Why Branding Begins With Your Team Culture  ## Metadata - Author: [[The Duct Tape Marketing Podcast]] - Full Title: Why Branding Begins With Your Team Culture - Category: #podcasts - URL: https://share.snipd.com/episode/e87abf13-7d29-4ead-b1e8-e3a947c41d23 ## Document Notes ## Highlights - **Culture Starts Brand Experience** - Culture originates inside a company and reflects outward as the brand experience. - Employees and customers both perceive and shape this internal culture as part of the brand. Transcript: Rhea Allen Well, what I always try to emphasize most is that your culture starts with your brand from the inside out. And sometimes culture can't necessarily be controllable. It's what it is, the experience that both your employees and the people who come to you for that experience of what you serve. And in an agency setting, culture is so important because it is our brand. It's who we are and how we represent what we do. And when we work with other companies that want to understand how they can continue to build and grow their culture in a positive way, in the way that they would like to see their brand Exuded into the world, whether it's recruiting new employees or new customers and retention is always a huge part of it. ([Time 0:01:54](https://share.snipd.com/snip/3ff656f5-37ee-4972-8467-4e8ce45c9da5)) - **Hire for Culture Fit First** - Lead hiring with your company's mission, vision, and values before role responsibilities. - Hire for cultural alignment first, then assess skills, especially looking for growth-minded people. Transcript: Sara Nay And it's great. I love that thought process. And what I've been doing for years at Duct Tape Marketing is whenever we hire someone new for a role within our company, we always start with the job description and we lead with here's Our mission, here's our vision, here's our values. And so I want someone to read through all of that first on a job description, then I'll get to here's the role and the tasks and all the other details, because I want someone to be aligned Culturally like that to me is one of the most important things. Because as you said, it helps people stick around for a long time and also represent our brand in the way we want to be represented. And then, you know, when we're going through the interview process, our first interview is always based on values. And so one of the things we're always trying to hire for is growth minded people, because in the marketing space, it's always continuing and evolving. And so I'm asking questions to identify if they're growth minded and then asking them skill specific questions. ([Time 0:02:45](https://share.snipd.com/snip/f639d596-4f36-42f2-b095-4299a05c5fb1)) - **Align HR and Marketing Teams** - Unite HR and marketing teams to build an aligned culture and brand. - Conduct exercises where teams co-create internal and external messaging to own their culture and brand. Transcript: Rhea Allen Absolutely. And we do a variety of things. But one of the things that we set up is we call it culture and brand camp. So one time at brand camp, we go through a process and it really is about aligning the HR roles and the marketing roles together so that they're not siloed and they're working together To create the culture and brand that they really want to be known for and have that experience that they want people to walk away from and feel the feelings that you want when you're in That process and going through that process. So we go through culture and brand camp and do a number of exercises to work together to understand both internal and external messaging. And when everyone's singing from the same sheet of music and saying similar terminology and able to articulate that in a way that is mindful of how they all can own it and have ownership In their own branding and how other people are going to perceive them because of the way that they have been able to articulate it and what experiences they want to have. And so going through that process and doing some team building exercises and some branding exercises and bringing the two sort of areas that are sometimes really siloed in companies And they don't always come together and work together. But then when we bring them together and they are in that mode of like, oh, we are in control of our own culture and we are in control of our brand that we have out there. ([Time 0:03:46](https://share.snipd.com/snip/f637615b-937e-4e24-afc6-f27366a74d05)) - **Co-create Company Values** - Collaborate with your whole team to define core company values. - This shared creation boosts buy-in and ownership of culture across the organization. Transcript: Sara Nay I love that. And I think that gets I'm assuming it gets buy in from the whole team and support behind the whole team. One of the things that we did fairly recently is we used to have values that John and I, our founder, identified as like our core values. And we kind of made those up on our own. And then we would like tell the team about them. And we're like, that doesn't feel right. And so we did a session as a team where we had everyone identify like what they wanted the values to be. And we then collaborated and crafted our core values together. And to me, that was so much more of a rewarding, but also buy-in experience for the team because they were part of the process versus being, here's our values, go live by these. ([Time 0:05:28](https://share.snipd.com/snip/b06554e3-612f-411d-bbc0-198fc98a2a66)) - **Use Storytelling to Build Culture** - Encourage storytelling around core values to embed them in company culture. - Sharing personal stories connects team members and preserves cultural traditions internally. Transcript: Rhea Allen This. Whenever you can include the team into