How to Raise Millions From Retail Investors Using Digital Marketing (with Jason Fishman)

**[00:00:00]** Hello everyone, my name is Armando Perez-Carreno and welcome to the Web Talk Show. Today with us is Jason Fishman from a digital niche agency or DNA. How are you Jason? Welcome. Doing great Armando, pleasure to be here. Oh, it's great to have you here. I think we're going to talk about something that's really relevant uh especially for anyone who has a business or is at a certain position in the business where they care about the business's growth and exposure. So before we get into it, can you tell us a little bit about yourself, where you started, how you got where you are right now? Absolutely. Absolutely. I'm a marketer, been doing this for over 15 years. uh started uh at a mobile advertising network here in Los Angeles working with Fortune 500s uh advertising across various devices publisher place points saw what work didn't work you know full spectrum of uh you know budget levels verticals timelines created my own agency as a growth marketing firm and quickly found fundraising to be a common theme a common initiative among our clientele whether we're working on the marketing section of their business plan that they were going to be presenting to an investor, their pitch deck, even being asked to participate in those investor meetings, it was always part of the conversation. So, at that point, I was introduced to regggd506c uh which for uh allows for solicitation of accredited investors, high- netw worth individuals. So, with my advertising background said, "Hey, I I could target these folks directly." Saw success. The first campaign was a solar campaign that raised $2.83 83 million on a very low ad spend was introduced to more issuers. From there, the laws opened up further to target retail investors through reg CF regulation crowdfunding and regulation A+. We could raise up to 75 million through these exemptions to retail investors. And to date, I've worked on over 500 of these deals. I've collectively raised hundreds of millions in capital. Uh and I do so through digital marketing, through content, advertising, **[00:02:00]** outreach. I showcase a lot of the findings on my podcast, Test Optimize, Scale, over 200 episodes there, and a number of other different content partners, uh, repurpose what we're doing. Uh, trying to show founders all the different ways you could raise capital, reach new investors online. Oh, that's amazing. That's talk about a niche. It's I I I I've It's like the opposite. You know, I remember a friend of mine many years back was looking for a job, right? And you know how talent out there like there's there's a lot of times there's a lot of u offers there's there's not enough places with the jobs and and depending on the market of course, but uh you you're like fighting for with everyone else, right? And so I told him because I was in the marketing space back then and I said, "Why don't you run an ad campaign?" Like I was thinking, "Why don't you do the opposite?" like spend a little bit of money but get yourself out there, right? I thought it was a good idea. He didn't do it, but I thought like why not do it the other way around and then have them get to you that way, right? Why not? Um, so I think what you're doing or what you did like it's it's sort of that that reverse way of looking at it where you're reaching the people. Um, that's very interesting. How how did you actually start? Like I know you you sort of bumped into it and then tried it and then just grew with it, but what was the trigger for you where you said, "Oh, this is an underserved market or like there's no one else doing it or I can do it in a better way." What triggered it for you to sort of stay in that lane? Sure. Well, I was part of some different companies that were raising capital uh during 2008, 2009, financial crisis uh but but basically amazing ideas, amazing companies, teams with very little **[00:04:00]** awareness of them and difficulty meeting the right individuals, meeting the right groups to fund their technology, fund what they were doing. It was always this thought, oh, if they only knew more people. I also saw all the inefficiencies of creating a pitch deck and all the different versions of it. I I myself created over 75 different versions of this pitch deck and participate in these meetings and saw how much time we were losing towards our actual goals having to focus on the fundraising process and that's when it's successful. When you look at how many startups don't make it past a year or past five years, the numbers, I've heard this said before, of they're not acceptable. And many of them aren't able to make it because they're under capitalized. So, I I had that feeling going into this. And then when I was introduced to uh ragd campaigns and there's different websites, different platforms running these deals almost as a marketplace where you know many of them were listed. One at the time was called Fundable, another uh Flash Fund, another Crowdfunder. I saw the CEO of Crowdfunders speak at an event here in Santa Monica and talk about the the the new exemptions that were coming, the new filings that were on the way. We're going to be able to target everybody. And it was a matter of when, not if. And it really opened up my eyes. I mean, the light bulb came on because, hey, suddenly I could use my digital marketing skill set to to connect new investors to these founders, to these teams. And that that's what these vehicles really do. They democratize access for founders to capital and for investors to growth stage private companies. You hear about valuations of if you if you would have invested in Facebook in 2005 or you know any of these unicorns what