Need You Cocteau Twins - Four Calendar-Cafe

This week's guest: Emad Hasan Emad Hasan is one of the most respected thinkers when it comes to AI and marketing. He is the founder of the AI Whiteboard newsletter and the Co-founder of Retina AI. Retina AI was one of the first companies to use Machine Learning to do predictive customer lifetime value (CLV), working with customers including Nestle, Capital One, Madison Reed, Backcountry.com, Brickell, and many others. Prior to founding Retina and AI Whiteboard, Emad was the Head of Business Marketing Operations & Analytics at Facebook and has also held roles at PayPal, Booz Allen Hamilton, and Boeing.   You can find Emad on Twitter @emadtastic and LinkedIn Check out Emad's newsletter AI Whiteboard: https://www.ehasan.com/   News Roundup: Twitter partners with adtech firm Inmobi to test outsources monetization: https://digiday.com/marketing/with-advertising-in-flux-twitter-is-outsourcing-ad-monetization-to-ad-tech/ GoPuff launches its first non-endemic ads: https://www.modernretail.co/marketing/gopuff-adds-non-endemic-advertising-capabilities/ The Trade Desk takes aim at walled gardens with new campaign: https://www.marketing-interactive.com/tech-firm-the-trade-desk-launches-ad-campaign-to-rally-advertisers-to-improve-the-internet Omnicom's John Wren speaks openly about AI and its impact: https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/385746/omnicoms-wren-likens-ai-to-war-discloses-betas.html Interview with Emad (13:20): Journey from aerospace to AI Whiteboard? (14:20) How are business leaders approaching AI for their businesses? (18:48) Media buying and creative may be getting automated away (21:50) Is transparency with AI models important or is performance what matters? (25:00) Prediction for a new search ad model (28:32) Emad's experience using AI to take a project from 4-weeks to 90 minutes (30:44) The role of marketing co-pilots (32:14) Emad's top 3 AI trends that get him excited? (37:02) What AI resources and tools is Emad using? (42:28)

Listen as I am joined once again by my monthly co-hosts, Travis Bennington, John Wren, and Phil Vibez as we are joined by Tipper of NC's own Fever Strike to discuss our Top 5 A24 Horror films, the Amazon limited series Swarm, Evil Dead Rise, Renfield, and much more on this week's episode! To Support the Podcast : https://www.patreon.com/Horrorflicksguitarpicks

Our longest episode to date, and for good reason. Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves actually comes up more than once, as it should. Shouts to @SHIRT_PLASMA on Depop - for purveyors of death metal and tie dye who are also not stinky hippies. Irrelevant and Illiterate podcast Ep.23 Cinephile Special ft. John Martello (Rock Bottom) & John Wren HOMEWORK ASSIGNED: Wren: Riot Stares - Sounds of Acceleration Martello: Meshuggah - Immutable Dennis: Andy Haines - The Coward of Gramercy Don Caballero - For Respect Jerky Boys 2 Tommy: Steve Byrne - The Last Late Night Godskin Peeler - Erase the Godform

For this month's Horror Roundtable episode I am joined once again by my monthly Co-Hosts Travis Bennington, John Wren, and Phil Vibes. We also have a special guest Alex, Host of The Dawn of the Horrorcast! Listen as we discuss our Top 5 Horror Remakes, some horror films we've watched recently, some dishonorable mentions, and much more on this week's episode! To Support the Podcast : https://www.patreon.com/Horrorflicksguitarpicks

Listen as my monthly co-hosts John Wren & Travis Bennington join me to talk about our Top 10 Horror Movies of 2022! We also discuss our favorite non Horror movies of the year, our favorite albums, and cap off the episode with our Honorable Mentions that didn't quite make the top 10. Pre-Order the New Eternal Sleep Record "Desperate Prayer Blues" Here : https://closedcasketactivities.com/products/eternal-sleep-desperate-prayer-blues To Support the Podcast : https://www.patreon.com/Horrorflicksguitarpicks

In 1893, John Wren, unemployed and from a poor family, set up the Collingwood Tote, an illegal betting shop that would achieve mythical status, depending on who you asked, as either a den of vice ruining the lives of many or as a symbol of the working class fighting back against discriminatory laws. In its twenty years of operating, the police attempted to raid the tote so many times and failed to the point they gave up completely. Instead, the establishment banned Wren's horses from racing in the Spring Racing Carnival. In response, Wren set up multiple alternative racecourses and significantly hurt their finances. Titus O'Reily and Mick Molloy look at the rise of John Wren, a man who took on the establishment and built up a sporting empire that crossed horse racing, cycling and boxing. Follow Sports Bizarre on: Instagram Facebook Twitter TikTok YouTube

Today's episode is a celebration of the 35th Anniversary of The Monster Squad! This episode features two interviews. The first one is with Actor Andre Gower, who plays the role of Sean in the film as well as Directed the Wolfman's Got Nards Documentary. The second is with Musician/Actor Ryan Lambert, who plays the role of Rudy in the film. Listen as we chat about The Monster Squad, the Wolfman's Got Nards Documentary, their thoughts on a Sequel, and much more on this week's episode! In Honor of the 35th Anniversary, make sure you stick around until the end of the episode to hear from past guests of the show, as they discuss what the film means to them! Hear from Rob Jabbaz, Jason Zink, John Brennan, John Wren, Neon Brainiacs, and Travis Bennington! To Check Out the Wolfman's Got Nards Documentary : https://thesquaddoc.com/ To Support the Podcast : https://www.patreon.com/Horrorflicksguitarpicks

Episode 090 - So the break didn't last long…. With the Supreme Court's insanity this week The Upgrade had no choice but to continue the discussion on the continued regression of the United States. Len, Gary & John Wren talk about the Court, Roe vs Wade, Republican insanity, Democratic cowardice, AOC & Progressives leading the charge for change (and meeting resistance from their own people), culture war bullshit, the disastrous setup for the 2022 & 2024 elections, and much much more. http://www.theupgradepodcast.net#theupgrade #theupgradepodcast #podcast #landminestudios #billyclubsandwich #hardcoremusic #nyhc #newyorkhardcore #nyhardcore #njhc #newjerseyhardcore #politics #currentevents ------------------------

Listen as we discuss the casting of Hayden Panettiere in Scream 6, the upcoming Twisted Metal Series starring Anthony Mackie, and many more headlines in Horror News on this monthly episode! We also discuss what Horror films we've seen recently including Firestarter '22, The Sadness, and more! To Support the Podcast : https://www.patreon.com/Horrorflicksguitarpicks

Episode 074 - John Wren is back for more combat sports discussion. John, Len & Gary get into Tyson Fury vs Deontay Wilder, bullshit booking in boxing, Jon Jones and his endless scumbaggery, UFC's hypocritical domestic violence policy, Conor McGregor, UFC (and other companies) putting profits above everything, coach Mike Winkeljohn cutting ties with Jon Jones, sports personalities wrongly made out to be examples, live MMA shows, John's first live wrestling show in 16 years at a GCW show, Len's work on wrestler Jimmy Lloyd's upcoming new entrance music, GCW's upcoming Hammerstein Ballroom show and memories of other Hammerstein shows, wild ass Pantera & Slayer shows, the Ozzfest Fighting Championship™, Brian Yan vs food, John's Ironman races, differing views about water, MMA weight cuts, fighter rankings, the leverage game between companies and fighters/wrestlers, Vince McMahon, Hulk Hogan's lies, and more.http://www.theupgradepodcast.net#theupgrade #theupgradepodcast #podcast #landminestudios #billyclubsandwich #hardcoremusic #nyhc #newyorkhardcore #nyhardcore #boxing #mma #mixedmartialarts #ufc #jonjones #conormcgregor #danawhite #prowrestling #sportsentertainment #wwe #gamechangerwrestling #metal #pantera #slayer------------------------     http://www.facebook.com/theupgradepodcast      ------------------------     http://www.instagram.com/theupgradepodcast      ------------------------     

