Marketing Happy Hour - Establishing Credibility with Your Audience | Eric Gray of Maverick Content Studio

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, Eric. How are you today?

Starting point is 00:00:49 I'm doing great. How are you ladies doing today? Doing so well. Well, we're so excited to have you here today. I know you have some past connection with Cassie and some mutual friends there, so I'm excited to even learn about that myself. But before we get started, I do have an important question for you that we ask all of our guests, and that is, what is in your your glass this I guess it's morning when we're recording this, but what's in your glass now? And what's usually in your glass during happy hour? Yeah, during happy hour, it's definitely different than what are we right now? We're at 1036 in the morning. Right now it's boring. I used to be this horrible person who would drink soda every morning,

Starting point is 00:01:23 and then I got over 40. And I realized I've got to change some things, not everything. And so I have some water with a propel mix. And so that's this morning. If you catch me at four or five o'clock, oh man, it's probably a vodka tonic with a little bit of lime. We'll keep it simple. Classic. Classic. Cassie, what do you have? So I have hot tea. I'm a little bit congested this morning. I spent the weekend at Universal, which is very ironic for this conversation. And I have a bit of a congested throat and nose. So sipping on some tea, hoping to feel better later today. But what about you, Erica? I just have, I don't want to say it's boring coffee,

Starting point is 00:02:06 but it's just regular old coffee this morning from my Nespresso. So, but typically, yeah, if I am out at a happy hour, I'm doing something vodka tonic, Negroni, Averol spritz along those lines. That's my, that's my go-to. Y'all ever get any weird ones in this, in this question? We have before. It's not like coming to my mind right now but we definitely have gotten some like interesting ones i think more of like the adaptogenic uh cocktails that are out there these days like people will say i thought about just saying we need to explore i thought about just saying oh my god see what y'all see what y'all do we have not gotten oh my gosh we also have a propel and water before. So all right. Well, unique. There you go.

Starting point is 00:02:45 Happy to start with some originality. Yes, absolutely. Well, Eric, as Erica said, we are very, very excited to have you on today. Lots of ties, I feel like between our lives. I back in the day interviewed with Universal. I think I was trying to remember how far in the process I got. I think it was back in 2018. And I believe you and I chatted. I don't know how. It sounds like we made a mistake because we didn't move forward. So that's on us. Yeah. My life would look a lot different right now, but it's really cool because we have lots of mutual connections and we've had to leave some of your team members on the show, Michelle Westfall, Stephen Kubiak. So lots of, lots of cool connections there.

Starting point is 00:03:27 So excited to learn from you and your experience, just diving from universal to what you're doing today. So if you mind starting by just letting us know a little bit of a clue into your journey, what inspired you to transition from corporate America to launching your own business? Yeah, no, I appreciate it. I'll try to keep this brief because I do this as well. And one of the first things I think about is, man, do I, am I going to get that three minute answer about their entire life? And how can they make that interesting? So I'll try my best. I started out in sports radio a long, long time ago and ended up taking a job to come to EA Sports. And that's what brought me to Florida, still in Florida today. And there, that's where I discovered this idea of social media and marketing. I didn't know anything about marketing back then.

Starting point is 00:04:15 This was 2006, 2007, when Facebook and Twitter was just becoming a thing and brands were trying to figure this out. And, man, we were just out there testing. We were doing live streams on YouTube. We were doing stuff today that people think is popular. And back then, I don't think that it was really resonating as much as it is today, but learned a ton. Went to Universal Parks and Resorts and spent almost 11 years building that brand. Started out managing their social and then built out a content enterprise. Started to get into the influencer. And so what I like to say when I was at Universal is if it's fun, if it's engaging and it's marketing, that sits within our

Starting point is 00:04:48 team. So we had a team called Content Engagement, who's Steven, a good friend of mine, who's still there. And Michelle, a good friend of mine, who's still there. They're still part of that team, stewarding that awesome brand forward. And the transition was interesting. I spent a lot of time trying to build this content and innovation engine at Universal. And it was kind of a dream. And I think whenever I first talked about leaving, I said that I'm saying goodbye to my dream job. I used to tell people if I quit, there's gonna be a line out the door of people that want to do social and digital and content for, you know, the world of Harry Potter. And now they're about to open Epic. I can't take the marketer out of me from Universal.

