Practical Rebels

44: Marketing & Minerals: How BEAM Minerals Dominates Digitally with Miranda Alvarez

• HatchMark Studio • Season 2

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Discover how a higher education leader teamed up with a mineral supplement company to create authentic, compelling marketing. 

Miranda Alvarez @creative.momster, Creative Director @beamminerals and @beamminerals.pets, shares her journey from diverse backgrounds to building a successful brand through storytelling rooted in truth and purpose. On this episode of Practical Rebels, Miranda spoke to us about how she blends science with human connection to build a truly collaborative content strategy. 

👉  BEAMminerals.com

Meet Miranda Albert, Creative Director

R

All right, Welcome back to Practical Rebels on Riverside. How are we doing? V?

V

Good, oh gosh, it's so different, right.

R

It is different, we have to watch ourselves now, yeah.

V

No this is exciting, though I know you have done a couple of these already, and I think it just opens up so much room for you know, everybody seeing the conversation and great content that we can pull from it. So I'm super excited about this. So props to you for getting that set up and well, you're welcome.

R

And today we have miranda, albert being minerals. How are you doing miranda?

Miranda

I'm doing great. I am so happy to sit here and talk with you all. This is, this has been exciting just to even think about. So I'm I'm happy to be here.

R

Yeah, go ahead.

V

No, I was just like I'm really excited about this. Um Beam has been a partner with us for maybe over a year now a year, a year and a half.

V

I feel like it's been like not a huge amount of time, but it feels like we've always kind of been working together because our teams are just like so in sync now and like work alongside each other. You guys have been so lovely. I'm so excited to hear more about, kind of how you got here and you're marketing a product that's in a really competitive space. So just hearing more about how you have just built this into a marketing engine that's in a really competitive space, so just hearing more about how you have just built this into a marketing engine that's thriving, it's super exciting.

Miranda

Absolutely. I'm super happy to be here and talk about this. This is a it's fun. I get to talk about minerals all day with our team and our partners, but this is fun to be talking a little bit more on the creative and marketing side too, yeah.

V

Yeah, so why don't we start from the beginning? Tell us a little bit about, like, your backgrounds, um how you ended up where you are right now. I know you have a very like robust entrepreneurial background as well, though, so, like I think all of those components came together to make um, I know those components come together to make like a really powerful creative individual. That really helps see things big picture. What's kind of your? What was your?

Miranda

what has your?

V

journey been.

Miranda

Yeah, absolutely so. You know, before joining Beam I was I was really juggling a lot. You know, I worked in higher ed leadership actually for over a decade, but like many entrepreneurs, I had a full-time job and then had a bunch of side hustles and I was a freelance, you know graphic designer and web designer. I had an Etsy shop. I was also creating my own content on Instagram for like keto recipes and tips, and then I eventually ended up co-founding a marketing company with my partner, luke, who's actually now our beams marketing director. You know, and I'm a mom, so I think really balancing all of those roles definitely taught me a lot about time management and flexibility and stuff, and those experiences really shaped my like creative leadership approach in a big way. But I first connected with Bean Minerals back in 2018 when I was creating keto content and I actually was one of their first affiliates.

Miranda

So, I love the products and their mission for a really long time and it just kind of felt like a natural fit. You know, I started off with doing some consulting for the company and when the opportunity to become a full time you know creative director kind of leave behind my higher ed education life and really dive deep into doing creative full time, it just felt right and it was really the perfect opportunity to kind of just bring all of that experience that I've had over the years into just one place and with a business that I really genuinely believe in. That's awesome.

From Higher Ed to Full-Time Creative

V

I had a similar experience, probably 15 years ago or so in my career, where myself and I had started started an agency previously. We really didn't fully understand what we were doing at that time but we were basically working as freelancers alongside each other and we had some clients right and one of them was an agency and we ended up going in in house and building out their creative team and like that's a big part of how I learned how to like run business and run a creative business. But yeah, it's always it was the best fit because, like I had had that experience of working in the business, working with their team, you're like I like these people, I believe in what they're doing, I believe in the work, I'm excited about the work, I know it back and forth, like it becomes such a natural fit. So I love that. Yeah, and especially in the space. Yeah, especially in the space. That's so, like you know, it's a lot to know everything about the brand is represented in a way that people understand it without losing the important stuff.

Miranda

But you know, still still finding ways to work on a human level with our customers and our audiences.

V

Yeah, how have you, um, what has that path been like to really explain the product and the benefits to people? I know a lot of what Carolyn the founder does. One of the co-founders is she does a lot of educational content on podcasts and she really is kind of out in the community sharing her story. You know, really tapping into other people that are actually using the product and seeing great results. Like, how has that been different? What has worked? What has been different from what you've your experience had been in the past, because it's so reliant upon that?

