Maker Manager Money 2023

In his opening remarks, Kyle expresses gratitude for the event sponsors, including food sponsors and the venue provider Kiln coworking space. He reflects on starting his podcast 155 days ago, achieving goals like being creative, expanding his network, releasing 2 episodes per month, and reaching the top 1% of podcasts. Kyle argues generative AI can’t replace the energy of live events for making connections and conversations.

The first speaker is Benoy Tamang, a 7-time entrepreneur and author. Benoy discusses 3 elements of effective leadership – communication, consistency, and competency. On communication, he stresses checking for understanding when communicating rather than just speaking. He shares an example from mountain climbing where he had to confirm his hiking partner understood the need to descend due to altitude sickness. On consistency, Benoy gives the example of an Everest climber who through consistent training and accountability was able to reach the summit. He argues leaders build trust by doing what they say they’ll do. Finally, on competency, he notes it takes longer to build expertise but is still important for trust. He takes audience questions on feeling overwhelmed and knowing when someone isn’t coachable.

Next, April Frampton, a guerrilla marketer, explains how she started marketing local companies by giving out products door-to-door. She emphasizes being authentic, truthful, and direct in communication. April shows her vision boards that capture a company’s vision and help her successfully market them. She talks about focusing on results, not what she thinks customers want. April urges the audience to commit fully to their ideas and execute them, even if it seems crazy.

Sierra McCleve, a food entrepreneur, stresses the importance of company culture and employee satisfaction for creating loyal customers. She shares a story where she stood up for a mistreated employee to illustrate that “the customer is always right” shouldn’t be a company motto. Sierra argues that if you focus on employees and culture, it translates directly to better customer experiences. She sums up by urging entrepreneurs to take great care of their team so the team eagerly takes care of customers.

Benjamin Moffat, a video producer, delves into how video builds brand equity by making brands memorable and occupying moments in people’s lives. He shows examples of impactful brand videos that connect emotionally rather than focusing on technical details. The examples include funny, slice-of-life spots as well as simple metaphors illustrating complex concepts. Benjamin argues brand equity requires long-term thinking beyond short-term performance metrics.

Finally, Lyn Christian, a life coach, leads the audience through visualization exercises to uncover their core values, influences, and defining moments. She argues that living authentically, staying true to your values, and knowing yourself is key to avoiding regret and achieving success. Lyn asserts that the traits we admire in others reflect our own inner character. She challenges the audience to connect to their most authentic inner selves as they move forward.

In closing, host Kyle Knowles thanks all the speakers – Benoy, April, Sierra, Ben, and Lyn – for contributing their stories and insights. He expresses gratitude to the audience, sponsors, family and friends for supporting the debut of his new podcast and live event.

Kyle Knowles:
Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage, Vice President of Marketing himself, Kyle Knowles. Let’s all clap and sing. I’m, like, clapping. I’m trying to be the AV guy too. I didn’t even hear the music going when I first, when I clicked. So welcome everyone to Maker Manager Money 2023.
What I want to do first is… there we go, I want to thank the sponsors, especially the food sponsors, right? We’ve got Hungry Howie’s, Nothing Bundt Cakes, Ruby Snap, Crave Cookies, and it’s all because of April Frampton right here, [inaudible].
What’s up April Frampton? But a special thanks to Kiln, right? If this is the first time you’ve been at Kiln, please raise your hand.
First time at Kiln. Make a note, Danny.

Danny Peterson:
Yeah.

Kyle Knowles:
Make a note of that. There’s quite a few here. But what I want to do, I want to thank Kiln for providing the space, the drinks, and I want to turn some time over to Danny Peterson. Please give it up to Danny to say a few things.

Danny Peterson:
All right, thank you. I don’t know how I can follow an entrance like that. That was pretty iconic. My name is Danny from Kiln. Just for all the new faces here, first off, welcome. We’re so happy to have you. Housekeeping items, if you go out these doors to the right, there’s some restrooms there, and if there’s any questions throughout the time that you’re here, I’ll be up at the front desk.
But just wanted to give a little intro from Kiln. We are a coworking space, very lifestyle-oriented and community-focused, so we love to do lots of events, bring the community together, loved partnering on this event, and excited for it. So, if you would like to know more, if you would like to just see our space, it goes pretty far beyond there as well.
So after the event you can come find me, I’ll just be at the front, but, that’s all for me. Thank you.

Kyle Knowles:
Oh, thanks, Danny. I don’t really know where to stand here. I’m just sitting. So I’m going to come where [inaudible].
Okay, I just want to talk about the journey of Maker Manager Money, because this is kind of what it looked like to me four or five months ago. I thought, first of all, I was the last white heterosexual male to not have a podcast, right? So I thought I better join in and start a podcast, but this is kind of what it looked like, right?
There was just, the sky was the limit. I could take it anywhere I wanted to. And this is the result of basically… let me see quick, 155 days. So 155 days ago I recorded my first podcast with Ken Allred who couldn’t make it here tonight. I think he sent Janae, I don’t think she could stay for the speaking, but he was the first guinea pig, and you see a lot of guinea pigs here willing to join a fledgling podcast.
But I’ve just learned so many things. Let me just tell you, I worship entrepreneurs. They are the backbone of the economy. They are willing to go without a paycheck every two weeks, which I haven’t been willing to do that. We’ve got a new entrepreneur right here, David, that’s here tonight. He’s going to start a consulting group to implement Oracle.
So I mean, hats off to all of you. I’ve learned so much just sitting across the table from each of you, and I’m so, just, happy to have this event and have you be here. One of the things that I wanted to say, first of all, and I didn’t get to it because over there on my sticky notes, but I just wanted to say, generative AI will not replace live events ever. Generative AI will not generate the kind of energy you can get from meeting new people and sitting down and talking about different things together and joining together in live events.
So I appreciate everyone being here, everyone’s energy and I feel it and I hope you guys, I just, I want to ask a favor of you. If you meet one connection or if you walk away with one idea that you’re going to either implement or think about and it affected you, please let me know. These are the kinds of stories that I want to hear from having this event tonight.
So quickly I’ll just go with [inaudible]. I did have some goals. I mean initially I just wanted to kind of get into it, but then after doing a couple podcasts I was like, “Okay, you’ve got to have some goals,” right? You have to have some kind of thing that’s in your head that’s like, “Is this worth doing?”, right? Or, “Am I headed in the right direction?” So I just want to quickly go through the goals I had. I wanted to be creative, I wanted to do more creative things, right?
Sometimes when you’re working for the man, you don’t have a lot of opportunities, especially if you’re in management, there’s not a lot of opportunities to be creative. And so I wanted something, an outlet, nights and weekends to be more creative, expand my network. Again, both of these don’t have metrics tied to them, but I think be creative if you, I could add some metrics to these pretty easy, expand my network, I could add some metrics.
But three of the guests that I’ve had on the podcast, I never knew before I started the podcast. Okay? One of them’s speaking tonight, Lyn Christian. So check two episodes per month, I kind of was going crazy at the start of it, trying to do one a week. It’s very hard as a fellow podcaster, Sierra McCleve would attest, very hard to do one a week, especially when you’re busy with a lot of other things. So, and thank you, you helped me achieve this goal tonight. So folks, [inaudible].
Last but not least, I want to achieve top 1%. Now this sounds insane, doesn’t it? I don’t look like Tim Ferris, I don’t know Tony Robbins, but to achieve top 1%, to give you a little clue in on that, there’s two million, might be almost that, there’s probably more, there’s two million podcasts on Apple. 25% have one episode. Think about that. And then 99% of them only go to 20 episodes.
This is basically episode 17. I’ve got two scheduled up. For some reason they’re sitting next to each other.

