Announcer: Are you ready for an open discussion with the best of the best and the best of what's next? Welcome to the Tony DUrso Show. Join in on a great conversation today with some of the world's great influencers as they showcase great advice and techniques that made them the game changers they are today. Now here's Tony DUrso.

Tony:

Welcome. I'm your host, Tony DUrso. I interview some of the most successful people in the world and I thank you for joining us. This show is dedicated to helping you turn your vision into reality, and here's an elite entrepreneur who provides insights and guidance you can use to move along your vision path. Listen to my show at TonyDUrso.com, or go to your favorite podcast platform such as Apple podcasts and search for Tony D-U-R-S-O. Later in our show, we're going to hear about earning a passive income from our sponsor, Liquidity Card Solution®, and let me tell you about ShipStation®. Are you an online seller? I'm giving 60 days free to help you get your orders out quickly and save on shipping. Listen for the special code. More details on these sponsors just ahead and others, so please stay tuned. Today's show is about gambling and marketing and PR with Scott Cooley. Let's see what we can learn today. At the end of this interview, I'm going to do a summary recap of what we went over, so stay tuned for that. Scott Cooley founded Cool Media PR. I love the name. He's a veteran of the sports media industry who has worked in journalism, public relations, digital content, marketing, promotions and so much more. Here we go. Hi Scott. Welcome to the Tony DUrso Show. So glad to have you on with us today.

Scott:

Absolutely. Thank you for having me.

Tony:

The honor is mine and I'm very interested and I believe that a number of our audience is interested in gambling, in marketing and PR. We're entrepreneurs, small business owners. We always want to know more marketing and PR advice, tactics, advice, guidance, and everything you can throw at us. We don't mind a little gambling, but we want to hear what you have to say. But before I get into that, Scott, we'd love to follow your journey to success. So how did it all start for you? What's your back story?

Scott:

You know, Tony, it's a little bit of a different backstory. I don't think I ever grew up thinking, oh, I'm going to be a marketing expert or a PR guy, a media guy. It was a hodgepodge of things, honestly. I really enjoyed, I was passionate about sports growing up. I'm a very competitive person, liked playing games and winning even, even comes with losing as well. But there was never a... you know, when I was in fifth grade, hey, I'm going to be a scientist or I'm going to be an astronaut. There was never a clear cut path for me. So I have to say my late dad always said whenever I started getting ready for college and applying to school and stuff, I said, well, yeah, I don't know what to major in. I don't really have anything that I'm committed to. And he always said, you know, son, if you don't know, major in business, cause with a business degree, you can do anything you want. And so that's what I did. I went to a small liberal arts college in Conway, Arkansas called Hendrix College. It's a fantastic academic school, and I majored in business. I took all the electives and different things and even still, it was a small school, so we didn't have even a communications degree, a media degree, anything like that. It was basically just business and econ, and so that's what I majored in and I started working essentially for a production house in Little Rock, Arkansas called JM Associates, and that company would do about 1200 to 1500 hours of programming for ESPN Outdoors every year. I don't know if you've ever seen Tony, any of the outdoor type of shows that they produce like bass fishing tournaments or even the big lumberjacks chopping down the wood in a competition, but we would do those shows. We would produce them from start to finish and travel around the country, around the world doing these events, putting on these events and creating these shows for ESPN. I was actually on the dotcom side of things so I would do write ups. I would interview the athletes and that kind of thing. So I really kind of cut my teeth in the journalism industry, within the sports media industry with ESPN Outdoors which was a great experience. Can't say enough about the people I worked with and the things I learned there. And from there, my wife and I became engaged. She was my girlfriend then obviously, but we got engaged. She was out in California doing schoolwork for her career, and so I moved out there as well after we got married and I started working for an arena football team, essentially a professional football team in the arena level, which is a modified game where they play on a 50 yard field indoors. It's a lot of fun. Scores are 60 to 50, that kind of thing. I worked in the media relations department. I was the media relations director, so I learned a lot about PR at that point. You know, how to pitch story ideas and narratives to the media, and obviously I had experience with creating those stories so I kind of melded those two together. Then in 2009, the league, the arena football league, the AFL went bankrupt. It went under, so everybody, all the teams folded. We all lost our jobs which was unfortunate, but it opened up a new door for me. At that time, I just started doing freelance writing for myriad different sites. I worked for a site called scout.com, which is owned by CBS Sports, and I covered football at Stanford University. I covered the football team for about three years while some big names like Andrew Luck and Jim Harbaugh were there, which was also a great experience. And then I also started working for a company called Sports Direct Inc. out of Nova Scotia, Canada. They were a sports betting content platform, and what happened there was, I became an evening editor because I was on the West Coast and they were on the East coast, and essentially parlayed that into doing more columns and writing. Basically, at that point, there were certain operations companies that were in the sports betting, the gaming industry that were looking to hire content people, hire marketing people, PR people, and I kind of got myself in the door there. They sought me out. They found me on the website I was working for and really ever since then, it's been about 11 years since that happened. I've learned so much. I've been in every kind of facet of the marketing game in the gaming industry and have done a lot of different, I guess things in the content side and the media side. But what we specialize in now is PR and different types of marketing, whether it be social media or content or copy writing, media buys, that kind of stuff. And again, because of our experience in the sports betting industry and in gambling industry, as things have taken off in the United States, it has really become a very, I guess, sought after skill set.

