Whoomp! DC Glenn of Tag Team on the Brand Outlaw Podcast

Hey, Outlaws.

Thanks for checking out part two of our interview with DC, the brain supreme of Tag Team. If you haven’t checked out last week’s episode, go back and listen to that one. First. You’re gonna hear the story of how their famous Geico commercial came about and why DC decided to become an SEO master. This week, we’re talking more about whom there it is. And how Tag Team keeps their live shows fresh and exciting when most of the crowd knows just want one song.

Before we get started, I want to remind you to head to thebrandoutlaw.com sign up for our newsletter to stay on top of fun and useful content. Plus, you’re going to get a free copy of our buyer Persona playbook. This is a great way to walk you through the process of creating narratives that guide you and your staff to serve your customers more effectively. Again, that’s at thebrandoutlaw.com on with the show. It’s DC Glenn from Tag Team on the Brand Outlaw podcast.

A lot of people use the term.

One hit wonder is a bad thing. I don’t see it as bad. I love one more than most people have. But was there any disappointment from you and Steve when you put out another single and it didn’t do as well?

Of course. But that’s because you stray away from what got you there back in the day, man. Everybody think the mentality back in the day is you have to be hip hop or you’re not going to be taken seriously. And there it is to me is hip hop because it comes from the genesis of hip hop, which always to me will be Planet Rock. Can nobody say Planet Rock is not hip hop because Planet Rock started to be boy movement, right? That started break dancing and popping and locking.

Planet Rock was one of those ones. Craft work, al Nafish, all those that’s the mold womb. There it is. Is made in, right? And if we just had to stuck with that formula and made all our songs like that, our career would have it might have flourished. But then we were kind of screwed before we even got started because of contract or because of the lack of due diligence, which was due diligence just in the wrong way.

I found lawyers, I did all that stuff, right? But it didn’t go right. And I take full responsibility because I’m a grown ass man. So the quicker you take responsibility for it and don’t blame other people for what happens to you, that frees you up to just keep going. And I’ve just never stopped because I knew I could go back to the club and make money, right? So I go back to the club, working at four clubs, all of Atlanta’s hottest clubs for years.

And I know strip club, I make way more money than any other club because that’s just free money. I’ve always had the ability to make money. I’ve always tried different things, and I kind of get bored. So when I master something, I move on to the next thing. Because for me, whenever something turns into a job, I don’t want to do it anymore. That’s a fault. I’m a masterful photographer, but I ain’t trying to sit there and do photo shoot after photo shoot at the photo shoot for people, because that business model don’t work for me. Because people cancel. People don’t want to put a deposit down. That’s what I’ve learned, right? So if that’s not the only thing I do, I’m not going to do it. But that is a tool for me to do other things where I’m self sufficient.

Because I could do my own photography, I could do my own video editing, I could do my own ad. I pretty much ad agency. I just finished three pitches that I did myself for Anheuser Butch, three different little 15 2nd commercials to show them what it could be with tag team. Because of the experience of Scoop, I take one opportunity, turn it into ten. That’s the key. So that’s what makes life fun for me, is because I can do that. And I learned this lesson the hard way. This is a hard lesson.

People’s pride holds them back. I watched my father, who’s a PhD, not learn how to use computers. And I like, dad, you got to learn how to use computers. Like, I don’t need no damn computer. I got you. Then as he got older, basically, an iPhone is a computer. And if you know how to use a computer, you know how to use an iPhone. And that’s why old folks struggle with phones. They don’t know how to use computers.

And I watched that. But I learned this lesson because at one time, we all DJ with vinyl. And then when younger DJs start DJing with CDs, I was like, Man, I’ll never DJ with no damn CD. Then everybody start passing me by. Everybody start getting the lucrative job that I wanted, and I had to catch up real fast. And that was painful. I started sucking as a DJ because I didn’t keep my mind open to every possibility.

And I was stuck in my own ways, and I’ll never do that again. I haven’t. Right? And the beauty of life is that the old school way enhances the new school way.

Yeah, sure.

