Marketing for the now the marketing for the now marketing for the now marketing for the now 10 minutes, 12 remarkable guests for two hours, answering a singular important question: are you ready gary? What do you think gary gary gary hello? How are you i'm from the kitchen and guess where i am gary in the living i'm in the bathroom? We are on a company off site, so we're all in the same house go ahead. Andrea, take it over! Oh, my gosh, all right! This is gon na. Be awesome, we've got one a one-hour show. We've got six incredible guests today and we have one question: how do you figure out? What makes customers tick we're going to be kicking off with peter murray peter? Is the ceo and board member of the professional fighters league? The pfl is the first organization ever to present mma in a true sport format, with individual fighters competing in a regular season, playoffs and world championship it's distributed on espn and additionally, 160 plus countries worldwide and later on.

Tonight. The pfl has its second playoffs card and we can't wait for peter to tell us more all about that. Welcome peter, hey! Thank you, andrea great, to be with you gary peter. It's great to see you my friend uh first two seconds for everybody on the pfl.

For maybe the small percentage that doesn't know what it is yeah real quickly, i mean we're uh the number two mma organization in the world. Uh. What makes us different is our format. That's the key differentiator our fighters fighting a regular season to play off an achievement format, no different than the npl, the nba, and it's really propelling our growth, in particular on top of that technology.

The use of that and storytelling. I love it so peter. Let's just get right into it: how does the organization uh and - and you for that matter as the chief executive officer? How do you guys figure out what makes a customer tick like? How do you get to that? How do you figure that out yeah i mean i, i love the question and you know we launched as a challenger brand and a disruptor. You know in sports and mma and our business thesis there's there's more room for more than one leader in the sport.

So yeah, the the first thing you have to do is who's the consumer. Is, you know, what's the opportunity and we quickly surmised, that mma as the fastest growing sport uh today in the world, 550 million fans, youngest fan base and they're underserved. So again, data and insights looking at content around the world engagement around the world fans around the world. So we start with that premise and the business premise and then what makes them tick for me, four things.

Well, the first thing you got ta do is talk to them, but, most importantly, listen and - and i don't need to tell you this or you know many of the viewers and engagers today with digital and social channels and conversation. It's a lot. You know a lot of positive, a lot of negative, but how you breaking down that sentiment uh. So you know, first and foremost, we can talk about, but number one talk to the customer.

I'm gon na go somewhere interesting with you, because i think you, as a ceo, you're gon na, be able to give us a really good insight to this. For the people that are a little bit further along in their careers, maybe destined to be a ceo. In a big organization soon, why do ceos not do what they heard from the customer from a business standpoint, give me some cliche reasons where financially a partner uh i'll give you example why? I don't peter because i have an executive that wants to do something different than me. I and i'm i'm really good at listening, even though i'm always yapping, but it's important to me for my employee to feel like i'm supporting her or him, even though i know they're going to lose flat out and now here's why it's fun nine out of ten Eight out of 10 times i'm right and it becomes a learning experience one out of two times.

I eat humble pie, and it's delicious to me that curiosity, humility is actually what allows me to have the audacity to have bravado and confidence. So that would be an example. I would say how about from your standpoint. You know what the customer wants from your point of view, you're, confident in your pattern, recognition or it's just your subjective opinion or there's some other force, because a lot of people are watching right now, don't get to the levels of decision making that you - and i Have and they're baffled when, like how did coca-cola, how did the nfl, how did tootsie rolls, how did puma not get it sometimes there's, even though they know what the answer is they can't do it give us some reasons to why, even though you figured out what Makes the customer tick? What's stopping you yeah, i mean, i think, hey you touched on.

It's like one constrains two forces and how you can find those constraints sometimes operationally you may not be able to get there. You may want to listen to that consumer, but there's still a business in in the path a company is going on and uh. You don't want to give up on that um. So you know, there's there's a lot of different constraints in the marketplace and then other forces and a lot of times.

Those forces are internal, whether it be in the boardroom, whether it be investors, whether it be other key stakeholders who you're in your career, i'm starting to interrupt in your career, because these are short and i'm actually genuinely curious. Tell me a story doesn't have to be in this role somewhere else, where you were devastated, that it wasn't going to get done, because maybe you were a young buck and the boss didn't do something or the board stopped. You just give us an anecdotal story, be as specific as you can. Maybe you have to hold off some information uh and where it really went the other way or maybe back to the humility, maybe where it worked yeah.

No, i i think something that comes to mind. Is you know, while at under armour and and you know, fast growing company, you know domestically globally, you know sort of land driven product driven and in particular on the product side. At times it takes time to realize the vision of a product and a value proposition. You know you want to go there.

You know the consumer's begging for it, you're solving for something, and it takes time to put all those pieces together and then you weigh. Okay is the juice worth the squeeze and and so yeah. You know that. That's something that comes to mind.

