My Journey to Very Modest Fame
Jim Knight and Brant Menswar interviewed me on their excellent Thoughts That Rock podcast.
We talked about how my journey to become a B2C tequila influencer, after decades as a B2B influencer (and why I get recognized in airports now, but always for tequila!)
How to Delight B2B Customers
Speaking of B2B, if you are a customer experience/customer service leader in that arena, you definitely should be at the Do B2B Better conference.
9/12 in Minneapolis, and run by the very smart CX pro Jim Tincher.
A 3-minute Favor?
My good friend Zontee Hou is writing her first book, about marketing personalization.
She needs your help. If you work in marketing for a company, would you please participate in this quick survey, by Monday?
It's easy. Thank you!
Is Your Differentiator Experienced, or Just Noticed?
Word of mouth remains the best way to grow any business.
But as I wrote about in Talk Triggers, you have to create viral conversation with intention.
The big mistake most businesses make is assuming that competency will create conversation. It doesn't.
People don't talk about good, we talk about the unexpected.
This is why it is critical that any differentiator in your business be experienced, not just noticed.
I was at the Ritz Carlton in Cleveland last week, for a 3-day meeting with a mastermind group of professional speakers.
Lovely property, including a bowl of perfect green apples near the elevator.
On the last day, I asked my 20 colleagues if any of them had noticed the apples.
Most had.
Did any of them eat the apples?
No.
Would any of them tell a story to someone else about those apples?
Definitely no.
The apples are something that simply EXISTS. And that doesn't create stories.
Instead, you must design something that OCCURS. Stories are built from experiences, not bullet points.
Contrast the bowl of apples with the famous chocolate chip cookie at DoubleTree hotels.
It's a piping hot cookie, baked onsite, that is physically handed to the guest at check-in. It cannot be avoided or ignored. It is experienced.
And that makes all the difference in word of mouth.
In the research for Talk Triggers, we found that ~ 30% of DoubleTree guest tell someone else a story about that cookie. And pre-pandemic they were handing out ~ 75,000 cookies each day, globally.
That's 25,000 stories every 24 hours, based on a COOKIE.
Is a cookie inherently better than an apple? That's a question for your dietician, but the way the cookie is deployed is much better than a bowl of apples passively being....apples.
If you want your customers to talk about you - and you do - give them a story to tell.
But it needs to be something that OCCURS, not simply something that EXISTS.
The Books Report
"Who is your favorite author?" I was asked last week.
"Bill Bryson."
His history books, explainer books, and travel books are all amazing, but I still re-read Mother Tongue: English and How it Got That Way.
It's a fascinating and hilarious accounting of our very weird language.
If you even partially fancy yourself a writer or linguist, you will adore this book!
Jay's Faves
My new podcast obsession is 20,000 Hertz.
Each episode is the rollicking tale behind a sound or audio component that impacts our culture.
How did "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" become the third-most recognizable song in America?
Why have commercial jingles faded away, EXCEPT for insurance companies, which use them more than ever?
Produced by a sound design firm, so each episode is ear candy, as well.
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