Together Digital Power Lounge, Women in Digital with Power to Share
Digital is a demanding and competitive field. And women are still grossly underpaid & underrepresented. But we are not powerless; we have each other. Together Digital Power Lounge is your place to hear authentic conversations from women in digital who have power to share. Listen and learn from our amazing guests along with host Amy Vaughan, Owner and Chief Empowerment Officer of Together Digital. Together Digital is a diverse and collaborative community of women who work in digital who choose to share their knowledge, power, and connections. To learn more, visit www.togetherindigital.com.
Together Digital Power Lounge, Women in Digital with Power to Share
Mission-Driven Marketing
Are you interested in how strategic marketing can create community change with limited resources? In this episode of The Power Lounge, host Amy Vaughn introduces Erin Maxson from COHatch, a specialist in impact marketing. The episode, titled "Mission-Driven Marketing," explores the use of narrative to engage communities and the effectiveness of cost-efficient marketing campaigns. Erin shares examples from supporting local blood drives to assisting a budding romance novelist with a new website. The discussion will cover the importance of local involvement, the benefits of seeking feedback, and how targeted marketing efforts can influence communities significantly.
Listen for a conversation filled with real-world stories and strategies from Erin that demonstrate how impactful change is achievable for everyone..
Connect with Erin:
Erin Maxson
Head of National Digital and Marketing, COHatch
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erinmaxson/
Episode Timestamps:
00:00 - Introduction
00:49 - Exploring Purpose-Driven Marketing for Significant Impact
09:20 - Personalized Contributions from Smaller Businesses
11:00 - Discovering Pressure-Free Community Impact in Phoenix
16:19 - COHatch: Enhancing Community with Coworking Spaces and Rentals
24:06 - Laurie Champions Passionate Storytelling for Community Engagement
27:22 - Effective Storytelling in Impact Marketing on a Budget
32:28 - Building Sustained Relationships Through Mission-Driven Marketing
37:51 - Leveraging Local Research to Understand Community Needs
43:02 - Lynette Utilizes Local Design for Enhanced Community Comfort
49:23 - Focusing on Revenue and Organizing Events to Support Star House
53:50 - Committing Effectively by Knowing Yourself
57:59 - Challenges Encountered While Reading "How Change Happens"
01:02:19 - Outro
Quote of the Episode:
"Being a smaller business or freelancer is tough, but seeing my direct impact on others is deeply rewarding." - Erin Maxson
"In impact-driven campaigns,You have to be prepared to watch it fly or fail" - Erin Maxson
Hello everyone 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, and today we are joined by Erin Maxson. She is mastering the art of impact marketing at one of America's largest workplace providers and who is also an amazing partner to Together Digital Cohatch.
Speaker 1:Erin is joining the show to tell us about how making a difference doesn't have to break the bank. In fact, some of the most powerful community initiatives don't cost a dime. From her home, based in Phoenix which I'm kind of sort of jealous about right now because I am sitting in gloomy Cincinnati, ohio where she balances national digital strategies with her love for the desert adventure for desert adventure, her three dogs, aaron, brings a unique perspective on how technology and marketing can be forces for good. She is going to share practical, accessible ways to weave purpose into your marketing DNA. So, whether you're a seasoned marketer looking to add more meaning into your campaigns or you're just starting to explore your work and how to create positive change.
Speaker 1:This conversation is certainly for you. We will talk about finding your why, maximizing your impact on a minimal budget, and why the bottom line isn't the only line that actually matters. So grab your coffee, your tea, your notebook and join us for the next hour as we explore how to make marketing matter more. And for those of you who are with us listening live, don't forget you can join the conversation through the chat. We love to hear your comments and especially your questions. Erin, thanks for joining us today.
Speaker 2:Thank you for having me. I'm very excited.
Speaker 1:Me too. Me too. Again, this is something near and dear to my heart. I've been a marketer for longer than I would probably like to say. It stops at 15 years, and then I just kind of quit adding years after that.
Speaker 1:I'm like oh we're just going to stop counting, kind of after 40. I'm like, and then some change. But you know, mission is just another and purpose is just another thing that over the years has just become more and more prevalent and meaningful, not to just us marketers but to consumers as well, and I'm really curious for you to share with our listeners. You know that, how purpose has become a part of your journey. I know you've said in the past it's been there kind of from the start, but what was that first moment that sparked your interest and impact driven marketing?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I graduated with a marketing degree and I had changed my major seven times and it got to the point where I was just like I got to get out of here, man, and so I ended up going back to the College of Business and I got my marketing degree. I didn't really know what I wanted to do with it. I was really into sports, then thought I was going to work in the NBA, which is a little bit of a different kind of life. 120 hour weeks and always being on the go Paycheck did not add up. So I started looking at other things and I got my first job out of college remote. It was a remote job for an agency based out of Louisiana and I was living in Fort Worth. I'd love to say that that agency was very impact driven. It was not. But in my free time is kind of where I started mixing the impact in the marketing. I had just adopted a dog about a year prior. Her name is Rory and you're probably going to hear all about her. She's my little angel, angel dog.
Speaker 2:But I was doing marketing of all kinds. I was kind of just getting started in agency life, picking up things that I could, so I had a lot of random skill sets social media, content creation, copywriting, advertising, all that stuff and I started volunteering at a local shelter. So it kind of went hand in hand that I was, as I started, getting more involved with the shelter. They had a lot of needs, obviously understaffed, not enough funding all of that fun stuff we all know is common knowledge in a lot of different industries. But I was volunteering at this kill shelter in Fort Worth and it really opened my eyes to how much marketing makes an impact and can really change the lives of everybody, whether that's a dog or a person or a family lives of everybody, whether that's a dog or a person or a family. I spent a lot of time doing social media stuff, doing photos, writing bios for dogs and really like we could get one photo and one good bio out. You could get a dog that had been in the shelter for 200 plus days adopted in a weekend and it was one of those things that it makes you realize that a lot of us do a lot of the same things every day in marketing.
