Instead of Events, Try This Instead for Your ABM Campaign

WEBVTT 1 00:00:03.840 --> 00:00:07.530 welcome back to be to be growth. I'm Dan Sanchez with sweet fish media and 2 00:00:07.530 --> 00:00:11.660 today I'm excited to do something a little bit different, for we're getting 3 00:00:11.660 --> 00:00:15.680 towards the end of this a B M month we've been having. And I'm excited to 4 00:00:15.680 --> 00:00:19.530 talk to James Carberry, the founder of Sweet Fish Media, about an idea that we 5 00:00:19.530 --> 00:00:23.570 have around account based marketing. This isn't something that's been proven, 6 00:00:23.570 --> 00:00:27.610 but we're pretty confident that this is going to be a great thing for our own A 7 00:00:27.610 --> 00:00:30.930 B M campaign. So we wanted to share it with you. This is kind of a prediction 8 00:00:30.930 --> 00:00:35.030 of where the market's going, and we wanted to show you how we're gonna be 9 00:00:35.030 --> 00:00:39.920 tying it into our own A B M campaigns. And it has to do with building micro 10 00:00:39.930 --> 00:00:44.310 communities. It's something we're betting big on. James, can you tell us 11 00:00:44.310 --> 00:00:47.710 a little bit about how you describe a micro community and why you think it's 12 00:00:47.710 --> 00:00:52.260 going to be kind of the future, or at least the next 10 or so years? Yeah, so 13 00:00:52.260 --> 00:00:56.720 I think you're you're seeing a lot of people talking about building community 14 00:00:56.720 --> 00:01:01.260 right now, particularly in the B two b space and I come from the church world. 15 00:01:01.260 --> 00:01:05.239 You and I both come from the church world were both Bible believing Jesus 16 00:01:05.239 --> 00:01:10.900 lovers and in the church world. Ah, community is, you know, really A. It's 17 00:01:10.900 --> 00:01:15.930 a small group Bible study that typically meets in somebody's home. And 18 00:01:15.930 --> 00:01:22.200 so that's been my idea of what a community is for, I don't know, 15, 16, 19 00:01:22.200 --> 00:01:27.510 17 years I became a Christian when I was 15 years old and, uh, 20 years. I 20 00:01:27.510 --> 00:01:35.790 guess that's been baked into my psyche. That community equals intimacy, not 21 00:01:35.800 --> 00:01:40.060 community equals audience building. And I think those two things were getting 22 00:01:40.060 --> 00:01:44.270 conflated. Right now, I think a lot of SAS companies that are putting out 23 00:01:44.270 --> 00:01:48.280 great content and they're building phenomenal audiences because of the 24 00:01:48.280 --> 00:01:51.840 content they're putting out. I think they're telling themselves that they're 25 00:01:51.840 --> 00:01:56.310 building community. But what a community does is a community helps 26 00:01:56.310 --> 00:02:03.010 people connect with other people in the community, and that requires a certain 27 00:02:03.010 --> 00:02:08.160 type of facilitation. And it requires certain things happening beyond just 28 00:02:08.639 --> 00:02:12.630 opening up a slack channel and throwing good content in it. For everybody to 29 00:02:12.630 --> 00:02:17.450 comment and engage on or, you know, a Facebook group or circle dot eso or, 30 00:02:17.450 --> 00:02:20.740 you know, whatever the platform is that you're using mighty networks, you know, 31 00:02:20.740 --> 00:02:24.530 there's a ton of them popping up everywhere. And so what I've started 32 00:02:24.530 --> 00:02:28.310 doing. We we've got four groups now up and running. We're calling them B two B 33 00:02:28.310 --> 00:02:32.680 growth groups. We might change the name of them, but essentially what they are. 34 00:02:32.680 --> 00:02:37.910 They're small five person mastermind groups and you, you know, you refer to 35 00:02:37.910 --> 00:02:42.950 him as micro communities, but they're really, really powerful because they're 36 00:02:42.950 --> 00:02:49.700 small and their intimate. And so we are hand selecting the people that we want 37 00:02:49.700 --> 00:02:54.920 to be in these groups, and the way we're hand selecting them is by looking 38 00:02:54.920 --> 00:02:59.730 at our own buyer personas. So we want to build relationship nurture 39 00:02:59.730 --> 00:03:05.750 relationship with in House B two B marketing leaders that air more often 40 00:03:05.750 --> 00:03:11.800 than not at a VP level, not CMOs, some director level, but very rarely it's 41 00:03:11.800 --> 00:03:16.710 it's usually a VP level B two b marketing leader at the, uh, that's in 42 00:03:16.710 --> 00:03:21.770 house. They're not with an agency, and they're usually at a B two B SAS 43 00:03:21.770 --> 00:03:26.790 company with 50 to 500 employees, usually, and so that's the targeting 44 00:03:26.790 --> 00:03:31.090 that we apply to getting people on to be to be growth. And now we've got this 45 00:03:31.100 --> 00:03:35.310 additional extension. So we get them on me to be growth. We do original 46 00:03:35.310 --> 00:03:39.780 research with them. Then we ask them to be a part of one of these mastermind 47 00:03:39.780 --> 00:03:44.900 groups. And by doing that, I think it's an extension of A B. M because it 48 00:03:44.900 --> 00:03:50.280 allows you to stay connected with that person over a long period of time. 49 00:03:50.280 --> 00:03:54.480 These groups run six months long, and then we rotate the people in the group 50 00:03:54.490 --> 00:03:58.810 every six months. So we're building a community by building these micro 51 00:03:58.810 --> 00:04:02.330 communities by building these smaller mastermind groups, and so far, people 52 00:04:02.330 --> 00:04:07.080 are absolutely loving it. We had a guy share something