1130: How to Create Community and Build Culture Through Wellness w/ Maria Juan

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:04.519 Are you struggling to come up with original content weekend and week out? Start 2 00:00:04.559 --> 00:00:09.189 a podcast, interview your ideal clients, let them talk about what they care 3 00:00:09.230 --> 00:00:14.830 about most and never run out of content ideas again. Learn more at sweetphish 4 00:00:14.910 --> 00:00:23.940 MEDIACOM. You're listening to be tob growth, a daily podcast for B TOB 5 00:00:24.059 --> 00:00:28.179 leaders. We've interviewed names you've probably heard before, like Gary Vannerd truck and 6 00:00:28.219 --> 00:00:32.020 Simon Senek, but you've probably never heard from the majority of our guests. 7 00:00:32.659 --> 00:00:37.450 That's because the bulk of our interviews aren't with professional speakers and authors. Most 8 00:00:37.530 --> 00:00:41.570 of our guests are in the trenches leading sales and marketing teams. They're implementing 9 00:00:41.649 --> 00:00:46.649 strategy, they're experimenting with tactics, they're building the fastest growing BB companies in 10 00:00:46.689 --> 00:00:49.969 the world. My name is James Carberry. I'm the founder of sweet fish 11 00:00:50.000 --> 00:00:53.479 media, a podcast agency for BB brands, and I'm also one of the 12 00:00:53.600 --> 00:00:57.439 CO hosts of the show. When we're not interviewing sales and marketing leaders, 13 00:00:57.600 --> 00:01:00.280 you'll hear stories from behind the scenes of our own business. Will share the 14 00:01:00.320 --> 00:01:03.549 ups and downs of our journey as we attempt to take over the world. 15 00:01:04.189 --> 00:01:15.950 Just getting well maybe let's get into the show. Welcome back to BEDB growth. 16 00:01:15.390 --> 00:01:19.980 I'm your host for today's episode, Travis King At sweetfish media. I'm 17 00:01:21.019 --> 00:01:26.260 joined today by Maria, who's the VP of marketing at peer fit. We'rea 18 00:01:26.340 --> 00:01:29.060 how's it going today? Hey, good, hey, everyone. How you 19 00:01:29.140 --> 00:01:33.409 doing? Awesome. Thanks so much for hopping on, and today we are 20 00:01:33.569 --> 00:01:40.010 going to be sharing how a remote company creates community and builds culture through their 21 00:01:40.010 --> 00:01:44.049 own product. But before we get into that, I'd love for you to 22 00:01:44.170 --> 00:01:47.879 share with listeners a little bit about yourself and you know what you and the 23 00:01:47.959 --> 00:01:51.439 team at peer fitter up to these days. Sure. Yeah, hello, 24 00:01:51.519 --> 00:01:53.599 everyone. I am Maria, like a like trys set them, the VP 25 00:01:53.760 --> 00:02:00.480 of marketing for peerfit. We are a corporate wellness platform that reaches insurance carriers 26 00:02:00.519 --> 00:02:05.310 and employers to provide a fitness benefit to their employees, and we're also reaching 27 00:02:05.390 --> 00:02:09.150 into the Medicare advantage space come January of two thousand and twenty. Awesome. 28 00:02:09.389 --> 00:02:13.669 Thanks so much for sharing that. So I guess to start, I know 29 00:02:13.789 --> 00:02:16.419 we we touched briefly on this. So, like, what are some of 30 00:02:16.460 --> 00:02:21.780 the ways that you're creating community and, you know, building culture through your 31 00:02:21.780 --> 00:02:23.419 own platform? I find that super interesting. So could you tell us a 32 00:02:23.419 --> 00:02:27.419 little bit more about that? Yeah, sure, yeah. So I think 33 00:02:27.500 --> 00:02:30.009 one of the unique things about peer fit is that where're we are fully remote 34 00:02:30.050 --> 00:02:36.090 company. So everybody works, works from their home or coffee shops or cowork 35 00:02:36.169 --> 00:02:38.770 spaces, and so we all and we all work different hours. Right we're 36 00:02:38.770 --> 00:02:43.169 spread out across the country. So one of the things that we have found 37 00:02:43.250 --> 00:02:46.280 is at our platform, which is our own fitness benefit that our insurance carry 38 00:02:46.400 --> 00:02:50.960 provides us, is a way for us to really come together. Some of 39 00:02:51.000 --> 00:02:53.759 US do travel quite a bit and so when we are in locations where other 40 00:02:53.840 --> 00:02:58.750 team members are, we definitely take an opportunity to schedule workouts with each other, 41 00:02:59.150 --> 00:03:01.150 work days with each other, and that's how we really use our platform 42 00:03:01.229 --> 00:03:06.629 to come together as a team and really and really utilize the product to really 43 00:03:06.669 --> 00:03:10.150 build that culture and community with each other and in terms of you know, 44 00:03:10.389 --> 00:03:14.460 how you guys connect rate. So like it's not like you're how can you 45 00:03:14.580 --> 00:03:17.340 do workouts if you're all remote? Like how does that fit in, because 46 00:03:17.340 --> 00:03:22.580 it seems like there's a thread of okay, like how did you tell us 47 00:03:22.580 --> 00:03:24.819 a little bit about how that works? Sure, yeah, so I think 48 00:03:24.860 --> 00:03:27.969 for a lot of us, those of us that are room that you know, 49 00:03:28.090 --> 00:03:30.530 all of us are remote, but with some of us do travel quite 50 00:03:30.569 --> 00:03:34.289 a bit. So when we're in other other cities or other locations where there 51 00:03:34.289 --> 00:03:37.129 are other team members, we definitely make a point to try and meet up 52 00:03:37.129 --> 00:03:40.520 with each other to schedule workouts together. We want to take that opportunity to 53 00:03:40.639 --> 00:03:45.319 not only continue to use our own product but use it together, because it's 54 00:03:45.319 --> 00:03:47.319 really about that's kind of why we were named peer fit. Where we put 55 00:03:47.319 --> 00:03:51.360 the peer and peer fit. We really wanted to figure out how how to 56 00:03:51.439 --> 00:03:53.719 build community through our product and that was one of the ways that we realized 57 00:03:54.080 --> 00:03:58.430 that we could do that by just holding each other accountable for our workouts. 58 00:03:58.789 --> 00:04:00.870 I know that if I'm going to go work out, I'm definitely going to 59 00:04:01.030 --> 00:04:05.069 show up if somebody's there waiting for me or someone invited me to a workout. 60 00:04:05.430 --> 00:04:10.139 So that's a really great way for us to not only continue to build 61 00:04:10.180 --> 00:04:14.580 that Camaraderie and create conversation with our teammates, but also just continue to hold 62 00:04:14.620 --> 00:04:16.300 us accountable and stay healthy at the end of the day, right we want 63 00:04:16.339 --> 00:04:19.779 to continue to stay active and it's a lot easier to do that when you've 64 00:04:19.779 --> 00:04:23.259 got someone kind of pushing you and motivating you to do so. So, 65 00:04:24.180 --> 00:04:27.410 when we talk about how we stay you know, how we stay connected as 66 00:04:27.449 --> 00:04:30.569 a team at as teammates. We definitely use our product, our own product 67 00:04:30.649 --> 00:04:34.769 and platform to do that to stay connected and we enjoy kind of sharing our 68 00:04:34.810 --> 00:04:39.600 workouts and sharing the classes that we'd like to talk about, even if we're 69 00:04:39.600 --> 00:04:44.759 not in the same city. And this is something I find super interesting because 70 00:04:44.839 --> 00:04:47.959 a lot of times, like the whole remote work movement is kind of like 71 00:04:48.120 --> 00:04:51.439 this newer sort of thing. Like we're we here at sweet fish, we're 72 00:04:51.439 --> 00:04:57.949 also a fully remote team, and I find it interesting that that you're implementing 73 00:04:58.069 --> 00:05:02.949 something that a lot of organizations, honestly, can also implement with their current 74 00:05:03.029 --> 00:05:08.939 employees at their companies. So, for the listeners that are inside of organizations, 75 00:05:09.379 --> 00:05:13.060 like how could they implement and build community through, you know, the 76 00:05:13.139 --> 00:05:17.500 power of fitness and building culture with something like peerfit or you know similar platform? 