4 Steps to Storytelling Success

WEBVTT 1 00:00:04.840 --> 00:00:08.960 it's your customers. It's their emotions. It's their experience. That 2 00:00:08.960 --> 00:00:13.360 is the end goal that you're marketing in your storytelling should illicit. 3 00:00:13.840 --> 00:00:19.510 You probably know that storytelling is a skill that you and your team members 4 00:00:19.520 --> 00:00:24.570 should be working on constantly. Whether you're just getting going down 5 00:00:24.570 --> 00:00:28.790 that path or you're just looking to get a little bit better, you'll enjoy this 6 00:00:28.790 --> 00:00:33.890 conversation with Michael Ashford. Ah, journalist by background director of 7 00:00:33.890 --> 00:00:38.760 marketing at the receptionist, an entrepreneur and a student of Donald 8 00:00:38.760 --> 00:00:43.440 Miller. My name is Ethan Butte, your host here on the C X Siris on B two b 9 00:00:43.440 --> 00:00:49.170 growth. Keep listening for Michael's Four Steps to storytelling Success. 10 00:00:49.180 --> 00:00:56.110 Storytelling. It's fundamental to the human experience. As such, storytelling 11 00:00:56.110 --> 00:01:01.090 is also fundamental to the customer experience. Ah, powerful, well timed 12 00:01:01.090 --> 00:01:04.879 and well told story can make the difference between simply driving a 13 00:01:04.879 --> 00:01:10.190 transaction and building true brand affinity and customer advocacy. Today's 14 00:01:10.190 --> 00:01:14.780 guest views successful storytelling as an absolutely necessary part of 15 00:01:14.780 --> 00:01:19.440 successful marketing and brings to the conversation four key characteristics 16 00:01:19.450 --> 00:01:24.920 off. A good storyteller, he served as a sales engineer Ah, community engagement 17 00:01:24.920 --> 00:01:29.840 evangelist ah, marketing manager ah, sales and marketing operations manager 18 00:01:29.850 --> 00:01:34.390 ah vp of strategic partnerships and a VP of product marketing, among other 19 00:01:34.390 --> 00:01:38.420 roles. He currently serves as director of marketing at the receptionist, an 20 00:01:38.430 --> 00:01:42.090 industry leading and cloud based visitor management solution that 21 00:01:42.100 --> 00:01:46.050 automates visitor check ins. Michael Ashford. Welcome to the customer 22 00:01:46.050 --> 00:01:49.820 experience Podcast. Ethan, thank you so much for having me. I'm excited about 23 00:01:49.820 --> 00:01:53.840 our conversation. Yeah, me too. I like the theme. I'm honestly surprised I'm 24 00:01:53.840 --> 00:01:56.680 this deep in. I forget what number this episode is gonna be. It's gonna be in 25 00:01:56.680 --> 00:02:00.700 the middle late nineties, and we haven't had a storytelling discussion 26 00:02:00.700 --> 00:02:04.110 yet. And so I'm really excited to get into it on. I'm really glad that you 27 00:02:04.110 --> 00:02:07.700 spend so much time and energy thinking about it. But before we get going, 28 00:02:07.710 --> 00:02:12.900 you're a certified personal trainer and you're the owner of Fit Dad Fitness. So 29 00:02:12.910 --> 00:02:17.340 really quick. How and why did you start fit, Dad, And maybe what's one of your 30 00:02:17.340 --> 00:02:24.820 favorite? But my gym isn't open right now. Like this. Oh, goodness. I started 31 00:02:24.820 --> 00:02:30.240 fit, Dad Fitness. Probably about five or six years ago. Now, when, after 32 00:02:30.240 --> 00:02:34.240 getting my own health journey going and really seeing the benefits that it gave 33 00:02:34.240 --> 00:02:39.370 me and my family and my time with my Children. I wanted that for other 34 00:02:39.370 --> 00:02:44.180 fathers. And I have a heart for fathers being active and involved in the home. 35 00:02:44.190 --> 00:02:50.100 And I have I have a wonderful father, wonderful experience growing up. And I 36 00:02:50.100 --> 00:02:54.940 see fatherlessness in the United States in particular as a huge, gaping hole 37 00:02:54.940 --> 00:02:58.440 that is really not being addressed as a lot of the root of a lot of our 38 00:02:58.440 --> 00:03:04.520 problems. And I see fitness as a way to get more dads to be active, to be 39 00:03:04.520 --> 00:03:08.430 involved, to be present in their kids lives. So that's the underlying mission 40 00:03:08.430 --> 00:03:12.050 of fit Dad fitness. And we're helping guys build some muscle along the way. 41 00:03:12.140 --> 00:03:18.290 As far as far as you know, all my gyms are closed and I don't know what to Dio. 42 00:03:18.300 --> 00:03:24.700 I would say your body can be a fantastic Jim, and in much the same way 43 00:03:24.700 --> 00:03:28.130 as we establish the habit of going to the gym, you can establish the habit of 44 00:03:28.130 --> 00:03:31.340 working out at home, using your body or using the things that you find around 45 00:03:31.340 --> 00:03:35.570 your house. Just have to be creative with it. I love it. I'm I'm kind of a 46 00:03:35.570 --> 00:03:41.910 cheapskate in general and eso almost all the activity I do is a against my 47 00:03:41.910 --> 00:03:46.910 own body weight and free and see typically outdoors. You know, I'm 48 00:03:46.920 --> 00:03:50.690 buying new running shoes and hiking shoes about the only real expense to 49 00:03:50.690 --> 00:03:54.700 what I do. So the clothes Jim hasn't affected me at all. And in fact, it's 50 00:03:54.700 --> 00:03:58.850 so much easier now just to get outside, even if it's just for 10 or 15 minutes. 51 00:03:59.040 --> 00:04:03.080 So I really appreciate the mission you're on, and the benefits of being 52 00:04:03.080 --> 00:04:07.520 physically healthy obviously lend themselves to being mentally and 53 00:04:07.520 --> 00:04:12.440 emotionally and even spiritually healthy. I just don't see how they all 54 00:04:12.440 --> 00:04:15.980 work if one of those aspects doesn't work for you. So I really appreciate 55 00:04:15.990 --> 00:04:19.690 what you're doing for families. Well, thank you so much, and you're You're 56 00:04:19.690 --> 00:04:22.150 absolutely right. They're all intertwined. You can't separate one 57 00:04:22.150 --> 00:04:27.390 from the other. So fitness is fitness is vital and getting outside during 58 00:04:27.390 --> 00:04:30.850 these times, I mean, with the studies that show how much vitamin D helps 59 00:04:30.860 --> 00:04:35.620 fight the virus that we're currently experiencing, I mean, why not? Why not 60 00:04:35.620 --> 00:04:39.810 get outside and move your body more absolutely. Accept at this point, we're 61 00:04:39.810 --> 00:04:43.640 both in Colorado for anyone. I'm in Colorado Springs, where Bomb Bomb is 62 00:04:43.640 --> 00:04:49.070 headquartered and Michael is up the road in Castle Rock over half way to 63 00:04:49.070 --> 00:04:53.960 Denver from from where I am right now, and it's like Sunny and 95 for like for 64 00:04:53.960 --> 00:04:59.310 the next two weeks. And so that's the perfect time. That's the perfect time. 65 00:04:59.320 --> 00:05:04.220 Yeah, I mean, for me, that z a perfect time. It was a good thing about 66 00:05:04.220 --> 00:05:07.940 Colorado is the nights do cool off. So you've got that we've got that going 67 00:05:07.940 --> 00:05:13.310 for us. Yeah, for sure. So let's start now where we always start, which is 68 00:05:13.320 --> 00:05:16.340 customer experience. When I say customer experience. Michael, what does 69 00:05:16.340 --> 00:05:20.030 that mean to you? What thoughts, characteristics, definition, anything 70 00:05:20.030 --> 00:05:24.600 that comes to mind. It's the emotion that you feel. It's the emotion that 71 00:05:24.600 --> 00:05:29.490 you feel when you hear a brand or hear a company's name. It is the face, and 72 00:05:29.490 --> 00:05:34.750 the voice is that you attached to that company as a consumer. As a customer, 73 00:05:34.760 --> 00:05:39.360 customer experience is wrapped up in our emotions, and so often we try to 74 00:05:39.360 --> 00:05:44.590 take the emotion out of the buying process and the marketing process. But 75 00:05:44.600 --> 00:05:48.430 that is such a vital piece to it to make your customers feel something when 76 00:05:48.430 --> 00:05:54.420 they haven't experience with you is the key to creating an affinity for your 77 00:05:54.420 --> 00:05:59.600 brand that creates a fan that creates a lifelong customer that creates somebody 78 00:05:59.600 --> 00:06:03.670 who will pay extra for you and your service or your product, despite 79 00:06:03.670 --> 00:06:08.260 cheaper versions or cheaper knockoffs Being out there, the emotion that 80 00:06:08.260 --> 00:06:12.320 swells up within your customers is what customer experience ultimately should 81 00:06:12.320 --> 00:06:18.240 be set up to drive. I love it. I think we do ignore. I think when we design 82 00:06:18.240 --> 00:06:23.640 systems and we design processes and we design funnels and stages and steps. I 83 00:06:23.640 --> 00:06:27.800 think we do ignore the emotion far, far too often. And I'm with you 100% on 84 00:06:27.810 --> 00:06:32.680 thean emotional basis of it and the idea that the feeling is really at the 85 00:06:32.680 --> 00:06:36.880 heart of of customer experience. I did a solo episode on that, and it reminds 86 00:06:36.880 --> 00:06:41.270 me to of, ah, guests whose book I reds. Gentlemen Anthony Kuhn Duris wrote a 87 00:06:41.270 --> 00:06:45.780 book called Run Frictionless, and he talked about irrational buying forces 88 00:06:45.790 --> 00:06:50.380 and you really spoke directly to them and this was in his. His framework is a 89 00:06:50.380 --> 00:06:55.150 quadrant based one, and it was the shared belief or kind of like the brand 90 00:06:55.340 --> 00:06:59.720 quadrant who we are, right? And so this idea of sharing belief with other 91 00:06:59.720 --> 00:07:05.570 people and triggering these irrational