the upside would have looked like and that is now available to the investors as well as the founders all sides of the table. So once I learned about this ecosystem that was being created, I said, "Hey, I could be a value there and this is where I want to focus." Wow. What was your **[00:06:00]** focus on the investor side or on the business side? Who did you help initially? The businesses to get noticed or the investors to get well the other way around? Sure. The businesses. Uh the businesses are the ones contracting us. We're marketing on their behalf. And the investors should paint a picture a bit on a reg CF campaign. It could be thousands of investors to successfully hit the full goal of the round. So I'm a big numbers guy. In 2025, the average investment on a reg CF campaign was Meaning if you got a thousand investments, that'd be $1.7 million. Uh some of the Regulation A+ campaigns we work on, you can raise up to five million on reg CF regulation A+ that that's the big leagues. You can raise up to 75 million there. Uh we have a campaign that just surpassed 50 million last week. An influencer AI platform. I've worked on other campaigns that have surpassed higher amounts. One of them has over 57,000 investors. Think of all the marketing firepower you get behind uh th those crowds, you know, beyond just the capital every time they put out a post. They they have, you know, a volume of their shareholders repurposing across social media and their first degree networks through other other mediums and platforms. Uh not to mention the marketing campaign itself and how many impressions, how much traffic, how much visibility it gives the brand. It's well beyond the capital and at terms that the founders are setting at valuations that every investor has to you know operate off of the same terms. So I have worked with investors um VCs who say hey I have this portfolio these companies should really be talking to you. We've put in some funds. They could raise more capital **[00:08:00]** though. Maybe they should run one of these campaigns with you. We'll put the first trunch in there. show some traction and then you can market to to your audiences, do your thing, but at the end of the day, it's still the issuer, the company that's uh we're working on behalf of. Wow. That that uh it really opens one's eyes towards what's happening behind the scenes because I've I've heard of of these sort of retail investor platforms. some friends of mine um run one in Mexico and it's very interesting to see how they're getting these these companies um invested in by many people right this so it's like a a very different way of seeing it but the regardless of of the whole investment space what you just said I think is super powerful when someone has a stake in a company and or or any sort of representation or affiliation. If you want to do a social media post, you sort of have to disclaim it if you're doing affiliate marketing, that sort of thing, right? But in this case, even if they don't, like even if it's just resharing it, like just clicking share or like or commenting on it, that gives it an additional boost, right? So the fact that they have so many investors even if they don't do anything like create their own posts like just by the fact that the company maybe makes a post and then many of these people just share it or just comment on it or just like it that just magnifies the reach dramatically, right? Not to mention them creating their own thing, right? So I I hadn't thought about it that way, but that's that's very interesting. Does that does that really affect the It absolutely does. You see it when a brand and issuer is running multiple rounds. Meaning I've seen companies I've worked with them **[00:10:00]** uh where you know it's a $20 million valuation on their first round. They market they bring in new investors. They get featured by publishers. uh they do another round and at a higher given they they really need to be showing why they're worth more and work with accountants and lawyers on their filing where we're on the marketing side of the table but but to show you know hey this is you know based on the comparables how their you know growth has taken place. Uh but on that next round, they'll have a percentage of their past investors really pushing it to their audiences. And I said social media posts, you could just imagine if you're a shareholder in something and you know you're seeing advertisements or there's, you know, social media post or an email or an article. Let's say it's an article. You're probably sharing that with some of your friends, your family. Maybe it's in person at the office at dinner. Uh maybe it's over text message. Maybe it's a little email thread. Uh or perhaps you're, you know, a publisher, you have your own content channels. There are content creators that invest in these and then repurpose it to to their audiences. And and just to take that further and further and further, uh one company that, you know, I saw a $20 million valuation in 2020 is now at a $3.5 billion valuation. And really because of the success of these campaigns and they've run you know eight 10 of these campaigns higher higher higher higher levels have raised you know hundreds of millions of dollars doing so. So the success here uh leads to uh you know more awareness, more growth, more success as a company. Uh B2B contracts, BTOC interest. It is a marketing tool in its own right. being able to point to the fact that you let's say that that influencer AI company uh influencer uh platform that I was mentioning to you earlier **[00:12:00]** they can go to their B2B clients the largest agencies in the world and say hey we've raised over $50 million and from tens of thousands of investors over 