Speaker 2:Like you may be posting social posts every single day, but it was such a eye opening experience for me to see it, really go that far and make an impact, and it also made me want to bring that back into work Right, I had a lot of small business clients at the time that I think it's pretty common theme. Everybody's like I can't make an impact, I just need to, you know, make enough revenue in order to survive this month, kind of thing. But I was able to kind of take some of those experiences from that volunteer work and it really kind of spurned everything else in my life afterwards and just trying to make the most impact as possible. So it was very hard and difficult but it was also very rewarding. So I think that's that is always the common theme as well with impact marketing. It's not easy to do most of the time, but it can be very inexpensive and also make a really big difference if you, if you know what you're doing and where to start Right.
Speaker 1:I love that so much. Erin, I'm very much with you. I'm an animal lover and have been since childhood, and I think oftentimes in order to quell the drama that happens sometimes in marketing and advertising I've said we're not saving lives here, but what you just said is that you were, you actually can and you were saving lives with your marketing, and I love that so much.
Speaker 2:I know I may not be able to do that now, but I do my. We do a little bit different, different kind of impact now but Right, right, but it does.
Speaker 1:It does go to show that right, because depending on the type of marketing that you're doing, it can have that level of impact and I think that is an important reminder.
Speaker 1:So, while I was mentioning it at a little tongue in cheek, at the end of the day it could have that potential and it is 100% right. I think I have a friend her wife works at they're a no-kill shelter and you know it's a big uphill battle to try to, you know, maintain funds, to maintain space, to, you know all of those different things. But a big part of how they are successful is truly their marketing and their ability to make these animals, you know, positioned as adoptable, to keep people aware. And you know we had that kind of conversation about at a friend's dinner party about how instrumental marketing is. And I think the thing I've always loved about marketing and I'm sure you feel this way too is that it's creative problem solving. And you know, if you are truly creative, it's not big budgets aren't always necessarily required, right, like that's a part of the problem solving sometimes, right, just working around those smaller budgets and figuring out how to make the most of it very scrappy marketer.
Speaker 2:I think a lot of people. If you start working at larger agencies and you've got clients with a lot of budget, you're used to certain things right and it definitely I worked my way up that ladder of like getting to a more stable business with CoHatch. I worked in a lot of startups before but I think it really helped me kind of shape the impact that you can make with pennies on the dollar if not just using your time to be creative.
Speaker 1:So yeah, yeah, and you and I kind of had the inverse experience. I started at bigger agencies, first with bigger budgets and to me it was like bigger budgets sometimes equaled bigger barriers, right, Because all those dollars went towards a lot more layers and usually like legal involved and more kind of like teams and things like that. And then now running a smaller, more mission-based business I'm my own client, best client ever and then you have to figure out how to be scrappy and creative and you do maximize the dollars and the opportunities and there are less layers and people usually involved and so things can be more agile and that can do more testing and learning and creating efficiencies, Whereas, like when you have those bigger budgets, sometimes then you have to kind of you know, I don't know almost validate those dollars more and you don't actually maximize every penny and to me sometimes there's a little bit. There's more waste, in my opinion, honestly.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, for sure, because you don't watch every dollar and every cent that goes through.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think that's the important part of your so what was your Go? Ahead. Sorry, I was just going to say I think the important part-.
Speaker 1:No finish.
Speaker 2:If you're looking at big budgets and things like that, a lot of those businesses, they have other ways of making an impact right and it's maybe not so local and not so in touch with what the actual needs are. It's more like a generic overlay of what they can possibly do, and I think that's even though it's harder to be a smaller business or a freelancer. It definitely at least for me, it's always been more rewarding to be able to like see my personal like I helped that dog or I worked with this person and now they've launched a series of books or whatever it is, and I think that's always. There's good and bad to both, but I do like the challenge of being a smaller, scrappier kind of thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's such a great point, that direct impact. You get to see that so much more when you're dealing with a smaller scale, so I'm curious how's your approach to the community impact evolved sort of since kind of moving to, since moving to Phoenix and working with Cohatch?
Speaker 2:couple of years. I was living on the road for about two, two and a half years during our wonderful COVID years and I think that all that whole situation definitely changed the way we look at community and community impact. I spent a lot of time in Phoenix I lived in Phoenix previously before I took my trip and did all that fun stuff and it really has always felt like home and even though I had friends here before, it was always very hit and miss. I didn't really have like a true community. But as I'm now more rooted in Phoenix, it's been increasingly more meaningful and important to me to figure out how to have an impact and how to find the right people in the community and to reach and do the right things that actually have meaningful community impact within that smaller circle.
Speaker 2:Cohatch I've been there for almost been here for almost four years now. I've learned a lot about impact and impact marketing. I think many people who have been through agency life or who have had larger scale clients probably know that everything is usually tied to the bottom line right. So everything that you do has to make some kind of increase and bump you up more in the green. What I've really enjoyed with my time at Cohatch is that I've felt like the pressure has been off to attach every single thing to revenue and I can still feel it in my body a little bit every time that I, you know, pitch something or we do a campaign and I'm like, oh God, but what if we don't make money and we just spend all this money on random collateral or whatever? But I really have had the pressure taken off of me and it's really helped me shift my mindset a little bit, if not a lot. Matt Davis, who's our CEO, has had to mold me from the beginning, because I was I've always worked in startups. I've always worked in businesses where it's, like I said, everything's tied to the bottom line. If you don't do well, people don't get paid right. But when I first joined the team, I had obviously had all that experience. All I could see was like we got to be efficient Dollar signs, you know that's got to be the first thing. But it was a real breath of fresh air for me because it wasn't about a conversion. It was about what makes a lasting impression on our members, on our team members, on our community, because those are the stories, those are the metrics, so to speak that last a lifetime and it's very, very different and it's definitely more of like a qualitative metric, right, but we define conversions as anything that makes an impact on our people, right?
Speaker 2:We have members that mention things in passing. Like you know, I've got my kid's first birthday coming up and part of our membership is you get free life events now. So everybody that's a member. They have three events per year they can host at any of our membership is you get free life events now. So everybody that's a member, they have three events per year. They can host at any of our locations completely for free. And we track that. We want to make sure that our members are using those benefits and getting the most out of it, and that really truly is, I would say, the majority of our reviews. The majority of the metrics that I track is going to be the stories I hear from people, the memories that are made, how engaged people are with our brand and the experience we provide, and all of that has really led to some great, amazing partnerships. Like you're looking to gather, digital is a great partnership for us.
Speaker 2:Star House is another one.
