The Social Dialogue

Purpose-driven Storytelling, with guest Anh Nguyen

• Shane & Jenna • Season 2 • Episode 13

Share episode

Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.

0:00 | 42:51

In this episode of The Social Dialogue Podcast, Shane and Jenna sit down with marketing strategist and founder of Amplified Marketing, Anh Nguyen, for a conversation that blends storytelling, strategy, and purpose in today’s social media landscape.

Anh’s journey - from her parents’ beginnings in a Vietnamese refugee camp to building a purpose-driven marketing business - shapes how she helps brands show up with clarity, authenticity, and impact. 

Together, they explore what “content” actually means (and why so many businesses get it wrong), how social media strategy differs in B2B vs. consumer spaces, and why brand awareness and thought leadership are often more powerful than chasing constant leads. 

The conversation also dives into one of the biggest shifts happening right now: purpose-driven business. Anh shares why companies - especially for-profit brands - can no longer treat purpose as optional, and how Gen Z and Millennials are reshaping buying decisions with values, expectations, and accountability.

Shane and Jenna also get into:

  •  How AI is actually being used in marketing workflows (and where to draw the line) 
  •  Why relationship-building still matters more than ever in a digital-first world 
  •  The difference between learning social media in the classroom vs. real life 
  •  Creative brand examples that are doing storytelling right (even in B2B) 
  •  How excitement without a plan can quickly turn into burnout 

Plus, a candid mother-daughter moment on shopping habits, brand values, and the real influence Gen Z has on consumer behavior.

If you’re building a brand, navigating social media strategy, or trying to create content that actually connects, this episode is full of practical insights and perspective shifts.

🔑 Keywords

mother daughter podcast, Gen X Gen Z podcast, social media strategy, content marketing, purpose driven marketing, brand storytelling, B2B marketing, AI in marketing, building brand awareness, thought leadership, social media podcast

Connect with Anh directly on LinkedIn.

Looking to up your social media marketing efforts? Reach out to Big Voice Social at bigvoicesocial.com 

Need help with your company's social media? Reach out at bigvoicesocial.com. 

SPEAKER_01

They say you're telling me I I can buy stuff because I am out of moisturizer.

SPEAKER_02

You can buy from the website. You cannot buy from Sephora. Thanks, Mom. It's the store I have a problem with, not that brand. Not the brand. Thanks for paying for it. Love you. No, no, I didn't say that's going to pay for it. Welcome to the Social Dialogue Podcast. We're a mother-daughter team, both working in the world of social media management.

SPEAKER_01

Join us as we share our different perspectives on life today, including trends, fashion, friendships, and career, and how social media impacts it all. Together, we bring two perspectives to one conversation.

SPEAKER_02

I'm Shane and I'm Jenna. And we're excited to bring you this new episode of the Social Dialogue Podcast.

SPEAKER_00

You look great. Well, thank you. I love you pink. It goes with our theme. There we go. Yeah, I'm Matt! Oh, that's perfect. All right. Well, let's just go. It's on one of those days.

SPEAKER_02

Alright, so we'll start like we normally do. Hi, Nana. Oh, hi mommy. How are you? I'm tired. You're always tired. Every time we record something, you're tired. What are you so tired from? Every life. Every time. Oh, come on. Get real. I'm always there. You gotta get revved up. We're in the job search now, so you're gonna need some extra caffeine without sugar. So there's a sugar thing with that. Well, I want to introduce you to one of my oldest social media friends today. Not not that she's old, but we have been friends on social almost since the beginning from when I launched this business. So first let me introduce our guest, An Wen, and then I'll tell you a little bit about how we got to know each other. So An partners with nonprofits and impact startups and purpose-driven businesses to create marketing roadmaps driven by clarity, community, and purpose. But here's where it gets interesting. Her own journey didn't start in a boardroom, it began in a refugee camp where her Vietnamese parents planted the first seeds of resilience, resourcefulness, and heart-led leadership. As a proud first-generation American, she's turned those roots into a purpose to help brands tell their most powerful stories to spark change and make an impact in their communities. And we know that much like both Jenna and myself, An is a true connector. So Anwen, founder of Amplified Marketing, welcome to the Social Dialogue Podcast.

SPEAKER_00

Thank you so much for having me. And I love the fact that we're all kind of matching in the pink. I didn't even think about it. I just for to be real, I was like, what do I have clean in my closet this morning? Because it's been that kind of month, right?

SPEAKER_02

I get that. That kind of year, that kind of decade. Absolutely. Well, and we are recording this on a Wednesday, so you know, on Wednesdays we wear pink. On Wednesdays we wear pink. That's one of Jenna's favorite movies.

SPEAKER_00

Absolutely. A propos.