You know over over my time in under armour, but i'll tell you in the experience at the pfl since since launching the pfl four years ago. Now being the number two in the world and again we're not satisfied that we're poised to be a co-leader, and that's really what gets us up in the morning in terms of building a world-class global sports property in mma? And you go back to the customer. We talk to the customer, you know people within the mma world there's been no innovation in mma in two plus decades, and so we came in a lot of people said we talked by the way we talked to consumers. Some consumers said that format won't work.

This is it's not well you're, a football guy. You guys are stick and ball. You don't know what you're talking about boxing doesn't work that way. Well boxy broke it.

You know they're trying to fix it and in mma, but what we said, but we heard from other fans another group of fans who were positive on it and we took that negative. But you know what i i bring it back to some pot. Sometimes people don't know what they don't know. So you have to have conviction.

You got to believe in the vision you know once you you know you pick the lane. You do your best to get that marketplace data all the stakeholders, starting with the consumer and they got away at all. But you go and i'm happy to say we brought those people on board those naysayers on board because it and then for us all, starts with the product build a great product. You know in the last minute and by the way vk i see you say gary.

He started interrupting the other guy. I have no interest in interrupting pete. I've got 10 minutes and i want to get amazing stuff out of him and 10 minutes is a tough format, so i apologize pete just for fun, closing par because we got one minute. What's the first fight that you got excited about as a kid which i'm going to assume is either boxing or maybe even wrestling, wwf uh as a just a fun thing to get an insight to who is peter murray? What was the first fight that caught your attention as a child yeah, you know i'm the youngest of five.

You know older brothers and you know muhammad ali growing up. He was an icon, so you know every ali fight. You know i was sort of hooked and and how old were you when ali fought homes, because that was probably the one you were old enough right? I was in grade school, you know and are you devastated because absolutely you know what he stood for. You know not only his his, you know he's a champion, but but you know his snatcher and socially.

You know he was captivating, so you know that that really hooked me peter. Thank you. My friend have a great day. Thank you.

Gary take care, see you next. We welcome morgan de bonne, founder and ceo of blavity inc. The leading digital company for black culture and millennials blabbity reaches over 100 million readers per month through a portfolio of media properties, including blavity news. Afrotech travel noir and more morgan has been a renegade and a serial entrepreneur, starting when she was a child.

Welcome morgan thanks for having me hi morgan. How are you you're doing? Well: hey uh, let's just get right into the child part first, just because you know that makes us. You know brother and sister right off the bat. What was your? What was your childhood hustle? Because that's where i always get the most smiley look.

I was hustling the stock market when i was about 14. um and uh. 13 14 is when i first started like investing and then i also in middle school. They banned uh, candy and vending machines.

It was like when everyone was trying to be healthy, so i went to costco or sam's club with my mom bought a bunch of candy and started selling it. You know, and you know ultimately, i got in trouble, but uh yeah i was like the demand is not going anywhere. I once said to somebody when i started becoming an investor i'm like i have no interest in seeing any startup from anybody who has not been in trouble in middle school, slinging something that's right, illegal as like weed or lollipops. It's all the same game, because that means it's in your blood right, like most kids, aren't like you and i go into the store thinking.

Oh here's. A flip right margins margins by the way the candy margin game in school is still one of the greatest margins that has ever lived. Absolutely you go to sam's club, it's like what 15 bucks and you get an entire case. What buckets yeah um morgan! Let's go into the question and we'll we'll bounce around a little bit like you know: you've had this incredible success of such a young woman and and a powerhouse so early in your career.

Oh, that can only happen only when you actually know what makes the customer tick. You know uh, i i would say the candy hustle was easy. Kids wanted candy as you've matured into who you are today. You know how do you figure out? What makes a customer tick? How do you do it yeah to me it's about emotion, right, like what is that uh motion that you can bring to the customer so for blavity there was a feeling of loneliness.

That was the feeling that i had when i was kind of in the tech world and working my full-time job in tech and was like. I love it here, but this is super lonely like what am i supposed to do in my free time. What am i supposed to read? How am i connecting with people so actually figuring out what emotional problem you saw for somebody um makes it really really sticky, because then they feel something and they remember it. You know it's not just a passing piece of content or a passing interaction, it's something that actually sticks with them.

Are you good at you if you were self-assessing and i know you're young so like that keeps evolving, but at this exact moment, do you think you're good at scratching your own itch as a consumer figure outer or do you think you are good at research like Black and white data: do you think, do you think that you've got the ear you know for me, i'm like. Oh i'm, a music ar. I just do it for life right. I just.

I can't explain it. I just know nft. I just know this. I just know that it's just in me, culturally, because i think my empathy for humanity makes it come logical to me, which is like why i play in so many pockets.