Miranda

Yeah, so we're teaching people essentially about cellular nutrition and like why minerals matter Right and balancing the need to be informative and scientific and engaging and relatable. That's all. It's an interesting. It's no easy feat. We'll put it that way Um, we try to always like return, to like our foundational values, like through our president, dan Howard, um president and co-founder, and then I really like to think of him as like the heart of our company.

Miranda

And then Caroline Allen, our CEO and co-founder, is like really the soul, and they try to put love into like every single thing that we do. And so we try to think deeply about how we make people feel. And so when we are coming up with content and we're trying to explain things to people and we're trying to make sure that they understand this complex idea of mineral deficiency out in the world, we want to make sure that they feel cared for and heard, important and empowered for them to feel their best. And I think a lot of my experience in the past now I worked in higher education for a medical institution, so I worked with physicians and doctors, but I also got to see students. I also got to see patients and before that I even I worked myself in the medical field.

V

I worked as a medical assistant.

Miranda

So I feel like my experience with seeing people from learning to be doctors, being doctors and treating people, and then also the patients that I got to see and seeing them go through things it really helped me just get a really good scope and a full understanding of that. The way that we talk to people and the way that we infuse the mission and our values into our brand is so important because we want people to know that like, yeah, minerals aren't like a magic fix for everything, but they're a crucial piece of the puzzle to feeling your best Right. So our content really balances, like the scientific with that human aspect, so that we can make sure we stay connected with people. We don't want to be sterile and unapproachable. You know we put that love and family and the community into everything that we do.

Teaching Cellular Nutrition with Heart

V

Yeah, I think that's something too that I wasn't super familiar with your like medical backgrounds and I think that that has almost built you into kind of this unique unicorn, because you have had that hands on patient experience, you know how to explain things to them, like in a clinical way, but then also you know moving into the product side of things to be able to talk about the benefits, to be able to talk about the products, and it's almost like that benefit, that mix of like marketing and bedside manner in a weird way, um, which is really unique. Um, did you ever think you after because you, you know you did have this other kind of life and then doing your own thing did you ever think you'd go on full-time in a company in a capacity like this?

Miranda

you know, I always knew I would end up in this type of role. It was something that was always the goal. I feel like I took a little detour on the way there. You know, I went to school for marketing graphic design, strategic marketing and got my master's. I ended up in higher ed, kind of by accident. I applied for a couple of different roles and landed with this one and it was just. It was a good fit at the time and I really enjoyed the time that I was there and I learned a whole lot from a leadership perspective, as a supervisor, as a manager, as a leader. I learned a ton.

Miranda

But you know that creative part of me has always been a piece of everything every job that I've ever held, every business that I've been a part of, every job that I've ever held, every business that I've been a part of everything that I've done. Uh, I'm always being asked my creative perspective, what do I think? How can I make this look better? Um, to the point that you know I was getting contracted, even through the companies that I was working with separately, to do design and to do creative, and so I knew that it was just a matter of time. It was just before. I had to wait until I found the right place, and I feel like I did with beam. It was, there was no question about it.

V

Yeah, how? Uh talk a little bit about the creative team right now, because I know there's you, luke, and then you have. You are basically running a core group of people internally, but you have this content machine between several partners. How has that kind of come about and what, what has been that decision to work with external partners as opposed to build an in-house team? Like, how do you make those decisions and how do you kind of like source those, those teams?

Miranda

Yeah, so we have built what we like to call a content factory where we have, like you said, a lot of external partners and also a really great internal team. So we're a small but mighty team internally. We'd actually just brought on like a content production manager. Because of the amount of content that we were putting out, we really needed someone that could help us just organize and make sure that things are getting executed and put out into the world, not just sitting there in a file somewhere and never seeing the light of day. Uh, but working with external partners like Hatchmark, um, has been a really great tool so that we relieve some of the I would say just like the time and of the it's not creative burden I wouldn't put it that way, but I would say the time consuming work to do more of the strategic planning that is needed to start pushing initiatives forward.

Miranda

We are a small company but we're growing rapidly and so with that there's ever evolving and new initiatives and new ideas and new things that we have to kind of act on quickly.

Miranda

And I feel like working with external videographers, video editors, um, with like Hatchmark for our social media and a lot of our other creative content has really been a great move for us because we're just able to get a lot more done in one day than I would say some teams are able to get done in one week, you know where it definitely gives us a larger platform to build upon and to create lots of amazing and beautiful content.