SPEAKER_02

So, Jenna, we go way, way back to my days of mobile chat. And I don't know if you remember this, but there were times when like I had to book it out of your violin concerts or your play practice. I had to get home because at 9 p.m. on Wednesday nights, I was the sidekick in mobile chat, way back when tweet chats were everything. Tweet chats were fun, they were a way to communicate back and forth. We had multiple people. There were times when we had like over a hundred people on mobile chat, and my role was to sort of be the sidekick. So, Patrick, my client from ReadyApp, he was running the tweet chat. And I was over here on the side making friends with An and with all the other people who came on. And we had this whole crew of women, and we started spot chat sort of on the side. Like it was ridiculous. We were having like a whole side conversation, but we were tagging both spot chat and mobile chat. And Patrick was like, What are you talking about over the talking about mobile applications? And then we were like, no. Then we started talking about chocolate at some point, and then we met in this whole thing, right?

SPEAKER_00

Because you and I would come on, and then I think it was Jeanette too, and we're like, Jeanette. Wouldn't we love to have a spot?

SPEAKER_02

And Linda, remember Linda? There were so many women on there. It was awesome. And then we got to meet in person at Content Marketing World in Cleveland, and that was so fun. And we went to a chocolate cafe, Yumi and Amy, and had so much fun ordering. Oh my god, the place was so delicious. On a side note, just sort of on the softer side of personal stuff, knew Jason Spencer online. And so she was there with us when we were all grieving that tragedy. And she has also been a wonderful ally since October 7th. And I appreciate every time you send me a message and every time you're like blown away at like, is this really happening? Yes, it really is. So I I appreciate that. So I'm glad, Jenna, that you get to meet her.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Me too. I'm excited.

SPEAKER_00

And I'm not doing enough to be an ally, even. So I appreciate you saying that. Every little message, every little message matters. So thank you. Thank you for saying that.

unknown

Hi, Jenna.

SPEAKER_01

Hi. Okay, I'm gonna kick things off. So you focus not just on social storytelling, but content in general. How do you describe content and how do you advise clients when they are building their social strategy?

SPEAKER_00

Well, where do we start? Um, so it's funny that we in the marketing world, we bandy that word about like it's nothing, right? Content, content, content. But when I say that to my clients, oftentimes I kind of get this blank look like, oh my God, what are you talking about? And then I have to back off and I go, okay, anything that I write for you, anything that is produced, whether it is written, whether it is video, whatever that falls under that umbrella of content. And that's what I mean when I say content. So it could be social media, it could be a video clip, it could be long form video, it could be a blog article, whatever we are writing to help get your brand out there. And that's typically how I explain it, and then they get it.

SPEAKER_02

That's great. And I know lately you have been taking the stage, you've been using the mic. I'm seeing you online, on live streams, you've been on stage at conferences, speaking. So when you do that, what kind of messages are you sharing with the audience who's there? And I I mean, I guess it kind of depends on who's in the audience, but what kinds of places are you sharing your message?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, and I'm gonna answer that in a second because I think I just forgot to answer Jenna's second part of her question. Sorry, Jenna, this is what happens when you're 55. Hey, you're so five. Way too many things going on. And so my clients are mostly in the B2B space. And uh for social strategy, it's more about brand awareness, helping them to amplify the thought leadership of the of the executives or company leaders. Most of the clients I work with are not heavy lead generating needers. I'm making up words as I go along. They don't have a heavy need for leads. And so it's not my favorite space to play in, but that can definitely be part of the social strategy. Most of my clients are just still in that space where their brand awareness is super important to them, and thought leadership helps them to get their sales team in front of people as opposed to turning out leads constantly. So that's the the question. And then as far as speaking, you know, I love speaking, and I have always loved to help educate whoever clients and whatever space I've been in, whatever industry I've been in. I think there's always a need for educating people. And right now, my big thing is helping not um for-profit companies understand what being purpose-driven means. And when I mention purpose-driven, immediately that thought goes to nonprofits. But as a as a for-profit company, you can absolutely be purpose-driven and how it can affect your bottom line and how it can help your not only your brand reputation, but it can help increase your sales. And it doesn't even have to be something so just nebulous, like we're gonna save the world, we're gonna save the whales, whatever. It can be as simple as helping small businesses to level the playing field in say human resources so that they can compete with larger companies and corporations who have that type of resource or or budget. So that's what I've been spending a lot of time on speaking. I did that at Content Marketing World last year. I was so excited to have my workshop accepted. And the American Marketing Association is having me do a similar workshop in May. That's so cool. Yeah. And get this people who attend and participate are getting CEUs for it. I'm like, oh my gosh. Wow, my whole is incredible.