Speaker 4:
Right?

Kyle Knowles:
We’ve got Ian and Jordan scheduled up in September, and they’re not going to list it? This was not rehearsed. This was not rehearsed. This will take me to 19. So if you have any recommendations, if there’s anyone that would benefit from the podcast, please let know. If I can make it to 20, I would be a happy man. I can die and go to heaven. Okay? So achieve top 1%.
So, I want to give you a peek behind the mirror. This is kind of, I don’t know, I’m trying to be transparent here. This is me. You could do podcasts for cheaper for sure. You can record on your phone, whatever you want to do. This is my podcast stack. Calendly, I know some of you use Calendly for work. It is a Godsend. It is amazing. It’s one of the most amazing pieces of software in this podcast stack simply because it’s very easy.
You don’t have to go, “Hey, are you free one to three on Wednesday? It’s so nice to be able to schedule things.” Buzzsprout distributes the podcast, right? And it’s an embedded player as well on the website. I had to have a website just because of who I am, you want to have a website. Vimeo, SoundCloud, you can see the rest.
Canva Pro. Does anyone use Canva in here? Insanely good software. Right? I think so many kids have grown up with Canva just using it in schools. I mean it’s like, I don’t know how much market share it’s taken away from Adobe, but it’s insanely good. Down at the bottom, I’ve got a few AI things, thanks to Sierra, Opus, Cliff. You can basically upload an hour-long video, it’ll cut it up into content clips for you in about 15 minutes. It’s insane.
It’s not always perfect. Remember, AI can generate things that can’t add the nuance, that can’t do certain things, right? We’re the captain, guys. We’re the captain, they’re the co-pilot. Never forget. Okay? And then “Zapier makes you happier,” I’ve heard this before, I don’t know, does anyone use Zapier here? It’s insanely good at automating. It can connect, like, 5,000 different apps, okay?
So you can create all kinds of crazy workflows with it. You can even make your own chatbot now because it has a way to connect to ChatGPT. You can put some parameters around there and have your own, you can have a Kyle chatbot if you want to. So I’m just barely getting into that. And then I just want to show you, of course you can go crazy. You can, you know, have a recording device, like a ROADCaster, you can get nice cameras, Sierra has a super nice camera back there. So you could start to go crazy.
Rev is really good for transcripts if you need a human to kind of review it, if you don’t have time, but it’s about a hundred dollars per episode. And then of course Adobe Creative Suite, you can use contractors, and then Danny’s not here, I could tell you after how much it costs to have a virtual membership. I didn’t want to review it from him because maybe different things for different people, but I just didn’t want to record in my mom’s basement or my wife’s basement.
And so, that was one of the reasons why I wanted record again. And then, so now, so my five key learnings interviewing entrepreneurs. First of all, this came from Benoy Tamang’s mentor. He shared this on his podcast. Benoy was asking him a lot of questions and the guy said, “Just start.” So what I’ve learned from all of you entrepreneurs is that at some point you just had to start. You can’t take another class, listen to another podcast, wait until your degree is finished. You just start. And I’ve seen that in every podcast guest I’ve had on the show.
Key learning number two, belief or believe every one of these entrepreneurs believes in themselves, and I’ve found that that is the key skill for an entrepreneur or anyone that’s successful. There’s belief in God, there’s people who believe in all kinds of things. You can believe in political parties, whatever it is. But believing in yourself is fundamental to success. I’ve seen it time and time again, interviewing these guests on my podcast.
Key learning number three, relationships. I have one, and I have a life partner. Jennifer’s here, give it up for Jennifer. I’m not even standing here without a life partner supporting this. There’s no way I’m standing here on a Thursday night when there’s a Phantogram concert or something else that needs to happen.
My daughter’s here as well supporting what everyone I’ve talked to, whether it’s a life partner, Ben is a perfect example. I want Holly on the podcast simply because of Ben’s podcast, Ben talking about Holly’s authenticity and being the authenticity police. Amazing. I love you for that. Seriously, Ben is such a great example of relationships and relationship building, but no one can be successful alone. You can’t.
I mean, no one’s going to create a company that’s successful without relationships. And it starts with your own personal relationships because you bring that, as Benoy talks about in his book as well, and you bring that right into it. And so, it’s not just customer relationships, it’s your personal relationships. It’s your employee relationships. Key learning.
Number four, learn by doing. Terry Allen was a perfect example of this. He ran, he was the founder of Alinco. Mascots, did The Jazz Bear, did like 80% of the NBA mascots. He said that, “There’s no amount of schooling, you can go to school, but it’s the project that’s right in front of you that is key and fundamental to learning.”
And I bet you everyone in this room learned by doing. I know Ben and Ian just started seven years ago a business, they’ve never been entrepreneurs before. They have learned so much in seven years. They don’t have an MD, a PhD, I mean, they have some kind of degree, that’s crazy, right? For business. So, learn by doing, and lastly, key learning number five, it’s life-changing.
I’ve seen Jason Steve talked about life-changing. I mean he rose from the ashes like a phoenix and started a company again, and he’s got 20 employees, he gets to work with his wife. I mean it is an amazing story about how life-changing being in business for yourself is. So I’m very subjective or objective, I don’t know what, I guess I’m objective, right? I’m not an entrepreneur, but I just want to thank each of you for being an entrepreneur. It’s so inspiring to sit across the table from each of you and I want to thank… I want to thank everyone that’s been on the podcast.
I’ve got five of 15 speakers speaking tonight, you all. Now, get up. This is insane. This is insane. So let me go back to my chair and play host.

Speaker 5:
We can pull out something that is just [inaudible].

Kyle Knowles:
So I want to welcome the first guests to the stage. Again, no flash photography. [inaudible], but I want you to give it up when I’m ready. This guy is a seven-times entrepreneur. He’s an amazing person. He is helping with his company, Van Industries, he’s helping the underdog. He’s an author that just published a book.
If you haven’t done it already, his book, there’s a QR code right out there. Download it. It’s called The Little Book. The Little Book… I think, not Big Book, [inaudible] got big for us. So, just [inaudible]. He’s also, he was my former boss… current friend. Give it up for Benoy Tamang.

