Independent Spirit - March to the Beat of Your Own Drum with Erik Huberman

The Jake Dunlap Show

Joining this episode of The Jake Dunlap Show is third generation serial entrepreneur and marketing expert, Erik Huberman, CEO of Hawke Media.

In this episode, Jake goes back in time with Erik as they uncover the steps he’s taken to build one of the fastest growing marketing consultancies in the US. As a third-generation entrepreneur, Erik knew the kind of shoes he had to fill but remained steadfast - knowing deep inside that he had what it took to make it work.

Having grown up in an environment that encouraged him to explore, Erik shares about how much of his qualities were attributed to attending a school that allowed its students to march to the beat of their own drum and how this allowed him to possess an early realization for self-awareness. Being naturally competitive, he knew that his main competitor was himself, he recalls his first entrepreneurial experience reselling beanie babies and ended up earning four grand as an eight-year-old.

Erik talks about his first job in high school and why he never wanted to work for someone ever again which prompted him to learn to take things as an independent spirit. While earning his Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration at the University of Arizona, he set off to find career options starting in a real estate office, then moving to a sales and marketing company, and on to handling/running a start-up - when he graduated he was faced with the question of what he wanted to do in his life.

Erik realized two things: that he was good at building businesses from scratch and had a passion for e-commerce brands. Erik shares how things are run differently at Hawke Media and expands on the importance of changing the traditional approach when it comes to marketing brands, making it more client-centric and authentic. He also touches on the subject of overcoming challenges and how the best way to go about it is by facing it head on.

Listen to the full podcast and find out more about Erik Huberman’s story of perseverance and finding the next best opportunity.

QUOTES:

• On working: “I want to make money because I deserve to make money. Not because someone thinks I deserve to make money.”
• On working while still in school: “My thought around working in school was I want to go get a job. That's going to teach me something. That's either going to help me figure out what I want to do. Long-term or give me a skill that I can carry with me with whatever I do.”
• On the importance of word choice: “I think that taught me so much about sales because there's little word choices and nuance and communication are the difference between getting a deal on the spot on the spot. I honestly think through his volatility, I learned a lot of sales skills.”
• On making career decisions: “At the end of the day, you do have to make the right choice for you.”
• On his company’s purpose: “There's gotta be a solution here that things can be accessible, but also really great meaning like, and so our mission statement to this day is accessibility to great marketing for everyone.”
• On running businesses: “Shit is going to happen all the time. You run a business, you're always going to be putting out fires.”
• In facing challenges: “It's like, if that's actually what's coming. What I do right now, doesn't matter. So let's just lean into it and go for it because if it works: awesome. And if it doesn't, we're probably in a lot bigger problems than, oh, I spent some time on my business. It didn't work out.”

More about Erik

Erik Huberman is the CEO and founder of one of the fastest growing marketing consultancies in the US – Hawke Media, a full-service Outsourced CMO based in Los Angeles, CA that provides guidance, planning, and execution for brands, industries, and business models to grow and expand. To date, his company has serviced over 2000 brands, from start-ups like Tamara Mellon, SiO Beauty, and Bottlekeeper, to household names like Red Bull, Verizon Wireless, and Alibaba.

Erik is one of the most sought-after thought leaders in the world of digital marketing, sales, and business who’s had a successful run of founding, growing, and selling two e-commerce companies prior to establishing Hawke Media. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration from the University of Arizona.

Also known as keynote speaker, Erik is featured in different speaking engagements of all sizes where his distinctive style of storytelling comes into play with the way he shares his unique insights and true-to-life experiences that demonstrate the moral dimension of the corporate world. He mainly addresses topics on entrepreneurship, personal values, win/win business practices, and e-commerce with authority. He is also recognized as a regular contributor to major publications like Forbes, Entrepreneur and CSQ.

Throughout the course of his career, Erik has been the recipient of multiple awards including, Forbes “30Under30,” CSQ “40Under40”, Inc. Magazine’s “Top 25 Marketing Influencers,” and Best in Biz North America’s “Marketing Executive of the Year.”

Find out more about Erik Huberman through the following links:

• LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/erikhuberman/
• Website (Personal) - https://www.erikhuberman.com/
• Website (Hawke) - https://hawkemedia.com/

Learn more about Jake Dunlap and Skaled by visiting the links below:

Jake Dunlap:

• Personal Site - http://jakedunlap.com/
• LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jakedunlap/
• Twitter - https://twitter.com/JakeTDunlap
• Instagram - http://instagram.com/jake_dunlap_
• Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/JakeTDunlap/

Skaled:

• Website - https://skaled.com/
• LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/skaled
• YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsw_03rSlbGQkeLGMGiDf4Q