This episode is a treasure trove of behind-the-scenes gems. Uncover the meticulous craftsmanship involved in curating our guest list and preparing for interviews that resonate with truth and relevance. And if you've ever been curious about the genesis of our guest swag, prepare for heartwarming tales that highlight the deep connections and bright smiles they spark.
A word about our sponsors:
Sponsored by SPI Logistics. If you're looking for back-office support such as admin, finance, IT, and sales as a freight broker - reach out to SPI Logistics today! Learn more about becoming an agent here: https://success.spi3pl.com/
Standing Out is a sales, marketing & leadership podcast powered by BETA Consulting Group, created to highlight best practices from industry leaders with incredible experience and insights! The goal is to entertain, educate & inspire individuals & companies to improve their sales, marketing & leadership development outcomes.
This episode is a treasure trove of behind-the-scenes gems. Uncover the meticulous craftsmanship involved in curating our guest list and preparing for interviews that resonate with truth and relevance. And if you've ever been curious about the genesis of our guest swag, prepare for heartwarming tales that highlight the deep connections and bright smiles they spark.
A word about our sponsors:
Sponsored by SPI Logistics. If you're looking for back-office support such as admin, finance, IT, and sales as a freight broker - reach out to SPI Logistics today! Learn more about becoming an agent here: https://success.spi3pl.com/
Standing Out is a sales, marketing & leadership podcast powered by BETA Consulting Group, created to highlight best practices from industry leaders with incredible experience and insights! The goal is to entertain, educate & inspire individuals & companies to improve their sales, marketing & leadership development outcomes.
Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Standing Out. Can you believe that it is March already? Where is the time going? Q1 is almost done. Hope you're having a great start to your 2024 out there and thank you for joining us for another episode of Standing Out, a show about sales, marketing and leadership. I'm Trey Greer cause your host's so happy to have you with us today.
Speaker 1:And listen, we're gonna be hitting the road here real soon. We've got a couple of events coming up that you need to know about. We need to see you out there. So if you are in the industry, especially if you're a broker or a carrier in the industry make sure that you are attending the Broker Carrier Summit Coming up April 22 through 24 in Kansas City. To learn more about that, visit brokercarriersummitcom and feel free to use our coupon code beta B-E-T-A, to save yourself 10%. We'd love to see you there at the summit. And make sure you sign up for the golf tournament, the post and pray classic. If you're going. It's gonna be amazing. We have a lot of fun with that. Also, looking at your summer plans early June, I wanna make sure that you hit the TMSA Elevate Conference down in New Orleans, down in the Jazz City down there in Louisiana. It's gonna be in June 8 through 11. So make sure you go to eventstmsatodayorg to sign up for that. If you are in sales and marketing and transportation, this is the event for you Lots of great education, good networking, just some of the best people in the industry. We're the sales and marketing people, so make sure that you join us for that event as well.
Speaker 1:All right, before we bring on our guest today, which I'm so excited to bring on, talking about marketing and specifically podcasting, gotta give a little shout out to our sponsor, SPI Logistics. We appreciate them so much for supporting the show. Listen, if you're a freight broker and you're tired of having your back office and just dealing with the MC you know the issues and all that of having your own brokerage you need to check them out, successspi3plcom. They're gonna allow you to stay in your sweet spot because they've got all the technology systems and back office to help you succeed. Or if you're a freight agent and you're just not happy with where you are, again, check them out. Reach out to the guys over there at SPI Logistics. They're gonna help you out in finding the best home possible. Check them out at successspi3plcom. Make sure you let them know. I actually heard about them right here on San Neon.
Speaker 1:All right, today's guest. I'm really excited about this today because she's one of our own. We decided to go internally today for our guest. We had some changes in our staff recently as we had opportunities to bring on some A players. I'm very excited to highlight her today on this show. She is our podcast director, so please give it up for Miss Natalia Navan. ["i'm a Do the Things that I Want To Do"]. Okay, my friends, let me just say this first of all, before you say a word Kudos on the walk-up song going with Weezer From back in the day. I'm so proud. I'm like a proud dad right now. This is a big moment. This is a big moment. How are you doing.
Speaker 2:I'm doing good today I'm doing good. I'm excited to be on the show. So thank you so much for inviting me.
Speaker 1:I know. I mean you make this whole thing happen. I wanted to bring you to the forefront, bring up on stage and let everybody understand how this all happens. I get a lot of the, I guess, attention and people say, hey, we love your content, but people don't really know how it works. And so I thought, man, today let's highlight how this works and let's highlight the people who are really making this happen. And you've come on board recently and you're the reason why this just continues to get better and better and runs so smoothly, although today you do have a substitute Ms Morgan Vartner is running produce producer today and making us look good on the show today. So let's dig in and have a little fun today talking about what we do and why companies should consider starting their own podcast. But before we do that, you got to make a quick introduction. Tell people a little bit about yourself.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't know even where to start. I guess what most of our guests do is talk about how they got in the industry. I don't even know if you could really consider us and will be in the transportation industry.
