The Dark Side of Influencer Marketing Revealed! | Zach Benson DSH #575

Just more customers in the door, more eyeballs, more traffic.

We always put together like an influencer campaign and basically get a bunch of destination influencers to come out,

collaborate with the brand, get paid.

So basically, they put their products in the influencers' hands, and then everybody wins.

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And here's the episode.

Guys, we got a friend of mine that I've had for a very long time, one of the best in the travel hacking space and a former breakdancer, Zach Benson.

Thanks for coming on, man.

Hey, thanks for having me.

Excited to be here.

Absolutely.

You flew from South Korea.

Dude, yeah.

Just arrived last night.

It was like 20 hours.

Holy crap.

But you probably hacked your way into first class.

Yeah, always, always.

Yeah.

Like, I think 100 bucks.

That's it?

Yeah.

Damn.

You're a beast, man.

And you travel 200 nights a year?

About 200 nights a year in hotels.

That is crazy.

And you've done that for 10 years, right?

Yeah.

Yeah.

Dude.

And you're still not out of places to visit.

I've been to 106 countries now.

So a lot of the, I like to go back to the same countries and like dig deep and get really get to know the culture and the people.

So nice.

Yeah, but hopefully some more as well.

Yeah.

200 nations.

Give me top five favorite and uh give me some least favorites also, country-wise.

Yeah, uh, Maldives, dubai switzerland new zealand mexico because i speak spanish okay um you know i i i don't really like i think

um

kind of like the islands like bahamas overrated yeah stuff like that i'm more like outdoorsy and yeah that sort of thing yeah i feel like the islands it's good for maybe a couple days yeah but to stay for weeks it's like island they call it island fever right right yeah exactly I mean, Maldives is fun.

Don't get me wrong.

Like, I stayed at the Sunni Vajani.

It's like $50,000 a night.

Cheese.

Four-bedroom villa, super slide, retractable roof, the click of a button.

Yeah.

I mean, that was fun.

Stayed next to like Will Smith and some princes from Saudi Arabia.

Crazy.

So that was cool.

You got to meet Will?

Yeah.

I mean, he was just my neighbor.

So I said, hey, and then went down the slide in the morning.

I was like, this is how I wake up in the morning.

That is not sick.

What about food-wise?

Which countries had really good food?

Food-wise, I mean, I'm really, you know, I'm Korean.

I was born there.

So I love Korean food, Mexican food, Japanese.

Like, those are my top three.

But dude, so many good foods all over the world.

Yeah, Phil that.

And walk me through how this all started, right?

Because you are pulling this off for free or super cheap.

So how can people get more interested in that type of business, you know?

Yeah.

So before like traveling and all that stuff, I was a breakdancer.

So did that for many years.

And that's when I caught the travel bug.

And when I was a breakdancer, I mean, I didn't have as much money as I did now.

So I couldn't afford to pay for those hotels.

So I figured out a way to like travel hack it.

And I got the studios to pay for it.

And then I grew my Instagram following.

And I started negotiating deals with hotels and tourism boards to get me to fly out.

So essentially, I mean, that's still like what we do today.

I mean, we have a huge network on social media and a lot of hotel pages.

Yeah.

You know,

travel pages.

And so basically, in exchange for posts, I mean, we get free flights on private jets and stay at you know hotels that are 30 40 50 thousand dollars a night in exchange for promotion on our pages right so that's how it works and it's a win-win because you're bringing them potential clients they're getting exposure they're getting eyeballs Yeah, that's what they want, right?

It's just more customers in the door, more eyeballs, more traffic,

more content.

And so we always put together like an influencer campaign and basically get a bunch of destination influencers to come out,

collaborate with the brand, get paid.

So basically, they put their products in the influencers' hands.

Yeah.

And then everybody wins, right?

Like free trips, free airfare, free hotel, food, board for the influencers, free placement for the sponsor, the brand.

And so that's what we've been doing.

Dude, sign me up on the next one.

I want to start traveling more because I've been to like maybe 15, 20 countries, but I want to go to 100.

It's a goal of mine.

Yeah, dude.

I just did Antarctica

two years ago.

That's sick.

With like Jimmy Buffett.

So yeah, rest in peace.

I mean,

cheeseburger in paradise.

Legendary.

Hoodie swag.

But he went with all of his crew.

What was that like?

That was, it was crazy, man.