about his story that 53 00:04:07.080 --> 00:04:10.570 another guy in the group knew him from another community that they're in 54 00:04:10.570 --> 00:04:15.030 together, and he had never heard this. I mean, this was like a super wild, 55 00:04:15.030 --> 00:04:18.700 like, very significant part of this guy's story, and we asked him like a 56 00:04:18.700 --> 00:04:22.180 man like, we've had you on me to be growth twice. You've been in this other 57 00:04:22.180 --> 00:04:25.080 community with Michael, like, Why do you not talk about this? That's the 58 00:04:25.080 --> 00:04:28.190 crazy part of the story. He was like, Well, it's just kind of personal, like 59 00:04:28.190 --> 00:04:31.360 I I don't really want to share that with everybody. But in a setting like 60 00:04:31.360 --> 00:04:36.690 this, I feel way more comfortable doing it, and that right there affirmed why 61 00:04:36.690 --> 00:04:41.620 these kind of communities are the way of the future. This is how B to B 62 00:04:41.620 --> 00:04:45.900 companies are going toe have to build community because I think once people 63 00:04:45.910 --> 00:04:53.910 taste the power of intimacy and actually knowing names and faces of 456 64 00:04:53.910 --> 00:04:57.430 people that they could go and say, Hey, I'm having this challenge in my 65 00:04:57.430 --> 00:05:00.850 business. I know you're not a vendor. You're not trying to sell me anything. 66 00:05:01.140 --> 00:05:05.370 Help me, You're just my peer. Could you help me work through this? And if 67 00:05:05.370 --> 00:05:08.720 you're the brand, if you're the company that is facilitating those kind of 68 00:05:08.720 --> 00:05:13.340 relationships, you get to reap the benefit of being the connector off 69 00:05:13.340 --> 00:05:17.130 those people. And so do I think that every single person that's in one of 70 00:05:17.130 --> 00:05:21.450 our mastermind groups is gonna become a sweet fish customer. Of course not, but 71 00:05:21.540 --> 00:05:24.870 I know that a lot of them will end up working with us or referring business 72 00:05:24.870 --> 00:05:28.500 to us. ATT's some point down the road. It's a long game play, but I'm 73 00:05:28.500 --> 00:05:32.170 convinced it's the future man. It reminds me so much of like a book that 74 00:05:32.170 --> 00:05:36.230 impacted me early in my marketing career by Seth Godin called Tribes, 75 00:05:36.240 --> 00:05:40.690 Right? This was a huge book 10, 15 years ago, and the three points he 76 00:05:40.690 --> 00:05:46.120 gives to building a tribe are actually like you, connecting with the tribe, 77 00:05:46.130 --> 00:05:49.230 having the tribe connect with you and then having the tribe connect with 78 00:05:49.230 --> 00:05:54.110 itself, right? But most people forget that third part, even though probably 79 00:05:54.120 --> 00:05:58.070 it's probably the biggest part. Just getting everyone to rally is one thing. 80 00:05:58.070 --> 00:06:01.400 But then, actually getting everybody could work with themselves is a totally 81 00:06:01.400 --> 00:06:04.290 different level, and I think that's what we're trying to achieve. Here is 82 00:06:04.290 --> 00:06:07.710 that third component, because a lot of people have gotten good at connecting 83 00:06:07.710 --> 00:06:11.530 with a mass of people on having those people even connect back with them and 84 00:06:11.530 --> 00:06:15.150 a bunch of different avenues. But it is much, much harder thing to get 85 00:06:15.150 --> 00:06:18.950 everybody to connect with themselves. So I'm pretty excited about it was fun 86 00:06:18.960 --> 00:06:22.640 hearing you even talk about how it comes out of your background of just, 87 00:06:22.650 --> 00:06:26.790 uh of Christianity. And like the church groups and stuff, I'm like, Oh, yeah, 88 00:06:26.790 --> 00:06:29.070 that is how we do it. That's how we've been doing for a long time. Even the 89 00:06:29.070 --> 00:06:33.450 big mega churches with thousands and thousands of attenders like everybody 90 00:06:33.450 --> 00:06:36.090 who goes those churches knows those churches only work because they get 91 00:06:36.090 --> 00:06:39.470 together in Bible studies or life groups, which are pretty much like 92 00:06:39.480 --> 00:06:44.130 small friendship groups. That's what they call them, which is like a group 93 00:06:44.130 --> 00:06:49.050 of like 10, usually 10 to 15 people meeting in a home somewhere outside of 94 00:06:49.050 --> 00:06:52.050 the huge mega church, right? The only the megachurches gonna only get as big 95 00:06:52.050 --> 00:06:55.380 as they do because of the little small groups. Hardly do they ever grow 96 00:06:55.390 --> 00:06:59.460 without those? And that's very exciting to think about how we can use kind of 97 00:06:59.460 --> 00:07:04.100 like the same mentality to get smaller groups in order, but still have enough 98 00:07:04.100 --> 00:07:07.850 of them to build something substantial. Not that you even need to many of them 99 00:07:07.850 --> 00:07:10.790 to do something. So, yeah, I mean, we're, ah, handful of groups could be 100 00:07:10.790 --> 00:07:14.710 substantial for Yeah, we're going to try to build 20 of these groups by the 101 00:07:14.710 --> 00:07:20.060 end of the year. And if we have 20 groups of five people per group, that's 102 00:07:20.060 --> 00:07:27.360 a community of 100 off our ideal buyers and by facilitating community in a 103 00:07:27.360 --> 00:07:32.480 micro setting in a one hour call once a month with where they're gonna be 104 00:07:32.480 --> 00:07:36.790 learning from four of their other peers. I just think that's really, really 105 00:07:36.790 --> 00:07:40.260 powerful and actually pretty transformational for someone's career. 