Speaker 2:Oh, you're in the industry, you're in, you're in I think I'm just kind of on the outskirts watching it and then I don't really still don't know a whole lot about transportation and supply chain, but I guess what you're saying is that a fray broker out there needs to at least let you come and sit in the chair and move so few loads.
Speaker 1:You need to go move a few loads and see what's going on.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I need to go and get experience moving some loads and try to understand what they're talking about with these TMSs and technology that's helping developers out there with all the guests that we have on the show, especially with the Edge, but I don't know. My initial, I guess, introduction into the industry was in that recruiting role and I did it straight out of college and that's actually where I met Coleman. Coleman was the person that interviewed me and basically helped me throughout my internship at that initial company and then he kind of just became my mentor and supervisor and eventually things didn't really work out without company and I was in search of a job. For a while I had been taking all these different routes. It was at an initial job actually, too, that made me realize I really had a knack and an interest and passion on the creative side of things. I liked to make presentation designs. I was getting into all this design stuff, especially with marketing on social media, trying to liven up our LinkedIn profile and give it more content, kind of give it more personality, and so that position didn't work out. And then, after searching for a while, you reached out to me on LinkedIn. You're like hey, coleman said you might give it good for a project and I thought it was just going to be an actual project, like, ok, it's like a one-time thing, this will be good for my portfolio and then I can apply to other roles too.
Speaker 2:We started speaking to you at the podcast director and it was very exciting. I was so excited and we started having more and more conversations and just on ideas and bouncing them back off of each other. And here I am today. I love the team, I love my job, I love that I get to do this with you guys every single day and I love how I think I said to you one time that this is the first time it's a green flag when an employer says we're like a family here. So definitely a green flag in all the best ways. I feel like a family and just being able to work together.
Speaker 2:At the podcast side of things, definitely it's a group effort and even though I'm putting the agendas and everything together, I'm happy that I get to bounce ideas off of you. You've been a huge help, obviously, kind of guiding me on what the shows are like and different content to speak on and learning about the guests and then with Coleman and working on the team too. They're so great in hearing my ideas out, and also the crazy ones, the ones that are like that doesn't sound the best, but then we get to the good ones and they help me get there too, and they create the shows that we have today.
Speaker 1:So Well, the timing was amazing when you came on board because we had an opening and I remember saying to Coleman like gosh, what are we going to do? Like I can't handle all of this, because we'd grown, this show up and we really needed somebody to take the reins and run with it. And he goes I've got the person. I still have the person. I mean, he was so confident and so he started talking about you and obviously we got a chance to meet and from the first moment that we met, I just knew that you had the energy and the positivity and the creativity to have a lot of fun with us and take to the next level. So timing's been great, it's been a lot of fun. We're going to talk about that in just a minute, but before we do that, we got a little fun fact about you that we have to talk about.
Speaker 1:I did not know this. So I mean, we work together every day and I did not know this. This is really interesting. But apparently Jesse McCartney called you a cutie one time and gave you a signed hat that you still have. I guess this is a while ago. This is like not recently, this is a while ago, right?
Speaker 2:Yeah, this is when I was five years old. I don't even remember. It was like a free concert when I was young and I have the hat right here, so it's like a signed.
Speaker 1:Look at that. Judging Nice, nice. Look at that.
Speaker 2:Five years old, obviously a huge Jesse McCartney fan. My babysitter was a huge Jesse McCartney fan.
Speaker 1:There you go.
Speaker 2:One of his free shows, I guess, was like on a carnival or something, and she was very jealous that day because he called me a cutie in her arms and it was fun. I still have the hat. I don't even know how we've managed to keep this the entire time, so impressive.
Speaker 1:Impressive One of the things he's covered in his head. It's like a blankie, maybe not getting rid of that thing, I think, so Holding on tight. It's interesting because when you were five and I don't even talk about what year that is, it's not important but when you were five I was a teacher and I would play music for my kids whenever. So when I was a teacher, I'd always give the students like 20 minutes to do their homework in class because I felt like that was just the best way for them to have access to help if they needed it, that type of thing. But I would always play music while they did that and I would let them pick out the music. So each student got to submit a song and then I created a CD back in the day, burning the CDs and then I'd play that during the homework time, and so Jesse McCartney was always one of the songs, like one of the artists, and so that was my introduction to that. So it's kind of funny that you mentioned that. It takes me back to those days and again, we don't need to talk about the year, not important. I'm ready to let everybody know how old I am, but that's a really fun fact and the fact that you kept it. That's pretty cool.