77 00:05:17.540 --> 00:05:20.970 Yeah, I think you know. I think what it boils down to 78 00:05:21.370 --> 00:05:26.290 is you see your co workers probably the majority of time. where I we 79 00:05:26.410 --> 00:05:30.209 spend time up, more time with our co workers and at our companies then 80 00:05:30.290 --> 00:05:32.209 sometimes we do with our own families, and so they be. They definitely 81 00:05:32.209 --> 00:05:36.639 become a second family for you. So being able to find by those similarities 82 00:05:36.800 --> 00:05:42.360 and those those things that you can find commonalities with is really important. And 83 00:05:42.680 --> 00:05:45.519 a lot of times you don't want to just keep talking about work, right, 84 00:05:45.959 --> 00:05:48.680 you don't want to just always talk about what you've been doing all day. 85 00:05:48.920 --> 00:05:51.670 And I think a lot of times what organizations do is they tend to 86 00:05:51.750 --> 00:05:56.470 go and do things like happy hours or dinners or things like that. So 87 00:05:57.069 --> 00:06:01.149 trying to figure out a way to not only provide other options besides happy hours. 88 00:06:01.589 --> 00:06:04.540 We figured out that this is more of a healthy happy hour. So 89 00:06:04.660 --> 00:06:09.939 if we can get people to really connect after work hours or even during lunch 90 00:06:10.060 --> 00:06:15.139 hours in a healthy and active way, it really just creates stronger bonds and 91 00:06:15.220 --> 00:06:18.009 and creates more conversation around the water cooler. Right, it's things that they 92 00:06:18.009 --> 00:06:21.810 can talk about, that they've enjoyed and that they've been able to enjoy together 93 00:06:21.850 --> 00:06:27.850 at the end of the day. Today's gross story is all about search engine 94 00:06:27.850 --> 00:06:32.360 marketing. The company were highlighting is sentinel one. This challenger Cybersecurity brand was 95 00:06:32.439 --> 00:06:38.040 set out to disrupt the endpoint protection space. Their brand was top notch, 96 00:06:38.360 --> 00:06:42.959 their product was innovative, but they were struggling to gain traction online in an 97 00:06:43.040 --> 00:06:48.069 already developed industry. Then they found directive consulting, a Bob Search Marketing Agency. 98 00:06:48.670 --> 00:06:53.430 Within the first quarterer of working with directive, Sentinel one was able to 99 00:06:53.589 --> 00:06:58.589 increase their organic traffic by a hundred and twenty eight percent and overall read volume 100 00:06:58.949 --> 00:07:02.339 by an outstanding two hundred and fifty one percent. I have a hunch that 101 00:07:02.459 --> 00:07:05.540 directive can get these kind of results for you too, so head over to 102 00:07:05.660 --> 00:07:14.980 directive consultingcom and request a totally free custom proposal. That's directive consultingcom. All 103 00:07:14.980 --> 00:07:17.970 right, let's get back to this interview. I love we also touched on 104 00:07:18.050 --> 00:07:23.850 this a little bit during the the prep of this and like I'm also curious, 105 00:07:23.970 --> 00:07:27.329 like when it comes to reaching, you know, the decision makers, 106 00:07:27.370 --> 00:07:29.889 you know, from a marketing point of view, right, like how do 107 00:07:30.000 --> 00:07:31.519 you guys go about doing that? A PEER FIT? I know it was 108 00:07:31.560 --> 00:07:34.199 kind of like, well, yeah, it's a two sided platform. We 109 00:07:34.279 --> 00:07:38.480 also have to reach people, but then also have to reach the organizations. 