15,000 investors at this point uh look at all these publishers who've covered us look at all these different things we've had headlinew worthy announcements on a weekly basis so it speaks very loudly and again beyond just the capital that's come through. Mhm. Yeah. Cuz it's worth a lot just the the the sheer amount of eyes on their content. That's sometimes I mean depending on where like a good a good PR stunt like Neurogum you know how they they were on Shark Tank got declined but then Joe Rogan goes on and with no affiliation says we just eat packs of them or whatever he said and it just completely exploded the company. That was PR magic, right? Worth much more than they could have gotten out of the investment, right? So this this is super interesting because it's not it's not what we typically hear at least on the consumer side. We hear a lot of oh these huge companies getting a big investment from one of these VC firms right or they they oh they got this investment they but we don't really hear too much outside the space of of the retail investment space and how that works and these platforms that exist. You mentioned there's multiple platforms like I I bet most people have no idea that these platforms even exist. You can get on the Start Engine or Weunder, Republic, Net Capital and see, you know, a volume of these campaigns live. There are then broker dealers with their own uh tech stacks to build this into your own offering page and not be listed on a marketplace and have, you know, the different automations you'd see for an e-commerce site. One of them is dealmaker, another issuance. Uh the list goes on. Um there's about 90 FINRA regulated portals. **[00:14:00]** Uh those are the sites, the marketplaces, the broker dealers that are offering uh to launch these campaigns uh to to manage uh the compliance around it as well uh for the issuers. And I remember seeing a stat I think it was like 4% of deals get funded at the VC the venture capital level. Uh I I think that is a misconception by the way too. Everyone thinks hey I've seen Shark Tank I just got to find some investors and pitch I think a lot of those top deals we hear there's some relationship in place. So whether the founder knew some investors, knew some different you know firms uh or a referral partner and you know they were the connector maybe there's a few dots connected uh but there are gatekeepers uh at these you know different uh financial institutions and it uh it can be difficult without those inroads to be able to get the attention of the right people. uh e even if you do have those inroads, it could be difficult to get the valuation the terms uh that that you're looking for from who you're pitching and that could make deals fall apart as well too. So to be able to set you know your terms and filing that's part of the democratization of it, right? Is all investors have to come in at the same terms. All investors are presented with the same in information. There's very strict rules around this. Uh but you can, you know, keep going back to the crowd. Uh and you know, spend on marketing, you know, buy media, uh buy some of those placements, uh you know, not with Joe Rogan, but with with different content creators, different influencers, different publishers. There's these different financial email newsletters, **[00:16:00]** and you could buy placements into them. You can earn media. You mentioned PR, whether it's, you know, outreach to publishers. It's going to be more of a numbers game. Relationships actually help there as well, too. But there's a way to do this. Uh, reaching out to podcasters and being featured on podcast. You talked about how, you know, impactful this medium is. And Joe Rogan's pushed many things on his podcast. Even, you know, presidential elections where it's looked at as, hey, you know, his voice is really what made the difference here. I actually chew neurogum. I think I got some on my desk here. So, I mean, maybe that's where I heard about it first. Definitely Alpha Brain and some other products that I have in my my office. Uh, but the more times we hear the same piece of information from the more sources, the more we believe it, right? So, to be able to have thought leaders, people we listen to regularly tell us about it absolutely works. And if they're talking about investing in your deal, you're likely going to see a lot more traffic, hopefully a lot more investments that When we talk about the crowd as you just did right now. Is it from an outsers's perspective? Is it only up to the point where hey I've got this company I want to set this this uh these terms etc etc and then people can come in and invest and then basically that's it. or is it an ongoing thing where then you can say hey I want to do this particular thing and then the crowd can decide to sort of push that particular objective. Does it work that way? Like is it is it sort of featurebased or or requirement based going forward or or is it just that you have to do a full round to get just more? How does that work? Sure. There's different ways that it's structured. REGG CF uh probably the it's what comes across my desk the most. You could **[00:18:00]** raise up to 5 million accredited or retail investors. You could file a form C. Uh there's amounts you could you know uh get started with uh as an example 1.235 million about a million and a quarter is a very common goal for us to see. After that you need audited financials uh versus reviewed. Uh so many groups will look to many issuers look to hit that goal, refile, raise more multiple seven figures or up to five million. Could actually do a sidebyside regggd and raise more from accredit investor audiences at the same time, but just focused on that reggg cf. Uh once