Speaker 1:And you also, you like. You like dogs, of course, we both have a golden doodle, mini golden doodle, which is fun. You like plants, like in your very artistic musical into fitness, outdoor hobbies, like you're just living your best life, man, down there in Florida, and I love it. I love seeing that. What's probably your favorite thing to do? If you can only do one thing, like like you got one thing to do today and it's it, what would be the choice? What's the top thing you do?
Speaker 2:I mean it's. Don't get mad at me for saying it's cold over here, it's a little chilly, but I would, absolutely. I would love to go kayaking. I love kayaking and we have some places around here where you can get like a nice little water trailer or go down a stream, but I don't do it as often as I used to, and my dad was actually the one that got me into it and I just love it. It makes me feel very free. Just don't know something about paddling through the water and just being able to sit there on the water, and it's very peaceful, very relaxing.
Speaker 1:So I want to make a home water, Like if you're kayaking through a river that's not peaceful.
Speaker 2:That's not for the adrenaline junkies, if you want to do that crazy. I'm talking about a really peaceful stream of water that's just still maybe like a little small current. But the most exciting or most adrenaline, I don't know heart racing thing is probably like if you see an alligator just kind of chilling on a log or something on the side.
Speaker 1:you don't want to go next to them, but yeah, I don't know that I would even go in the water. Actually I'm a little scared of them. I'm not even going in the water.
Speaker 2:It's a if it's like a well or very popular spring, there will be alligators there, but they're so used to people being there all the time they won't come up to you. They won't do anything.
Speaker 1:I don't know that. I trust that they say that about beers here in the Midwest, like there's beer all over. Right, it's like an alligator you know, pull on, just gators they're.
Speaker 2:they're very small little gators they're.
Speaker 1:I don't even know, maybe like the news, are the big ones. The only gators we see in Missouri are the big ones, so I'm not sure that I'm jumping in the water kayaking around. You may be on your own on that one.
Speaker 2:We had an unfortunate story. Oh, it's not funny, but the picture that came out of it was, unfortunately, a gator. In these communities Sometimes you have to. You have to report when a gator gets too big, and I guess someone didn't report it or it was neglected for a long time. Unfortunately, it did end up attacking an old lady and she did away, but the chair they got out of it was the gator on its stomach with its arms tied behind its back. So it looks like they were resting the gate. So bad. It was not a fun, it wasn't a good story, but I just couldn't stop laughing at the gate, like the picture of the gator with his little tiny arms behind its back. I had a screenshot of it for the longest time, yeah they got to make a meme out of that.
Speaker 1:I mean, that's so meme worthy right there. That's something great about that. We're gonna have to. We're gonna have to do something with that. We're gonna have to find that picture. Sad story, great picture. We still use it, but I don't know that you're helping us, who you know are scared of alligators getting in the water telling that story. I don't know that makes it better in regards to doing it.
Speaker 1:Let's shift our gears for a minute and talk podcasting, because I, you know, I I firmly believe that we need more podcasts in the industry. We need more people who are telling stories and controlling their narrative, and to me, a podcast today is like what a blog was 15 years ago. It was a great way to communicate back then. I think podcasts are a great way now to get your message out there, to have some opportunities with businesses that you want to work with. There's just so many uses for podcasts.
Speaker 1:So let's dig in and talk about the nuts and bolts of what goes into our show here and what you do all around. So I think it first starts with our, with our guests. You know, we, we we get together and we talk about who's our like what's our wish list? What's our, what's our? You know what's our wish list for guests. Who do we really want to have on the show? Normally I reach out to them, sometimes you reach out to them, but then once they say, yes, I'll be on the show, then that's when you really go to work. So talk about how you work with guests to make sure that they're ready for the show, prepared, comfortable, all of those things.
Speaker 2:One of my favorite things about my job is that you guys encourage me to basically be a paid stalker when it comes to doing research about like I have to let people know that the show. I am on your page. It's all the notifications that are coming up that someone is on your page looking. I'm trying to look for nice facts that we can ask you?
Speaker 2:I want to know everything about our guests so we can make them feel comfortable without bombarding them with a bunch of emails or anything the most that we can learn about them. But that's kind of what the starting process goes into. But there's also the communication aspect of it. So once they do say yes to being on the show, I get that little ping saying hey, so and so is going to be a guest on our show, and that's when I can go ahead and kind of move forward with introducing myself, just kind of letting them know what the next steps are going to be like.