110 00:07:38.759 --> 00:07:41.120 So, like, as a be to be marketer, like, how are 111 00:07:41.199 --> 00:07:45.589 you currently reaching you know these, you know, HR decision makers with, 112 00:07:45.829 --> 00:07:48.389 you know, a fully remote team, and I'm curious to here. Yeah, 113 00:07:48.509 --> 00:07:51.230 absolutely. Yeah, I always like to say that peerfit is a be 114 00:07:51.470 --> 00:07:58.230 to be force company because, while we sell to while we sell to organizations 115 00:07:58.350 --> 00:08:01.100 and insurance carriers, at the end of the day we're marketing and engaging with 116 00:08:01.259 --> 00:08:05.980 the end consumer and so who's being provided the the platform, the product through 117 00:08:07.060 --> 00:08:11.259 their either health benefit or through their corporate wellness program so we have as be 118 00:08:11.420 --> 00:08:13.970 tob marketers. We have a bit of a challenge in front of us because 119 00:08:13.970 --> 00:08:16.850 we're also kind of be to seed marketers at the same time. So the 120 00:08:16.889 --> 00:08:20.370 way that we do that is one we definitely have a lot of Lee Generation 121 00:08:20.490 --> 00:08:24.970 and growth marketing tactics that were employee to our marketing campaigns and initiative. So 122 00:08:24.050 --> 00:08:28.800 we're constantly looking for ways to reach those decisionmakers, either through digital or through 123 00:08:28.839 --> 00:08:33.720 traditional methods of marketing and PR and then, in an addition to that, 124 00:08:33.919 --> 00:08:39.639 we work really sidebyside with our fantastic sales team. They are just rock stars. 125 00:08:39.720 --> 00:08:43.990 They really have figured out a way to build and cultivate relationships with those 126 00:08:43.070 --> 00:08:50.429 insurance carriers and the people who really provide these platforms and products to the employers. 127 00:08:50.509 --> 00:08:54.190 So from there, while they work with those with those organizations, it 128 00:08:54.309 --> 00:08:56.740 really creates a top down effect. And then from us on the marketing end, 129 00:08:56.779 --> 00:09:00.820 we're coming from the bottom up, so at some point where we definitely 130 00:09:00.899 --> 00:09:03.740 meet in the Middle Lot. So it helps close those sales cycles much quicker 131 00:09:05.019 --> 00:09:07.980 because we're looking at things from from two different points in the sales funnel. 132 00:09:07.980 --> 00:09:13.129 Awesome. And then in terms of like something that's worked like recently for you, 133 00:09:13.250 --> 00:09:16.330 like could you talk to or share a specific story, you know, 134 00:09:16.450 --> 00:09:20.090 about something that you've implemented that, as you know, worked really well or 135 00:09:20.129 --> 00:09:24.210 that you've found really good success with? Yeah, sure, so I think 136 00:09:24.440 --> 00:09:28.759 something that we've gone back to. I know social media ads have been kind 137 00:09:28.759 --> 00:09:31.480 of like a hot topic, either negative or positive, recently. I think 138 00:09:31.799 --> 00:09:35.360 back in the day they were all the rage, right because it was something 139 00:09:35.480 --> 00:09:39.830 new and exciting for people, but nowadays it's really hard to cut through the 140 00:09:39.870 --> 00:09:43.389 conversation and the noise on social media. So for us, I think really 141 00:09:43.429 --> 00:09:48.549 figuring out how to target our ads on social and through Google have been really 142 00:09:48.590 --> 00:09:52.820 beneficial for us. We're seeing some really great responses to that because we've been 143 00:09:52.820 --> 00:09:56.299 able to really figure out how to target those ads, to show them to 144 00:09:56.740 --> 00:10:01.659 people and to those decisionmakers who are really going to drive that traffic and commotions 145 00:10:01.700 --> 00:10:05.820 back to us. So it took a couple of tries and a couple of 146 00:10:05.940 --> 00:10:09.330 failures, but we're definitely at a point where we're starting to see some really 147 00:10:09.370 --> 00:10:13.929 great results from from that. So don't cancel out social media