Ear To Ear Podcast | EPISODE 7: Marketing with Amanda Patterson

Transcript:

 

Introduction (00:00):

Welcome to Ear To Ear by Altaworx, a podcast for all things telecom.

 

Forrest (00:11):

Welcome to the Altaworx Ear to Ear podcast, where we talk about all things telecom and how it can relate to your business. We're gonna talk about marketing today, and so we have

none other than Amanda. Amanda, you wanna introduce yourself?

 

Amanda (00:28):

Yeah. So I graduated from Troy in 2020. I've been working at Altaworx for about over six months now. Never was in the telecom industry beforehand, so little to no knowledge of what was going on. And I've really enjoyed it. I've grown so much more than I ever thought I would have in my old job now that I'm working here. New experiences, new programs to learn.

 

Forrest (00:55):

And what was your old job? Tell me about what that was.

 

Amanda (00:57):

I, do you want me to tell you like the company name? Yeah, sure. Okay. Yeah. I used to work for Gov Deals. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> and it's just an online government kind of specific auctioning site. You can auction as a private person as well. And I was in charge of real estate, so I would do social media for real estate. I would do third party ads for real estate. I did social media for other, other things as well. We had a lot of really cool, weird things for auction. Every year we would have the govies and everyone would vote for like the top three submitted like odd auctions. And this past year, which is really funny, the, you'll never guess in a million years, what one? Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. It was a used toilet costume. And it was in north carolina? Yes, it was in North Carolina. And it was like a just a, like the colleges, how you have like the mascot? Yeah. And everything. It was a used, it was a toilet like mascot, but they were trying to emphasize that it was previously owned and weird. So they said u

 

Forrest (02:04):

Toilet used. Yeah. Yeah.

 

Amanda (02:06):

And it was one of the auctions that I had advertised for and dealt with, so it was really funny to see that. That won.

 

Forrest (02:12):

Very interesting. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. So talk to me about your background. You went to Troy, is that right? Yes. Troy University. And how did you end up at Troy?

 

Amanda (02:23):

Well, I had a large group of friends. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, and we went toward colleges. We were all similar ages. And my parents loved Troy. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> naturally was not gonna go there. So I went with some of my friends who were actually interested in going to Troy and I toured the campus and I fell in love with it. And they had, what I was majoring at the time was marine biology, so what I thought I wanted to do with my life. And they also had majororetts, so I was like, that's great. Works out for me. Love the campus. Small, like community feeling, but also very large. It's the international campus for Alabama. So there's a lot of different new opportunities. So I ended up going there and I really liked it.

 

Forrest (03:02):

All right. So you got me curious now, Marine biology.

 

Amanda (03:06):

Yes.

 

Forrest (03:07):

Marketing for

 

Amanda (03:09):

Sure.

 

Forrest (03:09):

What, how did that happen? Mm-Hmm.

 

Amanda (03:11):

<Affirmative> well with marine biology, I wanted to be an aquatic veterinarian. So I would work with different aquariums, go on expeditions and just deal with marine life. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. And I thought it'd be very interesting and new. And I still think it's incredible. I love it. This, I love being close to the beach now. I love the water. It's great. And my dad always very liked business. He was a manager at his company for almost, I think my entire life. So he's very business oriented in our home. So marketing has like, come up a little bit. And I was always very interested in subliminal advertisement. So like when you have like sponsored objects or brands and different things and it made you want those, like if you saw someone drinking a Coke and a commercial and it's not about Coke, but then you see someone enjoying the Coke, then suddenly 30 minutes later you also want Coke. So I just think it's very interesting and gonna be honest, chemistry was not what I was supposed to do in life and that's fine. So after I took chemistry, I did a 180 and I started marketing.

 

Forrest (04:22):

And the rest is history, right? Yeah. So you may or may not know this, but I started out in chemical engineering. I thought I wanted to be a chemical engineer. There's a whole nother podcast on that that we could go through. But briefly what happened was, I, I realized that I was not set out to be a chemical engineer. I liked math up to a certain point. I liked algebra, but then at some point you get into where math becomes theory and I did not enjoy that. And so I shifted gears and ended up in, in business management. So, so what do you like most about marketing the co the company you were working for before? It's, I don't wanna put words in your mouth, but it sounds like you were kind of structured in one lane and so you were just working in one area of marketing. So what do you like most? I feel like you've probably been exposed to a lot more lanes here at Altaworx, if that's, if that's a fair statement.

