Intro Voice Guy [00:00:14]:
You’re listening to Entrepreneur’s Enigma, a podcast about the ups and downs of the entrepreneurial journey. Every week, your host, Seth Goldstein, interviews entrepreneurs from all walks of life about their entrepreneurial journeys. From store owners to fortune 500 CEOs, we all have stories to tell. So sit back and join us for the next 20 or so minutes while we explore the entrepreneurial world.
Seth [00:00:49]:
Hey, everybody. Welcome to another edition of Entrepreneur’s Enigma podcast. I am, as always, your host, Seth. Today, I have a buddy of mine, Jason Bernard. It’s Bernard. Right? Barnard. Yeah. Is that right?
Jason Barnard [00:01:01]:
That’s exactly it.
Seth [00:01:03]:
Barnard. I got it. I got it. He is also the brand SERP guy. He has the hashtag the brand SERP guy, because guess what? He talks about how to get your brand in the SERP. What a concept. Well, he is the chief bottle washer at Kalicube, and is it it’s kalicube.com. Right?
Jason Barnard [00:01:23]:
Yep. That’s exactly it.
Seth [00:01:24]:
Kali cube with a k. So k Exactly. Licube.com. He has a fantastic newsletter, which I subscribe to, and it’s marvelous, absolutely marvelous. He’s got big PDF download as well where you can it’s free. It’s free. So there’s no reason why you shouldn’t go get it. It’s well, he’s I think he’s super hyped for the show.
Seth [00:01:44]:
It’s, like, a 70 plus page document on how to implement brand SERP and know of the Kalicube method, which is insane that it’s free. So come on, dude. Why you why is it doing why is it doing for free, buddy? Come on, man.
Jason Barnard [00:01:57]:
Right. I’ll tell you exactly why because the Kalicube process is the process that I invented, and it’s a universal approach to digital marketing for any person or any corporation that works every time and it’s future proof.
Seth [00:02:11]:
Oh. And Future proof. Yeah.
Jason Barnard [00:02:13]:
Yeah. Well, it’s universal and it’s free future proof. So I figured that everybody needs it. We can’t serve everybody in the world. So we give it away for free, and anybody who feels that this is really, really important to their business or the personal brand, and understands that we’ll do it faster. We’ll do it more reliably. We use data to do it 2,000,000,000 data points. And we’ll save them head space and time and avoid them making the mistakes that that people inevitably make.
Jason Barnard [00:02:40]:
Get us to do it for you. We don’t need a 1000000000 clients.
Seth [00:02:43]:
No. You can’t handle
Jason Barnard [00:02:44]:
We only need a 100.
Seth [00:02:45]:
Exactly. You you can you can help the people who really need you and then help the pea everyone else out, which is nice and plus get them on your newsletter. So that’s kinda key.
Jason Barnard [00:02:53]:
Yeah. It’s all smart marketing.
Seth [00:02:55]:
It’s all smart marketing. Smart marketing and smart as s you know, the the acronym smart marketing as well.
Jason Barnard [00:03:01]:
Oh, yeah. That’s true.
Seth [00:03:03]:
Yeah. Exactly. I was thinking out of the box. So, Jason, how did you get started in this whole realm? I mean, everyone in this in the SEO community kind of has heard of you. Your your name kind of is SEO, especially the brand SERP side of things. Mhmm. It’s kinda we see brand SERP, it’s, you know, Jason.
Jason Barnard [00:03:19]:
Jason Yeah.
Seth [00:03:20]:
The guy yeah. How how does all get started? How did you have you always been an entrepreneur or, like, how’s that work?
Jason Barnard [00:03:25]:
Right. Well, and first of all, SERP SERP is search engine results page. So that comes from the SEO background. But I’m now a digital marketer, and I help people with their personal brand and their corporate brand online. And as you said, it gives you brand visibility across all the different platforms including search. But I come from search, but I’m not a search guy anymore. I’m a marketing You’re recovering.
Seth [00:03:48]:
You’re recovering.
Jason Barnard [00:03:50]:
Yeah. Ret recovering recovering SEO. But I got into SEO through multiple stages I started off with an economics degree
Seth [00:04:00]:
That’s how this can be helpful I can see that yeah
Jason Barnard [00:04:03]:
Then as many people do from an economics degree segued into punk folk music and I became a professional punk folk musician.
