In this episode, I sit down with John Dye, VP of Marketing at the Radiant Foundation. John has an impressive background working on fundamental social media and influencer marketing campaigns for Bonneville Communications. These campaigns include the famous “I’m a Mormon” campaign and the “Light the World” campaign which has impacted millions across the globe.
You’ll learn about the work it took to build a successful campaign, how to get people to advocate for your brand, and other great information that will elevate the way you think about influencer marketing in today’s generation. Hope you enjoy!
In this episode, I sit down with John Dye, VP of Marketing at the Radiant Foundation. John has an impressive background working on fundamental social media and influencer marketing campaigns for Bonneville Communications. These campaigns include the famous “I’m a Mormon” campaign and the “Light the World” campaign which has impacted millions across the globe.
You’ll learn about the work it took to build a successful campaign, how to get people to advocate for your brand, and other great information that will elevate the way you think about influencer marketing in today’s generation. Hope you enjoy!
Welcome, welcome, Welcome to the Jake Mix Marketing Podcast. I am thrilled that you are here. Thank you so much. Over the past several months, you probably have been able to tell that I have not posted many episodes. In fact, I haven't posted one episode in the last couple of months, and for that I apologize. But the important thing is, We're back. I'm recording again and hopefully gonna release more episodes going forward on a more consistent basis. But thank you so much for being here. In today's episode, I sit down with John Dye, the VP of Marketing at the Radiant Foundation. John has honestly an incredible background working on fundamental social media and influencer marketing campaigns for Bonneville Communications. These campaigns include the famous I'm a Mormon. And light the world campaign you, you probably recognize, you probably have a sense of what those are. If you live in Utah, These campaigns have impacted millions across the globe. In this episode, you're gonna learn about the work it took to build these successful campaigns, how to get people to actually advocate for your brand, and really some other great ways to elevate the way you think about influencer marketing in general, especially in the year 2022 and I think bleeding into 2023. So hope you enjoy, and as always, thanks for listening. Glad you. Today I am super, super excited. Uh, this is a, this is a conversation that I've actually wanted to have for quite a long time. Thank you for, for coming. Thank you for, uh, being on the show today.
John Dye:Jake, great to be with you. Yep. You, you are one of the young talents that I've kept my eyes on. you've got great things ahead of you, so Well, thank you. This podcast is just one of many great things that you have going, so thank you.
Jake Mix:Thank you. Well, it's a pleasure being with you as well. I, I feel like, um, You know, I was only able to work with you for about a year and a half, but your leadership definitely, um, like you proved to have just amazing leadership, your optimism is just fantastic. I just really appreciated working with you, and you seem to have carried that real optimism throughout your entire career. So I'm excited to talk to you. Oh, you're kind, you're kind. Yeah. Yeah. Well, let's get into it. I've got several questions here that I'm excited to talk to you. You've had some tremendous experience over the years, 20 plus years marketing, correct? Correct.
John Dye:Yep, yep. Okay. That I'm old. I guess what you're saying is, John, you're old. No, we call it experienced.
Jake Mix:Okay. Yes. Yeah. We call experienced the market wisdom them overtime, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, so, you know, to get started, I think the best approach here, For those that don't know you, you know? Um, maybe just give a quick rundown of your career. How did you initially get into marketing? You know, what, what drew your interest into the space and what are some of the positions, What are things that you've done over the years?
