The Art of War and Web Carlos's Journey to Marketing Mastery

Join us as we unravel the remarkable journey of Carlos, a Marine Corps veteran whose mastery in tech and digital marketing has crafted him into nothing short of a web wizard. In today’s conversation, we delve into Carlos's transformation, from defending the country to defending client success in the digital arena. His story takes a twist with a notorious series of prank calls to political heavyweights, proving that sometimes, a bold move can ripple into a tsunami of opportunity. Carlos's knack for capturing attention doesn't stop at pranks; it's clear in the way he captures leads and builds online empires for high-stakes clients.

Carlos Vazquez

• Email: carlos@miamimarketer.com
• Tel: +1 (305) 876-6606
• LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/carlosvazquezsr
• Website: https://miamimarketer.com/

In a world where marketing automation can feel as cold as a robot handshake, Carlos infuses his military precision into his company, Miami Marketer, setting a new bar for personalization and impact. As we dissect the strategies that power high ticket service experts past critical sales milestones, we also step into the dojo with Carlos. His passion for martial arts is not just about discipline—it's about maintaining a healthy, youthful vigor that keeps the mind sharp and the ideas fresh. Carlos proves that the strength of body and business go hand in hand, offering a blueprint for success that transcends the boardroom.

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Transcript

Voiceover: 0:03

Tales from the Wild, stories from the Heart A journey into the mind and soul of fired-up business professionals, where they share their vision for the future and hear from a different non-profit organization every month as they create awareness of their goals and their needs. Dive into a world of untamed passion. As we join our host, Shireen Botha, for this month's episode of Friends from Wild Places.

Carlos Vazquez: 0:36

Eventually my master gunnery started and the guy in charge of the ammo company that's the unit that I was a part of heard that I was a computer guy and he says, carlos, I heard you're good with computers. I said, yeah, I am. So he put me to the test and, sure enough, I was able to network, run networks, websites, all that stuff. So I ended up getting a secondary job as a computer guy in the Marine Corps. So, although I didn't get as the ANASVAB, I got as a secondary MOS and then, throughout that time, I became a martial arts instructor. I also became a Marine Corps recruiter 2003,. I came back home. During the first four I wasn't a recruiter yet, I was just amotec, computer geek and martial arts instructor 2003,. I come back to Miami.

Carlos Vazquez: 1:19

This is where it gets really interesting, because I knew how to make websites. I had two good friends of mine that worked in radio and they said you know what we're doing, a show. You want to come by? Hang out what else, sure what else I was conducting? Unemployment, because once you leave the military you don't have to get a job right away. They give you kind of like a little bit of transition time. And I went there and, oh my God, I had a blast. I loved it.

Carlos Vazquez: 1:40

There's something about radio that just got me excited, and one of the things that they were really known for was prank calling people. I used to prank call when I was younger and these guys were getting paid to prank call. So I'm like, wow, this is fun. I want to be a part of this. So I said you know what guys tell you what. I'm not going to charge you anything. Let me run the website. They didn't have a website. They didn't have anything. Let me run the website. I'll come in the morning. I'm used to waking up early. I'll be here every day and I'll just run the website. I'll do a bunch of cool stuff on the website. They're like yeah, sure, we can't pay you, it's okay, you can do it. In fact, they gave me VIP tickets to concerts, they gave me clubs, they got me bottle services. I got to hang out with a bunch of celebrities. So I felt like I got a lot more than I gave them, which is I felt guilty, but that's why it was so fun.

Carlos Vazquez: 2:25

Anyways, so one of the prank calls that really put them on the map was a prank call to Hugo Chavez. That was the late dictator of Venezuela and that was a hit. That was fun. Then, at the time, hugo Chavez was best friends with late dictator Fidel Castro of Cuba, obviously, and we said, okay, look, let's use the call, let's cut up the call from Hugo Chavez because we know they're best friends, and let's use parts of it to prank off Fidel Castro. Ah, come on, come on, guys, you can't do this, it's not possible. Enrique and Joe, they don't care. They said we're going to try this. They were untouchable, basically. So eventually they called the city hall.