Tony:

Scott, your work has been published in literally all of the top media outlets in the country, all of the top ones. You know how to place work in New York Times, NPR, USA Today, Forbes, ESPN, CNN, all of them. I'm sure that all of the entrepreneurs and small business owners, as well as corporate level executives in my audience, we're drooling. We want to learn from you because fortunately you got in at a great time. You learned all of this and now you are so successful in your company because of this great foundation. It is really amazing. And during this road that you've been on, how did you come about the vision for your current success?

Scott:

Yeah, Tony I mean, it kind of goes even back to where I was before. It was never really something that all of a sudden, I had this great epiphany and said, this is what I need to do. It was kind of a chain reaction in a sense. At one point, I was directing a content team of 15, 20 writers, content producers, video production people, and the boss at the company had me come in at one point and said, look Scott, I want us to be back in the national media. I want our brand to be in the forefront, and I want people to know who we are whenever something's mentioned about odds or betting or lines or whatever it may be. So at that point, this was kind of the start of really my own experience of taking a brand and trying to get into the public eye. So I said, well, how can I do that? You know, it's going to be difficult. Nobody knows who I am really. I'm working for this company. They know we supply odds and take bets and stuff like that, but where can I wiggle my way, get my foot in the door and catch some eyes? And so what I did was … one thing that I'm really passionate about. My biggest hobby is playing golf. I'm an avid golfer. I'm not a very good golfer, but I do love being out in nature and enjoying the sunshine with friends and fellowship on the golf course. And so I said, you know what we're going to do this year? We're going to create a lot of different, interesting odds and prop bets surrounding the Masters tournament. This was back in 2014 and I said, let's figure out a way to make this a mass appeal. Let's create a prop bet sheet akin to the Super Bowl where you have thousands and thousands of prop bets. So we conceived ideas based on who will the Masters champion hug on the green first after they sink the winning putt? Will they birdie or par the last hole? Will it go to a playoff? Just all kinds of interesting, even quirky things that normally people wouldn't bet on. Will the champion be wearing a hat or a visor, or what kind of putter will he have in his hands? What logo will be on his hat? Just stuff that's just off the wall, really intangible but buzz-worthy I guess is what I like to say. Information that's going to get the media talking, I think that's where I'm going with this is you really have to figure out. Everybody knows what the odds are for the Super Bowl or whatever it may be. Everybody knows something that might have happened, but how can you build that narrative to make it a little bit different, to integrate into the story they're writing and really have it resonate with their audience and with them so it's worthy enough for them to pick it up and then to plug you as well.

Tony:

I definitely want to learn some of that too. I like that - writing buzz-worthy stuff. Very cool. We're going to learn more about that.