John Dye:Yeah, absolutely. So great question. Um, The, the one thing I'll say is life always twists and turns, right? You never go in the direction that you think you are going to to go. Um, and that's kind of been the case for my life and I've ended up in a place that I love. Absolutely. So it's, it's all been good that way. But I had no aspirations for marketing originally at, when I was younger. Uh, I got my undergraduate and. From Brigham Young University in English, um, served a full-time mission for the Church of Jesus Christ, of Latterday Saints to Taiwan. Had aspirations to go back and teach English there, um, and do some things in Asia. Um, but life took me in a different direction and, and that was okay. So I ended up, um, actually right outta school teaching, or excuse me, um, at a, at an insurance company as a policy and procedures analyst. Hmm. And I was. Oh my goodness. Could anything get more boring? And the answer was no. Nothing could get more boring. Accountants, I'm talking to you, you have a more exciting job than, than what I had initially. So , um, I, I had an opportunity then to move on to, uh, a place called Pixel Point Creative, which was kind of a burgeoning ad company. Um, they were tied to a, a larger, um, company, Orbit Irrigation Products, which. Two to 300 million with Home Depot lows, et cetera. You know, the underground sprinkler systems and the Hosen things. But we were their creative team and the goal was to break off this creative team and have it become a profit center for the larger company. And so with that, that was my first introduction into marketing, right? So I was writing, doing other things for them, um, project managing. Anyway, it got to the point where I was asked to be over this burgeoning group of about 15 and, um, grew that to about 20. And, um, you know, so graphic design, web design, social media was just coming to the forefront at the time. Um, we're talking fenster, we're talking a lot of those, those original, uh, platforms. Anyway, long story short, I saw, uh, an. Uh, uh, an opportunity for social platforms to be utilized for, uh, B2B purposes or B2C purposes. And so I jumped onto that early. Um, wanted to have a way that we could stand out and with that, , Um, that came some opportunity, um, as well. There came some opportunities that arose from that. Um, started to help the LDS church with missionary outreach and efforts. Hmm. And um, from there I had an opportunity to go and work with Bonneville Communications. Um, helped with some major media outreach. MIT Romney ran in 2012 for the president of the United States, so all eyes were upon his beliefs, his faith tradition. Mm-hmm.. So we had an opportunity to really set that up. Anyway, long story short, um, worked there for about seven years. Uh, was with doTERRA for about three and a half, and now I'm back with the for-profit entities, uh, that are owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Doing some wonderful things for youth in the world that are looking for connection with a higher power, right? There's so much anxiety and despair and other things in the world. We want to give, you know, the youth of the world hope. And so we've been asked to reach out regardless of faith tradition, to help them understand. That there is an opportunity to reach out, uh, to a higher power and have hope.
Jake Mix:Amazing. Yeah. So it's good. Well, really cool that you had a lot of experience with the church. I don't think people understand how, like when you, when you mentioned Bonneville communications, I mean, I. In terms, I mean, I think people, people see this as, as a church or a religion or whatever, but it really is a massive, I mean, I know that you're doing a lot of media, a lot of marketing with that. Um, and, and I, I just hope people understand that like, You have some, I mean, if you're advertising for the church, I mean, that's, that's a big deal, right? There's a lot, there's a lot going
John Dye:out right there. There is a lot that's happening. Absolutely. Um, and, and it's different, right? Um, selling beliefs, for lack of a better term Yeah. Is different than selling a product. Yep. Um, it's, it's very interesting because, you know, the church is known for. For good and bad for some of the beliefs that they've had over the course of the history of, of the church. And so trying to really, uh, create a positive, um, aspirational, um, um, image in people's minds of what's happening. There's so much good that's happening. Right? And, and it's, it's a complicated story. I'm not gonna say everything is always hunky dory, right? And everything is as it should be. Um, but there's a lot of good happening and I choose to focus on the good that. Yep. And, and to your point, there's so much media going out there. Um, back in the day in 2014, we did, uh, a major theatrical release, Meet the Mormons, um, where we highlighted six. Uh, we did biopics on six members of the church from all over the world, just to give people a taste that, you know, Mormons aren't just these white people that live in Utah. They're homogenous in every way, shape and form. Right. Although the majority of us do live in Utah, you know, there are also worldwide, um, um, individuals who, who live anywhere from Nepal to Atlanta, Georgia, to South America, to um, Canada, that, that ha share similar beliefs. I, I was also able to work on the, I'm a Mormon campaign, which Oh wow. I think many people might be familiar with, which. Again, the goal there was to show the wide range of those that hold a similar faith tradition. Right. And, um, again, sometimes it's easy to to back people into a corner or paint them into a corner in their beliefs. And that's what's so interesting is, is I do interfa outreach now too, is to. Uh, you know, you, you, you can't, and you shouldn't stereotype people regardless if, if they're Muslim, if they're Jewish, if they're Christian, um, you know, the, the colors of the rainbow are all across the board. The spectrum is huge for these religious beliefs, and so I just love to see the variety and the, just the richness that people bring to faith traditions and yeah, and again, it teaches me. To not to stereotype, not to put people in corners or, or just marginalize them because maybe, um, this is what I thought they believed. I, I've gotta really open my ears and be open to, to understanding what they know.