Carlos Vazquez: 3:11

The gimmick was Hugo Chavez just left Cuba and we left a very sensitive briefcase over there, if you know what I mean. That's the idea. And then people got nervous hey, we need a briefcase back. Can you please get us? You know, help us out. People kept on transferring them and transferring them and transferring them. Joe, which can do basically any accent, he sounded purely from Venezuela, so they didn't think anything of it.

Carlos Vazquez: 3:37

And eventually it got to Fidel Castro. Fidel Castro actually was talking on the phone with them saying yes, we'll help you find a briefcase, we're going to make sure it gets done. I'm in an total agreement, or something like that in Spanish. And then Enrique jumps in and says are you in total agreement with everything you've been doing with the island? You know all these expletives that you really can't see on the radio, but it was a moment that no one would be able to forget, because this guy is untouchable. Not even the CIA was able to get to him and two pranksters from a radio station were able to get him on the phone and just basically, you know, lean on him. And that was the moment where he said I'm gonna say he said marry con song, that's what he called right. So that moment we bought marry con song, calm right. And that became the website for the actual show.

Carlos Vazquez: 4:37

And Because of this call like it was all over the news, it was on CNN, bbc, it was on Fox, it was everywhere all over the world to jocks prank, call, let me dig, not, ladies, dictator for the Castro. And everyone wanted to get this call. So this is where I built this email list capture funnel. This is basically a system designed to Capture email addresses in an exchange for some type of value. The value was you get to hear the call, just tells what email address to send it to, and because of this we ended up building an email list of over 250,000 email addresses, and it was that moment that the radio station said whoa, wait a minute, we can monetize this. Let's go ahead. And, carlos, can you help us with this with the marketing, with the digital stuff or whatever? So this little volunteer gig that I was doing, having fun I Mean they were making millions, but whatever, I was getting paid some money and I got VIP tickets and I got the hang out with celebrities and I got to be a part of this. It was great. So that was the introduction to how digital became a real-world connection to everyone. A Sign note because of that call, we were fined by the FCC. Because we didn't get for the cash was permission To be on the air. So that's another story. We ended up collecting like over ten thousand dollars worth of pennies To pay the fine, but that's another story.

Carlos Vazquez: 6:02

Now, fast forward Because of that little thing, I started my side hustle baking websites and doing these different things, and then I became a marine recruiter. So, marine recruiting, I was known as Sergeant Poppy on the radio, so I got to hang out in uniform and I ended up buying Sergeant poppycom, because you know, everything was on comms. And then I learned sales. I learned marketing and sales through the recruiting station. My space was a big hit at the time, so I use my space to attract recruit well, it's not recruits, but I, like you, know prospects and leads. I did a lot of class talks so I can do public speaking and, man, I was really filling up my counter with a bunch of people. So I learned all that stuff and I was able to automate a good amount of it.

Carlos Vazquez: 6:44

But if you fast forward to 2016, that's where everything really changed for me, because I went from part-time side hustle making websites here and there To just jumping ship completely in 2016, full-time with my agency, which is now Miami marketer, and now I built these systems. Now the technology is so mature now that you could do so many different things that now I build it, I teach it and, at the end of the day, my special spot when it comes to people who I service are basically high-ticket service experts that's want to acquire more customers and I can build the system that just fills their counter up, and and that's where we are today. So that's my story. I've tried my best to keep it short, but that's it.

Tanya Scotece: 7:26

Yeah, so you build websites. That's if we had to break it down, right. You build websites and you kind of create some I'm gonna use the word lead generation in some it's beyond my comprehension, but something like that to drive more Traffic or consumers or customers to the website. Is that correct?

Carlos Vazquez: 7:49

Yeah, that's good way to put it. Essentially, everyone has a way that they're generating customers. I just find a way to put it online so that way it's scalable and it can happen no matter what time and date it is. Websites are a part of it. Now, there's a distinction between websites and landing pages. Landing pages is what I really do. A website, the way I see it, it's almost like a brochure of a business. The actual landing page is specifically a page where there's one goal to achieve. So if you're landing on this page that has your calendar system, the goal is to get people to book the appointment. When someone books, they're taken to another landing page. That landing page says good, your booking has been confirmed. Click here to add it to your calendar. The first one is websites. We do do that. Do do that. The second one is what we specialize in creating these little interfaces to get objectives achieved by that visitor.

