Strategic Partnerships

Welcome to The Power Lounge, your go-to place for engaging conversations in the digital world. In this episode, our host, Amy Vaughn, delves into strategic partnerships with the insightful Bridget Murphy. Discover the importance of authentic generosity and reciprocity in building enduring relationships, both personal and professional. Bridget draws from her Disney background and entrepreneurial journey with Envision to share invaluable tips on effective partnership building. We'll explore understanding customer values, work-life balance, challenges faced by women in the workplace, marketing trends, partner marketing evolution, and fearless networking. Get ready for engaging book suggestions, negotiation tactics, and motivating success stories, including Bridget's Nickelodeon and Cranium Games ventures. Tune in for practical insights on thriving in the realm of partnerships.

Featured in the Episode

Bridget Murphy

Entertainment and Retail Brands | Speaker I Thought Leader

Bridget’s LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/bridgetomurphy

Amy Vaughan,

Owner & Chief Empowerment Officer

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amypvaughan/

Takeaways

• Authentic Generosity and Relationship Building
• Partnership Strategies and Marketing
• Marketing Trends and Trust Building
• Community Building and Networking
• Evolution of Partnership Marketing
• Successful Partnership Examples
• Personal Influence on Business

Quotes

"Recognizing priorities and resource allocation builds connections and shapes strategies." - Bridget Murphy

"Know your target audience, connect with businesses, brands, or allies aligned with your vision." - Bridget Murphy

Chapters

00:00 - Introduction

01:42 - Exciting Journey: Disney to Envision

06:01 - Disney Partners with Bank for Kids' Financial Education

07:48 - Cranium's Success with Post Serial Partnership

11:00 - Motherhood: Priorities and Flexibility

19:10 - Misunderstood Demographic: TV Spot Research

21:07 - Building Envision: Flexibility, Family, Growth

24:05 - Networking, Fearlessness, Big Opportunities

32:07 - Brand Trust for Small Businesses

43:11 - Reciprocity in Relationships

56:18 - Corporate to Personal Branding

59:03 - Outro

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:10

Hello everyone, happy Friday and welcome to our weekly Power Lounge. This is your place to hear authentic conversations from those who have power to share. My name is Amy Vaughn and I am the owner and Chief Empowerment Officer of Together Digital, a diverse and collaborative community of women who work in digital and choose to share their knowledge, power and connections. You can join the movement at togetherindigitalcom. We are so excited to be here today. We are diving into the transformative power of partnerships. We are going to explore how strategic alliances can catapult your business, spark innovation and expand your market reach.

Speaker 1: 0:53

Joining us today is the brilliant Bridget Murphy, a powerhouse in partnership marketing. From her early days at Disney and Fox to the founding Envision Promotions leader, bridget has mastered the art of creating impactful partnerships. She has worked with giants like Nickelodeon and includes and continues to shape the industry landscape. Let's get ready for some game-changing insights on how partnerships can be your instant growth catalysts, how they are, the critical importance of aligning the right partners and the secrets of networking for success. So, whether you are a seasoned entrepreneur, listeners, or you are just starting out, this episode is going to be packed with valuable takeaways for you to help thrive in today's competitive business world All right. Bridget, thank you so much for being with us today.

Speaker 2: 1:49

Oh my gosh. Thank you so much, amy. I'm so excited to be a part of the Power Lounge, excited to be here.

Speaker 1: 1:56

Absolutely, we're thrilled to have you here. All right, if you could, I would love for you to just give us and our listeners, of course a little bit about yourself and how you came to work with entertainment giants such as Disney and Fox and how those specific experiences shaped your approach to partnerships.

Speaker 2: 2:20

Yeah, I'm really excited to share my background. My journey started when I moved to Manhattan in my early 20s and I was lucky enough to negotiate a job opportunity with Disney and I became a sales person that basically put big brands together through digital and social underneath the parent umbrella of Disney. The parent umbrella of Disney and Disney was it's still looking back. It was probably one of my favorite jobs. It was like living in a masterclass of brand marketing and partnership experience. I met some of the smartest and coolest people there and still to this day, when I started Envision, we really brought a lot of those key elements that I learned at Disney to Envision around. You know being fearless and going after really cool partners, being super creative in terms of how you put programs together, really listening to the clients to find out what they want to accomplish and how we could help, and you know trying to do really unique things in order to solve their problems.

Speaker 1: 3:29

That's fantastic. I love that so much. It's one of those things where it's like everyone sort of has that childhood dream right Of having the chance and the opportunity to work at Disney. So I love, love, love that you had that opportunity, and it does seem like those are the kinds of relationships that you want to hold on to, and I think that there's a lot to be said about, like the culture of Disney. If you could just kind of speak to that a little bit too. And how did that have anything to do with sort of how you view and see partnerships as well? Oh my gosh, absolutely.

Speaker 2: 3:58

So you know, Disney was really in some ways it was kind of cutthroat right, so you had to bring in certain types of clients and you had to really be unafraid of going after big deals, and so that was part of the culture was really teaching you how to be aggressive and fearless, and the other part of it was really how to be generous with those clients once you landed them Like we would spoil them rotten right. The advantage of me working in that scenario was I realized the caliber of people that were in my environment. I mean, disney has some of the obviously biggest brands, the most beneficial execution elements. That's really funny.

Speaker 1: 4:47

Is that on your screen?

Speaker 2: 4:48

I didn't know if that's something that I was saying Like happy birthday.

Speaker 1: 4:51

Yeah right, I don't know. I think it's like the AI that goes along with like the integrated platform on our Riverside hosting platform. I think it integrates with like Zoom and you know how you do certain hand gestures. Now it just like. I don't know picked up with something by resting my hand on my face that was really funny and I was wondering if it was.

Speaker 2: 5:08

Every time I said Disney, the balloons went off, because that's right that would be amazing.

Speaker 1: 5:15

Yeah, no.

Speaker 2: 5:16

I would just say that, um, you know, that was probably the biggest benefit. And then they just really, if you were a go-ter, they were super supportive.

