DomainSherpa Acquired, Show to Continue Under New Ownership

Watch the full video at:
https://domainsherpa.com/domainsherpa-acquired/

MICHAEL CYGER: Hey, it’s me! Remember when I told you that after 404 shows, DomainSherpa bid farewell? Well, I’ve got some exciting news to share with you. Stay tuned!

MICHAEL: Hey, Sherpa Network, thank you so much for joining me today. My name is Michael Cyger, and I’m the founder of DomainSherpa.com, the web site where you can learn how to become a successful domain name investor or entrepreneur, directly from the experts.

So, remember when I posted on September 6th that I was retiring from publishing DomainSherpa.com? A lot has happened since that day. There’s been an outpouring of people calling, e-mailing, and posting comments asking for the show to stay on the air. Some thought it was an early April Fool’s Day joke. And what I didn’t expect was actually a few offers to purchase DomainSherpa and continue on the tradition.

Well, today I’m excited to announce that DomainSherpa was purchased by none other than Andrew Rosener of MediaOptions.com. Welcome, Drew.

ANDREW ROSENER: Thank you. Great to be here again.

MICHAEL: Hey, you don’t need much of an introduction, Drew, because you’ve done four individual interviews on DomainSherpa, and you’ve been a regular on the DomainSherpa Review since September 2015. That’s a long time. You’re one of the top brokers in the industry. You’re connected like no one else I know, and contrary to your sometimes public persona, you’re one of the nicest guys in the industry. Don’t worry, your secret’s safe with me.

ANDREW: Don’t start any rumors.

MICHAEL: What was that?

ANDREW: Don’t start any rumors.

MICHAEL: I know, right? So, you know, it’s funny. I have a funny story, because sometimes you come off on the DomainSherpa Review as maybe a little tough on the people who have their portfolios, or what have you. But when I was interviewing for a producer earlier in the year, one of my favorite questions to ask the candidates to find out a little bit about what they know in the industry, and who they know, was if you could use any person in the industry to be the new BFF, their best friend forever, as I say with my kids, who would it be? And I’m pleased to say that you were the top choice, and I think it speaks volumes about not only your expertise in the industry, but your openness to share your knowledge so readily.

So it’s very exciting to have you and your team take over the DomainSherpa show. So today I thought it would be interesting for the DomainSherpa audience to hear a little bit why you purchased DomainSherpa, what some of your plans are, and I know you just took ownership of it, you’re may be finalizing those, but what your plans are so far, and when they might expect to see some new content.

So first off, I can’t remember, did I approach you or did you approach me about buying DomainSherpa?

ANDREW: Well, so you didn’t give me much heads up that you were going to be retiring. I think I found out maybe the night before everybody else did, or maybe even the same day. And, you know, I think, I don’t really know how that went either. I think I basically argued with you that that was impossible, you can’t retire, and then when you convinced me that yeah, that was going to happen, you know, I said, “Well, why don’t you sell it so that somebody else can continue the legacy?” I mean, it’s been such a valuable piece of media for the industry that it just seems crazy, like there’s no way DomainSherpa can shut down.

MICHAEL: Yeah.

ANDREW: And then I think other people actually approached you to buy it, and that’s when I was like, all right, this is a natural fit. I’ve got to keep this thing going. And, you know, you and I started our discussion.

MICHAEL: Yeah, and then we started. So I know everyone is going to want to know, you know, if there’s a deal to be done, you want to be in it, but why did you want to purchase DomainSherpa?

ANDREW: Oh, that’s easy. So, unequivocally, because I was sick and tired of you bleeping out my swearing.

MICHAEL: I thought you were going to throw an expletive, Drew, right there so that I could bleep it out in the first production, but no, you went clean.

ANDREW: Just wait until I take over post production.

MICHAEL: So, is it fair to say that this is fair warning for everybody going forward? That there will be no bleeping.

ANDREW: Yeah. And fortunately, DomainSherpa will be 18 and over.

MICHAEL: That’s fair warning.

ANDREW: This will not be a PG program anymore.

MICHAEL: So, you know, make sure if you’re going to watch the show, don’t have your kids in the background. Your wife or your husband if they take offense to you watching in bed and hearing some dirty words for once, like you’ve got to moderate that, all right?