Shireen Botha: 8:49

Right. Well, I'm so glad you confirmed that, because I think the other day, tanya and I were having this discussion and we didn't really know exactly what you do and so we thought you know websites, right, as you've just explained to us. And thank you for taking the time just to narrow it down to the specifics of exactly what you narrow down to. You know that's your niche.

Carlos Vazquez: 9:15

Yeah.

Shireen Botha: 9:16

Yeah, I'm glad.

Carlos Vazquez: 9:17

Oh, yeah, absolutely I get that all the time. Listen, you're not alone, because marketing is the actual industry, but then there's a sub-sector called digital marketing and then, under digital marketing, then there's marketing automation. So I'm like at a third level down. But if I were to kind of just simplify it, I build the system that generates leads and landing pages as a part of it. Yeah, we can do websites. It's kind of like a lawyer A lawyer, once you get your license, you could actually practice anything, as long as you're legal, your license. However, there's family lawyers and there's bankruptcy lawyers, so there's always little different niches. And, yeah, a lawyer is one thing, but you always want to find something that specializes in one particular strength so that way they can make it more, have more success with that job.

Shireen Botha: 10:04

So yeah, okay. So, as you said, there's obviously lots of other businesses that do what you do, so in that case, my next question would be what makes your business unique? So why should I go with Miami Marketer and not another business that also has a similar niche to you?

Carlos Vazquez: 10:27

All right. So number one, military principles, military fundamentals we're all about creating processes that are effective, measuring results and trying to focus on getting the job done. So everything that we do here at Miami, marketer, that's our core for everything how we do it. And the other thing is our unique selling proposition is we help High ticket service experts. $1 million plus in sales. That's our primary objective.

Carlos Vazquez: 10:57

So if you are already offering high ticket services, our job is to build you the systems so you could break 1 million and go up from there, because if you're a service expert, you don't have so much time but you need to have a consistent flow of leads and sales. So we build that system, we install it so we can make sure it gets done, and we've built it time and time again. We've built well, not we as my marketer, but me as my marketer. I've built campaigns for companies like Coca-Cola, universal, disney. So all of those principles that I've learned that they were able to apply, I can actually apply it to other industries, and high ticket service and experts seem to be my sweet spot for doing this.

Shireen Botha: 11:37

Nice, I love that. Thank you for clarifying. It's important. I think it's so important to just share what is your differentiator, what makes you that one that highlights, that jumps out in the crowd. So thank you for that. So, your choice to become a business owner what was your mission? At the end of the day, you decided to okay, I'm going to be a business owner. What was your mission in the back of your mind? Where did you? What was your big plan?

Carlos Vazquez: 12:13

Okay. So this is a question that I ask myself almost every day. What am I doing? Why am I doing this? And I've reflected and here's what I've come up with.

Carlos Vazquez: 12:23

So you've heard the expression you are a product of the people you hang out with, right? So basically, I prefer to hang out with people that want to change lives for the positive. Obviously, and being an entrepreneur and being a business owner, you're a special breed, because this is a roller coaster. This is not an easy life to live. I mean, you've got a business you're trying to build, you're the only one that really believes in it, but then you doubt it, and then am I wasting my time? And then you have your family. There's a lot that goes into it. Unless you've been in that position, you don't really know what that is.

Carlos Vazquez: 13:00

So surrounding myself with people like that really makes me feel like okay, how can I help someone like that that wants to change the world, that is crazy enough to try to do this? How can I help them? And it's like a party of a bunch of crazies that we're trying to make the world a better place, and that's what I've realized that I do better with. If you're not an entrepreneur, it's okay, I'm gonna hang out with you.

Carlos Vazquez: 13:23

It is what it is, but there's something special about hanging with an entrepreneur or a business owner that it's like a Marine. Unless you've been in a Marine Corps, you're not gonna know what it is to pound sand and have to do a bunch of push-ups in a sandbox. So it's the same concept. There's like a camaraderie or brotherhood and it's a mutually beneficial relationship where I can make money, helping you make money. I feel like I'm doing my part because you're gonna change lives and because of me, I'm gonna help you change even more lives. And that's kind of like how it all came together and I feel like that's my purpose helping people that wanna change lives for the better.