Speaker 7:
(singing)

Benoy Tamang:
Hello? Thanks everyone. We’re going to go fast, because I want to answer questions. I’m really grateful to be invited by Kyle, great to meet new friends, and I hope you can always access me on, I was thinking about that. I do have a QR code, and you can just type your name in and say, “Hey, man, I was at 3M.” So, whatever it takes, let’s go ahead and talk. Did I go the right direction?
Okay. I’m going to blast through this. I want to talk about three elements that I have learned over mistakes that will help anyone, not just form a business, but be trusted as a leader. And it’s simple, but I want to express it through a couple of images. First of all, just before COVID, I took my fourth trip to Base Camp Everest, and so this is a picture of some of the friends that I took along. And we’re shouting and saying, “Yes, we made it,” and we called it “D3. Let’s do a D3 pose, everyone, yes.” Which means, “diarrhea-free.”
We’re in the Third World, we are schlepping it through whatever it takes to get there, and ultimately our goal is to get to base camp. But it almost invariably happens, one of them didn’t make to the top, didn’t make it as in, just didn’t make it to the top. Just couldn’t do it, he actually hit a wall, and we had to helicopter him out. What happened was he was a fit, buff dude, Greg, I won’t tell you his last name. He would take a few steps. We are at about 17,500 feet up, so you’re about 50% oxygen.
And his heartbreak would go from a normal 90 at that point, resting was 90, all the way up to 190, 200. So he got really dizzy. And he’d have to stop, and we’d have to stop the whole gang, wait for him. 10 minutes later his heart rate would come down to normal, 90, feel better, and take a few steps and zip, spike up. There was no way we could go forward.
So we had to helicopter him out, and the rest of us continued to move. I’m sharing that with you because I want to talk about how you, and I’m calling it “the three Cs of effective leadership.” Okay? And leadership for me comes down to building trust. It’s got to be where people want to follow you because they feel safe. And no matter what the size of your organization is as a startup, or whether you’ve got a massive enterprise, we can feel this as we go through this.
Number one, and I’m putting in order of easiness to build, and I’m going to talk about communication this way. Communication for me is not what you say, it’s whether or not they received it in the way that it was intended. It’s not what you say, how you say it. It’s whether or not they received it.
And I can tell you right now, when Greg was having trouble up there at higher altitude, I said, “Greg, you can do whatever you want, but I’m not going to support you going for the last leg all the way to base camp because you’re not going to make it. And I want to take care of your safety. Do you understand me in that fog brain of yours?” Right?
And then he says, he mumbled something, he was on oxygen, he had an oxygen pulse oximeter on him and we could see what his O2 reading was. And he mumbled something like, “Yes.” And then I said, “No, that’s not good enough. Tell me what you understood about what I just said.” This is important, right? “Did I communicate clearly, did you understand?” And he said, “You support me going down. I cannot go up. I’m okay with that.”
Great. It worked. We communicated. He understood. My kids knew the test. Even my wife Angela “Cutie Pie,” she is so focused on certain things, she zones out. Right? So I’m leaving the house. “Hey, sweetie, I’m going to go do this, this, and this.” She’s on computer. “Yeah, yeah, yeah, okay.” And I said, “How so? What did I just say, please?” Because this is what we figured out after being together for a long time.
She goes, “You said you’re leaving and you’ll come back such [inaudible].” I said, “Thank you, thank you.” Right? And off we go. It’s simple things like that. And I tell my CEOs, “Hey, if you have a verbal, make sure you follow it up with a written, whether it be text or whatever, so that there’s no ambiguity. Because everyone’s got their heads busy and this project, this and this, and you are walking by and you say something and you say, “I told them.”
And then you have issues down the road and you wonder why. Everyone’s got noise. You’ve got to be very clear about that. I’m going through this fast because I want to answer some questions. The second one is this. I mean even if you go back to communication, if you know that you’re going to be late for a meeting, and you tell people, “I’m going to be a few minutes late,” doesn’t that make you feel good? Right? “Oh good. She didn’t forget.”
Communication is so easy to build trust. What if the person doesn’t talk well, communicate, right? But they always show up. They always do what they say. That builds trust from consistency. Right? So on many Everest trips, I’ve taken four, on this particular Everest trip, there was this particular person who was having trouble losing some of the excess weight she had gained from just having a baby, and she wanted to go said, “Okay, let’s see what you can do,” her name is Deirdre.
I said, “Can you just do this and this and this?” And she reported every day she did this and this and this and this. She reported, she wanted accountability. She was consistent. Guess what? She made it. She made it to the top, past Greg, because she was consistent at work. Right? It’s almost like you trust because you always do what you say you do, you always show up, and these build up a level of trust. And as a leader, I will trust you more, leader, if you do what you say. There’s so much I can tell you and share with you.
Last one is competency, because you don’t want to go to a doctor who is a surgeon who didn’t go to school. Right? You’ve got to have at least a level of expertise in your area of whatever it is. Websites to strategy to whatever. You’ve got to build that. But this one I think is harder in terms of how long it takes to build the expertise. You can be a competent, trusted leader from day one just by moving on communication, being clear, confirming receipt message, making sure you’re being consistent.
When it comes to competency, I have seen brilliant MBA Harvard people who are terribly gifted, intellectually and smart. I actually had a startup where I had such a companion, but he lost trust because he thought he could wing it. He was not consistent, because he was smart. He never communicated intentions or checked for understanding. Can you see that?
I just think these two can trump this, ultimately, because people will believe you and say, “Okay, maybe he’s not the most brilliant CEO, but he cares, he communicates, he shows up. I’ll follow him, her.” Sense. And I am blasting through this.
“Please, contact me through your,” business cards no longer exist. You take a photo there or it’s outside there, and I am available to help communicate, connect with anyone here. I will help anyone. I have a whole story as to why I started what I’ve started, but we don’t have enough time. But I do want to help any one of you. And I’m, what? Eight minutes? I’m a sickler for timing. My father was in the British Army. I want to help answer any questions the rest of the time. Any questions, any talk? It doesn’t matter. There’s no secret, anything from families to businesses to employees.
Questions. Sir?

Speaker 8:
What are some moments when you realized you were struggling with communication?

Benoy Tamang:
Oh, that would be 10 hours worth of [inaudible]. So I have-

Speaker 8:
Hey-

Benoy Tamang:
… so many, easy. “Hey VP, we’ve got to do this and this is a priority. Is that good? Can you make that, bump that up?” And the VP says, “Yeah, yeah, yeah.” That’s me being CEO. “Got it. All right, good. Good, good. All right, boom. Take off.” Right? And you go, “What happened?” What I failed to do was ask, “VP, what other priorities do you have that will conflict with making my requests number one?” I didn’t do that. I didn’t check. I just was moving from one thing to another. I’ve got another meeting, [inaudible]. It just as a whole it just didn’t work.
And so you then have a gap. You have a gap in view, and for me, was fuming. It’s like [inaudible], stories building up. It’s stupid. All I have to do is just ask, at that point. What else you’ve got? What would stop you from making it number one?
I’ve got lots. I’ve got lots and lots of them. Anybody else? Questions? Yes.

Speaker 9:
The idea of being overwhelmed, I’m curious if you have thoughts on the techniques of things that one should do [inaudible] here when you are the one feeling [inaudible] which, to me, from time to time is just, like, “Oh, there’s so much,” or “There’s so much, and there’s so much, like hard to prioritize or things like that. Just seeing that word, hearing what you said, are there initial approaches in things you would say, like, “Before that, you should do this,” or things [inaudible].

Benoy Tamang:
Brilliant question. So, let me tackle it multiple ways and then go fast, okay? Number one, if you’re a solo contributor versus you’ve got a team, a solo contributor, it almost goes to, it’s a little deep, but it goes back to, do you know who you are, and what your purpose is? What way I phrase it is, is if you know what your purpose is, stay with me, then you’ll know what your activity should be in order of priority in your life. Not just [inaudible].
And you’re really disciplined, then you’ll spend every week figuring out what’s important, what allocation of time you have left, and see. Otherwise you’re just spinning like a hamster wheel because you’re chasing something but you don’t know who you are [inaudible] chasing this, [inaudible] team. What I want to jump into, if you’ve got a team, you have to learn how to let go. Because we started everything up, we solved every problem by ourselves. Then you have to learn how to delegate, which goes back to consistency. Engaged in the process.
You’ve can acquire those skills, right? And the prioritization of what’s important to delegate to you, who’s best at doing what.