that campaign's complete, it's it's up to the issuer. Uh they they do uh typically need to keep updating the investors. There's a form C- ar for c is annual reporting. So they need to you know provide those annual reports. As a marketer I would say you should be doing at least an annual webinar really quarterly monthly is more appropriate. Uh weekly emails monthly emails somewhere you know in between I would say quarterly max but but keeping people ab breast and because remember they they are your voice they are your shareholders. They'll push this stuff out further. I I've seen merger and acquisition activity come from the investor base that's come in. I've seen publishers. I've seen all types of franchise partners, strategic partners, uh you know, again, press like I I've seen press invest and then say, "Hey, do you want to hop on my show? Let me write an article about you. Let me send a newsletter to my investors." Uh anyway, they can move on to another round and they can market to all those same individuals and those investors can have the choice on whether they now want to you know fund this round and looking at what's set up and uh you know looking at the use of proceeds from the last round and how they grew. So there are definitely investors that I see participate round after round after round similar to what you're describing. **[00:20:00]** Interesting. So a lot of high-profile people in the investment space will say that uh it's better to invest in a business well a business that works right than some other things right because you can you can get a higher return more likely uh etc. So a lot of people don't get access to that or at least they don't think they have access to that. So, you could just be moving on along your day and then you hear Alex Herozi or someone say, "Hey, you should invest in a business." And then they're like, "Well, yeah, I don't have $100,000 to invest in a business, like in another business or a million dollars or whatever." And then they just think they're out of the game. But, uh, it looks like there are possibilities for people to just say, "Oh, I I want to see what businesses are out there that are looking for investors, and maybe I can make these sort of smaller investments in in this type of pool-based system. Is that am I am I understanding this right? Yes, absolutely correct. So there's a lot of benefits to that by the way for the individual for the investor they could come in at low amounts reg CF regulation A+ I would say the minimum vest investment which is set as a term by by the CEO in in the filing typically between $100 and $1,000 reg CF a lot of them between 100 and 500 uh regulation A+ more along the lines kinds of 500 to a,000 but but in that range you'll see $100 deals on both. So a lot of investors will come in at that minimum amount low risk could be impulse going along for the ride there. There's different motivations to invest in one of these deals often times around the experience. We want to be you know an investor in this type of company in this vertical that's growing. I keep **[00:22:00]** reading about in the news. I like the founder. I like what they're doing. We want we want to be part of it. They're not saying, "Hey, I'm going to retire off of it." And if I were a financial manager sitting here with you, I'd probably say, "Hey, it's important that it sits within the 10% of the high-risk, high return sections of the portfolio. You know, you want it to be balanced. You'd want to have a number of investments. I I don't advise on on that side of it, but that's the type of approach you'd want to be taking to it from from the investor side. Uh on the issuer side of the table, there's strength in numbers. If there is an economic downturn, it could be very difficult to get those $100,000, $250,000, million checks. Doesn't matter who you're pitching. there's different types of concern uh different types of strategies and as a trying to pitch you know as a private company uh looking at what the liquidity events could be off of that like hey you going to go public are you going to sell am I going to be getting some type of revenue share what are the payouts there's a lot more questions right uh but if you're asking people for let's call it th000 $2,000 average investments It's uh it's a much different type of question. So, we'll see, you know, venture capital markets slow down. This space will will still be moving. It has its own ups and downs. I don't want to make it sound like everything's perfect there. Um there there were 30% less CFS last year. Uh raised more than in 2024. So, you know, a lot of good things to point at, but I I don't want to say this is the primary approach towards raising capital, which I do believe it will be in years to come as it gains more mainstream adoption. You I'm explaining to people what investment crowdfunding is. I'm explaining to people what investor acquisition using digital marketing tools is every day. **[00:24:00]** It I think you're on the right track there. It's the the crowd part of it. I I see it in multiple different industries starting to not necessarily starting but I mean starting to become a little more mainstream even in the health space you know there's there's uh one of our guests was talking about uh crowd health I think it's called but there are these crowdfunded health platforms which basically they're not insurance but they have a they have a crowd and then the crowd funds the the health events. So someone has a health event then the crowd pays for it and you have limits and stuff and so you know how much you're going to pay each month max. If you get asked maybe you don't get asked stuff like that and so like you were saying there's there's strength in numbers