 

Amanda (05:15):

Yes, it is a fair statement. I've really enjoyed that about this job. I felt like I had more opportunities to grow than my previous job, which if no fault to that previous job, I enjoyed my time. Sure. I think what got my foot in the door with marketing, I enjoyed social media marketing, which is interesting. My social media is almost nonexistent.

 

Forrest (05:36):

<Laugh>, it's kinda like the cobbler shoes, right? Yeah.

 

Amanda (05:40):

So I've really enjoyed being on the backend of that. And social media ads I think are very interesting. But I think the thing that I love the most about marketing is the fact that it's so different. It's so unique and you have new challenges every, it's something different, something new to tackle, something different to learn. And I just really enjoy that aspect.

 

Forrest (06:03):

So with that, where do you find inspiration for marketing? We're gonna dig deep now. Take deep, deep, get, get into your brain.

 

Amanda (06:13):

I think that

(06:16):

Inspiration can come from a lot of different places and I think it's important just in the industry to look at what your competitors are doing and seeing what is working for them. And I think you can also tell what's not working for them mm-hmm. <Affirmative> and using that to your advantage. So I think as far as content, looking at other people and seeing what they're doing, you can get a lot of good inspiration. Obviously you shouldn't be copying what other people are doing, that's wrong. But inspiration, I think it's okay to take from other people. I also really enjoy painting and being creative in that aspect, and that kind of clears my mind and relaxes me a little bit. And I'm able to come up with different ideas for marketing.

 

Forrest (06:58):

Interesting. So with telecom in particular I, I've found it unique that like the swag and the giveaways. When I first went to one of my first telecom conferences probably 78 years ago, I noticed that companies started giving out socks. And it's weird, socks are a big thing in telecom, but yet they're not a big thing necessarily in other industries. So the, the, the socks, all of the telecom companies give 'em out now. And it's, it's a big thing for people to, you know, we'll have a a vendor come visit us and they'll pull up their pant leg and show me our Altaworx socks that we gave them. So it's, it's neat to see that different industries have different little subcategories or sub niches that they focus on. So I dunno if you've seen any, the other things in the telecom that's unique

 

Amanda (07:51):

To you. I haven't really been to that many trade shows. Yeah. Any, I haven't been to any trade shows. Yeah. I'll say that. So we'll change that.

 

Forrest (07:59):

We'll fix that. Yeah.

 

Amanda (08:00):

Love to go. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, I think it'd be fun, but actually socks were a big thing at my old job as well. Cause we went to a lot of different tradees for different industries and different verticals. Hmm. Okay. Cause we tried to cover it all. So they actually had a lot of socks. So it was something that I had saw before coming here. But we definitely have a wide collection of swag.

 

Forrest (08:22):

Yes. Which

 

Amanda (08:24):

Is covering all of our bases. Yes. Which is, is good. Yeah. Something unique.

 

Forrest (08:28):

So I'm gonna pick on you a little bit. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, I told you I'd change things up a little bit. So talk to me about these Yeti cups that you ordered. So we had this project for some Yeti cups and I want you to tell me about that process of ordering those. Of course.

 

Amanda (08:43):

I should have seen this coming. Yeah. <laugh>, honestly. So we got the low Baller Rambler Yeti cups for Christmas as a gift to our employees. And

 

Forrest (08:55):

Everybody liked them. Everybody thought they were great.