Speaker 2:We're working locally with Star House in Columbus to help renovate and completely redo a unhoused facility for youth in Columbus, so we're working with them.
Speaker 2:We're also working with Sanctuary Night to help with those that are in sex work and making sure that they're housed and healthy and safe, and it's things like that we wouldn't have been able to do if we were purely focused on revenue, but I will say that it's. That's the stuff that investors are interested in. A lot of people nowadays, especially if they're wanting to invest big dollars in business. They want to know what you're doing for the people and they want to be invested directly in their local communities. They want to see like physical, tangible evidence that you're doing something before they even put money in your business or your idea. And it's some of that stuff that we do out of the goodness of our heart, because it's stuff that's so meaningful to us, but it has allowed our business to grow tenfold. We have people wanting to create impact hubs, like we're doing at star house and other cities now, and we'd love to do it, but now you're we're out of bandwidth kind of situation, right? So, yeah, it's um, I've learned a.
Speaker 1:I think it's definitely is a mind shift set for most marketers to not see the dollar signs, but I feel like I've learned quite a bit and Matt has really been like don't worry about it, it's all going to work out if we do the right thing for the people versus the short game and the immediate returns, because I think what you're building, in my opinion and it sounds like we're pretty much aligned in that way right, it's like you're building belief, you're building trust by establishing and living out your values as an organization, as a brand, and I think that's what we've always loved is having Cohatch as a partner. And for those of you who aren't familiar live listeners, I've dropped the link to the Cohatch website in the chat. We'll include it in the show notes. And, for those of you who aren't familiar, they provide co-working and rented office spaces throughout the country, namely in the Midwest and in the South as well, and they're kind of expanding all over, but again, like you said, offering up those like life event type spaces and it is very community centric. And your community managers, like I mean, I have my favorite locations and I know my community managers and they know what's going on with my life and they know my kids names and you know I know what's going on with them and their families, because you know there's something about you know, having a culture.
Speaker 1:All of us are living this new world of you know, hybrid and remote work and a lot of us miss that aspect of you know having a culture.
Speaker 1:All of us are living this new world of you know, hybrid and remote work, and a lot of us miss that aspect of you know, company culture, and I think what you know Cohatch does really well is it provides that extension of that and that sense of community.
Speaker 1:And so, like partnerships and working with organizations like ours together, digital members in case you don't know, y'all should know because we messaged it a lot um, but like, if you're ever looking for co-working space, you know we get, like our members get 30 off of co-working space, which is so generous, um, and then, if you're looking to rent office space, like richard's been working with some of our members to help them find and get space as well, which has been amazing. Um, but I have to, erin, what does that do for you as a marketer, too right, when somebody as high up at the very top comes to you and says I don't want you to worry about the bottom line all the time, I want you to also think about, like, impact and opportunity. What does that do for your sense of risk taking and innovation?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think one of the biggest things about working at CoHatch and the leadership at CoHatch they put so much trust in their people to know the right thing and do the right thing. And I think there have been several roles or even freelance projects I've taken on where I've been so scared to fail. Right. Like you do something. You have a really good idea, it's going to cost some money, and you're just terrified. You have a really good idea, it's going to cost some money and you're just terrified Like you've never done it before. But you think it's going to be good and if it's not, you're like oh God, I could be out of here, I might not be able to pay my bills next month.
Speaker 2:I don't have that fear here at all and there have definitely been days where I've shed happy tears about it, because I always have it's always been I'm a very empathetic person. I wear my heart on my sleeve. I care so much about every single person. Like I'm one of those people. Like I see an ant on the sidewalk and I try not to step on it.
Speaker 2:And so it's some of that, that like it's so nice to be able to bring that part of me to work and be able to lead my team with that mindset as well. So, like all the things that we do, which we do a lot of internal communication as well for my team and for the whole, like broader organization of Cohatch, we do a lot of like training and rollouts and like my team is so focused on trying to do the right thing for other people and it just bleeds into everything that we do now and I like every time I talk to people on my team or even other people, you know, like our community managers, everybody is just so, so impact and heart driven. I just haven't seen it anywhere else and, yeah, that's fantastic, it's, it's a very good feeling.
Speaker 1:It's much different than most places I've been, so yeah, it gives you a good reason to show up. And then, like you said it, without that risk or without that fear of failure, um, that desire to one show up, try harder, lean in, take those risks, be more innovative, like, how much better of a company are you all because of that. And I have to say too, I thought it was super sweet. So shout out to all of your coworkers. By the way, you shared yesterday, I think it was, or maybe the day before on LinkedIn that you were coming on the podcast. I have never seen so many coworkers do shout outs, reshare the post, give the praise. So I mean, y'all are doing something right.
Speaker 1:Um, and the amount of support that I saw, so that was really wonderful.
Speaker 2:I love seeing that. You are going to make me tear up thinking about it. I was already reaching out to everybody because as soon as I posted it I was getting notifications back that everybody had shared it and I was like, oh my gosh, all are too kind to me. So it's yeah, we have a very, very good culture.
Speaker 1:You do, and, aaron, you only get what you give. So it's just. It's just, it's a reflection of what you're putting out there. So kudos to you as well.
Speaker 1:And again to the company and the culture that you guys are building and creating. So, yeah, it just goes to show what a great culture that you all are fostering and with the work that you're doing. All right, let's talk a little bit about some specifics on a campaign where you were able to achieve both your business goals and community impact, where maybe budget was a little bit of a constraint.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so one of the things that I was this was early on in my career with Coach and we had finally gotten a team big enough and and I was getting to the spot where I was like what fun things can we do now, you know, like we were just trying to get through all the things that we knew we had to do and we finally were to the spot where we could do something different, something new, and one of my favorite things that I've ever seen from a marketing perspective was something called a good newspaper, and I'm sure several people, if anybody's on here, has heard of the original good newspaper. I get their emails and I loved it and it was one of those things that I was like how do I take that and do something here? Obviously, we have so many members, we have so much going on. It's hard to get it all together, but I was really gung-ho about it and we didn't.