Starting point is 00:05:26 But I just, I was missing this passion and purpose in my life. And I won't go too therapy on us, but it was a, it was a state. I was 41. I'm now 44. And I was just kind of trying to figure out, is this the long-term future for me? Is a corporate life, is corporate the right fit for me? And it took me a long time to get there and a lot of internal kind of looking to kind of see where is my purpose and my passion live. And ultimately, I kind of landed that it just wasn't the right place where I could be my full self. Love corporate. It's perfect for a lot of people. I wasn't really wired like that when I was able to be an entrepreneur in corporate America, it worked for me. Um, but when things got a little tight, um, we stopped investing. Maybe it wasn't growing to the extent of what I thought we could

Starting point is 00:06:15 do. And really, I think there was a point where I felt like the brand could be bolder and kind of stand for more. And I wanted to be a part of that. And I think they're doing an amazing job with building that brand. I think I just had a little bit more gas to the pedal than maybe the overall brand wanted to have. And, you know, they're not wrong. I'm not wrong. I think it was just time for a change.

Starting point is 00:06:37 And so that kind of led me down this pathway of starting my own thing. And it all kind of connected for what I was trying to do at Universal and kind of now what we're trying to do with Maverick. Yeah, for sure. And I'm sure Eric and I can both agree that, um, that was kind of our stories too, of leaving the corporate world, jumping into our own thing. We felt like there was more that we could do and we had constraints around us, right. Just due to the regulations, the way that the business was ran, um, which

Starting point is 00:07:04 there's a time and place for everything. And I think there's a lot to learn in corporate to apply to your own business, right? And that's super crucial. And that's actually one thing I want to ask you about is just all of the storytelling that you were able to develop back in Universal and how you're applying that today. You know, I'm curious what you would say is the importance of storytelling and then what do you believe are the key elements of successful brand storytelling? Man, I feel like we could do this for like four hours. You know, I really respect the idea about storytelling. I recently wrote a post that you're going to see on LinkedIn here

Starting point is 00:07:41 in a few weeks. And it was talking about the fact that marketers are overusing the word storytelling, right? And they're kind of ruining the word storytelling because at its core, storytelling is something that you do to invite people in to something that's interesting. It's something that's compelling. It puts them on the edge of their seat and they want to hear more. We've all read books. We've all watched things on YouTube and you're like, and then we call all of this storytelling. It's not all storytelling. So when I think about storytelling, there's probably a couple of things that come to mind, especially from a brand perspective. Is it authentic? Is it original to you, right? Is there something unique about this story being for you? And does it really

Starting point is 00:08:17 create some sort of connection? Does it spark some kind of emotion? And on the surface, those three things can kind of be kind of generic. But if you kind of lean down into each of those things, especially the emotional side, whether it be at Universal or at Maverick with the clients that we're talking to today, we're trying to think so much about what is the thing that is ownable for you and what is the thing that the audience is going to care about? That's ultimately what's going to drive that connection and what's going to help you become a brand storyteller. So there's a lot of different ways that I could open that up,

Starting point is 00:08:49 but that's probably the fastest. I'd say authenticity, originality, and connection. Yeah. Well, it's almost that question that we toss around a lot in marketing as well, that the consumer is asking what's in it for me. Why does this matter to me? How is it going to help me in my life? And how can I see myself in that story that you're building or this brand that you're building? And you kind of touched on this a little bit, but how do you ensure that the content you create sparks conversations and builds audiences or builds that connection with the audience? Yeah. I mean, you know, I take a lot of things in marketing for my days in radio. You know, my job isn't my job in radio is to make sure people come back to the show every single day from three to six. So in that day, I've got to find a way to be interesting, compelling,

