One question: An amazing lineup of CEOs Founders and experts. This is marketing for the now. Thank you so much Gary Good afternoon Andrea Good afternoon January It's still January Can I say Happy New Year I Literally Literally the two minutes before we went on here I was sending out uh hope you have a great year. Emailed to a couple friends I've been spoken to in a while so my rule is you can say happy New Year until February 1st.

So I think we're by the skim of our teeth Still okay. All right I'm I'm game for that too. even though people were telling me last week I had to stop saying it. so I'm with you.

We're gonna come in hot today. We're talking about some hot takes and we're super fired up to bring Austin Sprints up first. He has an unbelievable following. Gary He's got 22.5 million followers combined across Instagram Tick Tock and YouTube and I Love it because he's all about mastering the algorithm and understanding of the platforms.

So super fired up to have Austin here from Snowy Flagstaff Take it away Awesome! Thanks for having me guys! Austin How are you brother I'm doing good How are you doing Gary too Well before we get into it with Austin I just want to give some shout outs of people watching. Robert K on LinkedIn What's good uh Jesse p on Facebook hello Darry Cabrera33 on YouTube hello I'm Alison love a good on Facebook What's good? Let's be very active in the comments. It's great to be with all of you. I think there's a lot of learning and I think we start off with a bang because Austin represents something I care about in marketing which is there's a disconnect with the people in the trenches in the dirt actually working the Creative Media and math strategies of social networks which are going to be important because the way that television ads are going to work is going to be this way because all of the streaming services their ad products are much more social media Centric with targeting and creative than television and then you have a lot of the CMOS that are watching right now that are.

You know, not because they're bad people, they're in Ivory Towers because they manage so much and they're not in the dirt and so Austin I want to really get your hot takes for 23. from the dirt. Like where's the opportunity for the creators, entrepreneurs, small businesses and Fortune 500 companies from your personal perspective in amassing what you have interesting I think uh, I think for 2023 one of the biggest things is going to be Ai and I know uh chat GPT has been getting really big and I've realized that I think a lot of creatives are going to start using chat GPT to essentially come up with uh ideas and Concepts or analyze their own videos and other people's videos to essentially kind of start to figure out Trends before they emerge or uh, kind of tell them how to make videos essentially step by step. So also give people an example because I think this is exactly right.

Like right now, everyone's like chat Gbt it's like tell a story about 1975 and Mike Tyson's voice enter and it's like oh my God But what you're saying and this is absolutely right. From a creative strategy standpoint, you might type in analyze Mr beasts last five videos and Austin S's last seven tick tocks tell me what is aligned in the title and the copy and the timing they post it. enter and then that artificial intelligence May spit back something that gives you some creative Insight that then may impact the way I make a wine video Yes, yeah, exactly essentially allows you to get uh, way more analytical on videos where instead of spending all the time doing yourself watching each video and trying to see it for yourself, you can speed up the process by sure putting my name in and then putting or putting uh Mr Beast name in or and by the way, real quick I apologize why you've blown up so much over the last couple years. Why some names may not work is the data stops somewhere around mid-2019 but all the evolutions going forward of the chat CBT competitors and I'm sure chat GPT itself will get more and more and more updated up to the day.

Yes, Oh yeah, I'm sure. And I think it's up to Uh 2021 now, so it's awesome I didn't see that is that? is that right? That's awesome. Yeah and uh yeah. so I mean it's amazing for that.

but it's even if uh, creators want to kind of take over the managerial side too, they can also kind of talk to chat GPT on in terms of how to write messages to these brands or uh, essentially for communication. Also, do you feel because I've been on this kick as well and like I'm reading some of the comments. some people like it's already being used in our agency? A lot of people. You agree with me that a lot of people are really underestimating how bananas big this AI thing is going to be.

Yes I think absolutely yeah. what was your give us? let's go right into the dirt. What has been the biggest like holy that you've typed into Jet that GPT that you were like I cannot believe this. You want to know what it was For me it was uh honestly I think it was a talking with Brands because there's a way that I was writing the brands when I was reaching out with them.

but then it's a whole other thing when I asked Chat GPT to kind of go over my messages so we can kind of go deeper with the brands. They're kind of going through the Brand's website and seeing like what the Brand's values are and kind of giving me a quick review preview. So I think I really didn't reach out to monetize what you do has been upped dramatically by saying to chat Gbd hatch EBT I Want to talk to Wrigley's gum? Please analyze their website and social media like like that kind of game. Yeah, exactly Because then I feel like it gives me a little bit of a competitive advantage over the other creators who are just reaching out there.

Going Wrigley's gum, Let's work together because now when I'm reaching out to them, it's uh, James Rossini the OG in the vaynerx world who's the president runs the Sasha group just said you know in the chat you know brand tone of voice which is exactly right. Austin these things go super fast. Yeah, there's a couple other minutes. What? What else is on your radar? What else should people be paying attention to? What else are you excited about? Uh, let's see last thing.

I'm really excited about uh, boxing, Boxing the influencer realm I think it's going to be huge this year and I know, uh, it's really fun for creators because it's a really good way to get in the best shape of your life. but you reach a whole new demographic and the uh, like a whole new realm that you've never been able to hit before. and uh, you get to fight other creators. and I think it's just the fact I think we should get you a big area.