Speaker 2:Print is expensive for those that don't know, and so we have thousands of members talking about doing a physical good newspaper. It's one an expensive task and one that's probably not. I wouldn't say it's a thankless project, but it's one of those things that I was not anticipating to have as much feedback good feedback from it as we did, and it's one of the things that we started off as doing is like we thought we were just going to do it once and see how it went and now we went from doing it monthly to quarterly because it's a huge task. But it's not really a true campaign per se, but it is one of my favorite marketing projects we've ever done. It's one of my favorite strategies that helps not only us but the community. We deliver it to our restaurant partners.
Speaker 2:It's one of those things that it just is such a really cool concept and I didn't realize, even with a small budget I think we started with maybe we did like maybe 200 or 300 copies the first time and we had such like overwhelming feedback that we were like we got to keep doing this. Like we have so many people that want to be a part and share and investors love getting it. Like it's stuff that we get asked for Like every. We do it quarterly now. So we went from monthly to quarterly this last year just because it's such a heavy lift and we have so many scholars now. But I get questions pretty much every month from the team When's the next good newspaper that's coming out. My members want to see it. I have a member that wants to be in it.
Speaker 2:The investors want to know what stories are happening, and it's one of our most powerful tools and projects we've ever done because, it really showcases not only our impact because we really do try to stay away from like showing off the things that we open another location but for the most part, we show off you know what our members are doing, our nonprofits, what are their causes, what projects are they working on, what kind of funding, what events are they doing, startups, what ideas are coming up and what's trending and things like that. And even our team members. We have so many great team members that are doing volunteer work Lori, who's in Delaware. She does the blood drive it seems like every other week and she is the most passionate, fantastic community manager. She stays really involved.
Speaker 2:And it's one of my favorite things to be able to tell the stories of other people, because I think more often than not, we get so invested in our business and our idea we lose the stories of the people that we work with right, like why we actually do what we do and how we impact people and how people think of us and the memories, everything that's attached to our brand. Beyond the people that are doing the work, it really it's your best marketing tool for yourself, but it's also the best way to be able to understand what people need and how you can help others in your community. So that was. It's probably my. It's not a specific campaign, but I was like I got to talk about this because it's one of my favorite projects that we do.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, absolutely. Yeah, I always grab one whenever I'm in one of the coworking spaces, um, and I remember getting super excited because I got featured in one was it the year before last? And, um, my kids were excited cause they got to keep a printed copy. And you know, in this digital age it's such a novel thing. But you're right, it's such a small nuanced thing, um, and there is something to um that, specifically, that does breathe in life, to that sense of community. Um, that is such a great idea. So I think that's such a wonderful um notion to give to the community to think about.
Speaker 1:What are those kind of nuanced ways? If you're trying to bring back a sense of community and connectedness and something like that, where you're featuring the people, the customers, the community and something like something that's printed, that feels more tactile and permanent, is such a beautiful way to express that. Um, and it's not, you know, it might require a bit of a lift and then, if you're kind of doing it, you know one thing might too much, but quarterly is just enough of a way. That's such a great way to get the engagement and to keep the community involved. That's a really, really wonderful, beautiful way to do it. I was going to just throw in the fun little anecdote that I live in this really cutesy little neighborhood that my kids help deliver the town crier. Our village literally has a printed newsletter that goes out and I know, right, it's very, very quaint and they only just stopped it a few years back.
Speaker 1:But they used to have like a whole column that was neighboring with nina, where they announced new people that bought houses in the neighborhood and they would interview the families and everything, but it still like features all the small businesses in town it talks about like events that are happening or upcoming it like it talks about you know um history within the village and it's just and I hope it never goes away.
Speaker 1:You know it's been happening for like a hundred years and I hope it really never goes away, cause you're right it kind of has that sense of community and it's a once a month thing during the from, I think, labor Day to the Memorial Day, and then we have a little bit of a break and I love that. My kids do it. They get a little bit of cash for it, it's like their little job, but yeah, yeah it does, it creates a sense of community.
Speaker 2:So yeah, great idea. Yeah, that's fantastic. And I guess for those of you that are probably like, oh, I don't have it in the budget for print, I totally get it. We also do like a newsletter form that we do in our off cycle For if we have other stories that are coming in, we just can't wait. We've got something really cool going on. Yeah, I will say I think every like we've and I'll talk more about this is impact. Marketing does not have to be expensive, and one of the cheapest, cheapest, easiest ways to motivate people to do more, to make a larger impact, is storytelling. Whether that's your story, somebody else's story, all it costs is time and a little bit of brain power, and those, those moments are far more impactful than delivering on a KPI, at least in my experience here.
Speaker 1:So Absolutely, absolutely, erin, I agree wholeheartedly. I love that Awesome. All right, let's talk about misconceptions and in mission driven marketing. What do you, what do you feel is one of the biggest? Or, if you want to name a couple, even, yeah, I think, the biggest one.
Speaker 2:I keep saying it people think mission driven marketing is too expensive, it's going to take too much time. Only the big businesses can truly make an impact. I know people look at us all the time. They're like, oh that huge project you're doing with Starhouse is so great, but I could never do that. You don't have to to make an impact.
Speaker 2:And I think one of the biggest and this is not a co-op story, but one of the biggest things that made me teary eyed, which as I get older I noticed that I've always like my little heartstrings are just pulled in every direction but the craziest thing I ran into somebody that used to volunteer with at shelter work. She knew a guy who had just retired, has been an engineer all his life, made good money, he just bought a property in Tucson and he's helping reset and retrain a lot of behavioral dogs. It is a thankless job. I have worked with so many behavioral cases in the past and I got connected with this guy and I was just really moved by by his like, his whole like career, like he basically changed his career at the last part of um before he retired, started doing all this dog training, did all this stuff. We got connected. I was so moved by his mission and all the things that he's trying to do. I sent him five dollars on his website. I sent him five dollars.
Speaker 2:Don't know this man. He didn't me. I was just a lady that put $5 into his PayPal account. Three hours later I got an email back from him and he was thanking me profusely for my $5. Like he was like, and I said it's only $5. Like I, I could send more, but I don't. I mean you're getting started, I don't know everything about you. It could have been it, I don't. I mean you're getting started, I don't know everything about you. It could have been. It could have been a thousand dollars, you know, but $5. And he sent me an email back after I said it's only $5. I'm looking forward to seeing all your progress. And he said to me it's not just $5. It's everything to me. Without people giving me $1, $2, $5, $10, $1,000. I can't do this. And it was one of those moments where I was like you know, maybe it's a little old man syndrome, I don't know.