106 00:07:40.340 --> 00:07:45.150 When you think about, especially now in a post cove it world, people are not. 107 00:07:45.160 --> 00:07:48.860 They're not even connecting with people at their own company. So they're 108 00:07:48.860 --> 00:07:53.160 definitely not connecting with people outside of their company peers that 109 00:07:53.160 --> 00:07:57.280 work at other companies that do what they dio. And so I think by I think 110 00:07:57.280 --> 00:08:01.000 there's massive opportunity for companies that get it and are forward 111 00:08:01.000 --> 00:08:05.590 thinking and understand how valuable what it what it does. Somebody 112 00:08:05.590 --> 00:08:09.730 mentioned this the other day. What it does is it allows you to add value 113 00:08:09.730 --> 00:08:14.680 completely independent of the product that you offer, and so by us 114 00:08:14.680 --> 00:08:20.030 facilitating these groups, it's ah hook for us with our buyers because, of 115 00:08:20.030 --> 00:08:24.890 course, like most people want to be in a peer group with four other really 116 00:08:24.890 --> 00:08:29.100 smart people that have been highly curated by the company that's putting 117 00:08:29.100 --> 00:08:32.620 the group together. We're not charging anything I don't have anything wrong 118 00:08:32.620 --> 00:08:35.580 with. You know, there's nothing wrong with charging. I wanted to create a 119 00:08:35.590 --> 00:08:39.030 little friction is possible, so we've decided not to charge for these. But 120 00:08:39.039 --> 00:08:42.289 we're doing some little nuance things, Dan that I think might be helpful for 121 00:08:42.289 --> 00:08:46.210 people to understand. So I said, these groups have five people, plus somebody 122 00:08:46.210 --> 00:08:51.290 from our team who's facilitating. So it's it's limited in size. It's once a 123 00:08:51.290 --> 00:08:55.900 month. It's a 60 minute zoom call, and the scheduling could get a little bit 124 00:08:55.900 --> 00:08:59.320 Harry. But we figured out some efficiencies for that, And if you do it 125 00:08:59.320 --> 00:09:03.940 once or twice, you'll figure out how to do the scheduling for it. But inside of 126 00:09:03.940 --> 00:09:08.880 that, our When a group first meets, I did two of these yesterday, we do an 127 00:09:08.880 --> 00:09:12.590 intro call, So I came up with a list of, you know, five or six questions for 128 00:09:12.590 --> 00:09:16.270 everybody to answer. You know what? Describe your perfect day at work, 129 00:09:16.270 --> 00:09:19.900 describe your perfect day outside of work. What did you think you were gonna 130 00:09:19.900 --> 00:09:24.000 be when you're a senior in high school? What's something that you celebrate 131 00:09:24.000 --> 00:09:27.710 about where you're at in life right now, and what do you mourn? And questions 132 00:09:27.710 --> 00:09:31.780 like that really get people to be human? It's what draws out stories like what I 133 00:09:31.780 --> 00:09:37.050 refer to earlier. And it helps other people in the group from the get really 134 00:09:37.050 --> 00:09:41.490 get to know the other people mawr so than just their market or at another 135 00:09:41.490 --> 00:09:46.030 company. We're really getting to know each other as humans because the next 136 00:09:46.030 --> 00:09:50.500 five calls that we dio are structured around three sections. I don't know, 137 00:09:50.500 --> 00:09:54.840 there's probably a better, better name for it, but, uh, it's 3 20 minutes 138 00:09:54.840 --> 00:09:58.650 sections. The first section of the call is lessons learned. So somebody in the 139 00:09:58.650 --> 00:10:02.090 group shares a lesson learned. It could be about productivity. It could be 140 00:10:02.090 --> 00:10:04.700 about leadership. It could be about building a team. It could be about 141 00:10:04.700 --> 00:10:07.780 culture. They pick a lesson that they've learned over the course of the 142 00:10:07.780 --> 00:10:10.910 marketing career, and they share it for 20 minutes. Some people do a deck. Some 143 00:10:10.910 --> 00:10:15.110 people don't. It's totally fine. Either way. The next 20 minutes we have 144 00:10:15.110 --> 00:10:18.720 someone talk about an experiment that they've run. We're working with 145 00:10:18.720 --> 00:10:22.650 marketers. Marketers are constantly doing experiments. So another person in 146 00:10:22.650 --> 00:10:26.330 the group now shares an experiment, and this is all planned ahead of time, so 147 00:10:26.330 --> 00:10:29.940 people know coming into it. It's not just like a random like, Hey, Dan 148 00:10:29.940 --> 00:10:32.560 Europe for lessons learned and you got to come up with something on the spot. 149 00:10:32.560 --> 00:10:36.440 This is all planned well in advance, so people know. And so we've got our 150 00:10:36.440 --> 00:10:39.360 lesson learned. We've got our experiment and then the last part of 151 00:10:39.360 --> 00:10:43.590 the calls Really cool. It's a deep dive, and so somebody else. A third person 152 00:10:43.590 --> 00:10:47.700 from the group shares a challenge that they're currently going through, and 153 00:10:47.710 --> 00:10:51.770 the rest of the group chimes in and helps them brainstorm different 154 00:10:51.770 --> 00:10:56.080 solutions of things that they could try based on their own experiences. So it 155 00:10:56.080 --> 00:11:01.250 really is tapping into that mastermind concept that has been around for 156 00:11:01.250 --> 00:11:07.110 decades and decades and decades on its, allowing these marketers to extract 157 00:11:07.110 --> 00:11:12.380 that value from the minds of their