Creating Human Moments With Your Brand Live

S5 Ep16

Sue Campbell 

Hello, welcome fellow Awsomologists to Awsomology. I'm Sue.

Ben Bauer 

And I'm Ben and in this episode, we're coming to you live from the Wisconsin Credit Union League's 2023, marketing and public relations workshop.

Audience 

(Applause)

Sue Campbell 

That's a real audience with real people-

Ben Bauer 

Real people. Promise. So we're here talking to our new friends from Wisconsin's credit unions about humanizing their brand. And we also have special guests with us, which we'll get to in just a minute. So, so excited. Thanks, everyone, for being here.

Sue Campbell 

If you are a regular listener, you've heard us talk about humanizing our brand before. And maybe you've checked out our blog post shameless plug for the blog, exclamationcuso.com/blog. And our live audience here today (one more clap)  -

Audience 

(Applause)

Sue Campbell 

They have always heard about every word we could think about the topic. So let's use this time to ask questions, talk strategy. They're all going to bring some questions to the fore for us. But first, if you're ready, Ben, it's time for a brand quiz. Well let's- let's introduce Denise then we'll do our brand quiz.

Ben Bauer 

Sure. So we are so happy to have the speaker who opened the day with us today. Denise Wymore-

Audience 

(Applause. Whoops)

Ben Bauer 

This audience is so good at applause. Oh my gosh. -and she's from Zest AI. But Denise, I'll let you introduce yourself.

Denise Wymore 

All right, credit union lifer started my job as a teller for the tellers, and I love marketing. I love all things marketing, written a couple books about it and talked about that today. love tattoos and all things. You know, fun? Name of the book? Tattoos, the ultimate proof of a successful brand available on amazon.com.

Ben Bauer 

Nice. Well done. We're so good at the shameless plug today. Okay, we're ready.

Sue Campbell 

Okay, so I'm gonna take this off so I can hear myself. What you all don't know is that we prepared to do this workshop last year. And I created this quiz last year. And Ben has been waiting 13 months to know what this quiz is. He has no idea so far. And it's just been sitting in our network drive and he has no idea. So we have six questions, six branding questions, True or False... And I'm gonna give you...Ben and Denise are going to take turns. Okay.

Denise Wymore 

Okay.

Sue Campbell 

So, here we go. If you're ready.

Denise Wymore 

If I don't know, can I pass to him? Like a game show. No?

Sue Campbell 

So you can do whatever.

Denise Wymore 

Okay, cool.

Sue Campbell 

You can walk away. But don't. That's all I'm asking.  Okay. Okay.  Okay, who wants to-  ladies first, okay, obviously ladies first, true or false?

Denise Wymore 

True.

Sue Campbell 

The iconic spokesperson, Betty Crocker was the wife of a director of the Washburn Crosby company. They were the Millers of gold medal flour and the predecessor of General Mills. Is that true or false?

Denise Wymore 

Sounds so true.

Sue Campbell 

You've been tricked by copywriting.

Denise Wymore 

Oh, gosh, you said it was such confidence

Sue Campbell 

Betty was not a single person. The name was created as a way to personalize responses to questions. And if you guessed that name has a meaning behind it, right? Crocker was chosen after another popular company director. So it was his last name. And they chose Betty because it sounded like a friendly name.

Ben Bauer 

In the fifties.

Denise Wymore 

It was perfect. Oh friends such a Betty. Nice.

Sue Campbell 

Okay, Ben, ready?

Ben Bauer 

The pressure's on..

Sue Campbell 

In March of 2018 Wendy's took its penchant for Internet beef into the world of music, releasing Hip Hop mixtape called appropriately "We beefin". The five track album debuted on Spotify, iTunes and Google Play. True or false?

Ben Bauer 

So I'm a super fan of their Twitter or x account, whatever it's called. So it really makes me want to say true, but it almost seems too cool to be true. So I'm gonna say false.

Sue Campbell 

It's true. It's true. songs included songs like "Twitter Fingers", Holding it Down" , "Rest in Grease", "Clownin'", and "Four for $4"  captured and elevated the fast-food chain's beloved sense of humor and did so in a way that was perhaps surprisingly actually good in musical terms. I believe it's realistic even said you could probably put a mixtape on your friends wouldn't even notice it was a marketing stunt and not a standard hip hop album.

