3 Ways to Win with Customer Communities

WEBVTT 1 00:00:05.640 --> 00:00:08.640 that's what those community spaces, when we think about thriving, when we 2 00:00:08.640 --> 00:00:13.000 think about people asking one another questions, because now you're both 3 00:00:13.000 --> 00:00:17.310 improving and that means we all end. And when you win, I win. That's the 4 00:00:17.310 --> 00:00:24.950 thing is you have to tie your success to their success. There is so much talk 5 00:00:24.950 --> 00:00:30.030 these days about communities and the way that communities can help move our 6 00:00:30.030 --> 00:00:35.400 customers from. I have a problem right pre purchase to I am now an active, 7 00:00:35.400 --> 00:00:41.350 engaged advocate off this brand or company or service or platform. So if 8 00:00:41.350 --> 00:00:44.750 you've been thinking about starting a community or taking your community to 9 00:00:44.750 --> 00:00:49.210 the next level, you'll enjoy this conversation with Joe Huber, customer 10 00:00:49.210 --> 00:00:54.350 community strategist at Sprout Social. My name is Ethan Butte. I host the C X 11 00:00:54.350 --> 00:00:58.780 Siri's here on B two b growth. I'm chief evangelist at Bom Bom and co 12 00:00:58.780 --> 00:01:03.390 author of the book Re Humanize Your Business, and you're about to get three 13 00:01:03.390 --> 00:01:08.360 best practices of a great community builder as well as the primary thing 14 00:01:08.340 --> 00:01:12.920 that holds up people and teams from executing community Well. Here's Joe 15 00:01:12.920 --> 00:01:18.500 Huber, dedicated to changing the way brands connect with their customers by 16 00:01:18.500 --> 00:01:22.970 investing fully in their success. That's not just a beautiful statement 17 00:01:22.970 --> 00:01:27.270 that speaks to the spirit of this podcast. It's the Lincoln headline of 18 00:01:27.270 --> 00:01:32.120 today's guest. His background includes roles in sales, marketing and customer 19 00:01:32.120 --> 00:01:36.300 success, an undergraduate degree in sales, marketing and promotions, and a 20 00:01:36.300 --> 00:01:40.470 master's degree in public relations. This will all fold together into a 21 00:01:40.470 --> 00:01:45.570 great conversation with three strong and interrelated takeaways for you on 22 00:01:45.570 --> 00:01:50.050 customer communities and community building. Our guest has spent the past 23 00:01:50.050 --> 00:01:53.280 four years that sprout social in account management and customer on 24 00:01:53.280 --> 00:01:56.990 boarding roles, and his current title is one that he's had for nearly half of 25 00:01:56.990 --> 00:02:02.050 that time. Customer community strategist Joe Huber. Welcome to the 26 00:02:02.050 --> 00:02:06.250 customer experience podcast. Thank you so much for having me. Yeah, so you are 27 00:02:06.250 --> 00:02:11.560 in what I regard as the greatest American city. Chicago. Uh, we're 28 00:02:11.560 --> 00:02:15.250 recording almost exactly halfway through the year. Here it the very, 29 00:02:15.250 --> 00:02:19.270 very end of June, just for conversation sake. I don't know how much it will 30 00:02:19.270 --> 00:02:23.050 come up in this conversation, but talk about what's been going on with regard 31 00:02:23.050 --> 00:02:27.560 to the pandemic. How's it affected you or or your team or your customers are 32 00:02:27.560 --> 00:02:31.830 kind of set the scene there. Yeah, so I work in our work. It's brought social 33 00:02:31.830 --> 00:02:35.590 and on the customer community. Strategist Aziz you mentioned my role 34 00:02:35.600 --> 00:02:40.120 primarily is to facilitate conversations with our customers. And 35 00:02:40.120 --> 00:02:47.700 so the pandemic hit. And I think a lot of people spent a lot of time trying to 36 00:02:47.700 --> 00:02:50.190 think, like, What are we going to do? What are we going to do? And our team 37 00:02:50.190 --> 00:02:54.340 really sprung into action really fast. We lead live Q and A is We looked at 38 00:02:54.340 --> 00:02:58.800 kind of how those customers are coming together and what they want. And the 39 00:02:58.810 --> 00:03:03.640 big question came, What what do I do? What am I supposed to do now? And so we 40 00:03:03.640 --> 00:03:06.640 started to think, like, Okay, how do we do that? One of the things that we have 41 00:03:06.640 --> 00:03:12.200 layered into our strategy is Facebook groups, and that's a big function of my 42 00:03:12.200 --> 00:03:17.600 role. Is finding customers in kind of the wild and then helping them have 43 00:03:17.600 --> 00:03:22.060 these conversations with one another? So that way, it's one structure around 44 00:03:22.060 --> 00:03:25.410 what they want, right, and it takes away kind of like what sprout once or 45 00:03:25.410 --> 00:03:28.650 what I want, and it gives them the space to talk about what they want and 46 00:03:28.650 --> 00:03:32.180 so assumes the pandemic hit. And as soon as people started going into lock 47 00:03:32.180 --> 00:03:35.980 down, a lot of people were just asking the question, What do we do now? And so 48 00:03:35.990 --> 00:03:41.630 for us, I became busier than I've ever been. I became just absolutely 49 00:03:41.640 --> 00:03:46.470 overloaded with work in in a good way because people were asking questions 50 00:03:46.470 --> 00:03:50.650 and people were talking toe one another on. We were able to build on that, and 51 00:03:50.650 --> 00:03:54.450 just our community spaces were already very rich. But now there's thriving, 52 00:03:54.460 --> 00:03:58.890 and they're there places where one. It's not just customers, too, because 53 00:03:58.900 --> 00:04:03.570 because customers a tricky word because anyone could be a customer eventually, 54 00:04:03.580 --> 00:04:08.630 especially for software. But for us, specifically in the way I view it is, I 55 00:04:08.630 --> 00:04:11.280 don't really care if your sprout customer or not if you're if you're a 56 00:04:11.280 --> 00:04:14.240 person that works in social marketing, I want you in our group because I want 57 00:04:14.240 --> 00:04:18.120 you to have those conversations and I don't really e mean. Obviously I would 58 00:04:18.120 --> 00:04:21.730 love for you. Do you sprout? But I don't really care like my My job is to 59 00:04:21.730 --> 00:04:27.520 help facilitate those conversations, So I always say that my my role is to one 60 00:04:27.520 --> 00:04:30.660 facilitate those conversations to help customers talk with one another, help 61 00:04:30.660 --> 00:04:33.810 customers talk with the brand and help educate our customers, whether that be 62 00:04:33.810 --> 00:04:39.820 in the industry or on our product. And so through that Lens Cove it hit and 63 00:04:39.820 --> 00:04:45.530 just made us overwhelmed with, ah lot of one positive reaction because we 64 00:04:45.530 --> 00:04:49.270 were ableto jump into these conversations with live Q and A 65 00:04:49.270 --> 00:04:54.210 webinars for our customers, but also opening up these spaces to anyone who's 66 00:04:54.220 --> 00:04:59.780 sprout customer or beyond. I love it. It's actually a value add to the sprout 67 00:04:59.780 --> 00:05:04.190 customer toe haven't even broader community of people working in social 68 00:05:04.190 --> 00:05:07.680 spaces. And what a great thing, it reminds me a little bit of are the 69 00:05:07.680 --> 00:05:10.890 benefit of what we've done at Bom