 

Amanda (08:57):

Yeah. Yes. It went over very well. So you came to me with the idea we should get this for our potential partners, our customers or clients that we can give out as prospecting, which is great. Good idea. So I went to order them and I ordered the 10 ounce ramblers, but not the low ballers cuz they were out of stock, thought everything was fine, waited for them to come in. And then I opened the box and it was these child mugs, <laugh> that are so small and you wouldn't think because Yeti is double insulated. Right. So you really wouldn't think too much about it. So I start immediately freaking out. Yep. That, oh no, I made a 700 plus dollar mistake and I don't know what we're gonna do with these. And I ended up showing them to Claire and she made fun of me for it. Which is a given. Yeah, sure. So then I ended up showing it to Jamie and Jamie was like, I don't hate these, it's really not bad. And I was like, of course. Because there are different ways we can pitch this. Let's think about it. Coffee consumption, right. Large issue in the US people are drinking too much coffee. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, it's a huge problem. So all twerks is scar about you. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> these will fit in any cup holder. They

 

Forrest (10:11):

Will. Absolutely.

 

Amanda (10:12):

Yeah. Easy to hold in your hand. Very small. Yep. Perfectly fine. So worst case scenario, something for your kids to have. Right. You know?

 

Forrest (10:22):

Right. It's a backup plan. Yeah. They

 

Amanda (10:23):

Always need cups. It's okay. So then I ended up showing it to Keith and I had this whole pitch planned out where I was gonna talk about coffee consumption, everything I showed to him and he was, he busted out laughing <laugh> immediately. I didn't even get to anything. Yeah. And he was just like, this is incredible. Yeah. So then after I had shown so many people, I was like, okay, I'm ready to show for <laugh>, it'll be okay. So I gave it to you and you immediately loved it. I don't think you had any real hesitations with it.

 

Forrest (10:49):

No, not at all. I didn't realize it was a mistake until you told me it was a mistake. Yeah. And I was like, these are awesome. So we've shown these and taken these and people are scarfing 'em up and employees love 'em. People love 'em. So, and tell everybody again what it is. It's a 11, it's

 

Amanda (11:04):

A no, it's a 10 ounce 10 ounce rambler. 10

 

Forrest (11:07):

Ounce rambler.

 

Amanda (11:07):

Okay. They come in a variety of really cute colors.

 

Forrest (11:10):

Yeah. But you won't find 'em in a store. No. You've got to order those online. Yes. And so in fact, you, you did that for our, our employees because we, we ordered a limited number of them mm-hmm. <Affirmative> and we were gonna give them out and then the employees started seeing 'em and now everybody wants em. So you got everybody wanted for employee appreciation day, didn't you?

 

Amanda (11:27):

Yes, we did. Yeah. three orders later we're still ordering them, so. Yeah. Yeah.

 

Forrest (11:32):

Well it's one of those things where marketing, you can make a mistake and it's a hit and you know, you can overanalyze and think, oh man, I ordered the wrong size. Now on the other side, I can tell you about a mistake that was made by somebody else in the company a while ago. This was before your time. This person ordered, I won't mention any names, but this person ordered some of those fold up chairs that you take to sporting events. And we, I wanted some order to give out to the employees and to give out his swag with the Altaworx logo on 'em. And when they came in they were kids size chairs. Oh no. Now in that situation, they were the wrong size. They were cute, but you couldn't fit in 'em unless you were eight or nine years old. And so we ended up donating 'em to some Zer team or something. I can't remember what we did, but, so your mistake was a hit, that mistake was an expense. So yeah. Yeah. You hit home run. That's awesome. So, so continuing the conversation of marketing since that's, that's where your niche is, how is marketing for the telecom industry different?

 

Amanda (12:37):

It is very different from what I've known previously. Mainly because of the lingo. There's a specific dictionary you need to follow and you need a lot of things. Have different names, but it's all the same thing. So I think learning, especially for us, the products and the services that we offer are really good products and services. We just need to get 'em out there. And you need to know what type of lingo to use and you also need to know when to dumb down the lingo. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> for anyone to know what's going on. Yeah. So I think coming in with that unique perspective of I don't know what's going on, so tell me the official terms and then I will give you what I think it means. Right. And I use that mainly in marketing and I think it's gone over pretty well and it's more, it's easier to understand things Yeah. When you're coming from that angle.

 

Forrest (13:27):

So talk to me about the challenge with, within the telecom industry, cuz we work in the channel, so we've got indirect as well as direct communication that we've got to build. So, you know, we've got agents, we've got resellers, we've got, you know, material that we have to make for our agents to be able to sell to their customers. You know, talk to me about what that looks like from a communication standpoint. Cuz you've got industry jargon, but then you've also got how to formulate that messaging for those individuals.