buying forces, where competition 92 00:07:05.570 --> 00:07:09.720 matters a lot less price, matters a lot less. You buy yourself a lot of grace 93 00:07:09.720 --> 00:07:13.420 because we're all in perfect. And so when you dropped the ball, what you 94 00:07:13.420 --> 00:07:20.480 spoke, Teoh is all there from. From an experience standpoint, Yeah, And you 95 00:07:20.480 --> 00:07:24.890 know, when I think about the best customer experience, the best customer 96 00:07:24.900 --> 00:07:29.670 experiences that I've had as a consumer and customer myself, it was I never 97 00:07:29.670 --> 00:07:35.020 think of, Wow, that was really great automated email that they sent me. Or I 98 00:07:35.030 --> 00:07:39.170 could tell that I'm now in their customer nurture funnel. It's always 99 00:07:39.170 --> 00:07:43.410 been about the interactions that I've had. And even if they are automated, 100 00:07:43.420 --> 00:07:46.990 there's personality put into it. There's a story woven into it. There's 101 00:07:46.990 --> 00:07:52.510 a meaning behind it, rather than just taking off a box that you're creating 102 00:07:52.510 --> 00:07:56.770 an activity for a sales rep for for a marketer that turns into a number on a 103 00:07:56.770 --> 00:08:00.920 spreadsheet. We all understand when that's happening and when that's 104 00:08:00.920 --> 00:08:04.910 happening to us, and I think we so often don't get out of our heads, a 105 00:08:04.910 --> 00:08:10.160 sales and marketers and people who are driving a customer experience to think, 106 00:08:10.640 --> 00:08:16.520 How can I? We've some personality into this. How can I make it so that I would 107 00:08:16.530 --> 00:08:21.730 open this as a consumer? I would respond to this as a consumer and for 108 00:08:21.730 --> 00:08:25.090 me and what we're obviously gonna be talking about. The ability to tell your 109 00:08:25.090 --> 00:08:28.870 company story, your brand story, the people who work at your company, their 110 00:08:28.870 --> 00:08:33.820 stories is the gateway to all of them. It's fantastic, and you just kind of 111 00:08:33.830 --> 00:08:37.520 soft doubled down on something. You said in your definition that I also 112 00:08:37.520 --> 00:08:41.640 appreciate it, which is that it's that human to human interaction, when it 113 00:08:41.640 --> 00:08:46.630 happens, is where we really get the best stories that will end up in an 114 00:08:46.630 --> 00:08:51.440 online review or will end up in a personal referral to your brand or your 115 00:08:51.440 --> 00:08:54.370 company, or your product or service or whatever. And that's what we really, 116 00:08:54.370 --> 00:08:58.430 really remember and saving a bad situation in a human to human ways. 117 00:08:58.430 --> 00:09:02.010 They're just a really fantastic opportunity. But, um, literature 118 00:09:02.020 --> 00:09:06.720 context on what you're up to right now, tell us a little bit about the 119 00:09:06.720 --> 00:09:10.750 receptionist like who is your ideal customer, And what problem do you solve 120 00:09:10.750 --> 00:09:14.750 for them? So the receptionist is a visitor management system. Our software 121 00:09:14.750 --> 00:09:18.650 is called the receptionist for iPad. So we're solely an iPad based visitor 122 00:09:18.650 --> 00:09:23.720 management software that if you've ever walked into a building and we walked up 123 00:09:23.720 --> 00:09:28.640 to an iPad kiosk and used it to check in and that system notified your the 124 00:09:28.640 --> 00:09:33.700 person you were there to see that you've arrived. That is what our system 125 00:09:33.700 --> 00:09:37.570 does. Now there's a lot more to it, but that is what the visitor, for the most 126 00:09:37.570 --> 00:09:43.410 part, will experience we. It's been an interesting time for us, you know, if 127 00:09:43.410 --> 00:09:48.000 you think about businesses closing and going remote for the time being, if you 128 00:09:48.000 --> 00:09:52.130 think about, I don't want to touch anything that other people have touched. 129 00:09:52.140 --> 00:09:56.540 It's been a very interesting time for us right now. We just came out with a 130 00:09:56.540 --> 00:10:01.220 completely contact list solution that your visitors can check in using their 131 00:10:01.220 --> 00:10:06.450 phone rather than having to touch an iPad. Eso. That is what our system does. 132 00:10:06.460 --> 00:10:09.650 I'm the director of marketing. I've been at the company since October of 133 00:10:09.650 --> 00:10:14.630 2017, and I was the first full time marketing higher that the company made 134 00:10:14.630 --> 00:10:20.440 after years of using contractors and agencies. I was the first full time, 135 00:10:20.440 --> 00:10:25.010 and now I've got ah wonderful team of me and two other folks, Kayla and James, 136 00:10:25.010 --> 00:10:31.390 and where it's been a remarkable time because we're coming out of kind of the 137 00:10:31.390 --> 00:10:35.240 dip that I think a lot of companies experience. And I've said all along the 138 00:10:35.240 --> 00:10:40.920 best marketing teams will and the best companies by default after that will be 139 00:10:40.920 --> 00:10:45.110 the ones to thrive during this time. And I think we're we're feeling that as 140 00:10:45.110 --> 00:10:48.310 a company, so I'm pretty proud of that. That's awesome. I'm glad that that is 141 00:10:48.310 --> 00:10:51.850 the mo mentum, or that that that that mo mentum is feeling that you have 142 00:10:51.850 --> 00:10:55.400 right now. It's really, really encouraging to hear more people who are 143 00:10:55.400 --> 00:10:59.170 listening. This won't release for some time, but folks who are listening or 144 00:10:59.170 --> 00:11:03.250 experience the same thing in their businesses. And as I was looking at 145 00:11:03.260 --> 00:11:07.080 what you all do, I thought about obviously the immediate circumstance 146 00:11:07.080 --> 00:11:10.780 here and I can see you know, to the downside, a lot fewer people visiting 147 00:11:10.780 --> 00:11:14.290 people's offices and so you know there's this kind of wait and see, 148 00:11:14.290 --> 00:11:19.380 maybe from a new customer. And can we pause, maybe from an existing customer? 149 00:11:19.390 --> 00:11:23.490 Um, but I also saw the positive side of Islam and you already referred to. It 150 00:11:23.490 --> 00:11:26.730 is like a mobile app, so I don't have to touch that. IPad. But I could also 151 00:11:26.730 --> 00:11:31.090 see just thinking about it for a minute. New features and functions and things 152 00:11:31.090 --> 00:11:35.780 that would actually be highly reactive in a nice improvement, given the state 153 00:11:35.780 --> 00:11:40.460 of affairs. Those are all the questions that we're asking for sure. And you 154 00:11:40.460 --> 00:11:43.300 know, one of the things we wanted to do is if we were going to start forcing 155 00:11:43.300 --> 00:11:46.820 visitors to check in on their phones, we didn't want them to have to download 156 00:11:46.820 --> 00:11:50.980 an app. So it's all done through a browser rather than having to go to the 157 00:11:50.980 --> 00:11:55.530 APP store and download an app that was really important to us was making sure 158 00:11:55.530 --> 00:11:59.810 that the visitor experience was as smooth and seamless is possible. But 159 00:11:59.820 --> 00:12:03.260 yeah, it definitely extends to other parts of the business. And those are 160 00:12:03.260 --> 00:12:06.550 the conversations that we're having right now is we're in the business of 161 00:12:06.550 --> 00:12:11.510 checking people into businesses. The world a lot of the world, and it may be 162 00:12:11.510 --> 00:12:15.600 temporary is thinking about remote work. I mean, we're meeting over a zoom 163 00:12:15.600 --> 00:12:20.190 meeting right now, and I think all of our meetings over Zoom or feel like 164 00:12:20.190 --> 00:12:23.830 they have been over the last three months or so And so, yeah, we are 165 00:12:23.830 --> 00:12:27.080 having those conversations at a leadership team at the receptionist. 166 00:12:27.080 --> 00:12:33.460 About what are the extension areas that we can go into that revolve around the 167 00:12:33.460 --> 00:12:39.260 business of Of welcoming people into an office that, you know, given what we're 168 00:12:39.260 --> 00:12:44.000 going through right now. How does that extend into Ah, you know. Ah, longer 169 00:12:44.000 --> 00:12:47.930 horizon. Yeah, it's really interesting. And you're obviously thinking about it 170 00:12:47.930 --> 00:12:51.460 the right way. I mean, just your approach to business in general, based 171 00:12:51.460 --> 00:12:55.030 on our short conversation So far, I know you're all thinking about it the 172 00:12:55.030 --> 00:12:59.130 right way, and I can even see it. Maybe being useful for for checking in 173 00:12:59.130 --> 00:13:02.700 employees. Not that anyone wants to be on a time clock, but, you know, we do 174 00:13:02.700 --> 00:13:07.600 have that feature. We do have that ability. Yeah, yeah. You know, with 175 00:13:07.600 --> 00:13:11.200 contract tracing right now, contact tracing. You want to know who was in 176 00:13:11.200 --> 00:13:16.230 the building when who else was in the building so I could notify them If you 177 00:13:16.230 --> 00:13:20.090 know, somebody gets get test positive and they were in the building two days 178 00:13:20.090 --> 00:13:24.730 ago or a month ago, We want to know those things. And so we want to know 179 00:13:24.730 --> 00:13:29.780 employees, visitors, contractors, delivery drivers. I mean, it really can 180 00:13:29.780 --> 00:13:35.320 run the full gamut. Really interesting. Let's go into storytelling on Let's 181 00:13:35.320 --> 00:13:39.260 start there where we started with customer experience, which