Input Doc: Marketing Interviews

Savitha Reddy Pathi is the Deputy Director of Climate Solutions, a nonprofit in Seattle that's focused on accelerating clean energy solutions to the climate crisis. In this episode, Savitha and Tim talk about:

• How Climate Solutions is helping fight the climate crisis
• How relationships with donors have changed due to COVID-19
• What motivates people to give to nonprofits
• How nonprofits find donors, and how donors find the right organizations working on a cause they care about
• How local changes can have a nationwide impact

Episode Transcript & Mentions

Clyde Golden is an email marketing and digital direct agency in Seattle with expertise in creating world-class data-driven messaging across the customer journey.

Hanson Hosein is a documentary filmmaker and storyteller. Currently, Hosein is Co-Founder of the University of Washington’s Communication Leadership graduate program, President of HRH Media Group, and a co-principal of MIRA!. In this episode Hanson and Tim speak about:

• How to set up a successful interview
• Hanson’s book, “Storyteller Uprising” 
• Hanson’s  documentary, “Independent America, the Tulane Search for Mom and Pop”
• The shifting perspectives regarding technology
• Thinking profoundly about social platforms
• How algorithms favor stories that have the most intensity and heat 
• An argument for making communication difficult
• What Hanson is doing with MIRA! 
• Teaching the new generation to think things through ethically before they join the tech workforce
• Whether companies actually know how to use the first party data that they have.
• The mistrust in institutions.
• Agreeing on a single narrative as a country, and what happens if our country can’t agree.
• Sharing your political stance as a business owner
• Being politically and socially useful as a small business.
• How people react in a crisis
• What it is like to be a reporter during a crisis
• Documenting a story while living it
• Deciding if a moment is worth recording 
• Defining loyalty and trust in relation to storytelling

Episode Transcript & Mentions

Clyde Golden is a creative agency in Seattle specializing in research, strategy, and content creation via Customer Journey programs.

The designer of the Progress Pride flag comes on Input Doc to talk about their creative process when creating the flag, what it was like to have their intellectual property go viral, and how they balance being creative with being a business owner. 

Daniel Quasar, a graphic designer and musician living in Portland, Oregon, designed the Progress Pride Flag in 2018. In this episode Daniel and Tim speak about:

• Why the traditional Pride Flag needed an update
• The history of the Pride Flag
• How Daniel Quasar released the Progress Pride Flag to the internet
• What it is like for your artwork to go viral
• Critics of the Progress Pride Flag
• Controlling the use of your intellectual property
• Rainbow capitalism
• What it’s like to suddenly be a small business owner
• How the Progress Pride Flag has impacted the queer community
• Keeping the mission in the forefront of the business
• Daniel’s creative progress for the creation of the Progress Pride Flag
• The meaning behind the flag’s chevron

Episode Transcript & Mentions: 

Clyde Golden is a creative agency in Seattle specializing in research, strategy, and content creation via Customer Journey programs.

Some of the questions that get answered in this episode:

• What are Customer Data Platforms and how can one help drive relevant content?
• What is first-party data vs second-party data vs third-party data?
• How does BECU use its member's first-party data to create relevant content? 
• Are there levels of privacy that a consumer should have regarding how marketers use first-party data?
• Are Credit Bureaus outdated?
• Is there a way to control the use of consumer data at this stage of the internet?
• When does it make sense to hire a creative agency versus keeping the marketing tasks in-house?
• How can a creative agency be most useful to a company’s marketing department?
• How can a creative agency quickly learn their client’s business?
• How can a creative agency appear credible to a client or potential client?

Summary

Clyde Golden is a creative agency in Seattle specializing in research, strategy, and content creation via Customer Journey programs.

Larry Asher is the Co-Director of the School of Visual Concepts here in Seattle, and the Creative Director of Worker Bees, a marketing communications firm niched in the healthcare industry.