What do you think your strength is of those three a mix of the three? How do you break that down? You know, i think when i first started, i was solving for my friends myself and the problems that i had, and so it was definitely yeah. It was a scratcher, but to get to scale you can't just scratch yourself right like i am not a travelista, but i know that travel noir, you know, is something that emotionally travel aspiration, getting that that vacation or just moving out of your getting out of your City uh is something that everybody wants to do and that there was nobody doing that for black people, so that was also to some extent intuition to what other people may need and then listening just like straight up. Looking at what's trending in the mainstream white millennial media spaces and then testing it with an audience, that's underserved! It's really. It sounds simple! No! No! Like you're talking to somebody who literally thinks the only thing that matters is simplicity, which is why it's impossibly hard, because everybody who's listening right now, including us, we're taught by society and school to complicate it and very few of us, were able to luckily go into A cocoon of our own dna or have parenting or have some other force of the outside, that was allowing us to not conform to complexity.

That's right! That's exactly right! You said something that i really liked, and i want to double click into, because my obsession with the show is to put people on that. I want people to know and for everybody, who's watching right now to get something truly something that they can build on. I like what you just said, and i want to play with it a little bit, because i do it in a not in the exact way you to the audience that you do it. But i do it overall you're watching what's happening in mainstream white america and you test it.

Do you test it in the pure form that it's playing out over there or do you test it with some contextual twist that you're using for understanding the nuance, the slang, the perspective that it might garner, or do you do both that's right, so i'll take afrotech As an example, it's a big tech conference. You know it's the number one black tech conference and we just came in and crushed the entire competition of black tech conferences. At that time, what i did was i went to google, i o i went to f8. You know i went to the big, regular, mainstream tech conferences and i said oh wait a minute.

You guys have huge beautiful booths. You guys have champagne, you guys have incredible spaces with great visuals. You know we're not at a hotel by the airport, we're in the main center and i just duplicated that, but for us, but instead of having like boring speakers, i had rappers. I had producers, i had you know the who's who of the black innovation economy, which doesn't always look the same.

I did also have your design folks, your engineers, but it definitely was a black version of the pattern that was uh best in class. What um? What do you think is the sneakiest data source, whether black or white, meaning like data or quant or qual um? What is the sneakiest, quant or qual data source right now? You think in society, where are some: where are some of the ways to figure out the tick that maybe people are underestimating or just completely, not looking at or just to have fun here? What's the most overrated? What do you think? You know? I think you know. I could see you're ready to go so i'm going to let you yeah, i'm like. I got a lot of different things that i sneak that people like what really yeah.

So i always look at our competitors websites and we figure out what their top articles are for the month and for the week and that just gives us insights into topics that are trending that maybe our audiences have never been exposed to from us. But we know they want to read, or we know that they're interested in um instead of trying to guess it's like well, you know if michael b jordan is trending then like we should maybe write more about michael jordan by the way on the record, michael b, Jordan should always be trending. He basically is trying to scream that's why 2021 statement michael b, jordan, should always be trembling. He pretty much is at 100.

I agree with that. Yeah yeah, look at your direct competitors. What's working for them and figure out. If you need to test that um and then the other thing is yeah and then the other thing i was going to say is look at where your audience is and where they're playing next so when clubhouse was coming out, you know i'm friends with andres and Horowitz guys, so i was like early on clubhouse and then i was like.

Oh, this got black really fast. Okay, yeah what's happening here and do we have this this sub demographic of the black community? If not that's great, now i get to learn more about what they're interested in and then we can apply that to our channels right so uh. It's just always studying your audience. Club clubhouse was such a gift and twitter spaces and facebook right now, you like you, could be passively listening in the backdrop to the current conversation of normal human beings.

That's right, it was like the most i mean it was my biggest problem. Was i needed to create a fake account right because everybody tried every single time, i'm in the bathtub right now guys. I cannot talk a hundred percent. I i miss.

I miss the days when nobody gave a about me or who, because that was that, was that good listening. You know now it's like a little bit harder final thoughts on customer tick, one more word of wisdom in the last minute and thank you for being on yeah um. You know, i think the last thing is. I read a lot of emails from other industries, so i think that's just getting outside of your own self.

Um has been really helpful to just like. What's going on in the like climate change industry, what's going on in fintech and uh, one of the things that i've learned really early is that black people we're early adopters. So, even in fintech, it's like cool coinbase and all these other companies that uh we're using them more than average or like cash app right. So learning about what your customers are using from a technology point of view and even in just different industries, has helped us stay ahead of the curve when it comes to content, creation and topics of conversation.

It's been a real pleasure. Thanks for having me have a great day, next, up, we've got bobby brown and for the two people that don't know bobby as a professional makeup artist, she created 10 simple lipsticks and launched her billion dollar brand bobby brown cosmetics. She left her names day company in 2016 to return to her roots as an entrepreneur, launching a line of wellness and beauty, ingestibles an editorial platform and a boutique hotel. Welcome bobby uh.