Honestly I've thought about a lot I want to create an over 45 year old league for boxing and I wanna you know? because I'm not looking to get in the ring with you 27 First of all, you under 30 year olds are starting to steroid out and you guys are scare me with the 45 to 55. Listen: I am willing to fight anybody who has an audience who's over 45 and isn't actually professionally capable of fighting I'm ready because I I'd like to knock someone the out just for like. The problem is if I get knocked the out I'm not is self-esteemed out as I am I'm not sure I can deal with on an everyday basis seeing 800 memes of me being knocked out. so I have to focus on this.

but I gotta tell you I'm open to it. see I think that'd be a lot of fun and I think dads too if we start getting a lot of the creators dads to go in the boxing matches I don't know I think that'd be pretty cool I I Will tell you the boxing thing is exactly right and the thing that I'm looking to do is you know you've got this huge pickleball match coming up for tennis fans, you know, right before the finals of March Madness with John Mcenroe Andy Roddick Michael Chang and Andre Agassine I think that's going to crush on ESPN a big one that I've been trying to talk more about is Pay-per-view one on one to 11 basketball I think that you know boxing very similarly. two things stand out to me: running a race a hundred yard dash with like five influencers like Olympic style where you train for eight weeks and one-on-one basketball I think would rate heavy I think that if you and I played one-on-one even with our small fan bases that are big in the scheme of things that would do better than people think because there's there's something about Mono Amano fighting is the ultimate but you know something that a lot more people would do is would play it's you know I think a lot more people would do the one-on-one thing and the race thing. So anyway I think you're on Austin continued success brother.

Hey thank you for having me appreciate it. Thank you everyone watching All right I'm I think glitch am I glitching out Yeah you're a little robotic which is exciting to me because you were talking about how everybody else was glitching and now you're glitching and that makes me know it. Really excited boxing thing me out all right. Andrew You're still chopping enough that I may have somebody else might have to come in and introduce the next person Hannah you were always ready I'm here everybody! One of the great ways to build a real organization.

I'm just going to take a a little public service announcement for people that want to build meaningful things. Hannah's worked at Vena for nine years or so. Nine right? Hannah Help Me: nine and a half as I like to say um and as of a year ago 13 months ago, right? you started in January of last year is one of my Chief of staffs I have too. And you know I think a lot of people don't realize how much talent they have in the building.

Three six, nine years in that instead of doing what they do, bringing them more Inner Circle to help you scale And here's another incredible execution event. Needed somebody and boom there she is as always Hannah Thank you. You hate it. Um, next up we have Lauren Fritz Lauren is the chief corporate Affairs and marketing officer at Wework and she's all about creating Best in Class Global team to deliver impact A lot of what Gary was just saying now and listening and learning from Wework customers along the way.

Welcome Lauren Thank you thank you both for having me Lauren How are you I'm great I Really enjoyed the last conversation because I think the AI conversation is completely almost opposite of what we're having because we've had a front row seat to really every company around the world and listening to what they're thinking their future work is. so our insights are coming directly from consumer from what people are saying out there in the media And social media. So it's been a really interesting learning for all of us over the last few years really. But honestly, you know as a company, we've been doing this from the beginning.

So Lauren you know I'm I'm You know you have some good lighting here so I'm I'm not going to try to make you too red, but I really am passionate about more people giving more people roses while they're alive and active instead of like we're all nice when it's all over. and so you know we've met recently and I have to tell you I have the luxury of meeting so many Chief marketing officers and CEOs over the last 13 years and a very small percentage. Do I leave the first meeting saying oh, they're really on it and I just want you to know that that's how I felt about you and so it's a real pleasure and I'm actually genuinely excited to hear what your hot takes are for 2023 so let's not waste any more time. What? What are the things that you're most excited about or what are you seeing? Um well that was too kind of an introduction I too feel the same about you and your talent.

So I think you know I really was what founded this company was founded. um you know after the 2009 recession and what's been interesting to see is back then we might forget but there was this sort of you know Reformation on the old way of work. Um, and so when people think back then like what was what happened then obviously there was co-working Obviously there was other flexible space providers. We were not the first ones out there.

We were the first brand to really connect to what exactly people loved about their work day and the connections you make. The people you're with and the spaces we've created really enhanced that. The intentional design and people loved showing up for each other and for their job in wework spaces. Now over a decade later we're dealing with the same thing.

and I think you know what you read in the news is that it feels like there's this Reformation on you know, the office. but in fact that's not actually really what people are asking for. They're really asking for more control and balance over their day. So the listening and learning we've developed over the last really two years is enhancing our product to create the ultimate flexibility that really can set your team up for success to how best they want to work because it's not one size fits all.

And I think like one of the hot takes I would just say is reading. Over the last few days everyone comes up with their new idea like you have to shorten your meetings, less calendar invites less people in meetings, stand in meetings a couple days a week. Um, but they're the one There's not one thing that's going to solve for everything. and I think that's what employees are asking for.

They're asking for a holistic approach. The one tip: the one you know time of day is not really what they're looking for. they're asking for a full view of what you know how they can best work in this hybrid world and we think I'm starting to interrupt. but it's exactly right.

Like the biggest aha for me. like the amount of youngsters especially that in the first couple weeks of January where we have a hybrid model of in office and out of office so many of the kids were like reaching out to me on email like oh I had no idea how much I was missing like in one day in the office I picked up on three osmosis things that were incapable comma we as Vayner are we worked out actually have like offices out and virtually out and I think it's a game of and versus or I think people are so obsessed I think all of our anxiety on Earth is that people prefer or versus and I really do and I think this to your point. What got me excited to jump in is the quicker everybody figures out it's work from home and work from coffee shop and have a wework in a street like the way we use it is strategic markets right? like if and we kind of use it and and we've used it a lot. I mean we have our core offices in Wework.

We have strategic little 10-person things there that works along with being at home along with a big HQ in certain parts of the world. and I think the quicker people fall in love with and the quicker they're gonna get a lot. A lot of value, right? And our our you know that's why last year we came out with for all the ways you work we I don't have the answer for you and I think that's what everyone's figuring out. But what's been so interesting is hearing from all sides of companies, every sector rethinking it and they're really trying to take this more intentional approach to what their work day looks like.

What's interesting is we're seeing over in um, International markets and Europe in particular people really love coming back and there isn't the same headlines as there are here. and I I think that's because you know European culture has really had a work-life balance built into the structure of what their day-to-day is like. it's in nature of them. in America we're Hustle Harder We believed that there was a time constraint into order to say like you're doing a good job because you're here early, You stay late.