Tony:

This is the Tony DUrso Show where you can learn from the wisdom and success of others to help you move on your vision path. Just ahead, the chat continues about gambling and marketing and PR with Scott Cooley. But first it's time for us to take a short break. See you back here in just a moment. A word from our sponsor Liquidity Card Solution®. Announcer: Nobody likes the guy who says I told you so! The guy in 1991 who said to you, ‘invest in the internet. It's going to be huge’, or the guy in 1997 who said, ‘come on. This is going to be big. They call it social media’. And the guy in 2009, who said, ‘I'm telling you, man. Crypto is real’. Now I'm not going to be that guy who says I told you so, but I am telling you that there is a 21 year old international company where you can become a global project partner, earning a passive income, doing exactly what you're doing at this moment. No selling, no recruiting clients, no administering a business after hours. Visit www.mypassiveincome.life now. That's www.mypassiveincome.life. Don't let history repeat itself on this one. Earn a passive income. Now listen again. That's www.mypassiveincome.life Announcer: You're listening to the Tony DUrso Show with special VIP guests. Now back to Tony and his guest.

Tony:

All right, we're back on the Tony DUrso Show where you can learn from the wisdom and success of others to help you move on your vision path. Let's see what we can learn today. Today's show is about gambling and marketing and PR with Scott Cooley. At the end of this interview, I'll give you a summary of what I got out of this and share some pointers with you. Stay tuned for that. Scott Cooley has worked in the gaming industry for more than 10 years. He has worked closely with sportsbooks to ensure odds are timely, consistent and publicized. All right. And now back to the chat with Scott. And also, as part of this on the vision path that we're on, Scott, what's your purpose in all this? Why are you doing what you're doing?

Scott:

I think that I'm doing it because I feel my vision path is ... I'm a religious person. My family and I, my wife and I, we're Christians and we believe in that side of the stratosphere, whatever you might want to call it. And we have two young children that are going to be five and seven this month - can't believe that - but we strive to make our lives better, make our children's lives better and everybody around us better. So we always want to give back to the community, and I think that being successful allows you to do that in a simpler manner, more digestible manner. It doesn't always work out like that. We haven't always been successful. Things have failed, but I think that the motivation to keep going and make the world a better place, I think that's what mostly keeps me going, but I see my kids and I want them to grow up and be happy and be successful and have the resources they need to do that, and so I would say that's my driving force.

Tony:

I like that. We all want that indeed. We're talking about gambling and marketing and PR with Scott Cooley. You can find him at www.coolmediapr.com. Scott, let's get into your vision path, but just actually one thing you've been a journalist for ESPN. I love to just chat about that for just a little bit, and maybe you could tell us about some past experiences and some lessons learned.

Scott:

Yes, absolutely. It was a really unique opportunity where I was in college and I had a chance to apply for an internship at a company called JM Associates, which was owned by Jerry McKinnis which actually he had the very first show on ESPN in 1979 before ESPN was the worldwide leader in sports. It was a fishing show called The Fishin' Hole with Jerry McKinnis and he essentially created this company and it was based out of Little Rock, Arkansas where he was from. As I mentioned, we did a lot of programming for ESPN each and every year, all the early morning shows before all the kids get up. This is from the 4:00 AM to 7:00 AM block. All kinds of different fishing, hunting, timber sports. We had this great event called The Great Outdoor Games, which was fantastic. They would do archery, they would do hunting, they would do skeet shooting, they would do fishing. It was really a nice concept for the great outdoorsmen and in a sense for them to be able to sink their teeth into. And so we would travel around. I've been to just about every state, Tony, a few countries on these expeditions and covering these ‘athletes’ in a sense, where they are practicing their craft and honing the craft. And it was a great, I guess, learning experience. The thing was, my passion was always sports with balls. I grew up playing basketball and football and baseball and I never was really a big hunter or outdoorsman, even though my dad really did enjoy some of that sport, but getting to see, having experience with that side of the sportsman world and learning about a little bit more, it was incredible to just intertwine that into what I do and how that relates to what I do now. But even back then to where I could figure out all right, these guys are athletes just like the pro baseball players, pro football players. It's just a different skill set, but certainly they are the best in the world at their craft. And I can't tell you, I've got a lot of good stories from those days and just meeting people and having different experiences in life and seeing different parts of the country. It was very paramount in how I think how my world was shaped.