Speaker 9:
[inaudible].

Benoy Tamang:
It’s a quick response.

Speaker 9:
[inaudible].

Benoy Tamang:
Does that help?

Speaker 9:
It does.

Benoy Tamang:
Does that help? One over there, yes.

Speaker 10:
I’m just wondering, if a CEO reaches out to you, as top emerging problems [inaudible].

Benoy Tamang:
I’ll give you the top two, no hesitation. Number one, work-life balance. This is just completely frayed. Their health is usually poor. They have sniffles. You can even see it. I have one current CEO who said, “Thank you. What, just, you told me to go see a doctor. I’ve got low testosterone, and I’m just 40. Now I know when I’m dragging.” Work-life balance. Right? It goes back to your number-one question.
Number two, without any doubt. I call it “unconscious incompetence.” They’re not aware of their fear-driven mindset. That sucks their effectiveness, their ability to make magic happen, because they’re not even aware. You think it’d be, you know, strategy, pricing, product market fit, which is all important in the tech world. This is why unconscious competence, just if you look at this formula, it drains. If this is a formula where you have these elements on top and it’s a denominator to the denominator, any number more than one is going to crucify the effectiveness. Yes?

Speaker 11:
I did have a question.

Benoy Tamang:
Yes.

Speaker 11:
How do you know when you need to end with, “You are not a good fit for an overwhelmed [inaudible].” Or when they’re not a good fit for you?

Benoy Tamang:
Okay, are you talking about for the business or for me, the coach?

Speaker 11:
Coach.

Benoy Tamang:
Okay. When do I know they’re not a good fit? When they’re not teachable. Because I call them “turds.” It’s a very technical term. Right? I don’t associate with turds. I don’t have time. I don’t want to waste my time. But you can tell, they’re just not ready. Right? So, you want to help them offer, but if you have to push strings, it’s not going to work. So I know turds, [inaudible] teaching, we’ll run out time.

Speaker 11:
One more question. One more question. So, following-up on that question, as a CEO [inaudible], do you have that conversation with [inaudible]? Is that, is it a surprise to them if they’re now created founder?

Benoy Tamang:
I’m going through, there’s a myriad of responses to them. Okay? It depends on who recommended that person to come to me. If it was a self-aware CEO saying, “I need help,” I thought, “Dude, I have somebody else that I can refer you to.” Right?
I think there may be a better match, especially if they’re not ready to receive that message directly. This is sort of a glancing blow of a response. If it’s the VC, oh, that’s easy to do. Yes. Part of the reason why you have a problem with this company is the CEO is not humble. I cannot help this particular CEO, and [inaudible] it’s accurate, straight to the point, and it’s not taking in any squirmy fashion. You just deliver.
The older I get, the more direct I become. Because it’s the only accurate, honest way to that life. I’m a stickler for time. We’ve run out of 15 minutes. Thank you for asking questions, [inaudible].

Kyle Knowles:
[inaudible] for the next five questions we’re going [inaudible] CEO. [inaudible]. Aaron, come on in.

April Frampton:
Yes, sir.

Kyle Knowles:
What’s up?

April Frampton:
[inaudible].

Kyle Knowles:
All right, ladies and gentlemen, give it up for guerrilla marketing. B2B influencer April “HeyApe” Frampton.

April Frampton:
Go [inaudible] Frampton! [inaudible] let’s go.

Speaker 7:
(singing)

April Frampton:
[inaudible].

Speaker 7:
(singing).

April Frampton:
How are you guys doing?

Audience:
Great.

April Frampton:
All right. So here’s a little story just really quick, how HeyApe came to be. I have been called “Ape” since I have been literally a kid. So who knew one day my name would actually be, like, value-capped? Companies keep track of that by HeyApe codes. So if you get a little thing that says, “HeyApe,” that’s how a tracking system is for guerrilla marketing.
How many of you have, or, hey, I just have to give a quick shout out. I’ve known Kyle since we’ve been, well probably like what? Since elementary school? Yes. And because I had “entrepreneur” on my Instagram, that’s when he reached out. When I started this journey almost four years ago, Michael was to be a speaker and to learn podcasting, and I just nailed both of them. Thank you. Let’s give it up for Kyle.
So that is true. I have, I am “HeyApe” on the side of my car, it was silver. It is now black metallic. It has a rocker horse. It says “HeyApe,” people see it, they follow me in my Instagram. So, how many of you have heard the term “guerrilla marketer”? How many know what it actually means? Anybody? Marketing without a budget? I cannot tell you how many times over the last year. So thank you to Sean Banda at Nothing Bundt Cakes. This all started it.
I was literally, I’m a filmmaker. I have a background in filmmaking, networking, and marketing. I’m sitting in a meeting for production, and I’m sitting there listening to these guys and all of a sudden my head starts spinning and I was like, “In 10 years they never said, ‘April, what’s your vision?’” It was all their vision. It was never mine. They never said, “Hey, what do you want to do?”
I literally walked away from there and I said, “I don’t have a clue.” No, I had it all the whole time. Thank you for not ever asking me that, because it pushed me to become something that I’ve always had. I just didn’t know it. So I came up with this idea for marketing, and I called the owner of Bundt Cakes. Now he is a, Nothing Bundt Cakes is a franchise. It is out of Vegas. He had just moved up here and I called him and I said, “I have this crazy idea. What if I take your product out to other companies and let’s see what kind of response that we get?”
Problem is that Bundt Cakes has a code, which I have some coupons if you want some, I would be happy to share them with you. He didn’t know how much business I was bringing. Now for a franchise owner, about 8% is a very high average to bring in product. I was bringing in 14% by going out. Two dates, and this is not events, I have given out 30,000 bundt cakes, that is one company. I have given out thousands of products.
So here it is. It only took one person to believe in an idea. He believed in me, he trusted me, 110%, he trusted me. Every company that I work with, all that food that’s out there, it is literally hundreds of dollars’ worth of food. My requirements, other than I charge them to do what I do, but I require them to give me discounts and products. Those are my two musts, it’s not negotiable with me.
Because what I realized early on, I have a very set platform. Businesses who do not follow my platform, it’s not me following theirs. No, no, not at all. I learned early on, they will fail. I will fail. Because somebody has to hold the line and be accountable to everything you say and everything you do. So, Sean Banda believed in me, and that’s where HeyApe, so every company I work with, they have a tracking code.
So this is the term of “guerrilla marketing,” it’s product you have on a shoestring budget. Organic marketing is face-to-face. I do both. And because I’m a filmmaker, I manage myself as April the filmmaker. In the beginning I didn’t know who April was. I was a filmmaker, I was a makeup artist, I was a producer. I was all these things that companies like, I remember this.
I was talking to the manager of Mercedes in Farmington. And he’s like, “What the [inaudible] she’s talking about?” I’m, like, over-explaining, I’m trying to explain myself. I didn’t know what I was explaining. And it hit me. I was at Gordon’s, and I said, “I am a guerilla marketer. I am taking all these products for all these people, and I’m driving traffic.” I did this in the middle of a pandemic. I set an event up for Target, Home Depot, Chick-fil-A.
All I did was change the verbiage. Instead saying, “Come to my event,” I said, “Come to my employee appreciation day.” Sometimes you have to meet a customer’s demand, and you have to listen. You have to listen. Don’t them what you think, because they don’t care what you think, what they care is results.
So, I had, and I have what, two more minutes? Okay. I’m going to show you something I was inspired to show you my mistake, because this is very clear to me. So, you see, I am an old-school marketer who meets social media, okay? I started doing these boards, which are really kind of old school, but they make sense to me. And here’s the thing that why it makes sense. Even if you feel like maybe something doesn’t make sense, this was what I started, and I’m like, “This looks terrible. I’m going to start it over again.” All I can say is with this, start what you finish. Just do it. That is it. Just do it. Even if it seems really crazy, just do it.
So, you can set this on its side, and I’ve got about one more minute. And so this right here is a vision board. To date, I have done my 200th vision board. What does that mean? That is 200 companies have one of these. I went two days ago for a meeting. It is hung up in the owner’s office as a reminder of what I made a promise to them. Okay? So when I meet with a company, it is, so if you do not know what you want to do, create your “Why.” Don’t create someone else’s “Why.” What is your “Why”? Create it. The next part is to help show their “Why,” and what does that mean? Everybody has a “Why,” and a company has their why. Okay?
The other thing, have you ever heard, have you ever had somebody color code you? I color code companies, meaning I pay attention to their marketing, their branding. Bundt Cakes is blue. When I post on social media, I posted blue. Hungry Howie’s is yellow and orange. I post for them in yellow and orange because it helps brand them. The companies, I have them pick five focuses. I tell them to “Dumb it down, let’s focus on three,” and we focus on three for 90 days.
I will not work with a company if they will not work with me for 90 days, I’m not going to work with them because too much time goes by for not a commitment. If they’re not committed, I can’t be committed, and my marketing will not work. If they’re not engaged, then that’s it. So, that is what a guerrilla marketer, I don’t have to explain myself a million times. When I walk in people are like, “Oh, I get what you do.” So there you go.
All I can say is just be authentic, be truthful, and just be very straightforward with what your attention is, and all in, and just do it. And there you go. And thank you Kyle for doing this.