SPEAKER_02

Congratulations. That's huge. Yeah. When we met at the content marketing world in Cleveland, I spoke. I had a session, and Jenna, my session was about authenticity and how to be real and social. And the examples that I gave, I actually showed the video from when I got Bob Costas to congratulate your brother for his bar mitzvah. And I don't remember exactly the ankle. I had a whole shtick, but I don't remember it now what it was. But everyone was like, How'd you do that? I'm like pure stocking.

SPEAKER_00

Exactly. It was so fun. Your mom's session was so fun, and you know, and she's so dynamic anyway. I mean, it's just, it was just great to be in the room with you and see that. But yeah, the whole Bob Casas thing kind of blew me away. I went, but that's so Shane. That's I'm not sure. It was really fun.

SPEAKER_02

It was a fun conference, and everyone's an orange, and it's just it's a fun, fun conference. So it's great. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Um next.

SPEAKER_02

I know. One of these days I need to come back. It's always been during a hard time for me to travel. That one particular year I was able to do it. But other than that, it's just it's been a hard time. So we'll see.

SPEAKER_01

So switching gears kind of a little bit. I understand that you recently spoke to a class of undergrads about social media. So we'd love to just hear more about your experience doing that.

SPEAKER_00

Love speaking to students, college students. And it's it's really fun to see what they're learning and the difference in what we do in in practice and from what they're learning. And these students were so they were just amazing. They were engaging and they asked really great questions. And the professor started off the class with having them share their Instagram account. So that he had asked all of them to think of a brand, right? So something beyond being a student, something beyond what client work they might get, and show the little reels that they had started already. Not really little. So there was a young woman there who was taste of bubbles for me. It was around champagne and prosecco and bubbles. I was like, bingo, you and I can be good friends, right? And so it was a lot of fun to see what they were working on. And I went, oh my gosh, they're so far ahead of us already. Because Shane, I mean, when we started out, Instagram was still very photo-driven, right? There was no such thing as clips, video clips really are stories or reels. And these students are creating these amazing things and editing these clips in great, just innovative ways. And I thought, I'm so behind. But it also gives me, you know, hope for the future of social media. And so that was a lot of fun to share with them. But their professor was very intentional about what he would like me to share with them. And that was the fact that they were going to be graduating in, you know, some of them were graduating this year, some of them were graduating next year because they were junior and senior level. And that while all these things that they were learning in in class are important and putting into practice are important, it was just as important, if not more so, and you may agree with me on this, to make those connections already and to get connected and talk to people and build those relationships. Because as we know, oftentimes it does boil down to who you know, whether you get that job or you get that project or that client. And I really appreciated that he was already thinking of that for them. Because sure, I could come in and talk about social in the real world, but they're already learning this stuff. So what are things that they can't learn that are are that I could help share?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I mean, I say all the time, you know, my business is online, but I make business deals in real life. And that cannot be online. It has to be face-to-face with a handshake.

SPEAKER_03

Yes.

SPEAKER_02

You know, that's just how we do it. Even if it's, you know, a virtual handshake, if it has to be, you know, over Zoom. But you know, there's just so much of these connections. And, you know, I know Jenna's working on that right now as she's applying to jobs. She's constantly like, go to LinkedIn and tell me if you know anyone that works at this company because I'm applying to a position there. Um, okay, so I want to talk a little bit about AI. We were just talking about college students and how they have to get off social to have, you know, real life conversations, which I think they actually, their generation is actually really good at it. I think they really get it. I was actually listening to a podcast this morning. Our friend Nina, Nina Badson, has a podcast called Dear Nina Conversations about Friendship. And she interviewed this guy. He's a professor and he studies friendship. Um, he just did this whole thing of people in their 20s. And Jenna, it's really interesting about like how and why friends come and go in that decade because everyone's very transient, everyone's at different stages. You know, Jenna knows someone her age who just got married and had a baby. And then, you know, she's got friends who are very, very, very far from even dating anyone, you know. So it's like it runs the gamut. And she's got friends who have jobs lined up for May or June. And then, you know, people like her are looking for a job, and then there's people going off to med school or law school or grad school. So it's very interesting. Yeah. So anyway, I think that one of the things he was saying that is that this generation, they get it way better than we do. Like they put their phones down, they engage in real life, they get a bad rap. They get told by their grandparents that they don't do that, and they do a lot. A lot. You know, meanwhile, one of her grandmothers missed a flight once because she was playing words with friends, missed the announcement. So there's that. Okay. Okay, so let's I want to jump a little bit to AI because it's very prevalent right now. We're all using it. I'm using it to help me with content strategy. I'm using it to say, you know, here are all my thoughts of what I want to give a client. Can you help me organize this better? And it's still using my words, but it's organizing it. Yeah. So I'm curious in amplified marketing, your agency, how do you use AI and how how do you not use AI? Where do you kind of draw the line?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, just like you, you know, I use it for those processes that you've mentioned as well. I use it as a brain dump, right? If I have an idea around content, but I just need help putting it together and literally just putting in my thoughts, and then I give it the prompt of what I need it to do. I've spent a lot of time teaching it what my brand sounds like, what my brand voice and tone sounds like, and teaching what my clients' brand voice and sounds like, who are worried about security. I get it, it is a concern, but I also am very uh intentional about uh the level of, I guess the account level that I've purchased because it's not sharing my information essentially. And so when I've mentioned that before, I've had, of course, people go, wait, it's sharing all of your clients' information. Like, no, I'm not on the free version. Let's just leave it at that. Yes, AI, every time you turn around, people are talking about AI. I I almost feel like it's AI just overwhelm, uh, I think is the best word to use, uh, because there's consultants who are trying to help people. There's people who are trying to figure out how to use AI for themselves. And it's just a lot. And I feel like people just jumped on this bandwagon immediately. And it has its uses. Don't get me wrong. Chat GPT is my friend and is my workhorse. And I use it for helping to outline my presentations and putting my thoughts together in a good flow. I help it to write my content. I help it to, I go, okay, here's the piece of content that I finalize, give me an inspiration for the visual, right? For the image. And so I do all those things. I help it, I even ask it for recipes. I do too. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