It was a bunch of like 50, 60, 70-year-olds, parrot heads, what he calls them, just partying, drinking, having fun in Antarctica.

Yeah.

Did a polar plunge, jumped in the water.

That was cool.

Damn, that's something sounds cold.

How long did you last in the water?

I was like 30 seconds

in and out.

There were penguins there?

Yeah.

Penguins.

Beautiful.

Some of the most beautiful, clear, like water and snow I've ever seen.

So cool.

I love seeing

animals in their natural element.

Yeah.

Like zoos are okay.

Like, I'll go to zoos, but when I see animals in their natural habitat, it feels really peaceful.

You know what I mean?

Yeah.

For sure.

It feels like you're in touch with nature.

I'm really big into nature, actually, because I feel like people our age are so addicted to their tech their phones and computers and video games that they don't get out in nature anymore it's nice to unplug and just uh simply be present in the moment and yeah just simply be and see how animals like just live life man absolutely you got any pets uh no i used to have cats and stuff but i

got yeah

travel too much now so it's kind of hard yeah i don't even know how you're dating with your travel lifestyle do you bring her everywhere uh

Well, not everywhere, but when we when she has vacation, we try to travel together.

Yeah, and I spend a lot of time now in Korea.

So yeah, I thought you lived in the States.

Did you move to Korea?

Yeah, I actually moved two years ago.

Oh, so I still come back and forth and still travel a lot, you know, so like around 200 nights a year in hotels.

But yeah, Korea is like, I guess, my main base now.

So you like it more in Korea than the U.S.?

Dude, yeah, food delivery service.

Like, I mean, just like the food, it's another level out there.

I got a treatment.

I go to a Korean barbecue out here, but that's probably nothing compared to the Korean.

It's kind of weak.

It's weak here, man.

It's weak.

It's another level out there, right?

It's like, I mean, even like the sushi and the A5 and Waigu and all that stuff, like Kobe beef and the Kansai region in Japan.

Yeah.

It's totally different.

Yeah, the sushi is pretty weak in Vegas because we don't have any water near us.

Yeah.

We're in a desert.

You can get some good stuff.

If you pay a lot, yeah.

If you go to like Mizumi on the strip or something.

But just for, yeah, price quality better over there.

Yeah.

Filled up.

You also get a lot of free press.

I want to talk about that because people think you need to pay to get it.

So how are you able to pull it off for free?

You know, it's always like creating a win-win, right?

Figuring out what people's biggest challenges are, what they need, what they really, really want, and figuring out a way to get them that.

So a lot of the times like how I've gotten some of my free press and Forbes articles like in the past was like we did an exchange, like a barter because, you know, I think all entrepreneurs are smart with their time and money.

And yeah, of course, we can pay for things and I'm happy to pay.

But when you can think of a creative win-win where it's like, hey, I can help you with this.

You can help me with that.

That's kind of how I've gotten a lot of my press and my foot in the door with a lot of these big celebrities celebrities and getting them as clients because a lot of people they've been burned screwed over they've had bad experiences so i'm like hey well let me try this let me do it for free if you like it you know pay me um love it good old bartering man it's a lost art but it's something i do i try to do all the time yeah yeah you know yeah i see you doing it in vegas sometimes too yeah working and collaborating with uh different restaurants restaurants um sometimes hotels um sometimes studios if i want to if i'm in la and i need a studio you know what I mean?

Yeah.

And I think a lot of people are wondering, like, okay, like, yeah, Sean, Zach, you guys have, you know, millions of followers, like all these pages and stuff.

Like,

how can you do it?

How can I do it?

So before like all of my like millions of followers and stuff and big pages, like I basically created a network.

So I reached out to a bunch of travel pages and foodie pages and I was like, hey, how much do you charge for a post?

And they're like, 25 bucks, you know, story post or 50 bucks for a timeline, made feed post.

And so I started to create a spreadsheet of all these different accounts.

And then I reached out to hotels.

And even though I didn't have millions of followers, I was like, collectively, me and my friends

have like 5 million followers.

So smart.

So

in exchange for, you know, five nights in your best available suite, breakfast, lunch, and dinner would be nice.

You know, alcohol, alcoholic beverages would be nice.

We can do posts and, um, you you know, on these pages.

That's so smart.

So that's kind of how I did it.