Ben Bauer 

And I just got "Clownin" . A burn track I guess-

Sue Campbell 

Everybody get it? Clownin'?

Denise Wymore 

And let me just say I refuse to call Twitter X.

Ben Bauer 

I know-

Denise Wymore 

The fact that they killed Larry Bird. How can you do that?

Sue Campbell 

Did they kill Larry Bird?

Denise Wymore 

Yes, he's gone!

Sue Campbell 

Oh, not the real Larry Bird.

Denise Wymore 

Well, no, but Larry Bird, the Twitter bird. I know So Twitter is my ex, know what I'm sayin'?

Sue Campbell 

It was a bad breakup

Denise Wymore 

It's a bad breakup.

Sue Campbell 

Okay. Okay, Denise in a commercial from 1961 featuring the Flintstones, Fred and Barney are shown sneaking away to enjoy a smoke break with a fresh pack of Winston cigarettes.

Denise Wymore 

Ah, okay. I was born in 1962. So I wasn't around to see this commercial. Just to make it clear. I'm thinking they're smokers because everyone construction. So I'm gonna go with true. I like that. Yeah, that is yes.

Sue Campbell 

It is true. fairly early in the show's original. Yeah. In the show's original six year run, a commercial shows Fred, Barney, Wilma and Betty outside doing household chores. Fred and Barney decided to sneak around backyard and take a smoke break away from Wilma and Betty. Well, the women are hard at work. They remarked they hate seeing the wives work so hard.

Ben Bauer 

Wow. Wow.  To fix the problem. They go and take a smoke break.

Denise Wymore 

I miss the 60s.

Ben Bauer 

As the only guy in this room, I will not make any comments.

Denise Wymore 

Thank you.

Sue Campbell 

Ben is not endorsing that, Ladies, okay. You Ready? Ready. In 1965 An interviewer asked now-legendary folk singer Bob Dylan  what it would take for him to sell out and his reply was ladies undergarments. True to his word, despite being arguably one of the most famous American singer songwriters ever. Bob Dylan has never lent his likeness or his music to a commercial true or false.

Ben Bauer 

I'm gonna say true because I can't think of any.

Sue Campbell 

It is false. You can see Bob Dylan looking very on brand and still somehow appearing in 2004 Victoria's Secret commercial, featuring his song "love sick" look it up. Like wow, it's trippy. is what it is.

Denise Wymore 

It's just not right.

Sue Campbell 

Okay, Denise, here's one from after you were born.

Denise Wymore 

Ok. (laughs) Thank you.

Sue Campbell 

A 1998 Superbowl ad featured gerbils being shot out of a cannon at a wall with the company's logo on it. True or False?

Denise Wymore 

1998.

Sue Campbell 

 Yeah,

Denise Wymore 

I'm gonna say PETA was over that. Oh, my gosh. I mean, there's no no, it can't be. I say false.

Sue Campbell 

While you are both right and wrong. PETA was all over it. But it is true. The now defunct online retail outpost.com and see this commercial if you have not it is hilarious. featured an announcer explaining that they want you to remember their name. And that's why they were going to fire gerbils out of a cannon into the O in outpost. And interestingly, a quick Google told me you can find it both the "Best of" and the "Worst of" Superbowl ad lists that you can find.

Denise Wymore 

So were any gerbils harmed in the making of that commercials?

Sue Campbell 

No, no.

Denise Wymore 

Oh, okay. Thank goodness.

Sue Campbell 

Yeah, because PETA was very upset.

Denise Wymore 

So am I.

Sue Campbell 

Fair. Okay, Ben, final question. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, singer Sarah McLaughlin said of the ASPCA commercials featuring her music. "I'm not even really sure why they asked me to do that. It's a sad song. It seems to affect people like don't really like animals that much. I'm allergic to pet dander." true or false.

Ben Bauer 

Gotta be false.