 

Amanda (13:55):

Yes. And it's really important to know your target market mm-hmm. <Affirmative> and who you are trying to get this information out to. Cuz we do have direct, we have agents, we have resellers, and for the most part it's the same message, but there are little things that you need to change in the wording of the message. So it really plays into what social media we're using and the platform we're using to get that message out. So with our emails, we're able to use dynamic content and word it differently depending on what you're listed in our crm, which is good. And it makes my job a lot easier. So very happy about

 

Forrest (14:32):

That. So what do we use for our crm? Hubspot.

 

Amanda (14:33):

Hubspot, yes. I'm a big fan of HubSpot. Been using it for years and it's a great platform. They should sponsor us someday.

Forrest (14:41):

That's right. That would be good. Yeah. If HubSpot's please sponsor Theta Works podcast.

 

Amanda (14:46):

A little shout out. And then for our social media channels, LinkedIn, we, depending on whose platform we're posting on. So if we were posting on Keith's platform, he would be more direct. We were posting with Phil, he's mainly with our agents and our resellers. And there are various people who will post anything with, for your profile. For example, you can post anything, you cover it all. So it just depends on where we're going. And that definitely changes the messaging and who we're targeting.

 

Forrest (15:19):

So do you have any problems with anybody in the company that go rogue on you and just post stuff without getting approval? Never, never happens.

 

Amanda (15:27):

I never have to step into someone's office and say, Hey, that was a great post, but can you please change the picture <laugh> to something that's official. I think

 

Forrest (15:34):

That was just last week that, that happened. <Laugh>. So I, I appreciate you keeping me on my toes. So Yeah. So you do a good job of that. And then my wife also sends me screenshots and edits my post when I post things that don't have the proper vernacular or grammar or whatever. So,

 

Amanda (15:49):

Yes. And she catches me doing it too, which is good. Yeah. It's good to have some checks and balances.

 

Forrest (15:54):

That's right.

 

Amanda (15:55):

I as a marketing person should probably be better at grammar and spelling, but I'm not

 

Forrest (16:01):

Well that's just part of the process. You just, it, it's hard to correct your own things too. It's hard because you, you know, what you're trying to say. So with the talking about the direct messaging versus the indirect messaging, do you find that the indirect messaging is more, can be more technical than the direct messaging? Or is it about the same? I'm just curious as to what your thought process is on communication.

 

Amanda (16:23):

I think direct needs to be less technical. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, because you're dealing with, when we say direct, we're talking about business owners. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, we're talking about people who don't have the time to worry about what type of internet they should be using or what type of phone system they need. Or if they have pots line that needs to be replaced, they're not worried about that. So we need to come in and say very basic terminology, this is what we offer. And I think that again plays into Axiom. So we need to understand their problems so we can offer proper solutions for them. We're not just selling to sell, we are selling with a purpose.

 

Forrest (16:59):

You just made Bob Nichols smile from ear to ear saying Axiom. And I, what's funny is, I actually just wrote that down to ask you about that with respect to, you know, how you do marketing. You know, it's, it's not just, it's not about the product, it's about the impact of the product. So talk to me about how that, how you use that to your advantage when you're talking to communicate with somebody via marketing.

 

Amanda (17:22):

Yes. And I think it's very refreshing cuz that's not something all businesses do. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, we're really worried about providing solutions to problems. We're not just selling to sell. And that's very refreshing. So when we're going in and talking about different products, if we have a different service that we're offering, I think it's really important to understand how this is gonna benefit people. And that once you understand that, then you know who you need to be targeting, how you need to go about talking to them and the different avenues for that. So I think Axiom plays a really big part in deciding the, our marketing strategy for things.

 

Forrest (17:58):

I agree. So talk to me about the social media platforms that you used the most for communicating. Cuz I know we were talking a little earlier about some, some different channels that are out there and some we're using and some were not. Tell us about the ones that we are using.