Seth [00:04:12]:
Oh, punk folk. Wow. That’s interesting. So punk done on acoustic pretty much.
Jason Barnard [00:04:18]:
Yeah. You got it. Nailed it. And that’s where my entrepreneurial journey started because we had the group, we were playing in the street, we wanted to make an album, we wanted to really
Seth [00:04:26]:
your busters. Yeah.
Jason Barnard [00:04:27]:
Yeah. But then we wanted to go pro, we want us playing for the stadiums full of people, and I created a record company in order to release our first record. So that was my first entrepreneurial step, and I created a record company, record the record, paid for the record, distributed the record, and we sold in total 40,000 albums over 6 years.
Seth [00:04:46]:
It’s not a lot, but it’s a lot. I mean, especially in this one, when is your own company and you don’t have Universal Music Group behind it, that’s a crapload.
Jason Barnard [00:04:55]:
Yeah.
Seth [00:04:55]:
But but then if you’re looking at Universal Music Group, that’s a that’s a modest amount. But still, 40,000 over 6 years, that’s a that’s a lot. 40,000 is a lot. That’s not that’s not not that.
Jason Barnard [00:05:04]:
Well, I mean, as a band, if we’d been signed to a major album major label, we’d have been getting, you know, 50¢ or a dollar per sale.
Seth [00:05:13]:
We’re gonna take a quick break, hear from our sponsors, and get right back to the show. Yeah.
Jason Barnard [00:05:18]:
We we got out of the $15 CD, we got $13. So Bravo. Bravo. That’s
Seth [00:05:27]:
how you do it.
Jason Barnard [00:05:28]:
That’s entrepreneurship. That’s entrepreneurship is how
Seth [00:05:31]:
you can get the most out of what you’re doing so you’re not, you know and someone else take all the money and use good, you know, 50¢ on on a dollar, which is ridiculous or the pound or the euro or whatever. The combination of currency we’re talking about because you’re a Brit in France, so go figure.
Jason Barnard [00:05:47]:
Go figure. Exactly. And the the interesting thing though is I no longer have the company. I sold it to my business partner who came in afterwards Yeah. And it’s still going strong. It’s 30 yeah. 33 years. Bravo.
Jason Barnard [00:06:00]:
Still going strong, still profitable. And you
Seth [00:06:02]:
can look at your baby all grown up. It’s awesome.
Jason Barnard [00:06:04]:
It is lovely. Isn’t it? And then I segued into children’s entertainment. And I made TV series, websites, games for kids, multimedia content for kids. That company we started in the year 2000.
Seth [00:06:19]:
Oh, the
Jason Barnard [00:06:20]:
year 2000? Yeah. Exactly. And it’s still going strong, still profitable 24 years later, but I don’t own it anymore. So then I moved on to Kalicube and Kalicube is all about, brand online, maximizing the value and the, benefit that what what your brand brings you online. In communicating correctly and across the right platforms to the right people at the right time, you can make a very, very, very solid business online.
Seth [00:06:52]:
But there’s a red thread through your whole journey if you think about it because it’s all been marketing. It’s all been branding. It’s all been your personal brand and your you know, there’s a red thread through the whole thing.
Jason Barnard [00:07:03]:
The red thread, which is the red threads I’m wearing, the red shirt.
Seth [00:07:06]:
And he’s even ready for those who are listening, he’s wearing a red shirt. For those who are watching, you can see the red shirt. So there you go.
Jason Barnard [00:07:11]:
Brilliant. Yeah. And it’s interesting that you should say that because for me I was doing music and I was doing cartoons and I was really focused on the the creativity and what I was doing as opposed to the business side or the marketing side.
Seth [00:07:25]:
Yeah.
Jason Barnard [00:07:26]:
But in fact with Kalicube now it’s business marketing and doing in that order, whereas up until now, it’s been doing things, marketing and business.
Seth [00:07:37]:
But it’s all you know, you know you’re good and you and you hire for the rest. You know, you you build something. You’re like, I’m done with this. Instead of just closing it down, you sell it off or you hand it over to your partner, and you say, keep running with it. And you have 2 babies out in the world that are still rocking and rolling. Pun pun kind of intended, I guess.