Kyle Knowles:
Thanks April. Thanks April. Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage food and beverage founder, investor and startup consultant, and also fellow podcaster of the Make A Dent podcast, Sierra McCleve.

Speaker 7:
(singing)

Speaker 13:
Do you want me to read it? Yeah.

Sierra McCleve:
Yeah, there it is. Okay. I was going to make him play the song again and then he could dance at the table and I have to just stand here. Let me set this up, because I’ve got to have notes. Okay? I do have some notes and it’s going to be good for all of you, because I’m very much more likely to stay on track. So, give me one second [inaudible] as to finish.
I have a list. Okay, thank you so much. Kyle, you’re amazing. I do want to say “Thank you.” It has been so exciting, it’s such an honor. It was an honor to be on the podcast, and I’m just so impressed with you and this event, let’s give it up for Kyle. Thank you Jessica. Thank you so much.
All right, so diving in here, again, my name is Sierra McCleve. I spent the better part of the last 10 years in the food and beverage world, restaurant business. I learned a whole bunch, and been able to take a lot of those lessons and now it’s so freaking fun because I get to go do my favorite parts of business, stuff I’m really good at with other companies, which is consulting. And it’s incredible. I feel super, super lucky to do that.
I kind of focus on and specialize in startups, like the first two years is where kind of my niche is for that. And it’s been super, super fun, I’ve been grateful that I’ve been able to do that. So just a little tiny bit about my journey, then I’m going to get into the topic today, which is, leave them better. And it is creating lifetime customers, which if we can do that, then our jobs as entrepreneurs are successful. Okay?
So I started my first business in 2013, it was a bakery, a kolache bakery, how many have had a kolache ever in their life?

Speaker 15:
Yeah.

Sierra McCleve:
Okay. Has anyone had Dottie’s Kolaches? It’s okay, it’s up in Heber, it’s fine if you want to drive up, it’s okay. It was open for about eight or nine years and it’s a Czech pastry, it’s the most kind of random thing to start, especially I never wanted to be a baker. If you have a question about that, I’ll talk to you after, it’s kind of my story. I never wanted to be a baker, I was for eight years. And I can bake three things super freaking well. That’s it. That’s it.
So don’t ask me about, like, cakes and cupcakes and stuff because I can’t do that, but I do cinnamon rolls and kolache cinnamon roll, a couple of things. I started that in 2013 and I feel very, very lucky because at the start of my entrepreneurial journey, I was influenced before there were influencers out, and one of the main ones that really I think strikes home for the conversation we’re having today about creating lifetime customers was Tony Hsieh of zappos.com. Is anyone familiar with Tony Hsieh or zappos.com? Did anyone buy anything ever from zappos.com? Let’s go, okay.
Tony’s my guy. RIP Tony Hsieh. He wrote a book called Delivering Happiness, and that book, I mean, quite a few ones have influenced people, but that one really set a good foundation for me on this idea of company culture and creating an exceptional customer experience via company culture, which I’m going to circle back to [inaudible].
So, because of these influencers and because I read them very, when I was quite young, and when I was at the point where I could really grasp the concept of owning a business, because that was really my dream wasn’t to own a bakery, it was to own a business. When I grasped that concept, I knew that I wanted to make it special, and I wanted it to really mean something, and something that would make a dent in the lives of the customers and the employees of [inaudible].
So I built that into all my businesses. I started another business in 2016 called Thirst Drinks in Salt Lake. Have you guys heard Thirst Drinks? All right. So that one started in 2016 and both of them, I had this idea that I wanted a company [inaudible]. Our tagline at Thirst actually is “Happy drinks and treats.”
We say, “Have a happy day” to every single customer that goes through the drive-thru. That business [inaudible] 2016, we now have six stores and we’re training to do over four million in revenue this year. A lot of people have helped us get there, it’s been really fun. And I think a lot of that has had to do with us prioritizing customer experience.
Another thing that I did for both of my companies is I created a couple core values, I’m going to share them with you because it’s all going to tie in at the end. One of the core values I used in both businesses was called, was “Leave them better.” If you are just starting, I know a couple of you are just starting your businesses or into it a couple years, core values are so important for several reasons, but “Leave them better” meaning for my employees it was, “Leave your fellow teammates better.”
So they come in there having a hard day, leave them better than you found them. Do their dishes. I’m going to talk restaurant realty, okay? Do their dishes, ask them how ideas [inaudible] better. Same thing with our customers, leave them better than you found them. I had another one was, “Don’t give crap, don’t take crap.”
That one, it’s actually a family motto, I actually directed into my businesses even though it’s a family motto [inaudible], so, meaning, “Don’t give anyone a hard time.” And then if someone’s giving a hard time, [inaudible] I’ll say, like, “Dude, stand up for yourself.” It’s not typical to my employees to pick fights with people, okay, but I’m just saying we encourage them to not give anyone a hard time, but also not taking it if it happened to them, which happens [inaudible].
There are quite a few things that I’ve learned that I teach now on the topic of creating lifetime customers. We don’t have a lot of time, Q&A, so I’m just going to cut right to meat and potatoes. And I want to briefly just gauge what you guys think. So I’m going to just give you just for free the number-one thing that I coach people on on creating a bunch of customers, repeat customers, but I want to see what you guys think first. So, just a little bit of audience participation.
What do you guys think, I’m calling a couple of you, the number-one thing that you need to do to create lifetime customers is, what comes to mind? Raise your-

Speaker 16:
Experience.