I was once making brisket on the big green egg, and I'm terrible at the big green egg. So I'm like, I need you to tell me, like step by step, exactly what temperature and exactly how many minutes. And it was like down to the detail.

SPEAKER_00

So the brisket came out great. Oh, that's fantastic. Exactly. I put in, I'm like, I have these ingredients on hand. Find me a recipe because I do not want to go back to the store. That's so smart. That's really smart.

SPEAKER_01

Jenna, do you have that fear about AI, like security-wise? Do you worry about that at all? No, because I don't really put in any personal information in there. I mean, it knows enough about me to like write a bio about me. But also, it'll write a bio about me, but it's not always accurate because it's mostly like I use it like mostly for work. So, like when it was saying like the thing outside of work, you can see me. And then it was things that I do during work. It wasn't even like, it wasn't like FaceTiming my friends and family or shopping. It was like, wait, I can pull it up. It was so bad. I was like, this is not outside of work. It said, Outside of work, you'll find me deep in Adobe Creative Cloud, building my portfolio, analyzing social trends, or planning my next creative project. How was that outside of work?

SPEAKER_00

That's all work. It's all good.

SPEAKER_01

So clearly my AI only knows me as work. So so far I'm not scared, but I also know where to draw the line.

SPEAKER_00

No, that is that is a good point, Jenna. I just um I don't know. I people are either scared of it or have not utilized it fully. And even as much as I use it, I know that I'm not using it to its full capability. I had a conversation earlier talking about what processes and things that I could automate essentially, right? Just get it started. And I said, I would love to be able to do some of that, but I am I don't even have time to think about it, much less write a custom GPT for it at this point. And so that's where I am with the AI usage. I'd love for somebody to come in and just say, hey, these processes that you keep doing on repeat, this can be absolutely a custom GPT, and here's it written for you, right? So anybody out there, you know, fairy godmother. It's really cool. Yeah. We can do it two for one. Yeah. Stuff like that. But that's and then another tool I really love, and I think I might have mentioned it to you before is Opus Clips. Are y'all familiar with Opus Clips? Takes your long form video and it creates little short social clips for you. And it is such an intuitive tool that I really don't have to give it a lot of parameters. So it comes back with about 10 to 15 clips for you and it'll grade it for you on how well it's like. Riverside does that too.

SPEAKER_02

This podcast platform totaled it. It rates it like 99%, 70%. It's funny though, sometimes the ones that are rated 70%, I'm like, this is more on art brand. Although, like sometimes the 99% clip is like too technical for the audience. Yeah. So don't use it.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. So try it out. I'm I don't even remember what it cost now. It was only like $20 at the time when I and literally the first time I tried it, I went, here, take my money because it's just such a time saver to be able to take this long form um content, especially, you know, with your your podcast and the video podcasts. And when I was live streaming a lot, I would take those and and you know, chop them up. And it just saved me a lot of time. I am still using it, and it's one a tool that I still um recommend because they've just continued to improve on the platform.

SPEAKER_01

Very cool. Yeah, good to know. What are some of the brands that you like to follow that you think do a great job of storytelling through content?