Speaker 2:But I was just like I was so moved by him being willing to go back and forth with me so much over the fact that I spent $5. So I want everybody to understand that, like you don't have to do much to make an impact and sometimes it's just listening, right. You get those stories, you tell those stories, you find ways to discount things here and there for businesses or people you believe in. I had another. I had a lady when my freelance days. She was 62, 63, and she had just started writing romance novels and she wrote three of them, wanted a website built, and she had no, had no idea. And I did it all for free because I was just so moved by the fact that she's this late in the game and doing something completely different, right, and that's. That's a story that I will remember for the rest of my life.
Speaker 2:And she's still got her website up and she's still writing books.
Speaker 1:Love it.
Speaker 2:So it's stuff like that that I think, if you can find small ways to do it, like you don't have to go big, you don't have to go grand, right? There's so many ways that you can make an impact and there's so many things out there now, like there's different software for, like, rounding up and donating back, so even for invoicing, things like that it's it's really easy to do if you're just willing to spend a little bit of time thinking about it, and it's way easier to do if it's something that you're passionate about too, right? So those, those are the biggest misconceptions that I think people have.
Speaker 1:And.
Speaker 2:I know people probably look at me and they're like Erin, you're such a large business and you have so much. And I do now but I did not before.
Speaker 1:Well, and being on the other side of that too is like. What you're making me think of is the fact that, like when you are, you know, doing mission driven marketing, making sure that every interaction, you are treating each customer with kindness and care and appreciation and letting them know that each interaction counts and it's not just transactional, that it is transformational. Every time somebody decides to take whatever action that they can take, you know whether it's a dollar or $5, that it matters, and making sure that you're explicitly saying that and letting them know is creating, it's cementing the relationship, it's building trust and it's loyalty Because, right, like you continue to, they'll keep showing up, right, they'll keep following along, they'll keep contributing, versus just saying okay, yeah, thanks, thanks for your dollar, okay, bye. You know what I mean Makes such a difference when you treat it differently, or when you see it differently and appreciate every little interaction and appreciate any instance in which they can show up and give, versus just kind of diminishing their contribution regardless.
Speaker 2:Yeah, 100%. That's so important. It's so important to get into that. I think that's we're all so busy and life moves so fast and it's it's hard sometimes to really stop and be grateful for those moments, when you have them, where you get to learn about a client or you get to learn about a team member or a member. But it really is what it's all about and if you're trying to find ways to have an impact, like the first thing you can do is listen and be there and understand somebody I wouldn't say deeply, but deeper in order to make that impact digital and they're always like oh, thank you so much for your time.
Speaker 1:I know how busy you are, and I say I know how busy you are. You know my time is no more valuable than yours and you're investing to be here. So I'm going to invest in being here for you and it's one of those things like I love it. It's my favorite part of the day. I get to learn and understand how they found out about us, why they're here, what they need. It's just as valuable for me, hopefully, as it is for them.
Speaker 2:I think you and I have talked already three times since I joined, and it's not even been a month.
Speaker 1:It's so great. It is so great and it's absolutely well worth my time, and it's one of those things now, as a business owner, that I will never change my mind about. I will always find a way to make time on my calendar for my members, because they are, first and foremost, the most important part of my business, because without them I have no business, and for any other business, without your customers, how do you have a business? So it's just, it's just one of those things you just have to make room for those kinds of you know it's not transactional. You are building relationships. I don't care what you're selling, it is about those relationships and showing up, and so when people take the time to show up, you've got to show up for them and you've got to say thank you and appreciate the time and the energy, the effort and the choice, because we have so many choices now, right, an abundance of choices.
Speaker 1:And, oh my gosh, we just did a masterclass on sales and, oh my gosh, I'm trying to remember the quote that she said. She was Westland, she was brilliant. She said we are also running up against. The challenge that we are always faced with is the the decision not to solve the problem, to not do anything. We're not just competing with our competitors, we're competing with the choice to not do anything and I'm like, oh my gosh, she's so right. Anyhow, the next question I have for you is I mentioned earlier, we've got co-hatches across the country. You guys are growing, obviously. How do you ensure that you, you know, can from a local? I don't know how I worded this question. It doesn't read right to me now. Hold on, let me read it and then try to say it. How do you scale authentically and create impact with initiatives nationally when you're kind of? You know you're all over?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Hopefully that makes sense.
Speaker 2:It does make sense. I hope my answer will make sense. It's definitely. It's one of my biggest challenges.
Speaker 2:You know, I think I have worked at like internationally involved companies before and it's always been very blank slate everywhere, right, like you may have know, language difference, but the brand, the values, all that stuff there's not a lot of stuff that really changes too much, um, but for us, as we go into every city, every town, it is a challenge because I mean, we have learned so much in the last three to four years, especially with how everybody's operating differently post COVID too, like these small these the culture of people getting out and about is very different than what it used to be, right, and we're a very small team.
Speaker 2:So there's only four people that work with me on marketing, including our part-time intern right now. So, and we support all of our locations nationally And's definitely it's a challenge to get the right mix of like this is cohatch, this is what we do, and then also, you know, we're going to tampa and then we're also in pittsburgh. Yeah, it's very, very different and the people are very different everywhere we go. Um, but we do spend quite a bit of time trying to get to know the community before we go in. A lot of demographic research goes into it for us understanding what are the hot spots One of the biggest things we have learned, especially post-COVID these downtown areas that were once bustling and everybody was so stoked to go to the office.
Speaker 2:I don't know if that was ever true, but people don't want to go down there anymore Like they want to be working close to home. They want to be doing stuff that's important to them their families, working with organizations that are actually making improvements in and progressing in their neighborhoods, Like we're getting down to very granular, Like it's not about are you making a widespread change in the nation.