Sue Campbell 

You smoked it out. It's false.  Set to her emotional 1997 balled, Angel featuring shots of sad looking pets the long running ads are quote, "brutal" the signer aknowledged, but it's for an important reason so that the viewers could bring their wallets out.

Denise Wymore 

Worked on me.

Ben Bauer 

Wallets and tears further. Every time.

Sue Campbell 

I think- I think it was a tie? I didn't keep score.

Ben Bauer 

It was a tie.

Denise Wymore 

It was a tie that actually one to one.

Sue Campbell 

Good work on that brand quiz. All right. So let us switch gears and open up our microphone to questions. Any questions?

Ben Bauer 

Questions from the audience? For the record? We were the session after lunch and at the end of the day, so everyone's brains are mush right now. So if anyone has the courage for questions-

Sue Campbell 

Ask us personal questions. Ask us anything at all. asked me about my outfit, so I can tell you in his pockets.

Denise Wymore 

And I will say with there's 30 people that attended in marketing, and it's not a women's event, but it is 100% attended by women. Because why would we say, women are the best?

Ben Bauer 

Our team is four females and two males and we're better because of it. And I'm not just sucking up to the group. That's real-

Audience 

(laughter)

Sue Campbell 

-but a little-

Ben Bauer 

Maybe a little. Remember, you can ask a question for Denise, too, if you can remember back to her presentation. Do you just want to redo your presentation?

Denise Wymore 

 Yeah, I'm gonna start if you don't mind. Just start from the beginning..  No, but I will say, um, women like to get done. Right? Yeah. And if you'd look at my LinkedIn profile, it says G SD, after it. And people think that some kind of, you know, designation, and very few people have had the courage to ask me like what that is, it means Get **** Done.  I aworded it to myself. If you're courageous enough to ask a question, you can have my socks.

Sue Campbell 

We have more socks, too.

Denise Wymore 

Tell them about the socks.

Sue Campbell 

So we are giving away- we have Exclamation socks. They are beautiful rainbow colored socks. They are comfortable. You can give them as gifts. No one will know that you just got them for free.

Ben Bauer 

Tie 'em in a knot and give them to your dog. Whatever.

Sue Campbell 

Awww..

Denise Wymore 

Yeah.

Ben Bauer 

I mean, uh, you know, worst case scenario. But yeah.

Sue Campbell 

Okay, hearing no questions, we will go to our pre-planned questions.

Ben Bauer 

Nicely done.

Sue Campbell 

Thank you. So we talked a lot about humanizing a brand. And I think we can pivot this question a little bit, so that we can include Denise, who was not, but should have been with us when we were building our brand, just because we like her so much. Right. So my question for you then. And then Denise, any input? Any thoughts that you have? In essence, what was your fondest memory of creating a brand?

Ben Bauer 

Great. So a brand, or are you talking about when we -

Sue Campbell 

Well, when we were building the simplicity brand or-

Ben Bauer 

Yeah. Okay. So I mean, I think, no, no. So I think, and I mentioned this a bit in my portion of our session today, had a section of a dedicated to lifting up the people on the team. And I feel like I dunno, gosh, it sounds like- this feels like a cheesy answer. But everybody on the team played a role in it, you know, and I think that both that was just really important to like, help and build a team, a new and fresh team, because when the Simplicity rebrand happened, we were pretty much a brand new team at that time. And so, you know, it was like an amazing, kind of, like, team bonding experience for us. And as the department that are kind of, you know, Chief apostles for the brand and everything like that, to have the buy in from everyone was just really important to that whole process, you know, to help, you know, lay the foundation of feeling ownership and making decisions for the brand and for the organization going forward. So I really am like, proud of and definitely have some fond memories of how everybody got involved in the process along the way.

Sue Campbell 

Some people call it trauma bonding. Awesome. Denise, what about you have fond memories of building your brand?