Jason Barnard [00:07:55]:
Mhmm. Yeah.
Seth [00:07:55]:
So punk rocking out in the real world. They can look and say, hey. I started that. That’s kinda cool. And look at them. I’m still going strong. You know? It’s like your babies are grown grown up.
Jason Barnard [00:08:04]:
Yeah. I I wouldn’t get this. I didn’t really realize it. I I didn’t really think about the fact that I was an entrepreneur and that these companies have been going 66 years cumulatively. Yeah. Profit based companies making a profit 66 years, and I did it. And then as you said, I left in the back. Yeah.
Jason Barnard [00:08:23]:
Yeah. Thanks very much. And I well, I left my babies with other people who were now managing them and doing absolutely fine, and now Kalicube’s my baby. And I’m How long
Seth [00:08:32]:
have you been Kalicube for?
Jason Barnard [00:08:34]:
9 years now.
Seth [00:08:35]:
There is a good run. Clearly, you’re on to something there.
Jason Barnard [00:08:39]:
Yep. Well, I think looking back on my career, every single one of these projects has taken 8 or 9 years to take off.
Seth [00:08:47]:
It’s an overnight it’s a 10 year overnight success that kind of thing.
Jason Barnard [00:08:50]:
Yeah. And this no this time I’m gonna I’m gonna hang on, this time I don’t have a business partner it’s just me and my team 22 people now in the Philippines Nice big team and I’ve learned that this is a business I’m running a business and I as a CEO of a company, I need to delegate to the leadership team the leadership team know what they’re supposed to do I get out of the way and they do the work and I’m here
Seth [00:09:15]:
more biz dev more the face of the company more like, you know, Jason that be like being Jason, essentially. You’re Jason. You’re the brand smart guy.
Jason Barnard [00:09:24]:
Easiest job in the world.
Seth [00:09:25]:
Yeah. You’d be yourself you personal you personal brand yourself, which is kinda cute.
Jason Barnard [00:09:29]:
Which went through to a nice kinda topic. I was thinking about it the other day. And in fact, I think we’ve just invented the solution to start ups. Yeah. And it’s all the Kalicube process. What the Kalicube process does is promote a brand using brand marketing and SEO in that order. And what I’ve realized with Kalicube, I built up my personal balance to the point at which my personal brand drives 80% of the sales.
Seth [00:09:54]:
Bravo. There you go.
Jason Barnard [00:09:56]:
Thank you. But my problem now is a startup is if I want to sell the startup and move on. Yeah. I I can’t sell it because it’s me. But what the Kalicube process can do is then build up the corporate brand to dominate and pull my focus away from me as the business leader at Kalicube to reduce that and flip it from 80/20 my brand selling to 80/20 the corporate brand selling then I can exit. That’s brilliant.
Seth [00:10:23]:
At some point. Yeah. At some point. Yeah. You you said you’re gonna hold on for a little while so I’m a I’m a hold you to that. Yeah. Yeah.
Jason Barnard [00:10:29]:
No. No. No. I’m I’m actually gonna stick around with kadaycoup because I I really love it, and the leadership team is is amazing and kind of building it as a as a group project, which we all really enjoy.
Seth [00:10:39]:
It’s fun. It’s fun.
Jason Barnard [00:10:41]:
Yeah. But I think kind of from a start up perspective, we talk to, investors who say, one of the problems with building up a personal brand, which is what we principally sell is, how do you build up the personal brand of a CEO or a founder of a corporation? They said, well, the problem is if we build that up too much, then we can’t sell the company for as much money because the person will then leave the company and the value of that person for the company is too high. But then if I say to them, what we can do is kick start with the personal brand and then defocus everything away from the personal brand and towards the the corporate brand Mhmm. Then you’ve got something you can sell. So we can we can kick start with the personal brand. We don’t have to stick with that over time because we control how the world perceives you and your corporation.
Seth [00:11:23]:
Okay. See, always thinking, buddy. Always thinking. So in your mind, since you’ve been an entrepreneur, even though you haven’t known it known it for this long Yeah.
Jason Barnard [00:11:32]:
What’s the
Seth [00:11:32]:
best thing about being an entrepreneur in your mind?
Jason Barnard [00:11:34]:
Freedom.
