SIMPLE brand With Matt Lyles

In this week’s episode of the SIMPLE brand podcast, I talk with Mark Miller, author of Culture Rules: The Leader’s Guide to Creating the Ultimate Competitive Advantage.Mark’s the Vice President of High Performance Leadership with Chick-fil-A. And Mark’s the author of 11 best-selling books including his latest Wall Street Journal bestseller - Culture Rules: The Leader’s Guide to Creating the Ultimate Competitive Advantage.Some of the topics we discuss include:The three rules that go into creating a high-performance cultureWhy leaders shouldn’t worry too much about how they define their vision, mission, and purposeThe simple test to know if you have defined your team’s aspiration wellThe value of recognizing reality and comparing that to your culture aspirationHow to ensure your people can clearly articulate your culture valuesWhat Alexander the Great teaches us about modeling values to your peopleThe right way to use storytelling with your peopleHow to discern and remove toxins from your organizationBe grateful that there’s no finish line to developing and adapting your cultureRESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE:Mark’s site - leadeveryday.comMark’s book - Culture Rules: The Leader’s Guide to Creating the Ultimate Competitive AdvantageMark’s book - Smart Leadership: Four Simple Choices to Scale Your ImpactMark’s book - Win the Heart: How to Create a Culture of Full Engagement

In this week’s episode of the SIMPLE brand podcast, I talk with Sara Ross, author of Dear Work: Something Has to Change!Sara’s an international keynote speaker and the founder of the leadership research firm BrainAMPED. She’s transforming the future of work by using the power of brain science to amplify organizational vitality, and by helping people work, lead, and succeed in healthy, high-performing, human-centric ways.It’s no secret that too many leaders and too many professionals feel like they’re stuck in a complicated work environment. Overworked and under-living. Thankfully, Sara has the strategies to simplify that as you boost your work vitality, stand out, and bring your best, most energized self to your career and your other important life areas.Some of the topics we discuss include:How thinking of your work like a relationship is valuable for your careerWhat’s causing so many professionals to have a “toxic relationship” with their workHow you can raise your vitality in your work (and other life areas)Recognize that your energy will ebb and flow - and that’s natural and okayYou can instill your purpose into interactions and aspects of your role instead of struggling to find that purpose-driven roleThe “success traps” that can actually confine you in your workPlacing too much focus on one life area is detrimental to the other major life areasYou need to be as intentional about resting as you are about workingRESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE:Sara’s book - Dear Work: Something Has to ChangeSara’s site and newsletter - The Dear Work LetterSara on LinkedinSara on Instagram

In this week’s episode of the SIMPLE brand podcast, I talk with Jeff Toister, author of The Guaranteed Customer Experience: How to Win Customers by Keeping Your Promises!The Guaranteed Customer Experience turns the concept of a guarantee on its head. An experience guarantee goes beyond merely providing a warranty against any product defects or failures. It actually encompasses the entire customer journey to promise an experience that never falls short of expectations.Some of the topics we discuss include:The elements needed to create an experience guaranteeThe common ways that drive brand promises and experience guarantees to breakThe need for ensuring your operations can feasibly deliver on your promise How to define your promise is clear to all employeesHow to know what to promise based on what’s relevant to your customersDefining the problems you don’t solve is just as important as defining the ones you do solveHow to restore trust from your customer by recovering from a service failureRESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE:Jeff’s book - The Guaranteed Customer Experience: How to win Customers by Keeping Your PromisesJeff’s newsletter - Customer Service Tip of the WeekJeff Toister on TwitterJeff Toister on LinkedIn

In this week’s episode of the SIMPLE brand podcast, I talk with Juliana Marulanda, founder of ScaleTime!Juliana and ScaleTime have helped hundreds of agency owners and business leaders get their lives back by developing systems to save time, add employees, and streamline processes to create lean, mean, profitable machines.Some of the topics we discuss include:Why most leaders have a hard time creating and managing systemsHaving systems in place helps your people feel secure and view you as a better leaderHaving the right systems in place creates an engaged cultureHow to recognize that you don’t have the right systems in placeHow to assess the strength of your current systems (if any!)Templates for content your team creates repeatedly can actually help them be creativeTraining your people on processes is just as important as documentation of processesHow to ensure your people actually follow your systemsPerfection can kill your progress when building systems so iterate and evolve themRESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE:Juliana’s business - ScaleTimeJuliana on LinkedIn

In this week’s episode of the SIMPLE brand podcast, I talk with Nick Webb, author of One Step Ahead: How To Dominate Your Market With Innovation Leadership!  Nick is a world-renowned Strategist, Futurist, Bestselling Author, and one of the top keynote speakers in the world.Nick was on the SIMPLE brand podcast back in episode 74 talking about What Customers Hate.This time he’s back to talk about lessons from his latest book - One Step Ahead: How To Dominate Your Market With Innovation Leadership.In today’s hypercompetitive environment, the difference between winning and losing really isn’t that big of a gap. It’s actually pretty small. It’s like a race, where the fastest runner who crosses the finish line can be just One Step Ahead.Some of the topics we discuss include:How to stay one step ahead in your leadershipWhy your individual leadership is important in setting your team’s paceWhy surveys and promoter scores are worth very littleThe correlation between a brand’s Glassdoor ratings and Yelp and Google ratingsThe three things your employees need from you and your organizationTaking action from employee feedback builds your credibility Any customer experience initiative must be tied with an employee experience initiativeThe four behaviors that help leaders stay one step aheadRESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE:SIMPLE brand  episode #74 - Nick Webb - What Customers HateNick’s Consulting site - Leader LogicNick’s speaking siteNick’s book - One Step Ahead: How To Dominate Your Market With Innovation LeadershipNick’s book - What Customers Hate: Drive Fast and Scalable Growth by Eliminating the Things that Drive Away Business