And now it’s a whole different ballgame that the young folks don’t even have, right? Like, everybody think about it. Social media. People over 40 hate social media because they’re not because when you get older, you mature. So you’re not willing to do all the dumb ass stuff that young people do or we did when we were young for everybody to see, for attention. Because most of it is about attention. I don’t care what nobody says. Social media is about attention.

I need attention. I want everybody to like me. Yeah, and I understand this, but I’m on the other side, and I’m not about to be doing all that dumb ass stuff, right? So how do I leverage SEO, what it can be, to what I do? Now, my thing is, I know SEO, so I know everybody wakes up and they type in, how do I do something in Google? They don’t type. How do I do something in instagram? Instagram is about pleasure, about what everybody else is doing, about scrolling a slot machine. Because what do you do?

You pull it down and it scrolls.

Yeah, really?

Scrolling so fast that you can’t even see it. So if you use a hashtag that’s popular, you’re not going to be seen because you’re scrolling like that down the timeline. People don’t get that. But, SEO, that’s about keyword. That’s about, how do I become an entrepreneur? If that’s the title of your post, then what happens is Google Crawls sees that post because it’s optimized, and now that post is optimized across all your platforms.

Now, when somebody types in, how do I become an entrepreneur? You’re on the first page as a TikTok video, as a YouTube video, as a tweet, because you reversed it, and now you’re there forever. This ain’t no scroll. When you’re on the first page of Google, you are there forever. And now you’re in front of the people who can pay you. Because for me, it is not about 100,000 people like me. I don’t need 100,000 people to like me.

I just need 100 people to pay me.

I love it. And hey, man, what you’re doing is absolutely right, because I went to rewatch the commercial. I went to YouTube. I typed in geico. That’s all I typed in. First thing that popped up, scoop.

There it is.

Yeah, you’re nailing it.

I’ve got it. Where you type in anything that has to do with me, you’re going to find me. That’s the whole point. Right? Yeah. And then it gets even more intricate, right? Because the people that can pay you, you got to find out what they’re searching for. 02:00 in the morning, when they can’t sleep, when they first wake up. Right? So if it’s an agent, who puts if it’s a concert promoter who puts together concerts? Well, I got to find out. I got to ask them. What do you look for when you putting together a show? Well, I go to polestar and I look at the website to see what dates are open that they’re doing, and then I kind of put it all together and keep it going. So I was like, if I’m going to get in front of that dude, I better make a blog post about Vanilla Ice, how fun it is and how good we work together on tour with the pictures that I’ve taken with Vanilla Ice and then rank on the first page if somebody types in anything.

Vanilla Ice, you plant that seed. I don’t expect anything to happen from it, because it’s not a quid pro quo. If I do this, this has to happen, because they’ll just throw you into despair. Because it don’t happen like that. It never happens. If it happened like that, everybody be rich. You have to throw it in there and just plant that seed. And now it’s like, wow. Why is tag team most people aren’t even thinking that. But I’m thinking, if they are thinking that, why is Tag team on the first page of Vanilla Ice?

But nobody’s thinking that, because nobody knows SEO. They just see Tag Team back again as number one on Vanilla Ice page when they typed in Vanilla Ice. Well, that might work, because they work together. So that’s Tag Team and Vanilla Ice, I might get a show out of that, or ten shows. Same thing with acting. Every other actor, every actor side is okay. They treat it like social media. Look at me. Look at me. Look at me.

When it’s like, what do casting directors look at when they can’t sleep? Or when they wake up and type something into Google? And if you’re on the first page, if you write a blog post about a message to actors, here’s what casting directors are looking for. And you rank it for the first page of casting directors in Atlanta. Now, any producer or director from Hollywood who types in casting directors in Atlanta sees me.

The casting directors, if they’re looking for other casting directors, what are they doing? How’s their SEO game? They’re looking for me, and it’s free. Every show we do, everything I do, I leave a Google review for my coaches, for my casting directors, for promoters, and then I optimize it. And my pictures in a real, really good picture is on top. And if you optimize it according to Google’s rules, then you’re stuck at the top of their reviews forever.

Nice. Yeah.