Miranda

And for me, as a creative person who actually started off doing all of it you know we started with just Luke and I. We were a small, very teeny, tiny team, um over a year ago, where I was doing all of the stuff and creating all of the content and putting it out there. You know it was a. It was a fun, a fun but challenging transition for me to go from doing everything to then handing it off to people and having more headspace, which I think is the biggest thing that has allowed our team to continue to grow and to keep putting out awesome stuff is that we have the headspace to be able to plan and actually really execute on them without completely having to stop everything, to spend a day creating maybe one or two pieces of content.

V

Yeah, yeah, it's it. I think and I think, um, getting to that point too, where you are like I know I've in the past and I feel like now I'm so much better about it Just like letting things go and letting the team run with things and letting my other you know people pop in and do things and I don't have to have my hands on everything and like, when you're able to do that, you're like it's like such, you're like I can breathe. And then I think, like a lot of what you know, as I talk to people all the time and they're like well, I don't know if we need an internal person or if we need to hire an agency, and I'll have very honest conversations with them. Sometimes they need to, sometimes they need somebody internally full time. You know, to really delegate things.

V

But I think when you get to a certain point where the range of content that you're having to create, like you can't hire enough people to fill that gap, can't hire enough people to fill that gap. So it's like you know, I'll sit down and look at people and like, with the numbers, it's like okay, it's going to cost you this much for one person or this much for an agency and then you're going to be able to get a range of skills or just you know three or four or so. So I think that is what makes sense a lot with a team like y'all's. We're creating such a variety of stuff and there's so many things going on at any given time. Um, so it seems to really make a lot of sense. You guys have a fantastic like. You've got a great videographer there that is able to go to the factory and everything, and fill that gap, so it just works out so well.

Miranda

Yeah, it really does and it has been. It's been an interesting transition for everyone to to be working with external partners and I think ultimately we would eventually hire maybe a few creative um on staff within the company, but I don't see us completely eliminating working with external creative teams. It's it's just been such a great experience that we've had, especially with working with Ramsey, with social and your team. They've been so fantastic that, you're right, it has really helped us like diversify the type of content that we're able to put out. You know we're not focused on just one platform. We're on many social platforms. We have robust email campaigns. You know we do quite a bit of stuff and at the same time, we're trying to push new things forward, new initiatives, and you know, sometimes it's just not possible. There's not enough hours in the day, and so we're very lucky to have, you know, some people that are there, located in Grand Junction, where our shop is, and you know people that are willing to travel literally all over the world to help us make some really awesome content.

V

What has, um, what has been? See, when you talk about like all the channels that you have content going out between I know you guys are heavy email, you're heavy social, you're, you know, in the influencer game what has that kind of magic formula been like that's worked for you all, and how has it been to kind of figure out what works really well?

Building a Content Factory

Miranda

that's a great question. I think we're still trying to to figure out that exact magic formula and I think we all are. Um, you know, social media definitely has been a major focus, um, and it's really where being minerals initial brand really got started on Instagram through um affiliate marketing. You know, being minerals actually started as keto beam Uh, and they really were focused just towards um keto, that the keto and low carb community and then they underwent a branding rename and they changed to be minerals and because of that large following that grew on Instagram. You know that still is probably one of our primary, let's say one of our main places that we that we focus a lot of our time on. But it's not the number one, because we've now expanded into TikTok and other platforms and you know, we try to educate and entertain in like our short form content, you know, but making it impactful. But we have such a strong ambassador program that's really like thriving on social media, especially on Instagram, and we really have like some amazing affiliates and even like an affiliate practitioner program, and so they're such great advocates for bean minerals that you know leaning into social media and still making sure that we're always sharing content, sharing great education and information on there.

Miranda

Um, you know, staying on top of trends, uh, which Ramsey and Savannah from your team are so good at. Um, right now, everyone is raving about a reel that was posted today. It's so good, it's so good, it's so good. That narrator trend, oh my god, it was perfect. It was perfect, you know, I think I think, incorporating that stuff into the fun and the humor, um, incorporating that, and still, you know, keep keeping it fresh, but not trying to be um I'm not sure what the word is not trying to be like overly controversial or anything like that.

Miranda

We're. We're trying to keep um, I'm not sure what the word is not trying to be like overly controversial or anything like that. We're. We're trying to keep it light and fresh, without making making people feel like we're making fun of um their situation, because we understand and we recognize like mineral deficiency is like a real problem and some people are out there really struggling and feeling really bad. And so you know we want to keep it, keep it fresh, keep it light, put some humor into it, put some education into it, while still making sure that they're feeling like we hear them and we understand and we relate to. You know what they're going through. But you know, second to social media, I guess, is our email is just such a powerful tool that we use and you know, that's where we really dive deeper into, like our education and our, our promotions, and we connect with people that are probably already interested in the brand. They signed up for our emails, um, but that's probably one of our biggest drivers in terms of revenue.