Speaker 2: 5:25

I mean I still maintain a lot of the relationships that I had when I was there. Several of my initial clients had envisioned came from Disney. My Disney relationships and I think that was key really was just learning how to build those relationships and capitalize on the knowledge base that most of the employees that they hired had you know, yeah, yeah, what a great experience and I love that Fearless but generous.

Speaker 1: 5:51

What a great probably challenging but great way to sort of, you know, get your feet into this sort of situation or industry. I would love it if you could share maybe one particular story about partnerships that maybe surprised you with how it led to some success.

Speaker 2: 6:09

Oh my gosh, yeah.

Speaker 2: 6:10

So at Disney one of the partnerships that we put together that again you would probably not anticipate being a right fit partner for someone like a Disney we worked with a bank that was an international bank and they were interested in speaking to moms and educating kids on just money in general, right Savings, what it means how to save to buy something.

Speaker 2: 6:37

So we partnered with them, initially just on dot com, to create calculators where kids could save some money and they could figure out how to buy a pair of shoes and they could figure out how to buy a skateboard or whatever it was or figure out how to buy a Disney product. And it elevated and escalated where we ended up creating space at Epcot Center and we built this integrated campaign around the education and future of money, around the education and future of money, and it really spoke to moms trying to save for their kids. Education and kids learning the power of money and how useful it is and, you know, really just managing it and understanding it, because I think a lot of you know kids aren't exposed to that at a young age and that was super fun.

Speaker 2: 7:24

And it's funny because those were some of the first clients that ended up coming over to Envision. I had such a great relationship with them and then also, once I started Envision this is sort of a long story but one of a friend of mine at Disney went to Nickelodeon. She became marketing director and she hired Envision to do some partnerships for her and then she ended up leaving and going to Cranium Games and one of the first deals we secured for Cranium Games was with Post Cereal. The goal for Cranium was we knew that if moms tried the game that she would buy the game. So Cranium tasked Envision with finding partnerships where there was a trial element and we contacted Post Serial. We presented games as an option for some of the kids' brands and then, once we really brought everyone together again that fearlessness and generosity and getting everybody in the right room brainstorming, we ended up creating such unique content that Post Serereal.

Speaker 2: 8:25

We were the first agency to secure Post Cereal underneath the entire umbrella of Post Cereal. So every brand it was something like 21 million boxes of Post Cereal and there were game elements on every brand, but they were different types of game elements, right. So the content was different and it fit the brand and that ended up being such a huge success for cranium games. I mean, when cranium games we started working with them, their brand awareness was at 18% and when we were finished it was like 72%. It was incredible. Wow, yeah, so we, we did some really cool. That was. That's one of the ones that comes to mind when I think of successful campaigns that we've executed on.

Speaker 1: 9:05

Yeah, I mean, what sort of inspired you actually to go back to that for just a moment, to start Envision and go out on your own?

Speaker 2: 9:11

Oh my gosh, probably. I lived in Manhattan when I worked at Disney. I met the hottest guy in Manhattan and he got a job with the Columbus Blue Jackets and he I'm from Columbus and he dragged me back kicking and screaming and I got a job at an agency here in Columbus and it was great but I just didn't feel like I fit. You know it was. I went from these huge entertainment brands to an agency in Columbus, ohio, and I I got pregnant with my daughter and I called all my friends in New York and said I don't know what I'm going to do. I don't really care much for my position, I'm working all the time and now I'm gonna be a mom. And so they sort of like talked me into calling up my friends and saying I'm interested in doing some business with you and and that really was a catalyst. Honestly, looking back, the catalyst was my daughter.

Speaker 1: 10:07

Yeah, I love that. Oh, she is the inspiration. That's amazing. And now, how long have you been in business? Oh, my gosh, 20 plus years. And it's funny.

Speaker 2: 10:18

I think this will resonate too with this community. I never really wanted to be an entrepreneur, right A business owner. That wasn't my goal. My goal was, like many, to make ends meet. I love to work. I wanted to work, but I also wanted to be a mom. I think I'm a better mom because I work. I didn't want to stay at home permanently. I really wanted to stay a part of the workforce, and so Envision was really. It started out as a means to do that. I was like I just need a client or two and I'll make enough and I'll work from home. And then it sort of evolves on its own and then you have to make decisions on how you want to grow it and how much you want to grow it and how you want to scale it. It's so it sort of takes on a life of its own.

Speaker 1: 11:08

Yeah, it is amazing how motherhood just makes you take a hard look at your kind of priorities and sort of like, and it's not that you deprioritize work. I think that's a very big misconception. I think it's just a matter of now. I need some flexibility and I need more autonomy and I'm now I'm able to actually multitask better than I ever have in my entire life Right, I have more empathy, I have more perspective and I am probably more organized than I've ever been in my entire life because it's required of me, but it's like it still requires a sense of, like I said, autonomy and flexibility that I don't think often companies can provide us.

Speaker 1: 11:49

If I'm being really honest, and I'm seeing a lot of women, it's interesting watching our Together Digital community over the course of the last four or five years, especially with the pandemic, women were inordinately impacted by layoffs during COVID, but then also having to make those hard choices because they didn't all have childcare while schools were closed down to sort of just leave the workforce and maybe start their own business and, like you said, a lot of them kind of do it almost reluctantly and then, once they're there, they're like oh wow, there's this like newfound once they get past the fear. It's that newfound once they get past the fear. It's that newfound freedom and especially, like you said, when they can lean on their community and friendships and, you know, network. Um, if they've got a strong network to start to kind of grow and build that business and and really believe in themselves and what they can do, then it's like all of a sudden like why, why would I work for somebody else? You know, yep, yes, you know, and that's so amazing.

Speaker 1: 12:46

25 years, that is that's something worth celebrating, bridget. That's amazing. Yes, that's amazing, I love it. So, all that said, how would you say that the landscape of partnership marketing has changed?

Speaker 1: 12:59

since you started off in the industry.

Speaker 2: 13:02

It's so funny. You asked that, but I remember I think it was like the second iteration of our website. It said like partner marketing and collaborative marketing and brand marketing partnerships. And it says, yeah, we get that because no one knew what it meant. Right, like we had to explain and define what our capabilities were. And now most large corporations have partner marketing as a line item in their marketing budgets.