Jake Mix:Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Well, that's really cool. Tell me a little bit more about. You said you worked on the I'm a Mormon campaign, which, and, and you know, most, this, most of my podcast listeners are in Utah, so they're probably familiar with this campaign. Okay, Okay. Um, but tell us a little bit about that, you know, from ideation phase, um, what you were hoping to accomplish, and then what you maybe potentially thought it would be perceived as, and then what it actually, like, what were the results of it?
John Dye:Yeah, it's interesting. Um, Um, and, and just for full clarity, it actually started before I was there. I was able to help it push it forward through social media, but Gotcha. I'll tell you the interesting stories that I hear, those that I dated around it, um, multiple people thought of a similar campaign at the same time. Wow. And when that happens, you know that it's probably not just chance, Right. That. You know, truly there, there were thoughts that were, that were, uh, aligning and higher powers at work that helped brought that, bring that to pass. But again, the, the goal there was to show, hey, you, you can't, Mormons are just not one way, shape, or form. Right. It, there's this wide disparity of the way people spend their lives. Um, um, again, all over the world, these people live, but you can have long hair, you can have facial hair, you can, um, write a Harley Davidson, right? You can do all these things. And the, one of the, the things I think that was most fulfilling was to see the world react to this. Mm-hmm.. Um, I know that, uh, it was, it was discussed on. Well, the, the, the makers of, of the Book of Mormon musical actually talked about, you know, the faith a little bit. And, and we know they also did South Park, right. And right. And, and they would make, uh, um, some, some, uh, episodes about, about the beginning of the church, Joseph Smith, things like that. But it's interesting because they've often tipped their hat to the church saying these guys know how to market. Um, with, with the Ima Mormon campaign specifically that was mentioned all. all over the place and on late night talk shows and people were talking about it, you know, it was also all over New York City. We had Cab Toppers and we were in Times Square and, and you know, I think just to really cause people to rethink what a member of the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints is and what he or she believes. I think that was interesting. The other thing I will say is, Um, the Book of Mormon musical really quick in 2012. Yeah, we do call that the Mormon Moment, 2012, because that's when MIT Romney ran to be president in the United States. But also when the Book of Mormon musical was released and we, we put, um, ads in the playbill of the Book of Mormon musical and they would say, You've, you've, uh, you, you've seen the musical now read the book, right? Or the book is always better or, you know, these other one-liners. And it was interesting to see again, the, the makers of the Book of Mormon musical, which were also South Park's creators, that they mention that on late night talk shows oftentimes saying, you know, these guys know how to market because the church could have come at that from a distancing perspective. Hey, we don't believe in that. We totally want to distance ourselves from that. It's not representative of what we, what we believe or who we are. Rather, we took a cultural event and you were able to jump into the wake of that. Right. Using a a, a wakeboarding, uh, analogy here, we were able to begin into the wake of that wave and I think. Be able to say, Hey, this is a cultural moment, a tent pole moment where people are talking about the church of Jesus Christ, of Latter Day Saints. How can we leverage that so that people can really come to understand what we believe? So from a marketing perspective, it's saying, you know, even if things are misconstrued or they're not, um, they're, they're not talking about you or your brand in the way that you want. How might you, like in a judo, like move right, using momentum, be able to. Redirect that momentum in a way that actually works to your benefit. And so, um, so I thought that was very interesting. So it went to Australia and we were, we were there, went to London, we were on the backs of it because basically they did a lot of the marketing for us. People were asking questions. The best time to, as a brand to, to answer those questions is when people are asking them. Right. They're inquisitive. Yeah. And.. Um, that's one thing I learned is you can take a potential negative and definitely turn it into a positive and, and really utilize