peers, as opposed to having them try 158 00:11:12.380 --> 00:11:18.430 toe search through ah, Google solution, or maybe call somebody that they used 159 00:11:18.430 --> 00:11:23.580 to work with years ago. And so I'm so fired up about the framework of this 160 00:11:23.580 --> 00:11:28.710 and the other part about the reason why I wanted to structure these calls in 161 00:11:28.710 --> 00:11:33.140 this way. It's really hard to miss a call when you know that you're 162 00:11:33.140 --> 00:11:37.690 responsible for some of the content and with every single call as you are 163 00:11:37.690 --> 00:11:40.910 thinking about this like, Oh, could we do this for our company when you're 164 00:11:40.910 --> 00:11:45.010 facilitating these? I don't want a bunch of people bailing on this call 165 00:11:45.010 --> 00:11:49.500 every month. I want them to show up. And if they know that I'm the lesson 166 00:11:49.500 --> 00:11:54.370 learned this week or this month, I can't I can't bail or oh, the deep dive 167 00:11:54.380 --> 00:11:58.000 is on me now. We've had people. Obviously, scheduling stuff happens. 168 00:11:58.010 --> 00:12:03.520 You have people that can't come. But we very thoughtfully considered the 169 00:12:03.520 --> 00:12:07.860 structure of these calls. And so far it's it's working. Really, really well, 170 00:12:08.340 --> 00:12:12.130 makes so much sense. Remember, just a few days ago, we didn't episode with 171 00:12:12.130 --> 00:12:16.190 Samantha Stone. She talked about she talked about. If you're doing an A B M 172 00:12:16.190 --> 00:12:20.520 campaign, it's good not to just let an account go when you didn't win the 173 00:12:20.520 --> 00:12:24.740 account. Or maybe you never got them to go from engage toe activate. They 174 00:12:24.750 --> 00:12:28.230 engaged a little bit, they read. They showed up to a webinar. They downloaded 175 00:12:28.230 --> 00:12:31.890 some stuff, but they never really like matriculated. Or maybe you know, you 176 00:12:31.890 --> 00:12:35.140 didn't win it. They went to a competitor or something. It's still 177 00:12:35.140 --> 00:12:38.790 your dream account. You should still keep them on the radar. Using these 178 00:12:38.790 --> 00:12:43.280 little community groups are a great way to do it. You can still stay in touch 179 00:12:43.280 --> 00:12:47.260 because let's be honest. The big factor when it comes to marketing is trust. 180 00:12:47.940 --> 00:12:51.370 Trust is the key factor. It's the reason why we do branding. It's the 181 00:12:51.370 --> 00:12:56.290 reason why we spend so much time to listening and using the copy like based 182 00:12:56.290 --> 00:12:59.500 on insights that we have from our customers. We're trying to build trust 183 00:12:59.510 --> 00:13:03.450 and getting into these little intimate groups with your customer. I can't 184 00:13:03.450 --> 00:13:06.380 think of a better way in order to build trust with the people you want to do 185 00:13:06.380 --> 00:13:10.290 business with, because even if they don't go with you, it's not because 186 00:13:10.290 --> 00:13:13.890 they don't trust you, which is a great place to be in, like maybe maybe it's 187 00:13:13.890 --> 00:13:17.810 because they you didn't quite have the right feature set and then maybe they 188 00:13:17.810 --> 00:13:21.300 should have gone with you and that's okay, right? Maybe there was a better 189 00:13:21.300 --> 00:13:24.900 fit for them. But you better believe that that person's gonna remember you 190 00:13:24.900 --> 00:13:28.980 for a long time and bring you into whatever company comes next. Or maybe 191 00:13:28.980 --> 00:13:31.730 somebody else comes into the account. But because you know a few people in 192 00:13:31.730 --> 00:13:34.780 that account, your time might come like you never know what's gonna happen in 193 00:13:34.780 --> 00:13:38.320 the future. And relationships and trust within those relationships is what 194 00:13:38.320 --> 00:13:42.540 drives which, really, what drive sales, right? Like everything we do, all the 195 00:13:42.540 --> 00:13:46.560 little tactics are sometimes tricks and hacks to get relationships. But this is 196 00:13:46.560 --> 00:13:51.020 actually the real work of just building genuine relationships. No tricks or 197 00:13:51.020 --> 00:13:55.300 hacks, no scams about it, right? It's actually just getting to know people. 198 00:13:55.310 --> 00:14:00.050 Yeah, and and it requires, you know, it's It's a higher touch, which I think 199 00:14:00.060 --> 00:14:04.040 honestly is. Where we win so much with some of the innovative stuff that we've 200 00:14:04.040 --> 00:14:08.860 done is we are willing to do higher touch things that other companies are 201 00:14:08.860 --> 00:14:13.580 not willing to dio. So we're about to hire somebody full time to run these 202 00:14:13.580 --> 00:14:18.470 communities. That's an investment that you have to make knowing that our CEO 203 00:14:18.470 --> 00:14:21.740 is asking me today at lunch. He's like Hey, this person that we hired to run 204 00:14:21.740 --> 00:14:26.250 communities, how much revenue should we expect from this? Higher? And I was 205 00:14:26.250 --> 00:14:31.790 like we might do two or three additional deals this year because of 206 00:14:31.790 --> 00:14:36.880 doing this, but next year, the year after, I mean, we're investing in the 207 00:14:36.880 --> 00:14:40.180 future, knowing that this is a long game play, because when we have a 208 00:14:40.180 --> 00:14:44.780 community of 1000 VPs of marketing at B two b SAS companies with 50 to 500 209 00:14:44.780 --> 00:14:48.960 employees, that is a very, very powerful moat