Speaker 2: 13:30

It is changed dramatically in terms of the power of marketing. We know companies that do partnerships regularly and they have instilled partner programs in their marketing. They grow overall company revenue nearly twice as fast as those that don't. We know that. I want to say two-thirds of all consumers tend to purchase something if it's through a brand partnership, because they recognize the trust, they recognize the brand and they're more likely to make the conversion. So I guess from a business standpoint, partner marketing has become more commonplace and more respected or more comfortable, and I think from the, it's become more mainstream and it's also just like the significant changes that have happened since we've started right, digital social influencers. Now it's AI, like the technology you and I were talking about before we jumped on it's constant changing right, so I'd say that was probably the biggest transformation since we started.

Speaker 1: 14:40

Yeah, definitely, the borrowed equity obviously is a continued, huge, ongoing one. Always, always amazing, but I think it's just also. There's just also an element of fun for, like, not just the consumer but I think for the marketer too. There was like a brief stint that I spent working at. It was, I think, that it called team well, then I know it was called Team Detroit. Now I think it's GBT Every agency I ever worked at, by the way. Now it goes by a different name.

Speaker 1: 15:07

It's been bought by someone else, yeah, or has like 10 different acronyms alongside its name. It's ridiculous, it's like alphabet soup. And I remember like I had heard what they called then the internal affiliate team at the agency speak and I was like, oh, that was kind of the first time I heard about partnership marketing and I was immensely intrigued because I was like this is so fun because, especially as a creative, you're going to get the opportunity to kind of collaborate with different brands, different voices, learn about different audiences. And I actually got the benefit of working so I'd been working on Ford at the time, I was in Detroit, so you know automotive, of course, but we got to work with Ken Block, who owned DC shoes and did like Jeep Kana and DC like did racing, rally race car driving, which was completely new to me.

Speaker 1: 16:01

I knew nothing about it, much less DC shoes and skateboarding and all of that. So, yeah, it was a lot of fun to kind of see the types of pairing and partnerships that they would do and I sort of kind of liked you know what you said earlier too when you're considering potential partnerships, maybe if you could go back and say if there's, if there's any other ones that that's unlikely like when you're considering partnerships, to like what, what, what are the sort of things that you are looking for? And then, maybe, what are some of the things that you should be looking for that people don't normally consider?

Speaker 2: 16:30

Oh, I love that question. So part of our process when we first start working with a client is really digging deep into the target consumer. Most companies think they know who their consumer is, but if you really pay attention and ask information about their consumer and to their consumer, you find out what's important to them, where they're spending their time, where they're spending their money. And if you can really dig down in who that person is and you can align with another brand who has a very similar target demographic, that's really where the magic happens. And we joke that we're a dating service for large corporations. Really we're a dating service for large corporations.

Speaker 2: 17:11

target demographics, you know so it can be really unique partnerships where, as long as the targets sort of align and meld, the communication happens and it's very seamless. It also has to be around the corporate values Like. The corporate values have to align. You can't put a Patagonia with a disposable plastic brand.

Speaker 1: 17:33

No not going to fly.

Speaker 2: 17:34

Really, yeah, exactly. Even if it's higher end and it might work or use it for camping or whatever it is, it still has to have that value alignment and if it doesn't, and it's not right fit, it becomes tricky to execute and even the results aren't always exactly what you want them to be. But but, yeah, I think that's probably the easiest way to define how to make good partnerships and, to be honest with you, that works in any industry, right? We focus primarily on on brands. That works in any industry. Right. We focus primarily on brands and moms because of my Disney background.

Speaker 2: 18:09

But we've been talking to a lot of smaller businesses about how to align to the target demographic through other businesses that still make sense, right? So think if you're an owner and accounting firm, you can partner with an attorney that you like. If you own a flower shop, you can talk to the coffee shop that's down the road, like. There are ways to do partnerships that are really seamless, cost effective and your, your exposure is amplified. You can create a really unique offer and you know you can see the growth almost instantaneously.

Speaker 1: 18:39

I love it. That's so inspiring and encouraging again, regardless of size of the business, of whoever's listening today. So I hope you start thinking's so inspiring and encouraging again, regardless of size of the business, of whoever's listening today. So I hope you start thinking about partnering up because, yeah, it helps and supports both businesses. And I think you're 100 percent right because it really just took me back for a second of that exact example I just shared with you.

Speaker 1: 18:58

So Ken ended up moving from a Subaru for those of you who are gearheads moving from a Scooby to a Ford Fiesta. So his fans were not happy. It was no bueno that he was going from a Subaru to a Ford freaking Fiesta. They weren't Ford fans. So it's like the partnership, while it seemed like a good idea, they didn't understand the demographic and I remember doing the research as we were getting ready to write a TV spot for ESPN, and even then I mean, this is like 2010. So we had enough insights looking through like his YouTube content and reading his fans comments that they were just not thorough. Now, granted, it's just the body. People, what's inside is what counts and we know the inside is not a fiesta, but it didn't matter. It really like honked them off, pun intended, that that it was. He was moving from a subaru to a ford fiesta. It was very, very interesting. But yeah, you're right, I think partnerships it's like that. You said matchmaking for the consumer. I love that.

Speaker 2: 20:00

It's a fantastic analogy yeah, and you know, it's funny. We tell people all the time, even corporations. We walk into a pitch room and we're having conversations. If you ask five people in the room who do you think would be the perfect partner for what we're working on whether it's a product or it's a service most of the five will come up with different answers. So if you have the data to support and you can say this is your consumer and they love this particular product or brand, it's a lot easier. Otherwise, it's a hard.

Speaker 1: 20:31

It's a hard fit do the research, do the research yeah I don't even know what the impetus was for the switch.

Speaker 2: 20:36

You know it probably just came down to money at the end of the day, yeah, well, yeah, that brand really wanted that partnership and it was a force fit.

Speaker 1: 20:46

Oh yeah, and it makes sense because, I mean, ken at the time had a ton of YouTube views because of his like stunt driving, which was called his Gymkhana, like, so he was, had lots of followers and influence. I mean, again, it was early days of influencer marketing, but he was definitely an influencer. So, yeah, yeah, earlier mentioned that, um, you had launched envision promotions after meeting your husband in manhattan. Um, have there been any other ways that your personal life has influenced your business decisions?

