SIMPLE brand With Matt Lyles

In this week’s episode of the SIMPLE brand podcast, I talk with David Avrin.David is one of the most popular Customer Experience speakers and consultants in the world.  In fact, over the past 25 years, David has shared his lessons on competitive advantage with leaders and teams from thousands of organizations in 26 countries around the world! And David is the best-selling author of six books including his latest, Ridiculously Easy to Do Business With: A Practical Guide to Giving Customers What They Want, How and When They Want It.David and I talk about how to discover what’s causing your customers friction so that you can begin delivering a “ridiculously easy” experience to them.Here’s what we discuss:How to move from being competent to being preferableWhy being simple causes you to stand outHow to tell if your policies or procedures are prohibiting an easy customer experienceThe importance of your team knowing what they can do for customersHow to future-proof your businessWhy informal feedback is just as critical as formal feedbackThe value in walking your customer’s journeyRESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE:David's websiteRidiculously Easy to Do Business With: A Practical Guide to Giving Customers What They Want, How and When They Want ItDavid on LinkedIn

In this week’s episode of the SIMPLE brand podcast, I talk with John DiJulius.John is the founder and Chief Revolution Officer of The DiJulius Group, a customer experience consulting firm that helps clients build customer care strategies that lead to happy customers, employees, and shareholders. John has spent decades becoming the authority on building world-class customer and employee experiences. John is the bestselling author of six books, including his newest, The Employee Experience Revolution: Increase Morale, Retain Your Workforce, and Drive Business Growth.John and I talk about the little-known secret of how to become a more profitable company in both the short and long term: happy employees. Here’s what we discuss:How we got to the point of “quiet quitting”Why the power of purpose trumps the paycheckThe importance of storytelling in vision-casting a careerHow to make your employees feel as cared for as your customersHow to avoid creating accidental managersWhy onboarding needs to be more than a training classHow to design an employee-specific career journeyThe importance of focusing on the whole person, not just the jobHow the employee experience starts during recruitmentThe “Columbo method” of interviewingRESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE:John's websiteThe Employee Experience Revolution: Increase Morale, Retain Your Workforce, and Drive Business GrowthJohn on LinkedIn

In this week’s episode of the SIMPLE brand podcast, I talk with Ali Cudby.Ali is the CEO of Alignmint Growth Strategies. With over 15 years advising startups and global companies, Ali’s specialty is transforming customer experience, increasing customer lifetime value, and building customer loyalty. Ali is also the author of the bestselling book, Keep Your Customers: How to Stop Customer Turnover, Improve Retention and Get Lucrative, Long-Term Loyalty.Ali and I talk through the significant impact customer retention, versus customer acquisition, has on the bottom line and the direct tie between customer experience and customer loyalty. Ali explains her perspective on the different levels of customer loyalty and how to move more of your customers to the highest level of loyalty. Here’s what we discuss:How to define customer loyaltyHow to let leaders know that customer loyalty mattersThe different distinctions of customer loyaltyStrategies to take around “bad revenue” customersThe two major components of customer retentionWho within a company owns customer experienceHow to keep an entire company on track with customer experienceThe ideal way to track customer loyalty progressRESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE:Ali's websiteKeep Your Customers: How to Stop Customer Turnover, Improve Retention and Get Lucrative, Long-Term LoyaltyAli on LinkedIn

In this week’s episode of the SIMPLE brand podcast, I talk with Steve Woodruff.Known as the "King of Clarity," Steve's passion is helping companies and individuals communicate clearly and effectively. Steve is the author of two books, including his latest, The Point: How to Win with Clarity-Fueled Communications.Steve and I discuss how the use of his "Clarity Fuel Formula" helps communicators break through the noise to quickly grab - and keep - the attention of their audience without creating confusion.Here’s what we discuss:How anyone can learn to be a simple, effective communicatorA business's main competitor isn't another business - it's noiseUnderstanding how the brain works is crucial to communicating clearlyWhy seconds matter in gaining your audience's attentionHow jargon and too much information shut down the attention center of the brainWhy assuming your audience shares your same level of knowledge is a critical mistakeThe importance of defining terms to bring clarity to the conversationWhy storytelling and analogies are brain-friendly communication toolsHow poor communication within an organization can lead to a 20% loss in efficiency per weekRESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE:Steve's websiteSteve's book - The Point: How to Win with Clarity-Fueled CommunicationsSteve on LinkedIn

In this week’s episode of the SIMPLE brand podcast, I talk with Chris Wallace.Chris is the co-founder and president of InnerView Group - a brand consultancy that helps organizations improve alignment between their frontline teams and their go-to-market strategies.Chris and I chat about how to create a more collaborative relationship with your frontline team and how to get your frontline to care more about your brand.Here’s what we discuss:How to move a vision from the C-suite to the frontline teamWhy spoon-feeding the frontline is not a bad thingWhy “asking” is a much better strategy than “telling”How to create evangelists in your frontline employeesHow to put your customer insight into actionWhy influencing your frontline workers is the best way to influence the customerHow your frontline employees double as your customers’ best consultantsHow customer and employee experience tie to your company’s overall brand and cultureHow to balance digital experiences with the human touch of the frontline RESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE:Chris's websiteA Guide to Frontline Insights - eBookChris on LinkedIn