is, you know, 182 00:13:39.260 --> 00:13:43.300 it's I wouldn't call it buzz, wordy. But you know, you're certainly hearing 183 00:13:43.300 --> 00:13:49.720 a lot more about it now than you were, say, even 3 to 5 years ago. So just to 184 00:13:49.720 --> 00:13:54.080 kind of get on the same page with everybody When I say storytelling, what 185 00:13:54.080 --> 00:13:58.660 does that mean to you? It does go back to what I mentioned in my answer to 186 00:13:58.660 --> 00:14:05.640 customer experience. It is how do you create a narrative around your brand 187 00:14:05.650 --> 00:14:10.310 that illicit, some type of emotions. It elicits the emotion that you want from 188 00:14:10.310 --> 00:14:15.190 your customers, whether that's happiness or a sense of calm and peace 189 00:14:15.200 --> 00:14:20.060 or safety and security, or any one of the emotions that a company might want 190 00:14:20.060 --> 00:14:25.030 to feel or or pride in wearing, you know, new clothes. You could go through 191 00:14:25.030 --> 00:14:29.900 all the different business sectors and verticals and come up with an emotion 192 00:14:29.900 --> 00:14:34.380 that those companies want to attach to their customers. And storytelling is 193 00:14:34.380 --> 00:14:40.740 the way to do that, but done in the right way. Like if I think about, I 194 00:14:40.740 --> 00:14:44.610 love using this example if I think about two car companies and maybe I 195 00:14:44.610 --> 00:14:50.310 don't even need to say their names. But one talks about love and safety and 196 00:14:50.310 --> 00:14:54.820 their commercials air all about keeping your kids safe. And you know, the mom 197 00:14:54.820 --> 00:14:58.490 is looking out the window, and she's worried about her kid and all the 198 00:14:58.490 --> 00:15:03.190 scenes of their kids or like them. And there's these horrible situations where 199 00:15:03.190 --> 00:15:06.760 the parents mind is an imagination is running wild. And then at the end of 200 00:15:06.760 --> 00:15:09.730 the commercial, their kid pulls into the driveway and the parents smiles. 201 00:15:09.730 --> 00:15:14.840 And there you feel the relief the story is told, without ever really talking 202 00:15:14.840 --> 00:15:20.460 about the company or the feature or the car itself. It's love, and I think you 203 00:15:20.460 --> 00:15:24.360 can maybe guess what company I'm talking about because their tagline is 204 00:15:24.440 --> 00:15:30.330 love. It's what makes a Subaru a Subaru a Subaru. It's funny, like even before 205 00:15:30.330 --> 00:15:34.320 you got there. I do want to hear the other car example. Contrast. But it's 206 00:15:34.320 --> 00:15:37.430 so funny because as soon as you started getting into that, we're talking about 207 00:15:37.430 --> 00:15:42.740 sectors. I was immediately in car brands in my own head and just I was 208 00:15:42.750 --> 00:15:48.960 thinking, There's probably that variation of security pride, confidence, 209 00:15:48.960 --> 00:15:54.750 happiness just within cars. Exactly. So we're with the next we're going to go 210 00:15:54.750 --> 00:16:03.390 with, like eso contrast are not even that. Contrast that with Chevy and 211 00:16:03.390 --> 00:16:07.240 think about their recent commercials. It's this huge, cavernous room, and 212 00:16:07.240 --> 00:16:10.460 they bring in these, you know, customers or these people off the 213 00:16:10.460 --> 00:16:14.050 street and these cars air dropping down from the ceiling. And they're talking 214 00:16:14.050 --> 00:16:19.770 about their JD Power awards that nobody cares about. And it is also this self 215 00:16:19.770 --> 00:16:24.210 fulfilling, your self aggrandizing like look at us and look at our awards. And 216 00:16:24.210 --> 00:16:26.260 don't you wanna be in one of these cars? 217 00:16:27.440 --> 00:16:30.670 Why? Because they're dropping down from the ceiling like what? Like tell me 218 00:16:30.670 --> 00:16:35.770 some. How does that affect me if you if you think about the story in the 219 00:16:35.770 --> 00:16:40.890 narrative that those two different companies in the same space are trying 220 00:16:40.890 --> 00:16:46.930 to illicit from their buyers. Which one is going to make you feel something 221 00:16:46.940 --> 00:16:51.030 attaching emotion to something? The only emotion that I attached to the 222 00:16:51.030 --> 00:16:54.290 Chevy commercials is this is the stupidest thing I've ever seen. The 223 00:16:54.290 --> 00:16:58.640 emotion that I attack as a parent, the emotion that I attached to the Subaru 224 00:16:58.640 --> 00:17:05.670 commercials is man, I I want my kid to drive that, like I think, about how how 225 00:17:05.670 --> 00:17:08.700 nervous and anxious I get when they're just riding their bike around down the 226 00:17:08.700 --> 00:17:11.800 street. I don't know what I'm going to be like when they're driving cars and 227 00:17:11.800 --> 00:17:17.780 that that to me, is that to me, is what storytelling is that you are grabbing 228 00:17:17.780 --> 00:17:21.940 ahold and you're not painting yourself. And I could talk about this with a 229 00:17:21.940 --> 00:17:26.020 fantastic book that I've read. But you're not painting yourself and your 230 00:17:26.030 --> 00:17:30.100 your company and your products and your service as the hearer in the end all be 231 00:17:30.100 --> 00:17:35.560 all answer. It's your customers. It's their emotions. It's their experience. 232 00:17:35.560 --> 00:17:40.050 That is the end goal that that your marketing in your storytelling should 233 00:17:40.050 --> 00:17:44.340 illicit I love it and one of the most important ideas that you've shared here 234 00:17:44.340 --> 00:17:48.700 just on storytelling alone is that you don't actually have to tell the story, 235 00:17:48.710 --> 00:17:53.260 right? You can evoke it. Someone you could one there and they're telling the 236 00:17:53.260 --> 00:17:57.410 story to themselves, which makes it even more powerful as like a an 237 00:17:57.420 --> 00:18:02.400 experiential learning exercise. Like I'm I'm connecting all the dots. You're 238 00:18:02.400 --> 00:18:07.120 just putting all the dots close enough that I can draw. Uh, them in my drawing 239 00:18:07.120 --> 00:18:10.890 of the line between them just reinforces it that much deeper, so good. 240 00:18:10.900 --> 00:18:14.750 And you kind of previewed one of the four key characteristics of a good 241 00:18:14.750 --> 00:18:19.500 storyteller. And so, before we go there, when did this occur to you? When did 242 00:18:19.500 --> 00:18:23.280 you get when did the light bulb go on or what was the ah ha moment? Or what 243 00:18:23.280 --> 00:18:29.140 was the book that you read? Or, you know, when did this kind of branding, 244 00:18:29.140 --> 00:18:34.580 storytelling emotion intersection really come to life for you? There's 245 00:18:34.580 --> 00:18:38.980 kind of two points in time that I'll point Thio. The first is I'm not a 246 00:18:38.990 --> 00:18:42.900 trained marketer by education. I graduated with a degree in mass 247 00:18:42.900 --> 00:18:47.260 communications and journalism in particular print journalism. So I was I 248 00:18:47.260 --> 00:18:51.480 was a newspaper man right out of college and the stories that were 249 00:18:51.480 --> 00:18:56.390 always the most interesting that were always the most read that solicited the 250 00:18:56.390 --> 00:19:00.520 most feedback from readers were always the feature stories, the story of the 251 00:19:00.520 --> 00:19:06.440 human interest pieces, the pieces that we got to actually know, the person 252 00:19:06.440 --> 00:19:11.060 behind the story, whatever that story happened to be, you know, I was a 253 00:19:11.060 --> 00:19:15.390 sportswriter, and the stories that were always just kind of ho hum, unless it 254 00:19:15.390 --> 00:19:21.560 was a really big game were the, you know, post game wrap ups. Everybody, 255 00:19:21.570 --> 00:19:24.910 especially in today's world. Everybody already knows the score. They already 256 00:19:24.910 --> 00:19:27.500 know what happened. They already know all the stats because you could get all 257 00:19:27.500 --> 00:19:32.520 that in real time off of Twitter or, you know, any sports website. But you 258 00:19:32.520 --> 00:19:37.320 can't get that detail of the emotion behind the game or the emotion behind 259 00:19:37.320 --> 00:19:41.860 the athlete or the emotion behind the person unless you have a really great 260 00:19:41.870 --> 00:19:46.590 feature writer. And when I got into marketing kind of by chance a little 261 00:19:46.590 --> 00:19:51.910 over a decade ago, now I had a little bit of imposter syndrome because I 262 00:19:51.910 --> 00:19:56.090 wasn't marketing trained. I was, you know, came up and writing and project 263 00:19:56.090 --> 00:20:00.260 management. So the only thing that I knew how to turn to. The only thing 264 00:20:00.260 --> 00:20:04.620 that I knew was we're gonna tell stories. We is a marketing team. We're 265 00:20:04.620 --> 00:20:08.110 going to tell stories we're gonna highlight our customers and the success 266 00:20:08.110 --> 00:20:13.870 that they have. And that has been kind of my mantra moving forward. The second 267 00:20:13.870 --> 00:20:18.580 part of that, then, is it really came together in this really nice, nicely 268 00:20:18.580 --> 00:20:23.120 packaged head when I read Donald Miller's How to Build a Story Brand 269 00:20:23.120 --> 00:20:27.570 book, and I haven't sitting up here on my my my my bookshelf. Here it's 270 00:20:27.570 --> 00:20:33.430 building a story brand is actually the title. He in one book kind of captured 271 00:20:33.440 --> 00:20:38.780 what I have been practicing for the last decade, plus of your customers are 272 00:20:38.780 --> 00:20:43.060 the hero, not you. Your job is a marketer, as a sales person or as a 273 00:20:43.060 --> 00:20:48.100 business owner is to guide your customer, your potential customers on a 274 00:20:48.110 --> 00:20:54.560 journey, a story, a narrative that gets them to the happy ending, which is you 275 00:20:54.570 --> 00:20:58.990 and your product and your customers all singing Kumbaya around a G to crowd 276 00:20:58.990 --> 00:21:05.230 review. So good. Yet that's a book that most of us have read at Bom Bom. 277 00:21:05.240 --> 00:21:09.700 Fantastic. Yeah, it's just so straight for it. And I love the way you spoke to 278 00:21:09.700 --> 00:21:13.830 it, because some of my favorite books are that way, which is like these 279 00:21:13.830 --> 00:21:17.400 things I've been thinking and feeling and doing. It's actually a thing right. 