Dec. 1, 2019

1178: Why You Need to Highlight Employees to Build Your Brand w/ Jason Emanis

In this episode we talk to , VP of Marketing at . Want to get a no-fluff email that boils down our 3 biggest takeaways from an entire week of B2B Growth episodes? Sign up today:  We'll never send you more than what you can read in <...

In this episode we talk to Jason Emanis, VP of Marketing at Sceptre Hospitality Resources.


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Transcript
WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.200 Are you trying to establish your brand as a thought leader? Start a PODCAST, 2 00:00:04.679 --> 00:00:09.750 invite industry experts to be guests on your show and watch your brand become 3 00:00:09.789 --> 00:00:15.750 the prime resource for decision makers in your industry. Learn more at sweetphish MEDIACOM. 4 00:00:20.629 --> 00:00:24.780 You're listening to be tob growth, a daily podcast for B TOB leaders. 5 00:00:25.379 --> 00:00:28.859 We've interviewed names you've probably heard before, like Gary Vander truck and Simon 6 00:00:28.940 --> 00:00:33.219 Senek, but you've probably never heard from the majority of our guests. That's 7 00:00:33.259 --> 00:00:37.850 because the bulk of our interviews aren't with professional speakers and authors. Most of 8 00:00:37.929 --> 00:00:42.490 our guests are in the trenches leading sales and marketing teams. They're implementing strategy, 9 00:00:42.530 --> 00:00:47.049 they're experimenting with Pactics, they're building the fastest growing BTB companies in the 10 00:00:47.130 --> 00:00:50.600 world. My name is James Carberry on, the founder of sweet fish media, 11 00:00:50.840 --> 00:00:54.479 a podcast agency for bb brands, and I'm also one of the cohosts 12 00:00:54.520 --> 00:00:58.320 of this show. When we're not interviewing sales and marketing leaders, you'll hear 13 00:00:58.439 --> 00:01:02.000 stories from behind the scenes of our own business. Will share the ups and 14 00:01:02.119 --> 00:01:06.030 downs of our journey as we attempt to take over the world. Just getting 15 00:01:06.629 --> 00:01:12.549 well maybe let's get into the show. Hey, everybody, logan with sweet 16 00:01:12.549 --> 00:01:17.189 fish here. Before we get straight into today's interview, I wanted to let 17 00:01:17.230 --> 00:01:21.299 you know about another podcast you might enjoy if you were a regular listener of 18 00:01:21.420 --> 00:01:26.140 this show. We'll probably really like the B Tob Revenue Executive Experience With Chad 19 00:01:26.299 --> 00:01:30.739 Sanderson over at value selling associates. Chad is a good friend of ours here 20 00:01:30.780 --> 00:01:36.010 at Sweet Fish, a phenomenal podcast host. I really liked one of his 21 00:01:36.250 --> 00:01:40.930 older episodes from probably a year back, with type Capony, the author of 22 00:01:41.170 --> 00:01:47.480 the transparency saled. Great conversation about leveraging honesty, transparency and a value added 23 00:01:47.519 --> 00:01:53.079 approach in BB sales. Check out the B Tob Revenue Executive Experience With Chad 24 00:01:53.120 --> 00:01:57.519 Sanderson on apple podcast for anywhere you do your list all right, now let's 25 00:01:57.560 --> 00:02:01.590 really get into the show. Welcome back to be tob growth. I'm Logan 26 00:02:01.629 --> 00:02:06.430 lyles with sweet fish media. I've got with me today Jason Eman, as 27 00:02:06.549 --> 00:02:09.949 he is the VP of marketing over at scepter hospitality resources. Jason, how's 28 00:02:09.949 --> 00:02:14.710 it going today? Man, I'm doing great. So let's get straight into 29 00:02:14.870 --> 00:02:19.539 the topic today on brand. I love this in your linkedin bio as I 30 00:02:19.620 --> 00:02:23.379 was checking it out before you and I connected today for the interview and as 31 00:02:23.620 --> 00:02:27.699 I eat brand for breakfast with a little emoji right there in your linkedin bio. 32 00:02:27.939 --> 00:02:30.569 I love that. Man, tell us a little bit about how brand 33 00:02:30.930 --> 00:02:34.650 is defined in your mind, because I think a lot of people, you 34 00:02:34.729 --> 00:02:37.569 know, we think of logos, we think of our Color Palette, we 35 00:02:37.689 --> 00:02:40.250 think of those creative elements. To you, when you think of brand, 36 00:02:40.289 --> 00:02:45.919 especially for a B Tob Company like you've had a lot of experience in your 37 00:02:45.960 --> 00:02:50.120 career. WHAT COMES TO MIND? What definition is there as you think about 38 00:02:50.159 --> 00:02:55.680 it? So we're not going to talk about logos. No, and what 39 00:02:55.800 --> 00:03:00.550 I'm about to you know, what I'll say is things that people probably heard 40 00:03:00.590 --> 00:03:05.669 before. It's just things that I picked up over the years from people, 41 00:03:05.909 --> 00:03:07.509 you know, hell of a lot smarter than me. But, and I 42 00:03:07.710 --> 00:03:13.139 like to keep it simple, you know, you know, brand is really 43 00:03:13.340 --> 00:03:19.580 that touch point that your audience has with your company, and and by that 44 00:03:19.740 --> 00:03:22.900 I mean you could be a buyer, it could be an influencer, it 45 00:03:23.020 --> 00:03:24.580 could be, you know, anyone to be your mom, you know. 46 00:03:25.219 --> 00:03:30.849 So it's not a marketing thing, it's really a company thing and it's an 47 00:03:30.889 --> 00:03:35.129 easy to say that statement every touch point with your audience. It's flot harder 48 00:03:35.169 --> 00:03:38.530 to execute again, because it's not just one department, it's it's the whole 49 00:03:38.610 --> 00:03:43.360 company. Yeah, man, you have to just look at a few examples 50 00:03:43.400 --> 00:03:47.439 from our consumer lives, like Nike and Adidas, right to know that when 51 00:03:47.680 --> 00:03:53.439 you hear those names there's something that comes to mind. There is an experience, 52 00:03:53.520 --> 00:03:57.469 there's a feeling. They're right compared to another name that you might hear 53 00:03:57.830 --> 00:04:00.509 right, and they put a lot of effort in that right. You know, 54 00:04:00.629 --> 00:04:02.469 back when I was a kid was be like Mike. Now it's, 55 00:04:02.710 --> 00:04:05.110 you know, be like Lebron and be like, you know, down here 56 00:04:05.150 --> 00:04:10.379 in Houston, James Harden. So it's they just put, they just put 57 00:04:10.419 --> 00:04:15.539 a tremendous amount of effort, dollars, time and resources into building up that 58 00:04:15.699 --> 00:04:19.139 emotion in you know, and it cannot just kids, you know, adults 59 00:04:19.180 --> 00:04:24.139 are doing the same thing. Yeah, absolutely. So let's transition that to 60 00:04:24.449 --> 00:04:28.610 a be tob environment. I think a lot of people have this misconception that 61 00:04:28.970 --> 00:04:32.889 be to be purchasing is not as emotional. It's far more logical. But 62 00:04:33.610 --> 00:04:40.079 Science has has proven I recently read Todd Caponi's book, the Transparency Sale, 63 00:04:40.240 --> 00:04:45.480 and has a lot in there about the cognitive science of how people make decisions. 64 00:04:45.800 --> 00:04:47.720 We could go down that a little bit more, but let's you know, 65 00:04:47.800 --> 00:04:53.790 we offered a consumer brand example there with Nike and Adidas. Let's talk 66 00:04:53.790 --> 00:04:59.829 about a Bab brand where we could maybe point to this emotional decision or where 67 00:05:00.189 --> 00:05:06.180 you've seen decisions made more on brand than features, benefits the completely logical RFP 68 00:05:06.379 --> 00:05:11.779 based decisionmaking process that we think is driving everything in bb right. Yeah, 69 00:05:12.100 --> 00:05:15.300 yeah, so you know what about sales force? Why sales force and not 70 00:05:15.579 --> 00:05:19.420 of spot or Microsoft dynamics, you know, filth forcing, cheap, you 71 00:05:19.500 --> 00:05:23.970 know. So in order to bring yourself to making that decision, I think 72 00:05:23.970 --> 00:05:28.129 a lot goes into you know, maybe you're thinking, well, my company 73 00:05:28.209 --> 00:05:31.250 deserves the best, whatever that means, or maybe you just simply love you 74 00:05:31.370 --> 00:05:34.370 some many off or