ads just yet, 148 00:10:13.250 --> 00:10:16.009 because everyone is on social media. You just got to find the right 149 00:10:16.009 --> 00:10:20.529 channel and the right methodology and it's going to it could be really successful for 150 00:10:20.570 --> 00:10:22.799 a lot of people. And that's not even really a beab channel when you 151 00:10:22.879 --> 00:10:26.159 really think about it. It's kind of a consumer end channel. But we 152 00:10:26.320 --> 00:10:30.279 know they're on there. We just got to target them the right way right 153 00:10:30.399 --> 00:10:35.549 and I mean my philosophy is always there's always opportunity to reach someone on a 154 00:10:35.590 --> 00:10:39.590 channel, no matter what it is, because everybody that's on these platforms, 155 00:10:39.590 --> 00:10:45.990 like you mentioned, they work at companies, so they do. That's the 156 00:10:46.110 --> 00:10:48.750 something we realized. It was one of those a Ha moments for us is 157 00:10:48.750 --> 00:10:52.179 like, wait a minute, facebook is a consumer end channel, but they 158 00:10:52.299 --> 00:10:56.179 probably all work somewhere at some point. So yeah, it was one of 159 00:10:56.220 --> 00:11:00.860 those things where we're like, let's try this again and just refigure our targeting 160 00:11:00.899 --> 00:11:03.769 a bit more. I really love that because a lot of times when marketers 161 00:11:05.090 --> 00:11:09.330 and, you know, organizations try one method or they've experimented with something in 162 00:11:09.450 --> 00:11:13.330 the past, you don't find it often that they had actually go back and 163 00:11:13.450 --> 00:11:16.970 try again. So I really love that you guys went back and like okay, 164 00:11:16.490 --> 00:11:20.679 we were targeting them this way and I we know it didn't work as 165 00:11:20.720 --> 00:11:22.919 well as you wanted it to, but now we're going to go back and 166 00:11:24.679 --> 00:11:28.000 try it again and pivot a little bit. So Kudos to you guys are 167 00:11:28.039 --> 00:11:31.480 actually keeping you know that, that that channel pushing forward and trying it again. 168 00:11:31.990 --> 00:11:35.629 Yeah, absolutely awesome. And then kind of one last question as we 169 00:11:35.710 --> 00:11:41.309 wrap up. Is there anything that you would want any of the BB marketers 170 00:11:41.470 --> 00:11:45.710 that are listening today to kind of take away from this episode, like what 171 00:11:45.830 --> 00:11:48.299 would you say would be your one or two big takeaways that they can implement 172 00:11:48.460 --> 00:11:54.100 potentially right now in their culture or and there, you know, organization to 173 00:11:54.139 --> 00:11:58.659 kind of help feel explosive growth. Who that is a great question. You 174 00:11:58.779 --> 00:12:01.370 know, one of the things that I've learned recently from talking to other kind 175 00:12:01.409 --> 00:12:05.649 of heads of marketing at other companies that are similar size. You know, 176 00:12:05.769 --> 00:12:07.970 one of the things I won, what marketer told me, and it was 177 00:12:09.049 --> 00:12:11.450 it really created a moment for me, is, you know, in marketing 178 00:12:11.490 --> 00:12:16.679 departments you really have got to figure out ways to eliminate bloat. And I 179 00:12:16.919 --> 00:12:20.879 realize that just because putting a body at it, at a problem isn't always 180 00:12:20.879 --> 00:12:24.840 going to be the solution. So I'm always taught thinking of ways to automate 181 00:12:26.399 --> 00:12:28.399 so that we can basically market in our sleep. Is what I tell my 182 00:12:28.519 --> 00:12:33.309 team. We want to figure out ways to automate as many things as possible, 183 00:12:33.470 --> 00:12:37.029 create our text sac so that, you know, we can have the 184 00:12:37.110 --> 00:12:39.669 marketing kind of do the work while we're not always on the clock, right, 185 00:12:39.710 --> 00:12:43.230 and that keeps our team small, it keeps US scrappy, it keeps 186 00:12:43.269 --> 00:12:48.500 us really focused on kind of the end goal, and so for us, 187 00:12:48.539 --> 00:12:52.460 I think that's that's the most important takeaway that I've realized in the last couple 188 00:12:52.580 --> 00:12:56.419 months. You know, not always thinking like Oh, I need a specialist 189 00:12:56.659 --> 00:13:00.570 who can help me drive this, but instead figuring out how can I create 190 00:13:00.610 --> 00:13:03.409 a system or a process that's going to be able to do that automatically. 