and with all the social things that we've had these sort of thing I think will continue to expand into other places cuz yeah why not why people like to help each other at the end of the day. So if if you can do it in a way where you can help but then also it it can give you returns and then also like I think the the example you just made of the economic downturn that's a perfect example because if everything is slowing down I know it's not a magic like yay everything has rainbows but uh regardless like it's much more likely just thinking about the logic of it that a company can reach out to an audience that they already have. And we've seen it in the personal space where someone had an issue and then it went viral and a lot of people pitched in one $2 or whatever and they got to help that person because people want to help, right? So the big funds might just close doors temporarily while everything smooths out while crowds might be like, "Yeah, for sure. Here, here's **[00:26:00]** $500 or whatever." because it doesn't hurt them so much, but it can help the other side I've seen it in the medtech and health tech space where founders have shared with me that a lot of those doors have been closed over the past few years. Different types of government regulation and funding and different types of uh obstacles that have presented themselves for investors. So, so more of those companies have been using these vehicles and it's the crowd effect that you're really shooting for as a marketer to get this campaign out there. There's uh pros and cons to the crowd effect where let's say you have under $100,000 raised on your deal. It doesn't inspire the same confidence as a company that has over 500k, over a million, uh, four million of five million or 50 million of 75 million, 50 million of 60 million raised. Those issuers appear to have a line around the Picture that. You're you're you're driving through town, you end up at a restaurant that's empty. No one else is there. The menu looks good. interior design, everything you looks like a nice spot, but no one else is there. It even feels off, you know, hey, is there something about this place that that happened or that I don't understand or, you know, the owner what's going on? Meanwhile, you see a place across the street with a line around the block and you don't even know what they serve. You don't know what the product is. You're saying, "Oh, I'd like to try that. I I want to I want to go there. I want to eat there." Uh, we gravitate towards what has social proof around it. So if there is an advertisement saying this company you know could this company cure cancer you know question mark and it's from a publisher thought leaders saying it it's not the issuer saying it uh you know or you know some device that's allowing people to hear that you know have had heart of hearing **[00:28:00]** uh history uh and thousands of investors millions raised all different types of podcasters uh and journalists and people talking about it. It's like, "Wow, that that's really interesting stuff." You know, I I want to be a shareholder there. I'm going to put in a couple thousand dollars. I'm put in a thousand. You know, not looking at what the stock market did that day necessarily as much as I'm so enrolled in this story and what they're doing and the impact in the world or even just, you know, disruption in the industry and this company's going to grow. I I can I can have some funds in that and maybe they go public at a much larger level or exit at a much larger level. They're comparables in their industry there, you know, hundreds of million dollar, you know, valuations, billion dollar valuations. These guys are 10 million, 40 million, somewhere in between. I I should get involved now. It's more of that psychology, more of that process that's behind the investors and how marketers, how issuers are able to, you know, really build a campaign that brings in the masses and gets, you know, a high volume of impressions and traffic and a small conversion rate cuz that's typically what happens with digital marketing. But if the transactional value is high enough, if you're paying for advertising, every hundred, $200, $500 you spend, you're seeing a new investor come in, even if that investor is only for a couple grand, that return on ad spend allows you to buy more and lean into it and get higher and higher uh goals achieved. Yeah. And as you said, it compounds in the sense that you got one, you got two, you got three, you got four, but suddenly you have a hundred and the rest of the people see that red line around the block. And so that makes that CAC be reduced. Oh, that's really interesting. And and of course the effect of usage I like boxable, right? the the the houses **[00:30:00]** where maybe nobody knows about it and it starts getting traction etc. But then suddenly Elon Musk is living in one or is that related to it in a certain way and you're like I want that one like maybe there's 50 others I don't know like I don't know the space but maybe there's there's competitors etc. But this being such a new concept you're like I don't know will it work? Will it leak? I don't know. But once someone of that caliber actually trusts it, you're like immediately, yeah, for sure it's got to be good, right? We've worked on box regulation A+ and regggd campaigns. They're one of the examples I was talking about earlier with valuation growth and yes, that was a whole new stage of the company when they were able to say, "Hey, Elon Musk is stating right here. he lived in one for a year and all of the potential of this type of product and the list goes on. Uh there was a Joe Rogan podcast episode where Rick Caruso, a big real estate developer here in Los Angeles, actually