ANDREW: Yes, we will not be overtly sensitive.

MICHAEL: Right.

ANDREW: Fair warning.

MICHAEL: So, hey Drew, I know everybody knows MediaOptions, you’re the face man of MediaOptions, but anybody that’s worked with you knows that you have one of the best teams in the industry. And so I wanted to ask, is your team going to be contributing to DomainSherpa or is it just going to be you? And if it’s going to be the team, in what way?

ANDREW: So, my team is really the ones that twisted my arm to do this deal. You know, I’ve been burning the candle at both ends for a while now, so I wasn’t really desperately looking for a new project. But, you know, DomainSherpa is a natural fit for MediaOptions.

I think referring to some of the stuff you said earlier, despite what some people might think, I really have tried to make an effort to share my knowledge and help new people that are coming in the industry. The ones that show me that they’re making the effort, I want to help pull those people up and help them make smart decisions in whether investing, or trying to broker, or do whatever. And so, you know, DomainSherpa goes a long way to helping us achieve that.

My goal is that my team is doing a lot more with DomainSherpa than I am. So yes, my team will be very involved. And I think it’d be great if we introduced my team to the audience.

MICHAEL: Awesome, let’s bring them on. So, welcome. Do you want to give an introduction to your team, Drew?

ANDREW: Absolutely. So, I don’t know who’s to my left and who’s to my right, right now, but we’ve got Tess Diaz, who has been working with me at MediaOptions for I believe six years now. I don’t know if that’s correct.

TESS DIAZ: I’ve been working with you since before the acquisition.

ANDREW: Maybe five? Well, we’ve been working together like when Tess was at GoDaddy for now, I don’t even know, eight or nine years.

MICHAEL: Yeah.

ANDREW: But yeah, Tess has been in domains longer than I have. She’ll give you a little bit of background about herself. And then we’ve got Chris Zuiker who is our lead broker. Despite popular belief, Chris is out there. Chris is the one making the wheels of commerce turn right now. He is hustling like, I would bet the farm that there is not a single person in the industry hustling like Chris is right now, prospecting end users, building relationships, and getting the best domains, the top 1%, 2% of the domains that are in the domain marketplace, into the hands of the end users that need them.

Yeah, it’s an amazing team that we’ve got, and we’re building it. Actually, we’ve just launched the new MediaOptions website, which is 100% attributed to these two. And yeah, we’ve got exciting changes coming to MediaOptions. As Chris likes to say, we’re going to go from a purely grinding company to a marketing company. We’re hoping to use DomainSherpa to help expand that the education component of the business, which, education is like 30% to 50% of domain brokerage. It’s teaching people how is this domain name going to affect your bottom line for the better? How is this domain name going to put wind in your sails? Even if that isn’t necessarily measurable, you know, the case studies, the evidence is there.

Anyway, so I’d like to turn it over to these guys and let them introduce themselves and tell you just, you know, quickly, how they got here.

MICHAEL: Fantastic. Let’s start with you, Tess. Can you tell us a little bit about your background and what kind of responsibilities you have in MediaOptions prior to buying DomainSherpa?

TESS: Sure. So I entered the domain industry in 2006, working for GoDaddy. Was an account executive there for almost seven years. Really, it was a fascinating time at GoDaddy and in the domain industry. You know, the industry was really expanding so much to new people, which it continues to grow. I mean, it’s such a unique industry with so much opportunity, and people from such a variety of backgrounds come into it.

So at GoDaddy, I would be meeting these people all day, every day, and giving them some guidance. And yet there weren’t any tools like DomainSherpa. There wasn’t much to guide them from, so our team, this executive accounts team at GoDaddy was really an elite group of driven individuals who were fascinated with domaining. We didn’t want to just sell something to sell it, we wanted to consult, and educate ourselves and educate an industry, to grow the whole industry. If you can grow an industry, you can grow your sales. And that’s more what we were interested in.

So I mean, just the ecosystem within that team was phenomenal, and really brings me to where I am today. So Drew, I thought about it, it’s this week that it’s been five years.

ANDREW: Wow.

