Rogue Creators

Houston, We Have a Big Announcement!

Welcome to another episode of Rogue Creators!  This week, we have a big announcement!  We will be taking a break for Q4 as we transition to a new and improved format.  In January 2022, we'll be back and better than ever.  We look forward to talking with creators that have paved their own paths as photographers, videographers, designers, and more!  We'll be diving into their content together to break down the stories and processes behind their creative work.  We are so stoked to start this new series, and we want to know who you think we should invite to join the show!  If you're a Rogue Creator, reach out on any of our social media platforms so we can hear YOUR story!  See you all in January!

The Journey to 100k Downloads Begins with Simple Prep with Startup Junkie

Are you looking to grow your podcast’s listener base?  Check out this episode of Rogue Creators!  Caleb Talley and Jeff Amerine joined Bryan and Loren to celebrate reaching 100,000 downloads on the Startup Junkies Podcast.  Caleb and Jeff co-host the show each week and talk with founders about the stories behind the businesses we love.  On this episode, they chat with Bryan and Loren about creating the Startup Junkies Podcast, preparing for interviews, maintaining relationships with guests, and much more! Shownotes (2:11) What are you obsessed with? (8:07) The Creating Startup Junkies Book (9:31) The Inception of Startup Junkie (13:26) The Startup Junkies Podcast Origin Story (20:30) Tips for Growing Your Podcast (24:28) Using Your Podcast to Build Relationships and Make Connections (30:23) 1 Million Cups (34:51) What’s Next for Startup Junkie? (40:24) Wrap Up (42:00) Rapid Fire Links Bryan Fittin [https://www.instagram.com/heybryanhey/?hl=en] Loren Lewis [https://www.instagram.com/thislovelylewislife/?hl=en] Caleb Talley [https://www.linkedin.com/public-profile/in/caleb-talley-25189211b/?challengeId=AQHy6bDwhtonvAAAAXODvcsE5UocjuMLaXIyQQDnrLA3F2Y-k2Lvikr_fXm-1eL_Z15ZV4OGvZzPzyWUxyq4V8RDL0BE_QyNmg&submissionId=83b072b5-f6dc-2416-c7ed-866b7ed36e7f] Jeff Amerine [https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeffamerine/] Startup Junkies Podcast [https://www.startupjunkie.org/podcast] The Grand Biocentric Design [https://www.amazon.com/Grand-Biocentric-Design-Creates-Reality/dp/1950665402] The Place We Find Ourselves Podcast [https://adamyoungcounseling.com/podcast/] Creating Startup Junkies [https://www.amazon.com/Creating-Startup-Junkies-Sustainable-Ecosystems/dp/0977934098/ref=sr_1_1?crid=2UGQSJ5HMAUX6&dchild=1&keywords=creating+startup+junkies&qid=1617720118&sprefix=creating+startup+%2Cstripbooks%2C179&sr=8-1] Quotes “One thing led to another because there was a need in the market for the mentoring, counseling, training, the kind of start up support stuff that we do.  And now, we probably touch 1,200 entrepreneurs a year through one-on-one counseling.  And in normal times we put on 250 events, and all that stuff, thanks to the hard work of Caleb and the whole crew, is now virtual.”  (10:46) “We decided, let’s give the Zoom platform a shot, as far as recording the podcast.  I think that really opened it up for us where we weren’t just having local entrepreneur guests on.  It gave us an opportunity to expand out and invite people that we otherwise would not have been able to invite on.”  (16:26) “You can be more conversational if you get a sense for the types of things that people are going to want to hear about.  How’d you get started?  How did you raise money?  How do you deal with building the team?  What kind of challenges do you face?  That sort of stuff.” (24:53) “[Matthew has] kind of streamlined the process for bringing [guests] on and getting them scheduled.  Part of that is getting some seeds of fun facts.  He’s got a questionnaire of some things to kind of pull from them that we can throw out during the podcast.”  (25:32)