In this week’s episode of the SIMPLE brand podcast, I talk with Derrick Daye.Derrick is the managing partner of The Blake Project, a strategic brand consultancy that helps businesses gain an emotional advantage, a distinctive advantage, and a connective advantage, moving them from brand awareness to brand insistence.He’s the founder of Branding Strategy Insider - an online publication to help marketing-oriented leaders and professionals build strong brands.Derrick and I discuss what goes into building a lasting brand that connects with customers and keeps them for the long term.Here’s what we discuss:How brand strategy has evolved vs. what has stayed the sameThe best definition of a brandHow to tie brand and business strategy together when starting a brandHow branding and customer experience relateThe best way to build a brandHow to create a strong emotional connection with your customersWhy storytelling is key to the brand conversationRESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE:Derrick's websiteDerek's publication - Branding Strategy InsiderDerrick on LinkedIn

In this week’s episode of the SIMPLE brand podcast, I talk with Karin Hurt, author of Courageous Cultures: How to Build Teams of Micro-Innovators, Problem Solvers, and Customer Advocates.Karin is the founder of Let’s Grow Leaders, a training firm focused on helping human-centered leaders find clarity in uncertainty, drive innovation, and achieve breakthrough results - without losing their humanity.She’s an international keynote speaker. In fact, Inc. Magazine says she’s one of the top 100 leadership speakers.And Karin’s the bestselling author of four books including Courageous Cultures. Karin and I discuss her lessons to help you create a courageous culture that shares new ideas, proactively solves problems, and generates contributions from all levels.Here’s what we discuss:What holds employees back from speaking up and sharing ideasWhy telling your employees you have an “open door” policy isn’t enoughWhy creating clarity helps generate better ideasSetting constraints helps employees feel less intimidated to share ideasSteps for building a courageous cultureKarin’s IDEA model helps you effectively frame and pitch new ideasThe concept of micro-innovations helps everyone realize that they’re innovativeHow to influence a courageous culture in both your team and your leadershipRESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE:Karin's websiteKarin's book - Courageous CulturesKarin on LinkedIn

In this week’s episode of the SIMPLE brand podcast, I talk with Sylvie di Giusto, author of Discover Your Fair Advantage: Leverage Your Unique Selling Points and Human Potential for Work, Life, and Business.Sylvie’s an international keynote speaker and expert in emotional intelligence, personal image, and leadership. And she’s the bestselling author of Discover Your Fair Advantage: Leverage Your Unique Selling Points and Human Potential for Work, Life, and Business.Sylvie and I talk about her lessons to help you leverage all the right gifts and attributes that are unique to you so you can better stand out from the crowd.Here’s what we discuss:🎙️Why it’s important that you define what your first impression should be🎙️How we can become more self-aware of the impression that we give🎙️How to use other people’s biases to your advantage🎙️Using the first five letters of the alphabet to influence how people perceive you🎙️What your brand really is and how you can purposefully imprint it on other people🎙️Distinguishing between fair and unfair advantages🎙️How to take perceived weaknesses and turn them into fair advantages🎙️Recognizing how your natural skill set can actually be your superpower🎙️Defining the ideal way to communicate your fair advantageRESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE:Sylvie's websiteSylvie’s book - Discover Your Fair Advantage: Leverage Your Unique Selling Points and Human Potential for Work, Business, and LifeSylvie’s Fair Advantage AssessmentSylvie on LinkedInWHAT'S YOUR FUN FACT? Email me at matt@mattlyles.com with the subject #funfact

In this week’s episode of the SIMPLE brand podcast, I talk with Nancie McDonnell Ruder, author of How Senior Marketers Scale the Heights: What is Still True, More True, & Newly True.Nancie’s an executive coach, a leadership advisor, a marketing consultant and the founder of Noetic Consultants where they help companies build their internal marketing strength – so that their external marketing efforts are more focused and more effective.She’s an adjunct professor of Integrated Marketing Communications at Georgetown University.And Nancie’s the bestselling author of How Senior Marketers Scale the Heights: What is Still True, More True, & Newly True. It’s now in its second edition!Nancie and I discuss lessons from her research where she’s identified the qualities of senior marketers that help them make it to the top of their field.Here’s what we discuss:How brands can strengthen themselves from the inside outHow brands can get the insights they need from internal employeesDelivering on the brand inside your organization creates engaged employeesYou can’t fix operational issues with better brandingWhy it’s actually valuable to be a “jack of all trades”Psychological safety is a key driver in an innovative cultureNancie’s “Art & Science Assessment” helps marketers understand their needed skillsHow to help your peers learn from your own trials and errorsRESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE:Noetic ConsultantsNancie’s book - How Senior Marketers Scale the Heights: What is Still True, More True, & Newly TrueNancie on LinkedInNoetic Consultants brand health diagnostic

In this week’s episode of the SIMPLE brand podcast, I talk with Henna Pryor, author of Good Awkward: How to Embrace the Embarrassing and Celebrate the Cringe to Become the Bravest You.Henna’s a workplace performance expert, a global keynote speaker, and a two-time TEDx speaker. She's been featured in Forbes, Real Simple, Fast Company, and more. And Henna’s the author of Good Awkward. How to Embrace the Embarrassing and Celebrate the Cringe to Become the Bravest You. Henna and I discuss her lessons to help you become a better risk taker; to help you strengthen your mental muscles; and to help you be braver in moments when it really counts.Here’s what we discuss:How embracing your awkwardness is good for your personal brandWhy embracing your awkwardness is not just about being comfortable with discomfortHow to reframe our mindsets around awkward situationsHow to build your social muscle for awkwardness toleranceWhy a “bad idea brainstorm” is a good idea to implement in business meetingsHow role-playing and mock interviews actually reduce awkwardnessWhy embracing awkward moments is a strength vs. a weaknessHow to help your kids embrace their own awkwardnessRESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE:Henna's siteHenna’s book - Good Awkward: How to Embrace the Embarrassing and Celebrate the Cringe to Become the Bravest YouHenna on LinkedInHenna’s Good Awkward Spotify playlist