Um, paid like a couple hundred bucks for like a hundred thousand dollar trip to Maldives when I didn't have a lot of followers.

And 100x or what?

1,000 X ROI on that?

Back then.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Crazy.

And then there, then when you're there, you meet people.

Oh, yeah.

The networking.

I mean, because you're only staying at five-star spots.

So you're meeting people in the lobby, at the gym.

Not everyone can afford, you know, like staying at $3,000 or $50,000 a night hotel.

Yeah.

When you meet people there, it's like really.

I actually don't cheap out on hotels anymore because I used to just cheap out, get three stars, maybe four-star hotels.

Yeah.

And now I only get four or five just because, like, the networking.

Yeah.

So many people you can meet in the lobby and, you know, or at the restaurants, bar, yeah.

Lounge.

Yeah, it just looks better, especially if you're scheduling meetings, if you're in a good hotel lobby, you know?

Yeah.

It's always more professional.

Yeah.

And there's some cheap ones in Vegas, dude.

I remember the first time I came here, I stayed at the Luxor.

Yeah.

I was broke, though.

Yeah.

It was for 10x GrowthCon.

Okay.

Yeah.

So it was like 20 bucks a night.

And it was ratchet, dude.

But you got to start somewhere.

They have all these deals in Vegas because they want to get people to gamble.

Yeah.

So do you gamble?

Not really.

I used to play roulette, but not much.

You don't have the back rat.

All those Asians play back rat.

Oh, man.

I'm too white.

I grew up in this place called Iowa.

Can't really do it over there.

Damn.

But yeah, I mean, some people, yeah, they can do it well, respect.

What was that like growing up in Iowa?

I don't meet too many people from there.

Bro, like, yeah, so I was born in Korea, adopted, grew up in Iowa.

Yeah, a lot of white people, man.

You know, it was too small for me.

But I, you know, looking back, I think it was actually good for me.

It's what I needed growing up

because

I think I would have.

totally been a totally different person if I grew up in some like big city like New York or LA.

Really?

It's just, yeah, the types of people you surround yourself with were, yeah, yeah, Midwest people, pretty chill, friendly.

They're like

so lax.

It's like a West Coast mentality, right?

They don't care about work too much.

They just get by and have fun with just hanging out with friends and family.

Yeah, yeah, man.

So it's always going to be home.

But then I was like, yeah, it's too small.

Got to get out, travel the world.

Is that when you got into break dancing?

Was it in Iowa?

Yeah.

Kid I went to school with gave me a DVD, How to Break Dance by Mike Garcia.

Fell in love with it, started practicing and working and working and made a dance crew and started competing, battling all over the Midwest, Chicago, big cities, New York.

And then I was on, so you think you can dance?

Like, I participated as like

round four finalists.

Legendary.

That was cool.

Did you win top 100?

Wow.

Made it pretty far.

Didn't win.

Okay.

Top 100 is really good, though.

Out of five cities, thousands of people.

Tens of thousands, probably, right?

So So it was cool.

How do they judge those competitions?

So first, so

the rounds, the first two rounds you don't really see on TV.

You just see people do their solo,

like practice piece with their music.

But the first two rounds are totally freestyle rounds where they play a random piece of music, a song, and they're like, just dance, dance for your life.

And so you have to basically dance for like...

a minute.

Wow.

And that's a lot of pressure.

Yeah.

And then you have to stand out from the thousands of people that are auditioning with you to show, you have to show them something original and something they've never seen before to make it.

And so, I did this, like I like animals, so I did this frog hop, yeah, like frog impersonation, and that's how I entered like on the floor.

And they thought it was pretty cool, that's still, yeah, remember the worm growing up, yeah, dude.

I used to eat that one, I had the skinny body to do that one.

Dang, that was a classic.

Could you uh hang off the side of the street pole?

I actually couldn't do that, but I could balance on like one arm

on a parking meter.

Damn.

That's impressive.

Yeah, so I had more like, yeah, the core strength that way.

Wow.

But I was more of a style head, so I could do some poses and freezes, but a lot of it was like footwork.

Okay.

intricate like footwork and movements and steps.

How crazy was the money in breakdancing in the PCAM?

I made a thousand dollars an hour

taught three age groups five to eight nine to twelve thirteen plus yeah two hours each charged um

like forty dollars a head per person gave 10 like five to ten to the studio 10 student minimum and normally there was like 30 40 people sometimes that's impressive man because it really had a big run right when you were growing up i didn't really catch it i think i was too young yeah

and i grew up around iowa so not a lot of people did it it.

