9min chapter

Kreatures Of Habit Podcast  cover image

Emily Ford: The Power of Faith and Fortitude in Entrepreneurship

Kreatures Of Habit Podcast

CHAPTER

Building Community for Brand Success

This chapter emphasizes the vital role of community in entrepreneurship, drawing parallels to the restaurant industry's reliance on local support. It explores how emotional connections with customers can lead to sustainable growth, especially for millennials and younger generations. The conversation highlights the need for core values, transparency, and a shift from traditional marketing to more intuitive strategies for meaningful brand impact.

00:00
Speaker 2
You're just really. It's so smart that you have a product, but you have thought this through to then build the community through the pod. Because a lot of people that will come to me though, that have products, they're like, I don't get any interaction or it's really hard. And like, yeah, you're selling like a bottle of cream. You have to build the community. So I feel like you're next level thinking like truly by building out this the community then that it's like I Want the product just because I like you, you know what I mean that
Speaker 1
I mean, thank you. I'm sure you saying that I think really where that has like honestly come from is Hospitality chops, you know, like I feel like a restaurant doesn't succeed without community, right? Because like I could sell this globally if I wanted to with the click of a button. Restaurant is a hyper local, it rests on the laurels of the locals. And if they're not coming because there's no community environment there, you're fucked, it's over. So for me, when I was opening restaurants similar to this thing, I was like I opened up a concept called the meatball shop like I really didn't give a shit about meatballs, but I wanted to create a business that people would like stop scrolling for and then Want to be a part of so like we got you in the restaurant the food is awesome fun But like it was all about the community hospitality and that is really, I think, what set the tone for every other business strategy in my mind is like, hey, I need community. Community is going to carry the ship when the tides are fucking low.
Speaker 2
Yeah.
Speaker 1
Gosh,
Speaker 2
that's exactly how I build my brand. It's all about people and community. And that is the thing that I preach all the time where people are so Me centric and I get it because like you are the brand I am the brand but it's like no it has to be for people. And if you have that mindset of this is for people this we're gonna build a community it will carry you Way far like so much farther than yourself.
Speaker 1
Totally, and the hard part of that is like, it's really hard to put that on a P&L, right? Yeah. Like it's really hard to say, oh yeah, here's the ROI on our community right now, you know, like, both business partners and my two businesses that I founded and exited were really smart guys, are really smart guys. Very, very smart guys. I'm not a very smart guy. I'm an emotionally intelligent guy.
Speaker 2
Well, you know where your strengths lie. 100%.
Speaker 1
And you tasked me with like, hey, Mike, we really need you to build out the projections and the forecast for the next quarter. I'm going to be like, Jonathan, hey, do me a favor. I'm going to figure this out. Same. Yeah, I'm just not that person. But the smart guys are like, you know, they're, really they believe that if it doesn't work on paper, through a spreadsheet of sorts, or some, you know, piece of technology platform that is gonna like, use data to extrapolate some fancy number. It doesn't work. And my thought process has always been like, hey, we are in the restaurant business, or now I'm in the wellness CPG business. But I use the restaurant as an example, I'm like, hey, you ever thought for a second That a guest walking through the front door of the restaurant walked in and said oh My god, I wonder what the P&L looks like in this place. Uh-huh. Never never never happened. Never right like never right I'm like and I would say to Jay and Dan because they would kind of like kick off manager meetings with the P&L, I'd be like, hey, like, you're spending 70% of this meeting talking about like, the numbers, which I understand are obviously important. Right. But like the way the business grows is from people walking in feeling one way and walking out feeling much better. That's it. The way people, the way the business grows in this brand is like the exposure that people get to it, they're exposed to it, they use it in their life. And then whether it's just the product or the product in the community, they feel more a part of something before, than they did before they were introduced to it. And so I really do think that like what you said to your point, like the community is like, if not the most important piece or the culture within the business is not if not the most important piece, like right there.
Speaker 2
Oh, I always say people eat culture for breakfast. Especially with millennials or even younger now. It's like they want to know like who am I buying from? Who's the founder? What's the mission or even even if they don't care about that if they're not that kind of brain they want to like know the feeling What's the feeling kind of feeling am I getting from this right? So
Speaker 1
it does so so I it's interesting that you said Like the Millennials or even the Gen Xers or Gen Xers, whatever they're called. Do you think that there is a real paradigm shift there or do you think it's because people are just hyper connected now and we're hearing more about it or do you think people always wanted to feel the fabric of a brand?
Speaker 2
I think it's a little bit of both. We're hyper connected but I do think millennials and younger are driven by contribution, believe it or not. They want it to matter. It's more about who's doing it, what's the mission. Whether it's right or wrong, I think it's a new way of thinking because of digital. There's so much access, even if it's false information, that's what they're driven by. So
Speaker 1
if you had to for the entrepreneurs listening or the aspiring entrepreneurs listening, if you had to sort of paint a picture of like three to five things that you think are almost a prerequisite today for success or forgetting about like what we think of a success, but just like being able to make an impact. What do you think those things are?
Speaker 2
You have to have values and then you have to not only have values, but you got to show the values like within the company. It's why you see different shops now like that you walk in and there's like the values up there. I think that definitely matters. I think employees like how they treat the culture, company culture, all that matters with that is like, you know, how, what's the benefits, blah, blah, blah, all that. Um, I think a product integrity matters so much now with ingredients. I'm sure you've learned so much about that. Yeah. The feeling like what it looks like, so the brand identity, the colors, all that, the marketing. I'm sure you could teach a thing or two about marketing for sure.
Speaker 1
I mean, I think I agree with all the things that you just said. I feel like what I'm learning about it is that I am a marketer, though I didn't go to school for that, but I really do think that marketing, great marketers are risk takers and gut thinkers, because there are the data-driven marketers for sure, right? That are going to tell you, okay, so we pulled up all this information and, you know, 40% of your customers are this and 30% of your customers are making these decisions. And so we should really just sort of like, like, like, target these people in these different cohorts through this thing. And I'm just kind of like, in my opinion, in any business, but like, specifically in a digital business now is where sort of my number one focus is, you can't listen to all the noise.
Speaker 2
You can't.
Speaker 1
You can't. No. Because maybe you only hear in the media, you only hear about the unicorns. Yeah. You know, like. For sure. That's all you hear about. Yeah. You don't hear about the 97% of business that's doing under a million in revenue and isn't gonna make it. Right. Right. So like you only hear about the the the the heavy hitters. And I do think that though maybe some of those people, they're probably not even talking about their, like, you know, their plans or their strategies, really. Everybody assumes that if you're a digital brand and you're not in retail, you're spending all your money on paid media, you know? And I think it's just not true. Like, paid media is a, you could directly, you could see very clearly how much you invest in what that return looks like. Yeah, you can it's clear as day. Yeah That's why it makes that's like a safe smart guy bet. Yeah, right. You're like, okay Well, we know that like we're gonna spend a hundred thousand dollars here and we're gonna do 200,000 plus.

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