Because you optimize that review to Google specification, and your authority is better than anybody else’s. So I did that for every casting director in Atlanta. I did that for every acting coach in Atlanta. So anytime there’s an actor, anybody looking for something, they see me when they look for reviews, because a lot of people look at reviews.

These are great tips.

These are extracurricular hustle activities. Yeah. You see what I’m saying? That makes sense, though, doesn’t it? Right? And that’s how I do it. That’s how I do it. Man. It’s like there are so many free ways to get your thing out there that people don’t even see. But everybody it’s the herd mentality. Everybody wants to follow the herd, and then everybody’s goals. People’s goals are different, but they’re kind of the same. They want to be profitable in business, but they’re looking at these YouTube influencers.

They’re making money because of drama. Their life is full of drama. Right? Because they’re on drugs, because they’re on this what value are they providing? You know what I’m saying? So the people who can provide value are the ones who are going to get paid. They do their thing, and that’s okay. I’m not knocking that at all. I just know I can’t do that. You’re not going to try to make me do it. And that’s where everybody falls short, because everybody thinks they have to do that. Then they just stumble and bumble.

Yeah, and they’re not going to build a 30 year career off it either.

That’s not meant for you. You see what I’m saying? So it’s like, I will always like I’m in the process of doing so many things right now that for me, it’s just about concerts and television performances. Because for every television performance, we just did The Mass Singer last season. Now, if I could do Dance with the Stars as just a performance, just keep it in people’s. I get to do a press release off of those things.

And press releases are Trojan horses for me. Most people think press releases about press, not about press. It’s about building links. It’s about building authority. And it’s about getting your message out there to where now, if you optimize it right, you have references of the things that you’ve done in your life that you curated, to put in Wikipedia pages, to put in things that make you more valid to the Internet.

And when Google crawls, Google takes all that information and that data and not only puts you in the place that you want to be, but it goes out there and brings everything that’s relevant to what you just wrote about and puts it in its proper place. Because the Internet is just full of data in the air. And Google gives you the recipe. It’s a robot. It don’t have no feelings. Everybody talks about the algorithm is the algorithm all algorithm is rules. Google gives you the rules. So basically, Google gives you the recipe.

What are you going to be? A shorter cook or a Michelin star chef? I choose the latter. And now I help Google do its job, and now I can get anywhere I want to be. But it’s hard because sometimes people pay $300,000 a month just to be on the first page of Google, like real estate companies. So that’s why certain things are harder than others, right? It’s just about your creativity, but you don’t even know how to be creative if you don’t learn it, if you don’t put in the work.

And that’s the beauty of it. The easiest way, and I’ll leave you guys with this, the easiest way to learn what you want to learn is join an organization. Because organizations are filled with people who love their profession and who have been doing it for 1020, 30, 40 years, and they can’t wait to tell you and put you on game. In an organization, you got all the resources, finance, you got everything at your fingertips, and if you don’t utilize it, that’s your fault, right?

And I’m part of 30 different organizations, ranging all the I’m in the Grant Writers Association, editorial Freelancers Association, polestar, Coin Laundry Association, anything I want to learn about, I join an organization. Marketing organizations, affiliate marketing organizations, SEO organizations, all of them. And that’s what I tell young kids. I’ll be like, just whatever you want to do, put trade organization after it and then start calling everybody and calling all those organizations and start asking them questions that you have about the thing that you want to do.

And what happens is while you ask those questions, they don’t realize while they’re pitching you, they’re teaching you. That’s really how I learned stuff at a young age, just picking up the phone and calling and asking and pretending like I’m going to spend money with people. And they will pitch you like you wouldn’t believe, but they’re teaching you because they’re telling you how the game works. So I love, hey man, anytime I’m learning something, I’m joining the organization. And it works, man, because you can pretty much figure out if it’s for you or not in two weeks, but then you got the resources. And then I go to these conventions. There’d be thousands of people in these conventions, and I walk away with friendships and relationships that stand a test of time because we all are in the same boat. And I know that’s a gift of mine to be of the ability to talk to people and the ability to just let people talk and listen, right?