to be around your 210 00:14:48.960 --> 00:14:54.190 business. And also the insights. If you have multiple people on your team, 211 00:14:54.200 --> 00:14:59.330 facilitating these mastermind groups, the insights that you're going tohave I 212 00:14:59.330 --> 00:15:03.780 can't wait to put you in one of these groups stand just because I know you're 213 00:15:03.790 --> 00:15:07.790 getting toe Have these conversations with your peers. One is gonna make you 214 00:15:07.790 --> 00:15:13.080 a better marketer. But to as a marketer for us, you're going to understand the 215 00:15:13.080 --> 00:15:17.760 challenges. How are customers think? How are potential customers think what 216 00:15:17.760 --> 00:15:21.170 they're taking into consideration when they buy technology or whenever they 217 00:15:21.170 --> 00:15:26.550 hire an agency? It is just going to give you a countless number of insights 218 00:15:26.560 --> 00:15:32.110 that any company should be chomping at the bit toe have so we always talk 219 00:15:32.110 --> 00:15:36.140 about like whoever is closest to their customer wins. And I think a lot of 220 00:15:36.140 --> 00:15:40.200 people think about that in terms of, like, customer success, so you could 221 00:15:40.200 --> 00:15:44.500 adopt this and just use it for your own customers because I think it's a 222 00:15:44.500 --> 00:15:48.440 systematic way toe really add value beyond your product, like we said 223 00:15:48.440 --> 00:15:53.790 before, but uncover things about your customers that you just did not 224 00:15:53.800 --> 00:15:56.970 understand before, didn't know before. And it doesn't have to be all about 225 00:15:56.970 --> 00:16:00.990 your product like Hub Spot. Did user groups hub, spot user groups, and that 226 00:16:00.990 --> 00:16:05.900 was awesome. But imagine if they would have just facilitated mastermind groups 227 00:16:05.900 --> 00:16:11.600 for small businesses and added value beyond their actual product. How many 228 00:16:11.600 --> 00:16:16.520 more people would they have reached by doing that? And I think I like 229 00:16:16.530 --> 00:16:20.360 pioneering new things and and so I like that were the first ones to start doing 230 00:16:20.360 --> 00:16:23.590 this. But I really do think in five years this is gonna be a common 231 00:16:23.590 --> 00:16:27.410 practice. Something just clicked major for me while you were talking. I 232 00:16:27.410 --> 00:16:31.260 remember that I've done ah interviewed a few people that were big and got into 233 00:16:31.260 --> 00:16:34.200 a B M actually through events, right? Because they were interviewing. There 234 00:16:34.200 --> 00:16:37.730 were field marketers, I guess is the term that's a new term for me. I'm a 235 00:16:37.730 --> 00:16:41.650 BDC market g o try to figure it out. But field marketers are the ones 236 00:16:41.650 --> 00:16:44.480 putting all these little mic micro events and having their accounts come 237 00:16:44.480 --> 00:16:48.570 to it. Think about how much work goes into those little events so you can 238 00:16:48.570 --> 00:16:51.920 have a little session. You have a little chat just so really you can 239 00:16:51.920 --> 00:16:56.550 actually sit down at the table with your ideal buyer, right? But here it's 240 00:16:56.550 --> 00:16:59.970 like, now, with co vid like making zoom standard for everybody. Everybody knows 241 00:16:59.970 --> 00:17:02.940 how to jump onto a zoom car. We're doing a million zoom calls, right? This 242 00:17:02.940 --> 00:17:06.040 is just kind of normal, and the amount of a value in the amount of face time 243 00:17:06.040 --> 00:17:12.119 you actually get in these one hour zoom calls is probably 10 times cheaper than 244 00:17:12.119 --> 00:17:14.730 putting on the events. Probably like way less than that, Like these events 245 00:17:14.740 --> 00:17:18.819 expensive. And they have done that. Marketers know how much time it takes 246 00:17:18.819 --> 00:17:23.380 to book it, let alone just dropped by the revenue and the refreshments and 247 00:17:23.380 --> 00:17:26.300 all that kind of stuff. You don't need any of that. And you can actually get 248 00:17:26.300 --> 00:17:29.880 to the heart of actually just talking and listening, which is the whole 249 00:17:29.880 --> 00:17:33.660 reason why you were doing the events in the first place, right? So my mind is 250 00:17:33.660 --> 00:17:37.220 just kind of like, Oh, my gosh, We used to do the more right than I thought. I 251 00:17:37.220 --> 00:17:40.730 thought it was a good idea to begin with. Well, we we used to do these B 252 00:17:40.730 --> 00:17:44.150 two B growth dinners and I would get on a plane and I would go to Boston or I 253 00:17:44.150 --> 00:17:48.260 would go to Phoenix or I would go to San Francisco and and I would put 254 00:17:48.260 --> 00:17:51.960 together, you know, listeners from our show with customers that we had in the 255 00:17:51.960 --> 00:17:56.370 area and they were awesome. I'd be there two or three days. I'd facilitate 256 00:17:56.370 --> 00:17:59.570 two or three different dinners over the course of the time that I was there and 257 00:17:59.570 --> 00:18:03.530 it was phenomenal, but it was very expensive. I'm having to travel all 258 00:18:03.530 --> 00:18:07.500 over the country. I'm away from my family. I'm like trying to, you know, 259 00:18:07.500 --> 00:18:11.980 get people to come to a dinner and and leave their family is is an ask. It's 260 00:18:11.980 --> 00:18:16.950 not insignificant, but at the end of the day, what we wanted to facilitate 261 00:18:16.950 --> 00:18:22.310 was meaningful conversation amongst people that could potentially end up 262 00:18:22.320 --> 00:18:26.110 doing business with us. But that's not the we're not talking about what we do. 263 00:18:26.110 --> 00:18:30.760 I don't talk about sweet fish services in these calls. This is all about 264 00:18:31.140 --> 00:18:34.680 helping them. It's helping them learn lessons learned from their peers, 265 00:18:34.680 --> 00:18:38.470 helping them learn experiments that worked and didn't work from their peers. 