Episode 067 - IT'S TIIIME! (again)... John Wren joins Len & Gary once again to talk UFC! The trio spend some time discussing last weekend's UFC 265 card, including weight cuts, questionable decisions, the early days of The Ultimate Fighter, Derrick Lewis being off his game, Amanda Nunes, and much more. From there the discussion turns to Len & Gary's night at a pro wrestling event… diehard fans, heel wrestlers taunting fans, Federal Donuts, the insane physical things wrestlers do, intergender wrestling, 2 Cold Scorpio, wrestler sizes, the influences of new generation wrestlers, Gary's ECW stories, the similarity between indie wrestlers & touring bands, seeing wrestlers before they become tv superstars, and more. Finally, John talks about his participation in Ironman races and then everyone jumps in on the world famous mosh pit beer video.http://www.theupgradepodcast.net#theupgrade #theupgradepodcast #podcast #landminestudios #billyclubsandwich #hardcoremusic #nyhc #newyorkhardcore #nyhardcore #ufc #mma #mixedmartialarts #ufc265 #prowrestling #aew #wwe #wcw #gcw #gamechangerwrestling #independentwrestling #indiewrestling #vxswrestling------------------------ http://www.facebook.com/theupgradepodcast ------------------------ http://www.instagram.com/theupgradepodcast ------------------------ 

Join us this week as we sit down with friend of the podcast John Wren to dive into White Zombie's seminal record, Astro-Creep 2000.  While not nu-metal it is hard to understate this band's influence on the genre...and not just Powerman 5000! Cheers! Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/nubreed_podcast/ Email:  Nubreedpodcast@gmail.com Twitter:  https://twitter.com/nubreed_podcast Facebook Group:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/nubreedpodcast/ Tim Twitter:  https://twitter.com/timLSD Jay Twitter:  https://twitter.com/horsecow Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrlK456FML4jtXN1YF7fxHg    

Episode 063 - Once again IT'S TIIIME! Len & Gary team up with John Wren to discuss the entire UFC 264 card from this past weekend, including Jessica (Third) Eye, a debatable poor stoppage by Herb Dean, and of course a tough break (get it?) for Conor McGregor. Plus plenty of the usual tangents, including the mathematics of a UFC card, MMA becoming “sports entertainment”, future fights and much much morehttp://www.theupgradepodcast.net#theupgrade #theupgradepodcast #podcast #landminestudios #billyclubsandwich #hardcoremusic #nyhc #newyorkhardcore #nyhardcore #mma #mixedmartialarts #ufc #ufc264 #conormcgregor #dustinpoirier #taituivasa #sportsentertainment------------------------     http://www.facebook.com/theupgradepodcast      ------------------------     http://www.instagram.com/theupgradepodcast      ------------------------     

Episode 060 - This week is another recurring special for The Upgrade. John Wren joins Len & Gary for IT'S TIIIME where the trio discusses MMA and related subjects.http://www.theupgradepodcast.net#theupgrade #theupgradepodcast #podcast #landminestudios #billyclubsandwich #hardcoremusic #nyhc #newyorkhardcore #nyhardcore #mma #mixedmartialarts #ufc------------------------     http://www.facebook.com/theupgradepodcast      ------------------------     http://www.instagram.com/theupgradepodcast      ------------------------     