Tony:

Scott, you mentioned a little bit earlier about sports betting at the golf, you know, what logos on the visor? Is it going to be a hat; is going to be a visor? How did that all start? You mentioned a little bit. I want you to take us into how did that all start a little bit more, and how did you wind up capitalizing and making a successful business out of this?

Scott:

You know, it's funny, Tony. When people ask me what do you do or who are you, or whatever, a lot of times I kind of jokingly say I'm an idea man, and that's really our essence, like what we do. We try to captivate an audience and capitalize on trending topics that resonate with all demographics at a certain time. And so whenever we want to push a campaign or an event, we're going to come up with some interesting prop bets. This is what we call them, proposition bets, which essentially you are wagering on something besides outcome of the game. So for instance, we just had the Super Bowl recently, and instead of betting on who's going to win or will they cover the spread or what the over/ under might be, you can bet on how long Demi Lovato is going to sing the National Anthem for? So there's a lot of unique opportunities and situations that occur within an event that you can wager on. This week, we actually did prop bets on the State of the Union address, which will happen tonight. President Trump will give that, and you can bet on how many times he'll say economy to which country will be mentioned first to just a number of different things. So we're always trying to stay creative and unique with our offerings.

Tony:

Hey Scott, on something like that, how long does the person sing the National Anthem, or how long does the speech say the word economy or terrorist or whatever, what does that do for your company? You're not really marketing for a person. You're creating your buzz-worthy events. The penny has to drop here, put in the pieces in the puzzle. How does this all fit into the success that your company has and what you do?

Scott:

Yeah, that's a great question, Tony, and one that comes up often, and it's a little bit technical, so I'll give you the most basic version I can deliver. So, whenever we come up with prop bets like this and we pitch them on behalf of our clients, there's really a threefold goal here, and one is brand awareness. We're trying to get the name in the public eye. Two is conversions - ultimately you somebody might say, hey, I want to bet on Demi Lovato singing longer than what they think it is. So I'm going to go sign up at this place and deposit some funds and wager on the outcome. So those are two, but really the most important factor in what we do is earned media and that's basically called link building practices. And what we do is we want to drive back links from high ranking, credible, or really all sites back to our client's website. And what that means is whenever we pitch out odds or prop bets to the media, we always ask if you're able to use any of this information, please consider linking back to the website to the page that they are on. And if the New York Times or Forbes, or the Washington Post, LA Times links back to one of our clients, then Google recognizes that. Google's algorithms and their spiders crawl through the sites and they recognize that these are incredible sites linking back to this site. So in that turn, we should bump that site in our rankings a little bit. So the page ranking is going to go up a little bit, whenever people organically search for sports betting online, our clients are going to benefit from having more back links to their site because Google recognizes that. So it's really a play to get Google to see you essentially and because of that, you're going to be found by more and more customers.

Tony:

The people involved - for example, the person that sings the National Anthem or gives various speeches, they're not involved in this process in the bet. They're just an innocent bystander in a way, because you're on the side saying, hey, how many times is Tony going to say the word cool on his show, for example? It has nothing to do with me and I don't even know that it's happening. Is that right? This betting or these buzz-worthy events are happening elsewhere.

Scott:

Absolutely. Yeah. They have no concept of these being created for them and probably where we are going with this is some people would say, well, how do you know a player's not going to throw the game, or how do you know the person's not going to go long so they can bet on themselves singing longer than the projected total in the National Anthem. The reason is because whenever we create these types of prop bets, the sports book and the operation want to limit their liability for that so you can't bet thousands and thousands and millions of dollars on these types of bets. They are $100, $250, maybe $500 at the most. So you cannot get rich actually wagering on these if you were the person that could influence the outcome, but no, they have no idea. The odds are set based on a number of factors. We do our research. We look at when she sang the National Anthem in previous times. We record it, we study it, we analyze what she might change this time, then we create the numbers based on public perception. Well, true odds aren't actually really ever seen in the gambling world. What you see is what the odds makers think the public is going to react with, how they're going to bet. So an odds makers may say the San Francisco 49ers are really three-point favorites in this game, but we know this other team, the New England Patriots is a very popular team and the public, the betting community is going to wager on them no matter what the spread is, so we're going to shade the point spread towards New England and make them a one-point underdog, instead of what they really should be. The true odds should be a three-point underdog, so there's a lot of science and math involved in setting those odds.