In this week’s episode of the SIMPLE brand podcast, I talk with Stephen Houraghan, host of The Brand Master Podcast!  Stephen’s a brand strategist, consultant, the CEO and Founder of Brand Master Academy, and the host of one of my favorite branding podcasts, The Brand Master Podcast.Stephen and I discuss his lessons all around what branding and brand strategy truly are and how you can use his processes and framework to create a highly sought-after, stand-out brand.Some of the topics we discuss include:The true definition of a brand - [SPOILER ALERT] it’s not what you thinkThe difference between branding and brand strategyHow customers choose the brands they want to do business withThe steps to defining and building your brand strategyThe value of focusing on customer relationships vs customer transactionsThe need for understanding your audience and your competitors to create your positioningYour brand voice is as important, if not more, than your visual identityThe habits and values that help brand strategists thrive in their careerRESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE:Stephen’s website - Brand Master AcademyPro Brand Strategy Blueprint

In this week’s episode of the SIMPLE brand podcast, I talk with Jay Baer, author of Talk Triggers: The Complete Guide to Creating Customers with Word of Mouth and Hug Your Haters: How to Embrace Complaints and Keep Your Customers!Jay’s one of the world’s top 30 Global Gurus in customer service AND online marketing and is a hall of fame keynote speaker. And Jay’s the author of six best-selling books.Jay and I discuss insights from his latest research study - The Time to Win: The 2022 Consumer Patience Study. It’s all around brand speed and consumer patience. And it provides all the evidence you need to increase your speed and responsiveness in your customer experience.Some of the topics we discuss include:The importance of speed in customer experienceHow to know exactly how fast to be for your customers Situations where being TOO fast can actually hurt your businessThe surprising data that shows which age demographics are less patient than othersHow to increase revenue by offering a “fast pass”How providing proactive content helps save time and decrease customer service expensesRESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE:Time to Win: The 2022 Consumer Patience StudyJay’s websiteJay’s book - Talk Triggers: The Complete Guide to Creating Customers with Word of MouthJay’s book - Hug Your Haters: How to Embrace Complaints and Keep Your CustomersJay’s tequila review profile on Instagram

In this week’s episode of the SIMPLE brand podcast, I talk with Ann Handley, author ofEverybody Writes: Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good Content!Ann’s the Chief Content Officer for MarketingProfs which educates more than 600,000 marketers around the world. Her book - Everybody Writes - has been considered the bible for marketing writing for close to a decade.  Ann recently expanded and revised the book to update it on how marketing, content, writing, and audience mindset have evolved since the first edition.Some of the topics we discuss include:How marketing and writing have evolved over the past nine yearsHow to build a strong writing habitWhat prevents most people from writing “that big thing” they want to writeAnn’s framework for consistently creating ridiculously good contentCrafting and evolving your brand voiceHow we should approach AI in our writingRESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE:Ann’s websiteAnn’s book - Everybody Writes: Your Go-To Guide to Creating Ridiculously Good ContentAnn’s newsletter - Total ANNARCHYMarketingProfsMarketingProfs 2023 B2B Marketing Forum

In this week’s episode of the SIMPLE brand podcast, I talk with Jim Knight, author of Service That Rocks: Create Unforgettable Experiences and Turn Customers into Fans.Jim’s the former head of global training for Hard Rock International - so you KNOW he’s great at teaching people how to deliver rock star experiences.Jim’s the author of three best-selling books including his latest - Service That Rocks!Some of the topics we discuss include:How rock bands and brands are similar in how the biggest ones create fansWhy the customer experience is the most important piece of your brandEmployees’ behaviors are valuable in delivering the customer experienceYou need to constantly communicate how your brand values translate into your employees’ rolesYour customers see your employees as the brandHow to create unique experiences that differentiate from the competitionThe value of empowering your employeesThe four-letter words you don’t want customers to use to describe your customer experienceA secret to turn customers into fans is treating them like rockstarsRESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE:Jim’s websiteJim’s book - Service That Rocks: Create Unforgettable Experiences and Turn Customers into FansJim’s podcast - Thoughts That Rock

In this week’s episode of the SIMPLE brand podcast, I talk with Brittany Hodak, author of Creating Superfans: How to Turn Customers Into Lifelong Advocates.Brittany was on the SIMPLE brand podcast back in episode 67. This time she’s back to discuss her new book, Creating Superfans. You want to deliver experiences that convert your customers into devoted superfans — repeat customers who evangelize and advocate for your brand to others without you even having to ask. Brittany and I discuss her lessons on how to do just that.Some of the topics we discuss include:The definition of a superfan and why you should careHow apathy in your customers is a major concernBrittany’s SUPER Model that helps you craft experiences that create superfansHow every employee on your team is really in the Experience departmentWhy your competition is more than just your direct competitionThe right ways to exceed customers’ expectationsIf you want your customers to have a superfan experience, you need to deliver that superfan experience to your employeesRESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE:Brittany’s websiteBrittany’s book - Creating Superfans: How to Turn Your Customers Into Lifelong AdvocatesBrittany’s Creating Superfans playlist (100+ songs sprinkled throughout the book)SIMPLE brand #67: Brittany Hodak - How to Turn Your Customers Into Superfans