Thank you so much and you get it. Did you get in the makeup company, which is kind of the biggest thing i've done my reason for getting up in the morning, besides being able to see my friend gary, if this is the only way i could socialize with you, hey gare, how are you bobby I've literally decided that i basically do all these different content series, so you could be a guest on what i do. So it's so nice to see you having a good summer um great summer, i'm ready for fall. I'm not gon na lie, but i'm ready yeah.

I've had a great summer as somebody who i think just has an innate superpower of understanding the audiences she's been trying to go after what do you think it is about your dna or the process? You have there's a lot of people listening right now who are in different parts of their journey, starting out or cmos of the biggest companies in the world. How does one tap into figuring out how how a customer ticks? You know what it's so much more simple than anyone ever gives it credit for it's. It's simple. I mean when i you know when my market research, which i hate those terms because it's so corporate to me, is start with my friends.

If my friends like something i'm like that's a good start, my sister, my kids and then you could, you know then you've got your entire social uh. You know a stratosphere to ask questions. I knew i had a hit with jones road when i started just listening to the you know, customers and telling me exactly what they think and feel. So you know i'm like you.

I talk back to people, it's just it's in my nature, but so much of who we are and what we do is right in the palm of your hands and so many brilliant founders and ceos. They think there's something out there that they could. You know learn or get from someone else and by the way, the answer is in the room, always with jones like what was your hypothesis and then what adjusted as you listened along the way you know it's exactly what i had in my mind, it's what i Probably would have done you know if i had the power and ability to change things when i was you know, part of a big company that was impossible so and it was just everything was just really timely. So when i launched you know i'd look, i couldn't talk to anyone about it before i launched because i had non-compete so the day i launched it was like you know, taking a chance.

People will hate this because so much of makeup in the industry is heavy and contoured and thick and very popular, and this is the opposite of that, but i really believed in it and i believe there was enough people that want this. I don't expect to get everyone, but i you know, if anything, i think that i've been blown away by how many people actually want to wear makeup and just let me feel better, and it's really again, you know i'm a chicago girl. Everything is simple to me: yeah talk about that simplicity, the chicago girl. Do you do you think that people put too much academics around consumer behavior? I 100, and you know the the the good news about me.

Is i get overwhelmed reading brilliant things that people say. I just it like clogs my brain, so then i just start all over and think about what i what i really think and then you know figure out what to act on. Don't get me wrong. I i surround myself, you know with brilliant people that know things that i don't like my gm.

You know we happen to have a great relationship. She could explain to me i she's 31. I could explain to her and it were and it works, but you know so much of our story is the same because we're not your classic, you know educated anything. I know you know my business degree.

I i got from life, as did you and i had a store in my basement growing up with my friends, a jewelry store. It was gorgeous and wonderful, but you know what there was no foot traffic, so it didn't really succeed. I love that um, you weren't you weren't able to convince some of the uh neighbors to come through. No, i don't think my parents, let me, but we did have we're, not we're not letting strangers into our basement bobby um.

Given the fact that you built from the streets, then you have this incredible opportunity to sell your business, which is a monumental thing for many entrepreneurs. Then you're in a corporate environment which for street kids like you and i is like you know, like i work, i have an agency that works with corporate companies and it's hard for me, but i still control my business. I my compassion towards what you had to go through during that time, but it's difficult right. You know for us, our companies are our babies now you're watching it in this conglomerate and, back to your point, we learned by doing a lot of people in business.

Learn you know get into positions by reading about it like what was the you know, because i know there's a lot of people watching right now who are considering to sell their company. You know there's, obviously the financial gain that comes along with that, but there's an emotional aspect towards that that i don't think a lot of people talk about instead of going, because i want to stay on theme, i'm going to go into a very narrow place of This, what surprised you without naming names or going you know, but what surprised you about the out of touchness of big corporations with the with the consumer and and what did you learn and what are some of the themes there and things for people look out for, If they sell their company and have to navigate that business within a big company right, sorry, there's a lot of answers with that. So i'm going to be really great. First of all the thing is you got four minutes so yeah i got.

I need 30 seconds. So what the main thing that i learned working with a lot of people at the table in really beautiful, suits from all over the world. But honestly it was a very good looking, you know crowd, but what i learned was everybody has an idea. Everyone knows better and because i'm you know, i'm not one of them, i'd listen to them and i could fight and i'm not.

I wasn't going to fight what i learned is to listen to sit back when it was time, give my opinion and say to them, and this also is why i'm happily married 33 years that i hear what you're saying that's an interesting idea, because that's honestly, you Know you have to figure out how you get along with people to make the best decisions for your company, and now that i have you know 12 people that work for me and my only investor is my business partner, my husband so um, you know i it's The same thing i hear what you're saying and i want him to say it to me. I hear what you're saying that's kind of the most important thing and i do advise a lot of founders. They call me up and they ask me and i give them the good bad and the ugly - and you know i stayed 22 years after i sold the company. I don't know no, it's incredible insane and gary who would think that at 60 i left the company.