drifts, a popular one of these days, I've noticed, 75 00:05:34.610 --> 00:05:40.439 and their brand has a lot to do with their people, in particular, 76 00:05:41.000 --> 00:05:43.439 you know Dave Counsel, one of their co founders, or maybe Dave 77 00:05:43.519 --> 00:05:47.160 Garrehard there there, barkening guy. And you know what's the difference between drift 78 00:05:47.319 --> 00:05:51.430 and in a litany of other, you know, chat bots that marketers can 79 00:05:51.470 --> 00:05:57.110 get their hands on. It's it's they're developing, you know, through their 80 00:05:57.269 --> 00:06:01.470 content, whether it's video or their blog posts or whatever, making an emotional 81 00:06:01.629 --> 00:06:06.019 connection with buyers, you know, within these companies and you know, you 82 00:06:06.139 --> 00:06:10.220 just you just attract to it for whatever reason, and then in like you 83 00:06:10.300 --> 00:06:13.540 were saying, you know, a lot of times, once that emotional connection 84 00:06:13.660 --> 00:06:16.899 is made, the buyers starts to back it up with logic. And ever 85 00:06:17.019 --> 00:06:20.769 since I've read a lot of what you're talking about that you recently read, 86 00:06:20.970 --> 00:06:26.370 it's I find myself in the buying decisions doing the same thing, like, 87 00:06:26.730 --> 00:06:30.490 like I bought drift last year, you know, and I backed it up 88 00:06:30.529 --> 00:06:33.680 with loves. Is Why. Yeah, absolutely. I was having a conversation 89 00:06:33.920 --> 00:06:39.399 offline with a customer the other day and she was telling me how, you 90 00:06:39.519 --> 00:06:43.199 know, she really lobbied for a drift as they were making that decision because 91 00:06:43.839 --> 00:06:46.550 she was a fan of everything that they do in the content that they put 92 00:06:46.589 --> 00:06:51.550 out for marketers. And I think there's something from that example of drift you 93 00:06:51.709 --> 00:06:57.350 mentioned, you know, Dave cancel, Dave gearhart being very prominent in the 94 00:06:57.430 --> 00:07:00.230 video content that they put out in the podcast content that they put out. 95 00:07:00.430 --> 00:07:04.899 But they took that APP that you mentioned there of making a connection with the 96 00:07:05.019 --> 00:07:11.779 faces behind the brand to the next level as they built out several different podcasts 97 00:07:12.180 --> 00:07:15.329 that are highlighting, you know, their their product leader and their growth leader 98 00:07:15.449 --> 00:07:19.970 and other people within the team to not only just create content for the other 99 00:07:20.050 --> 00:07:26.089 folks that they want to reach, but humanizing and putting forth, you know, 100 00:07:26.209 --> 00:07:30.120 in an authentic way, the people behind their brand so that you make 101 00:07:30.240 --> 00:07:32.800 that connection, because we are humans, we you know, we connect with 102 00:07:32.920 --> 00:07:39.959 with people. We had the SINDOSO team on this podcast talking about their instagram 103 00:07:40.079 --> 00:07:45.069 feed and how so many people in DB are trying to use instagram the same 104 00:07:45.189 --> 00:07:48.709 way as they use other channels. There's a graphic with an ebook and they 105 00:07:48.750 --> 00:07:51.629 were like no, no, no, you need to put faces live and 106 00:07:51.870 --> 00:07:57.069 and large there, because that's what people expect to see in that platform. 107 00:07:57.110 --> 00:08:00.899 So kind of a tangent there, but I completely agree with not I completely, 108 00:08:00.939 --> 00:08:03.660 I completely, completely agree and I'm glad you brought it up. All 109 00:08:03.740 --> 00:08:05.819 one of my white boards, I'm looking at it right now. It says 110 00:08:05.819 --> 00:08:11.660 humanized marketing. Be Human, motive, spheares, hopes desires. You got 111 00:08:11.740 --> 00:08:13.730 to touch all that and for you know, I've been here three and a 112 00:08:13.730 --> 00:08:18.850 half years and ever since I walked in the door I realized it's some pretty 113 00:08:18.850 --> 00:08:22.610 cool, smart people here. I need to make sure that they are market 114 00:08:22.689 --> 00:08:26.639 facing, that the market gets to know them. Yeah, I solutely. 