Marketing Happy Hour - Cheers to 100 EPISODES of the Marketing Happy Hour Podcast 🥂

Starting point is 00:00:00 you're listening to the marketing happy hour podcast where we discuss career and industry insights with our peers in marketing we're here to talk about it all like the ups and downs of working in social media how to build authentic relationships in the influencer and pr space managing a nine-to-five and a side hustle at the same time, how to be productive in your life and career without losing your sanity, and more. Ultimately, we're here to build a community with you because we're all trying to navigate the world of marketing together. Are you ready? Grab your favorite drink and join your hosts, Cassie and Erica, for this week's episode. Hi, everyone. Welcome to our 100th episode of Marketing Happy Hour. We've actually put out more than 100 episodes, but

Starting point is 00:00:54 this is our 100th full-length episode. And we're excited that you've joined us today to hear all about the amazing things that have happened in 2023 and what we're looking forward to in 2024. So Cassie, it's great to be with you. I wanted to hear just a little bit about what is in your glass lately. Oh my gosh, yes. Very excited, first of all, about 100 episodes. And if you are watching on video, things look a little bit different right now. Thanks to our friends over at Ecamm. They've set us up with this awesome platform so that we can come to you essentially face to face, hopefully from now on. So look out for that. But yes, very excited. And for me recently, oh my gosh, so many things in my glass specifically, just because we've had some amazing brands send us some awesome things. But one thing I have been loving is everything that the new bar sent over to us. Gia and Desoi

Starting point is 00:01:52 were two of my favorite brands, but just have so many goodies that we have been sipping on. And so truly grateful for everything that we've gotten to try this year. What about you, Erica? Oh my gosh, I love it. And Brianda was such a great guest on Marketing Happy Hour. If you haven't listened to that episode, go back, listen. It's so cool. They talk about being the non-alcoholic sponsor at Coachella and that's exciting. I've also been loving those and actually really haven't been drinking alcohol all that much this year. I get hazelnut Negroni from a restaurant called Willa's over in Tampa, Florida, and loved that. But that's like really the only recent happy hour-esque drink that I've had.

Starting point is 00:02:35 I wish that I was in New York right now because Dante, my favorite restaurant, has a gingerbread Negroni that I would love to try. But unfortunately, I'm not there. So I've just really been going back to my roots whenever I do have a happy hour and drinking some Onda, which is Shea Mitchell's sparkling tequila soda. And it is delicious, but that's really the only alcohol that I've been drinking lately. Other than that, love a good Starbucks holiday drink. That's really what I've been sipping on like all day long. So just not praline cold foam is a huge win in my book. So yeah. Oh my gosh. I feel like I need to try that. I love a good peppermint mocha. I was at one of the Disney parks surprise the other day and I had one of those and it was just so good.

Starting point is 00:03:25 And oh, I love it. I love it. Well, speaking of 100 episodes, we're kind of at the end of the year slash at the start of a new year. Lots of things have been going on. And so I was like, let's give a little personal update. Like what is what has been happening in 2023? What are goals for 2024? So Erica, go ahead and kick us off and just let us know what's what's been happening in 2023, what are our goals for 2024. So Erica, go ahead and kick us off and just let us know what's been going on. Sure. Okay. So 2023, I was doing a little bit of reflecting earlier as I was preparing for this episode and I was like, how did we even get here? I have no idea. I feel like we're still in February of 2023. I don't feel like it's already December. So that's weird to me. But

Starting point is 00:04:06 it was my first full year of being fully an independent consultant. And I got to work with a few clients that I love. But looking forward into 2024, I'm thinking through, you know, finding like my brand home again, I kind of want to be back brand side full time, whether that's remote or in office somewhere, exploring a move, probably somewhere in Florida or maybe back to Nashville or maybe back to the Detroit area in Michigan. So we'll see what's ahead for me there. But also personally, this year, I did all of my traveling like in the first quarter of the year. So I went to New York right away in January, which was so fun. I got to see The Music Man, which is a play that I was in when I was in middle school. And I got to see