Seth [00:11:36]:
Absolutely. Then you you skip a beat?
Jason Barnard [00:11:38]:
Nope. Not freedom.
Seth [00:11:39]:
You can be in the south of France, rocking and rolling, you know, and having the best old time.
Jason Barnard [00:11:46]:
Yeah. Well, I live in the south of France. I travel a lot. I get to decide whether I travel, where I travel, I get to decide where I’m gonna live, I have a team who work for me and with me and this is the new thing for me as an entrepreneur, I used to do it all myself and I now have learnt the value of delegating and I’ve learned the the way to delegate.
Seth [00:12:09]:
Yeah.
Jason Barnard [00:12:09]:
And delegating is so hard. Sorry.
Seth [00:12:12]:
Oh, it’s very hard. It’s very hard to do and and it’s kind of the key is realizing that sometimes you just gotta take a step back
Jason Barnard [00:12:18]:
and if
Seth [00:12:19]:
things blow up, you fix them, you you adjust. You fix them, you adjust. You fix them, you adjust. Yeah. And this is how you gotta do it.
Jason Barnard [00:12:25]:
Yeah. And I think as an entrepreneur, you kinda think, well, I can do all of this, so why would I give it to anybody else? Why I trust other people, And understanding that you need to trust other people, that you need to step back and let them get on with it, and they will mess it up sometimes, and that’s part and parcel of the deal. And actually doing it, fooling it, believing it, and feel comfortable with it. It’s the feeling comfortable with it That’s so hard to master because if you don’t feel comfortable with it, you’re always thinking and always worried and stressed. And once you’re comfortable dedicating truly to your leadership team, life becomes a super breeze. It’s wonderful.
Seth [00:12:59]:
That’s awesome. But what keeps you up at night? You know, with especially with the business?
Jason Barnard [00:13:05]:
Less and less, actually. Not much. Less and less. As as the team step up and take over, my job is to get out of their way. I just give them the the the big the big ideas, the big lines. Stuff that keeps me up at night is less to do with and that’s it. Sorry. What keeps you up at night today is how do I solve the problems that everybody’s gonna have in 5 years time? Yeah.
Jason Barnard [00:13:32]:
And keep the company way ahead of the field. So in terms of digital marketing, we solved it today. What’s gonna happen in 5 years’ time? How can we prepare ourselves? Tomorrow?
Seth [00:13:40]:
What’s gonna happen tomorrow? I mean, seriously. I mean, this is worst time of 5 year. I mean, we used to say 5 years out. Oh, god. That that’s that’s really close. No. Now things are happening every week. Like, Google Google Google’s going crazy with with their algorithm changes, and it’s just like, oh my god, guys.
Seth [00:13:58]:
Calm down. Calm down.
Jason Barnard [00:14:00]:
Well, that’s the beautiful thing about when I say future proof is Google, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Apple, Bing, Chat GPT. They all function the same way now, and they will not change fundamentally how they function. And the Kalicube process is, and always has worked on understandability, deliverability, and credibility. And the point here is the machines need to understand who you are, what you do, which audience you serve. Believe that you’re a credible solution for their audience, for their users, and have the deliverable content from you that allows them to present you to their users. Love it. And that process is a universal across all these different machines. Mhmm.
Jason Barnard [00:14:41]:
And b, a timeless future proof because they will not fundamentally change the way they all work.
Seth [00:14:49]:
Love it. Love it. Love it. Love it. Love it. And so what is the most important thing we carry with you all the time besides the guitar?
Jason Barnard [00:14:57]:
When I was in the band, we traveled around Europe playing gigs. I always walked out the house thinking, did I forget my passport? Oh, no. The only thing that you have to have when you’re traveling is the passport, everything else is replaceable.
Seth [00:15:12]:
It’s
Jason Barnard [00:15:12]:
good. So passport, not every time you travel, but if you’re traveling internationally passport passport passport passport passport.
Seth [00:15:18]:
And now you’re That’s what
Jason Barnard [00:15:19]:
I’m using.
Seth [00:15:19]:
Europe you don’t have to do it anymore.
Jason Barnard [00:15:21]:
I mean,
Seth [00:15:21]:
I think because then I think because of Brexit, you have to because it to go to England. But other than that, yeah.