Tanya Scotece: 14:05

And that's awesome. That's awesome. I wanted to ask, carlos, as far as your martial arts and you had mentioned I know you're big into physical fitness can you shed some light on that? As far as what area of martial arts do you do and how do you recommend our listeners? Maybe some people are trying to get healthy in the 2024 year. What would you recommend? Maybe some strategies?

Carlos Vazquez: 14:28

Okay. So number one I know I'm not trying to brag, but people tell me I look young, right, I'm 42 years old. I'm not as young as people think I am. And going back to the martial arts, it was called MICMAP, mcmap Marine Corps Martial Arts Program. What is it? Basically, it's a concoction of the most common techniques that you're likely to run into in the time of war, in the time of battle. So there's a lot of grappling and all that stuff, and so you're gonna have a bunch of different things, so there's not one in particular. Basically, if you're gonna end up on a floor, these are the techniques you need to try to get your the upper hand in this current circumstances. It really wasn't about the inner PDC, it was just about self-defense. Basically, that's what it was all about. So what I learned about that whole process is all about creating muscle memory, doing things over and over again to the point where you no longer think of it, breathing and some of those things in muscle memory. So martial arts is that's the type of stuff that I learned, and then I taught it to other Marines.

Carlos Vazquez: 15:38

But now, when you fast forward to the time where I'm at now, I took my body for granted when I was younger. I think you know so many of us. When you know we're younger, oh, I could keep eating this pie of pizza, I could eat all these wings, I could eat all these fries, I could eat all these burgers. And eventually your body says, okay, I'm done. I want to hold onto this for a little bit longer because I like it so much and you know my, I get little love handles here and there. So I learned that you only get one body. The body you have is the body you're going to deal with for the rest of your life. That's like an epiphany moment for me. I'm thinking, wow, I cannot believe I took all this stuff for granted. I would have taken vitamins more serious. I would have taken supplements more serious. I would have taken protein more serious. I was just eating whatever I wanted to eat.

Carlos Vazquez: 16:25

So now, being physical, I don't do the crazy workouts I used to do the Marine Corps. I don't do CrossFit. I mean there's some crazy stuff, but I've learned that you have to stay active. I don't work in an active job, I work in sitting, literally sitting down on the desk, most of the time in front of a computer screen. But you have to take the time out to create a routine that fits your lifestyle but is still healthy. So I'm not trying to plug F45, but F45 turned out to be a really good thing for me. It's like a team environment workout setting. They come up with new exercises every day. I don't want to think about it and I will not do those exercises on my own. I need to be a part of that setting to do that and let them do the thinking for me. I'll just do the work and it's oh my God, it's a lot of work.

Carlos Vazquez: 17:12

But I also go and walk to the gym. I actually live about 1.6 miles, literally 1.6 miles from the gym, so that's how I get my 8,000 steps a day. So I created a routine, by the way, for that walk. I'm doing this because I'm like simulating. I'm typing on my phone because I actually do research study. While walking to the gym, I'll listen to podcasts or whatever, which I heard your podcast this morning as well. On my walk I heard three of them because I listened to double X speed and in Spotify I could put 2.5 speed, which is why I get so many CEUs. Fun fact I listen to all my stuff and double speed. If not, I can make it faster, and I leverage that time to not only do exercises, but do work, crush out documentations or whatever. Talk to Jack Chibiti, do research. I do so much during that time, so if you could come up with a routine that complements what you're trying to achieve, overall it becomes easier and it takes a while, but once you do it it's like second nature.

Shireen Botha: 18:16

So yeah, yeah. There's just so many things that I wanted to say while you were talking, so I won't mention them all. But the first thing I wanted to say I don't know what it is about Miami, because you and Tanya don't look a day older than 29.

Carlos Vazquez: 18:31

So I don't know what you're drinking down there, you oaks, but you need to share it with our South Africans on the South it's called arroz con frijoles, biste o pollo a la plancha, or something right, oh my.

Shireen Botha: 18:45

God, you're a little bit of a weirdo. Can I just say something else? So you know Spanish. I am definitely picking up some classes because I am definitely wanting to learn a second language, especially after my pogromish in Spanish and France.