Like that, we had a little more balance and we're in the extremes, right? Generationally? Yeah. And by the way, unlimited 25 year olds email like I've had more kids under 30 email me saying mandate everyone come back to the office then I've had 50 or 40 year olds in my company. So this, but but to your point. generationally.

obviously not everyone. Culturally, there is a certain segment that has worked for 20 years that feels everyone should come back that's too extreme. And then I have plenty of under 30 year olds who are like I don't want to come into the office at all and I'm like that's cool. Like we may want to find someone.

It's not a diabolical divide if you read as I have every terminology between what people are deciding. Is their schedule? remote first, hybrid? There's still a place to come together. The most remote companies are still saying to us, hey, we still want to get a space to come together for our off-site So now the on-site is the new off-site Like people want to come together for the intentional collaboration, they don't want to be held to. You know, a set schedule.

But if a set schedule works for your team, it might work for your team. There isn't one size to your point, it's and it's not either. Or and I think there's space for everything and I think that's what we just keep developing as our product is really however you want to fit in. We're here to help you.

So for all the ways you want to work and your team is most successful, we can help you. And lastly I'll just say I think with the you know you know that unknown piece people are surveying their teams, they're asking the questions. they're trying to do all the right things. I think the good intention is there.

but I don't think they're getting the real insights that they can you know most effectively Get outside of we have a new man I'm selling. you know management software solution called Wework Workplace where like we can help you analyze exactly how much space you need because we've all had too much space before the pandemic and how do you best use it? How your team is telling you how they want to use it. So there's this data that creates a bond and trust between the executives and employees that is lacking right now. So Wework really is in this really interesting space Not Only having the benefit of listening to customers all around the world of companies of all sizes, but we also have a suite of products that no matter how you're telling us you want to work, we can help you.

We can. We can hook you up. Lauren Thank you so much! Have the best year thank you thanks for your support. That was a great conversation thank you and one that could be like a two-hour thing on itself right at.

Babs One of my favorite marketers Uh Ryan Harwood Babs A whole lot too buddies of mine uh said you know on-site is the new off-site right? Like call? You know it was so crazy because literally this morning going to grabs a coffee I was like oh, I might just send this slack and tell everyone to be here next Thursday Just for fun just for Vibes And that was exactly what Babs was talking about there like it's so wild how it flipped anyway I Don't know. Um, next we have Maureen Kelly She's the CEO and founder of Tarte. Cosmetics Maureen Started Tarte Out Over one bedroom New York City Apartment We love that hustle with a dream of developing good for you beauty that's never boring. We're big fans of all the vegan products that Tarte has created.

Um, and 20 years later she has built this brand into a multi-million dollar company. Welcome! Maureen You're a mute. You're on mute. That's like it seemed.

What you were saying was profound and super exciting. I was hyped. That's well. you could just say it again.

I was saying yeah I Started out of my one bedroom apartment in New York and Gary has been my online Mentor for 15 years. He just we just haven't met yet. but I hear him on my ear all the time. It's an important commodity.

Hustle Hustle Hustle. I mean so many business decisions that I make I Just hear him saying don't worry, don't don't worry about being cringy. don't worry about rejection Oh, for 15 years, go for it. I'm so happy for your success morning.

You know you. the brand is really hitting its stride. It's incredible to me what over the last 12 months how much it's hit the Lexicon more and more I think much like a lot of things that have worked for me I'm willing to be six, seven, twelve years early and let it come to me. I think you're a real example of that.

So for me, it's just actually very interesting to see what your hot takes are for 2023. So fire away. What are you seeing? What are you focused on? What do you? What do you? What do you like? Yeah, uh, all about you know, just keeping pivoting right and I think that's you're the king of that. So just keeping moving.

Obviously, um, influencer marketing has been really big for us and we do it in a really cheap and cheerful way. So we do it not by just doing paid influencer marketing, but we do it through relationships. So for us, it's not about saying like Okay here we're going to pay you to just do an ad for us like we get face to face with them. um and meet them and interact with them and get them to know what we're all about.

Which is you know, very much like you know, lifting up women and um, you know, giving back. That's been a really big part of my DNA since 1999. Oh my gosh. I can't even believe it's been that long.

Sometimes like you know, the 24 years and sometimes it feels like yesterday. um and then I would say the other thing is just you know, just keeping to try new things right? I mean I Feel like you know I mean you're on the heels of one right now, right? You had a real moment with this Dubai Execution I Feel like there haven't been a lot of people that have innovated on influencer marketing in the last three years. I Think people have done things around the edges, but maybe you can explain to the audience like what I'm referring to, how and what's been the aftermath because I think you really had a moment? Yeah, yeah, and you know. So we've been doing influencer trips since.

I mean for the past I would say nine years. Um, you know we've been taking influencers everywhere from like to my home here in the Florida Keys after like the hurricane to you know, build like storm kits and things like that's a Bora Bora back in the day and now just recently. like you're saying Gary to Dubai and this past trip really took off in a big way and we've got a lot of great feedback. Both other feedback.

Um, but you know the key for us was the other feedback. like it's too glitzy and glamor like? What was the count? What were people's like? what do they want to make of it said you know it was a female empowerment trip you know we um have been selling in the UAE for seven years and so we brought all of these like really powerful like creative smart women there and we donated to a UAE charity that lifts up um young girls and so some people said you didn't bring any boys on the trip but it was a female empowerment trip some people said you didn't bring um can we can We just all agree that 2023 should be the year of like. It's super okay to have a girls trip. It's super okay to have a boys trip even though I know I know boys have had it better but like is it not okay.

Can we say that it's okay to have a sports trip or like a spa like can we just get to a place of like everyone on Earth all agreeing that everyone's a hypocrite because for whatever they try to cancel they're doing some that someone else is going to cancel. Can we just see this morning? Can we just can we just speed this the up all be canceled to be uncanceled to reset the whole thing I Love every the my right friends I have unlimited friends on both sides. oh the left's too sensitive you got mad about Eminem's like everyone's a sensitive, everyone's like the hypocrisy in society is. That's my hot take for 2023.

more hypocrisy that the entire world is trading. Now there's not one me included here that's like that's not good, that then you do an hour late or something that is completely pissing someone off. Everyone sucks. Everyone's good.

can we just enough and we're all doing our best. Drop the freaking mic. People were saying why not 100 of people are doing their best and by the way, the numbers up down to 98 because it used to be one percent bad. Now it's two percent because people are just so tired.