Speaker 2: 21:15

oh my gosh. Yeah, so starting envision because of my daughter and then I think the reason why I grew envisionvision was because there was so much flexibility in what I did. Most of our clients, especially when I started out, were on the East Coast. Some were on the West Coast so I would just throw my kids on a plane with me and take them with me, and that's been incredible. I guess that's something that a lot of people that have small businesses, and moms especially, can identify with. You know there's opportunities when you own your own company or when you do have flexibility in your job, to do these little cool, creative elements, especially that tie your family into your business. I have a million stories of my kids the phone ringing in the car and they will go super quiet knowing that after I'm done with my call they get a treat Like I, literally trained them.

Speaker 2: 22:11

Yes, yes, they knew Right. And they still talk about things like negotiation and that's great. And, yeah, a lot of it's just learning from. You know those early days of business with my kids at home, so I think that's probably the biggest thing. And now that they're older and they're growing up, learning from them, they have all these different social media platforms and cool things and just drinking it in. I think that's a big one as well.

Speaker 1: 22:42

Yeah, yeah. You're modeling something amazing for them. And now they're modeling something and educating you. That's so cool, that's so fun. I recently was talking to a networking with another woman who talked about that she owned her own business as well and talked about raising her kids, but she was a single mother and really had no choice with childcare too, and was like. Somebody once told me that you know, just be unapologetic. If you have to bring your kids, just bring them, don't apologize and don't say anything about it and just wait to see what happens. And she said nobody ever said anything, Nobody dared you know it's definitely becoming a much better place for that.

Speaker 2: 23:24

I'm seeing that becoming a lot more common and forgiving. I do remember when I started Envision. I don't think it was necessarily that way. I think COVID, like you said, has definitely had an impact, but I love that, that more women can be moms and work, and I don't think there's any other way around it right. I think just owning it and doing the best that you can is the best that you can, right, right, exactly. You're doing a good job regardless.

Speaker 1: 23:56

You're doing a good job. For real. Oh, my goodness, all right. Well, you landed Nickelodeon, as we mentioned, as your first client at Envision. What advice would you give to entrepreneurs who are aiming for those big name clients right out of the gate?

Speaker 2: 24:13

Oh my gosh. Well, for one, I will say I was very fortunate right. I had a network that I was not afraid to go after, and I think that's a big part of it. So I guess if I was going to offer advice about going after a big fish, it's just to be fearless. Don't. Don't be afraid. I mean for one. They're people just like you and me, right? You and I have these positions now. Maybe people don't realize our past experience. So most companies, when you're talking to them, especially large ones, they're just regular people. So ask all the right questions and don't be afraid and tap your network, absolutely Tap your network and organizations like Together Digital, it's perfect. You know you network with the right people, you're going to meet the right people and just go for it.

Speaker 1: 25:01

Yeah, I love that. I think that is. It's such a challenge, I think, sometimes, because you know we're just really good at selling ourselves short. You know what I mean, talking ourselves out of going like aiming high or going big. And I think some another member, another Together Digital member, yet who, if you haven't met her yet, I will be sure to introduce you Bridget, because she's also in Columbus. Beth Mendoni, did I already mention you to her?

Speaker 2: 25:26

We know her. I'm working with her. I love her Right. She is amazing.

Speaker 1: 25:31

She is right and she's also one of my hype ladies. So she's always like you're not qualifying those leads, you are disqualifying them and it puts the power into your hands. So when you are going out and you're looking for new potential, you know folks and it's like the sales portion and it's hard right, we don't all love it. It's like you got to change your mindset about it and she's like Nope, you're not qualifying them, you're disqualifying them. They aren't worthy of working with you. You're taking them off your list. I was like oh, that feels different. I like that.

Speaker 2: 26:06

So them off your list. I was like, oh, that feels different. I like that so funny. So that, because you know, beth and I had a conversation recently where we were talking about sales and the two of us are both like, we joke around gamifying it. Yeah, right, it's more like we both play video games and I've played board games with our kids and all right, and it's really like if you continue to go after it, you will get a win, like you. Just, it's a numbers game, right. So keep going up, keep leveling up. But yeah, that's really funny that you mentioned that, because that's 100% the truth.

Speaker 2: 26:35

I will say this, and I love this story, but I was going after Nickelodeon. I was so nervous, I really, really wanted to start Envision because I wanted to be a mom and stay at home. And I called her name's Kristen and we are friendly but not friends and I hard told her I'm in Manhattan, which I wasn't. I'm in Manhattan. I would love to take you to lunch. I'm starting my own gig and I think there's some things that we can work on together. Let's get, let's just come together for lunch. And I got on the plane that morning with my breast bump. I flew to Manhattan. I did this whole big presentation at lunch and she was like why did you get on a plane? Of course I'll give you the business. And I left and I cried the whole way home and I was like, oh my gosh. But I had to do it all within a day because I couldn't line up my nanny.

Speaker 1: 27:28

My husband wasn't home.

Speaker 2: 27:29

It was like the craziest thing. But I love telling that story because I mean about a hundred times I was going to cancel the flight and not go. I'm like who you know? It's a crazy. Yes, go big go home big, go, go big, take your breast pump, get there close the deal, come home. That's amazing.

Speaker 1: 27:51

I love it. That's I mean how. I mean I feel like we should all feel like we should just go for it after that you have nothing to lose.

Speaker 2: 28:00

Right and right. It was a fun break from the kids, exactly.

Speaker 1: 28:05

Exactly, I love it, I love it, I love it. I feel very inspired now. Oh, this is so fun, all right. And then I love, of course you know Beth, of course we all love Beth. I hope she gets the chance to listen to this. Well, and she loves you too.

Speaker 2: 28:21

I mean, you're so generous and you're so thoughtful.

Speaker 1: 28:23

So yeah, it's a big circle of love. I was going to say it's not surprising, like good people always lead to more good people. This is the wonderful, beautiful thing about not just networking, but like community and relationship building. Quite honestly, that goes beyond the networking. I keep joking. I'm like dating is like, or networking is like the dating that happens before you're in the relationship, that's all.