Amanda (18:15):

Yes, I think we use LinkedIn the most, which is good. It's a platform to talk to business owners. It's a platform to prospect on and it's something we need to have a big audience and, and engage with them. So we use LinkedIn the most when we're talking about our business. Different product services. When we're talking about agents, clients direct, we communicate the most with them. And that's our largest platform. And then going into our unique office our unicorn business and our core values, things like that we will use Instagram and Facebook for. And that post is mainly anniversaries, office updates, things that are going on, exciting things, but maybe not a platform for LinkedIn necessarily. Then we also have Twitter, which we've used Twitter in the past and then we took a step back from it, which is totally fine. And then we got a new Twitter and we're trying to be more active on there. And that's mainly for agents. It's Altaworx hacks is what our username is. So it's mainly tips and tricks for agents and our resellers to try and help them and give them the tools that they need to be successful. And I think it's very interesting. Businesses have and users taken a step back from Twitter. So I think it's something that we need to look into. Yeah. And our strategy might change in the future cuz Twitter is very changing for the social media platform.

 

Forrest (19:41):

Evolving for sure.

 

Amanda (19:42):

Yes. we have Ling or YouTube as well, and we used YouTube for videos on, we did a core value video that was very recent. And just things about the office, mainly some stuff as products and services, but not really.

 

Forrest (20:00):

Yeah, I we've done had some good success with some of those videos. We hit did this on recording that really helped people understand who we were as a company, which I think has helped out. Yes. All right, so moving on from social media. Let's talk about blogging. So lots of people are out there doing blogs. How are we using blogs?

 

Amanda (20:22):

Yes. Blogs are so important when you're building your reputation, and it helps with your credibility as well. Your seo. The more that you're posting blogs, the more, the longer your blogs are, the more you're talking about them, the more traffic you're gonna drive to your website, which is very important. And there's so much to talk about in telecom specifically because there is such a large industry jargon that you need to talk about and decipher, dissect and figure out. Yeah. So I think that really plays a big part into the majority of our blog posting, is talking about what something is and what's going on, why changes are happening, why updates, things are being sunset.

 

Forrest (21:05):

Well, and these podcasts that we're doing, converting those to text and making those as blogs is a, a good way to build content as well.

 

Amanda (21:13):

Yes. It is an easy way to build content too, I would say.

 

Forrest (21:15):

Yeah. Easy. Yeah. All right. So we've talked about social media, we've talked about blogs. Now let's get into email marketing. So is, is email marketing still a thing? Is it still an effective means of communication? I

 

Amanda (21:29):

Think it could be really effective if you use it in the right ways. I have personally probably about six various emails that I use, and I just changed them when I'm starting to get bombarded with a bunch of random emails that I didn't sign up for, I don't want. And it can just be a huge headache. So I think when you're sending emails, having that strategy in mind that this needs, who are we talking to? How do we make this important? Why would they wanna open it? Why would they wanna read it? I think when you have that in mind, when you're building your emails, it's very important and you see a larger open rate, larger engagement. So I think that's important when we're building ours, that we look at that.

 

Forrest (22:12):

Yeah. And, and email marketing is still effective. I mean, I know one of the things that we've done from a standpoint of trade shows is we used to do booths at trade shows, and we've pivoted our structure on trade shows to where we're doing more meeting rooms. And the way we've been able to make that effective is email marketing, the emails that you've been able to send out to schedule meetings and build appointments, I think at itx, but I think we had 21 appointments in two days, and that was all from email marketing reaching out to people and saying, Hey, we wanna talk to you about this. But if you don't have that messaging right to the right audience, then you're not gonna get those appointments set. So

 

Amanda (22:49):

I agree. Exactly. Yeah. Everyone still uses email at work. It's still a huge part of business life. Yeah. So it can be really, really useful.

 

Forrest (22:57):

Yeah. Okay. So you've opened the door for the next one. Tiktok. Tell me about TikTok because I, you know, I, I'm, I'm older. I don't understand TikTok. So how could TikTok be used for a business?