V

Okay, yeah, how often are you doing sends?

Miranda

So we're sending emails Honestly, we're sending between it's honestly, it's not even that many, between five to six emails a month, oh, wow, yeah, yeah. And I, I know, I know some brands are sending, you know, three to four a week daily, you know, and that's that goes back again to like our values.

Miranda

You know we don't. We're not trying to shove stuff down people's throats, we're trying to. We're not sending emails just for the sake of sending them. We are. We're going to send an email because there's something we want to share, because it's really a new blog. There's something new information about. You know minerals and you know hair loss or minerals, and you know your pet's health. There's, there's always a reason behind it, and we don't do it just to do it to check a box. It's got to have purpose behind it and that's the I would say the biggest thing.

V

Yeah, and I think that's the way you have to do it, because I think when you get in the habit of trying to check the box right, you, you, um, you bombard people like they're going to open it up, it's not going to be anything that's of interest that they're going to unsubscribe, so a a smaller or a longer cadence of sending and stuff that's actually people can open up, engage with um. You know that's. I think that email can get so overwhelming these days and that's the way to go about it. Have you guys ever leaned into texting? Cause I have. I, that's one of the things like I'll, I'll sign up for texts if I want to deal on something and then as soon as I'm done with a deal, I'll, I will personally stop them because I'm like stop texting all the time, you know. So I'm always curious in places when it does work, you know, have you guys gone down that path? So we use.

Miranda

SMS messaging. I mean just minimally. Honestly, we will do it when we have a great sale that we want to share with people or there's really like a great opportunity, some kind of webinar or something that's going to be out there, um, but we really don't do it very often and for the same reason that, like I do the same thing, I'll sign up Cause I'm like, oh, 50% off, heck, yes, like I'm going to sign up for this SMS and then I unsubscribe, because then I get bombarded by messages and that's something that you know we all, like our entire marketing team, really feel strongly about. Like we don't, we're not going to. We don't want to invade people, um, their privacy, we don't want to like be this annoying thing that just keeps pinging them. You know, we want to actually give them something that they need, something that's helpful and is providing education or value, and if it's not giving one of those things, then we're not going to do it.

V

Yeah, yeah, I think that's the smart approach. When people say, like what is the right cadence for that, it's like there is no right one. It's like what works for your content, what works for your customers? And how can you be like a like reminder of something when it's important to them, but not a nuisance, because it's the fastest way to gain and lose a customer is to harass them. There was the one like the one that I signed up for over the holidays. They started texting me like two times a day. I was like what are you guys doing? Yeah, and it was, oh God, instant, instant, like unsubscribe. I'll take one every like once a month or so. Yeah, okay, very cool. Um, talk to us a little bit more about kind of the affiliates, about the influencers that you engage, because people reach out to you regularly on social media wanting to promote the product Like they get. People are very passionate about it. Obviously, that comes from it working and being a great product and being a great product.

V

But how has that grown and what is kind of your process for culling through the people that are the right fit, that represent the brand Like, and how much of that effort you know your time goes into that affiliate marketing?

Miranda

Yeah, we have a great affiliate program. That, I would say, is not. It's not giant, it's not tiny either, but you know, and I would say, it's more selective. We really want to work with people that truly care about the brand and that really love Beam and use the products. I would say that's probably the number one thing that we do with our affiliates is we're not just asking people to promote a product that they have just received or have never taken, asking people to promote a product that they have just received or have never taken. It is truly important to our entire team, especially to Caroline and to Dan, our co-founders, that you know that people try the product first and not just a week, not just take a sip. You know, try it for a few weeks, try for a month, try for a couple of months. We want people to actually feel the benefits and for some people it's immediate. For others it takes a while, you know. And so we. We do get a lot of people that are messaging us on a daily on our different platforms, that are interested in being an affiliate, trying our products, or maybe they already have tried our products. They met us at a you know, at a trade show or an event, um, where they, you know, are a customer already. And those are kind of my favorite, the ones that were customers first and then have become affiliates, because they are such great storytellers and you know we like to like amplify their experience and celebrating their, their progress and stuff on social when they are excited about their box and they're opening it up and they love to share all the ways that they get to use um. You know the products.

