Can Culture, Purpose, And AI Redefine Modern Marketing?

A fashion pitch in mall clothes. A Hotmail address that became a company name, Obviouslee. Salsa lessons to cover rent. That’s how Lee Deas' story begins, but the real ride is how she turned that grit into a values-led, 30-person B Corp agency that punches far above its weight.

We dig into what B Corp certification looks like beyond the badge—how standards drive client selection, environmental practice, DEI, and leadership accountability. Lee shares why she pursued two people-first mergers, starting with shared values and a test project before financials, and how blending cultures led to smarter operations across Charleston and Boulder. With a portfolio anchored in outdoor lifestyle, impact brands, tourism, and major tennis and golf events, the team narrows focus to deepen expertise and protect creative energy.

Then we get practical. Lee walks through building private large language models to securely store client knowledge, accelerate onboarding, and eliminate repetitive work. Weekly AI mastery challenges and a director of optimization keep innovation grounded and useful, while experiments like digital twins hint at the next wave of client service. We also talk retention, generational friction, and why flexibility plus purpose beats perks every time. Her favorite local campaign—an energetic, bilingual “get out the vote” effort during COVID—shows how thoughtful creative can measurably change civic engagement.

If you care about modern marketing that blends humanity, technology, and community, this conversation delivers frameworks you can use tomorrow—whether you’re a solo operator or leading a global team. Subscribe, share with a colleague who loves culture and ops, and leave a review with the one idea you’re going to test this week.

The East Cooper Student News team serves both Lucy Beckham High School and Wando High School communities. Your sponsorships will help our staff pay for field trips, competition fees, and equipment throughout the school year. Our staff publishes linear broadcast content in the form of our flagship newsmagazine East Cooper Student News, our sports talk show Rivalry Report, and announcement show Tribe Time, which serves Wando High School. 

Chapters

• 1:32 Welcome And Guest Intro
• 3:43 The Story Behind The Agency Name
• 7:11 B Corp 101 And Why It Matters
• 13:21 Charleston Roots And Accents
• 17:22 Early Hustle: Caboodles And Sales
• 21:14 From Salsa Teaching To First Client
• 25:05 How Marketing Work Has Changed With AI
• 32:40 AMA Spark Awards And Community
• 37:07 Building A Collaborative Creative Scene
• 43:16 Mergers Done Differently
• 49:57 Why Outdoor, Impact, And Sports
• 55:36 Favorite Local Campaign: Get Out The Vote
• 1:02:26 Generations, Retention, And Culture
• 1:09:56 What I’d Do Differently Today

Transcript

SPEAKER_02: 0:46

Welcome to the Charleston Marketing Podcast, brought to you by the Charleston AMA and broadcasting from our friends at Charleston Media Solutions Studios. Thanks to our awesome sponsors at CMS, we get to chat with the cool folks making waves in Charleston. From business and art to hospitality and tech. These movers and shakers choose to call the low country home. They live here, work here, and make a difference here. So what's their story? Let's find out together.

SPEAKER_03: 1:14

Hello. Welcome to the Charleston Marketing Podcast. This is Mike Compton, your current president of the American Marketing Association and president of Roombo Advertising. I'm here with our co-host, Rachel. Rachel, how do you say your last name?

SPEAKER_04: 1:29

Bacall.

SPEAKER_03: 1:30

Oh, wow. And I want to say Bacall.

SPEAKER_04: 1:34

That's what people in high school used to say.

SPEAKER_03: 1:35

Of course. I'm very, very mature. I am the most mature person I know. And it's Rachel's first time with us today. So welcome to the team. Thanks for doing this. Happy to be here. Yeah. And we have our guest today, Miss Leigh. Miss Lee Days. Why'd I say Lei? I put it together.

SPEAKER_00: 1:53

I just appreciate you know how to pronounce my last name because nobody does.

SPEAKER_03: 1:56

Well, I've been listening to some other podcasts, and so I cheated. Yeah. We've been doing our research. We totally did our research. And I almost screwed it up anyways. I called you Le's for some reason.

SPEAKER_00: 2:06

I get a lot of Leah too.

SPEAKER_03: 2:07

Miss Lee Days, because people put Lee Diaz together.

SPEAKER_00: 2:12

But I like it when they say like day S and like fancy versions. I would be here for that.

SPEAKER_03: 2:19

That's fancy. But you like your name so much. Do you put it in your business? I know.

SPEAKER_00: 2:23

It's obnoxious.

unknown: 2:24

Ah.

SPEAKER_03: 2:27

I think it's cute as F. Um, I love it. It's obviously the same.

SPEAKER_00: 2:31

I always say it's either like really um like fun and charming, or it's just like really annoying and obnoxious. It just depends on what lens you want to look at it through.

SPEAKER_03: 2:41

Well, and they they obviously the if it's the negative lens, they don't know you.

SPEAKER_00: 2:45

Oh, right, okay, great. Right?

SPEAKER_03: 2:46

Because once they get to know you, then they're like, oh, that's cool. Fantastic. What a neat name.

SPEAKER_04: 2:51

I'm curious, how did you come up with that name? Because it's the marketing is great.

SPEAKER_00: 2:57

It it is uh it it's a funny story, and that I was in my 20s and I was freelancing, and I had no idea I wanted to start a company, but I pitched to this company in New York, and it was all these fancy fashion execs from like Ralph Lauren and um all these big brands. They came together to start their own clothing brand. And I knew someone who knew someone who knew someone who got me an inn to take this meeting. So I'm in my mall clothes and I have no idea what I'm doing. And I have yeah, you know when you're like a tree, you go to like what is girls, you go to Express and Limited, and you get that whole outfit. So you're cute then. Yeah, well, like professional cheap clothing professional.

SPEAKER_03: 3:41

Yeah, I'll do more research on that. Professional on a budget.

SPEAKER_00: 3:45

And then I took this meeting, it was in this like fancy Soho, all glass and fancy flowers, and just you know, this big to-do. And when I was in the meeting at the end, I somehow convinced them that they should go with me. I had no idea what I was doing. I didn't know anything about marketing, I know anything about clothing at brands, I had knew nothing about fashion. But at the end, they were like, Well, where do we send an invoice? Which I never thought that through. What is your company name?

SPEAKER_01: 4:15

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_00: 4:16

And I forget what I had called it at the time. I think I had like made up some dumb uh little business cards. And they were like, We don't like it. That's not it. And my We didn't like your name.

SPEAKER_03: 4:26

They said no. You said your name.

SPEAKER_00: 4:27

You said who I think it I came up with some silly name like evolution marketing or something that it was really generic. And they were like, we don't like it. And so they saw my email, which was at the time, which dates it, obviously at Hotmail, and they're like, That's your company name now. And I was like, Well, they're really smart and brilliant, so that must be it. And they just named it, and I never knew it was gonna be a company. I just needed to send an invoice to these people. Oh my, and it's been that way ever since.

SPEAKER_03: 4:57

That's a fun story. So you had a client name your company for you, but you already had the name, obviously, right? So it's already was generated.

SPEAKER_04: 5:04

I had it for my email. I trademarked it.

SPEAKER_00: 5:06

It was in my email because a friend in college created my email and my voicemail was obviously I'm not home. And they thought it was really sarcastic and funny, so they made that my email address. So I really had nothing to do with any of it. It just is, you know, fumbling my way through life and letting people make decisions for me.

SPEAKER_03: 5:24

I'm sure, I'm sure. You're gonna know better than that, listeners, here after you hear her story. She's not fumbling through anything, I'm sure. Um, let's give your dot com real quick in your social handles so they can look you up and judge you while we're talking.

SPEAKER_00: 5:37

Perfect. I like that. It's my best day, it's just to have people randomly judge me. Um it is obviously, but it's spelled L-E-E instead of L-Y, obviously.com, and at obviously on Instagram, LinkedIn, wherever you want to find us. And you can search for me. I don't post a lot. Totally, yeah. At Lee Days in D-E-A-S, if you want to find me.