Speaker 2: 28:42

Yes, and you are, though. You're vetting. You're vetting every time it might, it might not be right for you this might be good.

Speaker 1: 28:48

This might not be. We might just stay in the friend zone might just be a lifelong thing.

Speaker 2: 28:53

We don't know. Yet we're going to find out Awesome.

Speaker 1: 28:56

So you kind of talked a little bit about this, but I don't know if you want to go deeper or not. But if you want to walk us through a little bit more about your process for identifying compatible partners for your clients.

Speaker 2: 29:06

Yeah, you know, it's really really pretty simple in terms of our process, which will be very different from some smaller businesses, is we? Well, I guess not. We do data research, we dig into the target consumer. We also do some social listening Because, again, like, if we can find out, I'm going to use she, because most of our partnerships are on mom and women. I mean, come on, we're making most of the business decisions and purchasing decisions in the household, right? Thank you very much. So when we dig on that particular individual, we want to know what kind of car she's driving, we want to know how many kids she has, what are her priorities? Is she skew really healthy? Is she skew more? I'm going to drive through McDonald's because I don't have any time. Because, again, then you're getting back to those core values and you're getting back to what's really meaningful to her. And if you can do that and you can solve those problems for her, that's really when the magic happens.

Speaker 2: 30:03

When we put partnerships together, we constantly talk about how it has to benefit both parties. Even if it's someone where you're working with a giant that has a major footprint, they're partnering with a small guy on purpose because they know they have that particular target demographic or that really cool cutting edge, new, whatever game, entertainment or service, and so they're coming together for a reason, so they both can benefit. So know what you're asking for, know what you want to get out of the partnership is really, really crucial, and it's really important to know who you're talking, talking to. If you can do that, then both of you guys, both partners, are going to grow, you're both going to benefit and, most importantly, you're going to be solving a problem or creating a magic moment for that customer. If you can do that, the companies win.

Speaker 1: 30:53

I love it. That's a great framework. I just took some very good notes there. I hope you all did too. Listeners oh, that's fantastic. All right. What are some partnership trends, or marketing partnership trends that you are excited about right now?

Speaker 2: 31:07

Oh my gosh. So I think a lot of the marketing trends that we're seeing right now probably are skewing, I think, the ones that are most important to us. You know, you think it's going to be like AI, which has an impact in a lot of the data that we're doing, which also is critical. But I think the trend that I like the most is that we're seeing this huge swing from it having to be discounted or have a huge value. Now it's really skewing back to this thing around trust, where you really want to be able to engage with a consumer or a customer that really feels that they can trust you, not only to provide good service or to offer a really valuable product, but customer service is strong. They believe in your brand, they believe in your values. I think that's probably the biggest trend. We've actually been talking about that a lot with our clients. It's really important to engage around trust and meaningful relationships with your customer, or you might get them once, but you won't keep them for long.

Speaker 1: 32:10

Yeah, I agree, I agree, I just I'm excited about it Me too, and I'm glad that you affirmed that because I just you just inspired me yet again. I just did a talk for the Better Business Bureau for a bunch of other small businesses a few weeks back in the form of a webinar about building brand trust, and I really loved the opportunity to kind of dig in and look at what are the temples of that and kind of refresh even myself of what those things were, especially CXO, customer experience, consistent customer service, you know, brand voice, all those different things, because there are so many elements and those who aren't in marketing and especially small businesses, it feels like so much. But there is like a lot of opportunity there for them to provide that, because they aren't behemoths, right, because they don't have a million. They don't always have a million different channels that they have to manage. But yeah, it was a lot of fun.

Speaker 1: 33:09

And then I was just thinking I was just talking with them about a partnered stage opportunity for a talk and I'm like you know what, I think I'm going to pivot maybe to that instead of the other thing we were talking about. So, thanks again. All right, so many good things today, outside of gushing about our bath, all right. As a mompreneur, how do you manage growing your business and family life? I mean, I know your kiddos are all not so much kiddos anymore, but what's some advice that you have for maybe those who are still in that kiddo stage? Oh my gosh, if you can enjoy it.

Speaker 1: 33:47

I think that's the biggest thing, and give yourself buckets of grace.

Speaker 2: 33:51

It's so funny how people talk about balance, which I think is just come on, there's no such thing. There's no such thing as balance and there really isn't. But I will say I am so unbelievably grateful for the little things that I was able to capitalize on with my kids, like one of my favorite stories about owning my own company is that I would schedule and my son was young, he was in maybe third grade the bus would drop him off about. We had a huge block, so it was like a quarter mile from our house and I made, I made um, I blocked my calendar. I would leave my office, drive to the bus stop and walk home with him because there is this window of time where he would chatter. You know what I mean. The teacher said this and so-and-so got in trouble and I did this on my test and he would just talk and share and tell me everything that happened during the day. But as soon as we got to the house and opened the door, it was snacks and video games.

Speaker 2: 34:50

Oh yeah, Like it just closed down right.

Speaker 2: 34:57

I would get almost no interaction, no matter what kind of open-ended questions I asked during dinner and no matter what we were doing before bed, even reading books. It just wasn't that same moment of time and I'm just so grateful he doesn't even remember it. But I, every time I was able, I would block that off, otherwise the name even don't pick them up. He didn't Viewers. I didn't make my kid walk home by himself, but he it was that. That kind of those kinds of things are really special.

Speaker 2: 35:22

I also was able to plan my schedule around a lot of my kids' big events. So there were very few things that I missed, and if I missed them it was for an extraordinary reason. But you know, just do the best you can. I also I like to work. So if I was going to walk my son home at a certain time of the day, I was probably opening my laptop after they went to bed and sending the rest of the emails and that kind of stuff I enjoyed doing. I didn't mind doing it. But yeah there's. I mean, give yourself lots of grace, have as much fun as you can. You're doing a great job. I mean you really are doing a great job, regardless of who you are. If you're trying to work and you're trying to raise kids, you're doing a great job. I mean you really are doing a great job, regardless of who you are. If you're trying to work and you're trying to raise kids, you're doing a great job. So I think that's that's probably my story is just, you know have fun with it.