Yeah.

So I started in my backyard.

Wow.

All these mom and pop studios in Iowa and Nebraska, and then spread out.

That's super cool.

Pretty, yeah, pretty cool, profitable.

And then from there, you got into the travel hacking stuff.

Yeah, travel hacking, social media.

And is that still the main business right now?

That's that's what I'm doing is mainly,

yeah.

We have a growth agency, Sistergram.

So growing people's

social media accounts and working with brands.

that's how I met you man yeah do you remember how we met dude you I was I think speaking at a big real estate conference yeah with like Tony Robbins and Grant Cardone I was like the small dog yeah and you were in the crowd right yep dude I'll tell the story because it's actually legendary and it's hilarious so you were speaking at a Tony Robbins conference in New Jersey where I grew up yes and

It was one of the side talks.

I think it was like how to grow followers on Instagram.

So I'm like, oh, I'm interested in that.

At the the time, I had a good amount.

And I get to the room.

It's packed.

There's like 200 people.

And you're like, all right, guys, raise your hand if you think you have the most followers here.

Yes.

And I'm like, yo, I'm down.

Like, I think I got a good amount.

Yeah.

And then, all right, put your hand down if it's under 10K.

So like a few people put their hand down.

And then it gets to the point where it's like, if you're 100, under 100K, put your hand down.

So now there's just me and one other guy.

Yeah.

And then it's just like, we go at it.

And I ended up having the most.

And then you guys gave me 100 bucks.

Oh, yeah.

Yeah.

So that's how we did that.

Yeah, legendary.

Dude, that was, that's crazy.

So crazy looking back at that.

The fact that you even were speaking there is impressive, man.

Yeah.

Tony Robbins event.

Yeah.

Tony Robbins, Sylvester Stallone was there.

Gary Vee, Grant Cardone.

Your network is great.

Yeah, man.

I mean, you too.

Like, it's, it's crazy, like, all the things you've done and the network that you've built, the community, man.

It's.

it's it's insane yeah i'd love to hear from you just networking tips on getting um speaking gigs and just like getting on people's good side as well.

Yeah, I think

I've made friends with a lot of like event hosts and mastermind founders.

And again, it's figuring out like their biggest need and want and helping them and giving freely, no strings attached.

I'm just like, hey, I'll help you with this or I can do this or I connect the dots for them.

And it's easy, pretty easy for me, or it costs me very little money a lot of the times.

And I think a lot of people just love that being loved and respected.

Yeah.

And so it's a breath of fresh air.

They're like, oh, cool.

Yeah.

Instead of you asking for shit, you're giving them stuff.

Yeah.

And then they're like, they remembered that.

And then they're like, you know, do you want to come and speak?

And

that's how I

got a lot of my speaking gigs back in the day.

And also your service is really unique and really valuable, right?

So you can help people grow on Instagram.

You can help them save money on traveling.

Right.

Not many people can do either one of those things.

So I think people gravitate towards that.

Yeah.

And now, yeah, it's all platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, I mean, all those platforms, like especially LinkedIn is going crazy right now.

Really?

Talk to me about that because I don't even use LinkedIn.

Dude, I mean, yeah, I mean, now it's like we live in a tech, like AI world.

And so a lot of people are like focused on LinkedIn a little bit more now and just organic, semi-organic growth opportunities.

Like you remember the Instagram days, the engagement groups.

Essentially, it's the same thing.

LinkedIn engagement groups.

Got it.

But when you get a like from like, let's say, big, you know sean's account 10 million followers or so like or account that has a million followers or even a hundred thousand followers it hits different

and so when you get a handful of those accounts to like and comment on your posts on linkedin after yeah shortly after you post it creates a viral effect wow and yeah i mean we're growing um people's like some people depends on the content but yeah a few thousand to five ten thousand followers a month holy crap yeah linkedin's definitely slept on the one thing i will say is it gets a lot of spam yeah in the messages like pisses me off so much i know yeah they need to fix that but other than that it's definitely like i look at it when i i go to work with someone like i look at their linkedin because it shows their work experience their bio and mutual connections so it's pretty useful i'd say yeah for sure it's different than like showcasing your clips it's more of like a professional platform yeah It's good to tap into both.