SPEAKER_00

Oh gosh. Oh, I just came across one um called Olo, uh O-L-O. So they are POS essentially, but so fun. And for those of us who are a little bit of a nerd data nerd, data geek, they do so. Let me back up. They are a POS and data warehouse kind of thing for for restaurants, for restaurant brands. So they were they have 800 plus whatever thousand brands that they are um are their customers. And recently I'm I talked to them because I was looking for a fantastic social example that was in the B2B space that was fun and not boring because B2B tends to be a little boring, right? There's not a whole lot of leeway to do a lot of fun things. And since it was close to the Super Bowl, they shared what they'd been doing the last few years. So one of their customers is the Great American Cookie Company. Are you all familiar with Great American Cookie?

SPEAKER_01

I love Great American cookies. Okay, so I am a huge fan. Inhale.

SPEAKER_00

Okay. So this is so fun. And I love this. And I hope this gets into the the final because I'm telling you, go go follow Olo and then um connect with Hayley Vong, who is their VP of content and all that. She's fantastic. Yeah, go connect with Hayley Vong. Vong, the O N G, yes. And if if you don't find her, let me know. And so in their company Slack channel, the data people, I don't want to just continue to call them data geeks and insult anybody, would like just drop in little tidbits like this uh, did you know that not only are people buying the cookies, they're having messages written on it, like go chiefs, go whatever, right? And that year when they started sharing all this data was the year of Kelsey and Taylor Swift, and it was just, you know, all out there. And so Haley went, huh, what could we do with this data that they keep sharing? It sounds like a lot of fun. So she did this manually for a little bit. So they she asked him to pull all the data, the messages, and for three years in a row now, the cookie data has been able to correctly predict the winner of the Super Bowl. Super Bowl? Oh my gosh. Sounds hysterical. Is that not hysterical? On the Friday before the Super Bowl, she does a short little recap of what's going on, what the data is telling them, and all this stuff. And then the Monday afterwards, she shares even more data and says, Hey, we did it correctly, right? And so this year again they predicted it. So if you follow Olo's LinkedIn page, you can see the video clips and stuff like that that she's done. And that's the only platform that they share that on because they're B2B. Brilliant. Is that not brilliant? And so follow Olo. I love them. Um, everybody says Wendy's, but Wendy's is so blase, right? I'm all like, whatever. Some of them were funny on Twitter. They were, I mean, you gotta get into them on Twitter. Absolutely. Kudos to them for the things that they did on Twitter. Oh gosh, what was one that I came across recently? He was very fun too, now that I'm thinking about it. I do appreciate Southwest Airlines social media, the Tampa Airport. Have you all followed them? Yes, they do great stuff. They do fantastic stuff, right? With that big flamingo and the oh my gosh, that's hilarious. I love it.

SPEAKER_02

I'll tell you another one that's similar to that, like same kind of organization is our Metro Police Department, the Louisville Metro Police Department, LMPD. They are hysterical. Like I don't know why. Really? I don't know why they do this, but they're very funny on Twitter. Yeah. And then their tweets get shared on Instagram. They're hysterical. Oh my gosh. It's really funny. And the the National Park Service, also very funny.

SPEAKER_00

Yes, exactly. That was my next one that I was going to share was the National Park Service. Now, a lot of this doesn't have to do with my B2B, but it's just fun to follow them and go, well, how could this work possibly in another, you know, in another vertical or something? So it's inspiration and it's fun. And you just need something fun in your workday because we're just, you know, underwater content all the time.

SPEAKER_02

Absolutely. Okay, so speaking of content, you shared something on LinkedIn last week and I learned something. It was about the Lunar New Year. So happy Lunar New Year. I did not know that Vietnamese people celebrate that. I thought it was only Chinese. So I learned that from you. So thank you. And this is the year of the fire horse. Yeah. And this is what you wrote, in case you don't remember, this is what you wrote. It becomes burnout. So can you talk more about that? Because it was such a poignant message.

SPEAKER_00

Well, thank you for bringing that up because I really wanted to celebrate my culture, but also have something that was a meaningful message, especially on LinkedIn and thinking about business-wise, right? And we talk about burnout quite a bit, especially among women. Um, and I don't think we talk about it enough, actually. But just a really fun fact, real quick, is Chinese, Vietnamese, Koreans, Mongolians, Tibetans, and I think, yeah, and keep some communities in Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, that celebrate the Lunar New Year. And I say this because Thailand has a separate like New Year later on. So I know when I mentioned that Vietnamese people celebrate too, they're like, then why is it just called Chinese Happy Chinese New Year? I said I think that's a Western construct. It really should be the Lunar New Year, right? Yeah. Well, I learned something new. So thank you for sharing. You're welcome. I'm glad. So just thinking about, I mean, you have all this energy and you have all this excitement. And and I I'm thinking of myself, like when I have a new idea or if I'm going into something that I love, I still have to be grounded with a solid plan or a foundation. Otherwise, it's just not, you know, gonna work out. Because, and I'll be the first to admit, there have been many times where I'm like, oh, that's a fantastic idea. Let's do it, right? It's kind of that shiny object syndrome. And so that's the the intent I bring behind sharing that is like, yes, it's great to have this excitement, great to have this fire and this passion for the things that you want to do, but let's remember to stay grounded with a solid foundation, solid plan to help make it be as successful as possible. That's a great message. Thank you for sharing that.