280 00:21:17.400 --> 00:21:24.440 It's like for the imposture inside us, right things, guys legit. He wrote this 281 00:21:24.440 --> 00:21:28.660 book, and it captures and and organizes in a simpler and even mawr approachable 282 00:21:28.660 --> 00:21:32.770 way for a larger audience. It's something tangible you could give toe. 283 00:21:32.780 --> 00:21:36.970 Ah, friend or a team Members say This is what I've been talking about, but 284 00:21:36.980 --> 00:21:41.680 because of the thoughts in my head, you of us were privileged enough Thio to go 285 00:21:41.680 --> 00:21:44.980 to Nashville and go to one of his workshops. That great. It's the 286 00:21:44.980 --> 00:21:49.260 beginning of last year, and it was is really good. It was immersive. It was 287 00:21:49.260 --> 00:21:52.340 very helpful for us. And it's interesting because when you look at 288 00:21:52.340 --> 00:21:57.550 those workshops on paper like, Oh, it's just the book, but like in real life, 289 00:21:57.560 --> 00:22:01.400 but it's so much more than that because you're getting live interaction, you're 290 00:22:01.400 --> 00:22:05.130 actually building out your I forget what the whole one sheets called, but 291 00:22:05.130 --> 00:22:08.290 the you know the story breakdown. You know where you break down all the 292 00:22:08.290 --> 00:22:13.040 elements. And for me, the one piece that really came to life in interacting 293 00:22:13.040 --> 00:22:18.290 with his teaching was I always thought of marketing and like the buying 294 00:22:18.290 --> 00:22:22.330 process, is it and maybe the product and service experience as a 295 00:22:22.330 --> 00:22:27.000 transformation. I didn't think about it as a hero in a guide and in all these 296 00:22:27.000 --> 00:22:30.290 other things. But you know, this transformative piece, even if it's a 297 00:22:30.290 --> 00:22:35.020 minor transformation. But I was already thinking a lot along those lines and 298 00:22:35.020 --> 00:22:39.940 and honestly, I also came from a mass media background, and I certainly was 299 00:22:39.940 --> 00:22:48.540 guilty early in my career of the kind of JD power stuff. So, you know, really 300 00:22:48.540 --> 00:22:52.570 falling back into that. Hey, I'm just here thio to point the way to add some 301 00:22:52.570 --> 00:22:57.120 highlights toe, hold your hand if necessary. Thio Equip you and empower 302 00:22:57.120 --> 00:23:03.110 you really, really good. So let's get into. I think your four characteristics 303 00:23:03.110 --> 00:23:06.340 that you shared with me of a good storyteller are right on. And so I'll 304 00:23:06.340 --> 00:23:10.080 just offer the first one and then maybe just share your thoughts around it like, 305 00:23:10.080 --> 00:23:13.520 why does it matter so much? Or maybe what are some practical tips to bring 306 00:23:13.520 --> 00:23:17.600 it to life, and so the first one. The first of four characteristics of a 307 00:23:17.600 --> 00:23:24.090 great storyteller is someone who asks great questions first, going back to 308 00:23:24.090 --> 00:23:26.890 what you said earlier. Sometimes we don't even need to outright tell the 309 00:23:26.890 --> 00:23:31.970 story. We just have to give these dots in time and let your customers or your 310 00:23:31.970 --> 00:23:35.780 readers or listeners or whatever you, whatever audience you're going for, 311 00:23:35.790 --> 00:23:40.630 connect the dots themselves. Questions do that by asking a question and 312 00:23:40.630 --> 00:23:46.040 letting it sit out there in space. You get your customers and whoever you're 313 00:23:46.040 --> 00:23:50.550 speaking to, to begin to fill in the gaps themselves and by asking great 314 00:23:50.550 --> 00:23:55.370 questions. You get so much fantastic feedback about how people think about 315 00:23:55.370 --> 00:23:59.880 you, how they view your product, how they view your customer experience. And 316 00:23:59.880 --> 00:24:05.500 so instead of taking what we know as insiders at a company and trying to 317 00:24:05.500 --> 00:24:10.960 project that out to the public, why not flip that and say, What do you think of 318 00:24:10.960 --> 00:24:16.270 us? What is most meaningful to you and begin to collect that information so 319 00:24:16.270 --> 00:24:20.990 that it can feed your story down the road? That you can answer those 320 00:24:20.990 --> 00:24:25.410 questions, which is a point coming up, but that you can then speak directly to 321 00:24:25.410 --> 00:24:30.710 the questions that you've asked and heard the answer to. And this goes back, 322 00:24:30.710 --> 00:24:34.970 of course, to my journalism roots, like asking great questions if I don't ask 323 00:24:34.970 --> 00:24:38.410 great questions. As a journalist, I don't get great answers, and I don't 324 00:24:38.410 --> 00:24:43.110 get a great story. But if I ask great questions either as a journalist or as 325 00:24:43.110 --> 00:24:47.400 a marketer or business owner of my customers or the people that I want to 326 00:24:47.400 --> 00:24:52.420 be my customers, how will I ever know if I'm truly addressing what they care 327 00:24:52.420 --> 00:24:57.000 about? That's the intent behind asking great questions. I love it, and it also 328 00:24:57.000 --> 00:25:01.350 shows that you care, which is always a nice way to start to relate all this. 329 00:25:01.360 --> 00:25:06.620 Yeah, like they actually want to know which kind of which kind of leads to 330 00:25:06.620 --> 00:25:12.700 the second characteristic, which is someone who listens with intent and 331 00:25:12.700 --> 00:25:18.570 that that not only by listening and and listening with the intent to ask a 332 00:25:18.570 --> 00:25:22.360 follow up question, which is again the journalist and me going back and 333 00:25:22.360 --> 00:25:27.560 defaulting to that listening with intent means that you actually listen 334 00:25:27.570 --> 00:25:32.240 for what your customers are saying and not just seeking out your own 335 00:25:32.240 --> 00:25:36.510 confirmation bias like you're not just you're not picking the very best 336 00:25:36.510 --> 00:25:39.330 customers who love you. And you know they're going to say something great 337 00:25:39.330 --> 00:25:42.790 about you all the time. But you're asking everyone and you're listening to 338 00:25:42.790 --> 00:25:46.000 the negative and the positive feedback You're listening to the things that you 339 00:25:46.000 --> 00:25:49.670 are doing right and the things that you're doing wrong and you're not 340 00:25:49.670 --> 00:25:55.110 taking a fence to that. But you see it as an opportunity to grow and listening 341 00:25:55.110 --> 00:26:00.110 with intent and as much as you can. Tamping down your bias about what 342 00:26:00.110 --> 00:26:05.890 you're actually hearing is just in society as a whole, not something that 343 00:26:05.890 --> 00:26:12.510 is practiced near enough. Josh, what do you think is the most irritating thing 344 00:26:12.510 --> 00:26:15.960 for B two B buyers right now, man? Logan, I love talking to you about this. 345 00:26:15.960 --> 00:26:20.840 You know that the number one challenge right now is that many customer facing 346 00:26:20.840 --> 00:26:25.150 teams in the B two B space right now are forcing their potential buyers too, 347 00:26:25.150 --> 00:26:28.960 by the way that they want to sell. Buyers don't wanna buy that way right 348 00:26:28.960 --> 00:26:33.670 now. They wanna, by the way they want to buy. We need to enable those buyers 349 00:26:33.670 --> 00:26:37.780 we call this buyer enablement at sales reach. We need to enable those buyers 350 00:26:37.790 --> 00:26:42.200 to make better decisions quicker in a comfortable environment that's more 351 00:26:42.200 --> 00:26:45.890 personalized for them to move forward with that process. Dude, that's awesome. 352 00:26:45.890 --> 00:26:49.450 I couldn't agree more. Since I've been using sales reach in my own sales 353 00:26:49.450 --> 00:26:53.940 process, it's allowed me to really enable the buyer to move more quickly 354 00:26:53.940 --> 00:26:57.540 in really two ways. One, they don't have to download a bunch of attachments. 355 00:26:57.540 --> 00:27:01.770 Aiken send them toe one page with the proposal. Case studies Different 356 00:27:01.770 --> 00:27:05.520 resource is because, let's face it, the proposal is just one part of the sales 357 00:27:05.520 --> 00:27:09.650 conversation and probably on Lee one sales enablement piece of content that 358 00:27:09.650 --> 00:27:13.690 you're sending so it makes it easier on them. And then the other thing is, you 359 00:27:13.690 --> 00:27:17.150 know, we're selling to our champions, and then we're making them have to re 360 00:27:17.150 --> 00:27:20.750 give our pitch to the entire buying committee. So one thing I do is put a 361 00:27:20.750 --> 00:27:25.040 custom 2 to 3 minute video on the top of my sales reach page that says, Hey, 362 00:27:25.040 --> 00:27:28.110 here's all the resource is tie it back to the conversation. Here's the 363 00:27:28.110 --> 00:27:31.550 proposal. Let me know if you have any questions and it allows me to give a 364 00:27:31.550 --> 00:27:34.900 little bit of kind of a mini pitch to the rest of the buying committee, 365 00:27:34.910 --> 00:27:38.790 introduce myself, which helps me build trust and credibility and helps the 366 00:27:38.790 --> 00:27:43.630 buyer not have to repeat the entire pitch from scratch. So if anybody is 367 00:27:43.630 --> 00:27:46.860 looking to do the same thing in their own sales process, I'd highly suggest 368 00:27:46.860 --> 00:27:50.100 they reach out to you and the team over its sales. Reach for anybody listening. 