Speaker 2:It's about are you making a change in my neighborhood down the street two blocks away about are you making a change in my neighborhood down the street two blocks away. So we do a lot of work trying to get in with chambers, trying to meet all kinds of local businesses, even businesses that we know won't use our space retail businesses, things like that working with the city to ensure that we are delivering on what they actually need and how their people are operating and coming together delivering on what they actually need and how their people are operating and coming together. But once we, once we open a location, is really when I think the local really hits in for us, because we try to do a lot of upfront. We do have people on the ground, right, but it's some of that that you can't get until you see the people using our spaces, and so that always goes back to the storytelling. Like we have so many great nonprofits, you have so many great entrepreneurs, startups. We've got all these great people and they're so different everywhere, but they're also the same, right. They all have kind of the same needs. But it's also one of those things that, like the I've got, I could name half a dozen nonprofits that I've talked to and interviewed that I'm like y'all do the same thing but you're all completely different, you know, and it's seeing that, and once we've opened our doors and seeing the people that use our spaces, that really helps me gauge the mix a bit better and make sure that we're doing things authentically and unless we run into any crazy stuff before we open a location.
Speaker 2:You know, some communities are different. Development is always fun, but I think some of that is it's so important for you to do a lot of the planning upfront to make sure that you're not missing the mark locally. But you really aren't going to know until you're there and you're talking to the people and you meet the people and especially the most engaged people. And so I take a lot of stock into the feedback that we get from early users. I take a lot of stock into testimonials. Like we have Slack channels where we get every single review that comes in and I review every single one. Our team responds to every review.
Speaker 2:We take all that feedback and we do something with it, Right? Or if somebody shares a really great moment, um, like, we have impact stories for our scholars. They can go in and add anything that they've achieved you know being in our space and that's the stuff that you know. Like I'll reach out to somebody same day, Cause I it's so important to me to understand locally what's needed, because so so many other business I've been at have always been focused nationally, right, um, and once you get to that size rate like losing losing a member or 10 or 20 or 50 doesn't feel like anything. But every member that is at Cohatch means something to me. They're here for a reason and anytime we have a bad experience I want to know why Did we do something wrong? Is there something that we could have done differently? Is there just a different mindset or a different culture? And I learn every day. I love it.
Speaker 1:I think you just made such a good point and I'm going to put a pin in it and say that it's listening, it's listening and acting on what you hear. And it sounds so simple but it's so profound and important because I think a lot of businesses want to create impact but it becomes an echo chamber because they don't look outside themselves and they don't ask for the feedback and then, if they do ask for the feedback, they don't truly listen and or act on it. Right, they'll sit with it, they'll hold on to it, they'll sit on it, but they don't really take it into account and they don't truly act on it. But I think that is such an important aspect of of it and I will say having. So we got to tour, we did a road show, not this last year but the year before that, and so we got to tour, like Indianapolis, cleveland, columbus, cincinnati, pittsburgh, and so, yeah, shout out to Lynette in Pittsburgh. We loved it. But getting to see each of the different locations, what was really cool is that there was that common, like you know, you felt that common thread of, like co-hatch, you know, branding and just consistency of certain things, but at the same time, I love the way you all kind of you can definitely feel like that outside community brought inward, and you know, each of your community managers had like that sense of like understanding and nuance of like what from the outside influences from the outside community got brought into, like the design or like the layout of the actual co-hatch, and I love that intentionality and so, like the community managers like I said specifically Lynette was really good about like pointing out certain things about the design and like the walls and things like that that kind of reflected Pittsburgh and its history and that area in particular.
Speaker 1:And I think a lot of that I don't know, it just speaks. It speaks true to the people who you know live in that area and want to work in that area. When they see somebody new coming into the space and they're like well, I want, I want myself, my home, my values, my city to feel reflected, and I think that's really smart. It goes to show that you all are listening and then you're reflecting back to the people that you want to feel, that are coming into the space to feel seen, heard and valued. And when they see that, you know they feel comfortable, they feel at home and it's just so smart and all it is is listening, so I think it makes to me all the sense in the world. I also want to give a shout out because I know you guys are opening a Covington location soon, so we have a lot of Cincinnati friends in our membership base in Cincinnati listeners. So if you're listening, get ready. Was it February, is that?
Speaker 2:right? Yeah, we're hoping for February, january, february.
Speaker 1:That's exciting. Lots of awesome little businesses out there in Covington too, the Mainstross area, fabulous area. So if you're looking for some space to co-work or office space in Covington, you'll need to check it out. Maybe we'll do a together digital event there too. All right, fantastic, okay, could you share a time when a community initiative let's just go the other side of things, because you know, sometimes things don't always go to plan and we learn from all things. It's not just about success without strife, right? So when did a community initiative maybe not quite go as planned and what did you learn from it?
Speaker 2:yeah, I think one of the ones that I was so excited about this initiative. So one of our gift scholars, chad justin, um, he's got a patented wear pack. Um, it started with, you know, during clear bag. Everybody does clear bags now for, like, sporting events and things like that so he patented his own and he was a boost scholar for us, a startup scholar for us, for several years. He ended up expanding, moving to Cleveland, has his own warehouse, got his own production facility. Now he got funding from several co-op people members and founders alike and, um, it was really cool for him to come back because he saw what we were doing with star house online and said he wanted to figure out a way for us to work together and collaborate.
Speaker 2:So we went on kind of this rabbit hole of like okay, we're going to design a star House wear pack. We're going to do this back to school campaign so that anybody who purchases a wear pack can either give it back and give it to the youth at Star House through their drop-in center, which is open 24 hours a day. So they give things like backpacks, food, toothbrushes, all that stuff to the unhoused youth of Columbus. And so we were doing this. We were like, oh, this is really cool. We obviously bought a few to donate back and then we put the campaign out there. We pushed it for two months I think. We ended up outside of our purchases. We ended up getting like six or seven bags purchased. We even got picked up by a couple of news outlets for this, and so it was one of those things where it's like, oh, it sounded so good, there was a lot of logistics behind it. We really wanted to make an impact with it, a larger impact with it, I guess, and you know, we kind of fell short of that mark right, and it was one of. It was harder for me and Dave because we were like, oh, we did all these interviews, we put all these social posts and got photos and did design work and all this, and we only ended up with six bags being purchased, despite all of the good feedback and all that.
Speaker 2:So it's one of those things that a lot of times when you're doing impact driven item or marketing campaigns or strategies, you have to do a lot of logistics, you have to do a lot of work up front and if you've never done it before, you have to be prepared to watch it fly or fail. And I'm not saying I would never do something like it again. I think if we had a longer runway, there could have been things that we could have done to maybe prep more for it and put more behind it even. But for us, because we do so many other things, it's also a challenge for us to get good initiatives off the ground, because we offer so much. We do co-working and office and meetings and events, and we've got all kinds of things going on everywhere.