Jason Barnard [00:15:26]:
Yeah. That’s complicated a little bit. But, I’m now French and British, so I’ve got the French passport and the British passport.
Seth [00:15:32]:
Aren’t you fancy?
Jason Barnard [00:15:33]:
So when you go I am.
Seth [00:15:34]:
When you go home, you could use a British passport and you just get back. When go back, you can use a French passport and get back into the EU.
Jason Barnard [00:15:40]:
Yep. Exactly. You’ve you’ve absolutely nailed it. It’s really easy for me.
Seth [00:15:44]:
Man. Smart man. It’s a guy who’s got the US passport, which is terrifying. So we’ll do
Jason Barnard [00:15:48]:
that. Alright. So, yeah, I I don’t I don’t know in terms of every day for me Yeah. I should never go out professionally without the red shirt, and I spent 10 years making sure that I wear the red shirt every time I appear in public, for any professional engagement like this one.
Seth [00:16:07]:
Like Steve Jobs always wore the the black turtleneck. I mean, whether or not that was meant to be a I mean, knowing him, it was meant to be a brand push. It was clear Yeah. Personal brand thing. I think it started off that he just thought they were comfortable.
Jason Barnard [00:16:18]:
Yeah. Well, I can tell you now red shirts aren’t comfortable.
Seth [00:16:21]:
No. Collar shirts are not comfortable. They’re not. No? But they’re not not they’re not not comfortable. They’re just not the most comfortable out there. You know?
Jason Barnard [00:16:29]:
It’s No.
Seth [00:16:30]:
A t shirt’s better, but, you know, you got your brand. You gotta go with it. Like, I always walk around with the Goldsmithia shirt You know? And, you know, when I don’t, I have a new badge I put on instead, you know, and that kind of thing. I’m always branding something because you got you know? And that’s the thing about Goldsmithia. Goldsmithia is me. I’m Goldsmithia, and it’s just you know? And it’s one of the things. It’s like my I’ve never intended on ever selling Goldsmith Media.
Jason Barnard [00:16:53]:
My Oh, right now.
Seth [00:16:55]:
But you never know in the future. So it’s so that’s when you that’s when you do the CaliTube process. Exactly. Get that PDF. You have to sign up for the newsletter. So this is yeah. Well yeah. Yeah.
Jason Barnard [00:17:09]:
Yeah. That that’s kadescube.com, kalicub.com/guides. And if you go to g u g u I d e s, it will give you a page for a guide we’ve got. One of which is the katekiew process, another is how to get a knowledge panel, another is how to write content. Another is how to survive in a world of AI, Chat GPT, Google, Gemini, Bing, Copilot. The
Seth [00:17:31]:
glue and don’t jump off the Golden Gate Bridge. Those are 2 things you do and you so you’ll survive the AI if you just don’t listen to it all the time. If it sounds stupid, it probably is stupid. So
Jason Barnard [00:17:40]:
Yep. Very, very true.
Seth [00:17:41]:
Don’t put I’m just gluing your pizza. Don’t. Just don’t. You may not be toxic, but, you know, don’t do it.
Jason Barnard [00:17:47]:
I’d if we come back a wee step, I’ve just realized or I’ve just remembered or thought of the answer to what keeps me up at night. Oh. And what keeps me up at night now is the same thing that kept me up at night when I was doing the cartoons for kids and the same thing that kept me up at night when I was a musician in the punk folk band and that is being overexcited about what I’m gonna do the next day Oh. Because I love it so much.
Seth [00:18:12]:
That’ll keep you up. That will keep you up, jerk. I won’t get on to the next day. I won’t get on the next day. Sleep is overrated. I won’t go I’ll keep working. I won’t keep working.
Jason Barnard [00:18:19]:
It’s like being a kid. You get you’re always excited about the next day because it’s gonna be so much fun.
Seth [00:18:24]:
I love it. That’s the way it’d be. So, Jason, where is your Hangout online? Like, where do you hang out the most?
Jason Barnard [00:18:29]:
Well, in fact, if you wanna hang out with me, you can search my name on Google, Jason Barnard, j a s o n b a r n a r d. And the brand SERP, the search engine results page for my name gives you the choice of how you wanna engage with me. So you can choose my personal website, my corporate web website if you wanna work with us. LinkedIn if you wanna hang out on LinkedIn, look at what I post on LinkedIn. The list of articles if you wanna research more about what I’m talking about, videos of me talking about the kateq process, about managing brand on online.