ran for mayor and is involved with politics, said, "You know what the answer to homelessness is, Joe?" Company out of Las Vegas, Nevada called Boxible and and was speaking to that. And there's other types of companies that have these projects live right now, by the way. Um, this is me speaking that that are are doing the same thing and looking to have an effect on the affordability in housing, looking to have an effect on on homelessness in different areas and mismanagement of funds by different local governments and offering these lowpriced options that that, you know, have air conditioning and, you know, running water. They look nice inside, look outside, very modern. So it it's a great way for these entities, these organizations to to market and bring on capital and see their valuation grow. And then, you know, hopefully there's going to be larger and larger investor success stories of, hey, I came in at 20 million, at three **[00:32:00]** half billion. This is what I was able to do with the the $1,000 I invested or, you know, the $100,000 I invested or, you know, anything in between. So again, I I I I do believe this is something we're going to see in mainstream media a lot more. You've already mentioned, you know, Elon Musk. I'm talking about, you know, the Joe Rogan experience. We're talking about, you know, major figureheads. Uh we're working on different entertainment projects right now. Film that audience building, that community building that you're speaking to and the relevancy across, you know, any product as a marketer, that's what I want to and build an audience and see a portion of them convert and then do so on a regular basis become super users. I already mentioned that that happens here and investors participate in one deal after the next or promote to their audiences. Uh but the studios love this because if they can build an audience, you know, thousands of people who've invested into the project, millions of people who are now following the project, they know once the film's released that they have their viewers. They have people who are going to be sharing. They have all of these people involved. Uh and the actors, the director, different people could be promoting to their audiences. Hey, I'm doing this campaign. You could become a shareholder alongside me. We have perks also. If you invest X amount of dollars, you get your name in the credit. You're at the premiere. You could have, you know, uh be at this, you know, presentation I'm putting together as the director just for shareholders of this level. So there are so many different use cases and different types of companies that are finding, hey, I can go to the crowd market, get the terms I want, be able to have that strength in numbers and a volume of people come through and it's it's it's very valuable. Yeah, for sure. It's like when they say build in public, right? In the software space. We're in the software space and and it's very well **[00:34:00]** known now that you if you build something in public, it's good because you have this interest growing and you're building the software, but people are watching you live and you're they're seeing your mistakes and your progress and they might suggest some things. And if you put some of those things in the product, then they're more invested even though they they haven't actually invested, but they invested time in giving you that feedback, right? And so then when you release it, you have this massive audience that's ready to consume the product. So it's yeah, the the entertainment industry, I definitely see it as as an amazing tool because you have the audience there. Everyone's going to be really interested in watching it, but then also telling their friends, family, etc. Like you said, that's great. And I I expect there's tons of other spaces that haven't even dipped their toes in it that will see this sort of uh approach be very helpful. Absolutely. There's this concept of investor customers. So if it's BTOC, it's a software, you're marketing, uh the investment opportunity, maybe an audience member comes in, invests, and then becomes a customer. a very active one at that even an ambassador to the brand but a customer uh and then a different marketing funnel different pathway where your customers can learn that you have this type of round open love what you're doing and say hey I want to invest I want in you know let me join the team here if you will I want to become a shareholder so you can then market either path and look to have them intersect at some point. So, yes, we're we're seeing it, you know, with food and beverage. Uh we're seeing it uh with alcohol. We're seeing it with, you know, you name it. The vertical we can make, you know, attractive to to both sides. Even B2B, some of the **[00:36:00]** brands I'm talking about here right now are B2B, but it reflects what a target audience is reading about in the media. they understand the opportunity and they, you know, want to become a shareholder in in the brand. You're an expert in marketing and uh the eyes on the content. If a small business owner were to want to start growing their brand, maybe they're not there yet, but they want to start growing to get to a point where maybe they want to do something or hire someone like you to do this and maybe get some investors, etc. But but right now they want better reach, they want to get the numbers right so that it's more attractive like we're saying. What does marketing look like in 2026? So has the game changed? Is it the same sort of approach or do they have to focus? What do they have to focus on? Sure. Well, I like to start everything with That part has remained the same. There are different ways to use AI and tools. It's all about the