Bom, which is, you know, we built the 70 00:05:10.890 --> 00:05:13.980 software, we built this community, we built education and training. We 71 00:05:13.980 --> 00:05:17.860 modified it a bit in the pandemic, basically accelerated the pace of what 72 00:05:17.860 --> 00:05:21.730 we were doing to help people use video to stay connected. And that's what I 73 00:05:21.730 --> 00:05:26.140 think about with having a dedicated community person such as yourself. You 74 00:05:26.140 --> 00:05:30.410 build it in your building it, But then all of a sudden, the circumstances 75 00:05:30.410 --> 00:05:36.270 change, and it's so good that you spent all the time you did leading up Thio to 76 00:05:36.270 --> 00:05:39.020 be prepared. That was awesome. That's like a preview. I think of where we'll 77 00:05:39.020 --> 00:05:43.010 be going here over the next half hour or so, but to kick it off when I say 78 00:05:43.010 --> 00:05:46.950 customer experience to you, Joe, what does that mean to you? So again, I 79 00:05:46.950 --> 00:05:50.830 think it goes back to the customers a tricky word for me specifically because 80 00:05:50.830 --> 00:05:55.250 when I think of customer experience and this is something that I built into, 81 00:05:55.250 --> 00:05:58.020 we'll talk. I'm sure later about the Chicago customer success podcast, which 82 00:05:58.020 --> 00:06:03.400 is a podcast. I run. But the way I view it is customer customer experience. It 83 00:06:03.400 --> 00:06:08.490 goes beyond customer. We tend to think of customer a destination when in 84 00:06:08.490 --> 00:06:14.460 reality it's this journey, right? It's it starts out from before you ever even 85 00:06:14.460 --> 00:06:18.860 hear about the brand. Before you ever hear about the software and insects, 86 00:06:18.870 --> 00:06:22.490 that's that's obviously software as a service. That's where I live and 87 00:06:22.490 --> 00:06:28.630 operate. But it starts when you are thinking about Do I have a problem? 88 00:06:28.640 --> 00:06:32.570 That's where it starts, and that's kind of that customer experience is do I 89 00:06:32.570 --> 00:06:37.890 have a problem all the way through to I am now an advocate of this platform. 90 00:06:37.900 --> 00:06:43.800 And to me, customer experience is everything that falls into that. It's 91 00:06:43.800 --> 00:06:49.230 the experience of the buying process. It's the experience of the negotiations 92 00:06:49.240 --> 00:06:53.050 of using the platform of learning how to use the platform. It's literally 93 00:06:53.060 --> 00:07:00.790 everything from before you recognize the issue that is plaguing you things 94 00:07:00.790 --> 00:07:06.110 thing that is costing you 10 hours a week, that you don't even know you have 95 00:07:06.110 --> 00:07:11.630 the problem yet, and that's where it starts. And then it it never ends even 96 00:07:11.630 --> 00:07:16.960 when you go away. Even if you cancel your subscription, it's not the end. So 97 00:07:16.960 --> 00:07:24.330 the experience is literally everything from start to. There is no finish so 98 00:07:24.330 --> 00:07:27.650 good. Several things I really liked about that one of them is that you 99 00:07:27.650 --> 00:07:31.530 talked about losing 10 hours and not losing five grand or something. That 100 00:07:31.530 --> 00:07:36.060 time is super super valuable. And that's that is a significant pain point 101 00:07:36.060 --> 00:07:39.370 that I think people sometimes undervalue. But I with you completely 102 00:07:39.370 --> 00:07:44.420 on the journey piece of it in the end, to end with kind of no end on the other 103 00:07:44.420 --> 00:07:48.530 end aspect of and that's why I host. The show is, and that's why I talk to 104 00:07:48.530 --> 00:07:51.560 people. That's why I like your background. So much is that you have 105 00:07:51.560 --> 00:07:54.570 seen the sales marketing customer success piece. Obviously, customer 106 00:07:54.570 --> 00:07:58.140 experience transcends that. But those air typically the types of folks that 107 00:07:58.140 --> 00:08:01.570 I'm talking with in order to create some alignment and whole ism and 108 00:08:01.570 --> 00:08:06.080 intentionality because all of our teams, even in a healthy environment, can get 109 00:08:06.080 --> 00:08:10.580 a little bit siloed. But we need to produce and deliver that experience in 110 00:08:10.580 --> 00:08:14.620 a very consistent way across teams and across the function. So that's really 111 00:08:14.620 --> 00:08:17.770 good. One more definitional question before we get going because it'll be a 112 00:08:17.770 --> 00:08:23.900 dominant theme, and I just want some my clarity on the way you view it to you. 113 00:08:23.900 --> 00:08:28.990 What is community and what does it mean to build community? Sure. So again, 114 00:08:28.990 --> 00:08:32.620 this is another tricky word. I don't think that there is a single definition 115 00:08:32.620 --> 00:08:34.860 that's super simple and just straightforward, especially when you're 116 00:08:34.860 --> 00:08:39.100 talking about things like this because what is community to me could be 117 00:08:39.100 --> 00:08:43.400 something wildly different to somebody else. The way I approach customer 118 00:08:43.400 --> 00:08:48.610 communities is again. It's not just customers, community spaces, which is 119 00:08:48.610 --> 00:08:53.420 what how I define them. They're not just it's not just one thing. Community 120 00:08:53.420 --> 00:08:57.530 spaces are a Facebook group. They could be your Twitter following. They could 121 00:08:57.530 --> 00:09:02.640 be your instagram following whatever it is to you, communities are everywhere 122 00:09:02.650 --> 00:09:08.250 for us. Specifically, in this role, I think of communities, the community 123 00:09:08.250 --> 00:09:12.580 spaces that we've built in Facebook groups. That's to me like one of the 124 00:09:12.580 --> 00:09:16.470 communities that we have. So communities are a collection of people 125 00:09:16.480 --> 00:09:22.100 who are interested in the same thing and as a community manager or community 126 00:09:22.100 --> 00:09:25.800 strategist. Because that's the thing is I do help manage our communities. But 127 00:09:25.810 --> 00:09:30.360 I'm not the only person in there. And the whole point of community spaces is 128 00:09:30.450 --> 00:09:35.200 to help people find one another who are like minded or have similar interest. 