Starting point is 00:05:00 Hugh Jackman and Sutton Foster play the lead roles in that on Broadway so that was so fun and then I also went to Washington DC with one of my close friends and then Seattle Washington with one of my close friends that was super fun and then ever since then like I said don't know where the year went I went up to Michigan for the summer, which was great. And one of my closest friends, Lauren, got married. So I got to stand by her on her wedding day. And I think that's kind of it. And now we're in December 2023 and looking forward to a new year. I did not. So every year I say that I'm going to learn how to play guitar. And this year, once again, in January, I put that on my list and it's December. And yeah, you can guess where that went. I did not learn. My guitar is probably still in the same spot that I left it in January. So here we are. But

Starting point is 00:05:57 what about you, Cassie? Oh my gosh. I don't even know. I'm like thinking back to January, February and I'm like, what was happening then then if you've listened to a couple of our episodes this year especially with just Erica and I you know that we've both said that it's just been a wild hectic year and so just navigating all of that I feel like this year especially in owning my own business, it's been the year of advocating for myself, like stepping up and dealing with awesome clients, but also some kind of tricky clients. And so just being able to, like I said, stand up for myself and like tell people when things need to change and when things aren't right and all of that. So that's been really huge for me just in terms of both personal and professional growth. But also, you know,

Starting point is 00:06:52 just trying new things, new projects, kind of did a rebrand essentially for myself this year. We also did a rebrand for us. So it's like the rebrand year. So stepping into all of that. But for 2024, I think I just want to do some more working on my stuff in congruence with the stuff for marketing happy hour, launching my own email newsletter. That's something I've been wanting to do just to like get my thoughts out there on a number of different subjects, figuring out like personally where my goals are and how to get there. a number of different subjects, figuring out like personally where my goals are and how to get there, making content for myself again, because that's something I am not very good at. And then speaking more. So my goal is to speak at least once a quarter.

Starting point is 00:07:37 And I have two speaking gigs. They're both virtual, which is fine, but two speaking gigs booked so far for next year. So I'm on a good track, but I want to get a few more. So we'll see. We'll see what happens. That is so exciting. And it's funny that you mentioned the rebrand. I feel like I personally went through one. I went brunette, as you can see.

Starting point is 00:07:57 So I think we need to reshoot our photo, our podcast cover, because now we're both brunettes. I know. I know. And people are gonna watch this and look at our cover and be like who's that girl it's not the same person who is that I know I know well we've already kind of mentioned you know rebrand for marketing happy hour if you were here with us early in the year you saw that transition which do not go looking for our old podcast cover because it's really rough. If you buy one of

Starting point is 00:08:26 our, we have a new resource coming out, which we will tease here in a little bit. But if you buy that, you will be able to see it. But besides that, don't go looking for it because it's not good. So please don't do that. But speaking of that, in celebration of 100 episodes, just want to share some 2023 highlights for Marketing Happy Hour. We did a lot. So Erica, if you want to kick us off with the first one and go over that. Absolutely. So we reached 120,000 plus marketing professionals across social podcasts and email, which is something, it's a huge accomplishment for us because when we started this, we really did not, you know, think that that many people would be watching what we were doing.