Speaker 1: 36:16

I love that and I wholeheartedly agree with you. I think I had to learn early on probably still while I was in my agency days that that it was really quality over quantity, you know, making those moments last as much as I could to be as present as I could be, rather than trying to multitask. So, rather than hold my baby in my arms and be with her or him and answering work emails, I would put the phone down and be there with my baby and then, once they were asleep, then maybe go back to the work email. So trying to kind of, you know, as best as I could compartmentalize sort of each opportunity to kind of. You know you can't always do that, but I think I found that really helpful and it really honestly quite reduced the amount of anxiety that I was dealing with, because I was, when I was trying to do both.

Speaker 1: 37:10

I was never really truly present for both, right Right, and that included definitely, you know, being at one of my kids events, you know, and trying to sort of like do other things work related. I was like no, putting my phone on silent and everyone that is at the office knows that I am not going to answer a damn thing, cause we're not. We're not saving lives here. You know there's nobody on an operating table that needs me right now. So now I'm not answering for the next whole 60 minutes, y'all are you'll just, you'll survive, you're going to be okay.

Speaker 2: 37:45

Yeah, exactly yeah, and like ask for help and yeah, you know, I I love telling this story and I hope my husband's not watching this, but, um, my husband probably did what I think is 80 more than most husbands. I mean, change diapers, he helped out, he's, he's now a school teacher and he he was able to help in a lot of ways, but it still was 20% of the total parenting. It was a lot, and so we had to really set some boundaries. Where we got some help, we hired nannies, we had people come over. There were certain things that neither of us could get to, and that's okay. Some things slip, but if you can ask for help. It's so hard, I think, for women to ask for help, especially moms, because you feel like that is supposed to be your sole responsibility, and in a large way it is, but it takes a village. The guilt is real.

Speaker 1: 38:41

I don't know why, I don't know when our mentality changed, because I do think, like you know, the whole idea of it takes a village and if you kind of look back at, like our societal constructs, I think it's probably born like the nuclear family implications, probably like not that I'm Well, in the fifties, like the representation of women and you're like they have to wear a dress and cook dinner and I don't know.

Speaker 2: 39:07

I think you're right, though If you really look back, it's never been that way, you know everyone's always contributed Right everyone. That my kids learn from the nannies that we hired and grandparents and siblings and friends that helped it.

Speaker 1: 39:28

It makes a huge impact on them, even at a young age absolutely, absolutely well, and I said this recently too, um, at an event where I was on a panel, and my last advice to some entrepreneurs at the end of the panel was don't just ask for help, be ready to receive it, because I think that's another thing is that we're like, okay, I asked for the help, and then somebody offers it and they're like, oh, you know what? It's okay. I actually actually I got it, I'm good, thanks, exactly.

Speaker 1: 40:02

Or even without asking even without asking, somebody offers it and then we still don't take it, you know, and so it is one of those things I think oftentimes we don't consider how often we don't accept or take the help, even when it's offered unsolicited. But yeah, yeah, I agree, I think that's fantastic advice. We have got links in the chat that Kaylee so graciously dropped for you all live listeners to be able to follow Bridget online, learn more about her company, et cetera. We'll include those in the show notes, but also live listeners. Remember that you can drop questions into the chat if you have them. For Bridget as well. We have got a couple more questions before we wrap up, so if you've got a question for her, please feel free to put it in there. Don't be shy, right, be fearless, and we'll be generous and answer your questions. You have mentioned that you still keep your Disney community close. How important is maintaining long-term relationships in this industry specifically? And maybe give us if you've got a couple examples that would be?

Speaker 2: 41:06

great. Oh my gosh. I can't stress enough the importance, I think, of really strong relationships. Disney is a really good example. I met a lot of my closest friends. I'm still friends. We're scattered all over the world and it's crazy, our different life trajectories.

Speaker 2: 41:27

One of my former bosses who I admire greatly, she was pregnant when I was young, working at Disney, and I remember there was no maternity like it was very I'm older. It was just very different environment. She wasn't. She had this little office cubicle with this window thing that we had to put white paper up so she could pump in her cubicle because there was no place, right. That whole system has changed dramatically.

Speaker 2: 41:56

But I just admired her so much and all of our lives just go like this and so you never know where someone's going to end up. You know the same with the fearlessness and generosity. Always be as generous as you can because you know you never know when that's going to be reciprocated to you. But I always advise to maintain relationships that are really important to you, especially with people that you admire. Maintain relationships that are really important to you, especially with people that you admire, especially with people who are different from you, who have different capabilities and different interests. That's always appealed to me.

Speaker 2: 42:32

I'm always attracted to different and people that are meaningful to me I really try and keep in touch with, regardless of where they are, and it's not hard, like we're saying. When I say keep in touch with you know, it's like even my best friend will go months without speaking, but I always know that she's there for me and she hopefully knows that about me. But yeah, I would say, keep those relationships and as you move from job to job or even as you grow, you know, always make new relationships with people that you admire and that you like. I mean Amy. You and I met a few weeks ago and immediately we've connected. How many people do we know now? I?

Speaker 1: 43:12

know right.

Speaker 2: 43:12

We've introduced each other to a bunch of people. If you find good people, stick with them.

Speaker 1: 43:18

Yeah, oh, I wholeheartedly agree, and we've talked about it a couple times on the show about the law of reciprocity and how important that is and just how. And again, it's not and it's always coming from like a. It's a good place, right. It's authentic generosity in the sense that I'm not doing these things for you because I want something out of you. I'm doing this for you out of the goodness of my heart and because I believe that you have good intentions and you are striving towards and working towards something, and I believe in what you're working towards. So I want good things for you. And that may or may not come back to me, but that's not the whole, that's not the point, right? Although it kind of just oh gosh, why does it always come back to friends in my head? This is like such the millennial in me.

Speaker 2: 44:03

I'm like oh, and then it's like Phoebe, there's no, was it?

Speaker 1: 44:06

was it Chandler? That's like there's no such thing as an unselfish deed or whatever. But I'm more on Phoebe's side on this. Friends, uh, fans, you know what the hell I'm even talking about. Um, so was I had kind of gave a similar speech recently, um, at a networking workshop that I hosted, um, talking about helping women to close the networking, uh, networking gap to really um find those who are different than you.