On the extreme left, they're extreme right and it's making people go more extreme and like what the like. Keep your feet to yourself, it doesn't Yeah, then they're saying we were tone deaf because we spend so much money. we got every single thing you're allowed to. You're allowed to spend money on what you want to spend I Think every brand that runs a commercial on TV is wasting money I Would much rather take influences to Dubai than buy a commercial on the AFC Championship game that that one person watched.

Yeah, and we got to spend the week with them. We got to know them. We got to talk about the things that are important to us, got to put the products on their faces. Then they said that we didn't bring people that were my age and I was hypocrite for that.

Everything's a problem ageism, youthism like like everything's a problem. Yeah it was. It was a lot. Everyone had feedback on everything but I want everybody know it's on both sides you like Everyone was like yeah yeah no no enough, the moms don't count, the moms don't count I was like wait why the moms not count because they're these like gorgeous amazing.

Every single thing is bad if you decide to take a snapshot right like like why don't we look at the whole picture, why don't we look at the company's 365 days of activities Yes it's so true it is so true. but it was the most amazing trip. It went viral. Everyone was saying we made no sales for which we made so much money for it and then people were saying that I fired my marketing team I'm like what I came in Monday morning and I was like wait what in the world you know everyone has something to say for everything but I Have to say it was truly incredible.

We had all these amazing female founded um products that got donated on the trip so everything that we gave was free and we were supporting all these cool like entrepreneurial brands on the trip. So it was just. it was a really great viral moment that took off in the best kind of way without some well we got two minutes. What else? like what are you seeing on Tick Tock what are you seeing on YouTube What about YouTube shorts Give me a little LinkedIn have you done LinkedIn marketing yet? like talk to me I spend 10 minutes a night because of you on linked on my own LinkedIn um you know I forced myself I land but at night and I'm liking people's posts and I posted on my LinkedIn before I came on this to say like hey guys, tune in I mean this is a bucket list moment for me and I created my own.

Okay so 24 years of having a brand I've never had my own personal socials ever not Facebook not on Instagram nothing and I just this summer created a tech talk because you know I put your um your podcast on when I'm brushing my teeth you know doing my makeup in the morning I listen to it in like 15 minutes like segments you know all the way through to the end. Go for my hot girl walks you know just you know you get it in and like you know you chop it up and I felt like you know I listened to everything you say but then you say develop your own personal brand and that's one thing I never did. So I launched my own Tech and my I have teenage boys and they were like oh my God Mom you're so cringy. This is awful.

All our friends from high school are like and I have to say it's been growing and it's been really fun. and you know I started overthinking the concept in the beginning I was like you know, delete Delete no I can't post this and now I'm like f it I just film it the ones that I took for 10 seconds I put up like they're going my room and it's so fun I Love it and there's nothing more fun than razzing your teenage Sons that's the ROI of the whole thing. just forget about if anything good happens for business, just getting the guns in check a little bit is a little fun too, right? Especially because the girls in their schools were like oh my gosh, it's so cool, right? Yeah, once they realize that you might actually lead to be a gateway to some hooking up, they're gonna love you for it. Right now they're like Mom you suck and then all of a sudden like some girl in school that they really like thinks you're cool, they're gonna be like wait a minute totally I'm like I'm cool I'm like the ultimate wingman to your boys.

This is like a massive strategy. The only time they asked me for makeup is if they're like you know, getting like a D or like a C like for a teacher I'm like oh my God they're like why can't you have sort of like a kiteboarding company or something cool like makeup is cool, it is cool I'm really happy for you continued success. Really thank you so much. it is cool Harry if I can tell you something Maureen has the biggest heart.

She came in to our briefing session with Summer with this wide open heart and by the way she started filming content during the briefing she's the first one out in like three years that's done that. Just love you continued success. Thank you thank you and thank you Gary Oh Hannah I'm back Hannah's back I'm out so everybody thank you for being on with me. Great try today Andrea um that was a fun Hannah that was a fun session.

it was really fun and very hot. Takes were were sad I have decided you know this because you've been in meetings with me I've like I have a bleeding heart I Love everybody! It's really like a disease and my superpower but like enough judgment on each other. It's just enough in Christ Yeah as if people can't look in the mirror and see they're doing the same thing. Let judgment be the best teacher.

Every single person here is doing dumb and everyone's doesn't want to, they're just trying anyway. Love you. See you later, Thanks for joining us! Um and next up we welcome Gallery Media Groups Chief Revenue Officer Chris Anthony to interview our next guest Doug Zarkin Doug is a CMO of Pearl Vision and runs their Global Optical franchise business. His work with this team has won the Entrepreneur Media Top 500 Franchise brand Awards and is currently the subject of a Harvard Business School case study on brand Rejuvenation Welcome Doug and Chris what's up I'm a little bummed I mean Gary's background's probably the only time I've ever been on a zoom call where where it looks more like a sports bar than mine.

so dueling background I Love it! We'll have to take snap grabs yes and following that one we have a big the bar set High Sure good to see you Doug Um excited to dig into this and get your take on all things 2023. um but yeah we have 10 minutes or a lot to get into. I'm gonna run through a bunch of topics that I know you'll have an awesome hot take for 23. kicking off um Dni inclusivity, you know it's becoming much much bigger requirement and conversation for all of us marketers.

How do you see that approaching 23 and how are you approaching that as well? You know when you when you used use the the phrase Dei you immediately go to race um and I think as as a child who's entered the phase of parenting their parents I'm I'm embarrassed and appalled by the way. Brands and businesses treat seniors. Um, and ironically one of the emphasis that we're placing is on the dynamic of Gen X having to care for their parents. Um I Also think is the parent of kids.