Starting point is 00:09:10 So like you mentioned, I think our first podcast cover speaks to that. Our first episode speaks to that. It's not very polished. And I feel like we've been going with the flow and kind of just like creating this community. And I've loved just getting to know everybody in the community. I think that that's huge and we're excited to continue growing that in the new year and then we also got to hire our first intern lily she is the sweetest thing and she is a girl after our own hearts because she loves all the same stuff we do she came down to tampa to work with

Starting point is 00:09:42 us this summer and she just graduated from Ohio University. So congratulations, Lily. You're the best. We also launched our first free digital download, which is the Dream Career Game Plan. And we've received amazing feedback on that. So that's been amazing. And then we also increased our content output with bonus episode series. So we had Ask MHH. We had Open for Hire talking to people who have recently entered the job market. We've had invited guests back onto the show that we've had in the past with our Where Are They Now series. And we've had a couple of Q&A panels. So it's been super fun to catch

Starting point is 00:10:22 up with people there. But Cassie, why don't you share the last couple? Yeah. So another thing that we did, which was really exciting, is just sharing the brand with a couple of different live audiences, one being at the Podfest Multimedia Expo in February here in Orlando, as well as Lou Mangiello, who was a guest on the show to talk about live streaming on the podcast. His event, Momentum Weekend Workshop, also got to share Marketing Happy Hour with the audiences there. But it's been so fun getting to connect with people in person and just share the heart

Starting point is 00:11:00 behind this podcast and everything that we're doing. I think it's a lot different being able to do that face-to-face versus, uh, online, even though online is amazing too. And I know we'll be wanting to do more of that in the next year. Uh, but ultimately just rounding it out, we're planning a lot of different things in 2024 that we cannot wait to share with you. Uh, but we'll kind of give you the behind the scenes look at those here in a minute after we talk about our top favorite episodes for both of us out of all 100 so far. So I know so many episodes, so many, it was hard to pick, you know, 10 total, I would say, between the two of us are so many good ones. And so obviously want to note that this does not eliminate the other episodes. Definitely go back and look at some of those and find some of the

Starting point is 00:11:50 subjects that you're interested in learning in because I feel like everyone we've had on has been very insightful. So Erica, if you don't mind, I'll go ahead and go down my list really quick. But for me, very recent episode that I want to call out is level up your content strategy in 2024 with Kyle of HubSpot. HubSpot is a brand that we look to just for insight, updates in the marketing world all the time. So having him give us a clue into what they're doing over at the brand was very helpful. And next on my list is Local Marketing 101 with Teddy of The Escape Game. And Teddy clued us into a lot of leadership strategies in the world of marketing, as well as some of those local marketing tips as well.

Starting point is 00:12:38 And so if you are looking to become a leader in the marketing space, definitely recommend listening to that. Next on my list, number three is Brand Identity and Partnerships 101 with Neil of Tip Top Proper Cocktails. And Neil is one of the founders of the brand. It's just fantastic to hear about their journey of creating that identity for the brand, how they're connecting with consumers, and how they've just developed this incredible product over time and absolutely love tip top. So that was cool to hear behind that. Next on my list is top social media tips by platform with Brie of Lyft. And Brie is incredible. I believe this is one of our top episodes just overall.

Starting point is 00:13:21 And she went through a number of different platforms, gave us her top strategies and how they're growing over at Lyft. And so that was super helpful. And last but certainly not least is Edutainment 101 with Travis of PandaDoc. Travis is one of our buddies, I would say, in the marketing space. We talk to him pretty frequently. He's local to Florida. And so just hearing him creating this sense of entertainment and education in the space that he's in, which most would look at a digital document sharing platform and say, how do you make that fun? But he's figured it out.

Starting point is 00:13:55 And so I think we have a lot to learn from him in that sense. So Erica, what about you? What are your top five? Yeah, just echoing you. It was so hard to choose. I was trying to go back even to last year and just pick some out. But I don't know, it was so difficult for me to narrow it down to five. But I did it and I will share now. So my first one is leaning into your brand's

Starting point is 00:14:17 community with Kennedy and Mary Ralph of Daily Drills. Daily Drills is an apparel brand that I am personally like so obsessed with. So it was so incredible to hear from both of the founders on our show. They talk a lot about community, a lot about how they started the brand and just like how they figured things out along the way. They also touch on the launch strategy that they have for all of their different launches. It's basically like every week or every other week that they're launching something new. So super interesting to hear something there. And then Brand Marketing and Positioning 101 with Devin of Betty Buzz. That was such a great episode. She is a fantastic marketing mind to follow. If you want to build your LinkedIn