Sierra McCleve:
… right hand?

Speaker 16:
Experience.

Sierra McCleve:
Experience, okay. Like the customer experience? Amazing. Excellent choice. Customer experience, you know I think is number one. It’s a great option. What’s another answer [inaudible] choice?

Speaker 17:
[inaudible] meeting expectations.

Sierra McCleve:
Okay. Delivery, meeting the expectations of your customers.

Speaker 18:
[inaudible] employees.

Sierra McCleve:
How you treat and nurture your employees. Awesome. Very bright crowd, give yourselves a hand. Thank you for [inaudible]. Incredible answers. Incredible answers. Okay, so… [inaudible] into it. So, through my hands on business journey, consulting work, and the study of numerous companies both large and small, the single factor consistently, that consistently distinguishes massively successful enterprises that continually attract and retain loyal customers, is… We need our band for the drum roll… Company culture, and I think vis-a-vis, employee satisfaction.
So you got it, I have a sticker for you. It’s in the back. So employee satisfaction. Now, how many people here have ever heard the saying that “The customer is always right”? Or maybe you said it, just be honest, this is a family now. Let’s see it. Okay, customer’s always right. I heard this very early, I had some sales jobs and that was what we were taught. And if you’re teaching that in your organization now, I would say probably shift that slightly.
Here’s what I mean. My notes say to say that, to say, “That is a load of crap,” but okay. Let me tell you, I’m not saying, “Don’t provide a good customer service,” I’m not saying, “Don’t go above and beyond,” you need to do those things. But I’m not sure that, “The customer’s always right is the best thing to teach our employees.” So, I think that this final story to wrap up here, this is going to illustrate this.
I really do believe that if you focus on your employees and creating a positive company culture, it directly translates to the customer experience. And if you neglect that, then you can live for a while, but you’re not going to maybe achieve the success and longevity that you could if you would focus on this. So, what industries do we have here? We have tech, what other industries? I know food and beverage, restaurant, what do we got? What else?

Speaker 19:
Advertising?

Sierra McCleve:
Advertising, marketing, guerrilla marketing. What else? That covers it? All right, cool.

Kyle Knowles:
And-

Sierra McCleve:
Well think about, translate this-

Kyle Knowles:
… [inaudible] education.

Sierra McCleve:
… [inaudible]… Communication? Education.

Kyle Knowles:
Education.

Sierra McCleve:
Education, great. So, this brief story I’m going to tell you kind of, I think, highlights this and tells it in a way. It is basically in the restaurant business, but that’s where I lived for a long time. So, I had an employee who was working the drive-thru line, her name is Bailey. Drive-thru for the businesses that I’ve created, they’re the quarterback. They are so important.
They have face-to-face interaction with the customers, they smile. They’re the ones who are upholding those core values, creating a great customer experience, providing the product too in the right way, fulfilling the delivery right, and moving cars ahead too so the line moves quickly. That’s important in a drive-thru. No one wants to wait forever.
So, she was working the line and I think we got this customer’s order wrong or something. And they left the line, probably got the wrong kolache, freaked out and came back to tell us, but they weren’t just like, “Hey, you messed up.” They were yelling, they lost it. They were using language that none of us would use in front of our mothers. Okay?
And Bailey was just, she took care of it, and it crossed the line at one point from just them complaining to, like, they were really berating her. So, at that point when I could see, we took care of it, and no one needed to do that. I had a couple options, right? And in this scenario you would have to.
We’ll say scenario one, the customer’s always right. You could teach your employee just to deal with it, make it right, say, “I’m sorry,” continue to get yelled at until they go away, give them their money back, whatever. In that scenario, typically what I’ve seen is, I’ll see what you guys think. Do you think the employee felt empowered after that action? If that’s the scenario, scenario one? Do you think that they had energy to then go provide an exceptional customer experience to the next 50 to 100 cars they have to work that day? Not so much in that first scenario.
And it takes a long time to reset too when that’s happened. Has anyone ever had a customer service job where you’ve just gotten yelled at, you’ve just had to take it? Not pleasant. I worked at Best Buy for years. Anyway, customer service. So, I’ve seen that too. So that’s scenario one, that’s typically what can happen.
Scenario two, and this is what happened, the customer was screaming, yelling, calling her names. I stepped in and said, “Look, we’ve taken care of it. We said we’re sorry, we fixed it, we apologize. You can’t talk to my team that way. You need to go now.” After telling him that he finally left. When that happened, this is my favorite part of businesses, I’m getting chills with this. When that happened, when I stepped in and showed my team that I had a back, and I supported her, she lit up.
She knew that from then on that I would support her. And I don’t think she’d experienced that. Typically you don’t, especially in my world, don’t typically see that enough. And I’ll think she felt empowered, she was lit up. She only took a minute to recover. She did take some for her adrenaline was high, but she only took a minute. And then she had the energy to go back and really, really provide the exceptional customer experience to all those 50 to 100 customers.
If scenario one had happened, I guarantee at least a good percentage of those 50 to 100 customers would’ve not received a good customer experience there. So, now whether that be you’re selling kolaches to people or you are selling millions of dollars worth of software, I think the principle can translate to, if you really want to… well, I’ll find [inaudible] to kind of long-term effects, that employee, I hired her when she was a junior, she ended up staying for four years. She became an assistant manager and a manager for me, very young.
Four years in the restaurant world is like 30 years in the other industries. So that’s saying something, she stayed for a long time. And her saying, the effect that she had on all my other customers and the revenue that she was able to bring in and the peace of mind that she was able to bring as a manager far outweigh that one experience with our customer.
So just to sum up, if you want to blow your competition out of the water, if you want to level up and start tracking on a path to become untouchable in your industry, if you want to have customers begging to buy from you over and over and over again, take care of your employees, diligently and intentionally create an exceptionally good company culture so you can create an environment where your team feels that you’re taking care of where they can see and buy into your long-term vision, where they are eager and excited to take care of customers because you take care of them.
I hope I have left you guys a little better than I you today, and I hope you truly have a happy day.

Kyle Knowles:
All right, ladies and gentlemen, give it up for the man who brings the dude and dad energy to his company and to his band, Benjamin Moffat.

Speaker 9:
(singing)

Benjamin Moffat:
Thank you everybody.

Speaker 9:
(singing)

Benjamin Moffat:
I’m a guitar player, so I’ve never been behind a mic. But it is an absolute pleasure to be here. One of my longtime friends and business partner, Ian Bowles, is in the audience, and thanks for being here. I somehow ended up in the video industry, I was a bit of a late bloomer, got my degree at 34, got my first job in the advertising industry as a receptionist in Oatville Bowl Cleaner.
I’d run to anywhere the creatives or the executives would need to get their lunch or their dry cleaning or their wine. And I really came up from the very ground. So, I have learned in my time a little bit about the power of brand, a little bit about the power of video, and today I want to talk about how video builds brand equity.
Let me see if I get this the right way. Perfect. So “brand equity” is very bland term. I never would use that in regular conversation. So let’s look at how it is defined. Brand equity, the extra value a company generates by having a recognizable name compared to their generic equivalent. What does that mean?
Whoops. We got it. Which one of these is the most popular ketchup company? You know.