And for me, I learn more about talking. And just within this podcast, I’ve come up with like five different ideas, and that’s why I do them every day, because the more I talk, the more I learn, right? And I know I’m helping people, so that’s why it’s just somebody could take one thing that I said from here and it might change their entire lives. And I’ve had instances where people come back years later and told me, man, you told me some stuff one time and it changed everything. I was like, that’s what we’re here for.

We appreciate you coming on the show today, DC. Because you have dropped so much knowledge on here, there’s a lot of value for the listeners. We’ve talked a lot of business. Before we go, I just want to ask one quick question about music. What do you listen to these days? Any hip hop or otherwise? Any recommendations that we need to check out?

I don’t listen to anything but educational program.

Okay?

I just listen to a whole hub spot. A whole spot what I do. So here’s another thing. This is learn how to learn. So if I get a course, I’ll take that course and download all the pieces because they usually what part one, part two, part three. They got their number and I fuse them together in one as one. So if it’s a two hour course, it’s one course and I put it together as one file, then I listen to it at three times, four times speed.

Because you’re never going to pick up everything listening to it once. So if I just I just listen to it over and over and pick up things as you go. Second time you pick up more things. Third time you pick up more things. But you do it in a fast way because you’re utilizing your time. And I got it in the background while I’m working and doing editing or whatever. That doesn’t require me sound and having to really focus on what I’m doing at the time. And that’s how I learn. Yeah, like I said, I love music.

If I do listen to music, I’m listening to old skew music. There’s a cut off. Because when I stopped, I stopped being a DJ 2015. And that’s when I stopped listening to music. And it was like that before. It was like, I’ve always been a DJ. I know what it takes. I know how songs are structured. I know what I like. I’m trying to educate myself. But if I had to go back and DJ, all, it needs about three or four days to get the music together.

Because the fundamentals never change, right? And I know how to do the research and I know what to do. I know how to look at charts and know what’s hot in every region of the country. All these things are from DJing. So for me, if I’m listening to music, it might be a little gospel, but that’s about it. I’m listening to educational stuff, man. I’m listening to I’m doing podcasts. There’s very little music in my area until we go do shows.

I love putting together the shows, right? Because our show don’t stop. Our show is a continuous beat, like the club. Nobody does it that way. I love it, you know what I mean? And that’s how you have to do it. Because that 90 set, I play that set in my sleep. That set never changes because it’s etched in time. That 2000 set, it never changes because it’s etched in time.

Yeah.

You see what I’m saying? So that’s why people stop listening to certain that’s why they can’t listen to the new stuff, because they’re not fully engaged in it. Not because it sucks or it’s this or it’s that. They’re not fully engaged in it. So they think they can’t listen to it because they just sucks. Not a lot of it. A lot of it is not my taste. Right. I am not in the music like I was when I was a teenager. I’m not a teenager anymore. Right? So your musical taste change. But I know that I can go make some music.

I listen to trailer music because I’m putting together videos. That’s music, right? I listen to all kind of stuff. Music is all around me, but I’m not sitting there listening to the new stuff because I just don’t want I don’t have time. And two, there’s better stuff to listen to. I know that’s. Like I say, all my answers are kind of long winded because one question brings up ten other questions, right? Yeah.

You say, what music do you listen to? I don’t listen to music, Dang. Well, how do you live without listening to music? Is it music life? So I got to hash all that. I’m hashing all that out. Okay? It sounds like I’m giving a whole bunch of excuses, but I’m not, because it’s all relevant. I know that’s a kind of shocking answer to listen to music. And people are like, man, what? Like, I don’t you’ll never hear radio.

You’ll never hear because I’m always dictating. I’m always writing. This is how I write, learn how to learn. I suck at writing. Not at writing, but I’m masterful at storytelling, as you can tell by this podcast we just had. If I tried to write this, it’s not going to work. But if I pick up the phone and dictate it now, it’s a story. I’m storytelling. Then I take that story, throw it in one of my pieces of software, grammatically correct it, which is maybe grammarly or quillbot.

I correct it, and then I send it to an editor who probably works as a newspaper, and he’s freelance on the side, editing and line editing and copywriting and proofreading. He makes it all the perfect mix. And now I have my blog post. You see what I’m saying? Now I’m writing the first chapter of my book. I’m writing the forward of my book because I sat there and I told the story and wove all these narratives in in a way that has been so interesting because it’s in the form of a story.