129 00:09:35.210 --> 00:09:40.340 Yeah, and the way you defined it to obviously the medium or the channel or 130 00:09:40.340 --> 00:09:43.940 the space itself is part of what these people have in common. I might 131 00:09:43.940 --> 00:09:48.000 participate with you on instagram, but not participate it all on Facebook, for 132 00:09:48.000 --> 00:09:53.190 example. Yeah, absolutely. That's Ah, big thing for anyone who works in 133 00:09:53.190 --> 00:09:57.640 Social media is, you know, and it's inherent to you like it's just obvious 134 00:09:57.650 --> 00:10:02.030 its's if I'm not on Facebook, I can't be in your Facebook group, so I'm not a 135 00:10:02.030 --> 00:10:06.720 part of that, that community space. But I'm still part of your community. And 136 00:10:06.720 --> 00:10:11.870 so someone who doesn't use Instagram but uses Twitter or someone who uses, 137 00:10:11.940 --> 00:10:16.460 you know, tick tock but doesn't use Twitter. You're still a part of their 138 00:10:16.460 --> 00:10:21.570 community, but you're just not in that one space. And so that's the thing. Is 139 00:10:21.580 --> 00:10:26.230 communities this big, huge, overarching thing that has a lot of strategy 140 00:10:26.230 --> 00:10:31.240 involved, Especially when you're thinking in terms of customers, because 141 00:10:31.250 --> 00:10:34.970 customer A my, especially if you work incest. I'm sure that there are a 142 00:10:34.970 --> 00:10:38.110 million different use cases for your platform, and you think that it's this 143 00:10:38.110 --> 00:10:42.000 all encompassing thing and everyone can use it for everything. The reality is 144 00:10:42.000 --> 00:10:48.050 probably not that broad, but the reality thio you is yes, someone who So 145 00:10:48.050 --> 00:10:51.210 for video, you might have customers that have three different use cases for 146 00:10:51.220 --> 00:10:55.770 your specific platform, and so you need to service each one of those three 147 00:10:55.770 --> 00:10:58.760 people individually. But the thing is, they're they're not in a silo 148 00:10:58.760 --> 00:11:03.470 themselves. There are much, much more people, many more people out there like 149 00:11:03.470 --> 00:11:08.160 them. So you have to think and find ways. Thio approach multiple different 150 00:11:08.160 --> 00:11:12.970 backgrounds with your community spaces. Yeah, it's super. I mean, immediately 151 00:11:12.970 --> 00:11:16.300 as you were talking, my mind was just this kind of fragmentation, of all the 152 00:11:16.300 --> 00:11:21.370 potential combinations of enough awareness that they would participate 153 00:11:21.370 --> 00:11:25.400 with us common problems, but maybe different applications or solutions or 154 00:11:25.400 --> 00:11:28.430 different views of the same problem. You just keep breaking all that down 155 00:11:28.430 --> 00:11:31.450 and have these kind of hyper focused communities. And so it makes sense to 156 00:11:31.450 --> 00:11:35.290 have someone dedicated to building and supporting that before we get too much 157 00:11:35.290 --> 00:11:38.900 farther. I expect mostly, I mean, I'm a marketer. I've known about sprout 158 00:11:38.900 --> 00:11:42.050 social for years. I've consumed a lot of your content. I guess I would be 159 00:11:42.050 --> 00:11:47.390 considered a kind of a background passive community member. But for folks 160 00:11:47.390 --> 00:11:51.190 who aren't familiar, what is sprout about who is your ideal customer and 161 00:11:51.190 --> 00:11:55.410 maybe what problem do you solve for them? Yeah, but first of all, everyone, 162 00:11:55.410 --> 00:11:59.410 we would love everyone to be a sprout social customer. Sprout social is a 163 00:11:59.410 --> 00:12:04.250 social media management platform, which is pretty obvious from the name. But 164 00:12:04.260 --> 00:12:10.210 the way sprout operates is we We focus on four main pillars. You're publishing 165 00:12:10.220 --> 00:12:15.110 engagement analytics and then, of course, listening, which is a newer 166 00:12:15.120 --> 00:12:20.150 addition to the social suite over the last five years or so. Listening is a 167 00:12:20.150 --> 00:12:24.460 very powerful tool. It's something that every single person can use. And that's 168 00:12:24.460 --> 00:12:28.720 kind of why when we say it Z, every single software platform out there is 169 00:12:28.720 --> 00:12:32.740 going to tell you. Yes, everyone's an ideal customer on. I don't think anyone 170 00:12:32.750 --> 00:12:37.620 should limit themselves necessarily. I think of anyone who works in social 171 00:12:37.620 --> 00:12:43.860 media that can that spends too much time. Publishing spends too much time 172 00:12:43.870 --> 00:12:47.920 where is too scattershot in their engagement. Someone who doesn't know 173 00:12:47.920 --> 00:12:51.340 what they're doing with their analytics doesn't know how to read. Analytics is 174 00:12:51.350 --> 00:12:56.030 a new analytics genius as well, kind of going going out like that full other 175 00:12:56.030 --> 00:12:59.800 end of the spectrum or anywhere in between because the thing is sprout 176 00:12:59.800 --> 00:13:05.090 helps you published MAWR faster. It helps you keep your voice consistent 177 00:13:05.100 --> 00:13:09.030 across platforms. It helps you keep your messaging consistent as well 178 00:13:09.030 --> 00:13:14.150 across platforms, but it also helps you engage with your customers. It helps 179 00:13:14.150 --> 00:13:18.840 you read and put your analytics together, and then listening helps you 180 00:13:18.840 --> 00:13:23.780 put together more marketing strategies or creating different think pieces and 181 00:13:23.780 --> 00:13:28.360 content. In that way, listening helps you if to those who are unfamiliar with 182 00:13:28.360 --> 00:13:32.960 listening social listening is a way for you to find various conversations put 183 00:13:32.960 --> 00:13:36.720 together data around those conversations. Just the other day, Mark 184 00:13:36.720 --> 00:13:41.330 Cuban asked, Could someone put together a word cloud for me around thing X y Z? 185 00:13:41.330 --> 00:13:44.830 And so we used our listening data and and share it with him and just showed 186 00:13:44.830 --> 00:13:49.720 him Hey, this is what it is. So there is, Ah tweet out there that you can 187 00:13:49.730 --> 00:13:53.300 find on and see all of all of the different kind of stuff for that, but 188 00:13:53.300 --> 00:13:58.090 like that's that's sprout social. In a nutshell is Theobald iti to better 189 00:13:58.090 --> 00:14:01.440 manage your social media? I love it. And I would guess that the analytics 190 00:14:01.440 --> 00:14:05.480 piece helps close a gap that probably a lot of social managers have, which is, 191 00:14:05.490 --> 00:14:09.500 you know, a clear our oi piece. You know, like if there's any pressure on 192 00:14:09.510 --> 00:14:13.170 any social investments, it's typically around like so what? You're just you 193 00:14:13.170 --> 00:14:16.900 know, putting her stuff out there and you're talking about probably closes 194 00:14:16.900 --> 00:14:20.440 that gap. Thank you for that. So I want to get into these three takeaways that 195 00:14:20.440 --> 00:14:26.480 you shared with me in advance. And so I'll just kind of read off a line and 196 00:14:26.480 --> 00:14:29.780 then just maybe share your thoughts around it, the motivation or maybe 197 00:14:29.780 --> 00:14:34.040 something practical for folks who are listening. So the first of these three 198 00:14:34.040 --> 00:14:40.500 is build thriving spaces where people ask questions about the product with 199 00:14:40.500 --> 00:14:46.010 one another several layers there. Yeah, yeah, the first thing that I would like 200 00:14:46.010 --> 00:14:50.040 just to deconstruct it a little bit. Thriving spaces convene a lot of 201 00:14:50.040 --> 00:14:55.460 different things, so you might have five people who are just super active 202 00:14:55.540 --> 00:14:59.440 in your communities. Face could be just five people. We tend to think of that 203 00:14:59.440 --> 00:15:05.760 as an insights community that tends to be a smaller group of customers. That's 204 00:15:05.760 --> 00:15:11.080 fine. You don't have toe have 10,000 people in your Facebook groups. You can 205 00:15:11.080 --> 00:15:16.860 have 10 really engaged customers, and that's fine. So thriving can mean a lot 206 00:15:16.860 --> 00:15:19.860 of different things. And that's one of the things that I consistently tell. 207 00:15:19.860 --> 00:15:23.800 Other people who are looking to either break into community management or or 208 00:15:23.800 --> 00:15:29.220 strategy is. Don't be afraid to build a small community if that's what's 209 00:15:29.220 --> 00:15:33.180 working so thriving spaces could mean a lot of different things to a lot of 210 00:15:33.180 --> 00:15:38.380 different people. From a software perspective, there is an inherent value 211 00:15:38.390 --> 00:15:44.090 in one having people talk to one another because they'll be able to act 212 00:15:44.090 --> 00:15:48.000 like solve problems for one another. And so there's this idea that like Oh, 213 00:15:48.000 --> 00:15:53.450 we're lowering support tickets, which is an outcome. But that's not the end 214 00:15:53.450 --> 00:15:57.850 game. That's not the goal. The goal isn't to get support tickets down. 215 00:15:58.040 --> 00:16:02.540 That's a metric that a lot of people look at because we have to tie money 216 00:16:02.540 --> 00:16:07.420 and value to things, especially when it's around your work. But the actual 217 00:16:07.420 --> 00:16:12.860 outcome is in. Can I get two people linked together who are solving a 218 00:16:12.860 --> 00:16:17.290 problem? Because the thing is, now they're going to think about your brand 219 00:16:17.300 --> 00:16:22.200 in a much better like and it becomes a lot more difficult toe. Leave that 220 00:16:22.200 --> 00:16:26.710 platform when you feel a certain way, and that's really what you're trying to 221 00:16:26.710 --> 00:16:33.360 do is showing you're showing people that you are invested in their success, 222 00:16:33.540 --> 00:16:36.800 and that's from my perspective. That's what I want because I want people 223 00:16:36.800 --> 00:16:42.220 talking toe one another because you're going to get better. Then when you get 224 00:16:42.220 --> 00:16:48.350 better, I win, and that's my game is to help you become the best professional 225 00:16:48.350 --> 00:16:52.220 you can possibly be. And that's what those community spaces, when we think 226 00:16:52.220 --> 00:16:55.540 about thriving, when we think about people asking one another questions, 227 00:16:55.550 --> 00:17:00.950 because now you're both improving and that means we all in. And when you win, 228 00:17:00.950 --> 00:17:06.180 I win. That's the thing is you have to tie your success to their success. And 229 00:17:06.180 --> 00:17:10.950 that's for thinking about thriving spaces, thinking about people asking 230 00:17:10.950 --> 00:17:16.300 one another questions, thinking about community spaces that feel exciting and 231 00:17:16.300 --> 00:17:22.329 valuable. That's when things really start to tip over. Yeah, when when when 232 00:17:22.329 --> 00:17:26.359 I read Thriving and and listen, you describe it, I think I actually think 233 00:17:26.359 --> 00:17:30.710 the level of engagement that isn't company driven is a clear sign of 234 00:17:30.710 --> 00:17:35.350 thriving in my experience. And I love this idea of people helping each other 235 00:17:35.360 --> 00:17:39.850 the minute you raise your hand and help someone else as a customer of sprout 236 00:17:39.850 --> 00:17:44.530 social, let's say in a sprout generated community, the minute you raise 237 00:17:44.530 --> 00:17:48.010 yourself up and have this opportunity to help someone else just like your 238 00:17:48.010 --> 00:17:51.310 emotional commitment, the way you feel about all of it, changes really good. 239 00:17:51.440 --> 00:17:57.660 So the second one builds off. That, in a way leverage the spaces to test out 240 00:17:57.660 --> 00:18:03.300 new content, ideas and themes. So way were just talking about this in the pre 241 00:18:03.300 --> 00:18:06.650 show, kind of like when we were just kind of having banter back and forth. 242 00:18:06.660 --> 00:18:10.230 But I'm a very creative person. I've always been a creative person. It's 243 00:18:10.230 --> 00:18:13.600 something that's just in my nature. When I sold Windows and doors, I 244 00:18:13.610 --> 00:18:17.380 immediately thought of different ways to try. And like if we were installing 245 00:18:17.380 --> 00:18:21.650 at a house, my boss wanted us to pass around flyers, the Flyers air buying. 246 00:18:21.650 --> 00:18:25.560 But they're really invaluable. They don't do anything. So one of the things 247 00:18:25.560 --> 00:18:29.330 that I started doing was putting together kind of a care package. So 248 00:18:29.340 --> 00:18:33.910 things toe wash your windows, not just the materials that we give you that 249 00:18:33.910 --> 00:18:39.180 show you how toe clean a new window but actually giving you the tools necessary 250 00:18:39.200 --> 00:18:45.170 to one. Keep your windows clean or keep your windows, you know, oiled whatever 251 00:18:45.170 --> 00:18:48.500 it was that we were putting together. But then going around to their 252 00:18:48.500 --> 00:18:53.130 neighbors and letting them know to with care packages for their existing 253 00:18:53.130 --> 00:18:57.060 windows and by doing that. I was able to increase my sales, and I wasn't the 254 00:18:57.060 --> 00:19:00.840 best window salesman of all time. But it was those extra additional things 255 00:19:00.840 --> 00:19:04.900 that helped me land customers for the business. I started a YouTube page 256 00:19:04.900 --> 00:19:08.820 where we showed people how to clean a double hung window. Here's what you 257 00:19:08.820 --> 00:19:11.960 should do. Here's how you take care of it. If there's a leak, here's who like 258 00:19:11.960 --> 00:19:15.760 those kinds of things when you're when you're thinking about customer success. 259 00:19:15.760 --> 00:19:20.860 From a SAS perspective, it's a lot of those same things. So to kind of tie 260 00:19:20.860 --> 00:19:28.450 that back in. It's the idea of we can in community spaces. We already have 261 00:19:28.450 --> 00:19:32.760 some trust level, so we're able to try out new things and test them out and 262 00:19:32.760 --> 00:19:37.020 see if they will work in a vacuum. And then we can try Thio. Give those to 263 00:19:37.020 --> 00:19:40.930 some some larger things as well. Just a small example of that is life human 264 00:19:40.930 --> 00:19:46.720 aids. We wanted to have inability to ask you questions, and then you ask us 265 00:19:46.720 --> 00:19:51.520 questions right back, and so we'll have a guest on and those the ability to 266 00:19:51.520 --> 00:19:56.490 bring in an interview like this. But having people ask me questions live is 267 00:19:56.500 --> 00:20:00.240 a different layer, different element that we were able toe figure out works 268 00:20:00.250 --> 00:20:03.870 and our customers were hungry for something like that. I love it. I like 269 00:20:03.870 --> 00:20:07.840 this idea of having people who are brought bought in on the common problem 270 00:20:07.840 --> 00:20:10.570 and the common point of view of the world, which is what brought them to 271 00:20:10.570 --> 00:20:14.210 the community in the first place and just floating things and seeing what 272 00:20:14.210 --> 00:20:19.290 the response is in a very low threat and probably approximately low cost 273 00:20:19.290 --> 00:20:23.170 type of way. It's really, uh and and these are the people who actually care, 274 00:20:23.140 --> 00:20:26.900 right? And so you know, they're gonna They're probably more honest than the 275 00:20:26.900 --> 00:20:30.210 average person who might just say something courteous because you're just 276 00:20:30.210 --> 00:20:35.630 not that tight yet. Kind of things really good. S o e. I want one thing I 277 00:20:35.630 --> 00:20:39.030 want to say they're too is you kind of hit on it and we've talked about it. 278 00:20:39.030 --> 00:20:42.630 This is something that I was gonna loop around to eventually is Customers don't 279 00:20:42.630 --> 00:20:48.170 always have to be nice and love your product. A lot of times, the things in 280 00:20:48.170 --> 00:20:52.400 software companies, you get better when someone tells you they hate something. 