369 00:27:50.100 --> 00:27:56.060 Just go to sales reach dot io to talk to Josh and the team e Think most 370 00:27:56.060 --> 00:27:59.820 people are and I've been guilty of this, too. I feel like this is a confessional. 371 00:27:59.820 --> 00:28:05.790 Thank you. I've been guilty of listening with the intent to respond, 372 00:28:05.800 --> 00:28:10.460 like you taking it enough information that I see where it's going and I can 373 00:28:10.460 --> 00:28:15.480 rebut or I can add Thio or whatever is supposed thio to truly, truly listening. 374 00:28:15.490 --> 00:28:18.380 One thing that I've been thinking a lot about that is a little bit of a 375 00:28:18.380 --> 00:28:21.840 struggle in terms of listening to customer feedback, and certainly it 376 00:28:21.840 --> 00:28:25.500 depends on your business model. If you're a very, very high touch white 377 00:28:25.500 --> 00:28:30.770 glove service and you can employ 50 people gainfully by serving 100 unique 378 00:28:30.780 --> 00:28:34.560 customers. That's different than what we're doing. A bomb bomb, Where were 379 00:28:34.570 --> 00:28:40.780 you know, 140 or 150 people serving more than 55,000 customers? Eso to that 380 00:28:40.780 --> 00:28:43.550 back side of it. That's something that I'd be curious to know what your 381 00:28:43.550 --> 00:28:47.730 thoughts are before we move on to the third one. There is definitely an art 382 00:28:47.740 --> 00:28:53.870 to weighing valuing. So there's an editorial judgment layer to figuring 383 00:28:53.870 --> 00:28:59.100 out how much toe way any one person's feedback, right, because, you know, you 384 00:28:59.100 --> 00:29:05.850 can get 87% positive with, you know, four or five key themes. But then, you 385 00:29:05.850 --> 00:29:11.030 know, within that other 13% you have, like, one or two outliers that air, 386 00:29:11.030 --> 00:29:16.230 like always, never You have to have this feature. I would never do this. 387 00:29:16.230 --> 00:29:19.990 And so that's like that artfully balancing. I mean, you have to listen 388 00:29:19.990 --> 00:29:24.420 to even know where you are and whether it's an outlier. But any thoughts on 389 00:29:24.420 --> 00:29:29.910 that did that do anything for you? Yeah, it does. And if you if you loop back 390 00:29:29.910 --> 00:29:33.190 around to the first point, which is asked great questions, if you do see 391 00:29:33.190 --> 00:29:37.870 those outliers rather than the rebuttal that I think we all want to default to 392 00:29:37.880 --> 00:29:42.780 go back to asking questions and listening again. Say you really adamant 393 00:29:42.780 --> 00:29:47.240 about this and this key feature like, Why is that so important? What would 394 00:29:47.240 --> 00:29:50.520 that do for you in your business? Do you think this matters to other people 395 00:29:50.520 --> 00:29:55.230 in your space? Like be inquisitive? And a lot of times people will answer the 396 00:29:55.230 --> 00:30:00.590 question for themselves or you might have a different solution. But yeah, 397 00:30:00.600 --> 00:30:06.390 it's it. It all goes back to me. Toe Listen, Thio, asking questions and not 398 00:30:06.390 --> 00:30:11.420 defaulting to Like you said, I want to rebut what you said. I would just 399 00:30:11.420 --> 00:30:15.810 continue to ask questions and dig deeper into those those groups. You 400 00:30:15.820 --> 00:30:21.390 love it? That's the why or interesting. Tell me more. Okay, so we have asked 401 00:30:21.390 --> 00:30:27.270 great questions, first listens with intent. Third, we have crafts content 402 00:30:27.280 --> 00:30:32.090 that answers questions, and this goes back to the car. Commercial example. 403 00:30:32.100 --> 00:30:37.700 You know, if I don't have a question, I have never question. I wonder how many 404 00:30:37.710 --> 00:30:41.710 how many JD Power Awards, that company that I just bought my car from? I've 405 00:30:41.710 --> 00:30:45.400 never asked that question. Never asked how many JD Power Awards Have they won? 406 00:30:45.410 --> 00:30:50.060 I've asked the question. How long has this been? How long do these cards 407 00:30:50.060 --> 00:30:55.250 generally last on the road? How did they test in safety and safeties test? 408 00:30:55.260 --> 00:31:00.140 How did they perform their and what's their crash rate? Or what's their role? 409 00:31:00.140 --> 00:31:03.590 Overweight? I mean, just these things that I would normally ask just doesn't 410 00:31:03.590 --> 00:31:09.230 everyday consumer speak to those? Drop the legalese language that I think are 411 00:31:09.230 --> 00:31:13.570 the jargon language that we so frequently get into and just ask 412 00:31:13.570 --> 00:31:19.240 questions that you would answer or you would ask as a consumer. And that only 413 00:31:19.240 --> 00:31:22.920 happens if you complete the first to you. Ask great questions and you're 414 00:31:22.920 --> 00:31:27.500 listening with intent. And one thing I remember what I was going to say about 415 00:31:27.500 --> 00:31:32.310 listening with intent is, you know, going back. And you were giving the 416 00:31:32.310 --> 00:31:37.640 example of like, 87% you know are positive and 13% are negative. And one 417 00:31:37.640 --> 00:31:41.150 of the things that I often try to bring to the table whenever we have a 418 00:31:41.150 --> 00:31:45.610 discussion about metrics or measurables is what is the immeasurable. What are 419 00:31:45.610 --> 00:31:50.800 the things that we as humans can logically and through context of an 420 00:31:50.800 --> 00:31:56.160 entire situation and with the intuitive abilities that we have as humans, what 421 00:31:56.160 --> 00:32:01.550 can we deduce from the situation that data and measurables will never tell us? 422 00:32:02.140 --> 00:32:07.010 And so when you have those extreme outliers were really great. I believe 423 00:32:07.010 --> 00:32:09.890 humans are fantastic about understanding what those extreme 424 00:32:09.890 --> 00:32:14.950 outliers contain. Who said it, why they said it. What's the context? I've 425 00:32:14.950 --> 00:32:19.190 always said Data is a compass that points you in the direction of where 426 00:32:19.190 --> 00:32:23.180 you think you should go. But is the person with the street smarts and the 427 00:32:23.180 --> 00:32:28.840 intuitive ability that has to navigate the log that's over the path or that 428 00:32:28.840 --> 00:32:33.480 has toe scale the cliff were in Colorado's I'm talking in hiking terms 429 00:32:33.490 --> 00:32:37.060 but has to scale the cliff that the compass is never going to show you in 430 00:32:37.060 --> 00:32:41.110 the way. And so when we talk about crafting great content that answers 431 00:32:41.110 --> 00:32:45.640 questions, it goes back. Thio, what are the? We can have all this data that 432 00:32:45.640 --> 00:32:49.090 that is telling us that these are the things people care about, that these 433 00:32:49.090 --> 00:32:54.080 air things that that we know to be true. But then we also have to balance that 434 00:32:54.090 --> 00:33:00.800 with what are we actually responding to here. What is the root of the issue 435 00:33:00.800 --> 00:33:05.710 that we're responding to? That I think we as intuitive people can can suss out 436 00:33:05.710 --> 00:33:10.780 from the data so good and it is so important to balance. I'm gonna I'm 437 00:33:10.790 --> 00:33:15.390 gonna grossly oversimplify this with the example I want to share. Here is 438 00:33:15.400 --> 00:33:19.930 you know, we in our senior leadership meetings that we do every Tuesday, we 439 00:33:19.930 --> 00:33:25.230 have a depending on who has what to share. You know, 5 to 15 minutes on 440 00:33:25.230 --> 00:33:28.860 customer feedback over the past week. And we also do the same thing an 441 00:33:28.860 --> 00:33:35.250 employee feedback. And you know, we have NPS. We have MPs broken out by 442 00:33:35.250 --> 00:33:39.660 segment for large teams and medium teams and small teams and some industry 443 00:33:39.660 --> 00:33:43.940 related looks, etcetera. But their numbers and trends to your point. So 444 00:33:43.940 --> 00:33:48.780 something I started doing about two or three months ago was we have all of our 445 00:33:48.780 --> 00:33:52.880 verbatim feedback for MPs feeding into a slack channel and we used to tools to 446 00:33:52.880 --> 00:33:57.910 collect it. We do that too. I've been grabbing all the verbatim is with the 447 00:33:57.910 --> 00:34:01.610 score and throwing them just into a lightweight Google doc so that people 448 00:34:01.610 --> 00:34:05.370 can read it. And there's something I did it because I wanted to process the 449 00:34:05.370 --> 00:34:08.650 material and kind of work with it and touch it in some way instead of just 450 00:34:08.650 --> 00:34:11.500 scrolling through a slack channel. And I figured, Well, if I do it this way, 451 00:34:11.510 --> 00:34:15.429 other people who are interested can can see it, too. But there's something so 452 00:34:15.429 --> 00:34:19.130 interesting, and this is kind