Denise Wymore 

Yeah. So I worked at Del Norte Credit Union at the time. And we did Net Promoter Score. How many of you do net promoter score eight gradients? Yeah, really popular. And the number two reason that people were loyal to us was because we were a co-op. And a lot of people don't think that matters. And I was thrilled because I like wow, number one is service, right? Number two was co-op. So get the marketing team together. And I'm like, we can't ignore this. Like this is really cool that they like that we're a co-op. So we knocked around some ideas. And I Google put in the Google Machine Co-Ops, northern New Mexico and several popped up. There was a preschool Co-Op, a beer Co-Op, grocery co-ops, electrical Co-Op. And so we're like, oh, we gotta keep a co-op. We came up with like, on the fly. We came up with this keep a co op, our we had a graphic designer had the luxury of really good graphic designer, and I'll never forget because we're like in this basement room and he's like knocking out logos and keep a co-op this is gonna be so cool. We did the total opposite of what you should do in marketing. We created this whole logo. We were so enamored with the name of it Long ago, we had no plan. But what it turned out to be is we contacted all those co-ops and said, Hey, you guys want to get together and, you know, for coffee and we can, you know, kind of knock out some ideas. One meeting in Los Alamos over coffee, every single Co-Op signed on, and they're still together today. 11 years later, and they built the very first-  I get all choked up - Co-Op Park. In Los Alamos we raised $150,000. All together all these co-ops working together to show the cooperative difference.

Ben Bauer 

Awesome!

Sue Campbell 

That has successfully shamed my answer, but it was it was one of those things we talked in our presentation about these tiny choices, little micro choices that we made. And the thing that came to my mind when I wrote this question on the page was, very early, early on, we decided that we wanted consistency in our social media. And we wanted because when we took over the simplicity brand and started working in marketing, we would- the cadence- there was no cadence for social media, it was, we would have something to say, something we get posted, and then a week would go by, and then three things really rapidly, and then a month go by like it was? So we decided the first year that we're going to turn that into every day, we're going to post something every single day on social media. And then it turned into strategy of what what can that be? It's not it's, it's not going to be ads every day. So what is it and I remember the day that we decided that the weekend could be could be less serious. The rest of the week was not that serious, but the weekend was like, it was like fun time was like playtime. And I had an idea for I had an idea for social media posts I was doing, I was doing the social media stuff at that time and I went to Ben. And I had a picture of a cat. And I had seen somewhere that cats can tell when you have had a hard week, right? So this is a Saturday post, this is going to be the fun way that we're going to have something on Saturday. And I said to him, I want to post this to say, cats can tell when you're stressed and have had a hard week, but they don't care.  Is that okay? And he's like, yeah, that's funny. I don't know, I hope you still think it's I don't know why you wouldn't do it. There's nothing wrong with that. And the fact that we had a conversation, but yeah, it's credit unions, and you're sensitive when somebody's gonna be like, Oh, my kid is so sweet. And he would care if I had a bad week. No, he's cat, he doesn't care. That, to me, that told me like, this is a watershed moment. This is the moment that we are taking control of this thing that we are building something that has that's going to have a voice. And-

Audience 

(laughter)

Denise Wymore 

It's gonna get noticed.

Sue Campbell 

Yeah, exactly.

Denise Wymore 

Not by PETA. Because it was right. No cats were harmed. Exactly just small pictures, frankly, just-

Ben Bauer 

We were letting the angry cat do what they do best, which is ignore your feelings. That's a great story, though. Especially, you know, because we, aw gosh, I just lost my train of thought.

Sue Campbell 

You telling me how good I was.  Yeah, cuz you're just so awesome. No, but a lot of what we were talking about today is like some of the challenges that you have to overcome, and maybe some of the feedback you have to hear when you do some of these things to like, humanize your brand and maybe shape your voice a little differently. And posting something like that, which is not at all related to credit unions or loans or checking accounts or anything like that can maybe raise some eyebrows, and people can be like, Why are we why are we talking about this stuff? We're a credit union. But as much as as that stuff happens, and we need to have a conversation with them about why we're doing that stuff. We do also recall, I don't know if it was that post in particular, but we've had it happened several times where we post some of that more casual life, human sort of content. And we've gotten some comments. I remember one in particular, where somebody actually like screen, snipped it shared it on their own page and said, This is my credit union. How awesome is this? You know, and it was just a post that had nothing to do with anything. And like that was one of the one of those moments where it's like, oh, yeah, that's why we're doing this, you know, because people notice, you know, they, they care about the difference. Yeah, and that. I don't know if we realize at that time, but that was the way we were creating a conversation with people. I was just being a dork.