Yeah.

I think if you're dealing with a lot of older clients, LinkedIn is a good platform to have.

Oh, yeah, for sure.

Like consulting for equity deals and that sort of thing.

Yeah.

Because the average person on LinkedIn is like, yeah, 100K in salary, at least.

Really?

Wow.

I didn't know that.

Yeah, it's probably a lot lower on Instagram.

Yeah.

A lot of just high schoolers and college kids on there, you know?

Yeah.

It's a different audience.

Yeah.

Which platform do you like the most right now?

Yeah, I mean, of course, IG.

Yeah.

It's always been the bread and butter for me, too.

Yeah.

Just for outreach, at least.

Yeah.

It's just as like a connection tool, outreach, and that sort of thing.

It's the most valuable, I think.

I think so, too.

I think it's your resume these days.

When someone wants to work for me, I look at their IG.

I actually don't look at the resume.

I think it's useless because you could just lie on it.

True.

You know what I mean?

But on your IG, I mean, yeah, you can highlight the certain wins and stuff, but you get a good feel for the person.

Yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

What are you investing in right now?

I mean, yeah, I mean, I've been investing in crypto, commercial real estate now,

that sort of thing.

And then

not investing so much in companies, but using my services and my network to take equity and profit shares in companies.

So doing a lot in the tech and the AI space now.

Yeah, it seems like equity is like the nine-figure play.

I feel like that's how people are getting to 100 mil plus, taking equity in different companies.

Yeah, real estate equity.

Yeah, for sure.

I just had Cody Sanchez on.

She's doing that.

Noah Kagan's doing that.

Seems like a lot of people are going the equity route because you can scale quicker than just starting businesses on your own.

Yeah, totally.

Or Mosey.

Yeah.

He's doing that with his fund.

And you had, I think, like Roland Frazier.

Yeah, Roland Frazier.

A bunch of people are.

The way he's doing it is insane, though.

He's spending no money and getting equity in companies.

Yeah.

Sign me up.

Genius.

Who are you consuming a lot of content from right now?

I mean, all those guys, right?

And Justin Donald, lifestyle investor.

That's a good luck.

Jeremy Miner.

yeah dude Jeremy's I think

yeah sales is everything so it's really learning how to communicate and tonality like understanding people yep that sort of thing

lifelong skill that's gonna help you wherever you go for sure any upcoming trips planned

yeah well I have another invitation to Antarctica okay

might go but yeah probably go back to

Asia for a bit And then I'm doing this really cool experience in Monaco with like Lewis Hamilton and AMG.

Wow.

My friend, who I met in Monaco a couple years ago, she was married to the CFO of Mercedes.

Damn.

And it's got all the connects there.

For F1.

Yeah.

So we're going to throw a crazy party on a yacht

with all those guys.

That's awesome.

You don't even drink, though, right?

Sometimes.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I think F1 is probably the best networking sporting event I've ever been to.

Everyone's there.

Dude.

Dude, especially Monaco.

Oh, yeah.

Monaco and Abu Dhabi and yeah, all the countries out there, dude, because they just had one in Vegas.

It was my first one I ever went to.

Okay.

And I got a little taste of it, but I didn't even go to the paddock.

So I messed up.

Yeah.

If you're in the paddocks, bro.

Oh, my gosh.

The people you're meeting there.

Yeah.

So this is the paddock.

And then, yeah, staying on the yacht.

Yeah.

You'll make seven creatures that week just from the people you meet.

It's going to be crazy.

So nuts, dude.

And you can offer them a good service.

And that's the key, right?

People try to go to these events and they can't offer anything, but you have a valuable service to offer.

Yeah, yeah, so I think people need to develop that first, then go to events.

Yeah, definitely.

You know, figuring out what you can do and offer to really help people.

That's what it's all about.

Yeah, helping people out, man.

Well, anything you want to promote or close off with?

Yeah, I mean, well, yeah, happy to connect with you guys.

You can follow me on Instagram, Sack Fay K is my handle.

Feel free to DM me if you need any travel tips or hacks, assistogram company if you guys need any growth.

But yeah, that's that's it, man.

Boom.

Get in the video.

Thanks for coming on, man.

For sure.

Yeah, thanks for watching, guys.

Yeah.

See you tomorrow, guys.

Peace.