Tony:

This is the Tony DUrso Show where you can learn from the wisdom and success of others to help you move on your vision path. Just ahead, the chat continues about gambling and marketing and PR with Scott Cooley, but first it's time for us to take a short break. See you back here in just a moment. As folks adapt to this changing world, we're all going to be buying more stuff online than ever before. I sure am. And if you're an eCommerce seller, are you ready to meet the demands of our new delivery culture? Be ready with ShipStation®. Why ShipStation®? Well, when you're selling online, getting a lot of orders out fast can be tough, and people like me, I want my order right away. How do you keep track of who gets what, which shipping carrier should you use, are you getting the best rates? That's why you need ShipStation®. It's the fastest, easiest, and most affordable way to manage and ship your orders. Just a few clicks and you'll be managing your orders, printing out labels and getting your product out to happy customers like me. ShipStation® makes it easy. As mentioned, my family buys a lot online. Who doesn't these days, right? I love it when my vendors use ShipStation®, because I then know I'm getting the lowest cost shipping. One time maybe is not a big deal, but when your family is buying more and more online, those shipping costs add up and up and up, and in today's economy - that's right - we all want the prices to go down and down and down. So that's why ShipStation® is so important to me and it should be to you and anyone who sells online. ShipStation® helps online sellers of any size get orders out quickly, save money on shipping costs and keep customers happy. No matter where you're selling from - Amazon, Etsy, your own website - ShipStation® brings all your orders into one simple interface, making them really easy to manage from any device, even your cell phone. No wonder ShipStation® is the number one choice of online sellers. You'll ship more in less time with the best rates available. So let's do this. And right now, the Tony DUrso Show listeners can try ShipStation® free for 60 days when you use offer code T-O-N-Y. Make sure your business is ready to meet the demands of delivery culture. Get started at shipstation.com today. Click on the microphone at the top of the homepage and type in Tony T-O-N-Y. That's shipstation.com, then enter offer code T-O-N-Y. Shipstation.com - make ship happen. And for those in the military, law enforcement, EMS, or radio operators, let's try that phonetically. Go to Sierra, Hotel, India, Papa, Sierra, Tango, Alpha, Tango, India, Oscar, November.com, Tango, Oscar, November, Yankee. Shipstation.com code Tony. All right, elite entrepreneurs, check it out, sign up and tell me how you like it. Announcer: You're listening to the Tony DUrso Show with special VIP guests. Now back to Tony and his guest.

Tony:

All right, we're back on the Tony DUrso Show where you can learn from the wisdom and success of others to help you move on your vision path. Let's see what we can learn today. Today's show is about gambling and marketing and PR with Scott Cooley. At the end of this interview, I'll give you a summary of what I got out of this and share some pointers with you. Stay tuned for that. All right, and now back to the chat with Scott. Scott, this is really cool stuff. It's brilliant. It's already giving me some good takeaways that I can actually repurpose for even my own show. And I hope that the entrepreneurs, small business owners in the audience, the light bulb start going off. I'm going to give some comments at the very end of this interview on what I got out of this and some of the uses of this. This is brilliant. I absolutely love it. I'm so glad that we're having a conversation on this. Who would have thought, right?

Scott:

Absolutely. Now it's something that still a bit of a mystery. The whole gaming industry and gambling is so new to our country and to just the common household. most people don't really understand it. The numbers and the odds can be confusing. That's without a doubt, but as we see the industry expand and grow throughout the United States, I really think that it's going to be more understood, household type of thing. And we see the media get involved in it as well. That where you watch ESPN and they're on the bottom line, that ticker. It's showing the odds of the game, and so I think it will become more and more just a standard vernacular in our world.