281 00:20:52.410 --> 00:20:55.430 You don't just improve because everyone loves your product all the time and 282 00:20:55.430 --> 00:20:59.970 everything so happy. People have to be able to say, You know what? I hate the 283 00:20:59.970 --> 00:21:04.260 way this is laid out. It's tough. It doesn't help me get my job done. It's a 284 00:21:04.260 --> 00:21:09.170 process and then we're able to take that kind of information. Give that to 285 00:21:09.170 --> 00:21:12.490 our product team. Our product team literally reads every single bit of 286 00:21:12.490 --> 00:21:16.990 feedback that our customers give. I've told this story a million times I was 287 00:21:16.990 --> 00:21:19.520 blown away. I've worked in a couple different software companies, and 288 00:21:19.520 --> 00:21:22.920 generally they'll they, you know, find like they get it. But like there was 289 00:21:22.920 --> 00:21:28.650 something very, very small. I remember being a very minute like problem, just 290 00:21:28.650 --> 00:21:36.510 just absolutely small. Our product team sent me an email back saying, Hey, tell 291 00:21:36.510 --> 00:21:39.410 me about this thing and I was like, Really, you're following up on this 292 00:21:39.410 --> 00:21:44.630 like that was just an outstanding moment for me, But it's also great for 293 00:21:44.630 --> 00:21:48.590 our customers, But you in your community spaces, you have to build 294 00:21:48.600 --> 00:21:54.410 places where people can descent. They can say I don't like this and you have 295 00:21:54.410 --> 00:21:59.060 to be one comfortable with that to able to respond in a courteous manner, but 296 00:21:59.060 --> 00:22:03.370 then three understand what they're saying and get that back to your 297 00:22:03.370 --> 00:22:08.550 product team. Yeah, it's so good, and it's such a delicate balance. Two of 298 00:22:08.560 --> 00:22:12.330 you know. Is this just a loud, angry voice, or is this allowed angry voice? 299 00:22:12.330 --> 00:22:16.240 We should listen. Teoh is this voice corroborated by other voices, but you 300 00:22:16.240 --> 00:22:20.040 don't want to go. And it's not pure democracy if you're not gonna take the 301 00:22:20.040 --> 00:22:24.620 product off course just because you know 15 people said they wanted it that 302 00:22:24.620 --> 00:22:28.370 way instead of two. You know, it's it's such a it's such a sweet, delicate 303 00:22:28.540 --> 00:22:32.930 balance and dance to it. So again, Number one is building thriving spaces 304 00:22:32.930 --> 00:22:37.090 and having people talk to one another. Number two is leveraging spaces to test 305 00:22:37.100 --> 00:22:41.530 new ideas and themes. And what we just passed down there, too, was being open 306 00:22:41.530 --> 00:22:44.740 to the negative feedback and not just fishing for the positive. And the 307 00:22:44.740 --> 00:22:49.960 number three is layering this very public feedback into the product design. 308 00:22:50.340 --> 00:22:56.330 That's a lot of what we just talked about is the taking feedback from 309 00:22:56.330 --> 00:23:01.750 person A in community to your product team. This is where we where you just 310 00:23:01.750 --> 00:23:07.040 hit on is exactly the right point. It's not a democracy. You don't no matter 311 00:23:07.040 --> 00:23:10.800 who you are. You're not going to dictate how any software runs the 312 00:23:10.800 --> 00:23:14.690 people. Building a software will dictate how it runs. You can absolutely 313 00:23:14.690 --> 00:23:20.970 say I know this is terrible because eso, for example, uh, there's a Web browser 314 00:23:20.970 --> 00:23:26.260 extension momentum. I love it. I use it. It helps. You can put in your your 315 00:23:26.270 --> 00:23:29.690 focus for the day, and you've got to get that done. It integrates with to do 316 00:23:29.690 --> 00:23:33.700 list, but it doesn't integrate with Google Calendar. So it really has 317 00:23:33.700 --> 00:23:37.680 become kind of a thing that I I'll put in my focus for the day sometimes, but 318 00:23:37.680 --> 00:23:42.260 not every day. And they're missing a huge opportunity because, ah, lot of 319 00:23:42.260 --> 00:23:46.500 people have said, Well, if you did Google Calendar, it would be helpful 320 00:23:46.510 --> 00:23:49.940 and they just haven't built the integration. And so it's a thing where 321 00:23:49.950 --> 00:23:54.590 they know they've got it. They've heard us. They just don't want to build that 322 00:23:54.590 --> 00:23:58.560 one particular thing. And that's again where, as a software company is, you 323 00:23:58.560 --> 00:24:01.400 kind of said, it's this delicate balance. The reality is you have to 324 00:24:01.400 --> 00:24:06.120 build what's going to impact the most people for you. That solves the problem 325 00:24:06.120 --> 00:24:10.260 for you. And so there are things that, like I know, that I've read where 326 00:24:10.440 --> 00:24:14.230 Sprout customers have said, I wish X y Z and my product team has said We're 327 00:24:14.230 --> 00:24:18.820 not doing that like just just so you know, that kind of flies in the face of 328 00:24:18.830 --> 00:24:22.570 like what we're doing. And as if you work in communities, you have to be 329 00:24:22.570 --> 00:24:26.960 able to give that feedback back to the customer and say because being honest 330 00:24:26.960 --> 00:24:30.170 and upfront about it and just because you can lie and say like, Oh, maybe, 331 00:24:30.170 --> 00:24:33.870 maybe, maybe, maybe, But eventually you're gonna fracture trust if you do 332 00:24:33.870 --> 00:24:38.330 that. So if you just be straightforward and honest and say we're not doing that 333 00:24:38.340 --> 00:24:43.560 and this is kind of why you have to be ableto have that kind of conversation. 