With around three decades of experience running professional services firms, Don Scales understands first-hand how to make them successful. He is currently the Global CEO of Investis Digital, a global digital communications company that helps world-class businesses manage their corporate brands. Today this industry veteran joins us to talk about his experience in the business, the reasons behind failed mergers and acquisitions, and share some funny stories. 3 Golden Nuggets If you continue to have to do it all, you'll never scale. So many agency owners are at the million-dollar mark and wanting to get to the eight-figure mark. Don's advice is to learn to delegate. Find people who are great at what they do and then get out of their way. You may make some mistakes if you do, but you'll move on from that. Building a team with staying power. Consistency is the key when it comes to leadership. Your employees won't want to come to work every day if they don't know which version of you they might encounter. Be consistent with your leadership style and make your decision-making process transparent, so they will learn to make decisions in that way as well. Why do some mergers fail? If you look at what people really examine when they look at potentially buying a company, you'll find that they don't spend a whole lot of time looking at the value set of these companies that they're looking to buy. So many times when a merger or acquisition ends up failing you find out afterward that the cultures were off. You need to spend some time analyzing whether there is compatibility and if the values align. Sponsors and Resources Agency Dad: Today's episode is sponsored by Agency Dad. Agency Dad is an accounting solution focused on helping marketing agencies make better decisions based on their financials. Check out agencydad.money/freeaudit/ to get a phone call with Nate to assess your agency's financial needs and how he can help you. Subscribe Apple | Spotify | iHeart Radio | Stitcher | Radio FM Avoid a Failed Merger by Staying True to Your Agency's Values Jason: [00:00:00] What's up, agency owners, Jason Swenk here, and I'm excited to have an amazing guest. Now, this guest has been in the agency world for a very long time. He started when he was one and he's grown several agencies and the current agency that he's, a global CEO has over 500 employees. They're approaching $90 million in revenue and they've done over 40 acquisitions over the, his lifetime. And I'm really excited to get into it. So let's jump into the episode. Hey, Don. Welcome to the show. Don: [00:00:39] Hey, good to see you. Glad to be here. Jason: [00:00:42] Awesome. Well, I'm excited to chat with you and learn from you because you've been in it for a long time and you have a lot of experience. So for the ones that have not heard of you yet, tell us who you are and what do you do? Don: [00:00:54] My name's Don Scales. I am the global CEO of a company called Investis Digital, which is a UK-based company. It's private equity-owned by Investcorp. Uh, we just recently exited from, uh, a six-year relationship with the company called ECI out of London. Uh, so we're very excited about our Invest Corp relation. Then prior to that, I was CEO of a company, I'm sure you heard of, called iCrossing, iCrossing, we managed to take that to, um, some $140 million, exited several years back. So I was there for a good eight years, nine years. And then prior to that, I was CEO of a company called Agency.com, which is a pioneer in the web development space. And it's one of the, if you will, one of the founding companies of web development. So that takes me back all the way to 1999 in the digital age, that's kind of like dog years. So I've been around a long time. Jason: [00:02:00] I started our agency in 99 and yeah, I used to love those days. It was kind of like no one knew what websites were, and I could literally go through the yellow pages and go, oh, you don't have a website here, so. Don: [00:02:10] And in fact you'll, you'll get a kick out of this. Back in the day, people would send us RFPs and we, we'd send them an invoice for 50 grand just to read their RFP. Jason: [00:02:25] I love it. Don: [00:24:10] And that was good business. Jason: [00:02:25] I love it  Well, I think we're going to get along well, because I always looked at RFP as, um, you know, stands for a couple of things, Request for Punishment as one of them. Other ones, I probably won't name on this show right now. I don't know if I can talk to you that way. But, uh, let's jump into that because that's interesting. Why would you send an invoice for 50 grand to respond to their RFP? Don: [00:02:47] Because, like you said, you could go to the yellow pages. It was just such a demand, and we had very limited resources of people who could do those kinds of work. And so we had to make sure that, uh, every, every minute of every day was, uh, paid for in some way, shape or form. And so if the market would take it, and they did, and they'd pay, it would, we'll invoice. Jason: [00:03:12] That's the biggest foot in the door I've ever seen. So I always believe in like, charging something as a slice off of your core offer, you know, in order to kind of see if they're serious and also kind of prove like the relationship back and forth, but you guys have the win right now of the highest foot in the door yet. And, and you guys said you converted too. That's awesome. Don: [00:03:34] Yeah, we did. And then, you know, then, then everything changed in 2000 and now it was like, it was. Just, the whole market would be evaporated on me. Jason: [00:03:47] Well, that's what helped us little guys back then when the market crashed, I was like, all these big guys going down, here's our opportunity. You know, let's get on what I call the strategy line, where everybody else is kind of cringing and kind of like they're on that roller coaster. And that's what allowed us to really grow. Don: [00:04:05] You know, it was one of those times when there was so many bigger companies. Yeah. The biggest thing that hit people back down was when it got bigger, they all invested in real estate. And then after that, you had all these fixed commitments and real estate, then the market just evaporates and they're stuck there with all that office space. Jason: [00:04:23] So, what's the key…? You've seen so many agencies go from a certain size and just blow it up. And a lot of people listening, you know, they're in the million mark, they're trying to get to the eight-figure mark. Some of the eight-figure guys are trying to get to the nine-figure and tens and so on. And you've gone through many, many levels. So what are some things that if you're right in the middle of like, let's say a $5 million agency, what do you need to do in order to really kind of, to accelerate your growth that you've seen. Don: [00:05:00] Yeah. So I think there's an evolution. So when there, when you get to the $5 million mark, and then when you're a very small agency and you're a founder, the biggest thing you have to learn in order to get to the next level is you have to learn to delegate. And so if you can find the right people and if you have, if you continue to have to do it all yourself, then you'll never scale. But if you can find the right people and you, and you're willing to delegate and you may make some mistakes and, uh, if you do, but you, you can still move on from those mistakes and you'll have a chance to delegate. And then beyond that, as you continue on, you have to bring in more discipline in your organization's structure. They, you know, there's a lot of research that shows that most agencies sort of tap out either, one, right there where the owner has to start delegating, that's, that's one key point. And then there seems to be another flex point, right around 75 to a hundred employees. For some reason, that's when the organization becomes, uh, not as flat and it gets a little bit more widespread. And so you have different players involved. And that seems to be a place where organizations have hard times as well. Once you get past a hundred employees, I think you can scale up for, you know, you can do a pretty good job of getting scaled. Cause you have the, if you manage to get the structure, you have the discipline and you have the management team in there and you've got a lot of the right parts. Jason: [00:06:31] I always look at, in our agency mastermind, especially with the guys that are close to that, we're always talking about recruiting and really, how can we make our leaders better leaders. Like, that's our major focus rather than how do we make ourselves better. Right. Because we're literally kind of replacing ourselves. So what have you seen working well, or what's worked for you in the past to make your leaders better? Like you brought them in at a certain level. How did you keep getting them up to the next? Don: [00:07:04] First of all, you have to be willing to let them grow with you. So, like you have to give them something that maybe, that you know is not necessarily in their sweet spot, but it's, it's a growth opportunity and you have to be willing to let people might make a mistake if they're going to make a mistake. If you're not the type who can deal with the issues of making a mistake or a client failure of some sort, then it's going to be difficult because then you have to take these people, dust them off, tell them what they did wrong, pat them on the rear end and send them off and go do it again. Eventually, they start building up a real good experience, basically, they can do this stuff on their own. And that's how, that's how you build a team. And then once you build that team, you stay with it. Now, I've found that the best way to build a team and hang onto the team is, I'm a firm believer that as an executive you have to be very consistent in your leadership style. And so if you go to work every day and one day, you're just, just a normal guy. And the next day you're ranting and raving and you want to shoot anybody that walks in the door, nobody's going to work for you. But if you're, if people can say I know, I know Don, he's always this way, you know, consistent and you're, and you're consistent in your thinking and you make decisions so that it's almost transparent to these people, how you're making your decisions. Then they're going to learn how to make decisions very much akin to how you make decisions. And that's how you get a team that sort of has staying power. Jason: [00:08:42] Yeah. I looked at it too of going, uh, someone shared with me many years ago, it's called the one, three, one method, or I think it's called that. But whenever your team would come to you and think about as you're building an agency, your team's always coming to you because, especially in the beginning, you're like the toll booth everything's flowing through you. Whenever they would say, you know, hey, here's the challenge? What do you think we need to do? Like they would ask me and I'm like, no, no, no. What are three options that you think we need to do? And then what's your recommendation. If they do that enough, then they're just going to stop coming to you for these things and they'll start solving it. And then they'll do that with their team. Because I looked at our whole goal was. My job is to coach and mentor my leadership team. And then they should, it should trickle down. I love that you said consistency too, because I was talking to an agency the other day. I'm like, man, you're all over the place. Like one day you're up here, another day you're a tyrant here and it's just. Don: [00:09:46] As an employee, you come to work and you don't know who you don't know which boss is going to show up today. That's not the kind of place you'd probably want to work at for the long run. Jason: [00:09:55] Yeah, exactly. Well, let's kind of switch focus a little bit and talk about why do you think, you've obviously you've gone through, you know, over 40 acquisitions. Why do you think a high percentage of mergers or acquisitions actually fail? Don: [00:10:13] Uh, it's a great question. And it's probably on page one or two of my new book coming out. I believe if you look at the diligence process that people go through and you start looking at what people really examine when they look at potentially buying a company. What you find is that they don't spend a whole lot of time looking at the value set of these companies that they're looking to buy. So you don't really have a good keen understanding of whether or not the value set of the people you're buying is in alignment with the value set that your company has. So I talk about in my, in the book, this whole thing called value compatibility profile. And what kind of alignments you see in these values, and then when these companies fail and if you go read in the press, you're reading the literature, the first thing people say, well, you know the values weren't in alignment, the cultures were off. Well, It shouldn't be a big surprise to anybody that, uh, these things failed. If you didn't spend enough time on the front end that if, when they do fail, these are the cause on the backend. So my belief is that we spend too much time on the hard stuff, like the financial stuff, and we don't spend enough time on the values, compatibility and the alignment of values, because that is going to dictate much of how these two companies come together. Jason: [00:11:36] Yeah, I always tell everybody, and I did this when we were acquired. I wanted to sit in their office for a couple of days, like a fly on the wall. And I wanted to see, you know, are these people happy? Do they joke around? Like, I'm obviously not a corporate type. So if we were going to be acquired by someone, very corporate. It would've just been a complete, utter disaster. Don: [00:11:59] Well, I had this good story I tell that back in the day, uh, when I was at iCrossing, there's this amazing agency, AKQA that, uh, and Tom Bedecarré who used, you know, it was a CEO there for years. And at one point GA, who own them, and then, we had gone with some other people that they had this idea that we were going to possibly merge the two and it would create this really powerhouse in the marketplace, a creative powerhouse, like AKQA, and then a performance media powerhouse like iCrossing, you could bring that together. And I think it would have reshaped some of the agency business. Well, so they were talking about merging it. And the first thing you have to do is you have to look at it and say, well, you know, can people get along and the CEOs even get along. So, uh, you know, uh, Tom and I get together and the board calls us up and says, look, we want to know if you guys can make this work. We want you guys to, uh, take a weekend and go to go to Sonoma County or Napa Valley for a weekend, have some wine, just sit around and talk. So that's what we did. We went up there and spent the entire weekend up there just to see if we even liked each other. I found out about his kids. He finds about my life. At the end of the day, you know, I found out what was important to him. He got to know what was important to me and we, and we figured out a way to stay to the word. Now, but the deal fell apart for other reasons. But that part of I would I think would have worked its way through. And that's just because we put in the time upfront. Jason: [00:13:32] Yeah. Yeah. I totally agree. Now, outside of values and matching the culture, what are the numbers like when you were acquiring agencies? What are the numbers that really matter to you to make sure or what's a good acquisition for you? Don: [00:13:50] Well, experience has shown me that if… you're going to get what you paid for, right? And, and so like, if you, if you're looking to get something on the cheap, then chances are, you're going to get something cheap, right. You're going to be spending a lot of time fixing it. And so if you're into reclamation projects, that's a whole different world. If you really want to grow. You don't want to spend all your life fixing what you just bought. So I'm, you know, I'm a firm believer that you pay a fair price and you gotta be willing to walk away. So for me, it's understanding what, what the true… and, I'm not into, since we're talking about services businesses, it really has to be more EBITDA-based then it's going to be revenue-based as opposed to a lot of these technology businesses that we see, but, uh, so on that base, you know, I know what multiples are to be in play. So, you know, if, if people are willing, then what you, what you really find, and you know this because you've seen it, as many times as I have is that most of these owners think they're the unicorn out there and they have, they want the one-off multiple that nobody's ever seen before, and that's just not going to happen. So you have to get people to get, take a dose of reality, and come down to earth. And if they get real. Then you have the basis to starting at the discussion about getting something done. Jason: [00:15:29] As an agency owner, it's hard to know when you have to make those big decisions. And I remember needing advice for thinking like hiring or firing or reinvesting. And when can I take distributions without hurting the agency? You know, we're excellent marketers, but when it comes to agency finances like bookkeeping, forecasting, or really organizing our financial data, most of us are really kind of a little lost. And that's why my friend Nate created Agency Dad specifically to solve these exact problems. You know, at Agency Dad, they help agency owners handle the financial part of their agency so they can focus on what they're really good at. Nate has spent years learning the ins and outs of agency business. He understands everything from how to structure your books, to improving the billing process and really managing your financial efficiencies. Agency Dad will show you how to use your financial data to make the key decisions, from making your agency more successful and most importantly, more profitable. If you want to know how your agency finances stack up to the rest of the industry Agency Dad can tell you how to do that. A lot of my listeners have already gotten their free audit from Agency Dad. And if you haven't yet, go to agencydad.money/freeaudit before August 30th and get your free financial metrics audit. Also, just for smart agency listeners, find out how to get your first month of bookkeeping or dashboarding and consulting for free. It's time to clean up your agency finances and listen to dad, go to agencydad.money/free audit. Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned EBITDA because that's how we've always based it on. And I always used to love when people would say. Oh, we're a $10 million agency. We're a $20 million agency. And I'm like, well, what's the profit? And they're like, oh, we're like a 5% margin. I'm like, oh, that's horrible. And I also agree with you too. A lot of times when we actually we at Republics, we started buying agencies. Like we don't buy anybody under a million and EBITDA. There's the same amount of work. A lot of people are like, especially when the pandemic happened, they're like, oh, we're going to grab up all these people that are struggling. I'm like, I rather grab the people that are growing. Don: [00:17:52] Yeah, you know, I'll tell you a really, a really funny story was, uh, when I was at Agency.com and I was sitting in there talking to John Wren, who's the head of Omnicom, and he's bought more companies than anybody I know. And he's, uh, so he was telling me one day he said, uh. He said: Scales, let me give you a piece of advice on how to deal with acquisitions. He says until a company gets over a million dollars in EBITDA, he says, you just fly over, fly over the top and you wave to the airplane. Don't ever go visit until get over a million dollars, then you'll stop. Jason: [00:18:36] That's awesome. Oh, definitely so. Right, because I feel that businesses can hit a couple of million by accident, but to get to a million in EBITDA, it's a little bit more challenging. Don: [00:18:47] and they can lose a couple million by accident too. They can go both ways by accident, too. Jason: [00:18:55] Exactly. What are the multiples that you're seeing for, let's say, one to about 3 million in EBITDA. Don: [00:19:01] Uh, you know, I wouldn't pay it from one to 3 million. I meant, like you said, some of that could be by accident. But I'd say probably it's, it's still single digits from me. Uh, you know, I'm not going to be paying at, I'd probably pay six to eight, maybe somewhere in there, but not much more. I can't see much more than that. Jason: [00:19:23] Yeah. When does it really start jumping up to the double digits? Don: [00:19:27] I think one, when you get a little bit of scale to it. So, you know, once you get to a point where there's not 50 other people that look just like you. So, I mean, if you get a, I can recall when we hit, uh, at iCrossing. And we actually merged with Proxycom and that got that, that took us over a hundred million dollars in revenue. We were at, I forget, like 20 some odd percent on EBITDA. That put us into some rarefied air in the agency business. First of all, you don't see that many agencies go over a hundred million and then you don't see that many agencies making that kind of EBITDA. That got us, you know, we ended up making in the high teens. And so it's really the scarcity factor that drives it. So if you are a three or $5 million agency, Then you better have a real unique proposition is going to be able to get something in the marketplace is going to be differentiable because there's, there's a lot of those out there. Jason: [00:20:34] Yeah. Do you look at specialization as something that separates agencies rather than saying know the typical we're a full service “me-too” agency. Don: [00:20:43] Well, there are two things that... One is, we're a full service and two is, yeah, we deserve it because we have such great people. We have unique people. Everybody says that. So when I hear that, I'm thinking they don't even. Jason: [00:20:58] Or what is it? The three Ps: Process, Portfolio, and People. Don: [00:21:02] Okay. But so when you start hearing that, then you wonder what their strategy and what their story is. But if they cannot in a minute, if they have that 32nd elevator speech cold, and they can tell you exactly who their market is and what they're trying to accomplish, then you pay attention. Jason: [00:21:20] Yeah. So when you guys merged and you took. Your guys' revenue, you guys became a hundred million and 20 million in EBITDA, right? How long did you guys have to stay merged together before you exited? Because I found, and what we're finding too is like, just putting all these companies together, you have to make it work for some time for a buyer to treat you seriously. Don: [00:21:43] Yeah, I think what you, what you have is typically have, you know, right after something like that you're going to take at least a year to get all the kinks out. So you're going to have turnover. You're going to have this, you're going to have that. You're going to lose some clients. You've got all these kinds of issues you have to work your way through. And then you've probably got after that, you've probably got another year of sort of demonstrating that you can manage it and run it right. So you're looking at, probably at least two years, uh, before you can really do something with something like that. Jason: [00:22:16] Yeah. And let's talk about kind of margins. Because a lot of people, especially on, on the lower