232: Rewriting the Book on Marketing with Tyler Elliston
Tyler Elliston – Right Side Up
Summary
Welcome to another episode of the Startup Junkies Podcast! In this episode, Caleb Talley, Jeff Amerine, and Matthew Ward talk with Tyler Elliston, founder of Right Side Up. Tyler spent six years as an in-house marketer for a handful of companies, and he founded Right Side Up to create a new avenue for companies looking for marketing help. In Right Side Up, Tyler started a third way that was different from marketing agencies and staffing firms. Tyler chats with the guys about creating a new style of marketing company, learning from failures, and what inspires him. Thanks for tuning in!
Shownotes
(1:47) Introducing Tyler Elliston and Right Side Up
(6:28) Learning from failures
(10:43) Landing big clients and defining success
(16:52) What does work look like post-COVID?
(20:25) B2B marketing advice
(23:14) Influencer marketing
(29:43) What inspires Tyler?
(31:33) Advice for the younger self
(33:33) Wrap up
Links
Quotes
“When I started consulting and thought about building a business around consulting, I wanted to do it in a way that was different than the traditional agency model.” (2:50)
“I feel like I got so caught up in that state of having a good idea and the excitement that I felt, the feeling of like, I’m on the verge of something great, something big, like an idea that’s going to be impactful. Almost to the point that it would slow me down from really making progress on it, because I was afraid that it might not pan out.” (9:36)
“I do think our model can certainly grow very large in the context of big agencies and sort of providing an alternative to that…but honestly, right now, we’re just trying to do great work within the space we’re in.” (15:18)
Rewriting the Book on Marketing with Tyler Elliston
Tyler Elliston joined Caleb Talley, Jeff Amerine, and Matthew Ward for this week’s episode of the Startup Junkies Podcast. Tyler founded his company Right Side Up just over four and a half years ago with the dream of creating a new business model for marketing companies. Now, almost five years later, Right Side Up has rewritten the book on what is possible for businesses in the marketing space.
Tyler spent six years as an in-house marketer, and during that time, he dealt with and worked in conjunction with several marketing agencies. His experience dealing with marketing agencies turned out to be less than enjoyable, and he began taking notes of his frustrations.
When Tyler stepped out on his own as a consultant, he took his list of frustrations and sought to create a consulting business that was the opposite of what he experienced with agencies.
“When I started consulting and thought about building a business around consulting, I wanted to do it in a way that was different than the traditional agency model.” (2:50)
With Right Side Up, Tyler created a third avenue for growth marketing insights. It is not a marketing agency, nor is it a staffing firm. Instead, Right Side Up seeks to stand out and deliver its services differently. While its service offerings remain similar to that of marketing agencies – performance, lifecycle, and product marketing, as well as e-Commerce and offline marketing – Right Side Up stands out in the ways in which it delivers the services.
For the most part, Tyler has deconstructed the agency model and built it differently. He values A+ talent above all else, and he demands that Right Side Up find the best marketers in a variety of different specializations.
When the business partners with a company, Right Side Up doesn’t offer whoever is available to take the account, but they evaluate who is best fit to address their client’s specific needs. If they don’t have that person on their team already, they’ll get them.
Another thing that separates them from an agency is Right Side Up has a pro-poaching clause in all of their agreements. They encourage companies looking to build an in-house team to hire the people they’ve put on their projects.
It is clear that the goal is to buck industry norms and create a place where marketers want to work and a consulting business that other companies want to work with. Tyler has seen great success thus far, and Right Side Up has worked with big-name brands such as Masterclass, Fitbit, DoorDash, InstaCart, and Gillette. Even though the company has been a success, Tyler wants to live in the moment and do the best work he can now.
“I do think our model can certainly grow very large in the context of big agencies and sort of providing an alternative to that…but honestly, right now, we’re just trying to do great work within the space we’re in.” (15:18)
To get in contact with Right Side Up and start growing your business today, click here!
This episode was sponsored by Tiny Capital.
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