• Finding success in the world of remote learning [1:10]
• What marketers want from agencies [9:18]
• The importance of niching (and why being a generalist will hurt you [11:41]
• What skills marketers and creatives want and need to learn right now [13:39]
• How and why SVC has changed over time [18:10]
• SVC’s role in the community [20:30]
• Balancing running a school with running an agency [23:33]
• Exciting new programs at SVC [28:55]
• Larry’s plan to step down from SVC [32:25]

Episode Transcript & Mentions: 

Clyde Golden is a creative agency in Seattle specializing in research, strategy, and content creation via Customer Journey programs.

SEO expert Kyle Freeman talks about how anyone can go from SEO novice to expert, how the future of SEO will be different, and what you need to do to stay on top of the changing landscape of search.

• The “move fast and break things” culture at Assurance [00:56]
• An SEO’s role within a company [3:11]
• Figuring out what questions people are asking when they come to your site [7:27]
• What an agency can do to rank better in a Google search [8:47]
• Building up to rank for highly competitive keywords [11:05]
• Defining “page authority” and “domain authority” [14:07]
• How Kyle became an SEO [16:29]
• Exploring, finding your passion, and chasing things that make you nervous (like SEO for Kyle) [20:36]
• A note from the producer of Input Doc [23:49]
• Who should work with SEO’s more that doesn’t, and the benefits of partnering early with SEO [24:20]
• How Google is advancing beyond keywords, and what it means for SEOs [30:09]
• The role of images in search [33:20]
• SEO tools that business owners should be using [35:43]
• The best SEO courses to take [37:58]
• What to look for when hiring an SEO freelancer or consultant [39:32]
• Why an agency might fail at SEO [41:38]
• Should you put the transcript of your podcast up on your website? [44:37]
• Seattle-based SEO groups that you can be a part of [47:49]

Episode Transcript & Mentions: 

Clyde Golden is a creative agency in Seattle specializing in research, strategy, and content creation via Customer Journey programs.

Catherine Bye and Mariah Lincoln are the co-founders of Knack collective and Knack co-working here in Seattle, Catherine Bye is Chief Executive Officer and Mariah Lincoln is Chief Operating Officer.

• Creating flexible and inclusive cultures, while still delivering exceptional work for clients [0:28]
• Structures Knack has in place that help them to continue being “people first” as they grow their agency. [10:57]
• Flexibility and working together from home [16:22]
• Clyde Golden Advertisement [22:28]
• Knack’s target clients and core competencies [22:55]
• The program Mariah developed at Rational Interaction [26:07]
• Five Steps to Future-Proofing your business [30:24]
• • One – Publicly acknowledging that the system is broken [34:21]
  • Two – Partnering with formally certified diverse suppliers [35:48]
  • Three – Exposing your diversity data [38:12]
  • Four – Demonstrating equitable pay and career growth opportunities for all employees [39:35]
  • Five – Having a belonging score, i.e. inclusivity and how you treat employees [43:38]
• How a diverse team will improve your work [48:35]
• How you can start future-proofing your business, even if you are a small and/or busy company [50:11]

Episode Transcript & Mentions: 

Clyde Golden is a creative agency in Seattle specializing in research, strategy, and content creation via Customer Journey programs.

Ryan Polich is a design director at Lucia Marquand, a design agency in Seattle that develops designs and produces books for museums and other cultural institutions.

• What Ryan does at Lucia Marquand [0:31]
• The process of designing a book [3:33]
• What a physical book can be [7:26]
• Solving your client’s problems [9:35]
• Favorite books Ryan has worked on [10:16]
• Interpreting a collection into a book [12:30]
• Crediting designers for work in different mediums [14:38]
• How Ryan became a book designer [16:23]
• How to choose typography for a project [20:03]
• Designing for the present vs. designing for the future [23:10]
• Favorite books Ryan didn’t work on [25:44]
• Ryan’s favorite typefaces, and ones he considers most overused [27:45]

Episode Transcript & Mentions: 

Clyde Golden is a creative agency in Seattle specializing in research, strategy, and content creation via Customer Journey programs.