SPEAKER_01

Especially the new year. Yes. Yes. So as we wrap up, we want to know what's next for amplified marketing, what are your goals? And specifically, like what kinds of clients should contact you for your guidance. And of course, how can they reach out?

SPEAKER_00

Absolutely. Thanks for asking. My goal this year is to grow a little bit more. I've intentionally maintained my solopreneur status for about a decade because I didn't want to grow fast. I didn't want to have to deal with a team. I know you have a successful team, Shane. So I'm gonna have to lean on you for some advice and tips.

SPEAKER_02

I definitely have a learning curve still. And there's definitely moments where I'm like, how am I gonna manage this? But we get through it.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, so because I'm getting to the point where I do need some help to manage the day-to-day, the content creation, because I'm out there speaking, I'm out there connecting with people to work on my business and not just in my business. So that's my goal this year is really to be intentional about that, find the right contractors to help me, because I am a little bit type A where it's my clients, I need to hang on to it. So I need to find people that I trust. And so that's what my goal is this year, and really continue that mission, I guess, if you will, of helping businesses understand what purpose-driven means, being purpose-led and and why it matters, especially with the generations that are coming into those buying positions within companies, thinking about millennials, Gen Z. Jen are is that you, Gen Z? Yes. Okay. So for you guys, having a purpose, standing up for something, having values is very important, is a deciding factor on who you buy from. For my generation, Gen X, it's a nice to have, but it's not gonna, you know, keep me from buying from somebody unless they're just absolute like douchebags. You can edit that out. It's a good word. It's a good word. We'll keep it. If you're completely lacking in in morals, right? Then then I'm like, no. But you know, standing up for something like say the climate is important to you, or standing up for um, you know, just whatever purpose is important to you, that that does affect your bottom line because these are the decision makers for companies in the future. I looked up the stat and it's something like $170 billion of buying power for these generations. Yeah. So that's nothing to sneeze. Wow. Yeah. And so when I hear that, companies go, oh, okay. And I was like, yeah, billion with a B, right? Um, and so that's part of my mission or continued mission for this year.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, I definitely feel like there's been a shift, and probably because I have a daughter who likes to shop, but I feel like you're welcome. The decisions that she makes and the brands that she likes. I'm like, oh, what's this, Anaritzia? You know, I'm too old to be shopping there, but like there's things on there that I'm like, ooh, this I can wear this.

SPEAKER_01

Yes, mom, you can pull off anything. You totally can.

SPEAKER_02

I just I need the bottom half of the t-shirts. That's what I need.

SPEAKER_01

I can't do the teeny tiny t-shirt. Also, have like good morals when it comes to shopping. Like, there's certain brands I won't shop at.

SPEAKER_02

Yes, that's true. And there's some that I won't pay for if you shop there. So I know that Sephora is the only place you can find some of your stuff, and I'm pissed off at them. So that's not true.

SPEAKER_01

I can find it on their websites.

SPEAKER_02

Fine. Then buy it there. But we're not shopping at Sephora until they cut ties with Huda.

SPEAKER_00

Anyway. No, I and you know, I was not a big Sephora shopper before anyway, because I just didn't appreciate their customer service or was lack thereof, right? I walk into the store and I felt like they were judging me, and I'm like, okay, whatever. So good to know.

SPEAKER_01

They will generally say you're telling me I I can buy stuff because I am out of moisturizer.

SPEAKER_02

You can buy from the website, you cannot buy from Sephora. Thanks, Mom. It's the store I have a problem with, not that brand. Not the brand.

SPEAKER_01

Thanks for paying for it. No, no, I didn't have to pay for it. I didn't say that. I think you did. I didn't.

SPEAKER_02

I just bought you Eveda. So no. Yeah, I was free because of all the points that I've earned. Here's the fun fact on I buy all my Aveda stuff at our local salon and then I earn the points, but I don't actually know how to redeem them. And anytime that like I've tried to log in to redeem them, they don't have it's all like sets. They don't have like, I just want this shampoo, whatever. So she logs in and then just like stacks because I have over a hundred thousand points.

SPEAKER_01

I didn't stack it. I called you. You asked me to stack it. And no wonder.

SPEAKER_02

And then well, the shit showed up at your door. Meanwhile, half the stuff they forgot to send. So then I had to like get on chat with Aveda, and I said, first of all, you forgot to send these three things, and two of them are hers, and I'm supposed to take them to her Friday. So now they're overnight them. But they also sent me a broken thing of hairspray, and the guy's like, send a photo. So I did, and he said, You said it was broken. I'm like, look at the picture, you moron. The top of the hairspray thing sitting on the table. Yes, it's broken. So, anyways, tie it down.