334 00:24:43.560 --> 00:24:46.730 But again, it goes back to the trust. If you build that trust in your 335 00:24:46.730 --> 00:24:50.510 community spaces, you can have those kinds of conversations where people can 336 00:24:50.510 --> 00:24:54.910 say positive or negative feedback and you can respond in an appropriate 337 00:24:54.910 --> 00:25:00.140 manner. Yeah, this idea of string people along, I've for several years I 338 00:25:00.140 --> 00:25:03.710 was the one person marketing team at Bom Bom. And so I had a lot of these 339 00:25:03.710 --> 00:25:06.680 responsibilities. Even though I didn't think about them is clearly is your 340 00:25:06.680 --> 00:25:10.490 articulating them now? So I've done a lot of these Ah, lot of these moments 341 00:25:10.490 --> 00:25:14.040 and things, and I learned right away that string people along and saying, 342 00:25:14.040 --> 00:25:17.940 Yeah, yeah, we'll pass that on. It's a little bit of a brush off. I think, for 343 00:25:17.940 --> 00:25:21.150 a lot of customers it can feel that way because nothing's ever gonna come to 344 00:25:21.150 --> 00:25:24.210 pass on it. You know, it's not gonna come to pass. And so being 345 00:25:24.210 --> 00:25:28.180 straightforward and being as honest as possible as early as possible is always 346 00:25:28.180 --> 00:25:32.660 a win. But what you just the way you address that one went to somewhere that 347 00:25:32.660 --> 00:25:35.700 I wanted to go because I think the ability to handle these things 348 00:25:35.700 --> 00:25:40.290 correctly is part of the answer to the question Like your background is really 349 00:25:40.290 --> 00:25:44.590 interesting to me in terms of, you know, having exposure to marketing and sales 350 00:25:44.590 --> 00:25:48.500 and customer success, studying some of that at the undergraduate level but 351 00:25:48.500 --> 00:25:52.610 also doing a public relations masters degree. What do you think are some 352 00:25:52.610 --> 00:25:56.840 characteristics of and maybe are there multiple rules here and you want to 353 00:25:56.840 --> 00:26:00.770 break it down a little bit further. But what are some characteristics in your 354 00:26:00.770 --> 00:26:05.990 opinion or experience of a really good community builder and community 355 00:26:05.990 --> 00:26:12.090 strategist? I think they're the same. To be a good community builder, you 356 00:26:12.090 --> 00:26:16.320 have to have strategy involved. And you can't. You can't just like you can't 357 00:26:16.320 --> 00:26:20.590 have one without the other. The thing I always say, though, in terms of 358 00:26:20.600 --> 00:26:25.520 building community, someone who understands and is comfortable with 359 00:26:25.520 --> 00:26:29.600 giving up a lot of control of what you're trying to build. So this is 360 00:26:29.600 --> 00:26:33.200 something that I always talk to about my with my boss, Luke Rainbow. I always 361 00:26:33.200 --> 00:26:37.660 say to Luke what I'm building. I think this is where we're gonna go. I think 362 00:26:37.670 --> 00:26:41.990 this is what we want to dio. The reality is, though, if the customers 363 00:26:41.990 --> 00:26:45.590 show up and say, Okay, that's great. We don't care about any of that. We want 364 00:26:45.590 --> 00:26:50.060 to go here and take it in a completely different direction. That's fine. You 365 00:26:50.060 --> 00:26:52.870 have to be comfortable doing that because the whole point of a community 366 00:26:52.870 --> 00:26:56.630 space is meeting people where they are and having the conversations that they 367 00:26:56.630 --> 00:27:02.260 wanna have. You can think all day. You can think you've got the right answers 368 00:27:02.270 --> 00:27:08.410 all the time. That's great. You very likely don't give up that control. Let 369 00:27:08.410 --> 00:27:12.140 your customers be the wind in your sails. You're essentially That's what 370 00:27:12.140 --> 00:27:14.930 you're doing. You're you're building a sailboat. You're saying I think we're 371 00:27:14.930 --> 00:27:19.100 gonna We're gonna set sail for you know, this island. And the reality is you 372 00:27:19.100 --> 00:27:21.530 might end up somewhere completely different because the winds aren't 373 00:27:21.530 --> 00:27:25.480 taking you there and that's fine. You have to be comfortable with going 374 00:27:25.480 --> 00:27:30.510 wherever the customers want to go, and that's in those spaces. They might tell 375 00:27:30.510 --> 00:27:34.200 you you could build it and you might be 100% right. There have been a lot of 376 00:27:34.200 --> 00:27:38.550 instances in which I've been 100% on on target. I said, I think the customers 377 00:27:38.550 --> 00:27:41.360 you're gonna want this. This is how we're gonna build it. This is how we're 378 00:27:41.360 --> 00:27:45.920 going to deliver it, and it's spot on a lot more Often, though, I'll build 379 00:27:45.920 --> 00:27:49.960 something and I'll say, Here's what I wanna dio and they'll say, Okay, like 380 00:27:49.960 --> 00:27:53.720 the responses lukewarm and that's again that goes back to being I could be 381 00:27:53.720 --> 00:27:56.750 pretty adventurous and the kinds of content and themes that I want to 382 00:27:56.750 --> 00:28:01.860 rebuild. But the thing is, is they're gonna let me know pretty quickly based 383 00:28:01.860 --> 00:28:07.430 on engagement based on views based on questions coming in. And that's the 384 00:28:07.430 --> 00:28:12.670 thing is, if you can see that and make the pivots quickly, you'll be ableto 385 00:28:12.680 --> 00:28:16.760 give up a lot of control on what you're building. But the thing is, is that's 386 00:28:16.760 --> 00:28:24.030 the key part of this strategy. Is can I pivot quickly on everything Really good? 387 00:28:24.040 --> 00:28:28.510 Where do you plug into the organization? I'm gonna assume, because there are for 388 00:28:28.510 --> 00:28:31.650 anyone listening, whether you're in executive leadership or whether you're 389 00:28:31.650 --> 00:28:35.290 in sales or marketing or customer success in your listening. And you 390 00:28:35.290 --> 00:28:39.050 don't have a dedicated community building strategy and you you don't 391 00:28:39.050 --> 00:28:44.120 have a ah, human dedicated to the task I can see probably some wheels turning 392 00:28:44.120 --> 00:28:47.840 like Oh gosh, thats makes sense, and it really does, because it's an important 393 00:28:47.840 --> 00:28:52.390 part of the brand. Experience and the customer experience toe have this layer 394 00:28:52.390 --> 00:28:56.780 where I can directly interact with the brand I could, and and it's people I 395 00:28:56.780 --> 00:28:59.700 can directly interact with, other people in the community whether or not 396 00:28:59.700 --> 00:29:04.050 they're also customers are obviously sales opportunities in that in that 397 00:29:04.050 --> 00:29:07.690 situation, their marketing and CS opportunities. So where do you plug 398 00:29:07.690 --> 00:29:14.000 into the organization? Do you plug into CS? So when Thistle's kind of the thing 399 00:29:14.010 --> 00:29:17.890 I've worked at a couple different places. As a community strategist, I 400 00:29:17.890 --> 00:29:22.500 worked in customer success. Initially, I've worked in marketing as well, and 401 00:29:22.500 --> 00:29:28.470 so at Sprout, I'm in the marketing department way. Have a customer 402 00:29:28.480 --> 00:29:33.050 marketing team, and that's where I operate with with My team is in the in. 403 00:29:33.050 --> 00:29:38.570 The customer marketing arm makes sense. So you've also been consulting startups 404 00:29:38.580 --> 00:29:44.610 in in community and in customer success for like, six or seven years now. What 405 00:29:44.610 --> 00:29:49.970 are a few of the common problems that you see and either in approach or an 406 00:29:49.970 --> 00:29:55.680 execution? Yeah, so in consulting work, I generally have done ah lot of 407 00:29:55.680 --> 00:30:00.860 community consulting with a couple different SAS companies, And the 408 00:30:00.870 --> 00:30:06.760 biggest, most common problem is people wanna build thing and they don't wanna 409 00:30:06.770 --> 00:30:10.580 relinquish the control of thing, whatever it is they wanna build. If 410 00:30:10.580 --> 00:30:15.280 that's a dedicated customer space. If