Speaker 2:And so what I learned from that particular campaign we had a crazy busy summer. We introduced a new offer, we had a lot of people that are really interested in all our other stuff and we had so much other stuff going on. It probably just wasn't the right time to do it, but it's one of those things that you know, you live, you learn, didn't love the results, but we still were able to make a small impact, which is important too. So if you're looking at yourself from a failure perspective and you're saying, oh, I shot for the moon and, you know, only got to one star, that's okay. You live and you learn, but it's, it was one of those that I was like, oh, I took so much from it and like, if we were to ever do a collaboration project with somebody else, um, like that, I definitely would go about things a little bit differently, but I think I still would probably say yes to a project like that. It just would be different circumstances and time.
Speaker 1:Right, timing, yeah, timing is a has a lot to do with it. Right, I feel like some of my most, yeah, most of the projects that maybe haven't gone exactly the way that I wanted had a lot to do with the timing and lead time for promotions because, yeah, and frequency of messaging is probably like another big thing we are competing with a very so much stuff, so much attention.
Speaker 1:Yeah, for sure, for sure. That's yeah. That's a great example. Thank you for sharing that. I know it's not always easy to talk about those things, but I think it's really, it's really important you know to kind of learn for where we have fallen flat Because, yeah, I just we don't talk about that stuff enough. But that's really where the learnings truly are Right. Oh yeah 100%. Awesome, all right, how do you measure success when it comes to impact marketing? What do you feel are some of the metrics that matter most?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think I mean I've said a million times we always go back to revenue, right, and it's always really hard, especially when we're doing things. I mean we were doing like a build and brew event in Columbus for Star House, where you know all the proceeds of adult beverages and building furniture and donating will go to Star House. Tracking the success of that would obviously be related to donations and things and you know the money that goes around it, but it's also hard to track in some ways because it's some of that stuff. Our members love that and they stick around because we make it so easy for them to access things that they need, whether if they're fulfilled with volunteering and we've had anytime we do a Star House renovation day we always have so many people that wanna volunteer and they're like thank you for making this so accessible. So it's stuff like that. You'll see the revenue and the donation side, but you'll also see it long term, right, like we talked about the relationship building and how easy and accessible it is to be able to do certain things around impact.
Speaker 2:But really the thing for me and one of the most powerful things we switched over to Sprout Social two and a half years ago, and one of my favorite tools that they have is the social listening tool and it basically generates like this word cloud of like positive, negative, neutral intent you can read through.
Speaker 2:All of you know like what would be like high quality, highly engaged people, whether they're members or just fans of what we do right online, and I really I can't say enough and I know that's how we all operate now like if we want to go somewhere new, we look at reviews, right. So social media, listening to that, reviews anybody that's a repeat person. I get a lot of people that are individual entrepreneurs or influencers or whatever, and they're working out of our spaces and they're sharing content with us all day, every day. It's almost impossible for us to keep up with our social now because we have so many people that are so drawn to sharing about us, and it's that stuff, for me, shows the impact in how much you actually truly make a dent in somebody's day. Right, our goal is always to be the place where you come and you're the most fulfilled version of yourself.
Speaker 2:You're working just down the street from your house or where your kids go to school. You have access to volunteering. We make it easy. You sign up, you bring your kids, you can go to the gym. Right down the road you can go to some of our rest. We do all this stuff on purpose because we want it to be easy and we want the impact to go as far and as deep as you're willing to take it.
Speaker 2:And those stories, those social posts, the reviews, the feedback those are really the things that I look at when it comes to impact marketing and especially when we're doing like partnerships and things like that too, I want to know did our partnership help you and your community? If you're a scholar of ours, did it help you find funding? You know volunteers. Did somebody offer to volunteer to do something as a co-op member now on your board? Those are the stories and you know data points we try to collect as well as like how many times you coming into the space. You know what. Are you using all the things in your membership. Are you booking your free life event? If not, why not? Let's get your birthday party or something going Like. Those are all things that we push really hard for and I'm really trying to get it's. So it's so difficult to track right Cause you know there are a lot of people that are like, oh, I don't want you to have my data.
Speaker 1:I get it.
Speaker 2:But those are the really important parts of what I do in marketing Everything, ad impressions, whatever. I could care less about that now, because the real conversion, the real result for us, is about how deep our impact goes for each individual. I don't necessarily have to make an impact to all 7 billion people in the world, but if I can help a hundred people in Delaware, ohio, that's crazy, that's an amazing impact.
Speaker 1:Yeah, cause the ripple effect as well. Right, that word of mouth and the story sharing. I love that. Yeah, positive, like engagement and that positive engagement that's. Those are both really huge. Love it All. Right. For anyone who is looking to start to incorporate purpose into their marketing strategy, what is one action that they could start to take this week?
Speaker 2:I actually have been thinking about this for myself personally, because we do a lot of stuff at work, right. So we got a lot of stuff going on for impact and I love that. But one of the biggest things as we're getting into 2025, I've been doing a lot of sitting with myself and I think the biggest thing, if you want to start doing this for your business, you want to start doing this as a side thing, volunteering. Whatever you got to get, you got to sit down and you got to know yourself what are you passionate about? What time can you commit? Is there money you can put towards it? Is your time more valuable than your money right now? Is it a donation thing that you'd rather do versus you know, volunteering? That's so important for you to get down and dirty with those details. Because if you start doing something and going down a road because you just want to make an impact and you don't know, you don't care what it is or it doesn't matter right now, you just want to do something, you're not going to help anybody, you're going to be unmotivated, results aren't going to be good and everybody's going to be frustrated, whoever you're trying to help. If you can figure that out.
Speaker 2:And I'm giving you another step here connect with somebody on LinkedIn. That's a part of that cause or somebody that knows the real, true needs. Set up a coffee chat I mean, that's all we're about together digital. I've had so many chats with people already and it's so fun to be able to really understand people's needs and issues and try to find solutions and brainstorm that, and sometimes it's a symbol of like I just need you to set up an email signature or make some tweaks on my website. Like I help people do that from time to time because I you know they need it and it's a simple thing that I can do.