I was 59 years old, i'm 64. Now you know i founded a new makeup company who, in a million years, would have thought that you know there is life after one big thing: you do yeah yeah. You noticed i'm obsessed with this. I'm like what's the matter with people yeah you're you're, you are more on fire and vibrant right now than 87 of the 29 year olds.

I know on earth like i don't understand why people listen we've as a society have started to go after certain issues around the world like around gender and race and thing and religion. We need to start talking about ageism like this concept that, like we have 36 year olds bobby, who are watching this right now, who think their life is over and they it up. They didn't do they're like people are confused as with age bobby yeah, but this really great thing that's happening, um right now, there's so many bad things in the world happening. But the really great thing is: everyone has permission to do something else: to stop whatever isn't working for you.

Don't do it and do something else, and just i don't care what it is. You'll figure out how to make money, but but just follow your dream and take chances and honestly, don't forget about happiness, don't forget about your health and don't forget about your personal life. You know your kids, like all those things actually matter, and you know work is my my joy, but you know i'm one day i'll have grandkids and you know i think i'll be an even happier person, of course, and and it's amazing i mean like we, both Live this life, it's amazing to have work, be your hobby. We spend so much time on work work, so many people look at work.

The way i looked at school, i was depressed six to eighteen. Do you know what sunday nights in the fall winter and spring felt like for me like, like the worst i hated it, and the fact that people from 22 to 68 live in that place like people like gary, you don't understand. I have bills, i'm like live in a shittier house. Right live, have a shittier car, don't buy four dollar coffee like fight for happiness, get a roommate.

Yeah figure figure it out by the way. If you were my kid because my third kid hated school and wasn't happy so i let him go to school in colorado, you know, as a parent, you've got to kind of follow each individual personality and figure it out, which is the same thing as your employees. Everyone has, you know things that they're good at and things they're, not 100 bobby love. You love! You bye, amazing, thanks to you both next.

We welcome sophie jameson, the chief tick-tock officer at nerf, and what a story she has her creative content and love for nerf earned her over 1.8 million followers on tick, tock and, ultimately, a c-suite position at nerf she's. Just she was just a junior in college when she landed it and today sophie's, going to be interviewed by our very own peter chun svp global head of partnerships and growth at vaynermedia. Welcome to you both hey everybody thanks so much for that intro andrea sophie. How are you i'm fantastic? How are you well i've gotten, so many messages from people just asking me so many questions to ask you uh - and this is just such a gift for us to have you on today.

So thank you, but we have so. Let's, let's get right into it. I think i think one of the first things everyone wants to know: chief tick-tock officer, first of its kind, give us the origin story. How did it happen? What was going on? I mean just looking at your backdrop: it's a pretty natural thread that i think most people can pull but give us the reveal tell us about that.

Yeah i'll, make it quick for you guys. So i was posting on tick tock right around last year, right when covet hit uh we were in quarantine, didn't have much else to do, got around 1.5 million followers and then nerf created this job, where the application was via tiktok, which was really cool in its Own regard uh, so i made a tick tock applied and i had a formal interview and then they said we'll call you back in a bit and then they call me back 12 hours later and i got the job you know i i remember when we first Spoke - and you told me the two weeks, we'll get back to you in two weeks and it was actually 12 hours um, that that to me is just such major props to the hasbro nerf organization and just understanding what their strengths are and what they need to Figure out and being able to put you in a place to move so quickly, so it's a huge congrats so tell us about the role like: what's the job, the day-to-day, do you truly have autonomy um? You know we talk a lot about having this freedom in a framework because of all the things tick-tock requires, which is speed, speed, speed and kind of moving at the speed of culture, but tell us about the day-to-day and almost a little bit around. You know your role and how the infrastructure of the organization supports you, because i think a lot a lot of companies are are looking to figure that out now yeah. So it is a very independent job um.

You know i don't really have anybody checking in you know on a day-to-day basis, i create around five tick tocks a week and then we go through a whole process of making sure that they're, okay and then posting them in the following weeks. But if there's a trend which is super important, a trend - that's trending on tick, tock, we'll hop on it and usually produce a piece of content within 12 hours of seeing the trend uh, so just expediting those approval processes. Typically, i just sent it to my boss and even if he doesn't get it, i go. No, it's gon na work, trust me and then uh.

The the best part about just the nerf team in general is that they're so welcoming to mistakes, which i just think is so crucial in in this landscape. You know we'll post a tick, tock and i'll say i'm so sorry that didn't do well and they'll say what are you talking about? We learned so much from that. We'll never do that type of video again and that's invaluable, which is a really cool perspective. Wow wow, so how often do you think things don't work out on the platform that there's an inside gain that helps empower the next version? Yeah i'd say even you know, like 75 of the time or something insane like that.

You know if you're posting every day one hits a week, that's that's typical and then all the other ones you learn and improve. That's that's. That's such an important point and i feel like even folks at vayner. We are very contemporary creative media strategy organization and we love hacking platforms and moving quickly, but even within our own organization.