Starting point is 00:09:33 entertaining, informative. These are all things that I had to do. By the way, it's the same thing people do on CNN today. Same thing people do on ESPN today. Same thing that people do on Buzzfeed, right? They're trying to do something that's going to build a relationship with you that you'll come back. And we all have those media outlets or those channels or those brands that we come back to. It ultimately comes back to that relationship. So in radio, I did it through entertaining content. I don't think our job is that different in marketing. I believe our job is to find ways to create that entertainment and that compelling nature. And that's what's going to build the audience. We can be out there all the time creating content. But what are we doing that's driving people to go, man, I know, like, and love them. So I talk a lot about in Maverick and on my team about how are we building raving fans? How are we entertaining, connecting and building raving fans? That's the journey. That's the process we're trying to take people on. And so that's ultimately how I kind of think about it is way

Starting point is 00:10:29 back in my radio days is there's a very clean and easy understanding way of building audience. And I love the way people are doing it today. I'm learning so much more being out here out of the corporate world and just following people on LinkedIn and following creators. I know we're going to talk about creators here in a little bit. But man, there's so many new and different ways to build audience. And it's constantly innovating. And that's where I'm building time. And that's where I'm spending a lot of effort is to kind of just learn from from other people, rather than the groups that have done what I've done, which is build enterprise level groups, which is awesome, too. It's just different. Yeah, absolutely. I love that you draw the parallel between radio and marketing because I have heard a lot, especially from that's what they had originally wanted to do with journalism or they're writing and they're really exercising those passions that they originally thought would lead them into a career path and, you know, radio, journalism, whatever it is, into marketing.

Starting point is 00:11:35 And that's so cool to see that journey and to hear you talk about that as well. I have a curious, you know, question for you. I would love to know what common mistakes brands are making when it comes to creating content. How long do you have? Right. You know, this is one thing that I've loved and I've loved stepping away from corporate and shining a light on some of the ways it's broken. Right. You know, there's obviously a lot of layers. There's a lot of systems. There's a lot of systems.

Starting point is 00:12:05 There's a lot of people. There's a lot of kingdoms that executives are building inside of corporations. And all that stuff impacts creativity. All that stuff impacts speed. And all that stuff impacts that brand's ability to tell stories. So I'd say the biggest one for me is,

Starting point is 00:12:24 and we, you know, I'm always kind of thinking, how can we get better at this is, um, speed, agility, scrappiness, the ability to create more at scale. And so I'm constantly trying to, and I did this in corporate, sometimes we succeeded, sometimes we didn't, but I'm trying to pull things out of the process that's slowing things down. Um, and there's so many different parts of that. If you're a director of social somewhere versus a manager of social, you see that a little bit different.

Starting point is 00:12:50 If you're a director of social somewhere, I'm thinking, how am I hiring great talent that can understand audience, channel, and creativity, and can literally turn that into an idea really fast and go make it? So I'm constantly trying to hire people that are like that. If you're a manager and you're working in that environment, you're looking at it from a different perspective. You're looking at it for, from a, you know, how many people are in

Starting point is 00:13:11 my steps? You know, there's like, I've got to talk to this person. I've talked to that person. So that can be really limiting. So if you can find ways to pull things out of your process, to create more speed and agility, um, it just, you have to get there. We've all, we've all got to find a way to get there. And that all, we've all got to find a way to get there. And that's the, was the hardest thing about corporate and the most empowering thing about Maverick. And a lot of what we're trying to bring to clients today is how fast can we move? And that's not like, I think some people think that fast means reckless or not strategic. And, you know, I have a lot of conversations with people about like SNL does a lot of content

Starting point is 00:13:45 every day and no one's ever written a brief, but they've hired really good writers and people that they understand how to connect with an audience. And so when you talk about like the radio standpoint, like people in journalism, PR, radio, broadcast journalism, they've got a really great understanding of what makes a great story and what their brand needs to do to kind of bring that to life. And you need lots of those people. Absolutely. Hanging on that thought too, what are some qualities that you can look for if you are a hiring manager or you're in that director of social position in the people that you're hiring to make them stand out amongst other candidates and will have that agility and ability to think fast and act fast. Yeah. I'm going to give you two answers. One