Your Customers Are Frustrated With How They Buy From You with Josh Fedie

Summary In this episode of Rogue Creators, Bryan Fittin and Loren Lewis talk with Josh Fedie, the Founder and CEO of SalesReach.  Josh is a huge advocate for integrating video into your sales strategy, and SalesReach helps you accomplish that with ease.  Bryan, Loren, and Josh talk about jumping in front of the camera, providing value for your prospective customers, and why keeping it short is best.  You don’t want to miss out on this value-packed episode! Shownotes (2:31) What are you obsessed with? (7:21) Introducing Josh Fedie and SalesReach (14:43) How does video close sales? (21:48) Content creation generating leads (29:30) Advice for integrating video (36:20) What’s next for SalesReach? (43:31) Wrap up (45:41) Rapid Fire Links Bryan Fittin [https://www.instagram.com/heybryanhey/?hl=en] Loren Lewis [https://www.instagram.com/thislovelylewislife/?hl=en] Josh Fedie [https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshfedie/] SalesReach [https://www.salesreach.io/] Quotes “If you don’t feel comfortable making videos, I promise you, if you just start, you’re going to find that it’s a lot easier than you ever though it was going to be.” (16:15) “The more deliberate you can be about explaining, here’s what I need you to do next, and here’s how easy I’ve made it to do that next thing – That’s where you’re going to really start winning and getting the responses you want.” (18:23) “Once these other customer-facing teams are engaging with these prospects and customers, they need more help to keep bringing more value throughout.” (23:52) “There’s so many ways to do this stuff more effectively.  It’s not the tool, it’s you.  You just have to be willing to be more creative in your process – and lucky for most sales professionals and other people in a customer-facing role, being creative is something that a lot of highly successful people in that space are actually good at.”  (35:28) “I think the second we start really, truly thinking about what experience am I creating around this sale for my buyer – if we really think about that, that’s when we start really, truly refining our process and getting out of the things that we did 12 months ago that were successful but aren’t anymore.”  (35:54)

Recruiting Great Talent Through Thoughtful Content

Summary This Rogue Creators episode was stoked to have on a special guest from Harvest Group! Bryan and Loren were joined in the studio by Ella Jane Dantzler, their Senior Marketing Manager. Harvest Group is a full-service retail growth agency serving Walmart, Kroger, and now Target. By word of mouth and social platforms, we have been able to see firsthand how the healthy company culture is pushing Harvest Group to new heights. You will want o to hear how people like Ella Jane are creating a company all of us would want to work at or with!  Check it out! Shownotes [0:48] Introducing Ella Jane Dantzler [ejdantzler@harvestgroup.com]and Harvest Group [1:32] What are you obsessed with? [5:10] Harvest Group… Everyone wants to work there! [6:27] From NYC To Senior Marketing Manager [10:08] Awards and Recognition with Harvest Group [10:42] Culture at the heart of Harvest Group [13:00] Authenticity on social media [17:40] Creativity withing rebranding [21:25] Imposter Syndrome [25:03] What’s next for Harvest Group? [30:14] Wrap Up [31:28] Rapid Fire Links Bryan Fittin [https://www.instagram.com/heybryanhey/?hl=en] Loren Lewis [https://www.instagram.com/thislovelylewislife/?hl=en] Ella Jane Dantzler [https://www.linkedin.com/in/ella-jane-dantzler-022a9911a/] Harvest Group [https://harvestgroup.com/] Quotes “I think we could all kind of look back and say, ‘thank you’ to our first boss who hired us. Like, why did he hire me? I no clue.” (7:05) - Ella Jane Dantzler [ejdantzler@harvestgroup.com] “I think harvest and the founders really were intentional about the values that they chose and carrying those forward. And 15 years later, we're still talking about those same values. (11:29) - Ella Jane Dantzler [ejdantzler@harvestgroup.com] “Our clients often comment on our culture and how you want to work with somebody who you like.” (12:09) - Ella Jane Dantzler [ejdantzler@harvestgroup.com] “[On documenting, not creating,] And I think that you've done that through a lot... rather than like, Hey, we need to make a social media post. What can we do? And what can we come up with? It's like, I'm just going to document what we're doing and we're just already doing it.” (12:35) - Bryan Fittin Culture Creation as Content This Rogue Creators episode featured Ella Jane Dantzler, Senior Marketing Manager of Harvest Group. Bryan and Loren were stoked to have her hang out and discuss how creating a stellar company culture is synonymous with creating good marketing! Harvest Group is a full-service retail growth agency serving Walmart, Kroger, and now Target. Harvest Group's track record consists of Entrepreneur Magazine's 2018 Top Company Cultures, Forbes 2019 Small Giants, and Inc.'s Best Workplaces of 2020. Ella Jane has four-plus years of experience in marketing and content management, specifically in the shopper marketing and social media industry. She has experience ranging from social media, public speaking, and editing, companies such as Collective Bias, Stone Mill Bread Company and now Harvest Group. By word of mouth and social platforms, we have been able to see firsthand how the healthy company culture is pushing Harvest Group to new heights. You will want o to hear how people like Ella Jane are creating a company all of us would want to work at or with! From culture-building to leaving space for creative side projects, we hash it all out on this episode. Authenticity on Social Media Harvest Group has taken considerable measures to use social media authentically. We are not all hoodwinked into dismissing the amount of curating and crafting that goes on for a typical companies post. Harvest Group wanted to create a culture that could be documented at any time and continue to push forward its values as a healthy, thriving, and fun company. With that being said, there still needs to be a strategy; you cannot just throw things out there. Where is the line of between high quality and accuracy without being posed? A key ingredient for Ella Jane is to ask herself if the post would be adding value. Would it add value to the team, to the client, to the person scrolling? "if I'm scrolling through LinkedIn, Actually learning something, or if I'm not learning something applicable about my business, I'm learning something about harvest group." (13:46) - Ella Jane Dantzler Although Ella Jane's background was in curated photography flooded feeds, she is helping shape Harvest Group as using the platform to tell who their people are. In some ways, it is a more journalistic approach. Then by telling the story of people's heart for their clients and positions, it can give actual value rather than being a feedback loop of self-promotion. ​​" Social media presence gives you a chance to kind of get to know who they are and their personality a little bit more than those other venues." (14:55) - Ella Jane Dantzler Bringing Creativity into B2B Over the past year, we noticed a change in Harvest Group branding and learned Ella Jane got to head up that mission! Bringing thier own creative flare, she was able to take charge in starting up a noticeable change in the content designs for social. Little did we know, she was pregnant at the time, and during the final days of deciding on the logo concept, she ended up having her son. "And he [her boss] was like, 'Is it gonna stress you out or make you feel really glad to see like these final concepts that came through?' I'm like, 'Yes, please! Oh my gosh, it would make me feel so happy!" (20:43) - Ella Jane Dantzler Imposter Syndrome Along the Way "I think we could all kind of look back and say, 'thank you' to our first boss who hired us. Like, why did he hire me? I no clue." (7:05) - Ella Jane Dantzler Ella Jane and many of us have similar stories of stumbling into the careers we have now. With her first experience to today, she was able to walk us through what her interaction with the dreaded imposter syndrome has looked like. Working with employers and colleagues who believed in her and her abilities made all the difference. Instilling confidence to take risks and own mistakes became a culture she wanted to multiply out. "Having the learner mentality and having the vulnerability to, you know, both acting confidence, but also ask questions… but you can't just sit back and be like, let's just wait for it to sink in, but [you have to be] going after it and then giving yourself the grace to really learn before you act." (22:43) - Ella Jane Dantzler Ella Jane, A Rogue Creator Initially, we were stoked to speak to Ella Jane on how she is considered a Rogue Creator when it comes to company culture, and then we found out she is a Rogue Creator on a whole different level as well! Ella Jane calls them doodles, but we have loved her art account on Instagram. Go check it out for some drawings, cards, jokes, and paintings under the handle of Ella Jane Illustrations. Next For Harvest Group As Harvest Group continues its endeavors to add value, you will be seeing more content like guides, perspectives on retail news and spotlights on the employees and clients that are the foundation of the company. Keep an eye out for Harvest Group and Ella Jane Dantzler; we are excited about what they both will be up to next! www.RogueCreators.club