115 00:08:26.680 --> 00:08:31.439 I think I we talked to marketing leaders day and the day out and they 116 00:08:31.519 --> 00:08:35.360 keep telling me we have so many great experts, we have so many great 117 00:08:35.559 --> 00:08:39.799 SMEs, we have thought leaders within our building and to me there's a difference 118 00:08:39.840 --> 00:08:45.750 between an expert and a thought leader and one of those key components is they 119 00:08:45.830 --> 00:08:48.990 have to be known right. That that gap of, you know, like 120 00:08:48.190 --> 00:08:52.509 you said, being market facing has to happen, because no one can follow 121 00:08:52.669 --> 00:08:56.860 their thoughts if no one hears their thoughts right. And so I love the 122 00:08:56.899 --> 00:09:01.820 way that you're putting it. It's come up in so many different conversations as 123 00:09:01.860 --> 00:09:05.620 we talk with marketers about their podcast strategy, their thought leadership and their content 124 00:09:05.820 --> 00:09:09.529 strategy as a whole. So let's talk a little bit, Jason, about 125 00:09:09.929 --> 00:09:15.610 how you can do this effectively. We've talked a little bit about letting people 126 00:09:15.690 --> 00:09:18.690 get to know that the humans within your walls or within your mini walls. 127 00:09:18.730 --> 00:09:22.769 If you're a remote team like us. What are some of the other key 128 00:09:22.889 --> 00:09:26.960 components of building a brand and building trust through a brand? I imagine it's 129 00:09:28.240 --> 00:09:31.879 kind of digging in, at least in my opinion, to what are your 130 00:09:31.039 --> 00:09:35.799 differentiators, kind of you know, like Simon Senec talks about start with. 131 00:09:35.000 --> 00:09:39.830 Why? Is that true in your opinion as well? Yeah, yeah, 132 00:09:39.870 --> 00:09:45.269 you've got a differentiate yourself and especially these days, it's there's just so much 133 00:09:46.070 --> 00:09:48.429 noise. There's so much to offer us, and in our space and the 134 00:09:48.830 --> 00:09:52.340 hotel technology space. Again, I came in three and a half years ago 135 00:09:52.379 --> 00:09:58.299 and I was like, Whoa, I mean there's so many companies and there's 136 00:09:58.340 --> 00:10:01.820 so much communication going on that you know that. How in the world do 137 00:10:01.899 --> 00:10:05.740 you break through? And I think you breakthrough making that emotional connection, which 138 00:10:05.740 --> 00:10:11.850 means you got to choose why you're different and really really play on that. 139 00:10:13.529 --> 00:10:15.889 So you know it. You know, is its service? Is the customer 140 00:10:15.929 --> 00:10:18.250 development? Is it ease of use? Is a design? You know, 141 00:10:18.330 --> 00:10:20.919 maybe you only hire veterans. Whatever it is, you know, lock it 142 00:10:22.080 --> 00:10:26.440 down and really develop communication around with it. You know, we're a small 143 00:10:26.960 --> 00:10:33.320 company amongst giants. I mean our competitors are huge and and everybody in our 144 00:10:33.360 --> 00:10:37.149 industry knows are the the giant. Service sucks. I mean, I mean 145 00:10:37.230 --> 00:10:41.669 everybody knows it. So the one thing when when I came in, I 146 00:10:41.830 --> 00:10:46.269 was looking around and I noticed how we were hiring people. So we have 147 00:10:46.509 --> 00:10:52.100 great service and that's not just marketing saying that that. That's a company commitment, 148 00:10:52.179 --> 00:10:56.460 that's how we hire. That's I mean all of our account managers were 149 00:10:56.700 --> 00:11:01.779 former hotel yers and so nobody can empathize with our clients better than somebody that 150 00:11:01.899 --> 00:11:05.370 was just like them sitting in their seat, you know. So it's a 151 00:11:05.490 --> 00:11:11.809 it's a real big differentiator force and that's what we've really homed in on the 152 00:11:11.889 --> 00:11:15.049 past couple of years and it's worked really well. I love that, man 153 00:11:15.169 --> 00:11:18.840 so not only find what makes you different, but really digging into that truth. 