There is a sense that you can go viral overnight on the platform and and coming from you it's just great, to hear 75 failed, and so the notion isn't to start to think about. Oh, my gosh, this isn't working. You just have to continue to post more and more get in the comments. Learn grab the insight and reproduce which is incredible, which is which gets us kind of to the next question here, which almost every person was messaging me about, which is what makes a good tick tock yep, and i wish i had a secret formula, and i could Just say a and b bam you're viral.

It's not that easy. The first thing i always say is - and this is applies to everything in life - enjoy what you're making. If you make a video and you don't like it, you can immediately tell and people are going to be turned off and not want to watch it. I'm passionate about every single tech talk that i create whether or not it does well.

That's that's honestly. The most important thing, and that comes in together with authenticity and just being yourself on camera, creating tick tocks that you actually like and then just continually learning you know from past mistakes like i said you kind of start to create your own formula and it's going To be different for every single influencer, every single brand uh, there's no one size fits all which i actually love um, but it's also a headache for a lot of marketers, but there's no one-size-fits-all on tick-tock. So look two things. You already dropped two gems on everybody here, one which is 75 of the tick.

Tocks crate won't work and two it's almost like every tick. Tock requires something new and you constantly have to be creating it into being there are there any kind of recent learnings you've had from the posts you've put up sophie. That just seemed to be kind of not to say you need to game the algorithm, but the algorithm obviously is a huge component here. Uh brands trying to trying to hack the for you pages, is always top of mind unless the tips to hack but kind of what seems to be working today.

Yeah definitely just doing the trends and and seeing what the viewers like what gets really great engagements, and you can learn a lot from your comments. You can, you know, they're, not always positive, but there's a lot that you can learn from them and if you take it with the right attitude and perspective, every single comment can give you some piece of insight, but we also have just been doing this format where We try to be as like, real as possible and and just be like. This is what it's like, as chief tick, tock officer, kind of pull the curtain back and those tend to do pretty well as well yeah. You know you just mentioned something there about being real number one and number two, that not all comments are positive and a lot of our brands.

I think struggle with the speed of reacting in comments and posts and like we like to call it splintering different tick. Tocks off of what seems to be working because it's just kind of like the structure that they have internally, but also just their concern, and i want to say insecurity. But just the you know, you don't want to have to deal with a pr comment or a bad brand comment. But what do brands need to have in place to be able to move quick like what have you put in place? If you think nerf allows and if it's kind of we discuss freedom in a firmware, but is it just truly you please just have to test and learn, but what do some brands and organization you're breaking up so bad? Unfortunately, right now on my end, oh yeah just hear me out uh, it's not terrific, but i can answer what i heard of the question um.

So as far as that goes, we all have a lot of autonomy. Thank you friend, and we all have access to the tick tock account and then we just have you know pretty basic common sense and then like legal rules of what to respond. But you know at any time there's like four or five people that are. You know casually going through the comments when they have a chance or replying to other uh brands content as well, which is also a super important thing, is to comment on other brands: tick, tocks and just do something fun, and we we.

We comment on a lot of those and those tend to do well and we grow from them as well. Okay, sophie! Can you hear me a little bit bit of technology challenges, but i think we're going to keep it going. Um incredibly helpful um, but two last quick questions, um or maybe just one last question: uh any brands that stand out come on in here, peter we're just gon na. Do a quick he's right next to me, even though it doesn't look like it we're um.

I think, for whatever reason your internet's not working mine is come on in here, peter, that's so funny all right. Let's keep it going. We only have a couple minutes, um, just two. I guess one one last question uh.

Well, first and foremost, thank you sophie. This has been incredibly insightful, rapid-fire learnings, i just think so. Many brands had really good takeaways on what they need to be doing differently, but who are some of the brands you admire on the platform that you think are doing a good job today, yeah. So when you first asked me this question last week, i had some like really big brands, come to mind, but there's a couple.

You know really smaller brands that i think are just doing phenomenal and ninety percent of their marketing budget is tick tock. One of them is jersey, bird official. They literally are just like a custom hockey jersey company, but their tick. Tocks are fire uh.

They always do super well, they're, pretty hilarious. They come across. My for you page. You know, like often - and you know it's made me - want to make a custom jersey and then another creator is utopia us and he he creates custom clothing for a bunch of different brands, and the format of his videos is also just phenomenal.

It grabs your attention immediately on the for you page and both of them. I think all of their marketing is via tick tock, which is super cool yeah. I think i think we're all waiting for that next wave of disruptors, which is really going to be seated and built into talk, first understanding how to connect with that audience sophie. Thank you.

So much for all of the information and education you've provided today and just a huge thanks to nerf as an organization in hasbro for just being so forward-looking and creating a role like you to just help, educate the market and brands. So thank you. Thank you. Thanks sophie and best of luck, what an amazing opportunity all right up! Next, we welcome roger soleil cmo of wework.