Speaker 24:
Heinz?

Benjamin Moffat:
One of these companies is making a lot more money selling ketchup than the other, even though I may be a Market Pantry consumer myself, I do have a nine-year-old. But I think this image visualizes what brand equity really is. And you could read the technical definition of brand equity, but there’s this gentleman named Leo Burnett, I’ve got to admit, that guy’s got a good look going on.
He was born in 1890. He was one of the original Madison Avenue Mad Men. And has everyone’s seen the show, Mad Men, the old school early advertising days, smoking in the office? Well, Leo Burnett said this about brand equity. “Before you can have a share of the market, you must have a share of mind.” And good brands know this and they spend a shit ton of time and money to occupy moments of your life. And I think this image does a great job.
You think about this, we’re in front of the Nasdaq, I know every single one of these except for this guy. Do you guys know who that is? But I mean, as you look at this, did you guys grow up with some of these characters? Did you associate what brand they’re a part of? You’re looking at the cereal aisle, do you think, “Yeah, it’s probably Toucan Sam, he’s the one.”
What I’m saying is that companies put a lot of time and effort into building brand equity, and we’ve kind of grown up in this, there’s this new world where everything’s performance marketing. “What has this ad done for me in 10 minutes? How many views did I get? How many likes?” Brand equity is a long-term play. It’s Chester Cheetah. It’s 20-plus years reinforcing again and again.
So, now that you kind of have an understanding of brand equity, how does video work into the context a little bit? Well, the first thing I can say is people love video. Even stodgy rich folks that never smile. By the way, Succession is a great show if you haven’t seen it. You know what? We don’t just love video, we’re fully addicted to it. How many people here play on their phone while watching TV at night? I bet more of you guys do, don’t lie.
Or, look at your phone before bed, or anytime. We’re straight up addicted to our phones and watching videos on our phones and devices. So, the interesting thing about that is we’re watching all sorts of weird stuff. I have a friend that I work with that loves to watch videos about antique anvils being restored. And he’ll watch it and talk about it, and then I love videos about guitar pedals, I’ll let you know. We all have our thing, right?
I think this sat first off, I don’t have any, I’m not citing anything, but this is Q4 of last year, age range is 16 to 64, type of video content being consumed worldwide. I really thought music videos would not be that high, but I think people are watching all sorts of stuff, which is the point I’m trying to make. You could see there’s influencers, sports clips, product reviews, tutorials or how-to.
In each of these buckets, there is a chance for companies to have a conversation with their customers in some way, whether it’s a sponsorship tag or a pre-roll ad. So what I’m really saying here is if a company wants to talk to their audience, video always moves. So, I want to get right into a few examples and a few favorites, just companies that I think are doing a great job of building brand equity via video.
So I’m going to show a few videos here. This first one is your classic YouTube pre-roll, six-second format. You don’t have a lot, but you need to make something happen. Here we go.

Video:
Oh.

Benjamin Moffat:
Evelyn, I bet when you leave, you’ll remember The General, you know? There’s not a call to action here necessarily. There is some reinforcement of the company’s mission, but it was strictly a video to make you laugh, and then association with the brand.
Here’s one from Amazon. It’s amazing.

Video:
It’s just flawless, isn’t it?
I think so.
Yeah.
I think so.
I mean, I literally couldn’t imagine a more beautiful vessel for Alexa to be… inside. Alexa, how many tablespoons are in cup?
There are 16 tablespoons in a cup.
(singing)
Babe, food just got here. Why you cooking? Who’s that?
[inaudible] IRC. And French kiss, [French].
Alexa, turn on the sprinklers.
Honey, I already ran the sprinklers. Stop, things are getting way too wet around here.
(singing)
Alexa, dim the lights.
(singing).
Alexa play something, play something.
And add a rose to my shopping list.
Alexa, no. Don’t do that.
[inaudible].
That was in his hands. I was being changed. All that we had.
Do you know if we have any extra ones, please? And they’re probably not using this one.
As I kiss you, that everything is breaking and changing and turning [inaudible].
Honey, other people have to use the bathroom around here too.

Benjamin Moffat:
It’s such a great spot. It would’ve been so easy, and you know someone on brand, product marketing was like, “We need to talk about its bandwidth. We need to talk about the specs. People, they’re going to want that.”
No, they want an emotional connection with your brand. They want to share this with someone. They want to just feel something. And then if it’s associated with your brand, they’re going to remember it. Here’s one other one from a famous company. I remember the first day Ian showed me this commercial. It’s a great example of combining, it’s a great example of solving something very technical with a very simple metaphor. [inaudible].

Video:
A better network as explained by a door. This is data on a wireless network.
Look a door.
Let’s all go through it together.
When it gets busy, it can get overwhelmed, like this.
A better network prepares for having traffic with more capacity.
The door is bigger.
A better network like Verizon, for instance.
I’m heading for a big door.

Benjamin Moffat:
That spot, I mean, how old is that spot, Ian, is that 10-plus years?

Ian Bowles:
I think so.

Benjamin Moffat:
We still reference this when we’re meeting with clients to pitch ideas or we’ll revisit it. A simple, powerful metaphor Verizon. I mean, they have the best network, right? Everyone knows that. They continue to reinforce that. They do it in a fun and engaging way. I know this is a great example of a company talking to their customers and building brand equity.
Now, I’m going to do a couple of shameless plugs for the company where Ian and I work Gantry. So, this may not be on the level of a Verizon, but I think they’re pretty close.

Video:
When I started at Adobe, I wasn’t sure what to expect.
Turns out it’s a company full of data scientists, engineers, researchers, marketers, sales professionals, and designers.
As an intern, I experienced a place where creativity is unrestricted.
A culture where we love collaborating across teams to solve problems.
I found a place where I belong, where I can do real work and make an impact.
Adobe invests in its people and celebrates their diversity.
Joining Adobe is more than a career choice. It’s a decision to change the world through digital experiences.

Benjamin Moffat:
It was a very successful video for Adobe, a very complicated video to condense down to 30 seconds. But I think it does a great job of saying a very specific message in a fun and compelling way.
I’m going to show you one more video from Gantry. And for this one, it was a lesser-known tech company that wanted to speak directly to developers, and they wanted to talk to developers so that they would spin up this company’s servers and be more productive, and basically produce better work. So, our team came up with this great ad.

Video:
Once upon a time, there was a developer who could bend his world to his will. We’ve got a few clicks, he sparked the mightiest of apps. Poetically applying predictable pricing to scale his service. He created without end because his tools understood him.
Wake up, hunny?
He was immersive-
Wait-
… and a benevolent king-
Wait. Good job getting that out to production on time.
Thanks.
And now the CEO knows his name-
What was that?
Nothing.
… he lived happily ever after with digital emotion.