154 00:11:18.879 --> 00:11:22.720 So I imagine, you know, just tactically for folks they might not 155 00:11:22.840 --> 00:11:26.039 have the same differentiator as you mentioned. You gave some very good examples of 156 00:11:26.120 --> 00:11:31.759 where you could dig in to find that differentiation and then make that emotional connection 157 00:11:31.799 --> 00:11:35.590 between that truth and your buyers reality, I imagine, for you. But 158 00:11:35.750 --> 00:11:39.990 the next step was digging in with those account managers, having conversations about what 159 00:11:41.190 --> 00:11:43.029 was life like? What what are the things that sucked? Is, as 160 00:11:43.070 --> 00:11:48.259 you pointed out right yes, yeah, yeah, and we you know. 161 00:11:48.340 --> 00:11:52.019 And then once you grab a hold of okay, this is why we're different. 162 00:11:52.100 --> 00:11:54.539 Now, how in the world do I communicate this? And communicate it 163 00:11:54.779 --> 00:11:58.700 often? You can't just say at once, you know, the tree, 164 00:11:58.860 --> 00:12:01.090 the tree falling in the woods kind of thing, you know. So I 165 00:12:01.370 --> 00:12:05.610 was I was struggling with that. But I was talking to, you know, 166 00:12:05.690 --> 00:12:07.529 the guy that runs up the hands, up our account managers, and 167 00:12:07.730 --> 00:12:11.289 he was a former client, former hotelier, and he was telling me the 168 00:12:11.370 --> 00:12:13.850 story and he was telling me the story for the second time, because the 169 00:12:13.850 --> 00:12:16.720 first time I just missed it because I'm slow. But he was saying, 170 00:12:16.799 --> 00:12:22.720 you know, when they chose to go with Sahr at the time, they 171 00:12:22.120 --> 00:12:26.200 they made a conscious decision not to read up the contract with one of our 172 00:12:26.240 --> 00:12:31.909 competitors because they knew their service wasn't going to get them to their goals. 173 00:12:33.309 --> 00:12:35.429 And they did. And he said it. He's like, you know, 174 00:12:35.629 --> 00:12:37.990 we didn't want to be a number, you know, and that's what that's 175 00:12:37.029 --> 00:12:41.549 what you are. And you know, the libel went on. It was 176 00:12:41.590 --> 00:12:45.940 just like wait, that's interesting. But I at the time, even though 177 00:12:45.940 --> 00:12:48.899 he said in the light bulb went on and I knew there was something there, 178 00:12:48.059 --> 00:12:52.500 I still like, well, okay, why don't I just put that 179 00:12:52.580 --> 00:12:58.139 on a t shirt? You get your account managers to mail them out the 180 00:12:58.259 --> 00:13:03.330 clients and ask them to take photos and we'll get those photos, will put 181 00:13:03.370 --> 00:13:05.929 them on social post, you know, maybe with some client quotes of how 182 00:13:05.970 --> 00:13:11.049 good our services and everything, not really knowing if that was going to work. 183 00:13:11.330 --> 00:13:13.159 He shook his head and he's like, yeah, that might work, 184 00:13:13.200 --> 00:13:15.639 you know, okay, great, you know. So walked away and then, 185 00:13:15.919 --> 00:13:18.519 I mean it just started. The photos started pouring in. The the 186 00:13:18.720 --> 00:13:24.840 clients loved it. I mean they got it. They immediately got, you 187 00:13:24.960 --> 00:13:28.950 know, what the phrase meant, what it meant to them, what it 188 00:13:28.029 --> 00:13:31.669 meant to us, what it meant to their peers. You know that we're 189 00:13:31.710 --> 00:13:37.269 looking and it's been. It's been a real winner force. That's fantastic. 190 00:13:37.350 --> 00:13:39.350 And so you guys took that phrase of you know, I'm not just a 191 00:13:39.389 --> 00:13:43.139 number, put it on the t shirt and then send it out to customers. 