191 00:13:03.850 --> 00:13:07.289 So that was something that that's I think it's a good takeaway from people. 192 00:13:07.490 --> 00:13:11.529 Is for people. It's just, you know, think about ways to expand 193 00:13:11.610 --> 00:13:15.919 your automation processes before you think about adding to the team, because that will 194 00:13:15.919 --> 00:13:20.080 definitely, think, help help you figure out ways to think kind of creatively. 195 00:13:20.799 --> 00:13:22.759 Love that bloat. Never heard that one before. I've heard a lot 196 00:13:22.799 --> 00:13:26.590 of turns in the in my days and bloat is one that's new to me. 197 00:13:26.789 --> 00:13:30.750 So thanks so much for sharing that. That that key learning. Yeah, 198 00:13:30.830 --> 00:13:33.629 they don't usually use it in terms of talking about organizational departments, but 199 00:13:33.830 --> 00:13:37.149 I feel like it was. It was a way to describe what I was 200 00:13:37.230 --> 00:13:41.779 talking about. Oh No, it was perfect. It was perfect. Well, 201 00:13:41.940 --> 00:13:43.059 Maria, thanks so much, you know, for sharing all that. 202 00:13:43.860 --> 00:13:48.860 If listeners want to stay connected with you or follow up to ask any follow 203 00:13:48.899 --> 00:13:52.059 up questions on this topic, like what's the best way for them to reach 204 00:13:52.059 --> 00:13:54.700 out to you? Yeah, so you guys can check us out at Perefitcom 205 00:13:54.809 --> 00:13:58.450 or on any of the social channels at peerfit. If you want to connect 206 00:13:58.450 --> 00:14:03.409 with me personally, please still free to just find me on Linkedin link with 207 00:14:03.570 --> 00:14:05.490 Maria, and I would love to just chat with you all. Thanks, 208 00:14:05.570 --> 00:14:09.960 Maria and everyone. This has been such a pleasure of mine and I really 209 00:14:11.000 --> 00:14:13.720 appreciate you for opping on and kind of like as we close out, just 210 00:14:13.840 --> 00:14:20.360 want to let everyone know bb growth has always been about highlighting tactics and strategies 211 00:14:20.440 --> 00:14:24.629 be to be leaders can apply to their own teams to achieve exposed to pro 212 00:14:24.190 --> 00:14:28.470 so we'd love to hear from you. You know what's a new sales or 213 00:14:28.509 --> 00:14:31.830 marketing strategy your team is currently trying or thinking about for the near future? 214 00:14:33.230 --> 00:14:35.669 So let us know, guys. We'd love to hear from you, and 215 00:14:35.190 --> 00:14:37.820 you know this has been such a great episode. Thanks so much for yeah. 216 00:14:39.100 --> 00:14:45.259 Thank you. Thanks. Everyone. If you are a regular listener of 217 00:14:45.340 --> 00:14:50.019 B Tob Growth, odds are you might enjoy sales success stories with Scott Ingram 218 00:14:50.059 --> 00:14:54.049 as well well. This year, thanks to a partnership with outreach and sales 219 00:14:54.049 --> 00:14:58.529 hacker, our friend Scott Ingram is making the live stream of his sales success 220 00:14:58.649 --> 00:15:03.250 summit available for free. The event is on October fourteen and fifteen, featuring 221 00:15:03.289 --> 00:15:09.279 thirteen presentations and five panels, all presented by top performing be tob sales professionals. 222 00:15:09.639 --> 00:15:13.759 You can check it out and register at top one DOT FM. Live. 223 00:15:15.159 --> 00:15:18.879 That's top the number one DOT FM LIVE