266 00:18:38.480 --> 00:18:43.520 Helping them add to the conversation by helping someone brainstorm on a problem 267 00:18:43.520 --> 00:18:47.660 that they're facing. It has nothing to do with you. And I think I want to keep 268 00:18:47.660 --> 00:18:50.650 hammering that home because I think marketers, they're gonna look at this 269 00:18:50.660 --> 00:18:54.530 and they're gonna go, Oh, but when I do my wine event, we do a pitch at the end 270 00:18:54.530 --> 00:18:59.950 of it. So wins the pitch and it's like you don't need a freaking pitch. If 271 00:18:59.950 --> 00:19:04.590 someone if you are adding that much of value to someone's life, you bet your 272 00:19:04.590 --> 00:19:09.280 ass they have looked at your website. They know what you freaking do if you 273 00:19:09.280 --> 00:19:13.670 are adding that kind of value and connecting them intimately to people 274 00:19:13.670 --> 00:19:18.490 that can add enormous value to their life because their their peer, they 275 00:19:18.500 --> 00:19:23.450 know who you are, like they know what you dio and it's going to come up 276 00:19:23.460 --> 00:19:27.970 organically if there's an opportunity to work together. And, uh, those B two 277 00:19:27.970 --> 00:19:31.640 B growth dinners produced lots of revenue for us, I wasn't that wasn't 278 00:19:31.640 --> 00:19:34.840 the goal that was in the end game. I wasn't trying to talk about our 279 00:19:34.840 --> 00:19:40.440 services, but naturally it happened. And I think you just got a kind of 280 00:19:40.440 --> 00:19:45.760 trust how humans work. And I think it's an understanding of psychology, like 281 00:19:45.770 --> 00:19:49.610 all of the people in these groups that I'm facilitating right now would know 282 00:19:49.620 --> 00:19:54.090 if my agenda was trying to turn them into a sweet fish customer, they'd feel 283 00:19:54.090 --> 00:19:58.170 it, they'd know it. But that is not my agenda, and that is exactly why it's 284 00:19:58.170 --> 00:20:01.850 gonna work. Even if I didn't work for a sweet fish, I would want to be in one 285 00:20:01.850 --> 00:20:05.540 of these groups, and I can't wait to get in one myself because as like a 286 00:20:05.540 --> 00:20:09.300 marketer that loves to talk about marketing, I wanna be rubbing shoulders 287 00:20:09.300 --> 00:20:12.420 with other people who live and breathe this stuff who are performing at a high 288 00:20:12.420 --> 00:20:16.100 level. And at that end, one I'm like, ooh, to be able to take a problem that 289 00:20:16.100 --> 00:20:19.880 I'm currently wrestling with and have, like all people, that could be high end 290 00:20:19.880 --> 00:20:23.510 consultants in their own right. Like pick it apart for 5, 10 minutes. I'm 291 00:20:23.510 --> 00:20:28.220 like, Yes, please, like, sign me up for that. I'm like, That's so valuable and 292 00:20:28.220 --> 00:20:31.350 knowing that you get to switch and then be the one you know, helping somebody 293 00:20:31.350 --> 00:20:34.930 else out with their problems around and around, And that's just one little 294 00:20:34.930 --> 00:20:38.730 segment of it. I think it's brilliantly put together and thought through We did 295 00:20:38.730 --> 00:20:43.030 a customer mastermind a couple of years ago in person and, you know, everybody 296 00:20:43.030 --> 00:20:47.340 came to Orlando. We rented a big house and every, you know, it was super fun. 297 00:20:47.340 --> 00:20:51.010 I think we had, like, five or six customers come into town, did you know, 298 00:20:51.020 --> 00:20:56.380 went to Universal Studios, the downtown area of Universal Studios, for dinner 299 00:20:56.380 --> 00:21:01.800 one night like it was a blast had an awesome time, just like serendipitously. 300 00:21:01.800 --> 00:21:05.510 Two of the people that were there one worked it, you know, one software 301 00:21:05.510 --> 00:21:09.890 company. Another one was the CMO, or SVP, of marketing, and another software 302 00:21:09.890 --> 00:21:14.740 company. They now work together because of the relationship they formed at that 303 00:21:14.740 --> 00:21:19.520 mastermind event. And so the one guy got recruited by the other guy because 304 00:21:19.520 --> 00:21:23.800 they actually formed a meaningful relationship in person. That same stuff. 305 00:21:23.800 --> 00:21:27.170 It's gonna be so cool to look up. A year and a half, two years from now, we 306 00:21:27.170 --> 00:21:31.540 know that marketers changed jobs like they blink, and so I'm gonna look up 307 00:21:31.550 --> 00:21:36.340 and go. Oh, that person is now working over here because they recruited them 308 00:21:36.340 --> 00:21:41.330 because they were in that group that we put them into like that to me, like 309 00:21:41.340 --> 00:21:45.900 you're actually having really impact in people's lives, like they're going to 310 00:21:45.900 --> 00:21:50.480 get promotions and relationships with the lifeblood of everything. And that's 311 00:21:50.490 --> 00:21:54.380 whether that's you're trying to win new business or you're trying to advance in 312 00:21:54.380 --> 00:21:59.870 your career. And if you confess, facilitate genuine relationships for 313 00:21:59.870 --> 00:22:03.370 