Starting point is 00:15:01 newsfeed out, definitely follow her. She has great insight and Betty Buzz is such a fun brand. Then third, I have your guide to personal finance with Melissa of Millennial in Debt. I love this episode because it teaches us a lot of things that we don't normally learn in school about keeping up with our personal finances and how to kind of invest or where to start with a high yield savings account and things like that. As we're building out our careers and making that money, we got to figure out, you know, what we want to do with it and how we can continue to grow in our financials and our financial area and, you know, survive and thrive. So loved that episode. Fourth, Media Relations 101 with Jacob

Starting point is 00:15:47 of McDonald's. Of course, this is going to be on my list. McDonald's is such a huge brand and such a goal I feel like we had at Marketing Happy Hour to have someone from their team on our show. Just because McDonald's is incredible. Everything that they do is incredible. It's a legacy brand. And Jacob really talks about how he and the team are able to make these brand moments so widely known through media, which is something that I love talking about anyway. So it was a great episode. And then last, but certainly not least, also another recent episode was how to make meaningful IRL in real life connections with your consumer. This was with Allie of Coffee and Clothes. This is a great episode if you are looking to do some experiential campaigns in the new year. She gives a lot of great advice on how to really build those out and make sure that they're well executed.

Starting point is 00:16:47 Another close one in this same realm would have been Experiential and Event Marketing 101 with Amy. She was previously at Magnolia down in Waco, Texas, and now she runs her own events business in addition to being the chief of staff for a VC company. So she's awesome. And that episode is awesome. If you are interested in

Starting point is 00:17:05 events, experiential, all that good stuff, definitely check both of those episodes out. So I guess I did six, but that's okay. That is totally okay. Yeah. Lots of good content out there. So definitely, like we said, go back, catch up, look for some different content pieces there. Also recommend to you to explore topics even outside of your avenue and just see how different functions of marketing are working. And ultimately, just let us know what you want to hear more of. Shoot us a message on LinkedIn and just tell us and we'll be able to kind of implement that when we go to dive into new content for 2024. Yes.

Starting point is 00:17:55 Yes. So next on our list, we'll kind of dive into one of our 2024 updates. But Erica, share with us what's going on in that space and we can kind of dive into what this new freebie means and how it could be beneficial to you. Absolutely. So we have two very exciting announcements, by the way. And if you are listening to this and you're like, oh, I'll just stop here and maybe catch up another time, don't do that because you're going to want to hear this. We do have a freebie coming out. So like I mentioned earlier, our first freebie was the dream career game plan. Um, that will still be live, but we are coming out with a comprehensive marketing happy hour starter kit that will, um, have a lot of really fun stuff in there. It's kind of like a magazine layout. Um, so it'll have

Starting point is 00:18:39 episode recommendations for specific areas like PR communications, brand building, social media tips, influencer marketing, growth marketing, and more. Just like a bunch of episodes that you can go binge listen to and you don't have to search for on your own. It's just going to be all right there for you to click, listen, click, listen. We'll also have links to all of our favorite marketing resources that'll be super helpful as you continue in your marketing career. We will have some career FAQs and advice from us and from some of our guests. We'll also have a goal setting guide and a daily planner sheet that you can make copies

Starting point is 00:19:20 of and print off as needed. Um, that's something that I do all the time. So it'll be something that you can kind of steal from my personal repertoire of resources. And then we'll have some fun extras like a quiz to find out what happy hour drink you should choose, a word search, you know, content inspiration for each month and a lot more goodies. So I'm very excited to debut that. That'll be live by the time this episode is out. And so you can head to marketinghappyhr.com forward slash starter dash kit to snag yours. Again, that's marketinghappyhr.com forward slash starter dash kit.