Miranda

Uh, a friend of mine, you know she started sharing her, her weight loss story on um, on Facebook and Instagram, and what happened was that she ended up depleting her body a lot of minerals during that time and she started losing patches of hair, just like big old patches. And it was a real aha moment for her when she started watching podcasts and learning about B-minerals and she got some, started taking them herself, started sharing what was happening with her hair on her social platforms, what was happening with her hair on her on her social platforms. And you know I noticed I was like wow, she two months ago had like a huge patch that was just like missing here, and now it's already starting to come back. What has she been doing? She'd been spraying Instalights on her scalp. She'd been taking the minerals daily. You know she was making sure she was eating well.

Email and Social Media Strategy

Miranda

You know doing other things, of course, and you know, yeah, she became an affiliate because she just was like there's no doubt that this has helped me. There's no way that I can't share this with other people, and those are some of my favorite stories, you know. So, whether it's about, you know, they got better sleep or the mental clarity they no more muscle cramps at night. They're just really inspiring and we love to bring those people into our affiliate platform.

Miranda

But you know, we also have some major advocates in the health and wellness space, like Dr Wendy Pels, you know, ben Greenfield, dr Steffi Estima, ben Azadi, dr Chris Motley, like there's so many Daniel Hamilton the list goes on and these are partners that we have worked with for, some of them years, and they've been taking the minerals all of this time and you know it's it's important for us that they continue taking it and that they continue loving it, because no one that is going to share our product out in the world is going to talk about it in the right way If they don't remember one understand it or to take it themselves, and that's really, I would say, the biggest thing that we do.

V

I think that selectivity that you all have and that it has to be, you know, people that have used it, that have experienced the benefits, like people see that because they're also fine, and that that helps identify the right, the right type of partner as well, too, because they have people that are following them already, that are interested in the same lifestyle, that are interested in the same type of supplements, whatever that is, um, and it just really it's not only, you know, drive sales for the product, but it reinforces the brand so well.

V

To be kind of in the same same sphere of people that are living, breathing you know it every single day, like it's just such a natural way. Um, the diaper company that we work with kudos, they, you know, they're the first a hundred percent cotton touching babies, but they are very much, very much the crunchy granola mom that, like, is making every decision that she can possibly to have her baby have the most natural ingredients and natural products and everything. And they had the same experience where they grew so quickly at the beginning through affiliations with people that lived that lifestyle, breathed it authentically, like, not something where someone's like, oh, I'm going to promote another product. You know that I've never tried before Like that, really just kind of live and breathe it and it's it's when it's done. Well, I think that affiliate marketing influencers can be the most powerful things.

Miranda

Yeah, 100%. I, especially coming from you, know I was an affiliate for Bean Minerals.

V

And so I got to see that side of it.

Miranda

You know, I came on, I tried the product, I loved it. I was like, yes, I'm going to do it, I'm going to share this product, and so that also has helped that that knowledge and experience of working with a brand like Bean. But I also worked with other companies. I, you know, I was an affiliate for at some point, too many brands, too many brands that they were too eager to send me product, too eager to start giving me commission. But they were not. We'll just say that they weren't brands that really cared whether or not I liked it or not. They just wanted me to post about it and that was and that was that.

Miranda

And so I really took that knowledge, that experience and that that time as an affiliate and, um, I really tried to put that into, make sure that I put that knowledge into our program and making sure that we're treating the people that are ambassadors for our brand. We're treating them with care and love, just the way we would treat our customers, but making sure that they feel supported. So if they have questions about our products, if they don't understand something, you know we share with them and we and we give them the info that they need If they post about it and they say something may be incorrect or they use the wrong terminology. You know we watch and we let them know. Well, like hey, you know we'd love to support you and give you this information. Actually, our products are not acids. You know, we'll, we'll, we'll give them the information in a nice and respectful way so that they feel more confident in sharing our products with their audiences.

V

Yeah, yeah, it's and it and it shows like it's. That's like I said. I said the way to go about it. I think it's brilliant what you guys have done there. So I know that Carolyn and Dan, specifically the founders they are very involved in the day to day. Still, how, what is that process like for collaborating with them on marketing strategies or kind of creative campaigns? Like, what is the the process like internally when you guys are coming up with what the next big thing is? Are they super involved? Does it come with them with ideas? What is that kind of team dynamic like?

Miranda

Yes, I think that's evolved quite a bit over time since we, since we came on board, evolved, um, quite a bit over time since we, since we came on board, you know a lot of it. When we first started, um, let's say about, I was in 2023. So it was at the end of 2023, when we started with the company, um, you know there was a lot of education that was needed. You know, by no means am I an expert in minerals. That's Caroline's job. She's the mineral geek, she is expert, you know, even writing a book about it. But, um, so they definitely were more involved at the beginning, or I would say, even over the last year.