Speaker 1: 44:36

Um, you know, background, experience, diversity, um, and I honestly too, like I sort of I I call it my, my Pollyanna theory when I would start to work somewhere new and I would find, like, challenging people, they were my favorites, they were the ones that I wanted to figure out the most, um, because I kind of wanted to get to the heart of what it was. That was kind of the exterior, you know, hardness to sort of find out, like how can I suss them out and kind of break down those walls and maybe soften that hard exterior so I could get a little bit closer? Because usually beneath that hard exterior a lot of times was brilliance. Quite honestly, some of the most difficult people were honestly, sometimes the most brilliant and they were very just defensive or they felt they needed to protect themselves from whatever, for whatever reason, and I was always like I'm going to Pollyanna them.

Speaker 2: 45:32

I love it. I okay. There's two things there that are really, I think, stand out. One is, um, if someone maybe isn't warm to you or kind to you out of the gate, do not be afraid to approach them and engage and have those conversations to break down some of those barriers. That is such good advice, amy. And the second is I very rarely I don't want to say never, but almost never I like to think that whenever I'm trying to make a connection or help anyone as they're trying to grow, I mean for one, that's what I do, right, it's partnerships, it's collaborations. And two, try not to do anything where you're thinking that you're going to get something in return. It should genuinely be a gift, it should be from a place of generosity. I mean, you want to be known as someone who will help if they need. You know that. I just think that's part of the game. So I totally agree with you in that that you know you're not trying to do it maliciously, so you get rid of it later.

Speaker 2: 46:27

No, it should just be really because you want to help. And it doesn't take long, it's not hard If it's something that you already, if it's someone you know and you want to introduce somebody else. It's such an easy email intro phone call recommendation.

Speaker 1: 46:44

It's great and here's what I'll tell you. The beautiful thing about it is is you get something out of it still. Like it is still selfish to some degree because you get that nice little hit of dopamine that says I did something good for someone. So, like when you got on the call today with me and told me that you spoke with Amy Port and you're going to go do heroic public speaking, I got so excited and so happy for you and the experience you're going to have and the fact that you're going to meet Amy and Michael and I'm going to hear about how it goes and you're going to have an amazing speech and start doing some it just it makes me feel good. So like, you still get something out of it, folks.

Speaker 1: 47:15

And like you said it ain't hard, it ain't hard Awesome. Okay, we've got a question from one of our live listeners. I love it. Any tips for doing partnerships for individuals and personal brands versus businesses, and are there any books that you'd recommend? Fantastic question.

Speaker 2: 47:32

Thank you, oh my gosh, I am a book reader. Yes, and if I don't get them all right, I will definitely. They're all on my LinkedIn.

Speaker 1: 47:39

We'll follow up on that into the notes, Because I do.

Speaker 2: 47:41

I'm a big book person. For individuals and brands. The same rules apply. If you know who your target demographic is, find other businesses or brands or friends that are like yours. Beth actually said it the best when we were talking is that she gets more recommendations from her friends than she does anywhere else, and so we started having conversations about how can you build on that, how can you make that stronger? Can you reciprocate? How can you give those friends back recommendations and businesses? Can you do it in an email? Can you put a tag in the bottom of your email so that you're collaborating? I learned this from a friend of mine that I worked for, and she has a slide in all of her decks where she has her corporate partnerships and it's all the partners that she would recommend that are outside of her scope of work.

Speaker 1: 48:28

Right, that's brilliant.

Speaker 2: 48:29

It's so easy. You literally are dropping in companies that you're recommending. You're solving a problem for somebody else, right, and they're out of it's out of scope anyway. And as a partner marketing agency, we've started doing that. We started making relationships with other agencies that do work that we love and admire and now we reciprocate by making introductions and, in some cases, financial benefits, where they get a commission if I close up a line of theirs, or vice versa. So I think that, just thinking about it from a broader standpoint, also, if you're not interested in doing like true marketing elements, collaborate with someone and do a webinar right, share both expertise, and you know you potentially can gain some new users that way and you can market it. So back to the marketing, you can use that.

Speaker 2: 49:22

And in terms of books, crucial Conversations is one of my favorites. There's one by a guy named Chris Foss. It's hilarious. I can remember the author and not the title, but I think it's called Negotiate Like your Life Depends On it, and it is a great read, even if're not in um sales or marketing or business. It is uh, chris was a fbi negotiator and so it's just a really fun read, but he has so many important critical advice in terms of how to negotiate and how to walk that, how to say no, it's really important really good book yeah.

Speaker 1: 50:03

I love it. It's so funny. You say that I was at another event earlier this year and there was a female FBI. I can't remember exactly what her title was too, but it was the same thing. She was a negotiator, but it was more for like high stakes crisis type things, and she was involved in like getting one of the guys who was involved, like in the States with 9-11 to like start telling information so that they could actually stop a couple of the things that were actually meant to happen. I was like, yeah, who better to talk about negotiation? Those are great recommendations. Split the difference. He's never split the difference negotiating. I was gonna say I knew Kaylee would find it. Look at her.

Speaker 2: 50:42

She's like I'm on it, never split the difference. Yes, thank you.

Speaker 1: 50:45

Oh my God, she found that that was crazy, she'll sleuth it out for us, those fast fingers and Google. I love it and crucial conversations.

Speaker 2: 51:02

I believe it was a former negotiating. I actually read it and use it for my kids and my conversations with my husband. Yeah, that's a great book.

Speaker 1: 51:11

And the first one that you mentioned, I think, was Crucial. Yeah, crucial Conversations was the first one that she mentioned. Yep, we'll drop that in the yep. It's there in the chat and we'll also include it in the show notes. This has been so much fun. All right, I've got my last question for you and then I think we'll wrap, unless we get one more question. We might have enough time for just one more question, and this question is a selfish one. You recently joined together digital, our lovely, lovely, beautiful community, and I was curious what attracted you to our network and how do you see it aligning with your journey in partnership marketing?

Speaker 2: 51:47

Oh my gosh, that is such an easy question to answer. I went to an event I mean, I've been invited to so many and I just, you know, you're so busy and I'm like I don't have time and I was invited to one because a friend of mine was on the panel and I walked into the event and I thought it was like my birthday party.