Carlos Vazquez: 19:04

Well, there's two Spanishes, there's the real Spanishes and then there's the Miami Spanish. It's like a whole different Spanish over here. I guess there's like a Spanglish stuff. I mean, if you've ever been a, obviously you guys have been a part of our chapter. But for that one listener that's listening right now, if you come to our chapter we throw in all kinds of little Spanglish. We say dale, we do a bunch of stuff and in fact we're called the dale administration and you have to join to figure out what it is. And Pitbull made it more popular, but that's been a Miami thing for so long, dale.

Shireen Botha: 19:35

So yeah, you have to.

Carlos Vazquez: 19:37

The Spanish you'll learn in our chapter. Versus the chapter, the Spanish from Mexico and Spain is like a whole different. Spanish is such a diverse language. It's almost like English. It's like you got South African English, you got Australian English, you got UK, you got country, you got Miami, bro, you know all kinds of stuff.

Tanya Scotece: 19:55

So Where's your ancestry, Like where's your history?

Carlos Vazquez: 20:02

Puerto Rico, puerto Rico, puerto.

Tanya Scotece: 20:04

Rico yes.

Carlos Vazquez: 20:06

Yeah, everyone thinks I'm Cuban, but I'm not. I'm Puerto Rican Boricua.

Tanya Scotece: 20:10

Okay, Mom and dad both.

Carlos Vazquez: 20:12

Yeah, both of them. I was born in New York, so I'm a New Yorker. But the New Yorkers they're like you're not from New York, you're from Miami. The Puerto Ricans like Tú no eres de Puerto Rico, papá Vete, vete, vaya, You're not from here, go over there. The Miamians they're like oh yeah, bro, you're not Cuban. Like no, ah, you're Cuban, come here. So the Cubans accepted me, my wife's Cuban, my kids are part Cuban, puerto Rican. So hey, I love it Cuban.

Shireen Botha: 20:43

I love it. Cuban-rican. All right, so back on track. So I just wanted to ask you Sorry.

Carlos Vazquez: 20:48

I'm going to keep throwing you off track. No, no, that was my fault.

Shireen Botha: 20:51

I just wanted so many things I wanted to say, but anyway, I don't want to take our thought patterns off track yet. But so, as a business owner, the journey that you've had, you know, owning Miami marketer, and the road since then you know can you share with us what is probably the biggest struggle you had to face as a business owner and how you got over that?

Carlos Vazquez: 21:22

Well, I have not gotten over it. All right, it's called imposter syndrome, all right? So I do this every day. Just all this marketing automation, all these strategies like? I'm actually creating a course right now and the course is called gear the game plan for engagement, acquisition and retention and it's basically a collection of everything that I've been learning throughout the years since I've been doing this. And as I create this, this all comes out natural to me. I've even developed my own frameworks, my own methodologies and my own terminology. That it just makes sense.

Carlos Vazquez: 21:55

And as I do these things, I feel like, does no one else know this stuff? I mean, if I know it, why doesn't no one else know this? So whenever I start teaching about this topic, I always feel like someone actually probably knows all this stuff. I'm probably repeating what they already know, and that little demon inside of you or inside of me is telling me Carlos, you're wasting your time because you're teaching something that everyone already knows, so you're not an expert. And that imposter syndrome always kind of just creeps in and I haven't overcome that.

Carlos Vazquez: 22:25

I still deal with it time and time again. But when I actually have a session, when I actually do these public speaking moments you can see people writing notes, that people are like enlightened, they're like, oh my God, that you can see these little aha moments. And when I see that those are reminders that I'm doing the right thing, I'm not an imposter, I am helping people out and I don't do that enough. You know what I just feel blessed whenever I see that I'm thinking okay, maybe I do know what I'm talking about, maybe I am doing the right thing and making that difference. So imposter syndrome always is the demon that keeps showing up and makes you want to give up. And when you get out there and you start giving your advice and teaching people and then when you see the results actually happening, you could say, okay, you know what, you're not an imposter, you are the real deal, keep pushing forward. But it keeps coming back.

Shireen Botha: 23:21

Tune in next week for part three of Friends from Wild Places.

Voiceover: 23:27

You've been listening to Friends from Wild Places with Shireen Botha. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast from the links to catch every episode and unleash your passion.