that's a video, Siri's, if that's an 411 00:30:15.290 --> 00:30:20.200 educational tool. If that's an you know, a marketing push. They wanna build a 412 00:30:20.200 --> 00:30:23.910 thing and they want just people to just use the thing. And it's kind of like if 413 00:30:23.920 --> 00:30:29.180 I created a pencil and I told you you could Onley right with it, you cannot 414 00:30:29.180 --> 00:30:34.380 draw with this pencil. Well, if if I'm tryingto, if an artist is using the 415 00:30:34.380 --> 00:30:39.360 pencil, they want to draw with it and you're trying to build something that 416 00:30:39.360 --> 00:30:44.940 it's rigid and has, um, absolute structure and its it cannot change. And 417 00:30:44.940 --> 00:30:50.760 the thing that I have to go in and let people know is whatever we build, we we 418 00:30:50.760 --> 00:30:56.470 think we're going here. We think we're going to a destination, and that's 419 00:30:56.480 --> 00:31:01.500 that's impossible because there is no destination. It is a journey. It is an 420 00:31:01.740 --> 00:31:07.070 ever lasting journey. It doesn't stop, and you don't get to decide how that 421 00:31:07.070 --> 00:31:11.360 journey goes. Are you comfortable with that? And a lot of times, people are 422 00:31:11.370 --> 00:31:15.330 not comfortable with that because a lot of times, especially leadership, they 423 00:31:15.330 --> 00:31:18.860 are no, there has to be structured. There has to be rigidity. There has to 424 00:31:18.860 --> 00:31:22.810 be an outcome I have to be able to measure today, tomorrow forever, and 425 00:31:22.810 --> 00:31:27.070 the thing is that sometimes you can't measure everything in the exact time 426 00:31:27.070 --> 00:31:30.250 frame you're thinking, and sometimes you have to give longer timelines. And 427 00:31:30.250 --> 00:31:34.290 it's kind of one of those things where I've had customer like when I've 428 00:31:34.300 --> 00:31:38.600 consulted with companies that had them say We can't do this and I just said 429 00:31:38.600 --> 00:31:42.330 That's fine That's not how I operate though we can go ahead and weaken, 430 00:31:42.340 --> 00:31:47.190 weaken, end the working relationship as it is, and that's I'm not going to 431 00:31:47.190 --> 00:31:54.880 sacrifice any of my values for your results. And so that's the biggest 432 00:31:54.880 --> 00:32:01.150 problem that people have when it comes to any kind of customer community. Yeah, 433 00:32:01.150 --> 00:32:04.840 it's so interesting. That's it's been a common theme on the show for a long 434 00:32:04.840 --> 00:32:07.930 time. I am thinking now, back to some of the earliest episodes this shift 435 00:32:07.930 --> 00:32:11.800 from and this has been part of part of what you've shared with us over the 436 00:32:11.800 --> 00:32:15.840 entire conversation is this relinquishing of control and knowing, 437 00:32:15.850 --> 00:32:20.450 recognizing and honoring the fact that the customer gets to decide. They dio 438 00:32:20.440 --> 00:32:25.100 and so you may market the pencil as something to write with because, you 439 00:32:25.100 --> 00:32:29.680 know 80% of your customers get 90% of their value by writing with it. But 440 00:32:29.680 --> 00:32:35.000 that doesn't mean that you don't create a drawing community to write s so good 441 00:32:35.010 --> 00:32:38.100 to. So this has been awesome. I've got a couple more questions for you, but 442 00:32:38.110 --> 00:32:41.090 for folks who are listening, if you enjoyed this conversation, I have two 443 00:32:41.090 --> 00:32:45.400 more that I know that you will also enjoy. One of them is with the woman 444 00:32:45.400 --> 00:32:50.950 who brought Joe and I together for this conversation. Episode 74 I hosted Steph 445 00:32:50.950 --> 00:32:55.530 Caldwell, who is senior CS leader and community architect at another great 446 00:32:55.540 --> 00:32:59.710 Chicago based software company, Narrative Science. That one was called 447 00:32:59.710 --> 00:33:05.000 Using Tech to scale the Human touch and to build community again. Episode 74 448 00:33:05.000 --> 00:33:10.030 with Steph Caldwell and, uh, Episode 63 with David Merriman Scott. And, of 449 00:33:10.030 --> 00:33:13.740 course, he's the best selling author of like 10 or 11 books, and the most 450 00:33:13.740 --> 00:33:17.950 recent one is fan Ocracy. We call that one creating fans through human 451 00:33:17.950 --> 00:33:21.740 connection, and what we touch down here that really relates to that 452 00:33:21.740 --> 00:33:26.760 conversation is it's not just about company or company representative to 453 00:33:26.760 --> 00:33:30.690 customer or customer to company representative, but it's also about 454 00:33:30.690 --> 00:33:34.510 customer to customer, and that's where you build that human connection is the 455 00:33:34.510 --> 00:33:38.580 foundation of a thriving community. Therefore, a thriving Brandon, a 456 00:33:38.580 --> 00:33:42.600 thriving business. And so a couple more You'll like their episode 74 in Episode 457 00:33:42.600 --> 00:33:47.920 63. Joe Relationships. There are number one core value at Bom Bom, and so I 458 00:33:47.920 --> 00:33:51.960 always like to give you the chance. Thio do two things. Think or mentioned 459 00:33:51.960 --> 00:33:56.020 someone who's had a positive impact on your life for your career and to give a 460 00:33:56.020 --> 00:33:59.370 nod or a shoutout or mentioned to a brand or a company that you really 461 00:33:59.370 --> 00:34:04.450 respect for the way they deliver an experience for you as a customer. Yeah, 462 00:34:04.460 --> 00:34:07.620 well, I think. I mean, there's so many people that you want to thank all the 463 00:34:07.620 --> 00:34:11.620 time. Ball State was super impactful in my life, but I think the first person 464 00:34:11.620 --> 00:34:15.520 who really opened my eyes to what I could be a professional was Dr Lori 465 00:34:15.520 --> 00:34:19.620 buyers. She was the assistant dean or associate dean at the College of 466 00:34:19.620 --> 00:34:23.139 Communication Information and Media Ball State. When I was a graduate 467 00:34:23.139 --> 00:34:28.139 assistant there and allowed me to define the role allowed me to come in 468 00:34:28.139 --> 00:34:33.500 as a graduate assistant and instead of it being this rigid structure of here's 469 00:34:33.500 --> 00:34:40.120 job do job. I was able to come in and make it my own and was able to want it. 470 00:34:40.120 --> 00:34:44.560 Paid for the second year of my graduate degree came with a stipend. It was an 471 00:34:44.560 --> 00:34:49.780 amazing job, but she allowed me Thio, turn it into something a lot more than 472 00:34:49.780 --> 00:34:57.010 just a job. It became the path for my career, and I was able to build on what 473 00:34:57.020 --> 00:35:03.740 could be and thinking through how toe design and structure my professional 474 00:35:03.750 --> 00:35:08.450 career path and thinking through what that could be and could look like. So 475 00:35:08.450 --> 00:35:13.580 Dr Lori buyers was really integral in me understanding kind of how to do that 476 00:35:13.590 --> 00:35:17.340 on Ben. The last person would be Ben Fleischman just because he helped me 477 00:35:17.340 --> 00:35:21.770 create the Chicago customer success podcast. So Chicago CS podcast dot com 478 00:35:21.780 --> 00:35:25.620 is ours. It's a podcast. It's very similar to this, and but it's focused 479 00:35:25.620 --> 00:35:31.150 entirely on customer success, and we've we try. We focused primarily on Chicago 480 00:35:31.160 --> 00:35:35.810 based organizations, but we do obviously have other conversations, so 481 00:35:35.810 --> 00:35:39.340 I just thank you very much for letting me say that, and then in terms of 482 00:35:39.340 --> 00:35:43.850 brands, the people that really delivered for me, I think I always 483 00:35:43.850 --> 00:35:50.800 think of field notes, and if you looked at my desk right now that I'm sitting 484 00:35:50.800 --> 00:35:57.850 at my kitchen table because we're here, I have, you know, just like 123 or I've 485 00:35:57.850 --> 00:36:05.120 got so many field notes branded things sitting on my desk because one, the 486 00:36:05.120 --> 00:36:08.840 products, they're fun, they're designed well, but they're also really useful. 