Seth [00:19:00]:
That’s how you do it folks. That’s how you do it. Go to my Google. Google me. Yep.
Jason Barnard [00:19:06]:
And and that’s the point is when you can get to the point where live on air, I can say, just Google me, and you’ll find me, and you’ll know exactly how you can engage with me. That’s great personal brand management.
Seth [00:19:17]:
Bravo.
Jason Barnard [00:19:18]:
I like I like
Seth [00:19:19]:
Bravo. I mean, but literally, it’s not you’re just selling it. You’re proving it works.
Jason Barnard [00:19:25]:
Yeah. Walking the walk. But that’s what we tell our clients. That’s also how you you beat the algorithms. You beat the algorithms by walking the walk with your audience, engaging with them in a manner that makes sense to them, solves their problems in the right places, and the machines will see it and emulate, replicate what you’re doing with your human audience. It’s really simple.
Seth [00:19:47]:
Yes. And people overthink it way too much.
Jason Barnard [00:19:50]:
Yep. Definitely. We don’t overthink it. Yeah. We we we keep it that simple. It’s the 3 phases, understandability, credibility, and deliverability. Yeah. Brand and marketing packaged as SEO for the machines.
Jason Barnard [00:20:02]:
Walk the walk with the audience, the machines will simply replicate it. Simple as that. The the difference that we have when we’re working for our clients is we’ve got a database of 2,000,000,000 data points that allows us to identify exactly what you need to do and in what order.
Seth [00:20:16]:
Love it. So it’s calicube.com/guides.
Jason Barnard [00:20:21]:
Yep.
Seth [00:20:21]:
It’s calicube.com/newsletter to get his newsletter. And it’s jisanbarnard.com to see his smiling face.
Jason Barnard [00:20:32]:
Yes. That’s exactly it.
Seth [00:20:34]:
And his red shirt. Yeah. This is this brand. It’s this brand. You gotta do it, buddy. You gotta do it. Jason, this has been so much fun, and this has been such a thrill. I’ve been following your journey forever, so it’s been it kinda need to kinda finally connect.
Jason Barnard [00:20:46]:
Well, thank you. Well, I’m delighted, a, that you’re following my journey, and, b, that we did get this chance to connect and discuss. Yeah. You got the right time to discuss with me now that I’ve learned and realized that I’m an entrepreneur who happens to be a digital marketer as opposed to a digital marketer who happens to be an entrepreneur.
Seth [00:21:02]:
Yeah. That’s the right way of thinking about it is you gotta think about it that way. Reverse the 2, and it and it works out so much better. So, Jason, thank you so much for being on. Everyone, go to calicube.com/guidesor/newsletter. Get his goodies, connect with him all over the place. He’s a great guy, very friendly. He won’t put your head off.
Seth [00:21:21]:
He’s very jolly.
Jason Barnard [00:21:22]:
And Jolly jolly.
Seth [00:21:24]:
Jolly. And I And you’ve got
Jason Barnard [00:21:26]:
the English accent to go with it, which is delightful.
Seth [00:21:28]:
Seriously. You got that British accent that is, like, amazing. It’s, like, I love the British accent. Honestly, my son has to go to bed to he goes to bed and goes to sleep listening to pangent bear on audible Oh. With with, Hugh Bonneville reading reading it. And Hugh Bonneville has that good British accent. Right. And this lulls you to sleep.
Jason Barnard [00:21:47]:
Okay. I’m gonna try and improve mine so that I speak like this much more like the central delightful southern English people with a posh accent. Safa’s gone to sleep.
Seth [00:22:01]:
Safa’s gone to sleep. On that note, we’ll see everyone next week.
Intro Voice Guy [00:22:06]:
That was a great show. If you’re enjoying Entrepreneur’s Enigma, please consider giving us a review in the podcast directory of your choice. Every review helps us reach new listeners. If you like Entrepreneur’s Enigma, consider the other shows on the marketing podcast network at marketingpodcast.net.
Seth [00:22:41]:
Goldstein Media hopes you have enjoyed this episode.