 

Amanda (23:12):

I think it can really open your audience, and especially if you're too focused on one specific target market, you're gonna eventually, possibly run out of things to talk about. You're gonna run out of people to target. So I think if you go on TikTok, it can definitely open the door for a lot of different possibilities, good or bad. I think businesses have really benefited from being on TikTok. I would be very interested and it would be a very long strategy meeting for what we are gonna do exactly on TikTok, <laugh>. I think we could have that opportunity to do a lot on TikTok. So we'll see. I don't know.

 

Forrest (23:54):

Tom will tell, maybe I'll have to get a TikTok account, I guess if we end up doing marketing. I know I've got a, we didn't even talk about Instagram, come to think about that.

 

Amanda (24:01):

Oh, we talked about it a little bit.

 

Forrest (24:01):

Little bit. Okay. But yeah, we are using that a little bit, but I'm not on Instagram either, so I still haven't quite figured all that out.

 

Amanda (24:09):

And we have such an interesting company culture and our core values, our Nerf dart fights, I think could do very well on TikTok. Right. Yeah. So,

 

Forrest (24:20):

Well, let's dive into we, we seem to always talk about EOS in some framework. So how does EOS impact marketing?

 

Amanda (24:30):

So going back, I've said it a thousand times in this podcast, but target market mm-hmm. <Affirmative>, it's very important. And EEO S helped us identify that and put a name to it with our ideal persona and understanding who the people are that are using our products and services, where they are and how they're thinking. So that's really given us an avenue to dive into. And we also developed our three uniques. I remember when I first started, I, when I, full disclosure when I came to interview, I had no idea what old Twerks does. Yeah. I, I was just coming to talk and maybe get a good marketing job, which I did, and I was very happy about it. Right. But I had no idea. And I had a meeting with Jamie and Megan and we sat down and she was, Jamie was telling me more about the company, our services, our products, and I asked her what the three uniques were. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, because I, I had no idea what E os, I had no experience with it coming in. And I was like, what product is are three uniques? What, what is that? She's like, well, it's not a product. And I was like, okay, it's not a product, it's a service. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, it's a promise. It's what we're doing. And she loved that. Yeah. So I think it was very interesting that our three uniques describe us and they set us apart from our competitors.

 

Forrest (25:44):

Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. So it's not one thing that's unique, it's the combination of the three.

 

Amanda (25:49):

Yes. It's how they work together, right. And how we're able to push past everyone else and really excel in this industry.

 

Forrest (25:56):

So what are our three uniques Now I'm gonna put you on the spot since you're supposed to be marketing our company.

 

Amanda (26:01):

Yes. So they're building recurring revenue, complete product, portfo portfolio, and low cost of entry. That's just all to works. So that really breaks down exactly how we're gonna be able to benefit you. We're gonna be able to ensure that you're getting recurring revenue and really break down what that means for your specific business. Our complete product portfolio, one stop shop, this is where you can get all of your services, you can get a hundred percent sold, all three of our buckets, mobility, voice and internet.

 

Forrest (26:35):

You'll get you dropping revenue growth engine in there. We don't even talk about revenue growth engine in there.

 

Amanda (26:39):

I'm multitasker, what can I

 

Forrest (26:40):

Say? Go for it.

 

Amanda (26:41):

So then we also have low of entry. So we're able to work with specific businesses and figure out what works for you. And that goes back to Axiom again, we're just selling solutions. We're not selling products. We wanna make a positive impact on your business.

 

Forrest (26:57):

Very cool. Well, a mop, you might as well jump into that one too, since we got two businesses. Yeah.

 

Amanda (27:03):

So ammo, we have carrier connectivity management platform, which is basically just what ammo is, our streamline operations and maximum profitability. So that just goes back into describing what Ammo is and what we can do for you. It's a mobility management platform. You can really look at where your money is going, what it's going to, how that's benefiting you, and maybe see things that aren't benefiting you and put a stop to it. And that, again, we'll go back into reoccurring revenue.

 

Forrest (27:37):

So yeah. Very cool. Continue on with the EEO s theme. We have a, a niche or a nche or a niche or whatever <laugh>, different people are pronounce it different. I get picked on because I don't pronounce it right. So, so what is our, our niche or niche? What is, what is Alwars niche? I think

 

Amanda (27:54):

It's niche. Yeah. Okay. So it's business impact first, technology second.