Callister shares key aspects of her design process, as well as what it means to truly help a client.  She also talks about her experience being a designer in the energy field and about her passion project, a clothing repair program called Repair Cycle.

• What Ledger8760 does and how large energy consumers trade that energy [0:26]
• How energy purchasing works, or one day might affect us as individuals [3:29]
• Deep diving and getting up to speed as a marketer in a new industry [4:43]
• Communicating with a designer about their work and process, and finding non-precious ways to visualize ideas [8:22]
• Writing in non-digital ways [11:25]
• How Coreen became a designer [13:56]
• Coreen’s experience working at IDEO [17:06]
• Foundational design elements that Coreen teaches her design students at the University of Washington [22:33]
• What it means to truly be helping a client [27:04]
• Quantifying your long-term impact on a client’s business [29:09]
• Coreen’s passion project, Repair Cycle. The need to change our relationship to our clothes and the waste we produce.  [30:34]

Episode Transcript & Mentions: 

Clyde Golden is a creative agency in Seattle specializing in research, strategy, and content creation via Customer Journey programs.

Kyle Freeman is Head of SEO at Assurance. In this episode, Kyle and Tim review the three essential SEO tools for digital marketers in 2021.

• Keyword Research Tools - are designed to help SEO Managers find the keywords to target and create content around.
• Rank Tracking Tools - allow you to track your website’s ranking for your target keywords by showing you where your page ranking is in Google’s top 100 results.
• A Website Crawler - is a program that systematically searches through content within a website.  They can catch technical issues on your website that may be negatively impacting a search engine’s ability to crawl and index your website.

Episode Transcript & Mentions

Clyde Golden is a creative agency in Seattle specializing in research, strategy, and content creation via Customer Journey programs.

Katie Betts is the founder and CEO of Shared Culture Concepts, a full-service marketing company in Portland, Oregon that specializes in the marketing of circus and performing arts.

• How Katie niched in marketing for the circus community [00:26]
• Explainer videos and where the need for them exists (or doesn't) [1:11]
• An overview of the circus world [3:00]
• What part of the circus community Shared Culture Concepts does marketing for [4:34]
• Building sustainable service packages [5:20]
• Charging for your work vs. doing things for free or cheap [7:21]
• Business mistakes Katie has made by doing things for free [8:09]
• How Katie named Shared Culture Concepts [11:07]
• Katie's path to becoming a marketer [12:42]
• How Katie became an aerialist [17:19]
• Merging a personal passion with your marketing agency [18:24]
• Katie's experience with the pandemic [20:07]
• Building and keeping a team [21:03]
• Finding your niche but remaining open [24:28]
• Marketing a marketing agency [26:13]

Episode Transcript and Mentions:  

Clyde Golden is a creative agency in Seattle specializing in research, strategy, and content creation via Customer Journey programs. Visit https://clydegolden.com

David Conrad spoke with Tim Yeadon about his journey as organizer of CreativeMornings Seattle, the new age of online storytelling, and how showing up within a community is the best way to gain an understanding of others perspectives.

David Conrad is currently a Principal Design Manager at Microsoft. Formerly, he was chapter organizer of CreativeMornings Seattle, and Co-Founder of Design Commission.

• How David helped found CreativeMornings Seattle and the agency Design Commission, and why he walked away from both. [00:59]
• David’s memories of Design Commission. [6:33]
• How the death of Flash changed storytelling and web design. [8:06]
• What is CreativeMornings Seattle. [13:54]
• How to create community, and how CreativeMornings prioritized community building over finding the perfect speaker [17:29]
• Volunteers at CreativeMornings, and the power of the microphone [20:08]
• David’s favorite talks from CreativeMornings, and what makes a great talk [22:52]
• What David learned about decision-making, process, procedure, and consistency from working at CreativeMornings [25:35]
• Building a business, and balancing making money with doing the work you want to do. [29:12]
• What talk David Conrad would give at CreativeMornings [32:25]

Episode Transcript & Mentions

Clyde Golden is a creative agency in Seattle specializing in research, strategy, and content creation via Customer Journey programs.