of what is related to what you are offering 453 00:34:19.130 --> 00:34:24.860 there. There's something so interesting about the justifications or rationale 454 00:34:24.860 --> 00:34:31.150 for the score, whether it was a 10 or a son or three and the specific language 455 00:34:31.150 --> 00:34:35.110 used, you know, from a thematic standpoint. But also, if you're talking 456 00:34:35.110 --> 00:34:40.770 about like, are they adamant? Do they seem angry, or do they seem super 457 00:34:40.770 --> 00:34:45.630 excited? Do they include, like, ah, heart or the word love or little smiley 458 00:34:45.630 --> 00:34:49.460 face like all these little things, or is it just brings it to life in a much 459 00:34:49.460 --> 00:34:53.030 different way. And so when we carve out more time instead of just, you know, 460 00:34:53.030 --> 00:34:57.630 looking at the dashboard version of NPS, where we've created time to do it, I 461 00:34:57.630 --> 00:35:01.200 now shared in advance. I just did it for tomorrow's meeting so that people 462 00:35:01.200 --> 00:35:06.120 have you know, 24 hours Thio. Then we wind up discussing some of it. And 463 00:35:06.130 --> 00:35:11.580 anyway, it's really so important to bring toe life the story to use that 464 00:35:11.580 --> 00:35:15.240 word again. Yeah, behind the numbers because the numbers are only part of it. 465 00:35:15.250 --> 00:35:20.130 Several times we've had people give us NPS scores of nines, and in their 466 00:35:20.130 --> 00:35:23.650 feedback, they'll say You guys are actually the best company that have 467 00:35:23.650 --> 00:35:28.480 ever worked for blah, blah, blah. I just never give anyone a 10. No one's 468 00:35:28.480 --> 00:35:34.530 perfect. It's like, Okay, well, what do you really like? It's a nine out of 10. 469 00:35:34.530 --> 00:35:39.300 But you say we're the best company ever. Like we can take so much mawr away from 470 00:35:39.300 --> 00:35:44.260 that feedback. Then we can if they we only saw that they gave us a nine to 471 00:35:44.260 --> 00:35:47.640 your absolutely. Yeah, I'm thinking of a seven that I just copied and pasted 472 00:35:47.640 --> 00:35:53.680 into a Google doc where you know, it's 1/7. You're like, Okay, good. Not great. 473 00:35:53.690 --> 00:35:59.090 Bad, Not terrible. You know, it's in the passive zone on the NPS scale on, 474 00:35:59.090 --> 00:36:02.160 Do you look at it and they're like, three or four like hard core feature 475 00:36:02.160 --> 00:36:05.410 requests. Not like an ultimatum. Like I'm gonna leave you if you don't do 476 00:36:05.410 --> 00:36:10.190 these things, but I'm like a seven could be seven. It would have been a 477 00:36:10.190 --> 00:36:17.720 nine, but or it could be seven. It was gonna be a four. But you know, the 478 00:36:17.730 --> 00:36:22.370 nuances in the language and the justification so good. Exactly. So we 479 00:36:22.370 --> 00:36:26.780 have asked great questions, first listens with intent, crafts, content 480 00:36:26.780 --> 00:36:30.930 that answers questions and then fourth and finally here guides the reader or 481 00:36:30.930 --> 00:36:36.450 listener to a heroic outcome. And this, you know, all credit to Donald Miller 482 00:36:36.450 --> 00:36:41.790 and story brand on on that language. Because Thehyperfix o of this story is 483 00:36:41.800 --> 00:36:44.630 is really what I'm getting out there, and and that is taken directly from 484 00:36:44.630 --> 00:36:50.340 building a story brand. It is to go again, go back to the car commercial. 485 00:36:50.430 --> 00:36:55.920 The hero in the first commercial with Subaru is the mom or the dad who made 486 00:36:55.920 --> 00:37:00.770 the decision to buy the car to keep their kids safe. The hero in the second 487 00:37:00.770 --> 00:37:07.480 commercial in the Chevy commercial is Chevy, and there's just no affinity 488 00:37:07.480 --> 00:37:13.280 built there. There's just no story that I can place myself into and say, Yeah, 489 00:37:13.280 --> 00:37:18.160 I'm dealing with that same issue right there, and the guide you as a company, 490 00:37:18.160 --> 00:37:22.250 you could be the guide. You could be the wise sage to with all the 491 00:37:22.250 --> 00:37:25.920 background and knowledge and expertise and and information that we have as 492 00:37:25.920 --> 00:37:32.410 companies at our fingertips. We can parse that out in a story in a thematic 493 00:37:32.410 --> 00:37:37.510 way, in a way that the the reader or the consumer of that content can take 494 00:37:37.510 --> 00:37:41.570 themselves and immediately place themselves into the narrative that you 495 00:37:41.570 --> 00:37:47.290 are trying thio to weave. And it becomes so much more real for them at 496 00:37:47.290 --> 00:37:51.190 that point. And all of that can only be done if you've done the first three 497 00:37:51.190 --> 00:37:55.560 steps of telling a great story of, of listening, of asking follow up 498 00:37:55.560 --> 00:38:00.500 questions of crafting content that then answers those questions in a really way 499 00:38:00.500 --> 00:38:05.830 that effects actual consumers of your product or service. It all comes to a 500 00:38:05.830 --> 00:38:11.320 head when we can say you can achieve this kind of success and oh, by the way, 501 00:38:11.320 --> 00:38:15.970 your happen to be using our product love it for someone who is listening. 502 00:38:15.970 --> 00:38:21.230 It's like I've been thinking this way or I read that book and I loved it or 503 00:38:21.230 --> 00:38:25.930 these types of things, like basically, I'm with you So far Michael. But how 504 00:38:25.930 --> 00:38:29.900 doe I operationalize it? Do you have any thoughts or tips around? How do you 505 00:38:29.900 --> 00:38:35.080 make this habit or practice or default or culture within a team, or even 506 00:38:35.080 --> 00:38:38.870 within an organization? Any thoughts around that? Well, one of the things 507 00:38:38.870 --> 00:38:42.530 that we did is we actually went through the story brand process as a company at 508 00:38:42.530 --> 00:38:48.430 the receptionist and everyone from the CEO to the front line, you know, 509 00:38:48.430 --> 00:38:52.440 customer service reps and everyone in between. We were all involved in that 510 00:38:52.440 --> 00:38:55.980 process because we all have different vantage points of what the customer 511 00:38:55.980 --> 00:38:59.430 says at the different buying part, buying journeys or their different 512 00:38:59.430 --> 00:39:03.160 journey with us as a customer. And that was really important to us was we 513 00:39:03.160 --> 00:39:07.340 wanted to speak the same language. If you've ever read the book traction, it 514 00:39:07.340 --> 00:39:11.440 talks a lot about the entire company needs to be talking the same language 515 00:39:11.450 --> 00:39:17.040 when it comes to your measurements and how you run meetings and just the verb 516 00:39:17.040 --> 00:39:21.050 ege that you use day in and day out. As as employees of that company, it's 517 00:39:21.050 --> 00:39:25.120 important that it all remains the same. It's important that it remains the same 518 00:39:25.130 --> 00:39:30.110 when you're talking outwardly toe other people as well, not just internally in 519 00:39:30.110 --> 00:39:33.870 staff meetings, but in your marketing message on your social media on your 520 00:39:33.870 --> 00:39:38.250 podcast. That's important. And if everybody is not saying the same thing, 521 00:39:38.260 --> 00:39:42.590 then we've got an issue. And so go through a book like building a Story 522 00:39:42.590 --> 00:39:47.690 brand on the entire process as a team, like, if your company is huge, like 523 00:39:47.700 --> 00:39:52.000 create a working group from all different sectors and and segments of 524 00:39:52.000 --> 00:39:56.930 the company to go through that process and agree moving forward. This is our 525 00:39:56.930 --> 00:40:03.170 language that we use, I would say read, Just read Mawr. Read more nonfiction. 526 00:40:03.170 --> 00:40:07.070 Read more fiction, immerses like If you're not a book reader like 527 00:40:07.080 --> 00:40:12.110 audiobooks, listen to podcasts like Consume Mawr content where people are 528 00:40:12.110 --> 00:40:16.810 telling a great story and begin to think about how you can weave. That's 529 00:40:16.810 --> 00:40:19.980 those same elements into your own marketing messaging or your own 530 00:40:19.980 --> 00:40:25.140 messaging. As as a company right more. The best thing you could do is write 531 00:40:25.140 --> 00:40:30.760 more and read your stuff out loud. Like what? I actually say this to somebody 532 00:40:30.770 --> 00:40:36.860 eyes a great a great you know, thumb test of of if it's gonna fly or not, 533 00:40:36.870 --> 00:40:41.280 and do do people actually care about it? You know, if I'm a consumer, will would 534 00:40:41.280 --> 00:40:45.580 this capture my attention and caused me to think the way that I want my 535 00:40:45.580 --> 00:40:49.740 customers to think this is just so you can you can turn the tables on yourself 536 00:40:49.740 --> 00:40:54.530 and ask great questions of yourself and listen to other people in the company 537 00:40:54.530 --> 00:40:59.640 with intent. You could do a lot of this internally as well is so good. It 538 00:40:59.640 --> 00:41:03.790 reminds me of some of the deep motivation for starting this podcast 539 00:41:03.790 --> 00:41:07.490 and specifically this idea of cross functional teams, because everyone 540 00:41:07.490 --> 00:41:11.770 views the customer differently, depending on their seat in the house, 541 00:41:11.770 --> 00:41:14.960 right? We all interact with the customer differently. I interact with 542 00:41:14.960 --> 00:41:18.840 customers differently from the marketing team, then