Starting point is 00:20:00 Yes. So exciting. And so another piece of just an update to share with you slash things that we're going to be launching here soon, or actually is launched now rather is, uh, we have an amazing podcast resource that we put together. So a little bit of background on this. When we first started this show, we had no clue what we were doing. We actually started on Clubhouse, decided to transition into a recorded format, aka podcasting, and we had to figure it all out on our own. We dove into how to launch, how to get it set up on all these platforms, how to create a podcast cover, how to make it compelling and engaging for consumers, how to define a target audience. And now, fast forward to today,

Starting point is 00:20:46 surprisingly, we've had a lot of people come to us and they're like, Hey, we want to start a podcast. We don't know what to do. We don't know what mics to buy any of this stuff. And I don't think this is something we saw coming in terms of something we would educate people on. But it's naturally just come up in a lot of conversations. So we have decided to make a all-in-one launch guide for you. So essentially it's going to go through all of the details where you can brainstorm, develop the concept for your show, tips for designing a cover, working with a designer if needed, all the way to launch and promoting your launch. So this document, I believe it's almost 30 pages long, goes through everything. It's interactive. You can write out your notes

Starting point is 00:21:31 directly in this document. And like I said, you will be left with the full concept and ready to launch your own podcast all on your own. You don't need any additional help or you shouldn't at least. But if you do, you know, of course we're here. So we're going to make that available to you guys now. So if you head over to marketinghappyhr.com slash start a podcast with hyphens in between those words, start a podcast. You'll be able to grab that for yourself and kickstart your podcast journey today. I love that. And super exciting that we're launching something like that because,

Starting point is 00:22:10 like you said, we've had a lot of people come to us and just ask us how to even start and if they even really have a podcast within them. And I think the answer to that is if you're listening to this show, I think that you do have a podcast in you because you are, you know, keeping up with trends. You are figuring out what you want to do career-wise. You are getting inspiration all the time. And I think that anybody who is willing and open to do that on their own time has a voice to share as well. So I love that. I can't wait to see where that leads. Okay. So next we just wanted to kind of say, thank you so much for supporting us this year. We have a surprise. It's going to go live

Starting point is 00:22:52 on our Instagram. I won't say too much about it here, but it's very exciting. So head over to at marketing happy HR on Instagram and celebrate 100 episodes with us. And then if you are loving Marketing Happy Hour, please remember to subscribe, rate, and leave a review on whatever platform that you're listening on right now. And if you're not quite sure how to leave a review on Spotify or Apple Podcasts, it can be a little confusing to figure out. You know, the stars are in a different place

Starting point is 00:23:20 than the place that you write a review or you have to like count dots in order to leave a review. Super strange, but Cassie was awesome and made a tutorial video that we will link in the show notes just in case you want to leave a review. Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the Marketing Happy Hour podcast. If you enjoyed this episode, please remember to subscribe, rate, and leave a review on your favorite podcast platform. If you want more of Marketing Happy Hour, but don't know where to start, we invite you to download our free Marketing Happy Hour starter kit at marketinghappyhr.com forward slash starter dash kit. This interactive magazine style PDF walks through

Starting point is 00:24:06 who we are, includes helpful resources like a marketing term glossary and the printable daily planner sheet that we actually use ourselves and contains clickable links to our episode recommendations by subject area. Not to mention all the fun extras like a quiz, the link to our Marketing Happy Hour Insiders Facebook group, a word search, a playlist, a goal setting guide, content inspo by month, and more. It's our hope that you'll dive into this resource and walk away more confident in your career journey with a group of industry pals that you can lean on for advice and support. Snag your free starter kit today at marketinghappyhr.com

Starting point is 00:24:47 forward slash starter dash kit for all of the info you need to become a Marketing Happy Hour Insider.

Marketing Happy Hour - Cheers to 100 EPISODES of the Marketing Happy Hour Podcast 🥂

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