Starting point is 00:14:30 comes from a book, it's a Patrick Lecciani book. And he talks about the ideal team player is people that are humble, hungry, and smart. And I, I just love that combination. That's kind of a more general thing. On a more specific thing when it comes to a social, digital, and content group, I look for makers. And it obviously depends on what you're hiring for. But I talk a lot about people that are in the creator world today, the way they can come up with an idea and go and execute it. And it already has built-in strategy. It's got built-in understanding of channel and audience. And then when we come into kind of brand marketers, I feel like we're compartmentalized. You're a strategist, you're a designer, you're a photographer. And by the way,

Starting point is 00:15:16 you need those areas of expertise as well to run businesses and run teams. But I'm always looking for those hybrid people that can bring a little bit of everything to the table. And but lean into creation, because remember, the thing I told you before is scaling content creation is my goal. So I got to get people in here that understand what a great design looks like understand what a great photo looks like on social can pull together a quick edit, and can look at something and tell me why this isn't good. And why and how we can make it better for digital and social. So that those the kinds of things that I'm looking for. Yeah. Excellent answers. I would love to hear from you the role of authenticity and transparency and brand

Starting point is 00:15:55 storytelling. Just going back to that for a moment. How do you ensure that your content maintains credibility and builds trust with your audience? That's huge. That's something that we are always asking about on the show. I think it's a lot about brand purpose, first and foremost, knowing who you are, knowing why you exist. And this is like a bully pulpit for me because we all have things on the wall that say who we are and what we stand for, but we don't live by that. We don't create content around that. We don't organize our structures based on that. We don't hire and fire based on that. And so really knowing who you are and living by it. I think of brands like Southwest. I think of brands like Zappos. I think of, you know, one of my favorite to watch right now is the Savannah Bananas and knowing that

Starting point is 00:16:43 they are about entertaining first and fan first, right? Those two things drive, yeah. They drive everything in their whole business. So understanding who you are and what you stand for and making sure it bleeds through everything you're doing. The second one is who you're serving, right? It's on the radio side. It's my audience.

Starting point is 00:16:57 They're sports fans. What am I doing to entertain them and to create? So understanding what the needs and the wants of your customer are. You know, if you understand your purpose and specifically who your customer is and what they want, then you try to paint a picture of what's authentic. You try to create stories that are then authentic. Um, you know, I, I will a lot of times talk about some of the best storytelling you can do is just put a camera on your customers and have them tell it, but not in like a gross, like testimonial way. Like do like a little mini documentary about your customers and watch what comes to life. There's no better authentic story from your brand and highlighting your customers or another one. We're working a lot with some internal comms right now. I like your team members get their story. They're not just a nurse. They're also a mom and a coach. Tell the story about the mom and the coach. That's breeding authenticity. When you put the camera back on you as a business, that acting like it's entertaining. It's not, we're acting like it's authentic and it's not, you know, I've heard people say it's, it's ad funny or it's corporate funny. And I was like, what if we just

Starting point is 00:18:12 do something that's actually funny? So, yeah, I mean, you know, or actually authentic to answer your question here. So, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. I, it makes me think about a conversation we recently had with Jesse of Handcar on the show. And it was just a great point of, uh, resonation with their audience and just like people could connect to that story. So I definitely love that. Um, and I love that you talked about team members too, because we also recently had on the show, uh, someone from Papa John's, her name's Carson. She is the, uh, social media manager there. And, um, they often work with their team members at their individual stores to pull those stories out and highlight their team members and use them in creative content and compensate them for that work. That's awesome. That's something that we've heard a lot of