 

Forrest (27:58):

And what does that mean?

 

Amanda (28:00):

Solutions built on communication. It means we are able to impact your business. We're not worried about the technology right now. Yeah. We're going back again to Axiom. We again, we should be sponsored by Axiom.

 

Forrest (28:12):

Yeah. We should be sponsored by Axiom. Yeah. So we need to sell solutions, need to understand what your business is doing. Yeah. We're impacting your business. We're not worried about our technology and our solutions. We'll get to that.

(28:26):

Yep. Yeah. Business impact first to me means you focus on the customer, not on what we're selling. And there's a lot of times where we're having a conversation with a client or a conversation with an agent or a reseller, and we determine that we can't have an impact, a positive impact on their business today. And we will punt and say, look, we, it's not a fit today, but there might be a time later on. And what we found is that those individuals usually end up circling back to us and they respect not trying to make a sale in every conversation. So that business impact first, it, it, it's a short statement, but it really does encapsulate our focus on our relationships. So revenue growth engine. So you mentioned it, thank you for mentioning that. What have you taken out of that? We're in the process of going through our business and looking at all the different aspects of the client journey and a hundred percent sold. I know you're, you're helping me with on, on some of those processes. So what has revenue growth engine done for you in your thought process around business?

 

Amanda (29:33):

I think it takes it, revenue growth engine doesn't bring any necessarily new ideas, but it's combining all those really good ideas of how to run your business and putting it all in one place. And that's what makes it really powerful. And looking back on the client journey is gonna be a really good marketing tool for us in the future once we nail that down. Cuz if we can get a good client journey, we can learn how to replicate that and learn the ups and downs. What was really impactful for this person that might be impactful for other people as well. And just being able to replicate that in the future, I think will be incredible.

 

Forrest (30:15):

Yeah. And it's really changed our business to where lots of people in the organization are thinking about that client journey. So they're, there's an issue that comes up with a client, they stop and think, if I'm the client, what would I want my journey to look like? And then they make a decision based off of that. So that, that's been impactful for us as well. All right. So winding up on time I want to ask you one more question that you're not prepared for, but you're gonna do fine. I have full faith in you. You're talking to younger people, so people that are junior two year, either maybe in college or thinking about going to college, give them some advice. What's some advice that you would have for them to get into the marketing field if they wanted to explore that?

 

Amanda (31:02):

I don't know if my advice is gonna be great, but I think college is great. College might not be for everyone. Agree.

 

Forrest (31:11):

And I think that's okay. I agree. Yeah.

 

Amanda (31:13):

I think junior college community college is a really good avenue to explore. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> with marketing specifically. I think learning and textbooks is great. You can read about it all day, but until you get hands on experience, that's where you're really gonna get your knowledge. Yeah. Because it's so changing new things everyday. Technology making a huge impact in marketing and not just getting bog boggled down in the process and the planning of it. I think the graphic design aspect of it is really important to know, and that's really gonna set you apart in the industry. If you can do it all. If you can come up with an idea, execute it, design it, have a plan, see how it affects everything, get into the analytics of it so you can back up everything that you've done, improve your worth. That's what's gonna set you apart in the industry. So yeah, going to a classroom is great, but really taking that with a grain of salt and then using that to fuel actual hands-on experience.

 

Forrest (32:15):

Yeah. I think internship is a good path to go to make sure that you getting in that real word experience and building your network out so that you can understand you know, what, what types of roles and responsibilities are out there as good as well. So that was good advice good advice all the way around. Thank you, Amanda, for sitting down and being on the other side of the microphone. You've been silent for most of these podcasts but it's great to have you share your wisdom with the rest of the audience. And we'll catch you on the next episode. Thanks for coming by. Yes.

 

Amanda (32:48):

Thank you for having me. It will, it was not bad, I promise. And thank you for pushing my boundaries. I

 

Forrest (32:53):

Like it. Yes. Grow and evolve. Grow and evolve. Yes.

 

Amanda (32:55):

Grown and evolve. All

 

Forrest (32:56):

Right. Have a great day.