Tony:

And you've mentioned a little bit on PR, but let's kind of bring that to the table here. Let's talk about some of the best PR practices and let's see what else we can learn from you.

Scott:

Yeah, it's Interesting because I obviously wasn't trained in traditional PR setting or degree instruction. What I kind of did, and this is really how the PR game has evolved. We've gone from the standard 'here's your press release for immediate release’ and yada, yada, yada, and it's very unbiased and it gives the intro and the quote, and there's still a purpose for that in the media and in the media world. Those are still utilized heavily, but they're not, I guess, as personal as they should be. And where I started kind of diverting from that was creating these narratives. Instead of just here are the facts, I like to build a story with it. So I will have an intro, a couple of paragraphs and kind of tease the recipient, the journalist into well, this is an interesting story, even though I know what's going on in that world. Maybe it's Tiger Woods trying to go for the record majors or whatever it may be. He's got a different angle on this. There's a historical perspective, or there's an interesting prop bet that is tangible with what's trending. So, you go into that narrative and you build a story and then you pitch them the odds, and then it kind of snowballs from there to be honest, Tony. And I've seen so much over even just the last three or four years in our business, how much PR, traditional PR and social media PR has come together. Now we have these incredible social media platforms, Twitter and Instagram and Facebook, especially Twitter, where they are really the new sources. They are where news breaks, especially in the sports world. You've got beat writers on there doing their thing, but melding those two, bringing traditional PR, creating that narrative, and then be able to promote it socially where you're going to get so many more eyeballs on it has really become a proven practice in our world.

Tony:

It's very interesting on how Twitter has become its own social media/ news feed for what's happening right now, or what's big or trending, but in such a way that other social media just can't even touch.

Scott:

Yeah. I always tell people that, and I'm not the biggest social media proponent, Tony. I have to say, I'm not a Facebook guy. I have a Twitter account. I follow people, but I don't watch it all day, but it's incredible how Instagram's more of the pictures and the stories behind them, but it's a lot like Facebook, but Twitter is ... I really expect Twitter to at some point become just a news source. it is that good in delivering the news and breaking the news. Anything really major happens, most of the time, the first place people find out about is it on Twitter.

Tony:

So true. And on sports betting, which is kind of unique and not everyone is into sports betting or into sports, or has even conceived of this, but what a concept with some of the techniques and principles we could actually apply in our business. But on sports betting itself, what do you see the future for that, as opposed to your future? I would just like to know where do you think that's going to go in the US, in the world?

Scott:

Yeah, it's already a multi-billion-dollar business, Tony. They were estimating what was just wagered on the Super Bowl this season legally in Vegas and New Jersey and different States that are legal now was about $20 billion. And that's not even counting the office pools that go on and the backroom bookies and the offshore companies that take wagers as well. So, it's a massive, massive industry that has been around interestingly for about 30 years. Since the dawn of time, anytime there are two or more people competing against something in something, there's going to be someone who's going to bet on it. Even back to the Egyptians throwing heads around the volleyball court, but it's always been there. Being able to do it from the comfort of your own home, on your computer, on your cell phone. That's what has transpired over the last 20 or 30 years. And now we're seeing in May 2018, the Supreme Court overturned the PASPA Act, which is the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act where basically it wouldn't allow any states to take sports wagers in their casinos or racetracks for forever. It was an antiquated law, and thankfully the Supreme Court saw that and they saw how much money they were losing to places like Costa Rica and Panama and Antigua, and so now they're allowing little by little the states have their opportunity to pass the law and make it legal in their state, and what we're seeing is it's happening very quickly, Tony. Right now, there are 11 states that are legal. They project by the end of this year, there will be 20. By the end of 2021, there could be as many as 35. It's happening quickly. It's a boom for the economy. It's a good situation. Certainly with all of that, with anything - alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, whatever it may be - there's obviously going to be caveats and situations that need to be addressed and measures need to be in place for people to get help that have problems with gambling or whatever it may be the addiction. And so there is that and certainly, horse betting is something that, as you mentioned, not everybody's interested in that, but we know what we've done is we've kind of created markets for things outside of sports as I mentioned - politics, entertainment. You can bet on Game of Thrones. You can bet on Jeopardy Tournament of Champions. There's a new Lego Masters reality competition series on Fox airing this week and you can bet on the winner of that. It just makes everything a little more exciting when you're watching it.