SPEAKER_01

So, anyways, case in point, you did it by me a beta. Thank you for the moisturizer.

SPEAKER_02

No, I'm not fine. I just bought you a spring break trip. Give me a break. Okay.

SPEAKER_01

And thanks for the toner. What's the brand? What's the brand you use, Jenna? I use Caudley Toner and Summer Fridays Moisturizer. Okay. Not familiar with either. I'll have to check it in.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, the Coddley toner is a good one. I use it as well.

SPEAKER_01

Caudaly made my skin so much better. They're acne serum. It's awesome.

SPEAKER_02

It's a French brand and it's very clean, paraben-free. Fun fact, I have a um really bad habit of forgetting to change the default address when I buy things. So I once sent, it must have been a gift card to our friend Sari. I sent her something from Sephora. And then a week later, I logged on, ordered my toner, and accidentally sent it to Sari. And she was like, Thank you so much. Because she is like a Francophile. She loves Paris. She's been there several times and she loves it. And she's like, Thank you. I'm like, why would I send you a toner? If I was gonna send you a gift, I'd send you like French perfume.

SPEAKER_00

I'm like, this is ridiculous.

SPEAKER_02

Oh, I do it all the time. At the beginning of the school year, my son in the dorms in Florida got a big box from Fletta of like four different sizes of extra small women's puffer coats. And he's like, I'm gonna kill you. And then I had to teach him how to return it.

SPEAKER_01

And he doesn't, he had to learn. He thought he was, he didn't know if he had to fold or cut the label.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah, he didn't know how to do it. I had to send him packing tape from Amazon. Like Jenna and I are constantly sending things back. We know how to return. He's never do this before. He doesn't buy anything. All right. So I know you've taken up like lots of your day with us today, but this has been really fun. This is so fun. No. But before we go, as I always do, what and I know we talked about connections before, but any other advice you would give Jenna as she really begins to dig in because it's about March 1st and she is really digging into her job hunt so she can get off my payroll and buy her own damn moisturizer.

SPEAKER_01

Also, I can spy it on Amazon. So I don't even have to buy it on the phone.

SPEAKER_00

Your mom's gonna change the login, not give it to you.

SPEAKER_01

No, I use my own Amazon account.

SPEAKER_00

Get my credit card out of there.

SPEAKER_02

Get it out.

SPEAKER_00

There you go. Okay, so seriously, any other advice that you would have for her? Already mentioned, you know, making those connections. Even if it's just people you're like, what you know, I don't do business with that industry. They're not in my industry. Why would I connect with them? You just never know who they know. So definitely I wanted to double down on that. And I know this sounds very cliche because I'm sure other people may have said is that don't stop learning. You can never stop learning, especially in social, really, right? Because it things change all the time. But just even for me, I've been in different verticals and different industries. And everything that I've learned and every role that I've had has helped me down the road with something else or wherever I am right now, because it may feel like what would I ever take that use for? I still use it. And so don't ever stop learning. And really don't be afraid to take a step back even. I went I moved back to Houston when I was 31, 30, 31. And at that time, I should have been a little bit more established in my career already, right? But I did not hesitate to take a sales support role at the Houston Chronicle because that was my foot in the door. And six months later, I got my own territory. I became a, you know, a county exec, all that stuff. So I didn't think of it as, oh my God, you know, this is beneath me. It's just never beneath you. You'll learn. And so I I always share that with college students because I don't want them to think at this point in my career, I should be moving on and look down on something. And then don't look down on the people who help you either, right? So the admins, the people that often get overlooked because you might get locked out of your office one day and they happen to know you because you're the only one who stops to talk to them. That's a great point.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah. Kind of like when you left your first grade homework in the in the um classroom and had a meltdown, and we had to go back, and the janitor knew me because I always said hello. So he unlocked the door and let us in, and Jenna got her homework out in first grade. Mrs. Bray never knew. Oh yeah, we had to go back to school. I said, This is the one time I'll do this all year. And we did. We went back and you got it. It was like, you know, it took her five minutes to do this homework. But it was, it was, you know, freaked her out. She didn't do her homework she left it at school. I imagine so, right? So those she got older, she didn't do that very much. But if she ever did, I was like, well, then you're getting up early and we're going to school early tomorrow. We're not, we're not going back to school right now. So yeah. But it didn't happen very much. You get a one-time pass. One time. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's all good advice. And this was really fun. And thank you so much for joining us. I love seeing you. It's so fun to stay connected. We have known each other, I think, since like 2008 or nine. I mean, we've known each other all the time.