The way in which marketers go about trying to engage with parents, especially with younger kids, is really challenging and for us at Pearl Vision you know we want to be I care for for the entire family. And so we're making a real effort to lean hard into both marketing to engage seniors in a healthy dialogue to bring their business in, but also letting parents know about things like the undiagnosed Vision issues of kids one out of four school-aged kids have an undiagnosed Vision issue. It's incredible. and most kids that have an undiagnosed Vision issue are susceptible to being diagnosed incorrectly with a learning disability.

So we want to lean into helping parents be their version of their best parent by just educating and informing, letting them know that we're here. Love that! and it feels like you guys are just such a perfect brand to your point to be able to really serve that entire sort of family of customers that you guys have all the time. So yeah, love, that's such an important topic. Uh, Switching gears for a second.

Obviously we're just coming off the heels of CES we know there's so much conversation around Ai and chat GPT and just Tech Overall, Um, in our world, how are you thinking about technology? It's really better those customers that you guys have. Yeah, you know. So 10 years ago it was the the nonsense of Amazon was killing retail Amazon didn't kill retail Amazon killed shitty retail. It made retailers really understand the importance of experience.

And now you hear technology is going to replace human interaction and I couldn't be. Couldn't be less true. What technology for us at Pearl does is actually allow us to deliver a better experience. And that's because in things like digital measurements which allow us to ensure that your glasses are fit perfectly for your face, because there's like five percent of the world that has a perfectly symmetrical face and so digital measurements allow us to actually create a really personalized pair of glasses for you.

Lens simulator allows you to actually see what you're buying in a way that allows you to understand the commitment that you're making and why the better lenses are good for you. So we look at it as a way to just do a better job in caring for the person behind the eyes and leaving them with a great pair of glasses they can be excited about. So great! Yeah, I Feel like there's so much innovation in health technology and the stuff that the work that you guys are doing is just really remarkable and to your point it just makes the customers experience so much stronger hope. So in that same breath, um, 23 we're in this now.

There's so much predictions around the economy what that's going to mean for us as marketers and how we're approaching it. How are you? What's your take? and how are you thinking about 23? Maybe differently or the same for the brand man? Um I wish I could produce predict the future. you know in the absence of having that crystal ball and certainly I'm not. Nostradamus We are really focusing on the must do's and the need to do's and and by that I mean the things that absolutely are going to allow us to achieve plan and really connect with our consumers.

Then we get into like the goods and the shoulds and and those are things that are perhaps opportunities. maybe not low hanging fruit but potentially allow us the opportunity to grow even faster. And for that it's really about putting it carefully into our brand. DNA filter and understanding You know.

Is it going to allow us to forge a stronger connection? Is it going to allow us to recruit patients? Is it going to allow us to to build business? I Don't necessarily think 23 is the year for the for the wants and the nice to haves. Um, at least not at this point, you know. Certainly, if the first six months of this year turn out to be strong for all of us, then we're absolutely going to open the door. We we have a lock box at Pearl Um, to use an old phrase that we keep some money in allows us to be opportunistic of something comes up or maybe something that we want to try.

I mean One of the things I'm super proud of is that the way our team is structured a good idea can go from anyone and anywhere. And so we absolutely Avail ourselves the opportunity to take a good idea from a member of the team and bring it forward. But I think we're cautiously optimistic in January has been pretty good to us. Love that building on that.

You know there's the whole sort of constant balance and potentially struggle of Performance Marketing versus brand marketing. How do you think about that as a leader? And how should anybody really think about that in this year? So to pull a Garyvee? Holy please stop, please stop bifurcating performance in a brand. So here's the thing. Performance Marketing is great.

You show up on page one of Google to use an example that's wonderful. but if your brand doesn't mean anything, you're not going to generate the response that you want. just like doing great ads that motivate consumers. If it doesn't motivate consumers to take action, then it's just pretty words on paper or pretty pictures.

And so the real skill of today's CMO is being able to bring both the performance and a mindset together and figuring out that intersection if you start to separate one from the other. What you may have is is using the seven layer cake analogy: a cake that doesn't taste great. Mm-hmm And that's what a marketing plan is. It's a seven layer cake of different steps to get people down into the funnel to hopefully deliver the results you want to deliver.

I Love that and to that point you know we know that you know Finding sort of that consumer or customer you know is becoming so. Diversified There's so many platforms out there now. there's so much consumer attention. Figuring out where that is, How do you and how do the brand think about the platforms.

Overall in the mix, where are you spending time? Where should? Where's Where's the difference in previous years from a platforms? You know this is where the Art and Science comes into marketing. Um, you know there are there are foundational elements to our plan and and I want to keep those kind of close to the chest. But what I will say is, you know, between privacy regulations and some other changes in the digital ecosystem, you know we're having to take a couple steps backwards in order to take a step forward when it comes to where our investments are, you know? one thing I'm really proud of is our continued commitment to local Um Provision is a brand that was built in the neighborhood started by a neighborhood doctor, and the success of our franchisees is in that connection with the neighborhood. So we're actually looking at a lot of offline tools, a lot of old school tools.

We have this program called Cornea which basically supports our our franchisees going on in the community and doing Vision screenings and I work cleaning and adjustments. It's really an opportunity for our neighbors to meet the people behind the eyes, the people that are caring for them in their in their neighborhood eye care center. And it's an incredibly successful and lucrative platform. Pre-covered I Mean we were generating about 20 patients per every event and these are small events.

It's a Friday night life football game. It's showing up at a church or synagogue. It's just being a part of the community and it's allowed us to remain sticky. You know what's old is new again.

I Think you're hearing a lot about Brands going back into the world of direct mail because we've done such an awful job at being disciplined with. um, the way in which we use email I mean how many emails do you get a day? Yeah, um, so we're having to look a lot of offline tools to complement our online tools. but I'm super excited about some of the progress that we're seeing in really being able to localize our marketing. Well, that last question I Think this probably feeds exactly into that the whole neighborhood mentality of the brand.