Roger is my hero, not only because he was born in barcelona, spain, but also because he has over 20 years of leadership experience in marketing, but also in innovation of products and services. When roger was cmo at sprint, he was named one of the world's most innovative cmos by business insider in both 2016 and 2017, and he's all about the chiefs and the royals today roger will be joined by vayner media's svp of media antonia swann. Welcome to you. Both thanks so much thank you so much so andrea kind of stole a little bit of my question roger but first off.

Thank you so much for joining it. I'm super excited to have this conversation with you. I think, as andrea mentioned about your amazing background and how impressive it is, i think the audience everyone really wants to know before we get into consumer's tick. You were the ceo of sprint during the t-mobile merger, which i'm sure was an extremely challenging project, and then you chose to join wework as cmo about a year and a half ago amid the whole coven 19 crisis.

What were you thinking when you took that role and we're going into it like? Where are we yeah? I like exciting projects? I guess right so look when i when i joined spring it was also about doing a turnaround which we did from 2015 to 2020 and and then once we merged with t-mobile, then my assignment was over and say: okay, what's next right and look we work um. It's a brand that i've always admired uh it's. They have built a very powerful and interesting product now you're right in in april 2020, when i joined it was after the right after the the failed, ipo and uh. There was all this noise about wework uh, but i think that's exactly what it was a lot of noise that uh and ultimately, what i looked at is what's going to be the the future starting now right.

So we have this new management team. New ceo wanting to do things very differently uh then i look at the the actual unit economics of the business. They are strong and and ultimately, what matters most is the product was extremely loved by customers and and is our nps is very high. We have very loyal members, and the product was a true, a truly noticeable product in a category that had not been disrupted for many years.

So ultimately, look it's all about. Uh challenges this life and, and i love the idea of uh like finding helping find a way uh to for wework to to grow, and i saw also ultimately, the pandemic was obviously also a big problem, but also a big, a big opportunity. Right, as all problems are right, so ultimately the the the idea was what what's going to be the post-pandemic world right. The pandemic is not going to last forever now, even if it's lasting a little bit longer than we all expected, but uh.

The point is, what's going to be the the world of office, space and and workspace needs and collaboration and and teamwork in a post-pandemic world right and - and we all know it was going to be different, and i think that wework is the the best company uh To be able to find a way right and and to find a new way, that's why, after i joined, we created this new positioning that we called uh. That's how tomorrow works, which basically what it uh it shows is hey. We are the future of work um. We are um, the the the new ways of working are gon na, be created, uh with companies like wework, and then we supported this with the different evidences, like first health and safety, being a priority, of course, but then our product itself being a flexible product, a Flexible office space, this is, which is something that we're leaning in even more and more right.

Now our position is pivoting to smart flexibility, which is ultimately nothing more than in this uncertain times, in giving um, giving employees and and companies the ability to to develop their own hybrid models of work and and for that they need an a provider that actually gives Them flexibility in how they in in office space, so a space that it's it has no capex that they can go and use it and scale their teams up up and down whenever they want to so ultimately, giving this total flexibility and giving them the ability to To have their teams be more productive than ever without any long-term commitment and with inspiring spaces that they can find whenever they want right. So that's that was the idea to rebuild and to pivot the positioning more from a co-working space to an actual flexible space provider. So that was the opportunity i saw amazing. Thank you so much you jumped into many things that i want to talk about really quickly, so the pandemic is obviously a super big part of this, but two things you came in to wework and you were super innovative and you guys created new programs new products.

You pivoted, as the consumer, was changing their habits, so two questions in this consumers, for you are also two different things. You have, b, to b and b to c, which is very unique, and people have very different opinions, whether they want to work from home, whether they want to go in once a day or if you're, someone like me, you want to work from new york one Week you want to work from la another week. How are you guys thinking about that and how consumer trends are changing and and how you guys were able to really pivot? To that i know you only have three minutes so i'll. Let you jump.

Okay! No! Look great question: i think the consumers they are so companies they are looking for a way to get their employees back together in a safe environment and, more importantly, in a creative environment where they can collaborate and create magic and also build culture for their companies. So that's an important thing to do and that's where that's the need that we're trying to solve for right - and we know that the future is not going to be like the past right, even after the pandemic. So it's accelerated trends that already happen. So no one is looking for spaces and topicals for people to be nine to five answering emails.

It's about creating intentional spaces where people can collaborate, so that's the actual need of companies and then as employee, the employees or the even professionals or consumers they're. Looking for places uh where they can be simply more productive individually, they want to escape this work from home, which many times it can be difficult and they want we. We count it as work from near home right places, but where you don't need to commute, you can eventually walk there and find a great space to work and to find other people, and maybe with other people from your company or even from all other companies that Ultimately, create this great work environment. So this is one of the needs that that that we've seen and in terms of the products that we've been pivoting them exactly to adjust or to adapt to these needs right.