SPEAKER_03: 6:01

And and also a little shout out to Kate, because you're actually our first agency to do two episodes with Justice Marketing Podcast. We had Kate Schmieding on.

SPEAKER_00: 6:13

Um well done on her last name. Thank you. I was thinking the same thing, you're reading my mind.

SPEAKER_03: 6:18

Um, and and she's talked about the B Corps side of your business. Yes. Um let's get a quick update on that. What spots for the listeners? What is the B Corps? Why is it important to you? And from the time that Kate came, which was about a year ago, I think, Amanda, I can't remember, right around there. Um, how's it going?

SPEAKER_00: 6:37

Yeah, great. Are you happy with your decision? So happy. Yeah, I think it's such a fun topic and one that a lot of people don't know a lot about. So B Corp is this international organization, and it's uh created by this group B Labs. And you essentially, if you want to apply as a company and get the certification, you have to go through this very rigorous process, which I'm so grateful to Kate on our team is the one that championed that and took us through it. And they analyze kind of all aspects of your business. But the main thing is that they're trying to assess that you're putting purpose and people above profit. So you live in this in-between state. If you become a B Corp, you're kind of in between a for-profit and a nonprofit, and you're acting as a for-profit that has real nonprofit goals. So they analyze your culture and how you treat your people, the types of clients that you have. So, like, we will lose our B Corp status if we take on certain clients. They look at what we're doing for the environment and conservation. We had to like learn how to compost and weigh our compost and all these different things. And they look at our um diversity and inclusion program. Really, it just it's all these different parameters. And the real we've been wanting to do it for years. It just takes a lot to go and apply. And the real reason that we went through it is because we were doing all these things already, which you have to be to, you know, score in. But we wanted real accountability and metrics. So it just says that whoever is in leadership, obviously, and as we carry on, we will always be beholden to these metrics, which we, you know, love and like. And then you network with other B Corps. So you just know right away when you say I'm a B Corp that you're in a room with someone else who has the same value system and that you're starting from the same place, which is really nice.

SPEAKER_03: 8:39

Exactly. And a value kind of set type.

SPEAKER_00: 8:41

Yes, it's like an immediate I get you. You know, like if you like the same sports team or if you went to the same school or something, it's an immediate we have this common thing, like we're already, you know.

SPEAKER_03: 8:51

And that's brands, agencies, that's yeah, every spectrum of business, correct? Absolutely. What what B core? Am I saying that right? You are.

SPEAKER_00: 9:00

I was gonna say again, few people say that correctly.

SPEAKER_03: 9:07

Obviously. Um, I'm gonna just say that all the time.

SPEAKER_00: 9:10

Yeah, we should make that a game for this podcast. So whenever someone says that word.

SPEAKER_03: 9:16

Good point. When somebody make a comment if they count, um, you'll get a prize from obviously somehow. So Lee will make something up. Um, so Kate's still on the team and and that whole B core situation's thriving for you.

SPEAKER_00: 9:31

And yeah, it's amazing. We know that it's gonna get harder and harder. You have to reapply every three years, and so I love that. They take it very, very seriously. And it's rare that service-based companies are B core. It's really you see a lot of products. So probably now if you're like thinking about it and you go through your day, you might find the you see the little circle with the B in it on a lot of different products. And I know that that um draws me to products and like staying with certain brands or trying new brands too, because I instantly know when I, you know, go to buy certain things that they also have like a really strong value set as a company, and I feel good about supporting them. So that that's also really nice. But yeah, we didn't do it for business development or like a growth plan. It's it's just more for our own standards.

SPEAKER_03: 10:22

Correct, and love that absolutely, but it kind of turned into something, right? Like, can you do you know the percentage of clients you have now that are B Cor versus not?

SPEAKER_00: 10:31

Very few, actually, right now. I mean, we've talked about B Corp. No, very few are I actually I embarrassingly I have to think of all the people.

SPEAKER_03: 10:42

Don't even stress.

SPEAKER_00: 10:43

No, maybe one is a B Corp. Okay, and um, and we had another client before it was a B Corp, but it's not always uh like you're doing business together thing instantly, but we have a lot of other B Corps come in as speakers to our team meetings and we are you know exploring it's more like partners and stuff, I would say. But then it's interesting. I was talking to we have a lot of clients in Europe where we're doing their US marketing, and I was talking to one of our um partners recently, a Parisian agency, and they were saying that in Europe B Corp is kind of taking on a different brand right now because they feel like the parameters have been a little bit too loose. So the organization is now like really making it harder, and a lot of agencies and other companies have been in the marketing news because their B Corp status has been stripped. Oh because they may find that you know they're working with this automotive company that has a partnership with, you know, uh oil company that's doing something negative, or if you work with uh certain brands that you know are more on the vice side or just anything that they think is a threat to the environment.

SPEAKER_03: 11:55

So um right, yeah, it's uh that's so interesting. I almost gave you instead of a coffee cup, I almost gave you a styrofoam cup. And then I'm like, I'm like, I better not.

SPEAKER_00: 12:04

Oh, Kate would watch this video.

SPEAKER_03: 12:06

I know, and then you might get stripped of your beacon, you know. So do they have a styrofoam cup? Yes. Anyhow.

SPEAKER_00: 12:12

I mean, my embarrassing story is that I have definitely walked into meetings with an outdoor marriage one time with an outdoor brand that we represent, and I was traveling and I didn't have my um my water bottle with me. And so I quickly bought one and I took my plastic water bottle and I just poured my water into the thing because I was like, I cannot walk into this building with anything.

SPEAKER_03: 12:36

You have to walk the wall. Yeah, you gotta do about it.

SPEAKER_00: 12:39

Gotta do the thing.

SPEAKER_04: 12:39

So, do you guys like at the at your office? Do you guys have like, I guess, those water things where you would bring your water bottle and it counts how many water like bottles you filled?

SPEAKER_03: 12:48

Water fountain?

SPEAKER_00: 12:49

No, a little bit fancier than a water fountain. We don't have that fancy one that you were saying that counts it down, but yes, everyone definitely uh fills their bottles. And we represented a hydroflast for 10 years. There's tons of hydroflast everywhere, so like everyone has a plethora of water bottles. There's no reason not to. There's no reason not to, exactly.

SPEAKER_03: 13:07

Love that. Hey, Lee, where are you from?

SPEAKER_00: 13:09

I'm from Charleston. What has anyone on here said that yet? Because no one's from here.

SPEAKER_03: 13:13

A few. They have okay.

SPEAKER_00: 13:16

Eric Elliott. Yeah, who?

SPEAKER_03: 13:18

Eric Elliott. Oh, great. Yeah, VIP marketing. He's great. Um, we've had a few. Adrian Grimes. Uh isn't no Jamie's. Um, yeah, yeah. Look down on the list. We've we're three years into this thing.

SPEAKER_00: 13:34

Okay, well, I thought I was special, but that's okay. I just know. You are special. Thank you. Okay, thanks.

SPEAKER_04: 13:39

It's rare. It's rare. There's too many transplants. I am one, so I'm speaking about myself. But great. I love meeting someone from here. I'm like, tell me everything. What was it like? Yeah. Happy to where did you move from? South Jersey. Oh, where'd you say South Jersey? Um, which exit? I was from, I was outside of Philly, so I was like in the Cherry Hill area. Oh, nice. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 14:02

I went to high school in Morris Plains for a little while, but more uh like closer to the Manhattan side. Okay. Yeah. So when did you move, I guess, to it's very confusing. I was born here, I was raised here, I spent most of my life. Okay. My um mom worked for ATT, and so she moved to corporate headquarters in Jersey. And so my parents split when I was like one and a half, so I was constantly traveling and moving around with both of them, which now I look back on was really interesting. Um, but so I moved to Jersey for high school for a while when she was there, which was really fun. And then I came back with a very confusing accent because it was still I was it was much more southern probably than now, but I had a lot of Jersey words that I added in. So it was uh your accent is a bit different, yeah. Yeah, yeah. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_03: 14:50

Yeah, I mean it's cool, right? I mean, that's that's a cool thing to have, is you know the southern accent. I think Amanda has a bit of a southern draw. You've lost yours a little bit, but it's just it's cool though. I I love it.