Speaker 2:So, no matter what you decide to do, it's so important to get it aligned with what you really care about, because if you don't, I mean I've I've been guilty of it myself somebody needs help, and then I commit myself to 10 hours and I don't want to do it because I don't see the impact. It doesn't impact me the same way. Like all my dog stuff impacts me significantly more than it would for another cause, probably Cause that's just who I am, yeah, so um, and always just ask people what they need. That's the first step. Like, don't put yourself as, like I want to be the savior, I want to be the hero, right Like you've got, to put your listening ears on and help people where they actually need to be helped, cause, like you said, we have the choice now that if we have a problem, we have so many other problems we can say we don't want to fix that. Right now We've got seven other problems. So make sure your solutions are aligned with the impact that you're trying to make.
Speaker 1:I agree, I agree and I think we chatted this earlier too and we were talking through your onboarding and we've got, after the new year, our goal getters workshop for members and it's all about values alignment and understanding your values and setting your goals so that you're not doing the shoulds of everyone else. You are doing the things you feel are in alignment with the things you should be doing and it just it, it, it just aligns so nicely with what you just said, because you know we've a lot of us face burnout, because we do have a lot of skills and talents and we want to serve, help and support others. But oftentimes we end up giving those gifts away because it's just like, oh yeah, I can fix that, I can do that, but then when you do and put those energies, like you said, towards the things that do fill us up, it feels so different versus kind of just giving it all away without that return of oh. This fulfills a value that I hold. It's helping animals, it's helping somebody that's elderly, that's writing a book for the first time and has been sitting on this aspiration for so long. So, yeah, it's a different kind of reward.
Speaker 1:I love that advice. All right, we've got a few minutes left and we're going to do one more question and then our power round, but I want to make sure that our live listeners know that you all, I love it. You've been.
Speaker 1:You've been getting lots of accolades, of course, erin you're much loved in the chat, but if you all have any questions, you are more than welcome to drop in a question if you have them. We're both, you know, bibliophiles. We love our books. Have there been any books in particular that have shaped your approach to mission-driven marketing that you'd like to recommend to our listeners?
Speaker 2:yeah, so there is. This is awful for somebody who's like, oh, I'm so impact driven and mission driven. I have had I'm gonna pull it out because I finally found it and I told you I was like searching for it earlier. Yeah, this book how change happens on my to be read list for like the last year or so and I have not picked it up yet. It's been one that I've been wanting to read. I will say I am more of a fiction girl these days.
Speaker 2:I used to read a lot of business books, but you know work stays at work now You're living it, trying to do it, but this book is one I've been wanting to pick up for a while, and I think there's so many things that I'm trying to get involved with right now that it makes sense and it came highly recommended. So how Change Happens, by Leslie R Crutchfield Awesome, and it talks through successful and failed campaigns of the 21st century that have inspired societal social cultural change and it gives you some like actual tips.
Speaker 2:So I've skimmed several chapters that I've not fully read the book, but if you're interested in learning how to make change, whether that be at work or anywhere else, I think that would be a good read.
Speaker 1:Okay, well, you're gonna have to. You know, you got that 24 hour flight coming up.
Speaker 1:You have to let us know on the we've got our books, podcasts and articles channel on Slack, so you have to let us know. On the, we've got our books, podcasts and articles channel on slack, so you have to let us know what you think of it. Yeah, I definitely will make a recommendation. It sounds amazing. I like the, I like the thought of it. All right. Well, I don't see any questions popping up yet, so we'll go through our power round. All right, I'm a I'm a nature nerd and I love a good hike, but I also love the water, so I wanted to know desert hike or day on the water?
Speaker 2:I absolutely love both, so in the summer we are on the river pretty much every other weekend.
Speaker 1:We do a lot of paddle boarding. My dog.
Speaker 2:Rory is my captain. I'll have to post some photos in the Slack channel about that. Right now, though, the weather is perfect. The weekend weather is supposed to be high of 72, and it's sunny and beautiful, so we're going to go for a hike. This time around. We do a lot of hiking and backpacking, and the dogs have been in the house pretty much all summer, so we've got to run off some energy, so yeah, I'll say desert hike.
Speaker 1:All right, I'm going to have to get out there to visit you and Meredith soon. All right, oh, I'm going to have to get out there to visit you and Meredith soon, all right, most use app on your phone.
Speaker 2:Oh my God, I'm so not exciting. Um, I'm going to say Instagram.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Because and it's so bad my partner probably is so annoyed with me every night. I absolutely memes. Memes are my go-to, yeah, for good and bad days, but animal videos so yeah, I I learned so many new things about animals every single day and I'm constantly bothering alex with like look at this new animal I found and I'm gonna tell you 20 new facts about it. Um, so that's how I use instagram. I would love to say that I use it to like further my knowledge and work and everywhere else, but it's mostly animals animal therapy.
Speaker 1:I love, I love it. That's great. A funny story. Fun fact I used to have a printed picture of kittens in a barrel. When my team at the agency would get really stressed out, I would just bust out the kittens in a barrel picture and be like, look, everything's going to be okay. Just look at the kittens in a barrel, you'll be all right. Oh, my gosh, um, gosh, um. Let's see, you're okay. I'm gonna go to the last one here, because we're at time your three dogs.
Speaker 2:Personalities in three words okay, I've already talked about rory so much. She's my first dog um that I ever adopted as an adult. But word for her is angel. Um, she's the best, she's the sweetest, can't. I just can't say enough good things about her. Um, my middle dog, asta, who we also call pasta most of the time cute, her word is silly um, she's a ruzz dog, high energy, runs around everywhere. Um, she's just funny. And then mo, which is my latest dog I got two years ago. Um, she's huge, she's a great pyrenees cattle dog, hollylly mix. She's got wonderful traits and so we call her chaos monster. So I'll choose chaos.
Speaker 1:Chaos. I love it. Fantastic. Well, erin, thank you so much for all of your insightful and very inspirational ideas on how we can all be more effective and more purposeful and mission driven marketers. It's been a pleasure. Really appreciate your time. Thank you so much for having me and thank you for everyone who took the time to tune in today, take some notes, share the love in the chat as well as the conversation today. Everyone, it's been a pleasure. Thanks for joining us today. We're excited to see you all next week. Until then, keep asking, keep giving and keep growing.
Speaker 2:Take care.