people that you're trying to do business with. I cannot think of a 314 00:22:03.370 --> 00:22:07.330 higher value that you can give everybody talks about, add value, add 315 00:22:07.330 --> 00:22:11.170 value, add value and it's like it's kind of an eye roll. Thio here add 316 00:22:11.170 --> 00:22:15.870 value because what's that really mean? Like okay, a blogged post. I guess is 317 00:22:15.870 --> 00:22:19.880 valuable like Okay, I guess you know, there's all these things they're like, 318 00:22:19.880 --> 00:22:24.720 Okay, like maybe that's valuable. I cannot think of something more valuable 319 00:22:24.730 --> 00:22:28.360 than brokering a relationship for someone that can ultimately change 320 00:22:28.360 --> 00:22:32.650 their life and doing that on a regular basis, like if someone is a part of 321 00:22:32.650 --> 00:22:36.700 these B two B growth groups they're going to meet, I guess there's five 322 00:22:36.700 --> 00:22:40.880 people plus a facilitator there, one of those people. So over the course of a 323 00:22:40.880 --> 00:22:44.600 year, that's eight new marketing friends that they're meeting that are 324 00:22:44.600 --> 00:22:48.210 very high level, like to your point. They could be Hying consultants in 325 00:22:48.210 --> 00:22:51.270 their own right if they weren't choosing to be an in house marketer. 326 00:22:51.340 --> 00:22:55.640 Those relationships are going to stack overtime, and they don't have to do 327 00:22:55.640 --> 00:22:58.920 anything for it. They don't have to go to those annoying, awkward networking 328 00:22:58.920 --> 00:23:02.340 events and hope that they run into people that do marketing for SAS. 329 00:23:02.340 --> 00:23:08.030 Companies like this is done for them because you, as the brand, decided to 330 00:23:08.030 --> 00:23:12.200 do community in this way instead of just building a slack channel and 331 00:23:12.200 --> 00:23:14.840 putting a bunch of good content in there and hoping that people connect 332 00:23:14.840 --> 00:23:18.500 with each other in the comments. This is much more thoughtful. It's much more 333 00:23:18.500 --> 00:23:22.710 intentional. It's much more high touch, but I think it produces a far better 334 00:23:22.710 --> 00:23:27.180 result. Man. I can't wait to get started. Honestly, when I think about 335 00:23:27.180 --> 00:23:31.340 the way we push relationships even on podcasting, that's good, and it's all 1 336 00:23:31.340 --> 00:23:35.310 to 1. But you have to realize if you do a group like this, the amount of touch 337 00:23:35.310 --> 00:23:38.980 points you have between members and between you and all the members like I 338 00:23:38.990 --> 00:23:41.540 don't know, you have to do the math between every single point you have 339 00:23:41.540 --> 00:23:44.430 between all these five people. But there's that's a look. Just ah, lot of 340 00:23:44.430 --> 00:23:48.070 connections done in one hour instead of one, taking them one hour to do a 341 00:23:48.070 --> 00:23:52.650 podcast episode, which is one connection. But if you set up these 342 00:23:52.650 --> 00:23:55.010 groups, you're building multiple connections. You're building a web of 343 00:23:55.010 --> 00:23:58.700 connections, and that has and then you start feeling that will start toe be 344 00:23:58.700 --> 00:24:02.640 exponential on us far, and then you start to think about all of the people 345 00:24:02.640 --> 00:24:05.640 in these micro groups. The way we're structuring our slack channel is like 346 00:24:05.640 --> 00:24:10.220 it's private slack channels for all of the micro groups. But then there's 347 00:24:10.230 --> 00:24:16.150 There's an everybody channel, And so, as this starts to grow now, you're 348 00:24:16.150 --> 00:24:20.860 doing it in such a way that most companies do community. Most companies 349 00:24:20.860 --> 00:24:24.600 start with just like, let's try to get hundreds of people into a sack channel. 350 00:24:24.610 --> 00:24:27.630 But we've done it in such a way where it's like, No, you're in this group of 351 00:24:27.630 --> 00:24:32.550 five That is a part of this bigger things. So you can also meet people 352 00:24:32.550 --> 00:24:37.930 from all of the other groups you know in a less intimate way. But by getting 353 00:24:37.930 --> 00:24:41.570 invited into this community, I mean, you're meeting people well beyond just 354 00:24:41.570 --> 00:24:45.160 the five people in your group. You're meeting all of the other people that 355 00:24:45.160 --> 00:24:48.410 Aaron, all these other micro groups as well, and you might end up in a micro 356 00:24:48.410 --> 00:24:51.540 group with them down the road because of the group's rotate every six months. 357 00:24:51.540 --> 00:24:55.640 But man, I've thought a lot about this, and we're finally starting to execute 358 00:24:55.640 --> 00:24:59.020 on it, and I'm seeing how well it's being received. And I'm just like, man, 359 00:24:59.030 --> 00:25:04.370 I cannot wait to keep doing this. That's great. One thing I think weaken. 