SPEAKER_04: 15:01

Sounds like it's more not proper, but I feel like it's just more wholesome in a sense. I love the southern accent.

SPEAKER_03: 15:08

It's friendly, wonderful, right? Yeah, you're at home, yeah, you know, like you walked in the door and said, Hey y'all, blah blah blah. I forget what you were saying, and I'm like, oh, she does have a southern accent.

SPEAKER_00: 15:16

Yes. I remember growing up, my dad was really adamant. I had like a more of a country accent, whereas my family had a very gone with a wind sophisticated Charleston accent. Oh boy, okay. But my mom's side was more country, and my dad really worked in my family in Charleston to make sure that that wouldn't continue. And I think it's because they figure that people would kind of, you know, take me for granted or maybe not not assume that you're not quite as, you know, intelligent as everyone else in the room. So then I think what ended up happening is they just sort of flattened out my accent. Now there's just really nothing happening.

SPEAKER_03: 15:56

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_04: 15:57

But do you notice how like kids here they even say like they'll say like Miss Lee or Miss Rachel? Like, I don't I just think it's the cutest, sweetest thing. It's something that I've never heard until I moved down here. And I was like, that's they do that in the schools too.

SPEAKER_03: 16:10

They do that in the schools because my kids, I have two 10-year-olds, and they they do uh yes, ma'am, yes, you know, so it's really it's really cool. And they were born in Tampa. So funny. Yeah, and I'm from Detroit, so we're all all over the place.

SPEAKER_01: 16:22

I love it.

SPEAKER_03: 16:23

But um, you you bring up your mom and dad. Um shout out to the moms and dads, right? Shout out, shout out to uh you know, shout out to divorced kids too, like us. So that's fine. We're we're good. Um you you mentioned in a uh podcast um about your entreprene spirit. Uh you you it started in the very beginning stages, didn't it? Like it's kind of a fun story.

SPEAKER_00: 16:44

Yeah, I definitely always was just hustling from the time I was very young. I don't know where that really came from, but I got uh pulled. I had to tell my dad recently because I don't think he ever do, but like I was pulled into the principal's office when I was in third grade because I had back in the day, for all you like, you know, Gen Z and beyond, y'all may not know this, but there were caboodles and it was everything, and it was the caboodle is a box that like unfolds to different layers, and you would put all your makeup and things in it as a girl, and you lived for your caboodle, like what color it was, which size you wanted tons of them. So I would go to the playground with these and I would sell pens, and they like each layer was a different dollar amount. Then I got people in stickers, and I would do that, and I would take everyone's lunch money and sell them all my things. Like I was like one of the guys in Manhattan, like selling Rolexes out of my coat, you know. And so I definitely was always like then when I went to sell yourbook ads, I remember my dad was like, you were it like just insufferable. Like we had to get up early every morning, hit every single business, go to all them a million times. So nope. I just always loved business and sales and getting people excited about something, and really just I like the hustle, I guess, you know, from the beginning.

SPEAKER_03: 18:03

Right. And then you went to high school here and then college. You went you went to high school here a little bit, maybe?

SPEAKER_00: 18:08

I went to high school here for the most part, except for a little bit of time in Jersey, and then I took a gap year, and then I went to the University of South Carolina to international business, is what I thought I went to. Okay. I studied political science and East Asian philosophy. And I've never took a marketing class. Never once, eh? Never worked in marketing, never took a class, never worked in an agency before I started one.

SPEAKER_03: 18:36

Okay, so I'm trying to go through your journey a little bit here. So past third grade now, right? So now we're going into I heard something about salsa dancing.

SPEAKER_00: 18:45

Yeah, I think just going back to the hustle. Yeah, I had I had no money when I started, and I don't come from money, and there was, you know, no one in my world writing this, you know, check for a startup to get it going, nor did I know how to do that. Not back then.

SPEAKER_03: 19:01

No, we were unemployed. They weren't entrepreneurs. We were unemployed.

SPEAKER_00: 19:05

A hundred percent. That's the story I try to always get through people. I wasn't adventurous, I couldn't get a job, and so I and I couldn't get a job in agency. I decided I wanted to work in marketing and they all turned me down because I had no experience.

SPEAKER_03: 19:19

Yeah, you're yeah, exactly. They take one class. Why did you say you want to go into marketing all this?

SPEAKER_00: 19:24

It seemed uh to have this allure when I worked in a couple jobs and I would see the people on the marketing side. I was like, they've really figured it out, like they got a good thing. Like they're having fun over there.

SPEAKER_03: 19:35

People are actually smiling over their own.

SPEAKER_00: 19:37

Yeah, they're creative and they dress different, they're relaxed, and they just spoke Asian tea over there, or no Asian studies, like you didn't know how to connect with them. No one, yeah, yeah. They they were probably more open to talking to me about meditation than the people in the other departments. Um so I just thought it was really exciting, but I just had no job. So I um started freelancing and kind of trying to teach myself the the world. And while I was doing that, I was making zero dollars, and so I had always been really big into Latin dancing and salsa dancing. So I started teaching salsa to uh pay my rent, essentially. So I did that for a couple years how I was living at Folly Beach for years, maybe eight years, and I worked out of this little, you know, basement-y place and lived the best life on the beach and went swimming every day and took calls on the beach and told my clients that it was just you know, wind tunnels and stuff. I worked out of a coffee, the only coffee shop at time on Folly that had internet, and it was also an ice cream shop and a hot dog shop, and I would just set up by myself and the and create an office out of there.

SPEAKER_03: 21:00

Pray no kids come in at any moment for a hot dog.

SPEAKER_00: 21:03

Yes, that's exactly right. Love that it was some really humble beginnings.

SPEAKER_03: 21:07

That is that is a fun hustle though on the beach. It was a fun hustle, yeah. Creating a marketing company was a great time in life. Whatever.

SPEAKER_04: 21:14

You had it going before COVID because I feel like COVID, a lot of people started taking on that like after.

SPEAKER_03: 21:19

Explicitly, this is circle what? You're you're right, we're talking about this was exactly 20 years ago. Okay, not like way before.

SPEAKER_04: 21:27

Yeah, no, but like before COVID, I feel like it was like you have to be in the office, you have to do this, and she's made it her, you know, which is cool. Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_00: 21:36

I would have loved for someone to have hired me to be in an office, but no one was hiring me. Yep. So I had no choice but to work out of the hot dogs. Figure it out. Exactly.

SPEAKER_03: 21:46

To work out of the hot dogs, yeah. I love that. Um, and so so then you what was your first, and Rachel, please jump in at any point. What was your first, like you said you you pitched that one client and you became obviously what happens after that? Yeah, that really Were you still dancing?

SPEAKER_00: 22:04

Yeah, teaching and all that for years. I mean, I think for it. Are you still right now? Do you know? I mean, I love it all pop in from time to time, but I um I don't do it as much. But uh it's such a fun little culture and world. But I did that for years, but that first client really kicked everything into gear and it just really kept going from there, and they were so well connected and um just very established in New York, and it made me have to learn really quickly and level up because they had high expectations and I had no clue what was happening. So I had a few friends who worked at PR firms in Manhattan, and they would just send me their sample contracts, their press releases, and they really kind of hooked me up because it was before everything being available on the internet. You really had to find what you were doing. You had to create it. You had to create it. You didn't have friends, you had to create on your own, but you at least you had exactly like I checked out my book on entrepreneurship from the library, and I still remember it in the cover, and that was like my Bible. Yeah, exactly. So um, that was really what made it happen. And then just quickly after that, there were more clients, we had an office, we had an employee, and it just you know became a thing. But I did know I wanted to start a business. That was always more the intention. That's why I went to school originally for international business, and I didn't know what it was gonna be. And then I saw after marketing. Whereas I think most entrepreneurs they grow into where they are because if they do their skill, they get really great at their skill. It grows and it grows and it grows, and they find themselves running a business instead of doing their skill. I came from the opposite approach. I knew I wanted to start a business, I knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur, I didn't know what I wanted to do with that. I found my way into marketing. So I've always really liked the business and the entrepreneurship side more than not more than because I love marketing, but maybe like, you know, we'll put them at an equal standing.