Miranda

Um, but we still work closely on a lot of big ideas and we still collaborate quite a bit. You know, caroline and Dan are deeply, deeply passionate about Beams mission and I feel like that passion is what makes our brand really special. Right, they both bring like this really rich depth with like Caroline and the science and her storytelling. Dan, of course, with like his heart, his heart centered leadership really, and I feel like my goal as a creative director is to really help kind of translate that passion into something that we can scale. You know, whether that's a campaign or, you know, updating our brand voice or even just like a social post. So we do, like I said, we work closely on big initiatives. You know I'll bring my perspective into you know how to shape and maybe share those ideas in a way that's compelling, digestible and impactful.

Miranda

Um, but they're, you know, they're definitely still involved. We want to make sure that. You know, when we're taking really technical language and making it a little bit, like I said, digestible, we want to make sure that we're not changing the message. It's still, it still has to be correct and and you know Caroline is great at, you know, looking at that and making sure that we're still representing the product in the right way without changing the meaning behind it. So there is a lot of collaboration but there's a lot of trust there where I you know myself, luke, and our and our whole marketing team you know we stay rooted in their vision, but we're also not afraid to start pushing forward like new, new initiatives and new creative directions, as long as it still aligns with, like our core values. And so, like I said, I see my role really as being that bridge between, like their origin story, their experience, their science and knowledge and bridging that with how the world is going to experience beam.

V

Yeah, yeah, um, and the fact that, um, before you were in this role, was there an internal creative department, or did you kind of initiate all this Like I wonder if there was like a degree of like building that trust to be able to, because you kind of run with everything, now you know your team and that takes a lot. That takes a lot of trust and understanding that somebody understands your vision, is going to translate it properly, is going to keep the brand alive and moving in the right direction. What is that? What is that process like?

Authentic Affiliate Marketing Approach

Miranda

Yeah, so Beaman Rose did not have an internal marketing or creative team when I started. They had been working with external agencies previously but they didn't really have anyone internally. That was from a day to day. You know, looking at at big picture, looking at everything that's going out, you know making sure that stuff is aligning with the brand. And actually, shortly before I came on beam I say shortly, but in the year that I, that I came on beam minerals I underwent a major rebrand. You know they they pull a new logo, a whole new look, new colors, new everything. And so when I joined full time, my job really was to make sure that we were taking the brand and still making sure that we were keeping the values and what we want to share with the world and our you know the things that and the things that our brand represents and making sure that it goes well with the visual part out there.

Miranda

Because, you know, branding is not just a nice logo, it's not just pretty colors, it's not just a nice web design.

Miranda

It also has to be the language that we use, even in a response on social media when we're talking to people. It's you know the text come into a company that, while they had an established brand, didn't have, didn't have all of the creative and marketing strategy to kind of like put it all together. You know they had all the right pieces and it was wonderful to come in and kind of help and shape you know how we were going to put that out into the world in a way that made sense to people, without confusing them and also without making um, without making them feel intimidated, because you know, being minerals is very big in the biohacking space but that's not super approachable for the everyday person. You know, and being when they're both our audiences, you know we have to find a really great balance and doing that visually and also through our writing and our type and our copy um has been a fun challenge to kind of kind of figure out and really structure and put out there.

V

Yeah, I think it's a unique challenge because you've got one side of your audience that like knows the stuff like the back of their hand. They read everything that comes out, they know the language, they know every single thing that, like you could potentially throw at them. And then you have the other side of people that are completely new to this and they've, like had some sort of health issue and they probably had a friend say hey, have you know you might have a mineral, and they are completely new to the world and, like, I think it's such an interesting challenge to like find that that happy medium where you know the people at the very beginning can understand enough in the way you're communicating to them to learn more, and then the people on the other end of it, you know, are able to actually still get value out of the content that you're putting out and learn more and be educated. Um, so that is something that I think is very unique to this world in particular.

V

Um, and and you guys do a really great job of like kind of finding that balance, but yeah, it's, it's not an easy one for sure. Yeah, um, so obviously, like you came in kind of as a creative director, but you really are. You know you and Luke are are making decisions on marketing across the board. How do you combine kind of the creative side of things with also the data, the analytics, the metrics to make decisions off of where we're going to bring things from a content perspective, what's working, what's resonating with our people, what is kind of that that data review side of thing, looks like for you resonating with our people.

Miranda

What does kind of that, that data review side of thing, look like for you? Yeah, so I am not a normal creative person. I actually really like data and numbers.