someone in sales 543 00:41:18.840 --> 00:41:21.940 certainly than someone in CS certainly than someone in product or Dev, 544 00:41:21.940 --> 00:41:26.710 certainly, And so having a more complete view and um, or complete 545 00:41:26.710 --> 00:41:30.200 understanding of what it's like to interact with your customers is so, so 546 00:41:30.200 --> 00:41:35.750 important. Really good tips there. I'm glad I asked. Before I start winding 547 00:41:35.750 --> 00:41:41.810 down here, you've had a number of sales roles. What do you wish? More sales 548 00:41:41.810 --> 00:41:46.380 people knew or understood about marketing or the marketing process and 549 00:41:46.390 --> 00:41:51.400 or what do you wish more marketers knew or understood about sales people or the 550 00:41:51.400 --> 00:41:56.160 sales process? That would be where I would dio is what I wish more marketers 551 00:41:56.160 --> 00:42:01.720 knew about the sales process. I've managed sales reps, I've managed cold 552 00:42:01.720 --> 00:42:07.900 callers and business development reps. The act of trying to get somebody to go 553 00:42:07.900 --> 00:42:14.460 from never knowing about your product to getting them to give you money is so 554 00:42:14.460 --> 00:42:22.730 incredibly difficult. It's just so hard. And to understand the daily battle that 555 00:42:22.730 --> 00:42:28.780 a sales rep or, ah, sales development rep, or even like a rep, who goes to 556 00:42:28.790 --> 00:42:33.440 conferences and travels a lot and gets in front of people the daily battle 557 00:42:33.440 --> 00:42:38.710 that they have in their minds and the a lot of times the livelihood, their 558 00:42:38.710 --> 00:42:43.820 livelihood, that is on the line if they don't perform that day and build the 559 00:42:43.820 --> 00:42:49.580 relationship is so it can be so overwhelming. It is an incredibly it 560 00:42:49.580 --> 00:42:52.640 could be an incredibly motivating thing and also an incredibly disheartening 561 00:42:52.640 --> 00:42:56.930 thing. I once heard it said that the bail sales reps are the best losers. 562 00:42:57.300 --> 00:43:01.490 You're always you're always thinking that that last loss is getting you 563 00:43:01.490 --> 00:43:05.640 closer to the next victory, and that's a really hard place for a lot of people 564 00:43:05.640 --> 00:43:10.400 to be in. So often, we as marketers just send things out and expect. We 565 00:43:10.400 --> 00:43:12.880 look at the numbers and no, it's driving more traffic and it's driving 566 00:43:12.880 --> 00:43:16.850 more engagement. And this this percentage of people filled out, Ah, 567 00:43:16.860 --> 00:43:23.570 lead form, Yeah, and we never quite understand what goes on at that point. 568 00:43:23.570 --> 00:43:29.300 Moving forward. That's where I go back to understanding the immeasurable 569 00:43:29.310 --> 00:43:35.460 aspect of a sales job. There are some deals along in my career that we've won 570 00:43:35.470 --> 00:43:41.430 that. I have no logical reason to tell you why we won the deal other than they 571 00:43:41.430 --> 00:43:46.080 just liked our sales rep more. We didn't have any better features. We 572 00:43:46.080 --> 00:43:49.360 didn't have any better pricing. We didn't have any better, you know, terms 573 00:43:49.360 --> 00:43:53.600 in our contract, they just like the rep more. And if you think about how hard 574 00:43:53.600 --> 00:43:57.790 it is toe, get somebody toe like you let alone give you money like that's 575 00:43:57.800 --> 00:44:03.850 incredibly difficult and we just need thio. I say all the time marketers have 576 00:44:03.850 --> 00:44:08.700 to. If they don't fulfill the sales role themselves and practice it that 577 00:44:08.710 --> 00:44:12.100 they have to immerse themselves into the sales side of the world as much as 578 00:44:12.100 --> 00:44:17.860 possible because at the end of the day, your job is dependent on them doing 579 00:44:17.860 --> 00:44:21.590 their job to the best of their abilities, and you are in support of 580 00:44:21.590 --> 00:44:26.410 them. I love it. I'm so glad I asked that question Risk of running long on 581 00:44:26.410 --> 00:44:31.280 the conversation because a a line that I've been using in talking about what 582 00:44:31.280 --> 00:44:35.440 we do at Bom Bom, which is make it easy to send videos tip people typically in 583 00:44:35.440 --> 00:44:39.330 a 1 to 1 personal basis we can use in a variety of ways is that, you know, one 584 00:44:39.330 --> 00:44:42.390 of the reasons you might engage with us is that you believe that your 585 00:44:42.390 --> 00:44:46.140 measurables make a measurable difference, that who you are, matters 586 00:44:46.140 --> 00:44:50.010 that your team needs to be more visible to more people. And so this idea of 587 00:44:50.020 --> 00:44:56.660 being a deal just because that trust in the confidence in the warmth and the 588 00:44:56.660 --> 00:45:00.900 competency are all felt there and it's like, you know, it's so funny. I think 589 00:45:00.900 --> 00:45:04.050 about things happening in my own house, right? So when we wanted Thio put air 590 00:45:04.050 --> 00:45:09.510 conditioning in and get a new furnace at the same time, my wife and I did all 591 00:45:09.510 --> 00:45:15.900 three of the, you know, people entering our home. Yeah, it's so interesting how 592 00:45:15.900 --> 00:45:21.420 much the person represent. I mean, they all have beautiful medium to heavy 593 00:45:21.420 --> 00:45:28.780 stock pieces. Lots of details like nice draw. Great marketing teams, for sure. 594 00:45:28.790 --> 00:45:33.710 But you know, if the gentleman in your home feels a little bit like a weirdo 595 00:45:34.590 --> 00:45:40.260 to your wife? Yeah, exactly. That's a great example. If I have somebody 596 00:45:40.260 --> 00:45:44.310 coming it, we've had this example to We've had somebody come in tow to fix 597 00:45:44.310 --> 00:45:48.750 our air conditioner. He spent the entire time talking to me, and my wife 598 00:45:48.750 --> 00:45:53.380 is sitting right next to me like she's on the leash. She's on the title to 599 00:45:53.390 --> 00:45:59.310 like, This is her homos. Well, speak to both of us, not just to me as the man 600 00:45:59.490 --> 00:46:04.500 that is. And we didn't go with them. For that reason, we did not go with 601 00:46:04.500 --> 00:46:09.600 that company. So it's so for folks. Your team matters a lot into what you 602 00:46:09.600 --> 00:46:14.650 offered there maybe three or four minutes ago. You know, your brand is 603 00:46:14.650 --> 00:46:18.600 the promise that you're making to your customers, and the customer experience 604 00:46:18.610 --> 00:46:24.040 is the actual delivery on the promise, for better or for worse. And so this 605 00:46:24.040 --> 00:46:28.000 consistency across teams is another key part of the conversation that we're 606 00:46:28.000 --> 00:46:33.330 having an ongoing basis here on the podcast end. You know, as your customer 607 00:46:33.330 --> 00:46:37.590 moves across your teams, they need to feel that same trust and competence, 608 00:46:37.890 --> 00:46:42.040 confidence, warmth, all those things that are happening that got them. A 609 00:46:42.040 --> 00:46:46.490 Sfar Aziz. They are in the journey. It needs to be continuous, and it needs to 610 00:46:46.490 --> 00:46:50.730 be felt similarly. That should be obvious in all those touch points, who 611 00:46:50.730 --> 00:46:54.410 your team is and what you stand for. And so for folks who are listening, if 612 00:46:54.410 --> 00:46:58.750 you have enjoyed this conversation with Michael is I have you might also like 613 00:46:58.760 --> 00:47:02.950 one of my earliest episodes with my longtime friend and team member and co 614 00:47:02.950 --> 00:47:07.590 author on Re Humanize Your Business Back on Episode six. Steve Personnel er 615 00:47:07.590 --> 00:47:11.460 CMO at Bom Bom. I had a conversation with me, and we titled that one 616 00:47:11.460 --> 00:47:16.260 connecting with customers by exploring a shared belief. And I think the shared 617 00:47:16.260 --> 00:47:21.150 belief underpins a lot of the storytelling about who you are, what 618 00:47:21.150 --> 00:47:27.060 you're about, and is that something the customer or potential customer can feel 619 00:47:27.060 --> 00:47:31.630 and wants to participate in. So that's episodes six With Steve Personally on 620 00:47:31.630 --> 00:47:36.750 shared beliefs and on Episode 49 with Scott Barker, who is with sales Hacker 621 00:47:36.750 --> 00:47:40.590 and Outreaches does a number of things there. He is a sales evangelist at 622 00:47:40.590 --> 00:47:44.700 large, and we call that when four tactics, every sales person should 623 00:47:44.700 --> 00:47:48.790 steal from marketing. And so I guess I'll make that transition. That's 624 00:47:48.800 --> 00:47:53.520 Episode 49 with Scott Barker, and I think you'll see a lot of those themes 625 00:47:53.520 --> 00:47:57.510 that we were talking about play into some of the things that he says sales 626 00:47:57.510 --> 00:48:02.100 people should steal from marketers really quickly. Michael, what do you 627 00:48:02.100 --> 00:48:06.270 think about Obviously when a lot of people here a conversation like this, 628 00:48:06.270 --> 00:48:09.750 if you're a market or you're like, Oh yeah, that's me, that's me every day. 629 00:48:09.760 --> 00:48:14.250 What about someone in other roles? I mean, I know that this is transferrable 630 00:48:14.250 --> 00:48:17.440 and useful in a wide variety of roles, but what are some of your thoughts 631 00:48:17.440 --> 00:48:21.730 around that for people that might say, Is this for me? Or I don't think that's 632 00:48:21.730 --> 00:48:29.760 for me. The storytelling is how humans communicate, and so much