So in terms of the this consumer, or also from the enterprise site, we created this product that we call access, which basically, it's a monthly membership. That gives you the ability to go work on any wework around the world or around the corner, and mostly what's happening, is obviously around the corner uh. So you can really escape from this work from home, or you can have small teams gather into a place to collaborate. That does not need to be the corporate headquarters, which eventually requires a huge commute or or it's simply closed right.

So then, basically there you can, you can have this flexible space available um. We even have created a version of that that we call on demand on demand access, which is basically an app where you can book space by the hour or by the day. Uh and we've seen amazing growth on that and it's the ultimate flexibility of of office space. So that's been connected to that need of consumers and then from the enterprise side, with uh leaning to creating this concept of innovation hubs or collaboration hubs which ultimately, it's a space that is designed for collaboration and where you are not really buying or losing 10 spaces.

For 10 people you're losing the space, maybe for 100 people, and then they rotate and collaborate and they go whenever they need to and they uh then and they've. They found this purpose. This purpose together in that space right. So that's the other products that we've been developing adapted to these new trends, love it so super interesting, so you guys have clearly just gone after flexibility, almost like a class pass but of the future um.

One last question: i know it's 12.50. I know you love soccer. What's your favorite team? What's your favorite team uh, it's uh barza uh football club, barcelona. I was born in barcelona and look.

This is my team, even though, as you mentioned before, i've been now i've been following the case: casey uh chiefs a lot these last five years as i was in kansas city, but uh, big change from soccer to football. Great, thank you, i believe uh. Oh, i think we might have a few more minutes since no one else is jumping on. So i would love to know.

As oh, hey one more question, i was about to jump in okay, we've got so many more questions roger and i think we have all the answers behind. You is that, right on that board? Yes, whatever? What do you want to know all the secrets? That's right! Amazing, thanks to you both thanks. So much okay take care. Last, but definitely not least, we welcome lynn schlesinger.

She is the chief customer experience officer at forbes and lynn stepped into this new role just last month, where she is responsible for delivering digital transformation and growth by connecting with customers across forbes. Today, lynn is going to be joined by nick maridis evp at vaynermedia, and i'm gon na bring him on watch this five. Four three major. It's like magic, hello, hello, hello, hi, lin.

I love that hello nick. How are you today very good? Thank you for joining us uh happy to be here. There could not be a more perfect title for this episode of this show. Chief customer experience officer.

It's a newish title. I've been seeing in the world, you know some announcements recently. I think it's a newish role for you, but maybe we start there where you know what is this new role all about? You know. What are you fired up about in this new role? Well, i am so excited about it.

It is very new. Just about six weeks since we made the announcement and what we're really trying to do at forbes is position ourselves for. What's next, forbes has been in business for over a hundred years, we've got huge plans to grow and scale and create new products and services to support all of our audiences, and i'm going to be looking at through that through the lens of data technology and marketing, And how do we create this incredible customer experience wherever someone is interacting with us, no matter which product or which solution they are connecting with us on so the true end to end looking at it, the full 360 of the experience um, it's pretty cool and um Sticking true to the title of this episode in that new role: um, how do you in the forbes team think about figuring out what makes customers tick? I mean that has to be an everyday always-on thing in the world of publishing different from my life and advertising. We have a little bit more time but um.

How do you think about it? So we think about it really broadly, we have so many different customers at forbes and we really try and consider each of their different needs. We have readers of forbes.com. We have folks who engage with us through the social channels we have prince subscribers, who are reading our beautiful publication every two months when it hits their mailboxes. We have event attendees and event speakers.

Those are other audiences we consider and care for, and then we have our incredible marketing partners, another group of customers that are super important to us and who we want to elevate the forbes brand so that they can elevate their messages through our different channels. Goodness, how how big is listening, you know when it comes to how customers tick you know across when you got that many different customers too. It's such a big part of what we do and something we are now getting. Uber focused on and really trying to understand what our audiences need, and what do they need from us at different points of their journey.

Forbes is incredible because we we, we are the media business media brand for folks who are starting their entrepreneurial journeys, whether they're, young adults or even high school students who are entrepreneurial, have an entrepreneurial mindset and want to be on the 30 under 30 list someday. We have mid-career professionals, we just launched our 50 over 50 franchise, focusing on women who are doing incredible things at the middle of their careers. And then we have an incredible um, loyal audience of folks who are working with us through retirement and financial planning. As they look to enjoy the fruits of all their labors through their entire career, so we really have this incredible arc, an incredible long-term relationship with our readers in particular, and we do listen, we listen to what they say, certainly when they provide us direct feedback.

We see the kind of content that they're interested in reading and we want to create more of that content so that they can always stay well informed and we have a slew of new products on deck that we will be launching, hopefully soon that we know, based On market research and things we understand from where people's um desires are from receiving content that we're going to be bringing to market um later this year and next year cool. It sounds, like you know, in the publishing world.