TESS: Yeah, I’ve been with MediaOptions. I think that I started working with Drew in 2007. We really connected. He was like a lead that I shouldn’t have called. But they had this metric that they didn’t care how many outbound calls you made, they didn’t care anything, they just wanted you to… And then, you know, the metrics were always different.

MICHAEL: Yeah.

TESS: But this time, they just wanted talk time. I called Drew, and like you said, BFF material right there.

MICHAEL: Suddenly you’re leading the metrics in talk time because Drew wouldn’t stop talking.

TESS: [inaudible 00:10:49] Number one. Yeah, thanks Drew had like a 45 minute commute and we would talk, and I was like, “This guy doesn’t qualify for the program, but he’s great to talk with, and I think he has potential.” Do you think I was right?

ANDREW: Sure.

TESS: So we just had fascinating conversations. But I was having fascinating conversations with all sorts of different people every day, and I will say number one, no one took the resources that I presented, and just that are available in general, you know in 2007 were available in the industry, like Drew did. So we really connected, and took it from there. And many years later, I left GoDaddy to do business development here.

And, I don’t know, did I harass you to buy DomainSherpa? I still [inaudible 00:11:44] had to see your 404, which were so clever, and show you, Michael. And because that’s been my experience and connection to the industry is that this industry is so just exploding with potential, and it’s just barely been tapped. It’s just how unusual to have an industry with this much potential and so few people who understand it. And that is what, you know, my formative foundation at GoDaddy was all about advocating for education. And I feel that DomainSherpa really has that synergy, and I want it to continue, and I want to be a part of it.

So I’m so excited, honored, and ready to rock and roll.

MICHAEL: Awesome.

ANDREW: So I wanted to throw at you for one second. So, let’s see, I just pulled up literally, the first e-mail that you ever sent me when you were at GoDaddy. And it’s, you know, a list of, this was, I don’t know if you even remember, but I was actually driving up to upstate New York to a friend’s farm. When you called me, I was in the car with my wife. And you called and we talked for an hour and a half or something, about domain names. You were like, “Why are you buying these domains?” “I have no idea. I think they’re cool.”

Of course, it was a bunch of crap. Then, you know, you’re like, “There’s an after-market and all this stuff.” And you started educating me that the domain industry even existed.

MICHAEL: That is so funny. Tess was the one that was educating you on the aftermarket for domain names?

ANDREW: I truly did not even know that there was a domain industry.

MICHAEL: Wow.

ANDREW: I knew that were domain registrars, and you could go and register a domain. I mean, I had heard about some of the big domain sales. I actually had sold one of my domain names, but I had no idea that there was this active aftermarket, that there was expired domain auctions, that there was forums, that there was any of this stuff.

MICHAEL: Yeah.

ANDREW: So I think it’s just funny, the list of things that Tess told me to check out, it was tvnorm, of course, NameJet, pool.com, snap names, answerable, and then DM cartoons.

MICHAEL: DM cartoon?

ANDREW: And then DM forum and whizzbangsblog. Those were the things that Tess referred me to on that first email.

MICHAEL: Wow, looks like a pretty good list, got you going.

ANDREW: Yeah, got me going. [inaudible 00:14:29]

TESS: And Drew, the more I got to know you, I just remember over and over, talking to you. And isn’t this what they really say, in any industry, you want to see what your strengths are what you can bring to it, and you just have this negotiation knack. I remember telling you over and over, it’s like, you could be the best broker in the world. And I think he is.

MICHAEL: Wow, look at that. I think Tess deserves a raise, Drew. We should chat about that after. All right, so thanks Tess, for that background. Chris, let’s go to you. Tell us a little bit about your background and what brought you to MediaOptions, your role there.

CHRIS ZUIKER: Yeah, I’ll have to top that, Tess. I have a very interesting journey into domain names. Three years ago, if you would had asked me about domain names, I would have said, you know, domain names right? You know, what are they? There’s a market or forum, people are buying them?

MICHAEL: Just three years ago?

CHRIS: Three years ago, yeah. So I spent 15 years in corporate America. I managed major accounts, mostly mass retail, Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club and Target. Revenues, you know, over $100 million, but I went through this major life transition. I actually got fired, and it’s just, it’s a, you know, you’re sitting there asking yourself…it’s one of those deep moments, like, “What am I going to do? Do I want to go back into corporate America? Do I want to back to selling to Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club?”