SPEAKER_01: 24:04

Sure. Sure.

SPEAKER_04: 24:05

And like and sorry, I don't want to quick jump in, but I feel like marketing has changed, like evolved a lot, right? So, like, what would you say your typical marketing day looked like back then? Back then, what I guess versus what it would look like today.

SPEAKER_00: 24:19

Oh, that's a great question. Um, it's so different, especially today versus even like two years ago, because today we're working with so much AI and technology, and it's doing a lot of the busy work that we would have been doing before. So, you know, back then you're you know, so much time is going into writing a press release. So much time is going into manual press clippings, you know, printing things out and having them ready for physical events. Like it just was very cumbersome to get anything done. And now everything is completely different, where you can anything that you need technology to do for you, it can essentially do if you learn the tools and know how to ask it the right questions. So that has been by far the biggest shift.

SPEAKER_04: 25:07

For sure.

SPEAKER_00: 25:08

I feel like it makes your day easier.

SPEAKER_04: 25:09

You're not, or and you don't have to hire someone to do something, right? You're like, or you can outsource it. There's a company that does it nowadays rather than having to figure it out yourself. Exactly.

SPEAKER_00: 25:18

Yeah, you're in more control of just anything you want and need is available to you, which is really nice. And then things that might, you know, kind of waste your time. Every day you're like, oh, I wish I, you know, could get this done faster. It's so much easier to get through those things. And it lifts us up so that we're spending way more time in like creative thinking and critical thinking and problem solving, which is so fun. And I think that's like the core of why people get into marketing. So I find it to be fantastic. But I'll say almost all entrepreneurs just have one thing in common, which is that we love risk and change. And a lot of people that work for entrepreneurs do not love those things. So they would like more stability and more thought into change management and for those things to be slower. And unfortunately, we can't control that right now because it's moving so quickly. So we have to spend a lot of time too with our team to say we're about to go at the speed of light with change. Like, what can we do together to make this as smooth as possible and not too overwhelming because they're having to learn all these new tools and all this stuff on top of doing their job that they were doing before. So it is a it's a lot, you know.

SPEAKER_03: 26:27

So it's almost like a sweet spot for somebody with ADHD. You know what I mean? So we're thriving. Yeah, like what's new?

SPEAKER_00: 26:34

Squirrel! Exactly. What's new?

SPEAKER_03: 26:35

Oh, you know what I mean? And it's like you can stay on top of it all. So it's it's it's a hustle.

SPEAKER_00: 26:40

Yeah, I'm living my best life right now. But everyone else is very overwhelmed.

SPEAKER_03: 26:44

Everybody, yeah, exactly. I love that. Um, when I didn't know before this meeting, and we talked in the green room that you're past AMA president.

SPEAKER_01: 26:54

Yes.

SPEAKER_03: 26:54

Thank you. Thank you for starting the Spark Awards? Yeah, you said no way. That's awesome. That's really fun. But everybody hold their applause. Everybody hold their applause.

SPEAKER_00: 27:06

I've never been in a room, I don't think, where there was applause. That would be fun for me. Um I oh thanks, guys. I've heard people who set their alarm to be applause, and I thought that was a great idea. That's fun.

SPEAKER_01: 27:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 27:18

Uh well, thank you for continuing it and being present now, and it's so great to see what it's become. And um, I loved it. It was a huge start to my career, and I think that had it being AMA present, being involved, went hand in hand with starting the company. I don't think that either one of them would have been um as great as they were, as successful as they were if I didn't have the other one. And super fortunate that our COO, who I've worked with for 15 years, she was present right after me. We actually met um through being on the board of AMA. And I just thought she was outstanding and so much smarter than me. And she became our client. And then I was like, wow, she's so good at her job that I um recruited her over luckily 15 years ago. So we had this uh awesome gift that we got from the organization as well. And we sat in a room one day together with a couple others and created the awards just because people were doing such incredible things in the community, but there was no real way to recognize everyone. And then we wanted the award to not look like any other awards because it was marketing, and it ended up being out of it still as these little red eggs. So now I have like a million of these little red eggs in our office. So so you're the ones who started the little red eggs, yes, because we just wanted it to be strange and different.

SPEAKER_03: 28:38

Tell me the plan behind that. I think that's it.

SPEAKER_00: 28:41

Just we wanted it to be something that you got and you're like, this doesn't look like any other award. This is and not to have a shelf where you had all these, you know, these big towers and columns and awards and the glass, you know, prisms. And uh be fun you could put the little eggs all over your desk, maybe.

SPEAKER_03: 29:00

I don't so the first thing I did was get rid of those.

SPEAKER_00: 29:03

Oh, I think it's great. It needed to change, it needed to change. I'm so glad to hear it. I'm so glad to get it.

SPEAKER_03: 29:13

Some of the red. Maybe bring some red into it. I I don't mind that idea, Amanda.

SPEAKER_00: 29:17

Um it didn't have a lot of thought into it, so I'm glad that you put new thought into it.

SPEAKER_03: 29:21

It was so loved by the board. Like I said, I started in 2019. You were way gone by then, already successful, way beyond successful. And and we still need to come back every now and again, though. I'm here. Um, and and and the whole board was like, no, we have to keep these, we have to keep these, we have to keep these. Well, a lot of that board is kind of like fizzled out. Yeah, and it was time I'm like, and I come, my business partner and I, George. What's up, George? He uh is president, was past president of the American Advertising Federation in Tampa, and I was president after him.

SPEAKER_00: 29:53

Oh, nice, right?

SPEAKER_03: 29:54

And then we became very similar stories. Very similar story. And he's way smarter than I am alive, super weirdly super weird. So, anyways, you know the Addy awards are the taller ones. You probably have a bookshelf full of them, and and I kind of emulated those with ours. So we got a new vendor and um shout out to uh private eye printing. Shout out to Josh at Private Eye Printing for that. He's he's helped us sponsor last year's and last year was the first year we got the new awards.

SPEAKER_00: 30:23

I think it's great. Uh life needs change.

SPEAKER_03: 30:25

I'm glad you're happy about that. I'm glad you're not upset about that, Lee.

SPEAKER_00: 30:28

No, we don't need consistency and you know, not everything needs to be consistent all the time. We need to shake things up. Right, so we're shaking things up. We're shaking things up.

SPEAKER_04: 30:36

The whole idea of the Spark Award still remains from what you guys created, which is the most important thing, I think, is the value behind or not value, the meaning behind it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 30:46

And Rachel's just now drinking the Kool-Aid. Her first year on the board. Her first year being a part of AMA.

SPEAKER_00: 30:52

That's great. Yeah. I love it. We need all the young people to be involved in all the things.

SPEAKER_04: 30:57

Honestly, which is funny because I feel like coming from Jersey, like living in Philly, there there's so many organizations and associations. But I really I was talking to some of my friends in marketing that work there, and I feel like there's not that many that they're aware of. So when I told them about this, they're like trying to look into finding to see if there's like an organization. I'm sure there's a Philly organization there or a chapter or something. But they're like, that's so cool. That's so cool. Why don't we have something like that? So I love the story behind it and I just love being involved in it.

SPEAKER_00: 31:28

That's wonderful. Yeah, I think it's it's because of people like you guys that build up the chapters and make them something in each market. And if you don't have that, then they kind of fizzle out. So that's it's so great.

