17: Nurturing Relationships in Business with Dave “Chachi” Denes

Welcome to season two of biz mode. If you caught last week’s trailer, you learned that this season we’ll be focusing on the makers. As I mentioned, entrepreneurs are all creators in some way and we’ll be hearing from these creators.

Have you ever turned on the radio and heard a new segment with music in the background or maybe a traffic report with music in the background? Maybe you heard a program on one radio station turn to the next radio station, you heard a program that sounded really familiar or actually almost the same as the last program? Chances are you heard a creation from Benztown. Dave “Chachi” Denes is the president and co-founder of Benztown, which is a preeminent audio branding and imaging company that provides those products and support to radio stations, not only in the U S but throughout the world.

Now, Chachi got his start in radio while he was still at the university in San Diego. From San Diego, he moved on to Los Angeles where he eventually became the Program Director for KBIG radio station. Now, if you grew up in LA during the 1980s and 1990s you knew about KBIG because their advertising was everywhere, but as with many industries, the era of radio started to shift. They started to consolidate and Chachi moved on and founded Benztown in 2008. A couple takeaways. Listen to how Chachi describes the business environment we are now in. We are now in an age where a lot of companies are good and competent, but to try and differentiate, you have to not only be good and competent, you actually got to be great, which includes not only what you sell, but how you sell it, how you treat your customers, how you treat your team, all of it matters.

Another takeaway is that the relationships you develop throughout your career and those relationships that you nurture and maintain can provide you opportunity that you may not even be aware of. Also, toward the end of the episode, Chachi describes a stressful situation he experienced during this company’s growth. The takeaway I got from that is that in order to grow, you have to let something go. Even if that thing that you’re living letting go has helped you grow and could provide a source of revenue for you. Well, enough about my takeaways. Listen to my chat with Chachi and send us your takeaways, [email protected]. Enjoy the show.

 

Some topics that were discussed include:

• How do you decide to expand into new product offerings?
• Outsourcing
• The gig economy
• How to stand out when everything is good
• Getting started in radio
• The courage to make a big move
• Shout out to Tracy Johnson
• Meeting a legend in LA radio programming
• Getting let go
• Hiring trends and shifts in the radio industry
• The mindset and mental stress of losing a job
• Inspiration to step into entrepreneurship
• From side hustle to a Benztown
• Relationships that support you through your career
• Managing a global team
• Maintaining the company culture
• Changes in entertainment industry
• Smart speakers
• Trends driving the industry
• Business Challenges
• Would you do it all over again?
• Don’t give up to soon