Melissa Antonelli is a Principal UX Content Strategist at Zillow, where she supports their Closing Services team and ITX team, and helps Zillow build new products.

• What it means to be a Principal UX Content Strategist at Zillow [1:05]
• Finding where improvements need to be made, and what metrics to watch in a customer journey [5:13]
• Zillow’s business model, how the company makes money [6:45]
• Key differences between the roles of a marketing copywriter, a UX copywriter, and a content strategist [7:49]
• The path Mel took to becoming a UX Content Strategist [13:26]
• What is exciting about UX writing [22:44]
• Advice for people who want to be a UX copywriter [25:10]
• The value of cross team critiques, and getting exposure to multiple projects as a UX copywriter [29:42]
• Advice for designers and product managers who are new to working with a content strategist [31:19]
• Creating new job titles as a marketing tool [34:24]
• Key takeaways from the UX writing class Mel taught at Seattle’s School of Visual Concepts [36:51]
• Defining voice and tone, and what’s the difference anyways [39:15]
• The future role of AI in the world of copywriters and content strategists, and how it may impact or change a marketer’s role [41:12]

Episode Transcript & Mentions 

Clyde Golden is a creative agency in Seattle specializing in research, strategy, and content creation via Customer Journey programs.

Ryan Smith lives in Melbourne, Australia where he's an award-winning designer and owner of Freewheel Weekends, a digital experience agency specializing in accessibility. Ryan says countries around the world are losing billions of dollars in tourist revenue each year from people just like himself, those with reduced mobility. And it's simply a lack of communication that could help people with reduced mobility plan a trip with confidence.

• Designing for people with reduced mobility 
• What you can do to make places more accessible
• How Ryan ended up starting Freewheel Weekends
• The kind of content Freewheel Weekends makes
• Intertwining the utility of accessibility with beautiful designs
• Activists and agitators in the disability space
• Catering to dual and/or opposite audiences
• The Creative’s love of ‘the riddle’, and the need for genuine curiosity
• Ryan’s experience of COVID
• Highlights from the Freewheel Weekend videos 
• Ways a bad experience can make a person with a disability not want to travel 
• Ryan and Tim catching up about life, boats, and favorite quotes

Click here for this Episode Transcripts

Clyde Golden is a creative agency in Seattle specializing in research, strategy, and content creation (earnestly delivered in that order) via Customer Journey programs.

Michael Ryan Wilson is the Brand Creative Director at Finish Line in Boulder, Colorado, a national retailer of athletic shoes and apparel.

• Their mutual appreciation for the NBA 
• When and why a brand should use influencers, or not
• Creating remote content during a pandemic
• Being in a high-risk group during COVID
• Working and being creative while battling cancer
• Michael’s origin story
• The need for technical training in the creative space
• The importance of making audacious things and winning hearts in brand marketing
• Respecting the power that creatives have over portrayals of people and products
• Representation and diversity in the design world
• Michael’s experience with race, and how the past year has changed his thinking
• How his wedding ended up on the front page of Reddit

Episode Transcript

Clyde Golden is a creative agency in Seattle specializing in research, strategy, and content creation (earnestly delivered in that order) via Customer Journey program

Keron Williams is a UI/UX designer in Houston, Texas, and the agency owner of Gravitt8 Development, which offers design and development of mobile apps and websites.

• Keron’s background as a professional football player [00:37]
• His path from playing football to becoming a designer [1:49]
• Pluses and hindrances players take from their career as pro football players [5:52]
• Diversifying his client base [7:43]
• Overcoming the stigmas of being a pro athlete and football player [9:13
• How Gravitt8 has changed over the years [14:54]
• How to deal with creative agency pricing dilemma [17:37]
• How small businesses can be helped during the COVID pandemic [22:37]
• Type of data that small businesses should be tracking [25:59]
• The impact of the COVID pandemic on minority-owned businesses [27:55]
• How to be taken seriously as a small brand [29:32]
• Balancing making money with supporting your community [34:15]
• How to pick who you want to work with [35:30]
• Currently 3 percent of designers are black, how to increase those numbers [41:08]
• The benefits to society when designers are more representative of that society [51:11]

Click here for this Episode Transcripts

Clyde Golden is a creative agency in Seattle specializing in research, strategy, and content creation (earnestly delivered in that order) via Customer Journey programs.