SPEAKER_03: 31:41

And so you mentioned it earlier, and then this is another part of the AMA side is the mentorship part where we're really um we're we're deep into the college of Charleston. Uh they have an AMA chapter. I don't know if you're aware of that, and it's it's doing well, and we're collaborating on a lot of events. They're coming to our events, we're going to their classes and speaking, so it's a lot of fun. We'd love to have you on that circuit as well. Um but you were mentioning how back in the day here in Charleston things were a little harder to start conversations to collaborate, and and you you've actually probably one of the OGs to kind of change that over the years. Can you talk to that a little bit? Like how you've seen the change and how we're more of a friendly collaborative community than kind of a hold your vest community.

SPEAKER_00: 32:28

Yeah, I think when I um started out, the three main firms were all guys in their 60s, maybe, that wore business suits and a lot of them bow ties, and it was a completely different world. And I was, you know, a girl in my 20s in my mall clothes. And so I know what mall clothes are now. So it was a completely, you know, I was living in a completely different uh reality. And but I was a couple of them were really friendly and really amazing and spent a lot of time with me and helped me kind of build in my career, which I really appreciate. And a few of them were very really just like maybe one agency was very standoffish. And I, as president at the time at AMA, was trying to get them to speak. And a lot of them just didn't want to get back involved. Like they felt like they had become, you know, too big and too important, and that they didn't need to really um come back into their community. And I remember thinking at that time, if I am lucky enough to still be in business, you know, in a few years and ask to come back and be a part of anything, I will always say yes because it, you know, it's important that people who have been able to do certain things that you integrate with other people who are trying the same things in the same way that I have tons of mentors and lots of people who've done way bigger things than me and that I really, really emulate and I'm so grateful for their time and support. Now, luckily, what happened after that is a lot of people left those agencies and they created their own. And it happened to be that we all sprouted up at about the same time and we were all really friendly, like everyone's so supportive of each other, and there used to be a lot more community events and things where we were all together, and it just was more of a you felt the cohesion of a creative class in Charleston. So we felt more kind of we're all one bigger entity. And we were very lucky. I saw you had Jamie on from the Development Alliance, and we're really lucky that we had a group like Development Alliance and this other group, New Carolina, and they helped us form um this creative class, and we did these events for for a parliament called Pecha Cucha and other things, and it just really brought us all together, and we would often pitch together. Sometimes you pitch against someone on a Monday, you'd have a beer with them on a Tuesday. So it was a really different environment. But it's funny, I would have employees come in from Atlanta and New York and other markets, and they're like, Why are we talking to those people? Like, why are we having lunch with them? Like it's you know, it was really unheard of that you would be friendly with your competitors. And I always thought that was really special about Charleston. I think that that has continued on. I mean, post-COVID, it's a little bit harder to create more um connection, you know, in person. And a lot of the agencies have sold to other groups over the last couple of years, but I I hope that that continues.

SPEAKER_03: 35:27

Yeah, yeah, we're we're that's exactly our mission is to develop that collaborative community. Um kind of Rach, you have anything to add to that?

SPEAKER_04: 35:35

No, I mean I was just gonna I I completely agree. Like I've been in other uh states, other cities, and I've always I don't know, I can't speak to before COVID and how that was like, but at least since being here, I feel like people want to support you. Like it doesn't really matter if you're marketing or if you're a hospital or if you own a boutique. I just feel like everyone wants to support each other and help tell their story. And to me, that is like that's brand new. I was not used to that, but it's a breath of fresh air, is how I can describe that. So hearing that, you know, you experience that too, that these people are coming from Atlanta or other states and they're like, what's going on? He's a competitor. I really think that it speaks to what our city of Charleston does, like you know, keeping us all so close, knit, and wanting to support one another. It's really unique.

SPEAKER_03: 36:25

When did you move down here, Rachel?

SPEAKER_04: 36:27

Um 2020, like right during COVID, so 2020. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 36:32

That's awesome. That's an interesting, fun time to move into a city. That must have been so hard.

SPEAKER_04: 36:37

Yeah, it was it was. I my parents lived down here, so it they made that transition a lot easier. But I gotta say, Charleston was so much more fun than New Jersey. People were wearing masks on the beach, like it was just people were way more scared and fearful and didn't want to socialize. And kind of in Charleston, South Carolina, it just kind of felt like COVID was happening, but not really happening.

SPEAKER_00: 37:02

You kind of like nor did it as a city. And there that could be a whole podcast.

SPEAKER_03: 37:06

Yeah, exactly. Called COVID light. Yeah, right. Um I wanted to switch gears because you've been so successful, you know, as a startup, one, two, three-person shop. Now you're up to a about thirty. But you you talked about mergers. Did you go through and you're going you went through one merger already, and now you're going through an another?

SPEAKER_00: 37:30

We just completed a second, um, which has been wonderful. And I really think that mergers and acquisitions can be done in such a different way than people think about. So we did have a business broker out of New York that we worked with for a while, and so we interviewed a lot of companies across the US um a couple years ago, and it was a really good process, but it just didn't feel quite as organic as we were hoping for. So these two experiences have been that I got to know the founders of each of these companies, and we just spent time first figuring out if we were aligned just on our views and philosophies of the world, and really talked more about the people in our organization and our clients and our value set. And then we got into more of the the financials and the what would be the benefits of these organizations, you know, coming together. And uh with both, we did a project together first just to make sure our teams you know really connected well. So the first uh group was called Groundswell PR, and the founders are just wonderful and universally loved. And um, shout out to Dax and Caroline, and they built up this really wonderful company. Um, and they had 10 employees, I believe, at the time, and almost all those team members are still in our organization five years later, and they all grew a lot in their positions, like they're all, you know, directors and leaders. And then this and they were a Charleston-based company, primarily doing outdoor lifestyle brands nationally. I don't think they had any Charleston clients. And then this last one, it's with a Boulder agency. So now we have a Boulder office with a team out there, and say they are representing more of our West Coast brands and then a lot of our European clients that have a US presence. And the founder is very integrated to our company. He is now our director of outdoor and adventure brands, and he is just he was a former professional skier who then went into representing a lot of these like snow and mountain brands. So it's been really great. I admire these individuals so much, and it was such a wonderful partnership just because there was a lot of trust and and we had spent a lot of time together just to know that you know that it would be really comfortable. Um, and you want to make it a great process and you want to come up with a really good deal for these individuals because they're then integrating into your organization, and you know, there's such horror stories about you know how people felt later that they got ripped off, or then they end up in this really corporate world that they don't enjoy. And so it meant all people change too, right?

SPEAKER_03: 40:13

People change after a couple years, even you know, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00: 40:17

So we uh we have, I think, one thing we do really well is that we've sort of mastered this uh really thoughtful onboarding program so that when these uh team members come into our organization, they don't feel like they're, you know, the um the like this additive that's coming into a pre-existing world. We try to really integrate parts of their culture, their traditions. Like our boulder agency, they come in late on Friday mornings because they uh go mountain biking or they go skiing and they're doing their adventure sports. So we added that. We we do early Fridays because we're going to the beaches. You want to go home, or you know, so we were trying to figure out you know how to bring those two things in. And we're across so many time zones from LA to Madrid. So, you know, we're trying to figure out how we were all gonna work together with that. So you have some things to kind of sort out together, but we do it as a unit instead of saying, like, well, these are our policies and y'all all need to jump in, which is really nice. Yeah, super refreshing. Yeah, and we just gain so much every time we do this. We we're usually doing because we're trying to grow in an industry.

SPEAKER_03: 41:25

I was gonna ask you why. What was the why behind the second merger? I want to know the why behind the first merger.

SPEAKER_00: 41:31

Absolutely. The first one was exactly four years ago, July one, the last one was this July. And the first one I would say is more that they were such superstars and PR and experiential, and we needed to grow in that category. And we wanted to get out of the southeastern market, and they had such a national brand and presence. And second one, really similar, and we needed a West Coast presence, and we needed we wanted to grow more in um the more the snow and ski sports as well as uh all the other areas that we were in. And they have such solid footing in Boulder, and they're really, really integrated with all those brands and the media. We just wanted to keep growing in that field. So that's really the why. Well, every organization who folds into our organization auto-becomes a B Corp because we are one. We um we're all fully integrated as one company. It is an interesting question. Uh, reason I held off on doing B Corp for a while is that I questioned if we ever got investors or if we ever did an acquisition, like how challenging that would be. But it actually was really easy. Because they both those organizations were doing so much in sustainability and had such a great culture that they went right, they already were basically meeting the B Corp requirements, which is something we look at.