What sort of just your take on? you know there's so much going on in the world, so much going on in Australia and sort of just the humanization of marketing. What does that mean to you? And what do you think that that should mean to the audience for 23. You know marketers used to be asked, you know? how do you? You know? are you a data driven marker and you know? I'm a firm believer that data doesn't make decisions. Data helps to inform the decisions that a marketer makes.

And because a marketer has to look at their target audience more than just a set of numbers on an Excel chart, we have to understand the emotions, the attributes, the feelings, the perceptions. what's the narrative going on in the head of our consumer? What's the psychographic? And that combined with the data allows you to make really good strategic bets. I Mean look, a brand marketer would love to say they know their target audience better than they know themselves, and that just isn't the case. To be successful, you got to be humble.

You have to be arrogant a bit to think that you can actually get into the mind of a consumer and motivate them to take the action you want them to take when you want them to take it. But at the same time, you have to be humble and realize that the only way to lead a brand successfully with a consumer is to listen first. And you know when you're a franchise system like Pearle Vision With nearly 600 Eye Care Centers In North America you have a built-in pipeline for Consumer feedback. You have a built-in pipeline to understand if you're doing what's working and what's not.

And most importantly, you're constantly assessing the behaviors of your consumer to figure out how you can best serve them, provide them value and doing that through. Really. In our case, you know, caring about the person behind the eyes. Love that! Such such a great sort of take on 23.

It sounds like you're embodying that as a leader and the brand as well. Um Doug This was super great! Such great hot take for 23. good luck to you and the brand! Excited to see all this stuff in motion and all the success around that. Thanks for having me! Thanks you guys! That was awesome! Chris I Love having you on this show.

Thanks for having me It's always great excited we're already a month into 23. Lots of good stuff happening. Can you believe it? More and more and more. Let's bring it on All right.

we'll see you soon. We're gonna bring Nick Miritus up next Nick Andrea hello hello hello What's up? Can you hear me? Are you there? Can you hear me now I know I'm in and out I'm in and out I'm feeling a tremendous amount of Love today though this like this show is fire. Okay Miss Hannah for jumping in. let's see, let's see if I can uh kick this one off.

So guess what we're gonna bring Kate Brady up next. she's the senior director. she's in charge of next Gen D2c at PepsiCo and Kate and her team are focused on delivering meaningful consumer experiences through direct to Consumer engagement. Thanks for joining us! Kate What is going on How you doing I am great! Thanks so much for having me.

it's been a great session so far. I Think you might have the coolest job at PepsiCo Been thinking about this I've been really fortunate I've I've had some really amazing jobs at PepsiCo and each one just seems to get better. So really thrilled. Oh my goodness.

All right well this one at least 10 minutes always go really fast. So let's start out with I Think we're gonna go into the hot take realm of all things web. three Yeah. future of D2c like this is a big topic so viewers out there don't know.

Pepsi has really been trailblazing in this space. Lots of innovative programs I mean almost from like the earliest moments of when everybody started talking about all things web3. Um, so maybe share a little bit on the opener here about Pepsico's journey. I mean we've had free mints on Pepsi We've had Gatorade with some really nice charitable benefit stuff we've had Cheetos in the Metaverse.

Um, they just give a little background to the viewers and then we'll uh, we'll chop it up yeah Nick So I'm I'm thanks for calling it out and I'm really, really proud about how PepsiCo puts Innovation at the Forefront of everything that we're doing. and for the past few years I've really been focused on driving Innovation across the organization and the line I would always talk about is identifying what's new, what's next and the best way for us to connect with our consumers. that was that's always been my role and it's evolved into this one now. Um, and I Loved.

You know Gary's hot take about blowing up about buying it was just a little hot I Loved it though because it really does. Drive What we're trying to accomplish here is we recognize that this whole landscape is becoming so much more fragmented and challenged. and if we want to really connect with our consumers, especially those younger audiences in meaningful ways, moving forward, we have to innovate the way that we're doing those connections. and we see Web3 as a real big driver for doing that.

Um, you know we want to be at the Forefront of culture, but also like driving culture when we can and and so you know to remain relevant we see whether he is a key enabler. And so we've been exploring a number of different tools within this space. Um, and as you mentioned, we've been executing a number of different Pilots many in partnership with the V3 team have been awesome partners and over the past six months we've been standing up what we're calling our web 3 Center of enablement. Um but our work began about a year ago a little over a year ago and our our first draft was actually in partnership with Vayner and Todd Kaplan and our Pepsi brand team dropped the first Generative of Art Nft collection and from there we really haven't stopped.

Um, you mentioned the the digital collectible space that we've been leaning into from Gatorade perspective. We did this awesome partnership where um or a collection where our player of the year activation which is something where we're um awarding you know, top high school athletes across the globe. This time we were able to commemorate them and memorialize them with their own digital collectible and as a part of that we tied it to a charitable donation so all primary and secondary sales are a portion of those. Was going to this amazing organization called Goodsports.inc so it was a way for us to really Drive philanthropic goals as well as like connecting with these new consumers and doing this awesome activation.

Um, you mentioned like the Horizon Worlds activation where we did with Cheetos this purely virtual experience where we were bringing the the ethos of what Cheetos is all about and that Mischief nature and this Halloween activation where you were able to play in this virtual graveyard type of space and resurrect new flavors that in real life you were actually resurrecting some old I think it was Chipotle Ranch Cheetos got brought back to life based on this activation which is awesome um but we also done, you know parallels to um, virtual in real life experiences like what we did with Do and decentraland and Call of Duty subliner team where we did um, we mirrored what was going on in Brooklyn and at the Kings theater we had this Esports competition going on where we did a parallel experience but much more immersive and engaging with these games and sweepstakes into Central land. That was really a great way to just enhance what we're doing. and that's what I love about Web3 is that you can do so much more than what you can do in the real life because the sky's the limit on the capabilities. But so over the past six months we've done almost 15 different separate activations across, you know, across the globe.