And really, this is where Tess comes in here. I don’t remember it Tess, but you had called my wife to send a Christmas card. And you said, “Hey you should check out…,” I mean I should check out domain names, and this is where DomainSherpa comes in now. She said, “Check out DomainSherpa to educate yourself on the domain names.”

I think Michael, I watched like 20 in two days, you know. I just binged you know, jury is on this. I remember calling Tess and saying, “Tess, wow, there is a market for this. There’s the energy for this. This is awesome.”

So DomainSherpa, you know, really was indispensable for my journey, and I really see that in the marketplace. It’s upward, that the domain community can come together, education, very important for education. You know, the end users that I call, I’ve reached out to lots of end users. And you should see how many have come to DomainSherpa, as part of our journey into domaining and branding. So I see it as really indispensable to the domain industry.

ANDREW: No doubt.

CHRIS: And really, my focus is more on [inaudible 00:17:13] sales and marketing, and what makes buyers buy, what is the value, and how do we push more of that edge to help them acquire their perfect domain name.

MICHAEL: Yeah. So, I don’t get it, how did Tess know your wife well enough to send her a Christmas card?

CHRIS: Oh, it gets deep here. Yeah, I went to school with Tess, I went to college with Tess.

ANDREW: I mean, basically, Tess is the one that brought this entire team together.

MICHAEL: Wow.

ANDREW: Tess brought me into this deal, Tess brought Chris. And don’t even think Chris…

MICHAEL: Totally.

ANDREW: I think Chris and I spoke like once in the first six months that he worked at MediaOptions. Tess was like, “I’ve got this guy. I think that is going to be really good. He’s really hard working, he really wants it.” And I was like, “Whatever, Tess.” I was like, “If you are willing to take this on and make this your baby, if you are going to educate him, then I’m all for it. I trust you, just bring him on.”

TESS: You know, you didn’t talk to Chris for the first six months because we couldn’t get off the phone with each other. So, we went to college together. We didn’t know each other very well, but I knew his wife. I lost their address and called her, you know, at Christmas time, and it was great to reconnect.

But I remembered Chris’s personality. You’re just, especially I think, sometimes when you know people when they’re younger, you just see who they are.

MICHAEL: Yeah.

TESS: And Chris is a natural salesman, very integral and really fascinated. And the reason I couldn’t get off the phone with him for six months is because he was calling me nonstop. “I read this, DomainSherpa…,” I mean, “I read this article. I listened to this DomainSherpa interview, what…,” and then he’d have, you know, 30 questions. And that’s what Sherpa is, and that say what makes success in this industry.

This industry, you know, even that list that I sent you, Drew, our first e-mail exchange, do you know how long it took to put that list together? Me and my team of colleagues, of equals, peers, at GoDaddy, you know, we spent hours, days, weeks, talking with all sorts of people in the industry. People who had no clue what they were doing, people who were brilliant and didn’t want to share anything, and everything in between, searching what’s reputable, what’s not, what’s actually good quality, and saying, “We want to send this to people,” not hey, buy this, you know, stop and get us our next paycheck.

And I just saw that same intense curiosity and passion in Chris, so I think we have great team.

CHRIS: Thank you, Tess.

TESS: No, you…

ANDREW: So far, Tess, she gets high marks on terms of, you know, what do you call it? Character…

MICHAEL: Assessment, yeah. Well you know, I gave you the kudos, Drew, at the beginning about being a connector in the industry. I think I may have to pull it back and give it to Tess. She’s clearly the connector that brings everybody together. So I think everybody who is watching the show is going to be like, “I think I might need to connect with Tess.”

ANDREW: Anybody smart knows that they need to connect with Tess.

TESS: Michael, when you said that I deserved a raise, I felt that I had more synergy than I thought with you. Drew is a fabulous employer.

MICHAEL: Awesome.

TESS: Yeah.

MICHAEL: Well, fantastic. It’s great to…

TESS: I’m happy I work for him.