Once again, another long winded answer. I think you just asked a simple question. Sorry. You made our job easy today, because everybody can do it. Like, we had to earn it back in the day. First of all, we had to scrounge up our little money, our little dollars from our little jobs. Then we had to put it together, and we had to practice it. Then we had to go to the studio and do it physically in the studio. And if something didn’t go right or if I didn’t was messing up on lyrics that’s time.

And then when time starts fleeting, pressure starts growing, and then you kind of come out with what you want. I had to go through all of that. But all that changed when you got the four track. Tascam four track. Now you can make songs in the comfort of your own home. You only got four tracks. But that right there changed everything for me, because I was the first to do it out of all the people that I knew.

And now I’m making songs I’m putting together songs, eight measure intro, 16 measure lyrics, eight measure chorus, lyrics, chorus, bridge chorus. And I get to actually put it together, and it gets better and better and better, because the more you do something, the better you get at it, especially when you keep learning. Right? So it’s very poignant what you said, that the storytelling isn’t there.

Because I don’t care what nobody said. That’s why kids sit around campfires. That’s what makes children fall to sleep stories, a bedtime story, a campfire story. So why would you put that in your music? Storytelling is the key, and that’s what rap used to be, because the stories are filled with metaphors and references and citations and all these things that we have to have in writing. But they were just second nature back in the day.

Now you hear none of that. You don’t even hear proper English. Right? Back in the day, you could understand every word that everybody was saying because they spoke proper English. Even if it was slang, it still sounded proper English because you knew what they were saying, and they told a great story.

That right there, is why for me, I’m one of those people that have a harder time with the newer music just because the storytelling is so different now. Well, I feel like it’s lacking in a lot of the music compared to when I was listening to it, because.

Once you touch that stage and the first words come through that microphone back to your childhood. Yeah, it’s the fountain of youth. You have to make all leading up to it enjoyable. So I love to travel. That’s what I love doing. I’m in a whole nother place. I get out of my head. I get to relax or work. Like what I do when I leave. I’ll fly somewhere a day early, go get the hotel. Then I’ll come downstairs, set up two computers and grind the whole time. When other artists are coming in, they’re like, look at DC. Tone. Look at DC over there trying to hack the government.

Like, they come in, but we’re family. We’re all happy to see each other. But then now they all consult with me because they see my hustle. See, that’s the key to life. There’s one thing there’s another thing that I do well. I let people see me hustle. Got to let people see you hustle. And that’s how you get in front of the people who can pay you. You let them see you hustle without them knowing that you were even trying to get in front of them to let you see you hustle.

That’s the stealth factor. So that’s how I get in front of those casting directors and those coaches and all those people. You got to get in front of them without them even knowing that you’re seeking them out. Then they just kind of stumble across you like, Whoa, that dude’s hustling. I like to cut his jib, right? That’s what it is. That kind of goes back to SEO. If they stumble across me, they were looking for me. But now, it’s not that they stumbled across me, it’s that they found what they were looking for.

Even if they weren’t looking for me. Because I know what they do. You see what I’m saying? So that is what I do.

Well, before you go, there’s one question I wanted to ask. You have this song, obviously, for 30 years now, you’ve been performing it. How do you stay excited to continue to perform this song? It’s obvious from this conversation you are a very creative person. So it’s like, how do you keep that enthusiasm to be like, you know what? I’m going to go out here and I’m going to rock it. I’m going to give the fans what they’re looking for without feeling like, I got to do this song again.

This is why I like performing, because I change the show every show. Our show is like a club, so therefore it’s like a DJ set every show. So as you do that, you accumulate shows along the way, and then those shows just become a bunch of pieces that they become records, right? And maybe that week I’ll have that record together, and then we got 20 different shows, and I could be like, we do the ten minute show, we got 20 minutes show.

We got the 30 minutes show, we got the 40 minutes show. And then you just keep accumulating shows, depending on which region you’re in. Because if you’re in the south, you got to do it a certain way. If you’re in the West Coast, you could do it a certain way. There’s all kind of different ways. If you do it for a rural area, there’s a certain way, right? But it’s all about keeping the energy going. That’s how you keep energy flowing.