Miranda

I think part of that comes from maybe a little bit of my higher ed and my, you know, my previous, my previous life Um. But I actually really like numbers and you know Luke is really more of the numbers guy, um, definitely where he's he's really looking at you know, those analytics on a day to day and really kind of diving deep into what they mean, and then we collaborate and work together on kind of like determining okay, what do we do with that from here. You know I don't I'm not going to spend my entire day looking at a whole bunch of numbers, but I do really like it when data surprises me. I feel like it keeps us kind of honest and open to new ideas, because we may think that this like piece of content is just going to like kill. We're like this is going to be awesome. The open rate is going to be so big on this really important email that we want to have a lot of people see. And you know, maybe maybe that one doesn't do that well, you know.

Miranda

So we, yeah, we use metrics like open rates and social engagement and obviously like revenue and that stuff, but we use it really to see like what's resonating, because, like the creativity part for me is definitely going to still drive the why and the how behind what we do, right, um, there was a, a real I can't even remember which one that we had done, and this might've been before Hatchmark, I'm pretty sure it was but there was a real that we really didn't think.

Miranda

I almost didn't post it. I was like it's a little too simple, it's kind of boring, um, and it actually ended up being like one of the best performing pieces that we had put out at that time. And you know, looking at at the engagement and looking at those numbers and and the comments and the likes and how many times people saved and forwarded, you know that really taught us a lot about more, about the. The clarity sometimes often beats the like cleverness and trendiness, and you know chaos and controversy. You know, sometimes it's the simple things that do the best and I like to see those numbers show that. Um, I I can't spend too long on it because I can like deep dive and get lost in it. So for me, I try to just use data as a tool to help like just refine my creative work, but not something that's going to like really define or limit what we do.

V

Yeah, I think it's so funny, just, and I think it. You know, we see it a lot in social, like Ramsey and Savannah are put all this time into a reel that's like super complex. This is going to kill it. This is going to be like the biggest one that we've ever had on the page, and the thing that took five minutes is the one that blows up and takes off and it's. You know, there's so many variables that go along with that, but it's, I think it one of the things that it really can do, though, especially with social. It can really keep you honest that sometimes the simplest content is the best. You know, sometimes that quick glance.

V

One of the things that we've been realizing, especially with with email, is we're starting to rethink some of our email strategies for our clients. Instead of sending like one email that's like, you know, this massive thing every month. Like the stuff that resonates more with people is the super short click blurbs. Like Logan got everybody here into Neil Patel. Super big, he sends like an email a day, but it's like a paragraph. It's like here's the thing today, you know, and I think that content in general is moving so much into a way that is just quick, quick hits, easy to digest, and then then giving people the opportunity to dig, dive, or if they dive deeper, if they want, whether it's a link and it's a blog article, or if it's longer form video or whatever. But, um, yeah, there's. People are so inundated with content across the board that the the quick hit stuff often just does so well the low lift stuff to create, which is really funny and frustrating to as a creative you're like what the hell?

Collaborative Leadership with Founders

V

Yeah, I think it keeps us honest for sure. All right, I think we can close out with this one. You know, reflecting on your experiences overall, what are kind of some key things that you have learned about storytelling, creative leadership that have really, you know, maybe even evolved the way that you approach creative like, or you approach, marketing? Has there been anything that's been like a huge aha moment in the past year and a half that you've been at beam that has kind of shaped how you approach creative marketing, anything like that?

Miranda

yeah. So to start, that's a great question. Lots of, lots of parts to that right so for. So for me, really, like good storytelling, it's about telling the truth and being honest. It's not just about pretty packaging, you know, and as a as a creative, as a designer, you know, I want everything to look beautiful and to look awesome, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's going to resonate with anyone just because it looks good.

Miranda

So you know, the brands that I see out there that resonate with me personally are definitely the ones that are speaking to something real and they're they're being honest and they're not trying to sugar coat something that's really serious. You know they're, they're out there with a purpose. There's like a real, actual purpose behind it. And I think that's probably one of, like, the most important things that I've learned as a creative leader that when I'm, when we're working on creative strategy and we're coming up with new initiatives and stuff, I try to anchor that first part in the purpose. Like, what are we trying to say with this? Because nothing has a. Nothing drives me crazy more as a creative.

Miranda

Um, especially when you've all if you've worked with clients before like obviously you all have is receiving a brief or something that doesn't have the purpose behind it and it's lacking clarity. That's really hard from a creative perspective to actually get to what the end goal is, because if you don't know where you're trying to go, that just opens this like a loop of endless revisions and going back and forth and not not understanding what the whole point is. And so I feel like creativity really thrives in clarity, and so I always just say, like, what is the? What is the point of this? First, before we, before we move on and start planning and putting things on paper and start creating, you know, what are we really trying to do with this? So that we have a clear direction of where we're going?