SPEAKER_03: 42:51

Yeah, yeah. So so you you you had this idea, you're like, okay, this is where we need to grow. Let's find a broker.

SPEAKER_00: 42:58

No, I just called the founders and was like, You're just like, I like this agency. Yes.

SPEAKER_03: 43:03

And you were just like, holla, yeah, holla at me, let's talk. It's a little virtual thing, and maybe some salsa dancing.

SPEAKER_00: 43:09

Yeah, close to close to all that. The first one came out of um COVID. I sat down with as many Charleston agencies as I could just to say, how are y'all doing? What are you doing? How are you getting through this? I mean, we were all trying to survive together. And when after meeting them and having lunch with them, I just felt like there is such a connection with them, and I really, really admire them specifically. And I'd known them since they started 10 years ago, and I'd always been kind of watching them. And I just said to them at the lunch, you know, if y'all ever debate selling, like I would love to merge in with your organization in any way. And they were like, no, we're not ready. And then then six months later, they were ready to kind of transition um in their spots and their careers. And so that's how it began. And then the second one was uh one of our team members was at an event in California, and he called me and was like, you know, I've heard you mention you would be interested in doing it again. I have he used to be the gear editor of Outside magazine, and he went back to that position. But he was like, I only have one company that working with all the marketing companies over all the years outside that I would recommend, and it's this one in Colorado. And he met up with him and he basically, you know, put us together on like a virtual speed date, and we just instantly like fell in love. I was like, I love you, I get you, we should be together, let's figure this out. Uh, so it just was it's more of a I think a connection that you know we have, and then you just go from there. It's relationships.

SPEAKER_03: 44:42

You 100% got them from relationships. First it was yours, and then it was one of your your trusted relationships.

SPEAKER_04: 44:47

On the flip side though, has there any has there been a time where someone's offered you like wanted to merge or an acquisition where you're like our values really don't align, and like you kind of had to turn away from that? Or yes, it's a good question.

SPEAKER_00: 45:01

There is a great group that I adore and admire them, but they wanted to acquire us and for us to run um another agency or too. And they are so wonderful, and I love them as people so much, but I just knew that the organizations that they were in that um culturally we just were very different. And then also our client set was so different, and we're really particular about staying in our fields and and staying in our world that we live in, and it just it didn't make sense from that standpoint, even though I like them so much, like these two worlds were not meant to come together.

SPEAKER_03: 45:37

So Lee, what is that world that you live in? What is that? What is it?

SPEAKER_00: 45:41

It's a lot of uh, as I mentioned, outdoor and adventure um and sports brands, and then uh impact brands. So think in terms of B Corp, but also anything around conservation, sustainability, it just that category is very wide. Any group or organization that's making major social impact. And then the third one is large sporting events. So we do a lot for big tennis tournaments and big golf tournaments. I like them both. You got me okay. Where do I where do I go? And PGA Championship, uh, Credit One Charles on Open, DC Open, ATX in Austin, all these great events. Um, and then we do a lot in uh more tourism, think a lot in times of you know, ecotourism or tourism around sports or adventure primarily, an experiential um world. So those are our primary fields that we love working in. And we monitor uh how much of our work is outside of those fields and really try to mitigate that because before we were more serving all sorts of different industries, and it was really hard on our team because you have to learn everything that's changing in marketing and then everything it's changing in each of those industries. So we try to really narrow our focus, and then think about your employees too, right?

SPEAKER_03: 46:58

And how much they have to figure out and learn that industry, and then add another industry to that, they have to learn that, and then another industry they have to learn that. And then you know, we had a great conversation with Q of Legacy Digital, and she I don't think that's out yet. Well, it'll be out by the time this one launches, but she talks about that and how she's really hyper intentional about the focusing on the client side, but then making sure the employees aren't overworked, exactly. Yeah, but they have a cap of I think she said like six clients per right, and that's not a lot, is it? For you, Rachel's like, shoot, yeah, you know, 12, 20 clients. 50 clients right now.

SPEAKER_04: 47:32

I'm very overwhelmed, right? It is overwhelmed.

SPEAKER_01: 47:36

So it's great that you go ahead, Rachel.

SPEAKER_04: 47:37

No, I was just gonna say because I do think it's important to if you become like an expert, subject a subject matter expert in whatever industry that is, I feel like you become more valuable to that client too, because you're learning with them. And um, yeah, having a bunch of different industries. I mean, you can learn a lot, but it's har it's hard to hone in and really specialize and feel like a subject matter expert.

SPEAKER_00: 48:00

Yes. And we like to focus on things that are fun, yeah. That we enjoy. Like a lot of our work is, you know, team members that are going on ski trips or surfing trips or fishing expeditions, like with the meteor, with our clients. And I constantly look at all of our different uh everyone who's traveling and their different experiences, I'm like, this is all just so fun. It's like I don't really want to work personally, no knock on it, but I don't want to work for like an automotive company or things that don't inspire me. Sure. And there was a time in my career where I did all the things to you know make ends meet, but it's just not our focus. Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 48:38

All the banks and credit unions you don't want. They're wonderful. There are other firms that will serve them very well.

SPEAKER_04: 48:43

Mike, I think a good question that Amanda was asking, because talking about like your you know type of clients, what would you say locally is your favorite client and then nationally, what would it what would be your favorite client?

SPEAKER_00: 48:55

Okay. Not to put you on the spot. Yeah, no, that's good. I won't I won't say favorite client locally because you all know I love you all. And I've been with a lot of our local clients since I started. So a lot of our relationships are over 15 years old, which is really wonderful. So they're all really special and wonderful. I love them as people, but I would say my favorite local campaign, if that's okay, I'll kind of edit it, is that personally, uh, we got to work with the election commission on doing a campaign about getting out the vote, and it was during COVID. So we they had gotten a grant, we had funding, and it was excellent because we were able, they let us have a lot of freedom. And we asked if we could do everything in Spanish and then the Latin markets, and then also um just do more grassroots and neighborhoods and really focus on getting them out of just the large print ads and pose and courier and assuming that that was getting to everyone. And we did a lot more in digital, but we also so we did everything that was like really fun. We wanted to engage younger audiences instead of like the the red and the blue and the series on political, we had this like you know, fun like pops of colors and created the step and repeats for voting booths. And when you came out and you voted instead of just the sticker, like people were taking their pictures with like the big signs in the background. It was a and we just got so many comments about how fun it was. But that year, uh the people who registered to vote and the people who actually voted, it went through the roof. It was like a extremely successful campaign in a very challenging time because it was in the middle of COVID where people were very scared to go outside still. Everyone was wearing a mask, and there were so many questions. And our team was so passionate that we would work around the clock to answer all the questions on social media, like we were a customer service. That was just a campaign where I felt extreme impact and about a topic that I'm personally very uh passionate about, and uh that will probably forever be one of my favorite things. I love that. That's a great one.

SPEAKER_03: 51:04

So you're you're political motivated, like you're passionate about the vote, like very passionate. Oh, okay, very cool. Yes, okay.

SPEAKER_00: 51:10

We don't talk about politics, but it's good to know that you have that passion for I mean, something that is bipartisan. I am most passionate about getting people registered to vote and getting people actually to the polls, whatever their view is and however they want to vote when they get in. And Charleston actually has a very high percentage of people who are registered and vote. Like we uh do a lot in this community, which is great. But in a lot of communities, people register very high, but people who actually go and participate, especially in local elections, is very low. And I'm very big on getting people motivated and excited about voting in local elections. I always give this story where there was a someone running on James Island that I thought that had views that really aligned with, you know, like environment conservation and things we believed in. And um, I said to our team, you know, this is a candidate we should support. Well, she won by five votes, and we had five team members that went in that day to vote. And it's just such a fun story to say, like, you can make such a difference by getting involved on that local level. Anyway, that's another podcast. But if you ever want to come back and just talk about that, I'm yeah, no kidding.