Because even if we stop rapping and the music is still playing, everybody’s still dancing. But if we stop the music, everybody’s energy stops. And if you take too long talking, then you lose that energy, and then you’re trying to gain it back, but it might not come back. But if you’re just flying through it with beats and energy and beats and energy, you’re not stuck on one thing too long. So that energy is always there.

And then by the time I get done and I do stop, we’re at whom. There it is. We’re home free. There’s no more pressure, right? Because it’s hard having a one hit when any other song that you do, everybody’s like, what the hell is that? So you have to mask it with beats and creativity. And I even went and took comedy classes just so I could have segues for songs that people don’t know. Now I’m telling jokes, but I’m not telling jokes. They’re segues and conversations and entertaining my audience to get ready for a song. They don’t know that’s a form of storytelling. So all our show is storytelling, but it doesn’t stop.

Most of the time, people just want won’t. Sometimes it’s like, well, all you got to do is ten minutes. Because they think, well, you only got one song, so all you need is ten minutes. I kind of like those better, because that’s like a mashup. You know how mashups make people feel, where it’s just switching and switching, but it’s the same and it’s just energy, and it’s like, oh, that’s a dope mix. That’s dope. Oh, my God, he mixed that together with that.

It’s like the ultimate mashup when we do a ten minute show, because I don’t condensed everything in ten minutes, and it works, and we don’t even stop, and it just goes in the womb. There it is. And then we stop, and then we go. We don’t never do this. But Steve Tasha. Did you know that? Geico and then we just do the commercial and it blow. And then at the end, I like, Wait for it. Wait for it. Sprinkle.

Tag Team has left the building. And then we’re out. Storytelling, right? You get everything in that they know about Tag Team. Plus you teach you’ve taught them some things. And then I can tell you, we did New Year’s Eve Vegas at 03:00 in the morning. I got a post. This only fans actress who has podcast, okay? And she was like, Tag Team literally stole the show.

Like that.

Yeah, like, literally stole the show. Because they don’t expect that from us because we only got one song. So they just expect us to come and fluff, you know what I’m saying? But it’s like, no. We are the tip of the sword. If we have to go first, we’re the tip of the sword, and we’re the party starters, and you got to come up after us. And I make sure that that fall off is felt. I make sure that that energy level you feel that drop off going to the next act. Not on purpose, but on me doing my due diligence to give the best show that we can give.

And at the end of that whole little concert series where it might be ten other acts, you remember Tag Team. And that is part of everything that I’ve talked about in this podcast. I apply every tool in my toolshit to everything that I do. I’m successful. I’m not where I want to be. I don’t have the things that I’ve always wanted. I’ve made mistakes, I made miscalculations. But I keep going. And I know that eventually, if I just keep working hard, I get there.

And if I don’t I gave everything I had.

Man if you had told my twelve year old self back in 1993 that someday I’d be interviewing one of the guys from Tag Team on my podcast, I’d have said, what the hell is a podcast? And then once you explain that to me, I’d have been totally psyched. Now that it’s actually happened, I’m even more psyched because, as you’ve heard in these two episodes, DC is just a really cool, chill guy who has a tremendous mindset around business and life in general.

There was so much wisdom in this interview. I hope you got something out of it, and I hope that you share it with someone else who could benefit from DC’s advice. If you want to stay on top of what tag team are up to, head to tagteambackagain.com. Or just search for Tag team. Like I said, DC is so good at search engine optimization that their site easily pops up at the top of the results. Nick and I had a ton of fun interviewing him. So big thanks to DC for giving us his time.

And thanks to you, the Brand Outlaw listeners. Remember, head to thebrandoutlaw.com to download your free copy of the buyer Persona playbook. It’s a powerful tool for guiding you and your staff toward the most effective customer interactions. If you want to keep hearing from amazing guests like DC, just like subscribe share anything to help spread word. I’m Matt Reno from Superkick Branding, and we’ll talk again soon on the Brand Outlaw.