SPEAKER_00

So it's been almost 20 years. Yeah. And I love it. And I love keeping up with everything that you're doing and seeing that you had launched this podcast. And I'm really honored that you asked me to be a guest. Thank you. It's been so fun talking to you both. And you know, Jenna, I know you're gonna do great things. How can you not? You have Shane as you, right? And if I can help in any way, let me know. Thank you. All right, have a great day.

SPEAKER_02

Well, that was fun, Nana.

SPEAKER_01

Super fun. Now I'm gonna go on Amazon and buy all this shit. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02

Stop buying things. No, no. Stop stoping.

SPEAKER_01

I need toner and moisturizer.

SPEAKER_02

That's why you get an allowance. The end. Stop spending money. You're about to find out how expensive you are. Uh-huh. Okay. Listen, I got one for you. I don't think we've done this one before. You ready? This person, I don't know what school this is. She says, Hi, I am at family weekend. So that they were visiting. She says, My freshman daughter mentioned to my parents that she and her roommate do not lock their door when they sleep. I guess that the roommate gets up and goes to the bathroom in the middle of the night and doesn't want to get locked out. Okay, first of all, what? Secondly, the mom is asking the internet, what can I say to my daughter to convince her that this is not okay? And she has to lock her door without exposing that my parents told me what is going on. So she told her grandparents, the grandparents told the mom, the mom wants to talk to her, and the mom is asking the internet how to advise her daughter that leaving their door unlocked in the dorm overnight is a dumb idea. Ready? Go. What would you say to this?

SPEAKER_01

Nothing. There is nothing to say. This whole thing is dumb. It's dumb that she left the door open. It's dumb that she didn't that she didn't tell her mom. And then it's dumb that the mom wants to interfere. So I think this whole situation is stupid. What kind of people are leaving their doors unlocked in the dorm at night? Why would anyone do that? Why can't you just agree to lock the door and if she has to go to the bathroom, she unlocks the door? It's not really that hard.

SPEAKER_02

Take your card or your phone or your key or whatever the hell it is. Like, don't be stupid. This is a life lesson in living alone and growing up. Don't be stupid. Okay, so that's my Facebook message of the day. Okay. It's don't be stupid.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02

I'm gonna have to Pilates. I did Pilates today. We did a bunch of new moves and it was a really good class, and my core is gonna hurt tomorrow, but it was good. I also walked the dog 3.66 miles this morning.

SPEAKER_01

Wow. She's tired.

SPEAKER_02

You'd think she would be. She's tired at the moment, but she's had some crazy in her today. Nuts. Yeah. So I told Dad, never again am I getting a big, heavy, strong dog like this. And he said, I have been waiting for you to say this, and I am prepared to tell you that the next dog we get, I will pay to ship it to camp to get it trained so it doesn't pull on you anymore. That's yeah, I said it could be a few thousand dollars to do that. And he said, Whatever it is, I want my great big labs. So Wow. I know. There you go. So this week we have learned that labs are important to him and he is happy to pay to not wait in line because last weekend your brother I appreciate that when your brother's on his own dime, he's using wait and save on the Ubers or the Lyfts or whatever. But don't do that when dad's in town. Dad doesn't want to wait, he is willing to pay a premium to not wait. And then he got he bought the tickets into the bar. You had to pay like $11 a person for entry. So he did that earlier in the day. But as we were walking into the bar, I'm yelling into his ear, get the line skipped, get the line skipped, get the line skipped. So I'm like, you need to learn where the priorities are. He doesn't want to wait in line and he will pay for it. So now we know what dad will pay for and will not pay for.

SPEAKER_01

Well, I think I know what he'll pay for. What? When I ask him to pay for things.

SPEAKER_02

Yes, well, it's different with Ryan. You're his little girl. Yeah. He doesn't even know yet. I got an idea for your graduation gift, and he doesn't even know what you're doing. What? What is it? Oh, I can't tell you. Is it designer? No, it's not designer. I'm not getting you a Louis Vuitton. Calm down. I got you one in Paris. I'm not getting you another one.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, but a Prada.

SPEAKER_02

No, I got you a Louis Vuitton, and I don't have a Louis Vuitton. You have a Louis Vuitton from Paris, and then you have the little wallet that we split when you were in California. So that's enough. It's not that. It's not, it's not a trending type of item. It's something you'll have forever. So you'll see. Okay, have a great day. Enjoy Pilates. Work hard. And I love you. Love ya. Bye. Thanks for joining us on the Social Dialogue Podcast. If you liked today's conversation, be sure to leave us a five star rating and a review and share it with a friend.

SPEAKER_01

Keep the dialogue going with us on social. Find us on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube. I'm Shane. And I'm Jenna.

SPEAKER_02

Thanks for listening.