Jake Mix:that. Yeah, John, that's, that's what I remember about that campaign. I like, I was pretty young at that point. I think I was just outta high school and I remember it being so, like, I remember talking to my parents about this, you know, a lot of attention on the church. It could be perceived as a negative attention. But what I loved about it, and I remember New York especially, you know, the advertising in New York, I saw pictures and I think a friend of mine actually went to New York at that time and saw just the billboards and everything. That, that played into that book of Mor musical and it's just really cool to see and I feel like a lot of brands could learn from this campaign, Right? To leverage, you know? Cuz I feel like at any point a brand could receive criticism for something. Sure. Right? Sure. The church, probably the church could have received criticism for that instead. Of backing against it and probably actually giving people a more negative perception of it. They really leaned into it. They put it on all their billboards. I just think that's such a cool campaign.
John Dye:Such a cool idea. Yeah, it was and, and again, I don't want to take personal. Um, credit for, for any of this. Actually, I was just a small cog in a big wheel. But yeah, the team I think, approached that perfectly. I think the way that we collectively approached that was, um, hey, this, this is a chance. We, we are looking for times when people are asking questions. Um, no better time than now when they're, when there is a cultural phenomenon. Taking the world by storm at the time. Um, obviously book Mormon musical. The, the day that we record this 2022 is still on Broadway. Right. 10 years later. So, so it's a long running show, but that time, that was, I mean, it was up for Tony Awards and people were talking about it all the time, and what a chance to be in the spotlight, right. For us, it was a, it was a great time actually because people were asking questions and we needed to answer. Gosh,
Jake Mix:so cool. So cool. Tell me a little bit about, uh, your role, not only in that campaign, you said that you worked on another campaign, um, in the church. Uh, tell me about your role specifically. Like what, what, what parts were you doing? What part of the marketing were you, were you a part of?
John Dye:Yeah, so I was basically over social media, um, for the church at that time specifically. Yeah. The, the, the mormon.org at the time now come under Christ. Yep. So we grew. Uh, now this will show you my age, but again, Facebook was the big thing. Instagram was coming onto the scene. Snapchat was a little bit in the picture. Twitter obviously was around, Right? Um, but no, TikTok at the time wasn't even musically at the time. Yeah. So, so this was, you know, this predates, uh, maybe a lot of our audience that might be listening. But again, the height of Facebook, we grew on Facebook from 400,000 to 5.2 million. Oh my, um, over. Three, three and a half years. Now what's interesting though is we were kind of preaching to the choir, right? A lot of people that were already in the church were following our, our, um, our socials. And so the question in our mind was, Okay, there's a job to be done there, right? If we have people in the corral or in the the belief system, we wanna re entrench that belief system. So that makes sense. Right? Right. Let's, let's give them a reason to believe, but how do we do more outreach? Because we were working with the missionary department of the church and the question was, how might we better reach those, not of our faith as well. So that's really when I think, and this is what I'm personally most proud of, is work with influencers, the influencer creators, right? Our partners that we worked with, um, You know, literally the top 10 creators, people like the piano guys and David Archuleta and Lindsay Sterling and um, the Shears on YouTubes, the original vloggers, right? Just a lot of these people, and I'm missing some, so apologies. Brooklyn and Bailey from Cute Girls Hairstyles and What's Inside, and I could keep going on and on and on, but even bloggers, individuals who. We're members of the church that were willing to share, um, certain aspects of their faith with their audience. And so I, I truly believe if you want people to change regardless of belief system or thought process or product usage or whatever, you know, find people they know and trust, right? And talk to them. And if they believe in whatever it is you're trying to quote, unquote sell or push or get across from a messaging. Of, um, that comes across, uh, you know, more true to them, the trust factor's high. Um, and so we would work with a lot of these influencers to do service based activities like the world, um, other things, other campaigns that would really help