Starting point is 00:19:16 companies moving into. And so I love hearing that as well. But I'm thinking too, in addition to using or referencing employees and referencing your consumer, how can you work with creators a little bit to support that credibility and that authenticity and make that creator relationship authentic and not just a transaction? Yeah. You know, the creator and brand relationship has been an interesting thing. It was, you know, in the beginning, there was this feeling like if we take money, we're a sellout from a creator. We're not there anymore, which is wonderful. And the audience never thought that to begin with, right? an important aspect for any marketing organization. You know, back when I was at Universal, we did some stuff. We were just starting to kind of scratch the beginning parts of what that can be. But I just think it's such a tremendous, it doesn't matter if you're like a sandwich shop and you've got people that come in regularly that have some sort of following, or maybe there's people in the area that are what you would call kind of the tastemakers, right?

Starting point is 00:20:25 Go partner with them. You know, there's one thing that I think all brands should know is that creators are going to do things with your brand that you'll never be able to do internally. And so if you can give them a good brief or good direction and let them go, and right now, all the creators that listen to this and be like, come on, let listen to this guy. Um, not because I'm a genius, but because I've worked with him and they've all told me this, right. Just, you know, we had this, we worked with a creator who went on to do some really good things. I forget her name right now, but she ended up

Starting point is 00:20:56 posting a Netflix show, but she would do like choreographed dance, um, and just did all these awesome things. And we gave her this job at universal to, uh, to talk about all the awesome things that you can eat around universal parks and resorts. And she did this video and she called it the hungry dance. And it had this like sketch comedy in the beginning. And in the end of it, she ended up in one of our sound stages with like a 30 person choreographed dance, but it was because she ate something and she just had to have this, like had to dance. It was the most insane idea ever. Um, it got, you got millions of views, right? She knows her audience better than we do. And we would never come up with that. So I think it's a, it's a significant find the ones that matter to your business first and foremost,

Starting point is 00:21:41 because this is a, you're paying them or you're giving them access because there is a return on the business. So it's not all about fluff and content. It's got to be a reason. So do that first, but then partner with people that can reach people you can't reach and do things creatively with your brand that you can't do. And I think there's magic there. It really is. Yeah. And I think too, whether it's talking about involving your team members in that content, especially guest facing team members or those creators, they all have unique and different perspectives of your brand than you do as the leader of that department, for example, especially with guest facing team members. I mean, they hear things, they hear what's trending within, you know, an area of your

Starting point is 00:22:26 business or whatever that you may not hear unless you were to tap into that knowledge. And so I think that's really important just to bring new ideas and new opportunities to your content that you would have never thought of before. Yeah, yeah. I want to hear too about just some trends that you're currently observing in the creative marketing industry. I know specifically if we were to talk about social, there's so many things happening on the social platforms. They're changing by the day. But just in general, what are some insights and trends that you're identifying that you're looking to tap into

Starting point is 00:22:58 with your business here in the near future? I kind of mentioned earlier in the conversation about how when you get outside of a big brand, you start to learn from people that you would never learn from. And there's a guy online that I'm sure everybody knows now. His name is Justin Welsh and he's on LinkedIn. And I think he's kind of building things out on Twitter and Instagram. There's a few other guys that I follow a podcast called my first million. So Sam and Sean, I'm talking with their first name as if I know them, but I do not. But there's something really interesting that I'm following right now. That's not new, but I'm just enjoying going deeper and it's copywriting. I know that's

Starting point is 00:23:38 going to sound boring and everyone just turned off their podcast because there's definitely a lot of cool stuff, right? I'm loving vertical video right now. I'm loving to see how things can be, you know, edited quickly with things like CapCut. I'm learning things from creators every single day. I'm deep, deep into YouTube. I'm a big fan of a lot of things that are happening on YouTube.

Starting point is 00:23:59 But as I've had to put the creator hat back on and less of kind of a team leader hat, and I've started creating my own podcast and my own newsletter and some social, I've leaned back into copywriting. And I've just been really enjoying learning how to make people click more, how to make people go down your feed, how to change your writing a little bit, how to make your writing a little bit more friendly. I read something, I heard something the other day that talked about the importance of your writing should kind of work at a fourth to sixth grade reading level. And I love that. You know, people try to sound smart instead of just casual and informal. So I'm spending a lot of time on the different nuances of how I can get people to click like, to share things.