Ben Bauer 

Yeah, we're just being goofy.

Sue Campbell 

And, you know, cheers to us. That hasn't changed.

Ben Bauer 

So, any any questions? Oh, we got a question.

Denise Wymore 

We're so excited. So, remember uncomfortably uncomfortably close-

Ben Bauer 

Uncomfortably close to the microphone?

Sue Campbell 

Closer.

Audience 

Hello-

Denise Wymore 

Almost kiss it.

Ben Bauer 

Yeah.  Okay. Right here.

Audience 

Okay. So um, I recently graduated college in May. (applause) So I'm just starting my professional career. So I was just wondering if you guys had like, any advice for me not only starting breaking into the credit union world, but also just like in the marketing area.

Denise Wymore 

Perfect.

Ben Bauer 

Awesome. Great question. Anyone want to go first?

Denise Wymore 

I will.

Sue Campbell 

You go first.

Denise Wymore 

I said this, this morning that marketing people are the best because we're the most fun. Always have fun, what she talked about the cat too, just don't take our selves too seriously. I mean, what we market feels like it's not that sexy, right? Checking, savings, loans, all that kind of stuff. What we do the work matters, right? What we do, the work matters. And so just have fun. And do good work.

Ben Bauer 

I'll go. So you mentioned new to credit unions, too. So I am not a credit union lifer. I went to school for graphic design and on my own business for a little over a decade before falling into credit unions, as many of us do. Right. Falling- rising in the credit union. Yeah. But so I joined the simplicity credit union team, like six months after they after we rebranded. And it's like day three on the job, I think. And I got a call from another credit union. That was like, Hey, we just saw you guys rebranded love the name of the look, who'd you hire, how much did you pay them? What was the process like? Like, asked me all these questions. So the entrepreneurial world that I come from is print marketing, digital marketing, super competitive cutthroat, no secret shared ever, right? And so, you know, I have this guy kind of perceived as a competitor asking me all these questions about our rebrand. And I'm like, whoa, whoa, you know, so I totally played the dumb card. I'm like, I don't know, I just started here three days ago, let me talk to my boss, I'll see what I can find out and I'll get back to you or whatever. So I call my boss up as soon as I hang up. And she was like, Yeah, we're cooperative. We're credit union. That's what we do. We share information. And it was like, mic drop moment. For me. I was like, Oh, my God, I'm so glad I'm here. Because you know, immediately, whatever credit union with however big you are, or small you are, you've got this network of people that are here to help help you and help you members.

Denise Wymore 

I mean, never see that in banking. Never see that.

Ben Bauer 

Or a lot of industries, right? It's so I guess the advice or whatever from that is just like never forget about the cooperative difference, the credit union difference, play that card as often as you can, because it's real, even if at times, the day to day makes it feel not real ever.

Sue Campbell 

Yeah, I sometimes forget about that. Because my whole grown up career has been in credit unions.

Denise Wymore 

So you don't know anything different?

Sue Campbell 

Yeah, there was a difference. I started in retail. I've got I've got a face for retail. I forget that there's that difference in the industry. So my life advice for any marketer. And anytime somebody asked me like, what's the big- what's the big marketing advice is you don't have to do anything, unless it's the right thing to do. Because I think we get approached by people saying, Oh, well, they say you have to be on Tik Tok now. No, we don't. It might be that might be the right thing to do. But I don't have to be there. I guess I need to find out. Who am I talking to? It's all the same thing. I'll just restart my thing-

Denise Wymore 

Yes, please.

Sue Campbell 

You know who you are, you have to find out who you're talking to. And you have to be where they are going to be. So anytime somebody approaches you with oh, well so and so heard this thing on the radio? And now we have to do radio? No, no, maybe it might be the right thing to do. But we have to figure out if it's right.

Denise Wymore 

And that's where that brand filter comes in that I talked about. That's your compass right if it doesn't fit that compass just because every all the other kids are doing it right and that's where the usually the border will come to you I went to a conference and I heard all these other people are doing it. We need to do it. That's when their filters the bottom line, the only filter and if you compete with the same filter, you're gonna lose-

Sue Campbell 

What if all the cool kids are doing it?