us push that mission forward to the church. Cuz again, if you can find things that people believe in and service is something any good-hearted person, regardless of faith tradition, they're gonna believe in. Right. If, if we can use that as a starting point to say, We believe in this too. And this is just one of the fruits of of our belief system. You know, if we could get them asking questions, that was our goal, was to get people asking questions, to build that trust factor with them. And then slowly over time, if they had questions, we would answer them and hopefully put them in touch one on one with individuals who can answer those questions. So I think utilizing those influencers, for me was the most fulfilling because. A, again, the top 10 we worked with, their aggregate following was probably 50 times what the churches was. Yeah. And so again, if you're trying to promulgate or, or propagate beliefs or a message in any way, shape, or form, the best way to do that is through people who have influence. Right. And, and find those commonality. Those, the Venn diagram, right? The area where you overlap and really focus on that. And so I really loved working with those individuals who could actually show their faith in action, you know, to, to a group or an audience that they've already aggregated that love them for the content they create. Yeah. And, and so that was, that was really
Jake Mix:cool, really amazing. And at that point, I mean, we're, we're talking around 2012
John Dye:at this point? Yeah. This would've been, gosh, probably more like 20 14, 20 16, 20 14. Okay.
Jake Mix:2016. I think about that time, influencer marketing really wasn't, Like, I know it was coming onto the scene, but still definitely not as popular as it is today. Right. There's so many influencers. Absolutely. What was it like paving that, that road, like was influencer marketing a thing when you started to reach out to these, these different people, these, these, this top 10? Tell us a little bit about that.
John Dye:Yeah, so at the time it, it was fairly new and I, I should say this because we've always relied when you say, when you hear, you know, older commercials, four out of five dentists re. Recommend Trident Sugarless gum. That's true. Or something like that. That's true. So, So finding people that have high trust or high authority. That wasn't new. However, what was new was these new platforms and literally people had. From a following, you know, their, their personal followings were as large as major media groups, right? Nbc, abc, cbs, um, New York Times, you know, you're talking individuals who could speak to as large an audience as these decades old, if not centuries old conglomerates that had been in the media space. And so, so that is kind of what, where the, the new piece was, was okay. My, my generation, Gen X and older, you know, we're used to hearing from broadcast news in one way, shape, or form. Right. Um, but younger generations, they, they, you know, they go to YouTube now they go to TikTok, right? The search engines that they utilize are much different. And so I, I think that was the, the kind of the, the tweak, or the pivot was who? The, the, the younger audience was actually listening to. And so, um, and, and again, as you know, whether you're trying to sell a product or a, a belief set system, or, and I use sell very broadly. I'm not using that in a pejorative way, but if, if you're trying to message that, you need to find the right audience, the, the right. Platforms for that audience you're trying to reach. And so we know Gen X and, and, um, or excuse me, Gen Z and millennials are, are, are key for people, right? Not, not unlike the church, right? We wanna make sure people have what they need to go through life in a way that makes sense. And so, um, we look for younger people and, and, uh, and, and helping them get through the things they need to get. That's
Jake Mix:cool. So I think a lot of people, I, I love talking about influencer marketing cuz I feel like there's been really no one on the show that has had, you know, a lot of experience like you have on it. Um, but I feel like in 2022, you know, in the sense there's, there's a lot of, um, influencers who are given a message. That they simply portray and then they get money for, Right, Right. They don't, they don't believe in the productional. Right. Yeah. Obviously the church, that's a pretty personal and deep belief system for people, and so they understand that they, you know, I would think that the messaging's a little different, but what does it, What does influencer marketing look like in 2022? How can brands make sure that they are portraying their message accurately and correctly? Basically to their market, to their target market.