360 00:25:04.380 --> 00:25:08.490 Wrap this up with James's as people are listening to this. I'm sure there's 361 00:25:08.490 --> 00:25:11.590 probably quite a few people that are like, Well, James, how do I get into 362 00:25:11.590 --> 00:25:15.960 one of those groups? What would you have to say to those people? Yeah, so 363 00:25:15.970 --> 00:25:19.530 I've already had to turn some people down because their consultants or their 364 00:25:19.530 --> 00:25:23.460 agency folks, they're not in house marketers. But if you are an in house 365 00:25:23.470 --> 00:25:28.870 marketing leader, probably VP level. We We've had some director level folks in. 366 00:25:28.870 --> 00:25:35.100 But if that's you your VP level in House B two b market er on Duran, a 367 00:25:35.100 --> 00:25:39.130 company with, you know, 50 to 500 employees. I think we've got maybe a 368 00:25:39.130 --> 00:25:43.230 couple people that have over 500 employees. But the reason that we keep 369 00:25:43.230 --> 00:25:46.790 it so tight one that's our buyer persona, right? So, like, we'd be lying 370 00:25:46.790 --> 00:25:49.720 if we said that we don't want these people that end up turning into 371 00:25:49.720 --> 00:25:53.210 customers at some point. That would be awesome. If it doesn't happen, that's 372 00:25:53.220 --> 00:25:56.890 that's great, too. I still love facilitating relationships, but the 373 00:25:56.890 --> 00:26:00.680 other thing that it does is it keeps the group very relevant toward one 374 00:26:00.680 --> 00:26:04.850 another. And if we had a bunch of enterprise marketers in this group that 375 00:26:04.850 --> 00:26:10.820 had teams of 40 50 60 people. They're dealing with totally different problems, 376 00:26:10.830 --> 00:26:14.410 then the kind of marketers we're dealing with that have teams of 3 to 10 377 00:26:14.410 --> 00:26:17.690 people. So we're saying this not because we're trying to be boozy and 378 00:26:17.700 --> 00:26:22.130 and be exclusive, you know, be exclusive because we're jerks. It's We 379 00:26:22.130 --> 00:26:27.170 want to make this group as valuable for the exact type of person that we want 380 00:26:27.170 --> 00:26:30.530 to serve. And I think for your company, you should be thinking about it in the 381 00:26:30.530 --> 00:26:34.170 same way. So, like, yes, if you want to be a part of this and you're a fit for 382 00:26:34.170 --> 00:26:38.380 what we're doing, awesome, reach out to me. James and Sweet Fish media dot com 383 00:26:38.390 --> 00:26:42.990 We'll try to plug you in if if you're a fit there. But be thinking about this 384 00:26:42.990 --> 00:26:47.140 for your company. That's really why I wanted to share on this episode. Like, 385 00:26:47.150 --> 00:26:50.350 regardless of whether you're in our group or not like, start building these 386 00:26:50.350 --> 00:26:54.180 communities for your potential customers. What's that look like for 387 00:26:54.180 --> 00:27:01.410 you? Is that a director of I T. At a manufacturing firms with 250 toe? You 388 00:27:01.410 --> 00:27:05.820 know, 5000 employees like maybe that's it for you, but figure it out for you 389 00:27:05.830 --> 00:27:09.270 on If you want to be in ours and if you're a fit to be in ours, email email 390 00:27:09.270 --> 00:27:12.900 James and sweet fish media dot com, and we'll see if we could make some happen. 391 00:27:12.910 --> 00:27:18.340 Well, that's it. Also damage. Follow us on clubhouse at James Carberry and at 392 00:27:18.340 --> 00:27:23.140 What are you? Are you at Sanchez? Dan Jez? Yeah, we're doing a lot of stuff 393 00:27:23.140 --> 00:27:26.030 on clubhouse. I don't think we've talked about it enough here, but 394 00:27:26.030 --> 00:27:30.340 clubhouse is awesome. It's basically, like live podcasting. So go follow us 395 00:27:30.340 --> 00:27:34.770 there and we love you. Great. So the last thing I want to point out is, if 396 00:27:34.770 --> 00:27:37.700 you want to be in a B two B road group or if you want to be in one of these 397 00:27:37.700 --> 00:27:41.650 groups, the best thing you could do is just make your own. Who do you want to 398 00:27:41.650 --> 00:27:43.850 meet? Who do you want to be around? If you wanna make it about you and your 399 00:27:43.850 --> 00:27:47.140 peers, you could totally do it. It doesn't have to be your buyers, but if 400 00:27:47.140 --> 00:27:50.300 you want to do it as an A B M strategy, gosh, there's probably not a better way 401 00:27:50.300 --> 00:27:53.430 for you to build relationships with you and all your buyers and have your 402 00:27:53.430 --> 00:27:55.970 buyers build relationships with themselves. And you're the one who 403 00:27:55.970 --> 00:27:59.870 connected them. I think that's gonna work so you could go and build these. 404 00:27:59.880 --> 00:28:03.160 It's only a matter of simply reaching out and putting in the work to schedule 405 00:28:03.160 --> 00:28:07.530 it. So I'm walking away with this being pretty pumped and inspired so I can't 406 00:28:07.530 --> 00:28:10.530 wait to get started. And I was I was on the fence yesterday. I won't lie. We 407 00:28:10.540 --> 00:28:12.900 literally just talked about this yesterday and I was on the fence and 408 00:28:12.900 --> 00:28:17.220 now I'm over the fence. I'm like I'm in. So thanks for listening to be to be 409 00:28:17.220 --> 00:28:20.830 Growth. Yes, thank you so much for listening follows on clubhouse at James 410 00:28:20.830 --> 00:28:25.670 Carberry at Dan says and again way Love you a whole lot. 411 00:28:26.740 --> 00:28:30.690 Is the decision maker for your product or service a BB marketer? Are you 412 00:28:30.690 --> 00:28:34.910 looking to reach those buyers through the medium of podcasting? Considered 413 00:28:34.910 --> 00:28:40.130 becoming a co host of BTB Growth, this show is consistently ranked as a top 414 00:28:40.130 --> 00:28:44.270 100 podcast in the marketing category of Apple podcasts, and the show gets 415 00:28:44.270 --> 00:28:49.850 more than 130,000 downloads each month. We've already done the work of building 416 00:28:49.850 --> 00:28:53.880 the audience so you can focus on delivering incredible content to our 417 00:28:53.880 --> 00:29:00.060 listeners if you're interested. Email Logan at sweet fish media dot com.