MICHAEL: Great to meet both you on the air here. Thank you so much, for joining us, telling us a little bit more about your background. And now I’m going to say goodbye, and I’m going to drill Drew about what kind of shows he’s going to ask you to do going forward, without you being around.

TESS: Sounds good, thanks.

MICHAEL: Thanks, guys.

ANDREW: Thanks, guys.

MICHAEL: All right, Drew, one of the regular shows was entitled ‘The DomainSherpa Review.’ You’ve been on it for at least two years now. We did it twice a month. Shane was a regular, and then we’d, Shane Cultra from DomainShane, dsad.com, was a regular as well. And we’d bring on a third Sherpa.

We did it live it namescon. It was always a lot of fun to do it live, because we’d get audience submitting domain names and review them, will you be continuing the review so that the audience can submit their domain names for review going forward?

ANDREW: So, yes. We plan to basically just get the train back on the tracks, implement all of the shows and segments that you had prior to your retirement. And once we’ve got our arms around that, and we feel very comfortable that we’re honoring the legacy of DomainSherpa in the way that we hope to, then we hope to expand some of the content. We would like to start doing…

So I think the DomainSherpa Review will still be sort of the anchor program of the show. I definitely want to expand upon interviewing entrepreneurs both within the domain industry and beyond, and…

MICHAEL: And “Profitable Flip,” are you going to still run that or?

ANDREW: And “Profitable Flips.” I may raise the bar on the “Profitable Flips.”

MICHAEL: Well, what?

ANDREW: We definitely want to keep “Profitable Flips” as a part of the show. And you know, I’ve got all kinds of ideas, probably we want to incorporate some more frequent shows, but maybe of shorter nature. But, you know, that’s down the line as we get this train running.

MICHAEL: That’s awesome. And so I’m going to share with everybody how to get in contact with Drew and Chris and Tess to be on those shows. I know I’ve got, as soon as I announced the show was going off the air in September, I got a couple of people that said like, “Hey Mike, I just sold my first domain name. It was a great profitable flip, it meets the criteria, and now I’m so disappointed.” So I’m going to connect you guys up so we’ll get them in the queue for those as well.

ANDREW: Awesome.

MICHAEL: And the thing that I love, you know, and I’ll just throw this out, the thing I love about the “Profitable Flips” it’s like, it’s not you, one of the most successful brokers in the industry doing deals. It’s not somebody that’s been around since 1994. These are people that just entered the industry that are only like, you know, one or two steps ahead of most other people in the industry. And so if they can do it, you can too, so that’s why I love to do those types of shows. You know, you don’t need to have been in the industry for a decade in order to figure the stuff out.

ANDREW: So, I think I agree with you 100%. My philosophy is that you need both. You need a really strong foundation of the real industry experts, the guys that have been in this for a long time, demonstrating their success as well as their failures, and really saying, “This is why I was successful here. This is why I failed here.”

But then you need more relatable content. You need to bring on the new guy who figured something out, maybe it’s because of something he saw on DomainSherpa. But he figured something out, he had success, he flipped the domain, he made profit that allowed him to reinvest, and grow, and move up a notch. I mean, I think that that’s really been the legacy of DomainSherpa, and I hope to really maintain that, if not expand upon it.

One of the things that I fear about the industry, one of the reasons in the back of my mind that I wanted to acquire to DomainSherpa and continue the legacy, is I fear for the industry, in that I think that there’s a lot of voices out there spreading a lot of bad ideas, a lot of negative connotation with the domain industry. There’s a lot of focus on things that are either irrelevant to what people should be thinking about in the decision making process when they’re making domain investment decisions, or branding decisions.

There’s a lot of erroneous information out there, and it’s coming from people who probably shouldn’t be given a soapbox to stand on. And so I really want to use to DomainSherpa to give a platform to the people who should have a voice, to the people who really do have either expertise or experience, even if that experience is just that single success, that first bolt of lightning, that first light bulb that went off. I want to highlight those people. I want to catch people right at the point where they went from where Chris was three years ago to, “Holy shit, this is an industry that I can be a part of.”

And I want to catch people right at that moment and figure out what was it that triggered that, you know? Because that moment is exactly, whatever was that created that trigger, that’s exactly to what we need to convey to the C Suite executives, to the guy that’s doing the marketing, even to the guy in charge of legal at a large corporation, and helping them understand that impetus.