John Dye:Absolutely. A few key principles I think Jake make the most sense, one is authenticity. Like you said, if it's purely transactional, people sniff through that, right? Oh yeah. If they say, Okay, Jake's my influencer and he's gonna sell product X, Y, Z, and, and if you're not a daily user or if you're not a a, an often user, a constant user, people see through that. Um, a, a lot of the best marketing, I think that. We received specifically at doTERRA, was people we didn't even pay. They believe in the product, um, without getting one red scent from us. Right. And, um, so that was really interesting. So authenticity, I think is key. Be, I, I think it's important that the brand or that the, the, um, instigator, right? The, the brand entity find. Um, those individuals to work with that not only believe in the product or whatever you're trying to sell, but also they speak to the right people. Um, that's one thing I think that a lot of people don't think through is, Hey, who am I trying to hit? What is the demographic or the psychographics of that audience? Let me team that up with. Influencer who also is authentic with my product, service, belief, whatever that is. And so I, I think a lot of people just say, Yeah, the more people talk about us, the better. Well, if they're not talking to the right audience, it, it really doesn't move the needle for you. And so I, I think those are two key things to think about. Um, the, the other thing is I really think things are moving more toward a micro influencer, uh, based. Platform or, or campaign or something like that. I mean, you have your Mr. Beast and he can sell hamburgers, he can sell chocolate, he can do anything he wants. And so, yeah, it was interesting, I was just talking about this yesterday. It seems like influencer marketing might be morphing back because people, venture capital firms are putting money into. Into influencer marketing to find the next Mr. Beast so they can sign that individual or those individuals to create this conglomerate, this media conglomerate. So it's almost like we have this full circle of, we started off with the nbc, abc, cbs, um, you know, New York Times, It, it's gone. It's decentralized to individual influencers, but. People are seeing, you know, the immediate conglomerates are saying the future of media is to find those individuals and to bring them together in a network of some, some sort. So it's, it's kind of interesting to see how this is coming full circle potentially. That's so
Jake Mix:cool. That's so cool. Yeah. Well, and, and I love the, I love the idea of micro influencers because I think it speaks, I think a lot of people look at these brands. Yeah. You look at a church, it's a, it's a big brand, global brand. Um, they think, well, they can do it, but me as a small brand, maybe I can't do it. Um, but micro influencers I think changes that game a little bit. Absolutely.
John Dye:And, and the reason why I, I say I think the game, and depending on what you're doing, I don't want to just paint with a broad brush, but Right. Micro influencers, a, they're access. Yes, you can, you can give them product for, for post as opposed to payment for post a lot of times. So if they truly believe in the brand, um, that, and, and as you know, product for post goes so much further, right, because, um, You know, you pay a cents on the dollar for the product if you're the brand, right? Versus a dollar's a dollar if you have to pay them a dollar, right? Um, so, so it's much different that way. Also, you can kind of cast a much broader net and really see who is effective in, um, spreading that word, right? And how good are they on platform? Can they deliver? Through to a website experience or some campaign experience that you've set up on a designated, um, website. You know, those are all things I think to think about as well. Right? Yeah.
Jake Mix:So John, let's go back. Um, I love your experience about influencer marketing. Tell us a little bit about what you're doing now with the Radiant Foundation. Do you feel like you are working with influencers still, or do you, have you gone a completely different direction? Give us an idea of some of the daily responsibilities you have.
