LA: in the newsletter i’ll do a quick intro about Pip Decks, but what about you? what’s ur story?

CB: my background is in UX. spent many years in agency / in house (at the BBC) working on building digital products and branding

I helped launch the BBC bitesize brand. Before that in agency world I created The Higher Lower Game which has been played billions of times, every YouTuber has covered it. UX / branding all me. Though I didn’t see a penny of the millions it made cos of the IP clause in my employment contract cos I used work equipment to make it lmao

LA: Initially you had approached Sandwich with a budget of $20k. How’d you come to that number?

And what did the conversation go like once they told you it was actually going to be over 10x that?

CB: I mean I didn’t come to them with that number - that was just the number I wanted to spend … even on their website they say the minimum budget they work with is $250k

so I said will you work with us at a lower budget? and because they liked the brand they decided to give it a shot but would be starting at $150k

but the pull to work with them and after seeing the first pitch of the script / idea

I couldn’t not go through with it

In fact I felt that if I forced them into a lower budget I’d be hurting the chances of this video being as good as it can be, so I unleashed the shackles of the budget constraints and decided to go the whole hog

Which I’m glad I did

LA: It takes a lot of trust built up and I'm sure since Sandwich is Sandwich they've built that with you and many others over the years. What did giving them the extra $100k in budgetary room get you? Doesn't have to be tangible, but did it like unlock more writers, unlock more production talent (e.g. stylists, etc), a mix of everything?

CB: yes it basically unlocks everything

the diff between one day of a shoot or two - which means more takes, more exploration. better casting options. can write the script with a bigger budget in mind so bigger ideas. better wardrobe, more extras, more time spent on the edit and post - there are 40 ppl on set so shit adds up fast. you could probably do something like this on a budget but after experiencing a high production value set/professionalism - it’s actually a bargain for the amount of effort, man-hours, and creativity you are getting. There was a whole prop department figuring out how to make the cards flourish nicely on camera - experimenting with flour etc

LA: how many other shoots have you been part of behind the scenes? was this the only? the biggest? what kind of reference points did you have before? and did you talk to any other agencies other than sandwich or just went straight to them?

CB: I’ve been on a handful. This was by far the most professional. And it was in LA. Everyone on set has also worked on a Hollywood movie. This is real shit lol.

And there are other agencies out there, but no one has a portfolio of work that speaks for itself like Sandwich does.

LA: I saw you guys are working on another deck or two for an upcoming release, what’s been the biggest operational challenge building Pip Decks?

CB: biggest operational challenge is scaling up the library whilst not only maintaining the quality of our content, but improving it 10-fold

LA: I saw you guys are working on another deck or two for an upcoming release, what’s been the biggest operational challenge building Pip Decks?

CB: biggest operational challenge is scaling up the library whilst not only maintaining the quality of our content, but improving it 10-fold

the next decks that are launching are going to be some of the most earth-shattering knowledge combined in one place that has never been seen before

i know that sounds grandiose to say, but it's true. these new decks need to come with a warning label

for example, Strategy Tactics... there's a card in there called Close Up Shop. It's going to be interesting to see how people respond to a tactic that encourages people to question if their business should even exist.

so operationally, we have basically accidentally started a publishing company - we work with great minds and help them work their experience and knowledge into a format and way of writing that makes it super easy to pick up and put into action

LA: A publishing company where instead of helping authors write and sell books you've tapped experts to translate their knowledge and experience into a game that consumers are in effect more engaged in learning the material... GENIUS.

CB: yeh like, we are creating products - not books

we beta test every product so we know that it actually delivers on its promise

LA: How long does it typically take to come up with new deck ideas to add to the library? And how long to go from ideation —> launch?

CB: as long as it takes, some of these new decks coming out have been in the works for nearly 2 years - but the authors themselves have been percolating the ideas and methods in them for a decade or more

LA: that’s dope. would love to do a quick speed round of questions you don’t have to go super in-depth unless you want to for these

how has your customer acquisition strategy changed from launch to now?

CB: launch was lots of slow building of a very small but interested and nerdy audience, mailing lists, grafting on forums, that kind of "small business" minded stuff.

then we turned on facebook ads and the rest is kinda history

LA: what’s your day to day like running this brand?

CB: i'm currently on a beach, i have built an amazing team who have pretty much got everything covered. it has freed me up to think more strategically rather than being swamped with day to day stuff (though i still get involved with as much as i can where i can, e.g. i am still designing and developing the landing pages, but mostly because it's my favourite thing to do and if i wasn't doing pip decks, i would be doing something around sales funnels / landing page design / copywriting)

LA: what keeps you up at night?

CB: aside from my kids - nothing, i sleep like a baby

we have no debt, no investor pressure, we aren't competing with anyone, we are just having fun

LA: and lastly what’s one thing you’d like help with? if you could put an ask out to our community of brand founders and operators

CB: if you are a legendary video editor when it comes to youtube/insta/facebook (particularly if you have experience editing ads) - please get in touch

filmic editors need not apply (i appreciate your work but this is a different kind of work, unless its already in your wheelhouse)

but i would say to hit me up in my twitter DMs if you wanna chat about anything brand/business building related.