Tony:

Let's flip this from the industry to you, your company, Cool Media PR. Where do you see yourself going, and what do you see yourself accomplishing in the next year?

Scott:

You know, Tony, it's been something where just to be honest, all of a sudden, there's a lot of opportunity and it has just exploded and where people are finding my website and wanting to know what I do and how they can be involved with it or how I can help their company. We've had a lot of opportunity in the last six months to a year. We're trying to compartmentalize all that and really vet out who's the right fit for us and who can we bring on to help our marketing and PR tactics. It’s been rapid but it's been a good thing, you know. These are all good problems to have, and so I'm trying to find that balance of quality of life and still being able to want to spend time with my kids and my family and friends and the professional life as well, so we're hoping that we certainly see expansion 2020. We think we're going to align ourselves with some pretty prominent entities, properties that are in the gaming space, and from there, who knows what's going to happen? It feels like this industry is a little bit of like the wild, wild West where anything can go right now, and eventually maybe there's going to be some kind of more organized or government compliant type of situations where everything's under one umbrella or entity, but at this point, we're really, really excited about the opportunity and potential for growth.

Tony:

This is the Tony DUrso Show where you can learn from the wisdom and success of others to help you move on your vision path. Just ahead, the chat continues about gambling and marketing and PR with Scott Cooley. But first it's time for us to take a short break. See you back here in just a moment.

Tony:

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Tony:

All right, we're back on the Tony DUrso Show where you can learn from the wisdom and success of others to help you move on your vision path. Let's see what we can learn today. Today's show is about gambling and marketing and PR with Scott Cooley. At the end of this interview, I'll give you a summary of what I got out of this and share some pointers with you. Stay tuned for that. Scott Cooley conceived a plethora of props that have become industry standard. These props or proposition bets and PR contributions have seen him featured in major media outlets, such as the New York Times, NPR, Forbes, ESPN, Fox, CBS, NBC, and now the Tony DUrso Show. All right, and now back to the chat with Scott.

Tony:

Scott, are there any personal habits that you see that contribute to your vision success? Entrepreneurs all the time I've interviewed so many over the years, they all have something, a different habit or something. I know one that gets up at five o'clock in the morning and works out every day. I just can't do that, but there are certain things that are so strong that help anchor that person and help them move onto their success and is very, very important that they keep doing that good habit. For some entrepreneurs, just separating themselves between family and work time and how to meld that all together. We just want to learn what are some of the key reasons that you see contribute to that.

Scott:

Yeah, I think that latter portion you mentioned Tony was kind of the nail on the head. There is nothing I do on a daily routine. I'm trying to get back into the workout thing. I wish I could get up at 5:00 AM every morning and go to the gym, but I think especially our business started and continues to be a telecommute work from home type of situation and to be able to… It's difficult working from home and believe me, I don't know if I could ever go back and work into a traditional office space, but it's hard to turn off the distractions around the house, figure out what you can do, what you have time for. There's always something to do around the house to help the family life, but being able to at five o'clock or six o'clock, whatever it may be to say, look, my workday's done even though I've got a client or a colleague in Australia that his day is just starting. I've got to be respectful and mindful of my family time, my wife, my kids my friends even, and being able to decompress a little and step away and get yourself out of that mindset, even though your office is literally your home. That's how so many of us operate these days, but you really have to say, all right, I'm going to take time for myself and get away from my work, turn off my phone, silence it or whatever. Don't look at emails, don't look at texts, that kind of thing, and really just immerse yourself in your personal life.

Tony:

I like that. And I think we could all write a book on that.

Scott:

Yeah, absolutely.

Tony:

How do you never not look at emails when it's your own business? It's just so hard.

Scott:

It is hard. It is. It is very hard. We have a strict rule in my family at dinner time at the dinner table. It says, no phones, no electronics, nothing. It's pure engagement with the person and people in front of you.