Miranda

Um, and you know, as a creative leader, I have learned the importance of really making space and making space for ideas with our team. You know, making space for feedback, um, and then making space for things to just kind of evolve. Naturally, sometimes it just happens, you know um thing we start with one purpose and as we, we let that guide us through our creative process and putting things out there. Sometimes that evolves and it changes and that's okay, that's okay. But just kind of letting having the space for that to happen, I think is is really really important.

V

Yeah, and I think that makes for when you are able to have a team that has that kind of freedom and flexibility to bring the ideas like that's what makes for strong teams, that makes for great creative and creative that might do something in a way that you wouldn't have thought of before. So I think that's one of the biggest signs of like a really strong creative leader that that knows what they're doing. That's been around um in in different situations. That maybe has not, you know, always experienced in our life, and I think you kind of have to go through those cycles as a creative to land in that place and be able to just be such a great creative support for our team. So and it shows because you guys have a fantastic team throughout. So I think that's definitely something that is really admirable.

Miranda

You guys are killing it. Thank you. Yeah, absolutely, building our team has been one of like one of my most proud moments really with this company, because I felt like we built a team that feels like more like collaborators, not not just like executors, you know. So that sense of like shared ownership just kind of makes the whole process like even better and it just, like I said, it creates this like space for just so much more creativity and ideas and it just yeah, it's exactly what I've always wanted in a, in a creative team and then getting to work with all these like awesome external creative teams it just makes my day very full.

V

What a fun. We all have fun with our jobs, I think, which is like all you could ask for, right, um, awesome. Well, this has been wonderful. Is there anything else that you want to add that we haven't touched on?

Miranda

oh goodness, I don't know. We've touched on so many things. I don't think so.

R

No, I think we've touched on like quite a few things yeah, uh, only thing I want to talk about, just talk about the, uh, the bean pets, like, yeah, that's my, that's one of my favorite, can't forget about all the office dogs feel like they're famous what was the, what was the uh direction? Like what got you guys be like, hey, we should do this for the pets as well. Like, let's do their own account. Like what, what was that? How'd y'all get there?

Data-Informed Creative Decisions

Miranda

well, you know, like the bean minerals pets line started before before I had come on, it just launched, it was like pretty new and you know they people had been giving the the full-size products, you know, bean minerals products to their pets already before then. And you know people like, oh, I was, you know, giving I just put in my dog's water in the summer. And you know our founders were like you know why don't we make these into like a formula, you know, more, a little bit more concentrated way, so that to make it easier for pet owners to just put it in their dog's food, put it in their cat's water or, you know, their food? And you know, you know we, we started when we launched the product.

Miranda

We kind of we did it kind of quietly, we didn't, we didn't go too hard in, we didn't, um, do anything, no big launch or anything. But it was when we realized like how big the pet wellness and like food space really is. Especially on social, there was just so much fun things that we wanted to do as a brand with our own dogs, with other people's pets. You know we wanted to put so much more content out there without inundating like our main, like our main social platforms. Just like a bunch of dogs and cats. You know, we decided what if we just created like a separate Instagram account where we can put as many dogs and cat videos?

Miranda

on there as we want and you know it's. It's worked really well and it's Ramsey. It's also one of my favorites um to work on. If I could just make um content all day, I totally would. I love it. I love it and it's um. So I know that creating those reels and doing those trending things with the pets is just so much fun and I can tell, like when your team is working on stuff, that you all have fun doing it and you can. You can totally tell it really goes in the content.

R

Yeah, savannah, that's Savannah's favorite uh, content gathering day is when she's working with pets. So, yeah, that's that's pretty much it. I just want always wondered how y'all got to that point. But, miranda, thank you so much, so much, so much. It's a huge pleasure to have you on the podcast pleasure and honor, and it's a huge pleasure to work with y'all. Y'all, you're just great. You're just great and just thank you so much for letting us work with you guys and being on our podcast.

Miranda

Yeah, thank you for having me. I'm honored to be on here and we had to just kind of talk about how cool our freaking jobs are Like our jobs are so cool. I love it and I love to talk about it and I'm like honestly feel like I'm living the dream right now. This is just so cool.

R

Yeah, there we go. There we go, living the dream. So if you're out there and you're listening whoever's listening make sure you smash a like on this podcast share it and check out being minerals on Instagram and being minerals pets on Instagram and TikTok and YouTube and Facebook.

Miranda

YouTube right, yeah, and everywhere everywhere, everywhere.

Creative Leadership Lessons

R

Once again, thank you so much and practical rebels out.