MICHAEL: Yeah.

ANDREW: Because that is where the value in domain names lies, and we hope to flush it out.

MICHAEL: And I just want to point out that’s the first cussword that will not be bleeped under the new ownership. You didn’t even realize it.

ANDREW: That’s what I’m talking about.

MICHAEL: Hey, when can the audience expect new shows to start airing?

ANDREW: So our goal right now is to kick off our first show in January.

MICHAEL: Okay.

ANDREW: Hopefully, you know, prior to namescon. And we’re hoping to do a live namescon DomainSherpa, hint, hint, namescon. We’re in early stage discussions with them now. So, yeah, I’m very excited. Also, I want to say to all of the existing sponsors of DomainSherpa, that we are very excited and hopeful to maintain a relationship with you, and build upon that relationship. And really, I’m hoping to find even more creative ways to incorporate your brand and make you more of a partner with DomainSherpa than you are today.

And to any new partners, anybody else in the industry that would like to align themselves with DomainSherpa and the educational message that DomainSherpa carries, please reach out to us. We’d love to talk to you and figure out a way to bring you into the fold. Also to…

MICHAEL: Where should they reach out, if they’re interested? If they’re listening right now, who should they contact?

ANDREW: I think the best way right now is info@domainsherpa.com. Send us a message and, you know, we’ll get back to you. I’m sure we’re going to have an outpouring of support and criticism and so, you know, give us some time to respond in this first couple of weeks. But we definitely plan to circle back with anybody who makes the effort to reach out. Say anything, ask a question, whatever, we’re really excited about the opportunity, and we’re also super open to any suggestions that anybody has on how to make this show better than it already is.

MICHAEL: So let me ask you a couple of logistical questions. I know we produced the TV show in the past. I always went TV first, because I think there’s nothing more powerful than you and I looking each other in the eyes, smiling, you know, being able to play off each other’s emotions. Like, you can’t get that from a podcast, and you definitely can’t get that from the written word, which has other advantages, of course.

But we went video first. I always ripped a podcast from it and put it out to Stitcher and iTunes, will you still go with the video and audio for shows going forward?

ANDREW: Yes, so our plan is to maintain exactly the same format that you’ve done very successfully up to this point.

MICHAEL: Awesome. And then I also ripped a transcript from it.

ANDREW: Yeah.

ANDREW: And I was always amazed when people like choose to read the transcripts, but I’ve gotten e-mails from people saying, “Hey Mike, you forgot to update the transcript for this current episode,” or include an old link or something. And they download every single one and they store and then they are able to search against them or print them out. You know, people have their own system for getting things done, so that’s cool to hear that you’re still going to continue on the same path.

So if anybody has any type of idea, you’re saying they can email you? If I’m some person that’s never spoken to you before, and has had an idea to run a show on DomainSherpa but never reached out to Mike in the past, you’d be open to hearing about it?

ANDREW: Absolutely. I’m not going to make any promises, certainly in the beginning, especially… We need to get our arms around this thing and grab this tiger by the tail and get it up and running, and learn the ropes. But we absolutely plan to expand that content offering, and we’d love to hear any suggestions or ideas that any of the audience members have.

MICHAEL: That’s awesome. You know, I know that people have reached out to me and said, “Hey, I’m downloading every single audio that you’ve ever done in the past, Mike,” because they can go on to iTunes and download them and stuff. All of that is still, you know, and I’m asking these pedantic questions, but people really want to know, all of the past shows will still be available under new ownership?

ANDREW: Yes, so our intention is to maintain all of the past shows, maintain continuity of all that programming and content, and add to it. We really just want to pick the ball up where you left it and keep running with it.

MICHAEL: Awesome. I know it’s weird for me to ask, since I was the person/company that sold you DomainSherpa, but people are going to want to know was the deal a cash transaction, or was I given shares in MediaOptions, going forward? Things like that. What do you want to say publicly about that?

ANDREW: So, I’m not going to disclose the price or too many details, but it was a cash transaction. And well there was just, for the most part, for the most part.

MICHAEL: Do you want to talk about it? It’s up to you. I’m okay with that, but you don’t have to.