end, the people that you're flying over and waving to. I love that the flyover. Don: [00:22:30] I love it. That is a great story, and he said it was such a straight face too. Jason: [00:22:34] And he was a part of, uh, the CEO of Omnicom. Was that right? Don: [00:22:38] Omnicom, Omnicom is, he's probably done… He's probably done past some acquisitions. I don't even know. Jason: [00:22:47] That's hilarious. I love it. So the people that were flying over a lot of times, you know, their margins are at 10, 15% and they're like, oh, that's good. Or even 20%. And I look at that going that's I feel that's below average. So what do you think average is for profit margins? Don: [00:23:06] Yeah. Since I, I spent enough time and Omnicom I'll quote John Wren one more time I met John Wren used to say, if you really want to be an exceptional agency, then your overhead's 20%, your direct cost is at 60% of your margins are 20. He said, then that's what, it's a very simple business, Don. He said, you make 20% every year, he says, I'll never, you'll never hear from me. I'm happy and I will never bother you. So I mean, that's kind of the way I looked at it, it was it's. Uh, and you have to, you have to take that, but there's so many CEOs that just don't have that kind of. That makeup to focus on that number and be focused on that 20% or better. And now, you know, over the years, because we've gone more from services and now it's sort of this mix of technology and services. And now when 20 years ago, we didn't hear about recurring revenue and now there's all this talk about how much your business is recurring versus repeat versus, all of this. It's all the same, you know, now you have to be a little bit more focused and you do have the opportunity to get higher margins as a result of all this, but yeah, pure services business, you ought to be shooting for at least 20%. Jason: [00:24:27] Yeah, I love it. And you kind of alluded a little bit to, you know, the reoccurring model, because when I did the first agency, about 85% was just project-based. Like we would go into Lotus Cars and we'd go into Tochi and right. And just exactly, but we had a machine for our pipeline. Like it was predictable for us. Now going around it's kind of a little different. I actually kind of love reoccurring cause it's predictable, especially when we're buying someone. So what's your thoughts on that? Don: [00:24:59] Right, and that's where you're gonna get margin. That's where you're going to get margin. So nobody's going to pay you for project-based businesses. Now, even if you have, like you said, even if you have a machine that can crank out new opportunities. Nobody's going to pay you because they, they can't look forward. They can't see it beyond a certain amount of time. So what you're going to have, what your business is, no matter how… you could have five years of great project-based business results. But because they can't see more than three or four months in the future, they're not going to pay you the higher multiple, but as you get more recurring, and a word we call repeat, which is meaning that, you know, you're not necessarily going from contract to contract your own more or less 12 months kind of contracts. They may be on auto-renewals, those kinds of things, where you're not having to go out and renegotiate something every three months. Uh, then you can start, people are, you know, then people respect your business a little bit more than they value visible more highly. Jason: [00:26:00] Yeah. And you know what I've always seen, especially when we're going in and doing valuation of going well, you might get your valuation, but most of it's going to be tied into an earn-out because there's no predictability. Don: [00:26:13] Yeah, exactly. No, that's exactly right. And then depends on what the, if you're a fan of or not, but. Jason: [00:26:23] I was screwed by that one, I wish I read your book. Don: [00:26:27] I've been screwed on both sides of that one. Jason: [00:26:29] I know. I've been on both sides and, you know, especially what we're doing it now is like, we've always structured the earn-out now to make it fair. And we're like, we're not going to base it on time. We'll base it on when you hit this. So like, if an agency comes to us and says, well, I'll hold off, Jason. And you can buy us next year because I feel we're going to be double. And we'll be like, okay, well, if you feel that, why don't we put an earn-out on that? So when you hit the double, we'll give it to you. There's no set time so we can screw you. Like it has to… like, it can be a win-win I'm tired of people taking advantage. Don: [00:27:07] And generally takes them twice as long to get to double, right? Jason: [00:27:13] Exactly. They're just, I think they're trying to buff up. And then they also where they tell us, they go, well, we want to stay on for long haul. I'm like, no, you probably be the worst employee. I know I was the worst employee ever. Don: [00:27:26] I man, especially it's really hard to you get a successful entrepreneur who started an agency, or started two or three agencies, uh, yeah, they make the, they're not the best employees and the guy, the guy I had the most respect for. Started with that iCrossing and he could work for anybody else. Jason: [00:27:46] Yeah, that's, that's me. Last question I have for you, Don is as a global CEO of one of the big agencies. What are your roles? Like, what do you look at as your role in the agency? Like if you had to pick like three or four roles. Don: [00:28:15] Uh, I think really my role is to provide two things. One is depending on what the, you know, you have to articulate what the strategy is, and in some cases that's a little easier than other cases. But I have to articulate what the strategy is and then I have to provide a culture and environment by which people can go accomplish, you know, accomplish those goals. But you have to get people, you have to show them the direction. You have to give them the tools by which they can go do it. And you got to get out of their way and let them do it. And, those, those are the keys. Jason: [00:28:41] Yeah. That's, that's kind of what I looked at when, when I started getting up in a little, the gray hair, as I started figuring out that part of like getting out of people's way. And it's more of… Don: [00:28:52] Uh, and the good ones, you know, I have some people who've been with me here Investis Digital I've had people who've been with me for 20 years. This is their third company we worked at together and they're, and they're some of the best people in the world. And that's the reason is because I'm smart enough to know when to get out of their way. Jason: [00:29:13] Yeah. I always said I wanted to be the dumbest person in the room, at the company, and that was not hard for me. Don: [00:29:22] I think Reagan said that too. One time. He said you want to be the dumbest guy in the room one time when it was, he said something like that. Jason: [00:29:30] Oh, that's funny. Well, Don, this has all been amazing. Is there anything I didn't ask you before we tell people where they can get the book? Don: [00:29:38] I think, uh, you know, I probably. You know, I thought maybe you might ask me, like, give me one funny story that came out of doing one of these acquisitions I had one before I was going to tell you. Yeah. So the first acquisition that I ever did at iCrossing was a company called NewGate Internet, it was in Sausalito, California. And we had spent all this time and effort getting this right. We had dotted all the I's and cross T's and we wanted to make sure that the board was really standing behind this and. So we got all excited. We got this deal done. So, uh, we went out there, uh, myself and the CEO of iCrossing at the time we went out there and went to Sausalito. And so we meet, we meet the CEO of NewGate Internet at the front door. We're talking to him and I said, okay, is everybody ready? Yeah. I got the whole team together and we're going to introduce you guys is going to be great. So we walk in and the. And the CEO stands up in front of his group, which is probably about 50 to 75 people. And he says, well, uh, he says, uh, I have some news for you guys. He said, you don't know this, but for the last six months I've been, uh, trying to sell the company and he says I've actually been successful at doing so. And so, uh, your new owners here, Jeff and Don they're from a company called iCrossing. They're going to be your new bosses. And today's my last day. Uh, I'll be leaving as soon as I finished speaking here, it's been great working with you for the last six years, and I hope to see you guys soon. And they literally picked up and walked out the fire escape and never came back. And Jeff and I are looking at each other like, holy cow, what are we going to do now? So we had to figure this out on the fly in front of 75 people who didn't even know they were being sold and we made it work this way through, but there was a, oh my God moment there where it was like, my gosh, what are we going to do next? Oh, wow. That was our first deals at iCrossing. Jason: [00:31:51] It's awesome. I mean, literally he got the mic, he dropped it and then just bounced and walked right out the fire escape too. Was he afraid that you guys would go to stop the elevator? Don: [00:32:05] I think he was, I think he was so embarrassed about just pulling a fast one there. He just didn't even want to wait to go out to the front door. He didn't want to say goodbye to anybody, he just left. Jason: [00:32:16] Wow. So was it a good acquisition or did you find a lot of skeletons? Don: [00:32:21] Yeah, it turned out really good. I mean, they, they were really, uh, experts in paid media. Uh, and they really set the tone for iCrossing for years in paid media. And we got some really fantastic people out of that, but it was, it has bumps in the early days, that's for sure. Jason: [00:32:37] That's crazy. I mean, literally like. Don: [00:32:43] It was pretty funny. Jason: [00:32:43] I can only imagine, like, I'm picturing, I know what you're talking about a fire escape, but I, I see like the New York fire escapes, like him sliding down. With the ladder. Don: [00:32:53] With the ladder and everything. They don't have those in Sausalito. Jason: [00:32:58] I know, but that would be. You should embellish that a little bit. Like be like, yeah, he just slid down like was James Bond. Don: [00:33:08] I need to build this up a little bit more. Jason: [00:33:10] Yeah, definitely. Well, you got to sell it, like your, sell it a little bit more. Don: [00:33:14] Exactly. It is in the book though. You can read about it in the book. Jason: [00:33:19] Cool, what's the name of the book? And obviously, we probably can get it anywhere, right? Don: [00:33:23] It's from Forbes books. It's out Amazon for pre-sale right now. It comes out June 6th and it's called the M&A Solution. Jason: [00:33:30] Awesome, well, everyone go check it out. And then, uh, what's the agency URL so people can go and check out the agency as well. Don: [00:33:38] The agency that I'm at right now. It's called Investis Digital, and like I said it's London-based and we just got bought by Investcorp, so yeah, check us out. Jason: [00:33:50] Awesome. Well, Don, thanks so much for coming on the show. It was a lot of fun hearing some of the old stories. Make sure all of you go check out the book. Check out the agency as well. And if you guys enjoyed this episode and you guys want to be surrounded by amazing agency owners that are sharing what's working now, so you guys can scale faster and really know that you're doing it in the right way. I'd love to invite all of you to go to digitalagencyelite.com. Check it out, apply if you're right for us, we'll have a conversation. And until next time, have a Swenk day.