John Dye:Yeah, no, good, good question. The Radiant Foundation is very interesting because again, um, the goal with the Radiant Foundation is to bring a vertical relationship, uh, to specifically the youth of the world. Um, you know, to create, uh, a relationship with deity, right? A vertical relationship with deity. Um, we know that the youth of today can turn to other things that are eventually dead ends, right? Drugs, alcohol, and other things that just don't, um, enhance. Um, someone's life eventually it, it really degrades and, and deprecates from an individual's life, right? So we want to help them do that. So basically what we're doing is, again, we're, we're giving them opportunities, activities, and exercises to create a relationship with, with a higher power. and, um, we do that through an app form. It's called Skylight. Mm-hmm.. So if anyone searches for Skylight spiritual wellness, it does provide opportunities. Right now there's over 350 exercises on the platform that you, you can utilize, but. The, the true power. I think to, to answer your question in, in really reaching the masses is not through a centralized approach, right? It's like, Hey, we have this cool app and it's a web app, or it's an iOS or an Android app, which is awesome, but bringing people, it's almost like. Bringing people to your brick and mortar. If I have something in Missoula, Montana, that's the only place I sell it. Not a lot of people are gonna know about it or be able to frequent it. Right? Right. So the question is how can you actually decentralize and, and get those exercises out on the multiple platforms that. Currently exists. So to, to answer your question, we are utilizing micro, mid-level and macro influencers to get this out there. We are teaming up with people that have, um, a following on multiple different platforms. TikTok, um, Instagram, not so much Facebook because that's a little older leaning, right. And we're trying to hit the, the youth of the world. But, um, you know, some of these platforms where they might be. Utilizing influencers who have created a following, um, by creating good content, but also hold to similar beliefs regardless if they're Muslim or Christian or Jewish or whatever, their faith tradition. If they're willing to talk about the power and the hope and the healing that comes through having a relationship with a higher power. We are teaming up with these individuals to create, um, we call them exercises, but chances. Think of meditations, think of. Hey, creating a piece of content, a video that might be two minutes long, but the first minute and a half is you talking about gratitude and where you see it in the world. If it's in nature or o other aspects of of the world where you see that and then you take 30 seconds at the end just. Say, just, just prompt your audience. Hey, now take 30 seconds and just think of something you're grateful for. And, and, um, a again, creating that relationship with that higher power is the key. And so to your point, the only way we can do that is through people who believe. Something similar to, to what we believe, Right? Right. That there is a higher power, that there is hope through that higher power, and they're willing to talk to their audiences that they've already, um, created on these different platforms. And so working with this creators, we, we hope to have over 250 to 300 relationships by the end of, uh, next year, 2023. My gosh. Wow.
Jake Mix:Yeah. So geez, wow. That's, that's implementation right there. That's that's incredible.
John Dye:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's the goal. That's.
Jake Mix:And with the, uh, you know, it sounds like you're kind of giving'em a framework for what to talk about. Is there any, like, like, I would think the, the hardest part for influence marketing, you gotta, you wanna make sure they're saying the right things. How do you deliver that to them? Like how do you, how do you make sure
John Dye:that they're. Yes, great question. Um, it's always important with creators that you're not too prescriptive. They should understand the objective that you're trying to get across as a brand. And, and again, if you can dovetail that into something they already believe au authenticity goes through the roof, which is good, but I, I've always found it best to not coach. Give them objectives and say, you know your audience better than I do, because you've aggregated your audience doing what you do, whether it's entertainment, you know, that could be humor, that could be education, that could be whatever. Um, you do what you do. I'm not asking you to be anyone different than you already are. How might we best dovetail our objective as a brand into what you naturally do for your audience so that it doesn't feel like it's appended. Right. Or it's an add-on. It's gotta feel natural, organic, It's gotta feel like it's part of their brand.