prompts and revisions of those to make sure you're getting the right output and factchecking. Of course, I argue with AI systems all the time. Uh but you need to start with the marketing plan that includes a competitor marketing audit and a thorough target audience marketing breakdown, profile breakdown before you start selecting your channels and your creative and partners uh strategic partners that could help accelerate that and you map out your projections. That competitor audit tells me everything because we've talked about different verticals here. We've talked about different types of target audiences. I need to understand the conversation today that's taking place between other companies that are targeting the same audiences as me. I hear this thing around the word competitor of, you know, we're unique. We're the only company that does this. **[00:38:00]** Sure, but there are other people going after that same audience and you want to understand what they're pitching them with. You want to understand what they're moving forward on, what's actually engaging them to the point of action, to the point of conversion. Otherwise, you're shooting in the dark. So, I could be on here and say, you know, what are you doing with podcasts? What are you doing with Tik Tok? Are you running advertising from publishers handles on social media channels? You know, I I I could talk about high impact video and all the different things that I see moving the needle on our campaigns. But it's all about finding those closest comparables and not just an audit of okay, there's this company and they exist or this is what's different about their product or they're doing some stuff with influencers. I want to know exactly how they're obtaining market share. So, how much traffic do they get to their website? What are their landing pages? Maybe an offering page for an investment round are they running? How much traffic are they getting there? What are the traffic sources? Where is it coming from? Are they doing that organic uh with content marketing or paid with with advertising with the advertising? Are they running ads on meta? I could go on to Facebook ads library. You could Google that and get to Facebook ads library and you could look at any live ad. You could type in any company that's running ads and then see what their ads are. You could type in keywords and see which ads show those keywords. So you could type in regulation D506c or accredited investor and see all the ad campaigns that are running to accredited investors or or basically say the word accredited investor in there. But you know many of these deals you can go on to search engine marketing and look at what what keywords they're bidding on there, which ads they're running, how they're getting traffic organically. Uh, you could go on to, you know, Google News and see which publishers are talking about them or on any social platform, see which influencers are talking about them. Success **[00:40:00]** leaves clues. And being able to get uh a connectedness to what brands are running successfully here in 2026 that target the same audiences is where I'd really begin that. Uh, I mentioned a few channels in there as well too, the podcasts. I mentioned the election. you know, elections really show what's at the the top of the marketing world at that time. Um, and podcasts are a thing, you know, reaching out to them, being able to more importantly repurpose the content in your advertisements, in your content channels, and be able to talk about it for a longer period of time, very powerful. Um, so I I would look at that. Uh, there are different ways to, you know, advertise on meta. Today I was talking about those publishers. uh we'll have financial email newsletters and different financial publishers give access to run ads from their social handles you know with approvals and costs and everything like that but you know it appears almost as PR but with a direct response interface so you know just a few things I'd point out for for 2026 but I would say uh it all begins with that strategy knowing your numbers what you're looking to hit uh it's not just a spray and prey anymore Amazing. That's great advice, Jason. I really appreciate it. I think to everyone listening, definitely focus on strategy first. Like Jason was saying, he's the expert here. And yeah, your competition, like you said, success leaves clues, right? So, uh, go ahead and research what they are doing, what is working, and you don't have to start from scratch. Jason, I know we have to head out now, but uh thank you so much for sharing your expertise today with us. I hope you've really helped listeners out. I'm sure you have. If anyone wants to learn more about what you do and get in touch with you maybe for your whatever services your company offers, where can where's the best **[00:42:00]** place for them to reach They can't. I'm very private. No, I'm just kidding. Reach out to me. Don't be bashful. LinkedIn, Jason Fishman, Marina Del Rey, DNA. Otherwise, go to our website, digital niche agency.com, or our YouTube channel, agency. You'll see over 60 webinars, all educational pieces. We create a new deck and different types of templates that you can actually use for each. I put out a weekly podcast episode, a lot of guest appearances. Uh we put out an article every other week. So, lot of information out there for you to access and feel free to connect with me directly. Amazing. Thanks so much, Jason. And if you haven't liked and subscribed, please uh do so right here, depending on where you're watching it, YouTube, Spotify, etc. Ring the bell, subscribe, and you'll learn when we receive these new episodes. Thanks again, and we'll see you in the next one. Cheers. Thanks, Armando.