Speaker 2:I do wish I could talk to the guests all the time, but obviously they're very busy. They're like any level of just like busy in their organizations from CEOs to directors to maybe sales, and I know that we can't bombard them with a whole bunch of communication. So trying to make sure that instructions and what to expect is as clear as possible, but also in a concise way where we can make it feel like an easy process and make it feel as simple as possible, just them coming on the show and having a conversation with you All of everything that goes in the background is just kind of collecting that information to make sure the show runs smoothly. So I love when we get to have the surveys go out so that way we can see you know what's your favorite song, what do you want your walk-up song to be? And just collecting all the information we need to make sure that once the show has happened we get all those materials sent out to them that they're aware of what's happening.
Speaker 2:And we haven't had it really happened to often yet. But I do love when guests are able to kind of communicate back and, I don't know, give like ideas if they want to talk about something, if there is something that they want to just kind of shed light on, especially an important cause. I love when we get to do that and when we get to bounce ideas off of the guests as well. But that's going to be the initiation of communication that goes there. And then, I don't know, there's just so many arms and legs to the show and, depending on the show, We'll get to some of that in just a minute for the details.
Speaker 1:But you know I've noticed that your research is getting, your skills are getting better, because you're starting to find nuggets out on social media that the guest doesn't even know we're going to talk about.
Speaker 1:Sometimes, like, we can sometimes surprise the guest with a maybe like their favorite saying or favorite quote or something they posted on social media that really stood out, that we want to talk about, and so that's been really fun to see you get really creative and get better with your research skills and to add to the agenda, add to the show, some fun aspects that a lot of times guests don't even know about, but they're not scary, they're just, like you know, highlighting some of the things that they've already put out there and you know why do you love this saying or why do you love that artist or whatever it is. So I think that that's that's been getting better and better. And then there's also, you know, there's there's some design elements that go into it as well. So there's the marketing side, the promoting of the episode, and you guys done a good job of creating graphics and those types of things. Talk about the, you know, promotion, creation, planning, what goes into making sure that not only the guest is ready but also we're letting our audience know what's coming.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I mean I try to look at it as best as possible and I always bounce ideas off of Morgan and Coleman as well on any other connections that we have that have that marketing experience, but trying to see you know what's the best schedule to get our content out there, what's going to be like a little too much if we are close to much. I remember on one episode of Word on the Street, kyle mentioned like all I see is beta whenever I open LinkedIn and if you don't want that to be a bad thing, we're personally like good.
Speaker 2:I want it to be beta every time you open the app. But no, we try to kind of be a little bit strategic as best as we can with the information that we have on what's being viewed and the kind of content that's being digested a little bit more easy. Sometimes it's a graphic, sometimes it's going to be a short clip of the video, how long the video is going to be, like what piece of content is going to grab the most attention. So I mean, that's one of the most time consuming portions. Is the actual creation of it that maybe people don't see where I'm sitting down and sometimes we throw it into like a little spicer of videos and it gives us all the videos, but I still have to go in and really see.
Speaker 2:Okay, is this doing? Is this cutting the clips at like an interesting talking point? Do I have to go back a little bit more to have a bit more of an attention grabber? Or sometimes during the episodes while we're producing, there's something that gets said that was really inspirational. I mean that's one of my favorite parts and also one of the downfalls of being the producer behind the scenes, because sometimes you just want to jump out and like you have questions too. I always have questions too, especially when the women get on like it's so inspiring so I'm just like, oh, like what's this, this and that? But then I'm like I'm not the host, but I get to do the markers and then go going back on those talking points and really trying to capture how inspiring it was, at least for me, and then running it by the team and seeing this as an attention grabber and then trying to make sure it's fitting that timeframe that's going to be the most beneficial on social media and also trying to understand our audience, because we're on LinkedIn, we're on YouTube, we're on Instagram, we have a TikTok.
Speaker 2:There's so many different platforms and I think one of the first things that I had talked about with the team when onboarding was just how beta is its own like persona, but at the same time, you have platforms. You have more maybe of like a laid back and it's more comedic, and the other is more professional, like LinkedIn, and sometimes you can be a little bit funny and people will take it the right way on LinkedIn, but you don't want to be like meme city on LinkedIn, necessarily more so than we are maybe on the shorts on YouTube they're a bit funnier, and Instagram as well. So trying to really curate the content perfectly. I don't think we do it perfectly yet, but I think hopefully we're getting there.