Tony:

Wait a minute, Scott. Did I hear that right? At your dinner table, you make people talk to each other?

Scott:

I do. I do. The cell phones have to be off to the side, and I can't tell you how many times my wife is like, oh, let me just get over there. I heard the ding; I need to check it. I'm like, Nope, sorry.

Tony:

It's hypnotic.

Scott:

That's right.

Tony:

Scott, are there any great resources that you would like to share with our audience success squad?

Scott:

You know, it's interesting because so much of what we do is really organic and grassroots. We reach out to influencers and journalists and stuff personally, and connect with them and say would you like our information and that kind of thing, but Google is going to run the world one day - for better or worse. It's an incredibly valuable tool that we use all the time to look up Wikipedia, to look up stats, so whatever may be trending news. Twitter's a great platform for that kind of thing. In the PR world, there are some really solid platforms where you can find influencers and search for key media and journalists and find places to pitch. One of them is called Cision®. There's also Muck Rack® and Meltwater ®that all kind of do the same thing. They can help you generate reports and find coverage for you, so there are services that are there that can be tend to be a bit pricey, but as far as their database of information and contacts, it can be very valuable.

Tony:

Once again, we talked about gambling and marketing and PR with Scott Cooley, and you can find him at www.coolmediapr.com. Scott, you filled my head with all sorts of things that I want to do to get buzz-worthy events going on out there. I want to just thank you so much. You've inspired us. You've inspired me. I've hope we've inspired more to really do more to grow our company and get out there. So, thank you so much for hanging out with us.

Scott:

Tony, and thank you for inviting me to be on the show. You do a great job in the entrepreneurial world, and I really appreciate the opportunity.

Tony:

Hey fellow entrepreneurs, thanks for hanging out with me while I featured an elite entrepreneur who took his vision to reality. I hope this was as inspiring for you as it was for me to do this interview. I learned so much about marketing and PR with some great ideas I'm going to chat about in a second. The insights so valuable. So how did you like it? Gambling and marketing and PR with Scott Cooley. Right off the bat, we see the influence from his dad who when asked what he should major in in college, his dad always said, if you don't know what to major in, then major in business, because with a business degree, you can do anything you want. So true to us entrepreneurs, huh? I too got a business degree and I found so much latitude with what I can do. It's just absolutely amazing. And you know, he's not the first elite entrepreneur I've interviewed who started on their path with advice from one or both parents or influential relatives in their life. Now here is someone whose work has been published in all - literally all - of the top media outlets in the US. He knows how to place media, and there are some great tips here on how to do that. Listen again and take good notes. I love his idea of generating buzz worthy pieces of info that really gets the media talking. Are you thinking with that for your business? The whole reason for his prop or proposition bets is very clever. The three points are one - get the brand name in the public eye, two - conversions, three - the most important is earned media, AKA link-building practices. Play that again and see how you can use this type of technique to build up the rankings for your company and any clients. There's so much more I got out of this interview. My brain is exploding with ideas. I got to hurry up and start on them right now. What did you get? I'd love to know how you use this information to help you in your business or career. Okay, fellow entrepreneurs. Grab hold of your vision, decide you're going to either start something great or take it to the next level. And you have to decide first. It always starts with a decision and you can get my Vision Map to help you along the process. The free eBook is at Tonydurso.com. You can pick up the audio version and the training class too. Highly recommended! I created my empire in just a few years. That's all it took. I had the Vision Map is my guide. I wrote it all up so you can now do it too. Let's help you move on your journey to success. And if you have any Apple device or access to Apple podcasts, please look up my name, Tony DUrso and subscribe to my show. A kind review there will get you tremendous appreciation back in return. Thanks and remember, just take action. Success awaits those who persevere and remain steadfast despite the odds. Sow good seeds, do good deeds and join me on the next episode of the Tony DUrso Show. Announcer: We hope you've enjoyed this week's edition of the Tony DUrso Show with his key influencers. Be sure to tune in again next Friday at 5:00 PM Eastern time, 2:00 PM. Pacific time on the Voice America INFLUENCERS channel.