SPEAKER_03: 52:19

It's super interesting, right? Another layer of lee I didn't know about, like an onion lee.

SPEAKER_04: 52:23

It's all because everyone's like, oh, my vote doesn't count. I can't make a change. And it's like you can make a change, and here's an example right there. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 52:30

Absolutely. I think it gets really overwhelming when people think about it on a presidential level, maybe even on a statewide, like a governor level. But when you start to get down into the other positions, it makes a tremendous difference, and just a few people can really change an election.

SPEAKER_03: 52:48

Okay. I know who to hire when I'm ready. When I'm ready. Happy to support 10-year plan. Um speaking of 10-year plans, right? Like we're we we talked about this in the green room, kind of wrapping up. We still have uh about 10 minutes to go. Um how we're gonna be working forever. And then we're talking about the generation gaps, right? That's always a fun conversation here on the podcast. Gen X, I'm Gen X, 78. Rach is a little bit younger, I'm sure. Well, you don't know your generation.

SPEAKER_04: 53:17

You're Gen Z. I'm Gen Z Gen Z. Yes. Yeah. I don't really I think these labels are funny. Oh, I they are funny. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 53:27

And you said you were Gen X. Well, you and I are the same.

SPEAKER_00: 53:30

So most people say Gen X, but some people say millennial because it's right on the cusp.

SPEAKER_03: 53:35

Then they created this thing called Zillenials, which is like between 78 and 82 or something like that, which is really weird. And and but I lean toward the Gen X side of things, and you said you were leaning toward the I lean towards Gen X because I just think of it in terms of what music did you grow up with.

SPEAKER_00: 53:50

And when they play Gen X music, I was like, that's me. Yeah, rock now? No, it's more like the um like hip hop and RB of certain period 90s have then I'm like, is that Gen X? Then that's me. That's what I want to label myself, yes.

SPEAKER_03: 54:05

But we're gonna be in that in that line of always working until we there's no retirement plan, right?

SPEAKER_00: 54:12

Is this is this what's happening to me? I had no idea. Isn't it though?

SPEAKER_03: 54:16

I mean, we were talking about earlier, and you're kind of relating on and then and then Rachel. I mean, like the social security is going away, like all these things. Like, we're just gonna be working. It is and so it's so important to do what you love.

SPEAKER_00: 54:28

Yes, yeah. I love working. I mean, if I had a major exit tomorrow, which is certainly not on the horizon right now, I would just love it. I would still want to be involved. Like I find that it just I my job is my hobby. I enjoy every aspect of it. And even when things are hard, there's never been a day in 20 years where I thought, I wish I wasn't doing this. So I really love what I do. The people that I work with, they every one of the 30 team members, I mean, I would vacation with them, hang out with them, have Thanksgiving and Christmas with them. They're all just so uh amazing and same with our clients, we're really particular not to hire assholes or difficult people and to hire people that we enjoy working with. So I'm thrilled about that. I am, I think as we were talking about, I think that Gen Um Z is coming up at a very unfair time. Um, it's just a really different world for them. And I really empathize with that. And I think a lot about our Gen Z employees and what we can do to better their experience. And millennials. I mean, it's just a we had it so much easier in many ways that you know things were a little felt more achievable. You know, you get your job, you buy your house, you have your retirement plan, like it all just folds in in that way, and that's not what's happening right now. And so I think it's something we all had to think about in the workplace. And because there's a lot of friction in some companies, I think, between generations and feeling like maybe, you know, there's this um unfair, I think, uh, concern that Gen Z is not as motivated or is not as loyal to companies. And from my perspective, I'm just like, well, why would you be? You know, the companies aren't giving them anything in return that meets their needs. The companies are trying to give what they had before and that they like, and it's it's not fitting. So I think we just all gotta adapt. Everyone's gotta chill out and adapt.

SPEAKER_04: 56:29

And what you're doing is working because we were talking about earlier, and you've had employees that have been there 10, 15 years, which to me is like unheard of, but I would love I would love to find a place, right, where you love it so much, you love the values, you love who you work with, you're excited to go there that you want to grow with them, right? And they find a way to give you back something or give you a reason to want to stay. Because that is so rare. Um, I know people do have A to D and they're like, I want to do this, I want to do that, I want to do that. But there are still people who like really do that's the type of environment they thrive in.

SPEAKER_00: 57:03

Yes, yeah. And I think a lot of young people want that, and that's what everyone's missing. They assume that they don't, but they're not providing environments where they can grow because maybe they're forcing people to go back to an office, or they're forcing people into these kind of corporate standards that just you know don't fit with the today. And yeah, we're super fortunate just to have that continuation of team members, and um, I think that's the thing I'm most proud of over everything and and most grateful for is to have that. And it takes just a lot of constant, we constantly survey our team, and then we get deep into the survey results and had a meeting on it this morning, and you break it all down on just where our team wants us to grow and change, and then that becomes the goal and the work for the next quarter to get it there.

SPEAKER_03: 57:49

I love that we need to do more surveys for AMA for our members. Yeah. Uh sorry, thanks for the idea.

SPEAKER_00: 57:55

Great. No, let's have an AMA meeting right now on the meeting and session.

SPEAKER_03: 58:01

If you were it if you were to reinvent, obviously, from fresh with today's knowledge, what would you do differently or lean into more early on?

SPEAKER_00: 58:10

It's a good question. I think uh the I'll answer it two ways. If I were to do it based on where the world was then, I would learn finance and the basics of finance faster, and I would um not be so scared of it. I was just really intimidated by all of that. And I had a another person in my company for the first few years who handled all that. And then when he left, I felt scared to get into it. And then once I started getting into QuickBooks and learning it and doing everything, I felt so much more confident. So I think learning how to read a PL and a balance sheet and having your basic foundation of finance is really important, honestly, just for everyone. And we are very open finance with our team, and we want everyone to understand those terms and where we are, and I think that's very important. If I were to do it off of what's happening today, I would have so much fun, it'd be so different. People could go so much farther and faster than I ever did, and a lot of people did, because you know, you're gonna have like billionaires that are gonna be created just from using AI tools and never having an employee. Like it's such a different world. So in the now, I would learn, I would do all your AI master mastery courses. I mean, I'm very nerdy. I just did a bunch of them like this weekend on my free time. I will take all the classes, learn all the things. I created all my custom GPTs for my personal life. Like I just love that stuff. Oh, I think people say more.

SPEAKER_03: 59:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 59:36

I'm happy to I think people would really just take off if they spent more time on that now.

SPEAKER_03: 59:42

No, no, no, go back to the GPT, GPT personal thing.

SPEAKER_00: 59:45

Like what what we are in our company nearly. I like it. I like it. Okay, in our company, we created uh custom LLMs, so essentially like our own proprietary chat GPT, so that all of our uh confidential information about ourselves and our clients is housed in our own world so that doesn't feed into the overall chat results when people do queries. Because technically you could do a query right now and say, ask a question about one of our clients and their budgets. And if I put it into the global system, you would have access to it. So we created our proprietary one that we can work in that houses that information. And then we're then we're creating all these different custom LMs under that one for each client so that all their information, like their uh brand over brand X and their creative campaign and creative brief, and all the information on them, their website, ads that we done, everything is housed in there so that our team can. working or new team members, anything, you can ask it a question and it'll just like feed you the results. It'll interview certain team members to get information out of their brain and into the system. We interview clients and then we feed it in. So we use those and they're super duper helpful. It just cuts out tons of time and it creates more efficiencies and less mistakes. On my personal life I do a lot of that too like I created a custom L LMs weekend for or project within it for my travel. So it has every place I've been to every place my son has been to all of our frequent flyer information and global entry and all that and that has all my frequent flyer status across airlines so that then I can query it and say I want to take my son to a new country you've never been to using my frequent flyer miles at this date like bring me back a flight and a travel plan. Yeah. So I'll do nerdy things like that. I that's awesome. I taught it what all my family member what all the uh things that they don't like to eat that they're allergic to all things so I host like big dinners all the time so then I can say these people are coming over feed me some recipes um and how hard these LLMs yourself so it's it's really once you just learn um chat GPT and the basics and then may go just one more level it's very easy. Okay. It's one of those things that seems intimidating until you do it and you're like this is exactly very easy. Okay. And it's so important so important because this is like Donna internet and social media where people are you know not not everyone is paying a ton of attention to it but this will be the way that we work moving forward and if anyone wants to have an upper hand I think that that's where to start. Our whole world is AI. Everything in our world's connected and we have zaps and we have someone on our team that all she does is handle our company's transition into the AI space and how to ask if you have somebody dedicated to the AI other than yourself.