Speaker 1:It's a work in process and it's all just in the. I think one of the things that we've embodied as a company is this idea of always experimenting, just like experiment all the time and let's see what works, let's fail fast, let's figure things out. Oh, that didn't work, get it out of there, let's move on. I think that's really important and one of the things that you know I love we've talked about this before I love stepping out of the way and letting people like yourself and Morgan and Coleman to jump in and make decisions and share ideas. And one of the best ideas, I think, that you came up with so far of all the ideas was we started giving swag to all of our guests on the show. We'll give them a mug or we'll give them a water bottle. And my idea was hey, I'm going to send them a mug and it's going to have our logo on the other side. It's a way for us to market ourselves.
Speaker 1:And you were like what if we put their logo on the other side? And I was like, oh, that's interesting. So we started doing that and all of a sudden, you know all of our guests are posting when they get their mugs now like they're excited. And we had one guest, marina. You know, brown, who. It was their first piece of swag for her new company. Like I didn't even think about that, like we gave her a first piece of swag, like that was such a great idea and I know that you really enjoy that. You know what is. That is the design aspect, your favorite part of this role.
Speaker 2:I think that have a lot of favorite parts. I think design is definitely one of them. It's up there, I think, if-.
Speaker 1:You've come up with some good designs. I mean, I don't know if we should show some of these off if we have them. What are some of your favorites that you've?
Speaker 2:done, I mean. So I think one of the first I didn't upload it in here or anything, but one of the first that really came from just having an original idea. With the designs was read Lost a Lot or Loose a Lot. I forgot how to read Lost a Lot, Lost a Lot.
Speaker 1:I think that's how he says it Lost a Lot yeah.
Speaker 2:I do on the show too, and I think that was one of the first designs I created and it was a lot of fun, just kind of creating a cartoon. And then I think Jeff Dickinson was the second one after the there it is, after Reed's good game, like he really enjoyed it. He posted it on his LinkedIn feed and I was that just like made me so happy that someone had enjoyed it. And then I don't know like I don't know why I did the Bodacious Cowboys. I forgot why I did it. I just kind of ended up doing it and then I sent it over to him recently and he loved it. There's great feedback on that.
Speaker 2:And then even for Manifest, like we got to do the stickers and we had a conversation with the biggest views, so obviously we should hand draw, and we got to have the beta logo on the shopping bag. So it's just a ton of fun. I like when those random ideas come to play, especially when we get to design the swag. So even with the mugs and the water bottles and coffee coffee mugs already said that, but I don't know, I just I tried to think more so on what I would enjoy on a mug, I don't know if that's kind of selfish, but I just think of what I would enjoy in receiving and swag and I just thought of sometimes I'll do a logo for people and then other times I do their company logos.
Speaker 2:So even with Marina, that really touched my heart when she sent us that thank you, and we didn't even know that that was one of the swag.
Speaker 1:I know it was amazing.
Speaker 2:To see the actual joy and like appreciation, and you don't even expect it to mean too much to other people. It feels really good and you just want to keep doing it and you know it's another way for them to post about us and just kind of have that partnership as well. So it definitely makes me really happy. It's one of my favorite aspects about that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and we have a lot of fun around here and I'm curious your thoughts I mean, I know that you haven't had a lot of work experiences in your life You're still pretty young but I'm curious your thoughts on the impact on the quality of your work because we have so much fun around here Like, do you think it improves the quality of work? Do you think it hinders it a little bit? Like, what's your take on that Cause we have a lot of fun around here?
Speaker 2:I absolutely think it improves the quality of work, the fact that, like I said, like it's a good thing around here that we are like a family because we'll be on calls just Morgan and Coleman and I we've been on calls for hours at a time, especially, I think, for Manifest, and we were designing all that stuff. It was so much fun and sometimes we just give out all of our ideas I definitely give out some crazy ideas and then they're like that's not great. On that call we had an initial call I think it was like two or three hours long and we were trying to think like what do we give out at Manifest? And we were talking about like QR codes for our business cards. It's like we can have a wallpaper or something. And then and then I forgot what it led to.
Speaker 2:But eventually I got really excited, cause someone talked about embroidering. I was like we can embroider like QR codes onto the sleeves of our sweaters. And then Coleman replies with yeah, let's just get it tattooed on our foreheads while we're at it and I got excited. Even. I was like we can totally get like tattoos and I would absolutely put it on my wrist. I remember talking to him about this. I was like I'll tattoo it on my wrist with the washable lens, because that's going to be memorable. Imagine I'm talking to a person and they're like oh, like, what's your information?
Speaker 2:And then I just boom and that's what led us to bringing these ideas to Lindsay and other people.
Speaker 1:That actually gets me excited now because I think it like conferences. People are asking you have a business card, you have this. I mean, what if I had a QR code on my forehead for the whole thing?