The boys go all over the place with JOHN WREN (Selfish Lover / Bottomfeeder). We talk about how much of a psycho is takes to compete in an Ironman and see if Wren or Martello takes the cake in our horror movie quiz! --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/raisinghell/support

Beating the blues, footy's first billionaire, more Moore fangirling, power vacuums, we launch our first ever giveaway and take a look back at the infamous Collingwood underworld figure, raconteur and idol of Eddie's, John Wren.

Episode 037 - John Wren returns to the show for more talk about tv & movies. John talks to Len & Gary about The Stand, The Mandalorian, Marvel, why the MCU succeeds where other movie “universes” fail, comic books, zombie movies, scary scenes, The Exorcist, Hitchcock, the Twilight Zone, Creepshow, Hereditary, SLC Punk, ranking the Halloween movies (and which one determines your dick size), Rob Zombie, The Boys, Elizabeth Shue, Midsommar, Cobra Kai, Planet of the Apes, Westworld, the Willy Wonka/Snowpiercer theory, Ed Harris, and more.Selfish Lover on Bandcamp: https://selfishlover.bandcamp.com/Selfish Lover on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/selfishloverxoxoSelfish Lover on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/selfishloverxoxo/#theupgrade #theupgradepodcast #podcast #landminestudios #billyclubsandwich #hardcoremusic #nyhc #newyorkhardcore #nyhardcore #horror #horrormovies #themandalorian #starwars #marvel #mcu #theexorcist #thetwilightzone #creepshow #hereditary #halloweenmovies #robzombie #theboys #garthennis #cobrakai #westworld #planetoftheapes------------------------     Upgrade your mind - Hosts Len Carmichael & Gary Muttley talk about music, politics, MMA, pro wrestling and all kinds of pop culture. We will also connect with guests from around world to talk, share experiences and probably make fun of people.     ------------------------      http://www.theupgradepodcast.net     ------------------------     http://www.facebook.com/theupgradepodcast      ------------------------     http://www.instagram.com/theupgradepodcast      ------------------------     

Episode 022 - John Wren returns to the show for his first full show (sort of, don't ask). John, Len & Gary compare their shiny bald heads and then get into a full rundown of the UFC 253 card & some other UFC talk (including Jon Jones & Colby Covington), and then discuss the upcoming Mike Tyson vs Roy Jones Jr. fight. From there the discussion turns to John's Gwar obsession, worst live performances, nu metal, Fear Factory, Hellfest 2004, John's love of EDM & raves, John's departure from his former band and his new project Selfish Lover, Metallica, Slayer, violent hardcore shows and more.Selfish Lover on Bandcamp: https://selfishlover.bandcamp.com/Selfish Lover on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/selfishloverxoxoSelfish Lover on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/selfishloverxoxo/#theupgrade #theupgradepodcast #podcast #landminestudios #billyclubsandwich #hardcoremusic #nyhc #newyorkhardcore #nyhardcore #johnwren #selfishlover #ufc253 #ufc #jonjones #colbycovington #miketyson #royjonesjr #boxing #gwar #numetal #fearfactory #edm #metal #metallica #slayer------------------------     Upgrade your mind - Hosts Len Carmichael & Gary Muttley talk about music, politics, MMA, pro wrestling and all kinds of pop culture. We will also connect with guests from around world to talk, share experiences and probably make fun of people.     ------------------------      http://www.theupgradepodcast.net     ------------------------     http://www.facebook.com/theupgradepodcast      ------------------------     http://www.instagram.com/theupgradepodcast      ------------------------     

Episode 011 - Once again The Upgrade takes on UFC! Len & Gary discuss this past weekend's UFC 252 event with special guest John Wren making his return (his first episode will actually be posted next week… time travel, don't ask).#theupgrade #theupgradepodcast #podcast #landminestudios #billyclubsandwich #hardcoremusic #nyhc #newyorkhardcore #nyhardcore #UFC252 #UFC #MMA #johnwren #selfishlover #nomeatathlete

Within days of DDB Australia and New Zealand chairman and CEO Marty O’Halloran landing the global CEO role last week, he made a radical move to appoint a black, data-led CEO, Justin Thomas-Copeland, to the North American advertising institution. In this conversation, O’Halloran admits it’s a signal for the DDB world that he will shake things up. John Wren, the boss of DDB’s giant NY-listed parent company Omnicom, says if O’Halloran can replicate the performance of the Australian and New Zealand group internationally, they’re going to “have a great time together”. Here’s what the low-profile O'Halloran says he’s going to do.     See omnystudio.com/policies/listener for privacy information.

On this episode of the #FromTheShadowsPodcast, the crew is excited to bring to you an interview that we had with Paula Schleis from the Ohio Mysteries Podcast where Paula shares with us a tale of an unsolved mystery about the murder of John Wren in October of 1976.  If you are not familiar with the story of John Wren, stay tuned to this episode and find out!  #paulaschleis #ohiomysteries #johnwren #bucyrusohio #unsolvedmysteries #storytellers #steveyoder The From The Shadows Podcast is a program where we seriously discuss the supernatural, the paranormal, cryptozoology as well as ufology.  Anything that cannot be rationally explained has a platform for discussion here on the From The Shadows Podcast. Don’t forget to subscribe!

Jim Houghton is a Partner at Waypoint Partners, a leading growth and corporate finance advisory firm. He started his career at Aurther Anderson in the 90s, then moved onto Omnicom, Radiate, BDO, Results International, Ingenious, he becomes CFO for the agency 160over90, then onto Helion Partners. There are only a few people who know as much as he does about the world of corporate M&A and the current landscape for agencies.  He completed 40 acquisitions for Omnicom and 20 as an advisor. Essentially we discuss everything from what buyers look for when deciding whether to buy an agency, what value looks like and how to realise it, to the differences between US and UK entrepreneurs We also discuss what Sir Martin Sorrel and John Wren from Omnicom are really like as businessmen and people. If you’re interested in any of those topics then you will find this conversation to be absolutely fascinating. Enjoy the chat. 

On this episode we spoke about the 2 upcoming Jay $ benefit shows with John Wren from Bottom Feeder and Final Judgement, Dennis McGonigal from Iron Price and Cancer Priest and Jeremy Tingle from Lifeless. Songs By: Dead and Buried Life of Agony Lifeless Pantera Thanks for all the support and share and subscribe!! YOU CAN FOLLOW US ON.... Twitter - @ISN_podcast Facebook - www.facebook.com/theillstreetnewspodcast Facebook Group Page - illstreetnews  Instagram - @illstreetnews Email us - illstreetnews@yahoo.com Leave us a voicemail: 267-297-4627 YOU CAN LISTEN ON..... Soundcloud - https://soundcloud.com/illstreetnews iTunes - itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/ill-s…d1111993800?mt=2 Stitcher - www.stitcher.com/podcast/ill-street-news Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/1G2SBJEWGhQLxbL4c7tsPO Google Podcasts and many other podcast platforms!

Greetings, and welcome back to Horror Business. We have one awesome episode in store for… The post HORROR BUSINESS Episode 46: Our EVIL DEAD-isode Featuring John Wren appeared first on Cinepunx.

Greetings, and welcome back to Horror Business. We have one awesome episode in store for you guys. On this episode we’re discussing Sam Raimi’s EVIL DEAD franchise and we’re joined by fellow Cinepunk and all around hooligan John Wren from The Mandate podcast. First and foremost we want to give a shoutout to our sponsors over at Lehigh Valley Apparel Creations, the premiere screen-printing company of the Lehigh Valley. Chris Reject and his merry band of miscreants are ready to work with you to bring to life your vision of a t-shirt for your business, band, project, or whatever else it is you need represented by a shirt, sweater, pin, or coozy. Head on over to www.xlvacx.com to check them out. Also, thank you to our Patreon subscribers. Your support means the world to us and we are eternally grateful for that support. Thanks! We start by talking about what we’ve seen or done lately in the field of horror. Liam talks about seeing Flesh For Frankenstein and Blood For Dracula at an Exhumed Films event Philly, the Castle Rock series, John talks about The Meg, and Justin talks about seeing Pyewacket and Wildling. We of course begin with how we first came to see The Evil Dead when we were younger. We talk about the weird remake qualities of Evil Dead II, and how that film is responsible for many people thinking that Evil Dead is something of a comedy. The concept of having to kill your friends after they become something other than human beings is discussed at length. The discovery of Army Of Darkness being connected to The Evil Dead is talked about, as is the process of Evil Dead II being made with a strange opening that rehashes the first film. The literal nightmarish qualities of the ending of the first film are dissected, in that the shortcomings of the practical effects actually lend a very grotesque look to the finished product. The development of Ash Williams throughout the franchise from scared college kid to swaggering dopey badass is discussed at length. The politics and behind the scene drama of Ash Vs. Evil Dead is talked about, as is the damage done to him as a human being by the things he’s witnessed since going to the cabin for the first time. The show’s third season perfecting the feel of Ash as a culmination of all of the films is discussed. The show’s abrupt ending is touched upon and how even though it felt abrupt it still felt appropriate. Lucy Lawless’ central role in the show is touched upon. We briefly talk about the 2013 remake, remakes in general, how the first film and Phantasm are masterpieces of independent filmmaking, and conclude the discussion by talking about how the franchise is arguably pound for pound the greatest horror franchise of all time. As always thanks to everyone and anyone who donated on Patreon, checked this episode out, or shared a tweet/shared a post on FB/gave us love by recommending us to someone. We love you forever for listening. Any questions, comments, suggestions for movies and guests, or if you yourself want to join us for a movie viewing or even an episode, can be sent to thehorrorbiz@gmail.com. We would love to hear from you! Special thanks to John Wren for coming to hang out with us. You can check out more of his colorful opinions on the Mandate podcast also available on the Cinepunx network. Thanks always to Justin Miller and Doug Tilley for their technical contributions and fliers, Mike Smaczylo for the shirts and fliers (you can check more of his work out at here), and also thanks to Josh Alvarez for the theme song, Chris, Brad, Alexis, and LVAC for the support and buttons (check them out at www.xlvacx.com), and a HUGE thank you to anyone who retweeted us or shared something on Facebook that we posted. Follow us on Twitter at @thehorrorbiz666, like us on Facebook at facebook.com/thehorrorbiz66, and remember to rate, review, and subscribe to us on ITunes. In fact, if you write us a review, email us with your mailing address and we’ll send you some free pins and sticker...