Jake Mix:Right. Right. Yeah. It can't seem, Well, it goes back to that authenticity, right? Yeah. And really, really showing that. Absolutely. John, this has been an awesome conversation. We're running outta time here, but I do wanna ask you a couple questions just about your career in general. Okay. Yeah. If you were to go back, uh, to the very beginning of your. Right. And, and tell yourself one piece of advice right now that you've 2020 hindsight, right? What would that. Piece of advice be
John Dye:Well, a, a couple thoughts there actually. I hope I can give more than one. Absolutely. Uh, one is network, network, network. Um, and this is one thing I've really, um, been impressed by you, Jake, I think you're, you're doing it wonderfully well. Um, the. The people you know, the people you can add to your virtual Rolodex, right? Or your LinkedIn network or, or whatever you have. And I'm not just talking superficial, you know, relationships, obviously we only have so much time in a day, but continue to meet people. Be interested. Have bigger ears than you have lips, right? Listen more than you talk. Um, ask them questions, ask. Probing questions, see how you can help them. Um, those are the relationships I've seen over the decades that have returned, um, you know, wonderfully well for me in, in a way that makes sense. Whether it's I was looking for an influencer and somebody had a relationship, or I needed to help somebody find a job and somebody was able to make a connection. Um, and it's just being good person. I think networking. I love people, so I think reaching out to people is natural. To me, but I would say network, network, network, number one. Number two is don't be afraid to get dirty. I know a lot of people, um, in my career, I've seen them, you know, creative director and above, or they were an executive director and they, they just didn't wanna. Uh, proverbial clean the toilets. I think there's value in everything and don't think anything's below you. Be willing to jump in, ask questions, learn new things. And again, another thing that I would say that ties to that is, Your, and when I, when I say this, I, I speak to you, but also to your audience that's probably younger than me. Your careers will change so many times over the course, you know, until now, until you're 65 or 67 or 70, or whenever you decide to retire. So don't be, don't be afraid to step outside your lane, be the best at what you are doing now, but also take on. Aspects of, of jobs that will help you learn and grow and become better because it will pivot. I guarantee you, especially the speed of occupations now in technology and the way things are changing, it's never gonna be the same. So always be willing to grow. Take those new things on and take them head on and, and you'll be better for it. Geez,
Jake Mix:great advice. Great advice. Um, well if people wanna learn more about you, John, where can. Yeah,
John Dye:so I'm on LinkedIn. Um, I'm, I'm trying to remember. I think it's djo, but if you just look under John Dye, there's not a lot of those in Utah, so, Okay. You can find me there. Um, Facebook, of course, I'm on Twitter. DJO is my handle on most platforms. Nice. Instagram, um, all that stuff, but just I, I love connecting to people, reaching out, sharing good stuff. And the last thing I'll say too is this, you know, there's so much pessimism in the world. Y lift people, right? Be, be a power to lift and, and uplift people. So, you know, regardless of what platform you're on, there's always bad things happening. Be, be a counter, um, a counter culture, a counter, um, agent to all of those things. Uh, because I, I think that's one thing I think social does for me. I really hate election years and I hate some of those things because you see a lot of, uh, other negative stuff. Yeah, social media can be good and I think sometimes it gets a bad rap because a lot of negative is there. Be the opposite. Be Love it. Yeah, love it. Well, I
Jake Mix:think that's great. That's great advice for not only our personal selves but our, for our brands. You know, putting out, putting out good things in the world. Yes, absolutely. Love it. And then what about, uh, the, the Radiant Foundation? Where, where can people go to learn more about that?
John Dye:Yeah, so, um, you can, you can, So Skylight is the app. That's probably one of the best places to look. But if you do a, a search under the app store for Skylight, Spiritual Wellness, Radiant Foundation, um, if you do a search for that on Google, you'll find that as well. So there's some great things happening again. Um, would welcome, would welcome. Check that out and, and, and take a look and reach out to me if you have any thoughts on, um, what you think we could do better that way too, cuz we really want to impact the youth of the world for good. Amazing.
Jake Mix:Well, John, thank you so much, uh, for my followers here. John has awesome LinkedIn content, love following him on LinkedIn. Um, but you can kind of follow him. Make sure you check out the Skylight app. I'll make sure to link it in the bio below. And John, just thank you for your time. We appreciate you, uh, you coming here. And talking to us for minutes.
John Dye:Jake, thanks so much. It's been.