Starting point is 00:24:49 And I think some of that's just gone, right? As we've kind of thought about all the content we got to create, we got to mass produce, so we got to post on every channel. We got to make sure it's different. It takes away from someone looking in the copy and being like, but is this going to make someone click more? Is this going to make someone keep scrolling? Is this going to make someone keep scrolling?

Starting point is 00:25:05 Is this going to make someone follow you? So getting kind of super tactical on those kinds of things and just taking a moment as a creator, as a social media manager, as a digital marketer, to really look at what you're doing, whether it's headlines for email or captions for social, but really trying to think about what is going to drive that click. I don't know that that's not fun and sexy, but that's where I'm spending a little bit of time right now. Yeah, it's so important. That's one of the first things I tell people, you know, young professionals that come to me, they're like, what can I do to build out my skillset?

Starting point is 00:25:39 And I say, well, one of the first things is practice writing, get really, really good at copywriting because it's something you'll use for everything. And you mentioned Justin Welsh. Are you familiar with ship for our ship? 30 for 30. Have you heard of that brand before? 30 for 30. No.

Starting point is 00:25:54 Yeah. Okay. So that's one to check out and they create some amazing resources, specifically their newsletter is really awesome, but just to write well for digital platforms. And they talk a lot about headlines and hooks and and all of this stuff but it's it's an amazing resource as well so definitely check i love hooks i like the idea uh that there's something you can do with the english language that's gonna uh speaking of tools uh made to stick is one of my favorite books

Starting point is 00:26:20 and it talks a lot about writing with mystery right like like and again that's storytelling right when you're when you're you know when you set something up that makes someone want to read more um that's storytelling and so yeah i i'll have to check out ship 30 for 30. yes excellent and i think there's also just an element there to what we're seeing as a trend with AI and AI being a resource, but also something that people are continually depending on for copywriting. And I think it goes back to, you know, honing those skills as marketers, as people ourselves will translate better to the audience than something generated by AI because there's that human element. There's that human cadence of how you're speaking to your audience.

Starting point is 00:27:12 And there's that human learning aspect to how you can take some feedback from the copy that you have out there and apply that to the copy that you're gonna create moving forward. And AI can do some of that, but I feel like, I think there's definitely an element there of just like bringing that back into the human area or element too. So love that. But would love to end here, just asking a question that we like to ask on every episode as well, which is, what do you know

Starting point is 00:27:45 now that you wish you knew a bit earlier on in your career? I'm sure you have a ton of these things floating around that you could say, but what's one that you would pass off to your younger self? Yeah. So, I mean, there's a lot of things that I've learned about social and digital marketing and I could give some answers around that. There's things I've changed my mind on, like paid social. I probably wasn't as big a fan, poo-pooed a lot. But now, you know, I think it's such an important tool. But I think the biggest thing for me, and, you know, one of the reasons why I am sitting where I am today instead of in corporate is I wanted to pursue purpose and passion. And for 15 years, I was on the wrong, I was on the wrong, I was running the wrong race.

Starting point is 00:28:27 I was running the race of career, of status, of title, of logo on the front of my jersey, rather than what was pursuing kind of my heart, my faith and my purpose. And so, you know, my biggest advice to someone is, as there is a lot of people, you know, I think you've got a great listenership. And I think there's a lot of people that are growing in their social careers. And, you know, they're wanting to be at that big brand, or they're wanting to, you know, get that new job and that new title. And those are all great. But there's a point if that's where you put your identity, that that comes crashing down. And so just really, really take a minute and to know what's important. And I had to do that when I was 41. And I realized that Universal had become too high. My title had become too high. And I had to reposition myself and try to force myself to understand what's important. And it ultimately led to the, you know,