So I work across all markets All Brands and everyone's really excited to lean in. So right now you know they're smaller efforts, we're testing and learning, but right now is the time to lean in, understand like what's working, what's not and continue to grow from those activations. And so I'm really proud of what we've accomplished in that pretty relatively short time. I mean and it seems like it's just speeding up, right? Yeah, becomes exponential.

and and generally speaking, the excitement level when you see these things go live. It's just so cool because it all feels like it's never been done before. Um, so in terms of Fortune 500 you know PepsiCo I Think like the the scale at which PepsiCo operates is so awesome on so many levels. What should you know? Fortune 500 companies might be watching be asking themselves about web 3 in general.

You know what should the conversation be If they haven't gotten into you know, having an approach yet Like where Start by starting, how do you get going? Yeah, Um, great question and I think for us you know some of the key questions we're always asking is what's a specific use case or applications that align to our business goals and objectives. This shouldn't just be about driving PR or Buzz for us, we see this as a huge unlock for Um helping Drive first party data acquisition. So that's been a priority for us as we move forward. Another is really about.

like how do we incorporate the technology into our existing systems and processes so make it really more of a seamless, frictionless integration? Um, how do we stay ahead of the curve in terms of Web 3 adoption and Innovation You know for our for us, our position is by building the capabilities internally. Um, it will yield significant dividends in the future versus US waiting back seeing how it all works out and then trying to catch up. But at the same time we're also as we're building those internal capabilities, we're also building and forming tons of new Partnerships like what we've done with V3 that help us leverage you know, really driving the accelerated approach. Um, one of the biggest challenges that we've faced today, which I think is so important is just how do you ensure sickness, security and compliance with the regulations as you're implementing these web3 Tech So for us I have spent more time with our Securities Law team than I've ever imagined I would before.

Um, but it's it's really important. at this point, you know when you're facing everything against 1933 written Securities laws, you have a lot of discussion and debate to try and figure out. how are we actually structuring ourselves to to comply with these current these existing regulations? So you know we are hopeful that there will be some Forest regulation. especially with what you know, the crazy everything that happened with FTX over the summer and all what we've seen lately, it's horrible.

But at the same token, we're hoping that that helps Drive some more regulation in the future. Um, you know when we think about our approach, it's it's really about Um, it has to include doing research and staying informed on what the latest developments in this Tech is. You know this is such a massive task is how new the space is um but education is really top of my list of like what the approach should be moving forward because you need to take your key stakeholders along in this journey. Um, you know we talked about the use cases I Think that from an approach perspective, just ensuring that you have the applications that's aligning with your goals.

Um, building a team that and working with external Partners both internally and externally. I'm sure if you ask anyone in any sort of Fortune 500 company, you're going to find a ton of people raising their hand to say hey, I Want to help? This is amazing I Want to get involved? Um, so lean. Let them lean in and help your agendas, your developer helping out those capabilities. and for us, you know, testing and piloting has been critical to doing this.

And so we've done a number of these proofs of concept or Pilots to deliver on these hypotheses that we've had. and this, like I said is the time to test and learn. I Think that you know it's going to be accepted a lot better now than if you're failing five years from now and really don't understand the space. So this is where we get a little bit more time to work out the Kinks Nice.

Um, let's try and squeeze one or two more in real quick. So hot. Take here. Um, jumping around off the back of that.

What opportunities do you see in the world of Web 3 And and knowing your role in terms of rewards loyalty program? the future of D2c I Think you have such a cool front row seat to really continue to lead there so hot takes for 23. Where are we going We? um, you know I think where we started with our Web3 approach to where we are now that's really shifted um and where initially we were focused on like hey, how are we using this to drive new net revenue streams I Think we've evolved to like, how are we using this to drive deeper, more meaningful engagement with our consumers and these new audiences building communities? How are we leveraging it from a utility perspective And really, how can this help enable a more a better Uh rewards loyalty platform type of Um program? So that's where we've really pivoted our approach of away from just you know there might be future opportunities. From a revenue perspective. For us though, it's really about what utility can this offer and helping Drive deeper and more immersive experiences, more meaningful consumer engagement, and then helping us drive our Loyalty Rewards platform.

You know this is something of a huge priority for us because we see that this can enable Um from. You know it can help us enable more engaging, rewarding customer loyalty programs in a more efficient, transparent and secure nature than we've ever seen in the web 2 spot. That's so cool. All right, last one real quick before they they kick us off here.

Um I I Can I bet people watching right now are like wow Web3 I wonder where did I start? So knowing you've been on this journey, what are the resources? The go-to's you know, the YouTube channels, the podcast. Where do you go to get inspired to get information about the space? Yeah, ton of podcasts. Um, that's really been my source of information. I've read a few books I found you know I think it's it's so hard because it's so new and there's so much more new information coming out.

Books I feel like are really hard to lean into because it's how does it get published. it'll be relevant. Um, but like Kathy Hackle is an amazing resource just listening to her podcast. The Web3 Academy has been a great resource just from an education perspective.

Um, things like um Anderson's Horowitz uh, Web3 with eight six uh, A16z has been great. Um, welcome to the Metaverse. Uh, there's so many out there. if you just put in Web3 or Metaverse into you know the search engine, a tunnel pop up and I found so much value.

Like just listening to a few of them. Even things like Web 2.5 I Think you know that approach of how we're evolving from web 2 to Web3. Loving that take on things on these companies that are on similar Journeys is what we're doing. So huge resource.

um opportunity to just listen in and learn from from these experiences. Nice! I Get some homework to do this weekend. It was basically for me. Thank you so much! Um, can be proud of the partnership we're building um and just so excited to show the world soon some new stuff too so stay tuned.