Greetings, and welcome back to Horror Business, the podcast that on which everything floats…and now that you’re here with us, you’ll float too. First and foremost we want to give a shoutout to our sponsors over at Lehigh Valley Apparel Creations, the premiere screenprinting company of the Lehigh Valley. Chris Reject and his merry band of miscreants are ready to work with you to bring to life your vision of a tshirt for your business, band, project, or whatever else it is you need represented by a shirt, sweater, pin, or coozy. Head on over to www.xlvacx.com to check them out. Thanks! We apologize in advance for the sound quality of this episode at times, as we had an issue with the Skype connection. This episode we are joined by Brendan Foley of Black Sun Dispatches and our first returning guest John Wren of The Mandate (both of which are available at www.cinepunx.com) to help us tackle Andy Muschietti’s recent cinematic interpretation of Stephen King’s magnum opus: It. We begin by talking about what horror related things we had done lately. Brendan talks about his recent rewatching of An American Werewolf In London for Cinapse’s Two Cents feature, and John talks about his rewatching of the Evil Dead trilogy. Justin is lame as hell and hasn’t done anything, but Liam discusses watching Paranorman with his daughter! We open up by discussing our first introduction to Stephen King’s novel and the 1990 miniseries. Justin has already talked about his feelings on It in this piece he wrote for Cinepunx and the review he wrote for It as well as the episode of Test Patterns he wrote into the matter, so we don’t need to hear from him at all on the matter. Brendan talks about reading the book for the first time in middle school and how it was his introduction to horror, but also admits to not revering the book the way many King fans (like Justin) do. He discusses the shortcomings of some of King’s longer works, and how often King does best when he’s writing short and streamlined works. John talks about how he read the book relatively early on as well, as it was introduced to him by an uncle who got him into Stephen King. He talks about how in his opinion It is the best representation of Stephen King, and how the book actually magnifies many of King’s strength as a writer. Justin briefly talks about how the weird cosmic Lovecraftian stuff at the end of It was actually what sold him totally on the book, and how Bill Denbrough’s dream at the end of leaving Derry for the first time is an incredibly powerful scene for him. There is some discussion on King’s style vs. Lovecraft, in that King falls short of Lovecraft in that he explains too much and it loses some of it’s impact. Liam tells a very tender and personal story on his introduction to It that you need to listen to and won’t be summarized here. He also talks about how he realized only recently how deeply the book affected him as a person. There’s talk about how Muschietti’s version of the film failed to grasp the deep racism that is present in King’s novel and how that racism is essential to Henry’s relationship with Mike Hanlon. We begin the actual discussion of the movie with John talking about how this movie went above and beyond his expectations. John briefly discusses his distaste for remakes, and how Muschietti went about remaking It the way they ought to be done. We talk about how John came around on this movie, and how one of his biggest problems with the film was the lack of Eddie Corcoran’s death. We talk briefly about the effectiveness of Eddie’s death in the book. We talk about some of the stuff Muschietti changed from the book, especially how Stan is kind of the focus of It’s activity and how that may use that focus to explain why Stan makes the choices he may or may not make in chapter 2. Muschietti’s choice in keeping Bill Skarsgard separate from the Losers in order to harbor a true fear in their reactions in coming face to face with Pennywise for the first time.

Greetings astro creeps and electro heads, and welcome back to Horror Business, the only podcast that will both dig through the ditches AND burn through the witches. Thank you as always for checking us out and we have got one heck of an episode for you guys. First and foremost we want to give a shoutout to our sponsors over at Lehigh Valley Apparel Creations, the premiere screenprinting company of the Lehigh Valley. Chris Reject and his merry band of miscreants are ready to work with you to bring to life your vision of a tshirt for your business, band, project, or whatever else it is you need represented by a shirt, sweater, pin, or coozy. Head on over to www.xlvacx.com to check them out. Thanks! This episode we are taking a look at the films of one Robert Cummings, known better to you as Rob Zombie. And thank the Lord because Bobby Cummings isn’t a name conducive to horror filmmaking! We were lucky enough to be joined by two beloved members of the Cinepunx community and fellow horror hounds, noted edgeman John Wren and noted herbal enthusiast Jon Martello. We experience some technical difficulties at various points so please forgive us in advance. We begin by giving a shout out to Chris and LVAC, and then talking about what we’ve seen recently. We talk about the recent Jordan Peele film Get Out as well as the recent X-Men film Logan. The topic for this episode is Rob Zombie somewhat divisive position in the horror community. Justin opens the discussion by postulating that by all rights Rob Zombie should make nothing but outstanding horror films. His background in the horror genre, his knowledge of the genre, and his background in filmmaking should make every single one of his films incredible. And we do believe he is absolutely capable of making great horror films. However, we here at Horror Business are not one hundred percent sold on the works of Rob Zombie as a whole. We dig quite deep in this episode, we get quite heated with one another and tempers flare, but in the end we agree that Zombie’s major strengths are his knowledge of horror films and his ability to capture and create creepy and evocative imagery,  while his weaknesses are his inability to capture how people actually talk to one another, the bullshit and forced folksy way of talking in many of his films (what Jon Martello refers to “Rob Zombie similes), the weak dialogue in his films, his at times excessive and inappropriate violence, and his allowing of sub par performances from actors in his films. Of particular note in this episode is John’s impressive knowledge of Zombie’s work, both musically and cinematically. Gigantic thanks to John and Jon for being gracious enough to come up to the Valley and sit with us for a few hours while we carry on about nonsense. You guys are awesome and forever welcome to come back. As always thanks to everyone and anyone who checked this episode out, or shared a tweet/shared a post on FB/gave us love by recommending us to someone. We love you forever for listening. Any questions, comments, suggestions for movies and guests, or if you yourself want to join us for a movie viewing or even an episode, can be sent to thehorrorbiz@gmail.com. Thanks always to Justin Miller and Doug Tilley for their technical contributions and fliers, Mike Smaczylo for the awesome fliers, and also thanks to Josh “The Final Countdown” Alvarez for the theme song, Chris and LVAC for the support and buttons (check them out at www.xlvacx.com), and a HUGE thank you to anyone who retweeted us or shared something on Facebook that we posted. Follow us on Twitter at @thehorrorbiz666, like us on Facebook at facebook.com/thehorrorbiz66, and remember to rate, review, and subscribe to us on ITunes. In fact, if you write us a review, email us with your mailing address and we’ll send you some free pins and stickers! Until next time…thanks!   The post

In this second Dunning Kruger hour - active #auspol members Tim Jones and John Wren talk about politics of the day including John's new Resist initiative...