Benjamin Moffat:
Thank you for the shameless self-plug. So all this culminates that when done right, videos are the perfect medium to help build brand equity. And I think the cornerstones of brand equity are loyalty.
I mean, I’m not asking anyone to get a Gantry tattoo, you can if you want, but a familiarity with the plan, the brand, the loyalty, the company associating themself with something that’s meaningful. It’s not just the product, it’s not just the service.
And it is a long play. It is the exact opposite of performance marketing, and I see when companies do it right, I see the long-term value. And those are the companies that I always like to work with.
And then the ones that just chase, you know, “What metrics did we get in this month? How many sales did that drive?” That stuff has its place, but unless you are consistently investing in the equity of your brand, there’s a good chance that you’re going to fizzle.
There’s a good chance that you’re not going to be memorable. You don’t necessarily need to have your own Chester Cheetah, but you could consistently pump out content that stands for something, represents your brand.
So, I’m going to leave you guys with this. So when it’s time to build a video for your own brand, just remember this. Make it simple, make it memorable, make it inviting to look at, and make it fun to read. Thank you very much for your time.

Kyle Knowles:
Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome to the stage a speaker, master certified life and business coach, founder of Soul Salt and author of Soul Salt: Your Personal Field Guide to Confidence, Purpose, and Fulfillment, and a complete badass, Lyn Christian.

Lyn Christian:
Thank you. Anybody else want a Pibb?

Speaker 7:
(singing)

Lyn Christian:
So thank you for having me here tonight, and also for showing up and staying until the last. My brand is all about what’s inside of you, the salt of your soul. So, if you will allow me, I’ll do what I do day in and day out, meaning your two [inaudible] coach, it that okay?
So, part of our job as a coach is to challenge, part of it’s to be accountable, part of it’s to clarify what is it that you’re going for. Part of it’s to kick your butt when you need it, hold your hand when you need it, cheerleading.
I’m going to choose “challenge” to start with. So if you’ll go there with me just for moment, we’re going to talk about how to be authentic, and how to be an entrepreneur. Because when you put those two together, you are unstoppable.
So let’s go there. This is your last evening. You will not wake up in the morning. That’s it. There’s your challenge. What are you thinking you feeling? Where are you going? Last evening. It’s inevitable. It’s behind us, in front of us, so around us all the time. We’re talking about it now. The question I have for you is, reflect on the past.
What were some of the themes that you remember the most? If you think about the future that you don’t have, is there anything there that you regret not doing? And since we’re on the topic of regret, let’s talk about that, because there are a lot of studies about it. More people die with regrets than not. And out of those regrets, there are a top five.
And the number one is this. “I wish I would have been more true to myself instead of following the expectations of others.” Another study on regret tells us that sometimes we regret more the thing we didn’t do instead of the bad thing that we did do.
So how do we live true and have fewer regrets? How do we live true and not have those things that we want to do still be in the future? How do we look back and find so many successful milestones that we’re not only proud of, we relive as our highlights? How do we do that? I’m going to give you a taste of that. Put all of these elements into my book, which you can find out here or buy in any bookstore, and it’s now on audio, soul salt.
Because inside each of this salt of the soul that tells us how we can direct our lives to each. I’m going to give you a flavor of that right now. Is that okay? So think about somebody that you respect or admire, somebody you’d like to know personally, follow, or have them mentor you, and realize there’s probably not one person that fits that whole bit, because we’re imperfect.
So they may not be somebody that in totality I respect, but there’s something that shines so bright that they come to your mind right now. You have somebody like that? With their face picture inside your mind, think about five words that describe what it is about them that speaks to you right now. And note those words. Make a list in your mind.
How come this person, what are the traits? What happens? What makes you dig them of the gravel? No words? Now, let’s talk about a time when you did take a stand. Maybe it was Sierra taking a stand for her employee. Maybe it was Ben taking a stand for the quality of some piece of those videos. Maybe it was being on Everest to taking a stand for the rest of the team that wanted to go up when somebody had to go down.
Think about a time when you’ve taken a stand, or time you wish you would have. Don’t get caught in a storyline. Just think about what was it that made you do that stand? What made you have the courage or the fortitude to take the stand and name that thing? Give it a name.
Ready? Okay. Now let’s talk about magnets for a moment, because we can. How many of you played with magnets before? I’ll bring it back, just go with me. You played with magnets. So when you’re playing with magnets, did you notice what they stick to? Will they stick to your refrigerator? A lot of people, “Yes.” Will they stick to the bumper of your car? It’s probably an ancient car, right?

Audience:
Yeah.

Lyn Christian:
Yeah, an old one. Will they stick to your hair? Would. So you know a lot about magnets, do you know what they’re made of? A lot of times it’s pure iron, a little bit of nickel, some cobalt. It’s usually an alloy. Then it’s charged. And it’s attracted to things. Have you ever played with iron filings and you just sprinkle them on a magnet and they look fuzzy, right?
What is it in the iron filing that’s attracted to them? It’s not a trick question. What do you think? What? The iron. The magnet has pure iron in it. The iron filing is made out of pure iron, and they’re attracted together. Now, what does that have to do with you? In this scenario, with these little exercises I just gave you, you are the magnet.
Those traits that you gave to the people that you thought of or the person you thought of, those are iron filings. That reason why you took a stand is an iron filing. Those things that you just thought of before taking a stand and attributing to the people that you admire, have more to say about who you are, what your character is, and what you value.
All those words actually belong to you, or you would not have picked those out of a crowd of words to describe that person. This is why you were attracted to that person. They’re reflecting back to you the salt of your soul.
So pick a couple of your favorite words and let’s hear what you would own. What will you own? What part of you will you own, that we just went through in this exercise?

Speaker 33:
[inaudible].

Lyn Christian:
Those two. Loyalty, authenticity. Thank you.

Speaker 34:
Kindness.

Lyn Christian:
Thank you.

Speaker 35:
[inaudible].

Lyn Christian:
Good. What else?

Speaker 36:
[inaudible].

Lyn Christian:
[inaudible], sorry.

Speaker 36:
Holly.

Lyn Christian:
Holly. Ah, I got part of it right.

Speaker 36:
Like kindness and character.

Lyn Christian:
So both of those together.

Speaker 36:
Yeah.

Lyn Christian:
And you’ve been described as authentic, so I can see if you put those together, you can be fairly unique, right? What else are you willing to share?

Speaker 37:
Silly? Silly.

Lyn Christian:
Love it. And do you value that part of you? These pieces that you’ve identified are part of the badass, oldest parts of you. And so the challenge I would give you tonight is ask you to hang onto those and let those lead you through tomorrow. Because I’m hoping that you are going to wake up tomorrow. And see if your life is a little more authentic, and a little more true. And if you’re a little more badass, a little more you.
That’s the secret. We all have a recipe of our greatest inside of this, and all we have to do is excavate, find it and hold ourselves accountable. And that is the secret of my brand, and the secret for your success. That is all I came with today, to let you experience [inaudible]. If you have a question, we could talk later. I have the books out there for sale. Thank you for being troopers [inaudible]. Thanks guys.

Kyle Knowles:
Wow. Thank you, Lyn. And I just want to thank all of the speakers tonight. Benoy, April, Ben, Lyn, Sierra, thank you so much for being on my podcast. Thank you so much for being at this live event. And thank you, friends, family, future podcast guests. Thank you for coming tonight. I hope you have a wonderful evening. I want to thank all the sponsors.
Give it up for April, again, getting the food [inaudible]. [inaudible] about a question here sooner. Last but not least, I’ll see you next year. Thanks a lot everybody.