September In The Know

Shownotes [1:26] What are you obsessed with? [4:20] Riverside [7:12] SalesReach [9:36] Transistor [12:38]  Sendible [16:14] Descript [18:21] Grammarly [20:39] Rapid Fire Links Bryan Fittin [https://www.instagram.com/heybryanhey/?hl=en] Loren Lewis [https://www.instagram.com/thislovelylewislife/?hl=en] Rogue Creators Episode 107: Ditch Zoom. Try Riverside or Zencastr [https://www.goroguex.com/post/ditch-zoom-try-riverside-or-zencastr] Rogue Creators Episode 107: Mastering the Art of Sales Through Video with Josh Fedie [https://www.goroguex.com/post/mastering-the-art-of-sales-through-video-with-josh-fedie] Riverside [https://riverside.fm/] SalesReach [https://www.salesreach.io/] Transistor [https://transistor.fm/] Sendible [https://www.sendible.com/] Descript [https://www.descript.com/] Grammarly [https://www.grammarly.com/] Quotes “Riverside is a fantastic software that has really done a lot of things.  You can record 4k video. You can actually get separate audio and video tracks so your guests, so no matter what, even if the internet completely went down, it is still recording on the back end of you and your guests, so you’ll always have the interview.”  (5:02) “One of the best features [in SalesReach] is that you can record your video, but it basically saves a GIF of the video that you can use in the email, so they can actually see it’s a personalized video for them.” (8:23) “[With Transistor], you can see the most popular episodes and 30 and 90-day download numbers, and those can be really helpful to understanding your audience and what they’re actually listening to.” (11:30) “What Sendible does that I absolutely love is that I can load a piece of content into the platform and be able to edit based on the platform while staying in the same post.” (13:35) “What’s really helpful about Descript is the instant transcript that we get.  It identifies speakers and provides timestamps for us really fast.  For our writers, this has been so helpful to be able to quickly locate information, grab quotes, grab timestamps, and just understand the full body of a podcast.” (16:57)