Starting point is 00:29:26 pursuing Maverick and building out Maverick. So that's what I'd say. And I talked to a lot of people about this. I talked to a lot of people that are unhappy, unhappy in corporate. And my thing is know who you are, know what you want and put a plan together to get it. And if you don't know what you want, that's where most people exist. That's fine. Take the time, go take your lumps, stay in a job you don't really like or take a new job. That's fine. You're young. But when you start to know it, listen to that thing that's inside of you,

Starting point is 00:29:57 because it's the difference between a happy life or chasing someone else's life. And no one wants to do that. I got real serious and that's, it's not really my MO, but, but, uh, that's the question. And so that's kind of where I'd land it. It's such a great reminder though. And I think the biggest thing, at least for me, personally, I start to go down that rabbit hole from social media and following people who make me feel like I'm not at a good place in my career. And so the biggest advice I tell people to, I'm like, get off social or unfollow those accounts that make you feel that way, because it can take a downturn very quickly. And so set your environment up. Yeah. Yeah. It's funny though, because like some of those same people and some of those same things inspire you. So it's like, I'm getting inspired. I'm

Starting point is 00:30:39 getting fed. And then all of a sudden you start kind of feeling down and you're like, why am I feeling down? And it's like, Oh, you just stumbled into comparing yourself to them again. Right. And then all of a sudden you start kind of feeling down and you're like, why am I feeling down? And it's like, Oh, you just stumbled into comparing yourself to them again. Right. And so I'm, I'm with you and I'm there too, every single day. Um, so, uh, I think that's really good advice. Yes. Accountability helps too. So whatever you need to do to stay on the right track, stay in the right mindset. I know we have our moments where we start to go into a negative space. Um, but just checking yourself occasionally and asking those key questions, just on your thoughts and why am I feeling this way? Why am I thinking this?

Starting point is 00:31:11 And moving forward from there, I think it's really important. Great advice. Thank you for sharing that. But Eric, we are closing out here. Unfortunately, we'll have to have you back just to check in down the road. But in the meantime,

Starting point is 00:31:24 we'd love to know where we can follow you online, you and Maverick. So if you don't mind sharing some of those digital channels with us. Sure. So I'm usually the Eric Gray on everything. So you can find me on LinkedIn or Instagram is probably where I'm most active. I've kind of bailed on Twitter. I won't call it X. Sorry.

Starting point is 00:31:42 And then Maverick is we are Maverick Co. So you can find us on Instagram and we're about to kind of, I don't know when this is coming out, but hopefully when it comes out, you'll start to see more content. We're relaunching our podcast. We're relaunching our newsletter. So the podcast and the newsletter is all called Radical Content. So you can, you know, in the idea of radical content, similar to this, but we're really looking for really anyone, entertainers, broadcasters, brand storytellers that are finding ways to entertain, connect, and build raving fans. And so if it's something you're interested in, great. But yeah, follow me on all those things, but this has been super fun. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for joining us.

Starting point is 00:32:20 This was so helpful and excited to stay in touch with you and see all of these new launches and things you guys have going on. Awesome. Great. Thanks ladies. We are so excited to share that our first ever free marketing happy hour digital resource is now available. Download the dream career game plan today at marketinghappyhr.com forward slash freebie. That's marketinghappyhr.com forward slash freebie. This five-step workbook will guide you through defining your goals, building your network, diversifying your skills, influencing where you're at, and investing in your growth. Cassie and I created this resource with marketing careers in mind, but the framework can be applied to any industry. Our hope is that this workbook will help you truly elevate your career,

Starting point is 00:33:11 whether you're in the market for a new position or just looking to make your mark in your current organization. No matter where this resource finds you, we are cheering you on every step of the way. So go check it out at marketing, happy hr.com forward slash freebie to download and make your career dreams come true.

Marketing Happy Hour - Establishing Credibility with Your Audience | Eric Gray of Maverick Content Studio

There aren't comments yet for this episode. Click on any sentence in the transcript to leave a comment.