ANDREW: It’s a mostly cash transaction. There’s a domain name component to it as well, that I think actually was a pretty innovative type of, it wasn’t a simple trade. There was an interesting financial construction component to it.

MICHAEL: Yeah.

ANDREW: But no, let’s say literally, 75% of the deal was all cash, and 25% was a little bit creative, involving a domain name.

MICHAEL: You know, I consider to say, and I say this publicly. I think you’re one of the most innovative brokers in the industry, like you get deals done. And deals don’t necessarily, and not even just broker, like just businessmen, deals don’t always have to be black and white, cash in hand.

ANDREW: Wow, absolutely.

MICHAEL: People value different things. And for anybody watching this show that things like, “If I want that domain name, I need to give cash for it, and it has to be retail value cash,” that’s just not the way life works. Everybody has certain things that they have expertise in. Maybe they’re a web developer and they can swap the retail value of the web development for a domain name, or what have you, fix cars, Sub-Zero repairman, or whatever, right?

ANDREW: So one of the first things I did when Chris started was I told him, “You’ve got to read this book.” It’s called, “Getting More.” The author’s last name is Diamond, I forget what his first name is. Great book about negotiating, and really looking at negotiation from a completely different standpoint, less about sales and more about understanding what people need and what people want, and meeting those goals.

And honestly, you know, I don’t want to sit here and pump my chest at all, if there’s anything that has made me stand out above and beyond any of my other broker colleagues on my team, or in the industry, it’s really just thinking outside the box. I don’t think that I am, you know… I don’t know, Chris works harder than I do, I can tell you that much, but it’s just thinking outside the box. It’s figuring out, you know, all right I get it, you’re not going to pay all of this money in cash.

You’re looking at this, your eyeballs are popping out of your head. I realize that in the first second that you just, it’s not going to happen. You’re not going to step up and pay all the cash, so how do we get you there? You know, without you even seeing it, how do we get you there? How do we take you by the hand and walk you down a path that’s going to get you to the finish line, without you even noticing?

Because I’m going to fill whatever it is needs you need, and it might be, you know, bringing other domain names into the deal, it might be structuring it over time, and might be bringing in an SEO expert that’s another client of ours and saying, “Hey look, here’s a deal. Here’s where you really need to take your business to the next level. You combine this domain name with this guy who literally nobody has access to, and we’re going to kick start your business into the stratosphere.” Or just figuring out ways to make it happen beyond just a simple, “Well, the price of the domain is $100,000 you need to pay $100,000, or there’s no deal.” You know you’re going to lose 80% of the deals that way. You’ve got to figure out creative ways.

And a lot of that falls also on the domain owner, but that’s, you know, also our job. Is helping them get there.

MICHAEL: Yeah. You’ve done a ton of deals like that, I hope that the shows going forward you’ll be able to share some of that, maybe not talking about the domain, but how the deal is done, because people love to hear how other people are being creative and getting deals done, because it helps inspire them to do so as well.

If you watched the show, you have questions for Drew, for Chris, for Tess and the MediaOptions team, you can either post them as a comment below this video, or as Drew mentioned earlier, if you want to contribute ideas, your talent, your time, you want to be you know, an extended part of the MediaOptions team, you have a suggestion for a show, maybe you want to run your own show, and you’ve done shows in the past and you want to float an idea past them…

ANDREW: Absolutely.

MICHAEL: Send your email to info@domainsherpa.com. Drew Rosener, this is the point where I usually thank the guests, but I think I may just hang up and cry now because I’m going to miss you so much. Will you still be my BFF going forward?

ANDREW: I’ll definitely still be your BFF, and I’m going to eventually convince you to come back on like Jon Stewart.

MICHAEL: Jon Stewart. I do love it when Jon Stewart goes back on the Jon Stewart Show, or whatever it’s called now.

ANDREW: ‘The Late Show.’

MICHAEL: Yeah. Yeah, awesome. Well, congratulations to you and the entire team.

ANDREW: DomainSherpa, wow.

MICHAEL: Thank you all, for watching.

ANDREW: We’ll see in January.

MICHAEL: That’s it.

Watch the full video at:
https://domainsherpa.com/domainsherpa-acquired/