Speaker 2:I mean you don't want the fun, all it's like. I want people to take it seriously as well, but having fun and just having being able to share our ideas like that, it kind of feels like we're all siblings in a sense. Really, I don't care that he made fun of me a little bit for the tattoos but eventually it led us to sharing those ideas with others. And then, like Lindsay was able to like oh, isn't it in Vegas? Like you should do?
Speaker 1:the hangover theme, that's right.
Speaker 2:And it led to the stickers and the tattoos and the costumes and everything. So I think it definitely improves the quality of our work. It gets us through the day and it gets us through the process, cause I know sometimes I can overthink, and then you messaged me like remember to have fun, and I'm like you're so right.
Speaker 1:This is fun. Don't take yourself too seriously, and you have to sometimes get through some bad ideas or the not as good ideas to get to the great idea you know a lot of times it pieces together, you know.
Speaker 2:I need to get all the trashy ideas out of my head, so there's room for the good ones, and then we can get to work.
Speaker 1:That's right. That's right, absolutely All right. Let's talk about podcasting. Who's it for? I mean I, I take the opinion that I think every company should have a podcast because it gives them the chance to Control the narrative and have telly stories, have these conversations. I mean, what do you, what do you think about that? Who should, who should, consider starting a podcast?
Speaker 2:Everyone and don't worry, he didn't train me to say this on the show. I Definitely think podcasting is for everyone. It makes me so excited when I learned that some of our guests are actually have podcasts like yeah, sorry, no, marina with Christie Connicholl she was mentioning pairing up with Jeff Dickinson about the podcast and that made me really excited. And then even having Corey Shearer he was talking about possibly doing that and he had all of this stuff Like. It was so exciting to hear that. And, just like you said, where everyone like it should be for everyone, it's about getting your narrative out there. Same thing with what we do with testimonials being able to have the customer perspective and their experience with different clant, with the clients that we're working with. It's a way to get your personality out there. It's a way to really show who you are and how you're gonna treat your customer. How are you gonna treat people that are partnering with you to share your values, without it just being on your website, and then people may be taking a chance in reaching out to you. I think it's a great way to show the personality of yourself as a leader and, just like your perspective on certain things, it tells people a lot about you as a person, as a professional, and I think that's another way of building that trust. So If you don't really know the voice of the person behind a brand or behind a company or behind a different service, it's really hard to trust them unless you try and go and work in them and kind of work with them and take a chance. So I definitely think podcasting can be so beneficial and it doesn't have to be.
Speaker 2:I think people get intimidated by it, thinking that it has to be this whole production. I know we have a lot of fun here and people have definitely said like I don't know, I don't want the whole works. I'm like it doesn't have to be the whole works. It can be whatever you want it to be. It's supposed to reflect who you are. It's supposed to reflect who your brand is. So I think that's the most important aspect of it that you just stay true and authentic to who you are, who your brand is. Whatever you're trying to have the podcast reflect and that's where you talk about these whatever issues you want to highlight or topics you want to highlight. We have like three different shows that are completely different, like this one could have more, but but.
Speaker 2:So many different things, so I definitely think it's extremely beneficial. It's, like you said, just kind of creating your own narrative, and One thing I used to think was like wow, the podcasting industry just kind of blew up and now it's really saturated. But if you have something that has good content, or even if it's just like linked to your organization, it's that, it's that evidence and it's that personality you're giving. Regardless of all the other things that are that exist out there, regardless of all the other shows, you have something that is unique to your brand and unique to your personality and yourself that can't be replicated and that's that, hopefully, is always going to exist for every organization. Like I hope that's why you've started your organization, that it's not copying off of someone else's, because you truly believe that there's a unique aspect that people can benefit from and how you can help others.
Speaker 1:I Could not have said that any better. So well said. And you know there's so many different uses you can do for a podcast. You can highlight your customers, you can highlight your team members, you can talk about what you care about, you can highlight a charity that you're part of, or you can mix all that together and kind of have it be who your brand is. So you're also creating content that can be repurposed on social media, on your website, in different ways, and so there's just so many great uses from it. I think that you're right.
Speaker 1:Some people do feel intimidated about it, and that's a big part of what we're working on here is one we're encouraging people to start podcasts. But two, we're telling people hey, you don't want to, you don't time for all the work, you don't want to do all the creative aspect, that we just want to show up and do a podcast. We can manage it for you. You know we can help you do that. So there's not only us encouraging people, but we can help out, we can make that happen for them, you know. So it's exciting, very exciting, all right. So, as we always do on here and you get, we should talk about this we play games every show. Just have fun, just have a little light moment with our guests and you create almost all those games. Talk about the the process of creating. You know, a game for a podcast.