Denise Wymore 

How cool are they though?

Sue Campbell 

Cool like us?

Denise Wymore 

Then you r&d it rip off and duplicate Yeah.

Ben Bauer 

Any other questions? Oh, Oh,

Denise Wymore 

she got it started. Yeah, I know.

Audience 

Alright, so a little less technical but fun. So for your brand, for your filter, maybe personally, if you could have a one a song play every time you step foot into a room, what would it be?

Ben Bauer 

Oh! Gotta love it!

Audience 

And maybe you have to think, for your brand too.

Denise Wymore 

Well, I actually got to speak at this big conference in Las Vegas I can't remember what was called, it's credit union one. It's a bunch of volunteers. And it was like 4000 people. And they actually called and said, What's your walk on music? I had to Google that, by the way, like walk on music. And then I thought, oh my gosh, I get like, I get a song. So I gave it a lot of thought. But here's what it when you do a walk on song, it can't really be your favorite song because it might have too long of an intro. you're maybe going to get 10, 15 seconds. So it's got to be a song that just starts out like boom. So my walk on music every time I hear this song too. I love it. Led Zeppelin's cashmere.

Ben Bauer 

Nice good one. 

Denise Wymore 

isn't it? And once I'm really good it's so so badass. So awesome.

Sue Campbell 

I love it. I the first thing that came to mind and that's all you're getting because I'm not thinking more- and this is so bad - the first time it came to mind for me it was Brick House by the Commodores

Ben Bauer 

Oh that's perfect. Yeah. Mind speaking of rocking into a room kickstart my heart Motley Crue.

Sue Campbell 

Motorcycle and everything?

Denise Wymore 

Oh, yeah, that's good. That's a great question. By the way. I like. So what would you what would be the theme song for your brand? That's a good question.

Sue Campbell 

When.. when we... I don't know why you just gestured- Because I think we're thinking the same thing for it.. What I was gonna say was, I think when we when we were building the brand, he was basically like a Jack Johnson fan. It was that we had like this very groovy vibe.

Ben Bauer 

I was gonna say when we developed our background audio for our commercial and our jingle one of the first projects like that, that we did. Do you remember the song that we used as our inspiration?

Sue Campbell 

Yeah. Oh, what was his name?

Ben Bauer 

Milkey Chance.

Denise Wymore 

Yeah, I love that song. He's got that real kind of -

Sue Campbell 

Oh, yeah. So that's, that's like totally his kind of, it's all in the same, like, that's the same playlist? Yeah, a little bit of Jack Johnson. Like, and then there's some Brittney just because he's chill.

Ben Bauer 

Because she's Britney, bitch. That's why.

Denise Wymore 

Okay, so since we're talking about music, I like to ask this question to people. What was the first concert you ever went to?

Sue Campbell 

The first concert I ever went to was Reba McIntyre at the Central Wisconsin State Fair. And I realized two years ago when we had a garage sale I accidentally sold my autographed album.

Audience 

(gasps)

Sue Campbell 

I know.

Denise Wymore 

Wow, someone went home and knew right what it was and framed it or sold it on eBay.

Ben Bauer 

Yeah. Mine was 2001. The openers openers were Deftones, Linkin Park, Limp Bizkit. Metallica is the main show.

Denise Wymore 

Rocker.

Ben Bauer 

It was awesome.

Sue Campbell 

He looks like a nice boy.

Ben Bauer 

I listened to all of it.

Denise Wymore 

Is he a tough guy? Ok mine was it was a date. Okay. And that guy's name was actually Roy Rogers. And he drove a brown Pinto. Okay, so let's set the stage. But he had tickets and it was a date so you know, I don't have to pay right. But it was one hit wonder Wild Cherry Play that funky music white boy. They played the song three times. And it was back when there was festival seating. You probably don't remember this, but it's illegal now because people died. But you had to queue up. Right? And so you had to get there early and we pushed our way to the front. I got to touch the lead singers hand and everything. And one date with right by the way, one date with Roy.