487 00:36:08.850 --> 00:36:14.080 And beyond that, I think their social presence is really, really strong. And 488 00:36:14.080 --> 00:36:18.460 then probably the Field Museum, Shedd Aquarium and Adler Planetarium are 489 00:36:18.460 --> 00:36:23.010 always phenomenal in a lot of fun. I just love the way that they they do 490 00:36:23.020 --> 00:36:27.830 their social and reach out to people on Delp. Build that community in Chicago 491 00:36:27.840 --> 00:36:32.740 and show that off. Love it, it's part of They are part of what makes Chicago, 492 00:36:32.750 --> 00:36:39.010 in my opinion, theme. Greatest American city. I agree with you. It's good. Yeah, 493 00:36:39.020 --> 00:36:45.240 and I love that pass on Dr Lori buyers there just this idea of broadening your 494 00:36:45.240 --> 00:36:49.550 perspective and really opening up opening up your mind, opening up your 495 00:36:49.730 --> 00:36:54.450 perspective really opens up the entire world. So I mean transformative to your 496 00:36:54.450 --> 00:36:59.540 life. It's so cool. A za great mention. So this is awesome. I appreciate you so 497 00:36:59.540 --> 00:37:02.920 much. If folks want to follow up on this, where would you send them? If 498 00:37:02.920 --> 00:37:06.500 they wanna learn more about the podcast for about social or connect with you 499 00:37:06.500 --> 00:37:10.040 like we're some places you would send people sprout social is all over. So if 500 00:37:10.040 --> 00:37:14.450 you're interested in connecting with us Twitter, Facebook, instagram, you can 501 00:37:14.450 --> 00:37:18.360 always find sprout social there. But then also, if you wanted to If you sign 502 00:37:18.360 --> 00:37:22.330 up for a demo, someone absolutely follow up with you. We have the social 503 00:37:22.330 --> 00:37:26.510 marketers exchange by sprout Social and the agency exchange by sprout Social 504 00:37:26.520 --> 00:37:31.070 are are to Facebook groups. So come on in and go there If you work in social 505 00:37:31.070 --> 00:37:33.880 marketing and you wanna have a chat, the other thing is you can always 506 00:37:33.880 --> 00:37:39.460 connect with me directly on Twitter at Joseph P. Huber. I really Twitter's 507 00:37:39.460 --> 00:37:43.930 where I'm at. That's my favorite one. I'm on instagram, but I don't post a 508 00:37:43.930 --> 00:37:48.380 ton. But the biggest thing is is Twitter at Joseph P. Huber. And then, 509 00:37:48.380 --> 00:37:51.150 if you're interested in I do professional voiceover work. You can 510 00:37:51.150 --> 00:37:55.280 also check me out at J. P. Huber voice dot com. Awesome folks who are 511 00:37:55.280 --> 00:37:59.200 listening. I link all that stuff up. We do short write ups. I'll pull some 512 00:37:59.200 --> 00:38:04.430 video clips. He showed off his field notes. So now I feel obligated to 513 00:38:04.430 --> 00:38:08.240 include that clip in the block. Post is well, and the home base for all of that 514 00:38:08.240 --> 00:38:13.780 is bomb bomb dot com slash podcast. If you visit B o m b b o m b dot com 515 00:38:13.780 --> 00:38:17.590 forward slash podcast, you have access to all that and more is. Of course, you 516 00:38:17.590 --> 00:38:20.830 could subscribe to the show there to Joe. Thank you so much for your time 517 00:38:20.830 --> 00:38:24.020 and insights. I've really enjoyed it, and I know listeners will, too. Awesome. 518 00:38:24.020 --> 00:38:29.940 Thank you so much for having me. Hey, everybody, Logan with sweet fish here 519 00:38:29.950 --> 00:38:33.060 if you've been listening to the show for a while, you know, we're big 520 00:38:33.060 --> 00:38:37.440 proponents of putting out original organic content on LinkedIn, but one 521 00:38:37.440 --> 00:38:41.490 thing that's always been a struggle for a team like ours is too easily track 522 00:38:41.490 --> 00:38:45.220 the reach of that LinkedIn content. That's why I was really excited when I 523 00:38:45.220 --> 00:38:49.320 heard about Shield the other day from a connection on you guessed it linked in. 524 00:38:49.330 --> 00:38:54.140 Since our team started using shield, I've loved how it's led us easily track 525 00:38:54.150 --> 00:38:58.110 and analyze the performance of are linked in content without having to 526 00:38:58.110 --> 00:39:01.960 manually log it ourselves. It automatically creates reports and 527 00:39:01.960 --> 00:39:05.590 generate some dashboards that are incredibly useful to see things like 528 00:39:05.600 --> 00:39:09.290 What contents been performing the best on what days of the week are we getting 529 00:39:09.290 --> 00:39:14.010 the most engagement and our average views proposed? I highly suggest you 530 00:39:14.010 --> 00:39:17.480 guys check out this tool. If you're putting out content on LinkedIn, and if 531 00:39:17.480 --> 00:39:21.450 you're not, you should be. It's been a game changer for us. If you go to 532 00:39:21.450 --> 00:39:26.490 shield app dot ai and check out the 10 day free trial. You can even use our 533 00:39:26.490 --> 00:39:32.820 promo code B two B growth to get a 25% discount. Again, that's shield app dot 534 00:39:32.830 --> 00:39:38.940 ai And that promo code is be the number to be growth. All one word. All right, 535 00:39:38.950 --> 00:39:48.750 let's get back to the O Field notes. The Field Museum, Adler Planetarium, 536 00:39:48.760 --> 00:39:53.890 Shedd Aquarium. Joe is definitely a Chicago guy. Where are you listening 537 00:39:53.890 --> 00:39:58.770 from? If you've enjoyed this episode or any other on the C X, Siri's here on B 538 00:39:58.770 --> 00:40:03.530 two b growth. Reach out and let me know. My name is Ethan beauty you can find me 539 00:40:03.530 --> 00:40:09.680 on linked in last name is spelled B u T. Or you can email me directly. Ethan E T 540 00:40:09.680 --> 00:40:14.180 H a n at bom bom dot com I'd love to know where you are, why you're 541 00:40:14.180 --> 00:40:18.330 listening, What you enjoy. What could be better. I welcome your feedback. 542 00:40:18.340 --> 00:40:22.940 Thank you so much for listening and reach out by email or by linked in 543 00:40:25.420 --> 00:40:29.240 eyes. Your buyer appear to be marketer. If so, you should think about 544 00:40:29.240 --> 00:40:34.050 sponsoring this podcast. B two B Growth gets downloaded over 130,000 times each 545 00:40:34.050 --> 00:40:37.590 month, and our listeners are marketing decision makers. If it sounds 546 00:40:37.590 --> 00:40:41.440 interesting, send Logan and email Logan at sweet Fish media dot com.