Listen in to this replay of a live discussion with #auspol Twitter Community Members Tim Jones @forthleft2 & John Wren @johnwren1950 where they talk a range of issues including neo-liberalism & the Labor Party under Keating, Rudd & politics of the day

Whats up people! Episode #13 here. On this episode our guests are John Wren and Mike Barlow. John is the singer of BottomFeeder and Mike hosts The Impermanence Podcast. On this episode we talk about John’s love for EDM music, the Misfits reunion and White Zombies astro creep 2000 set at Riot Fest in Chicago, some hate on the new Metallica album, Martin Shkreli and the Wu-Tang album, local radio, the American werewolf in London remake, the herion epidemic in Philadelphia and much more. This was a great episode filled with many laughs. Enjoy! Songs By: 1. Meraine 2. Dark Tranquility 3. The Last Ten Seconds Of Life 4. Oathbreaker 5. Drawing Last Breath 6. Lifeless Check us out: www.soundcloud.com/illstreetnews www.facebook.com/groups/illstreetnews/ www.facebook.com/theillstreetnewspodcast www.twitter.com/ISN_Podcast BottomFeeder https://www.facebook.com/bottomfeederhxc The Impermanence Podcast https://www.facebook.com/ImpermanencePodcast SHARE and SUBSCRIBE!!!

Episode 5 of The Ill Street News Podcast! We sit down with our guest John Wren of Bottomfeeder and talk about horror movies, Johns band, local hardcore/metal and our high school senior project band. We also have an interview with Joe Stanley(Departed, Nameless Prints)and Daryl(Departed)Hope you enjoy. Follow and Listen on Soundcloud, Stitcher, Google Play, Youtube and iTunes

LOOK AT US KEEPING OUR PROMISES LIKE SOME SORT OF SQUARES! IT IS A NEW EPISODE OF THE NOTORIOUS C.I.N.E.P.U.N.X.     Oh, hai guise. Welcome to the latest installment of our MONTH OF HORRORS! We sat down with Mosh Master, Horror Hound, and Vocalist extreme John Wren! You may know him from his band BOTTOMFEEDER  or you may have read some of his film reviews on STEREOKILLER  or you may have had him mosh you into oblivion during an ALL OUT WAR set or for that matter NEW FOUND GLORY or GWAR. dude gets around. As one of the first dudes I remember knowing from both shows and who made an effort to see cool movies, I was stoked to have him on the show. He and Josh hit it off too, and Josh declared that they are now friends, so that is a plus. We spent more time discussing the new Austrian film GOODNIGHT MOMMY, than I think we intended. Our hope was that the film would lead to a richer discussion of horror in general, and though we had a good conversation, it wasn’t as broad as I know we could have done. I of course talk too much as usual, cause I am a monster. RELEVANT LINKS: FRIZZI 2 FULCI EVENT SINCERITY FEST SOLD OUT DILLINGER 4 SHOW TURKISH FILM BASKIN SCREENING AT PHILADELPHIA FILM FEST A VERY SCARY SLEEPOVER: WES CRAVEN’S HALLOWEEN NIGHTMARE MAHONING DRIVE IN THEATER (we only briefly mention but we love them) EXHUMED FILMS ( they are co-promoting the FRIZZI 2 FULCI event and of course HORRORTHON is coming up)   Hey, do us a favor, and share this episode with your friends. ALSO, share some of these events with your friends. We love supporting folks we care about DO YOU HAVE AN EVENT OR A FILM YOU WANT US TO PROMOTE? GET IN TOUCH!! we are not always the best at email, but we will try DO YOU WANNA WRITE FOR THE SITE? GET IN TOUCH! We are picky about content, not about people! SOUND NOTES: sounds great! The ALL OUT WAR song will be a little long for anyone who doesn’t like ALL OUT WAR so sorry I guess. ok, we out.     The post EPISODE 37: WE TALK GOODNIGHT MOMMY WITH SPECIAL GUEST JOHN WREN! appeared first on Cinepunx.

LOOK AT US KEEPING OUR PROMISES LIKE SOME SORT OF SQUARES! IT IS A NEW… The post EPISODE 37: WE TALK GOODNIGHT MOMMY WITH SPECIAL GUEST JOHN WREN! appeared first on Cinepunx.

IT IS THAT TIME OF YEAR AGAIN!!! What time of year is that you ask? Well, time for our very special THIS IS HARDCORE FEST EDITION!! We are hoping to make this our running tradition of setting up a table at the fest and asking folks to sit down for one to two questions and editing that into an episode for you all to enjoy! SOUND NOTES TO THE FRONT! Usually we address any and all sound issues at the end of the show notes, but we wanted to get at them first thing for a number of reasons. Recording at the fest is a LOT of fun, but it is a rough and tumble affair and it is easier to make mistakes then in a more controlled environment. So, the first thing you will notice is that our intro cuts short. That was a mistake of saving improperly, so we lose the meat of what Liam was saying, which of course doesn’t matter AT ALL, but we also missed out on all the thank you’s THANK YOU TO JOE AND CHRIS AND ALL THE STAFF OF THIS IS HARDCORE FEST FOR MAKING THIS HAPPEN AND ALLOWING US TO BE A PART OF IT LIAM SAYS THANK YOU TO JOSH FOR DOING THIS BY HIMSELF MOSTLY WHILE LIAM WORKS FOR THE FEST AND WE BOTH HAVE TO SAY THANK YOU TO OFFICIAL AFFILIATED CINEPUNK JUSTIN LORE FOR EVEN HOSTING SOME OF THE INTERVIEWS, YOU ARE ON THE TEAM MAN Basically, Justin stepped in when Josh needed a break (WUSS) and helped out so we owe him, and he is a part of the podcast now, forever. The second reason we wanted to address sound issues immediately was to apologize to some of the guests on the show. We had issues this year with wind sheer on the mics, and some of you had significant portions of your interviews cut for just noise levels. Sorry! Anyone who would like to come BACK on the show and address something you said which got cut off, we are totally open to that. Hit us up! We also want to say THANK YOU to anyone and everyone who stopped by the table to talk to us! Below is a list of the folks who participated! PLEASE KEEP IN MIND-The following version of your name was patiently discerned by Josh from your handwriting, so if we spelled it wrong just let us know, but many of you do not seem to have full control of your limbs, based upon your handwriting abilities! Please share this episode with your friends and family, subscribe to us in Itunes, and rate us as well! 1. Erkka Korpi (of FORESEEN) 2. Corey Carpentier 3. Chris Pigaro 4. Ian Weidner 5. Loren Lepre (of AVERAGE SUPERSTAR FILMS) 6. Justin Lore (vape apologist) 7. Drew Stotts 8. $KAM DU$T (um, come on, you know!) 9. Evan Vellela 10. Michael Kennedy – (of PULLING PUNCHES) 11. Stephen Welch 12. Chris X – 13. Eric Weiss (of RUMPSHAKER) 14. Kitty Mulv 15. Mike Smaczylo 16. Tony Erba (of FUCK YOU, PAY ME as well as like a million great Cleveland bands) 17. Donny Mutt (of VENGEANCE and NATION OF WOLVES and other bands you may dig) 18. Jake Barbaril 19. Christian Litus 20. Matt McGroarty (of THE HARDCORE KIDS CORNER podcast) 21. Grace Ryung Kim 22. Bruce Park 23. Joe Gough 24. Aaron Heard (of JESUS PIECE) 25. Jackson D. Green ( of EYES IN THE NIGHT) 26. Brian Yan 27. John Wren 28. Brian Yan 29. Ishibashi Kenjiro (of SAND) 30. Evan Miller 31. CPM (of H20 and NONE MORE BLACK) 32. Jeremy “Bubba” Braddock (formerly of 100 DEMONS currently runs HARDCORE SWEET CUPCAKES) 33. Aaron “Raza” 34. Tom McCaferty 35. Rambo Choe 36. Ki Seok Seo – (of THE GEEKS) OK THANKS EVERYONE, SHARE WITH YOUR FRIENDS, ORDER A T-SHIRT, POST ABOUT US ON REDDIT, RATE US ON ITUNES, SEND A LINK TO THIS IN A SNAIL MAIL TO YOUR GRAND PARENTS, BE AMAZING! The post EPISODE 33: THIS IS HARDCORE FEST EPISODE- FEAT.MEMBERS OF SKAMDUST, FORESEEN, SAND, FUCK YOU PAY ME, THE GEEKS AND MORE!! appeared first on Cinepunx.