Sue Campbell 

Because he was not the guy.

Denise Wymore 

He was creepy, right? Yeah, no. Yeah, he was creepy. I think I got out of the car before it stopped.

Sue Campbell 

We should look him up.

Denise Wymore 

he's probably a millionaire.

Ben Bauer 

Last call for questions. Yeah. All right.

Audience 

Okay, so we know that marketing, the job never stops. We've mentioned that a couple of times today. And I think we've alluded to this but what do you guys do to kind of implement fun in your day or like take breaks as a team or how does that process kind of work you guys because it's important.

Ben Bauer 

Yeah. Awesome.

Denise Wymore 

Good question.

Ben Bauer 

We've got a couple examples on our team. So I'll steal one and maybe you can think of at least one or the other. So we do something that I think literally in our calendars is called bi weekly fun time. So every two weeks, we set aside at least 30 minutes where we do something just sometimes it's we bring in the iPad or computer and we play a Jackbox game, or we do trivia or Table Topics, little game cards, and you just start conversations, we'll go get coffee. About a month ago, we did an hour and we went and did a behind the scenes tour of our local zoo, which one of our teammates is really active on the board and everything. So we got to like feed Kodiak bears and stuff. It was awesome. So yeah, just like I think, putting it in your calendar doing it. Like that's just crucial. And we love it.

Sue Campbell 

We're so fun that we have to schedule it. One of my favorite things that we and I don't know how we've evolved into being these people, but we have really turned into arts and crafts people in a very weird and unhinged way. We we did a series for Tik Tok, that was connected to a blog about being prepared for inclement weather. And, you know, real serious, serious blog, just information what people can do to be ready for inclement weather, because it Wisconsin, you know, and we're in like a nice  tornado area. And then we knew we wanted to do Tik Tok videos, and they turned into videos where we make people out of popsicle sticks. It was just the most fun and unhinged looking thing. That-

Denise Wymore 

So are they running from the tornado?  Yes, yeah. Dogs and cats and we had a popsicle stick in a wheelchair, it was inclusive. And that sort of became like arts and crafts time. So we've done others. We did one. We did it- We do a yearly planning. And we did an activity with that and it is what - when I say arts and crafts time, don't think Oh, but they're marketers. They do digital and everything is probably very fancy. It is glue sticks, and it is paper and it is craziness. And we made hand puppets one time that's one of my favorite because it's stupid. So I have to brag about Zest AI. I'm working out with 120 employees and half work remote. So people ops has done the most amazing job of keeping- because I'm a remote worker. So at home, I've got a dog and all kinds of happiness, you know, my home, but you don't really feel like you're part of the culture. If you're in Burbank where we're headquartered and I get to go back there. They get mani-pedis. It's dog friendly. They bring in lunch. I mean, it's it's just really, really cool. So the remote people, they're always trying to find ways to engage us. We get GrubHub gift cards all the time and special things and special little gifts. But they'll have a week or monthly lunch bite, they call it and have guys ever played the Kahoots game? Yeah, so we do these hilarious and there's cash and prizes. And people are super competitive. And it's a big company, but they just do the most amazing job People Ops shout out to people ops at Zest AI, they do the most amazing job of making everyone have fun and feel like part of his family. They go out of their way to do it. It's really difficult.

Ben Bauer 

Yeah, for remote team. especially impressive. Well, we've, this has flown by we've got people that have to drive home. So we want to make sure we end somewhat on time. So we should probably wrap up with our something awesome segment. So this is where we share recommendations for things that have happened or books that we want to read cool stuff to see go and do and stuff. So each of us will share something and we're putting Denise on the spot that she'll come up with something because she wasn't ready for this. But I'll kick it off and I'll say I am like four days back from a whole bunch of PTO some good time out of the office. And one thing that my family went and did was Bay Beach, anybody here from the east side of the state? So apparently I went to Bay Beach which is in the Green Bay Area. When I was like seven or eight or something I don't remember any of it. But I went and from what my mom shared with me after I debriefed the event with her. It hasn't changed. So the tickets are a quarter most of the rides take one ticket to go on and there's a few big ones like a big ferris wheel Let take a few more whenever I fed my whole family on like $13 So our seven year old son year and a half year old daughter, we just had an have absolute blast for like $30 for like a whole afternoon in Green Bay and it's just a beautiful day. Bay Beach, right on the Bay, so just beautiful scenery and everything. So if you haven't been to Bay Beach check it out and was super cool.