192 00:13:43.179 --> 00:13:46.820 Yeah, yeah, you know on our Social Post. That's all over 193 00:13:46.860 --> 00:13:50.940 our social posts. Yeah, that's fantastic. Man. So I've been stopped 194 00:13:50.980 --> 00:13:54.019 the trade shows and like, Oh man, I love that and that's that's 195 00:13:54.059 --> 00:13:58.889 brilliant and I mean I appreciate that. It's funny when people say things like 196 00:13:58.009 --> 00:14:05.250 that, because it took me months to get to a point where, okay, 197 00:14:05.409 --> 00:14:07.809 let's try to and I and at that point I wasn't convinced it was 198 00:14:07.850 --> 00:14:11.639 going to work. And know, you know, but that's what it takes. 199 00:14:11.679 --> 00:14:15.600 It just takes a lot of effort. Yeah, absolutely. So tell 200 00:14:15.679 --> 00:14:18.440 me a little bit about you know, you mentioned, as we are chatting 201 00:14:18.440 --> 00:14:22.519 a little bit offline, about this idea of pulling back the curtain. I 202 00:14:22.720 --> 00:14:26.429 love that example of just connecting that, that conversation that you dug into that 203 00:14:26.590 --> 00:14:31.509 started with your differentiation, going to your account managers with their expertise, and 204 00:14:31.590 --> 00:14:35.269 then keying on that phrase and finding a way to make it sharable, to 205 00:14:35.350 --> 00:14:41.100 make it identifiable with your customers. The other thing you've talked about, Jason, 206 00:14:41.379 --> 00:14:46.539 is pulling back the curtain and letting your audience see what goes on within 207 00:14:46.620 --> 00:14:48.539 your company. I mean, we believe in this here. We literally have 208 00:14:48.820 --> 00:14:54.169 a series on this podcast called behind the curtain for this very same reason. 209 00:14:54.250 --> 00:14:56.090 So I would love to hear a little bit more to on how you guys 210 00:14:56.129 --> 00:15:00.929 are doing it and where you've seen the effectiveness all rolling up to this topic 211 00:15:01.009 --> 00:15:05.129 we're talking about here in building a brand. Yeah, so if you you 212 00:15:05.169 --> 00:15:11.879 look at the popularity of reality TV, for example. So Funny Story. 213 00:15:11.000 --> 00:15:15.519 A few years back, this is this is cool, this is years ago, 214 00:15:15.639 --> 00:15:18.559 but I got wrapped up in trying to put together a show, a 215 00:15:18.679 --> 00:15:22.830 reality show, with John Hennessey, who's who's kind of a he's a car 216 00:15:22.909 --> 00:15:28.350 guy out here in Houston, and I've got this really interesting shot, but 217 00:15:28.549 --> 00:15:31.950 we were out there filming B roll to try to put together this concept. 218 00:15:33.549 --> 00:15:37.899 And this was way before gas monkey garage and some of the reality shows that 219 00:15:37.940 --> 00:15:46.019 aren't so much contest, it's just behind the scenes on you know, a 220 00:15:46.139 --> 00:15:48.899 lot of what you see on tv now is just really behind the scenes. 221 00:15:48.019 --> 00:15:52.009 People live in their life, people do in their job. So it kind 222 00:15:52.009 --> 00:15:56.690 of took that experience and, you know, I realize that in order to 223 00:15:56.730 --> 00:16:02.929 make an emotional connection, the market has to get to know, get to 224 00:16:03.049 --> 00:16:07.679 know, like and trust the people here and the people will bring that brand, 225 00:16:08.320 --> 00:16:11.240 you know, to light. And so again we you know, we 226 00:16:11.360 --> 00:16:14.480 have we have a bunch of hoteliers here, which is which is a little 227 00:16:14.480 --> 00:16:18.230 odd in our space, I think, but it's so, it's and they 228 00:16:18.269 --> 00:16:23.710 all have great personalities and so we've done we make sure that they are market 229 00:16:23.789 --> 00:16:27.830 facing as much as we can. I mean we created little funny videos of 230 00:16:27.909 --> 00:16:33.580 the account managers to highlight their hotel experience. You not only the number of 231 00:16:33.659 --> 00:16:37.940 years but the hotels where they work and it's some some recognizable brand names in 232 00:16:38.019 --> 00:16:41.620 there and, you know, just a little goofy spin on it, you 233 00:16:41.659 --> 00:16:47.100 know, because we added like their their hobbies, you know, and had 234 00:16:47.100 --> 00:16:49.009 a lot of