Gage Mitchell is Principal & Creative Director at Modern Species, a strategic branding and responsible design agency in Seattle. 

Gage and Tim talked about:

• What is responsible design and why it is important
• What power designers have to improve the world
• How to get your clients to choose sustainable options
• How to get the kind of work you are excited to do 
• Hiring a business consultant when you don’t have a business partner
• How Gage niched as working with sustainable products
• Businesses that do well by doing good vs. non profits 
• Budgeting yearly giving of money, resources, and time 
• B Corp Certification, B Lab
• Having goals beyond turning a profit 
• Gentler marketing methods (the trapper method, marketing via facilitation, etc.) 
• How to discuss social issues and current events with your team 

Click Here for Episode Transcripts & Links

Clyde Golden is a creative agency in Seattle specializing in research, strategy, and content creation (earnestly delivered in that order) via Customer Journey programs.

Melanie Richards is Chief Thought Partner and owner at Thought Catalyst, a market research firm in Johnson City, TN, where she's also an Assistant Professor of Media and Communication at East Tennessee State University. Other topics included:

• The pandemic’s effects on working parents, especially working mothers, along with how having kids stay home can increase gender inequities. 
• What companies currently ask for from researchers versus what they should ask for. 
• Data that organizations already have, but don’t use, common mistakes that companies make with research.
• How small companies or agencies can use research and data.
• How to create a comprehensive plan for highly effective research. 
• Media Strategy and Audience. 
• Foundational marketing principles.
• The importance of separating a marketing strategy from marketing tactics.
• Why you should always start research with goals. 
• The importance of diversity and representation in research.
• Research as a customer experience touch point, and the importance of making it a good experience for the customer.

Click Here for Episode Transcripts

Clyde Golden is a creative agency in Seattle specializing in research, strategy, and content creation via Customer Journey programs.

Jerry Johnson is the owner and principal consultant at Cascade Strategies, a market consulting and strategic planning firm based in Bellevue. 

Tim and Jerry talk about how Cascade Strategies applied advanced models, AI models, and linear models to the data they received leading up to the 2016 election. Jerry also spoke about how by using latent effects modeling they were able to gage long-term voter sentiment more accurately than most polls, and were actually able to predict Trump’s win of the 2016 election, a result which they publicized in October of 2016.  Beyond voter sentiment, Tim and Jerry covered biometric analysis as a research tool, the specifics of latent effects modeling (aka. how to get people to remember you fondly), AI and machine learning, how creatives can use AI to their advantage instead of being made redundant by it, and how to survive the current economic downturn.

Click Here for this episode transcripts 

Clyde Golden is a creative agency in Seattle specializing in research, strategy, and content creation (earnestly delivered in that order) via Customer Journey programs.

Tim Yeadon chats with Kenna Smith (Business Director) and Kerry Franz (Creative Director) the co-founders of Wildforth Creative.  Wildforth is a packaging and branding design agency here in Seattle. Kenna and Kerry are strategic thinkers, creative doers, dreamers, problem solvers, and relationship builders.

In this episode Kerry, Kenna, and Tim talk about how their agency got started, the legal side of starting a business partnership, the first year of running an agency, what is the best project management system, and what it’s like to own a business during the COVID pandemic.  They also cover how the name ‘Wildforth’ helps Kenna and Kerry to be brave, what they look for when hiring freelancers, charging a client what you are worth, and creating long term relationships with clients.  Lastly, Kenna and Kerry talk about the power of women entrepreneurs, and the best things about having a team of women.

Tim Yeadon is the host of Input Doc and the creative director of Clyde Golden. A creative agency in Seattle specializing in research, strategy, and content creation (earnestly delivered in that order) via Customer Journey programs.