Denise Wymore 

That's cool. So I love Netflix, always looking for something to binge and I came upon a show called Fisk. Have you guys seen this? Yes, it's Australian, the woman that stars in it also wrote it. It is one of the best written shows my husband who usually like he loved it so much. And we watched them all twice. It is the funniest if you just want to just laugh out loud, funny. It's not sitcom, slapstick. It's just really good dialogue. And then when I found out that she was a writer, it made it all the more better. But it's Australian. So really cool accents. So they dropped this first episode, there's a whole nother season but because it's Australia, they've not brought it to the US yet. But in 2024 there wil, because it's one of those ones like I want more, you know, see that it's over. But Fisk who knew? Yeah, it was just laugh out loud. Funny from the first like three minutes. It was so funny.

Sue Campbell 

Did you watch a Fleabag?  Oh, yeah.  So similar to Fleabag?

Denise Wymore 

Not raunchy? Not fleabag was really raunchy. Yeah, Fisk is very wholesome, that children can be in the room. For best. Yeah, but it's more it's about it's divorce attorney and she's just got this. I can't even it's hard to describe, but the dialogue is really smart, funny, and unexpected. And that's what makes you laugh is like, Oh, my God, that's so funny.

Sue Campbell 

We'll check that out. But I did love Fleabag. So good watch fleabag, too. That's not my recommendation. It's raunchy, but it is a recommendation and it is raunchy. Especially the hot priest. The best part. Anyway, that is not my recommendation. As long as we're talking about humanizing your brand. I want to talk about the absolute ultimate human brand. And my recommendation to go and see the Barbie movie. Who's seen it?

Denise Wymore 

Yeah, I heard it's really good.

Sue Campbell 

It is. This is. This is not an endorsement from the, from our organization. But I thought it was smart. I thought it was very well done. It was poignant. It was I don't normally laugh out loud. In a movie. Yeah. Out Loud.

Denise Wymore 

Yeah. And which feels good, doesn't it? Right. Need to laugh?

Sue Campbell 

Right? Yeah. I felt like as a as a late stage feminist. I felt good about the feminist undertones there. I loved- I loved everything about it. And I'm not going to be able to stop referring to Ben as Ken. I can't.

Denise Wymore 

It is I can see that. He's Yes. He's just a Ken doll.

Sue Campbell 

As I mentioned when we started out, he is Ken and his job is Beach.

Ben Bauer 

I can dig it.  Yeah, it was

Sue Campbell 

so good. Not normally what we do. When we have a recommendations, we include a link to them. I'm not including link because I encourage everyone to go on Google and just Google the Barbie movie and see what it does. Because it's fantastic. Nice, because why not? And with that, it's time to wrap up. Friends, it was awesome.

Audience 

(applause)

Sue Campbell 

I'm just gonna play that for myself when I'm feeling like I need a pump up. I like it. Yeah. Thank you to our listeners. And thank you all for joining us. Thank you, Denise for being here.

Denise Wymore 

Thanks for having me.

Sue Campbell 

This is your reminder, you can always catch us on your favorite podcast app. So everybody who's leaving this conference, you have to drive home if you have a long drive. We have I don't know how many. This is our 16th episode this year. But how many more we have lots of episodes you could listen to I'm on the way back. Awsomology podcast, you can catch us on your favorite app. And you can also see all of our podcasts on our blog and explanation cuso.com/blog

Ben Bauer 

You got it. Thank you friends for tuning in. Be awesome and see you next time.

Audience 

One more applause.

Sue Campbell 

The Awsomology Podcast is a production of Exclamation Services. Thanks to Nick Mulovrh for sound production and Kylie Ganther for cover artwork.

Ben Bauer 

Executive Producers are me,  Ben Bauer and my friend Suzanne Campbell