Thank you so much! Awesome! Hannah's back No! Andrea yeah Thanks! Nick Um and last but not least, I have the honor of chatting with the amazing Lindsay Kaplan Lindsay is the co-founder and Chief brand officer of Chief and if you're not already familiar familiar with what Chief is, it is the most powerful network of women Executives in the world. She's been named one of Business Insider's most Innovative CMOS in the world and one of at Age's leading women and I really cannot wait to chat with her today. I Know we've had a couple of chats but welcome Lindsay thanks Hannah how are you I'm good I'm excited to chat with you. good all the hot takes.

It is a lot of hot takes that we've had. um but before we get started, can you just give us your Founder's story and what really inspired chief? Sure! So Chief came from a really personal place um I had actually prior to Chief been working at a startup. it was a hot D to see New York City startup that everybody knew I was the first full-time employee and as that company grew I became one of the few women in leadership and I also pretty quickly got pregnant and so I was juggling this Paradox of first of all, as you're a female leader, your decisions have outsized impact, so you already have the challenges of knowing what it is to be a leader and knowing that you're representing all of the women because they're looking up to you at the top. But then I also needed to put together my own mat leave policy and so I felt like there was this personal need as a leader that I really wanted a community of other women who were at that executive level who understood that.

You know we have a lot of different challenges and a lot of bias going up against us. and so there's a Vanishing Act of resources for women at the top. Wouldn't it be great to really collect all of these incredible women and put them into one great Network that's really incredible and so you really? you've already kind of hit on this. but can you tell us what is so special about the community at Chief Um, and even get a little bit into what did you learn during Covid and the Pandemic? Oh, I Learned to be very thankful for my nanny.

Well, let me take a step I Can tell you a little bit about what makes Chief different. So there are a lot of organizations out there for leadership and there are a lot of women's organizations and what we found is that they're really verticalized. So I had been a part of you know, Women in Advertising. There's women in Marketing and what generally happens is the women Executives in those organizations become the de facto mentors, right? So all of a sudden, where do the mentors go for co-mentorship So again, we created this Um Private Network that has criteria so that you are with other members who get it who are at that level of leadership.

So right now 77 of Fortune 100 companies have a chief member in their leadership teams and collectively Chief members control 800 billion dollars of the global economy. So this is a really special Network and it is incredibly powerful. That's amazing. Um, and you know I can speak to what we learned during the pandemic which you mentioned, which is that when when times are tough, those times hit women harder.

Yeah, and so we've seen two things. The first is that the pandemic really accelerated the need to make sure that women and marginalized people are supported, right? because they're the first people that end up leaving the workforce during uh, times when Child Care is in limbo. It also really reinforced the need for community so we were all isolated. We're all alone.

we're all working from home. That is when we need each other, more, right? That is when you really need to find a community and a network of people who can be there and to support you. That's amazing. Um, knowing that you are and you've created this really beautiful community of high-powered female.

Executives What are the current topics Those leaders are talking about? What is important for them as they look ahead into this new Year? Well, we're constantly evolving our programming and right now we're paying a lot of attention to the impact of global economic headwinds. So we've done a lot to support our members because some of them are making decisions related to the economy, some of them are having to enact layoffs, and other people are the victims of layoffs. So we set up our career transition group. We have speakers like Executive Coach Susan Peppercorn, and we have a lot of workshops around navigating the downturn.

That's amazing. Um, this is a little bit different, but a lot of organizations right now I Think in particular, as we're going into this hybrid work mode, um, are struggling with how to build cultures and communities that are relevant for the current climate that we're in. What would you share with our community of leaders on what they should be thinking and doing so? I Think it's about making sure that we're being thoughtful around inclusive workplace practices. So when you think about back to work, women are 25 more likely to accept a job that's remote because they have caregiving responsibilities by and large on top of generally what their counterparts have.

So we need to think about what do the policies look like Beyond Just parental leave and mat leave. But what are we doing to implement a culture in our organizations that is mindful of caregiving that is thoughtful about flexible hours? Are we doing a four day work week for certain individuals? What is a part-time schedule look like? Why do people need to go back to the office every single day? Um, these are all really important. Uh, pieces of the puzzle that help create a better environment for marginalized people and women. Love that.

Um, any Hot Takes for 2023 I Love the four day work week that you kind of just snuck in there. but uh, whatever. it's a good one. Yeah, at Chief we have a four and a half day work week.

so we do half day. Fridays We started it during the pandemic and we realized our team was incredibly productive and really needed that time. Friday afternoon to run errands, go to doctor's appointments, have time off just to relax. So huge fan of the four or four and a half day work week.

Um, Hot takes is that companies that don't continue to invest in Dei in 2023 will have their butts handed to them in 2024.. So we are seeing. uh, companies now. Step up, put their money where their mouth is and invest in Dei programs.

It's the right thing to do and it's also going to make your company. Stronger Yeah I Mean it's Massive! So many companies took a big pledge in 2020 and 2021 and it really is time to deliver against those things exactly. Um, anything else you want to share in like our last minute to two minutes here? Anything about, if anything about yourself? yeah, I Think that we are seeing, uh, the need again to support senior women. We're seeing women dropping out across the pipeline, but particularly as they get into these manager to director positions and then again, that director through C-suite And so when we think about what we want to do to support women, to make sure that companies are really striving towards gender Equity within their their organizations, we have to think about supporting the women who are in these positions of power.

because we put them on a pedestal. We ask them to do their job really well and to carry the extra burdens. The third shift of mentoring speaking on panels speaking up for Progressive workplace policies and those women need to be supportive. So we're really excited that we just rolled out our Enterprise offering and so now companies can come directly to Chief and work with us on nominating women in their executive level positions.

So shout out to some incredible companies that have partnered with us already like: United Healthcare IBM Yum! Brands, Uh, big companies that are stepping up and really want to make sure they're doing the right thing. Um, and supporting the executive women on their teams. That is really incredible. Lindsay Thank you so much for sharing all of your insights on Chief and um, you know I I would love to get involved someday I've heard some I I mentioned this in our first conversation but I've just heard some really incredible personal stories from friends of mine who have ha