Speaker 2: 52:04

I was like oh my gosh, hey, and it was all these fabulous, really impressive people that I love and many of which I didn't know in Columbus, and it was so fun, Like I felt like they were my people and people that I admire and that I can learn from. But I think the reason why I joined was because of the women that I've met like you, Amy, I mean just an incredible bunch of I like surrounding myself with people who are ambitious and who are constantly trying to learn, who are constantly trying to grow, who are asking about what books to read because, I mean, that's what makes life interesting and how we grow and how we become better people and so this community just felt like a really good fit. Plus, there were a lot of smart women that I'm like man I could hire.

Speaker 2: 52:54

you know, there's people that know about things that I am still learning about and that really appealed to me as well.

Speaker 1: 53:03

That's fantastic. Well, I'm so glad, so so glad, that you joined. And then I'm also very, very excited because you know, hopefully you'll be down for our national conference Members. If you're listening, live tickets are going to go on sale on Monday, so we're recording today. It's the week before 4th of July, so July 1st tickets are going up, so be listening, all right, we've got one more question from our live listening audience. I don't want to disappoint. We've got a few minutes, so I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to go ahead and ask if you don't mind, bridget? Yeah, you're good, go for it, go for it Okay.

Speaker 1: 53:36

Awesome. All right, before we wrap, any tips for building a personal brand when you're leaving corporate. Oh, I love this question and becoming the face of your own brand what has worked best on your journey? This is a fantastic question, thank you. This is why we love you live listeners.

Speaker 2: 53:51

That is a great question because I have struggled with this since I started. It is so easy for someone like me to talk about oh, I worked at Disney and we've worked with Nickelodeon and we've done stuff with Post Cereals and Nickelodeon, and McDonald's was the first deal that we brokered and put together. I can use that all day long. But when you're asking about building my brand, man, that's a hard one. It has been a struggle for me since day one.

Speaker 2: 54:17

I love talking about what I do. I don't necessarily love talking about what I do. I don't necessarily love talking about myself, which comes as a surprise because I could talk about my kids all day, and so that's been really fun. Lately, I think, honestly, that's been getting out of my comfort zone. Working with other people whose brands that I really admire and I sort of mimic and follow them. Like Casey Brown is a friend of mine and I adore her and she has. She's just fearless when it comes to video, doing live speaking engagements and talking about her knowledge and her expertise, and so you know, I I know what I know about partnerships. I've been doing it for a really long time. I'm very capable, so it takes a little shove for me to get out there and talk about myself and my personal brand. But I think that's the best advice. Is I really stand on the shoulders of giants? I find people I admire and then I try and mimic that but make it as much about me as possible, so it feels very authentic.

Speaker 1: 55:22

Right, yeah, I would agree with that. I think there's something about the process of becoming a business owner that is going to just make it's gonna make you question everything anyways. And so it's. It's going to be a process and it's not going to be an overnight process. It's going to be hard, it's going to be scary, it's going to be an evolution, and you have to actually just go through the process, right, you're not going to be able to go over it. You have to go through it, and the going through it is what's going to result in what your personal brand is.

Speaker 1: 55:57

To me, I don't think it's something that you can just like put on paper, even in the course of a week.

Speaker 1: 56:03

I think you could start with, like, looking at your values and sort of where you want to go and, like you said, maybe sort of the people that you admire, because when you look at who you admire maybe even who you envy a little it's telling you where you want to go.

Speaker 1: 56:17

Right, it's telling you who you would like to be personally, right, and maybe who you're not exuding, or what you're not exuding, I mean what you're hiding behind, right, because you are hiding behind your current title, your current company.

Speaker 1: 56:30

So you need to get out from behind that and it's going to be hard, right, and it's going to be difficult to step out and be, like you said, fearless and start to kind of exude those individualities, because I found that, too, like it was really hard for me to kind of speak my truths and speak my values when I was so used to kind of keeping my corporate Amy voice on and not being my kind of authentic self and kind of owning what my personal I'm using air quotes for those who are just listening my personal brand was, and so it took time, energy and effort and, quite honestly, as I tell a lot of people in entrepreneurship, getting my ass handed to me several times, which means making mistakes, because it's going to happen learning and growing a whole lot of self-awareness and time Over the course of time, you are going to find out who you really are and that is going to become your personal brand and, as you tell your story time and time again, it's going to get easier, it's going to get better and it's going to get more refined.

Speaker 2: 57:34

So Amy, you are 100% right. Make mistakes, put it out there like get started. That is a hundred percent the best way to do it. Just get it going because it's going to evolve. What you, what I had when I started, is comedy, compared to what I have now, it's just. It morphs completely. And as you change, it changes and you refine your message and you become more confident. Yeah, just take a leap of faith, get it going and adjust it as it goes. But you're right, make mistakes. I think that is such great advice.

Speaker 1: 58:08

Your personal brand doesn't start until you start. You know it's just going to kind of sit there on the shelf. You got to just jump off the shelf and get rolling.

Speaker 2: 58:16

Yeah, and if you look at every I mean even like the people you envy, like you mentioned, I mean if you could go back and see what their first page was like. Oh yeah.

Speaker 1: 58:24

Come on, kim K was not Kim K when she first came out of the womb. Come on, we know that, like, not that. I think she's like the best personal brand in the world. I don't know why she was the first one that came to mind, but it's like the one everybody would know. But yeah, all right, bridget, we're. At time, this was so much fun. I'm glad you're going to be around in the community and we can just keep talking and chatting and you're not far away. So, y'all, if you're members, you can find Bridget in Slack. If you're in Columbus, you can look for her at our next, one of our next events. It's been wonderful. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge and your power on marketing partnerships.

Speaker 1: 59:03

Like I said, I took lots of notes. I'm really excited about this. I'm going to do some brainstorming at lunch, you're awesome.

Speaker 2: 59:09

Thank you so much. This was a blast, absolutely.

Speaker 1: 59:12

Like I said, it's the 4th of July weekend next week, so we're on a break next week. I hope you all take some time to rest and relax and enjoy the holiday weekend and until then, I hope you all keep asking, keep giving and keep growing, and we'll see you next time. Thank you all. Produced by Heartcast Media.