of our jobs is 633 00:48:29.770 --> 00:48:35.890 convincing people off a stance that we have or an idea that we have, or a a 634 00:48:35.890 --> 00:48:40.620 direction that we think the company should dio if you are a good 635 00:48:40.620 --> 00:48:46.650 storyteller, if you can. Accurately and appropriately, we've a narrative around 636 00:48:46.650 --> 00:48:52.160 your idea. Your idea for a product, your idea for a new process like let's 637 00:48:52.160 --> 00:48:56.060 just take finance and and like that rarely ever talks to a customer unless 638 00:48:56.060 --> 00:48:59.300 they're mad and trying to get him to pay a bill, right? Like if you have a 639 00:48:59.300 --> 00:49:04.100 nice idea to improve the customer experience through a new process in in 640 00:49:04.100 --> 00:49:08.850 accounts payable or accounts receivable. Tell it through a story. Don't just 641 00:49:08.850 --> 00:49:13.240 show the raw data and say, like, Here's the data. Here's how I think how much 642 00:49:13.240 --> 00:49:17.080 we can improve. Do you approve this problem process, change or not? Tell a 643 00:49:17.080 --> 00:49:23.370 story we've in thean measurables behind it and see how much better your ideas 644 00:49:23.370 --> 00:49:28.250 are received by simply telling a story and and making sure that you've checked 645 00:49:28.250 --> 00:49:32.390 all of the appropriate boxes that we've talked about. Have you been asking 646 00:49:32.390 --> 00:49:37.110 questions of of other people of customers? Have you did you listen and 647 00:49:37.110 --> 00:49:41.720 remove your bias out of those answers have. Are you now anticipating the 648 00:49:41.720 --> 00:49:44.550 questions that you're going to be asked? So you're creating your presentation or 649 00:49:44.550 --> 00:49:49.810 your content to address those questions and you're painting Not yourself, but 650 00:49:49.810 --> 00:49:55.420 the company or the customer or your boss as the hero. You will be more 651 00:49:55.420 --> 00:49:58.730 successful in your role, and I don't. I don't care what department you're in, 652 00:49:58.730 --> 00:50:04.470 what role you're in, storytelling will work. I'm with you on that, Michael. 653 00:50:04.470 --> 00:50:07.560 This has been awesome. I've enjoyed it very much. We could easily go over an 654 00:50:07.560 --> 00:50:13.080 hour for sure. Have never done this on the way back trying to start today s 655 00:50:13.090 --> 00:50:16.280 before I let you go, though, I want to give you the chance to to think or 656 00:50:16.280 --> 00:50:20.700 mention someone who's had a positive impact on your life for your career and 657 00:50:20.700 --> 00:50:24.660 to give ah shout out or mention or a nod to a company or a brand that you 658 00:50:24.660 --> 00:50:29.390 really respect. Let's say, besides Subaru, um, they really respect for the 659 00:50:29.390 --> 00:50:35.120 way they deliver for you as a customer. Well, my shout out has to go to the 660 00:50:35.120 --> 00:50:40.540 first boss that I ever had in in a marketing role. He was the guy who took 661 00:50:40.540 --> 00:50:45.780 me from Ah project management role and, you know, within the next year, said, I 662 00:50:45.960 --> 00:50:49.910 think you could be our marketing director, and that was, ah, friend of 663 00:50:49.910 --> 00:50:56.090 mine from A from a few companies ago called Jesse Manning and Jesse and I 664 00:50:56.100 --> 00:51:00.390 were on the student newspaper together in college, and we actually were 665 00:51:00.390 --> 00:51:05.430 roommates for a little bit, and our paths reconnected a few years after 666 00:51:05.430 --> 00:51:12.770 college. And he took a huge, huge leap of faith on me by making me the 667 00:51:12.770 --> 00:51:17.220 marketing director when I had never had any marketing experience before. And 668 00:51:17.220 --> 00:51:22.360 that really said about this path on my my career that I I absolutely love so 669 00:51:22.370 --> 00:51:29.570 many. Many thanks to him and his his willingness toe Give me a shot at it, E 670 00:51:29.660 --> 00:51:37.940 Yeah, right. I'll say that I love. So I'm definitely a hiker. I am definitely 671 00:51:37.940 --> 00:51:43.280 a, you know, an outdoorsy person. I love climbing the 14 er's here in, uh 672 00:51:43.290 --> 00:51:49.390 in Colorado, and I really love a company that designs backpacks. They're 673 00:51:49.390 --> 00:51:56.140 called Osprey packs and just incredible quality, and if anything breaks like 674 00:51:56.150 --> 00:51:59.710 they will fix it for you in much the same way, it's kind of that Patagonia 675 00:51:59.710 --> 00:52:04.400 model where if you're zipper breaks like, they'll replace it. And I just I 676 00:52:04.400 --> 00:52:10.210 love how for one, I haven't had to be much of a repeat customer because their 677 00:52:10.210 --> 00:52:14.800 packs are so well designed. I get a lot of usage out of them. But you know, my 678 00:52:14.800 --> 00:52:18.560 son will be getting one this year for his birthday as we go on our 1st 14 or 679 00:52:18.560 --> 00:52:21.870 together. And you know, I know that's where I'm going. Like I enjoy their 680 00:52:21.870 --> 00:52:26.530 marketing. I enjoy their storytelling. I enjoy their customer service. It's 681 00:52:26.530 --> 00:52:30.300 it's been fantastic. Awesome. I love that company as well. And I think that 682 00:52:30.300 --> 00:52:34.810 Colorado based I think they're e I could be wrong. You're correct. I have. 683 00:52:34.820 --> 00:52:40.550 In our house, we haven't least six or seven of their products and four of 684 00:52:40.550 --> 00:52:48.380 them are mine, including my My suit, my airport airplane friendly, uh, suitcase 685 00:52:48.450 --> 00:52:52.570 all and, like just amazing wheels on. I've used it for years, and it almost 686 00:52:52.570 --> 00:52:57.290 looks as good as the day I bought it. A swell. I've got a laptop bag from them. 687 00:52:57.290 --> 00:53:01.270 I've got a couple backpacks, a big, bigger one and a smaller one and great 688 00:53:01.270 --> 00:53:05.050 company. I love the shout out there, Michael, if people want to follow up on 689 00:53:05.050 --> 00:53:08.210 this conversation because they enjoyed it, if they want to connect with you or 690 00:53:08.210 --> 00:53:12.760 they wanna learn more about the receptionist or fit Dad fitness or yeah, 691 00:53:12.770 --> 00:53:15.980 what would you send people if they enjoy this conversation, which if 692 00:53:15.980 --> 00:53:20.520 they're listening right now I know they did? Sure. Well, the receptionist dot 693 00:53:20.520 --> 00:53:25.120 com is the receptionist website. You can always email me. It's Michael at 694 00:53:25.130 --> 00:53:28.670 the receptionist dot com, and for all things fit that fitness you could go to 695 00:53:28.670 --> 00:53:32.820 fit that fitness dot com and much the same way. It's Michael at Fit, Dad 696 00:53:32.820 --> 00:53:37.990 fitness dot com, and we run podcast and manage podcast for both organizations. 697 00:53:37.990 --> 00:53:41.460 So I have my own personal podcast with Fit Dad Fitness. It's simply the Fit 698 00:53:41.460 --> 00:53:46.070 Dad Fitness podcast. And then for the receptionist we have Our podcast is 699 00:53:46.070 --> 00:53:50.250 called the Fabric Show. The fabric podcast and fabric stands for fun, 700 00:53:50.260 --> 00:53:54.950 authentic, bold, respectful, innovative and collaborative. And that is that 701 00:53:54.960 --> 00:53:58.640 those are our core values. And so those are the topics that we explore on the 702 00:53:58.640 --> 00:54:03.130 fabric show. Awesome, really good mention there, and I would go out on a 703 00:54:03.130 --> 00:54:06.130 limb and say You've probably said those core values a number of times. It also 704 00:54:06.130 --> 00:54:11.270 helps make a word. Exactly. And that actually was happy, happy instance, a 705 00:54:11.270 --> 00:54:15.470 happenstance not by not on purpose. So it's kind of cool that worked out that 706 00:54:15.470 --> 00:54:19.480 way. It's fantastic. Thank you so much. It's been an absolute pleasure. I 707 00:54:19.480 --> 00:54:22.350 really appreciate all the tips you shared with us. The stories you shared 708 00:54:22.350 --> 00:54:26.260 with us and appreciate what Europe thio. Thank you so much, Ethan. It's been an 709 00:54:26.260 --> 00:54:31.860 absolute pleasure. Hey, because you're still listening to this episode on the 710 00:54:31.860 --> 00:54:35.860 c X Siris on B two b growth. I know that you would enjoy other 711 00:54:35.860 --> 00:54:41.290 conversations with marketing, sales and customer success professionals about 712 00:54:41.290 --> 00:54:47.160 how toe create and deliver better experiences for your customers. So 713 00:54:47.160 --> 00:54:50.670 wherever you're listening, take a minute and search the customer 714 00:54:50.670 --> 00:54:55.210 experience podcast. You know you found the right one. When you see the orange 715 00:54:55.210 --> 00:55:00.420 tile, the customer experience podcast, you can also browse episode, see video 716 00:55:00.420 --> 00:55:06.350 clips and a whole lot more by visiting bom bom dot com slash podcast. That's 717 00:55:06.350 --> 00:55:11.630 bom bom dot com slash podcast. I am your host, Ethan Butte, and I 718 00:55:11.630 --> 00:55:15.160 appreciate you listening to the c x Siris on B two b growth 719 00:55:17.440 --> 00:55:21.390 is your buyer of UDP marketer. If so, you should think about sponsoring this 720 00:55:21.390 --> 00:55:26.200 podcast. B two B Growth gets downloaded over one 130,000 times each month, and 721 00:55:26.200 --> 00:55:29.860 our listeners are marketing decision makers. If it sounds interesting, send 722 00:55:29.860 --> 00:55:32.960 Logan and email Logan at sweet fish media dot com.