SPEAKER_03: 1:02:44

Yeah but somebody else that's uploading all the stuff definitely updating the LLMs.

SPEAKER_00: 1:02:50

We all have to do it like we all have to feed in and we actually just took our whole company through an AI mastery course over the summer. So every Friday we have a challenge and then you have a partner that you can work through with it and then they complete those challenges and we track it and we give out prizes for who does the most and then we have an innovation team and they help create all those challenges and they're talking every day about this new update came out check out the software we need to solve for this thing and they solve for that as a team then we have a director of optimization and she then figures out the long game of like how we're integrating all these things and who is going to be working on which projects and how they're going to be creative.

SPEAKER_03: 1:03:31

Director of optimization that is so cool.

SPEAKER_04: 1:03:35

Some people don't think past like just you know open AI right like chat GPT just asking it your whole life story but having somebody doing these like prompts and then having it's like your own CRM system in a sense because you're going in there you're like what did this client do or you're able to bring in a new hire right and instead of going through like let's say a hub spot and just reading all of these notes and you can ask summarize it for me.

SPEAKER_00: 1:04:00

A hundred percent you can ask it anything you can interview it and my next thing I want to do this is my last nerd I know we're close on time is to create a digital twin for all of us so that essentially when you're interacting with it it would be me talking to you and then I'll have one each team member will have one. So if you want to talk to the creative director and they're not available right then you can just have a meeting with their virtual twin in the interim and all right so that's my next thing.

SPEAKER_03: 1:04:27

Well I can help you with that unless you already know it's levelup.org. Oh my god Matt Grayson does the cloning oh fine I have a clone I call it Kamakompton yeah and you're gonna see it out more often you know perfect um so yeah like in it and it looks and talks like me it's got a little bit of I you know it looks really good though but you know it's really cool Matt Grayson does a great job that's awesome um and then just kind of wrapping that up you kind of did a really good job because Martech is our theme this year. I don't know if you're aware of that. Excellent thank you where we're taking um a different uh local startup and we're promoting them and there's a lot of cool startups around here Lee uh you know at the harbor at code and trust at digital corridor like all these uh Chucktown startups all these guys are they're they're building these organizations around different startups and they're really doing a great job that's the SCRA you know SC competes like Jamie Adrian Grimes those guys they're they're really like promoting the tech scene around here is a lot of good stuff so top line is September Pollen Social is October so you'll see some information on Pollen Social which is a fantastic social media platform that Rachel works for. Okay driven uh one click type of thing maybe something you look into pollensocial.com yeah absolutely and then there's um workforce wave there's level up so each month we're gonna give our members access to these AI platforms at a discount nice because they're members so smart and the tech needs the users for their data so it's a and they also need marketing help too by the way Lee um so so we're here we're it's like a symbiotic relationship that we're putting together here.

SPEAKER_00: 1:06:11

It's really smart.

SPEAKER_03: 1:06:11

Yeah looking forward to it's a way to connect everyone also we gotta talk about Spark real quick because we're not having a Spark awards this year.

SPEAKER_00: 1:06:20

What how does that make you feel I think it's great to take time off from things and let them breathe and then come back stronger. You're just very agreeable Lee but but I do believe that you do believe that a lot of um the our big trade shows that we go to have started to do the same thing. Okay. They're taking a year off to let things you know just breathe and come back stronger and I think it's great.

SPEAKER_03: 1:06:42

That's exactly right get this we're we're talking with Jenna Shellnut of um Rao Murdy Buffalo Group. Ral Murray now's Buffalo Group she's their credit director she's like chief of staff she's amazing she's now the president of AAF they hold the Addy awards we're gonna share a gala next spring.

SPEAKER_00: 1:06:58

That's brilliant.

SPEAKER_03: 1:06:59

Yeah thank you that's a great idea you can you can apply for an Addi's separately you can apply for a Spark separately but we're gonna all win at the same party I love hopefully next spring.

SPEAKER_00: 1:07:08

Yeah so that's why we're kind of waiting a great way to get everyone connected again and networking and so smart.

SPEAKER_03: 1:07:13

Well done thank you well it's the team gold stars gold stars well there we go well and this is important from you like you're the founding president we're gonna you know of AMA here so I don't know if you're the founding button no but I love we'll just add to my please do that's great anything we can help for surely um that's great okay now I feel good about that decision there Amanda um any other therapy things we should talk about I think we've just come up with another podcast right there so that's our third podcast all the ideas yes oh big on affirmations for sure um Rachel do you have anything you want to ask Ali before we wrap up are you hiring I thought you were gonna ask her if she's high are you high no you just I can answer both questions I love everything about what your company is and who you are your story is really inspiring.

SPEAKER_00: 1:08:03

Thank you I really appreciate it uh we aren't hiring right now but I hope to be hiring again soon and actually where we need to hire is more younger talent to come in um we have a lot of senior leadership that's been there for a long time so that will be happening next year. We just aren't quite yet and and we're a fully remote company we have a Charleston office and we have a Boulder office but we don't require anyone to be in there just like fancy coffee shop. So it's really anyone from everywhere we'd love to connect with them at any point. There we go how do we get a hold of you you can just email me or through the website there's a form to get it filled out that then goes into our hiring database so that there's um you get forwarded information when there's a new position. Yeah perfect cool well make sure to tune in follow us on LinkedIn I always do a ton of posting on that awesome yeah and we do I do follow you on LinkedIn and everybody should Rachel you follow her on LinkedIn now I yeah oh you'll add to my numbers and I'll be so excited I will I will follow you so great. Okay. There we go if anything we got you one more LinkedIn follower to the I was I'm happy to you know come here just for that and I share stuff so I'll reshare this is the best day ever I'm so glad she's got access to Markon for AMA so even more yeah all of a sudden we're best friends.

SPEAKER_03: 1:09:26

Yeah that's what's up team that's what it's how it works. Thank you. Uh thank you listeners thank you Lee thank you Rachel thank you to the Charleston Media Solutions Matthew over here thanks Amanda for hanging out with us and um our sponsors uh who's our sponsors we've got um who a beer coach oh yeah yeah yeah island coastal beer we have a beer sponsor leech I was the co-founder of Island Coastal Lager what yes another onion could have had that another layer that's so funny. So our past president Emily works for Island Coastal Emily Trojan Trojan Trojan I don't know anybody T R O D G E N I haven't been involved in a while but we created the brand and the everything and our company did all the marketing it was really fun that's cool well they're they're sponsoring us now they give us two cases a month that's what I'm talking about now you gotta tell them they have to do more cases yeah well two for now you know we'll just you know we'll just baby step it our way in there but uh and then and then also uh Jerry feels good with the beats we we have a local DJ Jerry feels good uh his name's uh Justin he's a DJ out of downtown Charleston uh he gave us a beat for the for the music so we're local can he throw in some 90s hip hop I mean some of his work is like and he's almost our age okay so yeah he's he's you know he's got some influence for sure from the 90s uh anyways that's all appreciate your time today Lee good job Rachel thank you thanks y'all this was so excellent see you next time listeners