Speaker 2:It was rough at first. I didn't know what people were gonna. I think I think the first game I really shows was kind of like a dud and I think it maybe was I forgot what the first game I had shows was we've had some good ones, we've had some not so good ones. You know a little bit on other shows better than they work on like standing out or the. We don't do games on the edge but like it depends on what's in, it depends on standing out. We're gonna straight.
Speaker 1:Yeah, different games, different difference.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I try to read the room. I mean, if you know them, the guests can personally and you have like a history with them. Then there are some games like wavelength that I have the option of actually using. Like you'll probably have a better chance Because you guys know each other and like, hopefully, you can read each other's minds. But other times, if it's a shy guest that we really have more history with, then it's a little bit more difficult.
Speaker 2:We want to make them feel comfortable. Yeah, we don't want to put them too much on the spot like game like hot takes or something. I feel like sometimes it's a little much. People like to give their controversial, controversial opinions, even though it's more on like oh, it's hot dog, a sandwich, kind of stuff. But trying to make them as comfortable as possible, you have like a little rotation going on, but I definitely want to keep thinking of more games and ways to make it fun, like you said for the video version and also the audio version that we have available on, like BuzzFraut, that goes to Spotify and all these other places.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. And then you know, the inspiration for games on our show really comes from, like the tonight show with Jimmy Fallon, like just having fun doing something goofy. It kind of throws you off your game a little bit, gives a different side of people, makes it light. I think it's just a lot of fun. You do a great job creating the games.
Speaker 1:And, speaking of which, it's time for us to play wavelength. All right, so we'll find out if we do know as much about each other as we think. I did not know the Jesse McCartney thing, so I don't know. We'll see where this goes. But the idea behind wavelength is we're gonna put some Letters up on and a categories up on the the screen in a banner, and then you and I have to see if we can think of the same word based upon the prompts that we're given. So, all right, let's see how we do here. Let's go with the first prompt. What do we got? Oh, f TV show. I have one with you. You have one. Are you ready? Let's count it off. Three, two, one family I.
Speaker 1:Oh.
Speaker 2:Watch. I do watch.
Speaker 1:Family. I was your first choice. This is. This is the part of the game is tough. Were you thinking that I might be thinking family guy?
Speaker 1:No, I was just like okay F, this is first little game of mine yeah, yeah, it happens, it happens, it happens, all right. So we missed that one. We're close. Miss that one, all right, let's go with number two. What do we got here? We got a movie that starts with s Okay, I've got one, I've got two, I've got a lot. Oh, which one I want to go with? You can't think of any with an s? Oh.
Speaker 2:It's because I'm on the spot, oh gosh.
Speaker 1:It is that works.
Speaker 2:It's a huge movie for us. Okay, you're not going to know this one.
Speaker 1:Well, let's find out Three, two, one.
Speaker 2:Warship troopers.
Speaker 1:He's all that Okay.
Speaker 2:All right.
Speaker 1:We didn't get it right. I was thinking cheese, all that, because it's kind of a fun movie, kind of a girly movie that you might have.
Speaker 2:That's one of my favorites too, oh man.
Speaker 1:See, listen. I feel like I'm on a nail today. I'm knocking it out of the park here. I had Superman also lined up. I had that one queued up as well. That could have been.
Speaker 2:There's so many, it's because of Spider-Man.
Speaker 1:I mean there's a lot, there's several less that we could have done, so didn't get that one. Let's see what was the other one. She's.
Speaker 2:I had a couple others.
Speaker 1:All right, something about Mary, that's again. That's another one. All right, okay, let's move on. Next one we're 0 for 2. We're 0 for 2. Here we go. A song, is it a song, that starts with A? It's a song, not an artist. A song, it's a song that starts with A oh gosh, oh gosh. This is going to be tough. I don't know song names as much as I know lyrics of an artist Either.
Speaker 2:Okay, you have one. Yeah, it's pretty well known.
Speaker 1:Okay, I've got one. Okay, I got one, I got one. Okay, we're not going to get this one, but let's see what happens. Okay, 3, 2, 1. What do we do as win?
Speaker 1:Oh, we were close All for Christmas. We got all right. We got all lie. I think we got the first two, I know so I had. All I do is win All for Christmas. Okay, we're 0 for 3. All right, let's try to get. See, this is one of the tougher games. This is one of the more challenging ones. A celebrity that starts with our first name starts with R.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay, I've got mine.
Speaker 2:Me too.
Speaker 1:Ooh, are we going to get this?
Speaker 2:I don't know All right, here we go.
Speaker 1:3, 2, 1. Ryan Gosling oh, I love.
Speaker 2:Ryan Gosling.