fun with it and those have been really popular and it's just 235 00:16:49.129 --> 00:16:53.450 authentic. You know, you just got to be authentic and not be scared 236 00:16:53.490 --> 00:16:56.330 are that's the other thing is that, again, our competitors are big. 237 00:16:56.570 --> 00:17:00.480 There's slow their corporate and ever since I've got here, I told my team 238 00:17:00.919 --> 00:17:04.880 in the executive teams, if we cannot be that, you can't. Don't. 239 00:17:04.920 --> 00:17:08.920 Don't think we're going to be thought leaders and and, you know, 240 00:17:10.039 --> 00:17:14.519 buy fortyzero reports from some third party and put our name on it. So 241 00:17:14.720 --> 00:17:21.069 No, we've got smart, experienced people that we're going to show and let 242 00:17:21.190 --> 00:17:23.309 people get to know and that kind of thing. It's worked out really well. 243 00:17:23.549 --> 00:17:26.829 I love it. Man. I would say that that is more the 244 00:17:26.990 --> 00:17:32.420 path to thought leadership then buying those reports or, you know, paying for 245 00:17:32.779 --> 00:17:36.259 for those analysts boosts and you know, whatever the case might be. In 246 00:17:36.579 --> 00:17:40.220 every industry is kind of got the hacks, the things that you know, 247 00:17:40.460 --> 00:17:42.700 the the giants, as you put it, in the space, are able 248 00:17:42.819 --> 00:17:48.410 to do that. The little guys, the upandcomers or the scrappy startups don't 249 00:17:48.490 --> 00:17:52.690 have. But what we all have is people that we can showcase and that 250 00:17:52.809 --> 00:17:56.289 human connection, and you've given people some great ways to think about it. 251 00:17:56.410 --> 00:18:00.240 What you said. They're about the reality TV series and the show that you 252 00:18:00.279 --> 00:18:04.319 were producing and that analogy. I think it was Andy Raskin a while back 253 00:18:04.640 --> 00:18:08.319 that made that comment about drift, going back to your example of them and 254 00:18:08.519 --> 00:18:12.269 the way that they built a brand by humanizing it, by putting their people 255 00:18:12.390 --> 00:18:17.869 front and center. He made a comment something like what drift is doing right 256 00:18:17.910 --> 00:18:22.069 now is more reality TV than it is marketing, and I mean that in 257 00:18:22.109 --> 00:18:26.950 the best way, and I thought that what you said today just reminded me 258 00:18:26.990 --> 00:18:30.339 of that and I thought that that was a very telling piece that in B 259 00:18:30.539 --> 00:18:37.259 tob we're still humans and building a brand is very much the same way. 260 00:18:37.500 --> 00:18:42.130 We're we're leaning into that emotional connection and you've given people some things to really 261 00:18:42.170 --> 00:18:47.569 think about on this today. Jason. I could chat brand all day with 262 00:18:47.690 --> 00:18:49.730 you, man. So if anybody listening to this would like to do that, 263 00:18:51.410 --> 00:18:53.690 chat brand, asking follow up questions, learn more about what you guys 264 00:18:53.690 --> 00:18:56.960 are up to. What's the best way for them to reach out or just 265 00:18:56.039 --> 00:19:00.079 stay connected with you? Man, best place to find me is on Linkedin. 266 00:19:00.480 --> 00:19:03.480 I'm pretty indiscriminated about connecting on linked it. I love it. I 267 00:19:03.559 --> 00:19:07.160 am as well. Awesome. Well, Jason, it has been a fantastic 268 00:19:07.200 --> 00:19:10.789 conversation. Thank you so much for being on the show today, man, 269 00:19:10.990 --> 00:19:17.829 but that's great. Thank you. We totally get it. We publish a 270 00:19:17.950 --> 00:19:21.430 ton of content on this podcast and it can be a lot to keep up 271 00:19:21.470 --> 00:19:25.339 with. That's why we've started the B tob growth big three, a no 272 00:19:25.500 --> 00:19:30.299 fluff email that wools down our three biggest takeaways from an entire week of episodes. 273 00:19:30.740 --> 00:19:36.579 Sign up today at Sweet Phish Mediacom Big Three. That sweet fish Mediacom 274 00:19:37.420 --> 00:19:37.140 Big Three