Speaker 1:And I love Robin Williams. Oh, this is a tough one. This is a tough one. So, just for people watching, if you do get to be a guest on the show, you better hope this is not the game you get. We'll just you know, this is a tough one. All right, let's, there's a final round. Here we go, final round, let's see if we can get one. A food, easy, a food that starts with P. Okay, I have one. I sure hope it's the same one you're thinking. I mean there's two in my head, but I got the first one. I'm going with the first one. I'm going with.
Speaker 2:All right, ready. A six easy one you can think of.
Speaker 1:All right. Well, let's see if we go 3, 2, 1.
Speaker 1:Potatoes yes, oh my gosh, that was brutal. 1 for 5. All right, well, that's wavelength. Everybody, thanks for playing. That's the creation of Natalia Navas, and special, special thanks to our friend Morgan Bertner for putting those categories together. So that's fun. Games are always fun. I love it. I mean, it's kind of silly. I don't know any other podcasters that are doing that. It's totally fine. We're trying to stand out here, as our show says, so I have a lot of fun with that. All right, so what is next for us at Beta Consulting Group? What's going on? Let's hear from you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I guess we have more of I mean even more of a guest focus, that especially trying to build that relationship even further with our sponsors, because obviously our sponsors are what make this possible. You said before like we've never want to have to have or even have to ask a guest to pay to be on the show. It's so much fun and it's so great and it's even more authentic being able to have guests that just want to be here and are interested in speaking with you and sharing their story. We've been throwing ideas on topics off of each other and just different perspectives, so definitely wanted to try making Morgan effort.
Speaker 2:It was scary at first because just kind of starting out like my second full-time role, I was learning everything about podcasts and then we were changing all of these processes that I learned is coming on board and we're just kind of like making it our own. So it definitely got really busy and a little bit overwhelming because all the changes that were going on and I just wanted to get it right and I didn't want to start on that project in process of reaching out more to sponsors but not having the bandwidth to really hold that strong communication and just kind of meeting all of their needs. So now that the rebrand is kind of done, it's a new year, everything, all the processes are kind of set on and everyone is in agreement with how things are going. I'm really happy that we get to really have more outreach. And then I want to bring more sponsors on.
Speaker 2:I mean we want all the sponsors in the world. But being able to have a relationship with the people who are those direct contacts over with their sponsors and seeing how we can provide more benefit to them and just kind of bouncing ideas off of each other, like if there's a commercial or an aggregate or different information or different things going on with them, I want them to feel comfortable in sharing that with us and just having a regular conversation. And I love it if we could eventually in the future be actual friends and see each other at conferences and just talking more about ideation processes and what's going on with them. So I mean it's all a beginning process and it's going to take time and a lot of effort and just trying to make sure that the quality is consistent. So I'm excited about that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, when we first started with sponsors let's just be honest we didn't have any idea what we were doing. We were just figuring stuff out and we were. I'm so thankful for all the sponsors we've had on all of our shows over the past two years that have just helped us get to where we are and excited for the ones that are going to come on board. We can help build their brand, they can help us build the show and we can do it together as a team. And so, again, looking forward to that here in 2024 and getting some new sponsors to join with our existing sponsors and continue to make it what it is, and so that's exciting. Also, like you said, we're going to be out at events. We're doing some more MC work coming up, so we're managing the Broker Carry Summit and TMSA's event coming up.
Speaker 1:So I'm excited to see our team out on the road and doing some things, like you said, getting out in front of people and being a little more visible. So a lot of good things are coming up. I got to tell you, antalya, we are just so blessed to have you on our team. We love it. Love having you on the team, not only just what you bring to the team with your skill set and your creativity just you as a person Like you're just a really good person and we just love having you on the team. So thank you for all you do, thanks to you for being willing to come on this side of the camera and talk about what we do with podcasting and tell a little bit about your story. And we'll have to do this again, we'll have to get you back on the front side, but you make us all shine and we appreciate it.
Speaker 2:Thank you. I'm extremely appreciative of you. I think everyone on the team is genuinely I don't even know. I think I told you before this is everything. It meets everything that I've prayed for in another opportunity, everything that I've hoped for. So I'm extremely grateful and you guys make it incredible every day and you keep me so motivated to keep pushing forward and thinking of different ideas. I love the team so much and it's wonderful.
Speaker 1:That's so humbling, so humbling, all right. Well, listen, we're going to keep you here, as we got. Normally, we send the guest out, but you're part of the show, so we're going to keep you here. So we're just going to tell everybody thank you so much for watching. Make sure you come back every Tuesday for a new episode with amazing guests, just like Natalia, and if you are interested in sponsoring, send us an email. Hello at beta consulting groupcom, and we will talk to you about that. Until next time, we'll see you guys later, natalia. Thank you so much.