that decision-making process, they have so much more ownership in it. And to take it even a step further, having them tell stories around those values that you've selected and where maybe there's an example of something that occurred because of that value And then having them tell you about a time when, you know, give me an example of one of the values that you and your team came up with, Sarah. Sara Nay Well, one of them is growth minded, like always being leaders and innovators and ahead of the game. So it's that whole idea of just like growth and always learning and evolving. Rhea Allen So one of the activities that you can do just as an icebreaker to get people in the mode, anyone who cares to share, tell me about a time where this value came through. What was the occurrence? What happened that you had this growth minded mentality or somebody else can share about somebody else on the team. And now storytelling becomes this a part of the culture, right? We know back in ancient history that storytelling was how culture was being able to get passed along in a generation. We have the hieroglyphs on the walls that were you know, drawn. And so storytelling is such a huge part of culture, no matter what kind of culture we're talking about, whether it's company culture or, you know, if it's your indigenous people in the Culture, the stories that are being told are is the way that continues to happen. ([Time 0:06:08](https://share.snipd.com/snip/73c73b6c-5146-48c4-91e7-03e705cd51cc)) - **Connect Stories to Marketing** - Incorporate customer testimonials that reflect your company values. - This closes the loop between internal culture and external brand impression. Transcript: Sara Nay Yeah, I love it. And so a lot of what you're talking about there is like storytelling as a team, as a culture. Do you take any of that storytelling and bring it, you know, as a marketing or a branding initiative as well? Absolutely. Rhea Allen And where it really can shine through is when you now involve your customers and they have testimonials and you can have them share a story about the circumstances or experiences that They've had with people that they've interacted with on your team. So, you know, it's all about the people sometimes more than anything else, the people that work with you And so when you can bring that full circle and then you have stories that you can Tell of the values that also shown through with your customers, your clients, then it really does start from the inside out. ([Time 0:07:47](https://share.snipd.com/snip/a2e18bf1-c2a6-4d0e-9be8-0a234bca4ff8)) - **Authenticity Beats AI Polish** - Authentic storytelling is becoming more valuable than polished AI-generated content. - Human intelligence is essential to use AI meaningfully in marketing communications. Transcript: Sara Nay And so one of the things that I'm seeing growing in importance is storytelling and being more human, but also being authentic and maybe even making some mistakes in the stuff you're Putting out there, because it just feels everything feels so polished right now. So can you touch on, do you see storytelling and authenticity growing in importance these days as well? Absolutely. Rhea Allen In fact, I just did a panel discussion and actually it was HR, the HR, sorry, public relations, and then advertising coming together. So mine was all about personal branding. And I created an acronym of keeping it real. And so real, obviously, you know, being authentic and having that realness about you, right? And then being able to extend that to others and have and share that consistently. And then of course, authenticity, and then leveraging your network to be able to share that with others and showing up and keeping it real. So yeah, authenticity is definitely, I think, more valued than some of the AI that really ad nauseum comes out that's just not real, right? I mean, it's artificial intelligence. So having your own spin on your own words sometimes really does help with the content that's coming out. And I see that's a shift. Everyone was kind of, oh, we're going to use AR to replace the people, the human touch of what we're putting out there. And I really think that you can tell somewhat now. And I mean, it's getting really good where you can't necessarily and it's trying to write in your voice. But there's still some quirkiness about the AI. And I still say it takes HI to use AI. ([Time 0:08:43](https://share.snipd.com/snip/0ca5b2e6-e884-4b10-bb84-a73598fa941f)) - **Typo Showed Human Authenticity** - Sara shared a post with a typo that audiences appreciated for its authentic human touch. - This reflects the growing preference for realness over polish in social media. Transcript: Sara Nay I agree. And kind of a funny story on that. I posted, I have a new book coming out and I posted a JPEG of the cover and luckily it hasn't gone to print yet, but someone pointed out that there was a typo on the cover. But her response to me was like so kind. She sent me a direct message and she was like, you know what I love about this? It shows that you're human. You're not just using AI for this content. And so she actually was like very kind, but she like appreciated a little bit of an error because everything is feeling very polished at this point. ([Time 0:11:48](https://share.snipd.com/snip/c418bd6a-59ec-410c-a292-fdad8f1c8de2)) - **Invest in Fun for Retention** - Invest in fun and engagement activities to improve employee retention and workplace happiness. - Regular shared celebrations, appreciations, and safe spaces for frustrations boost team morale. Transcript: Sara Nay Like you're paying people to do these fun things. And so I'm curious, what would be your answer to a question like that? Rhea Allen Oh my gosh. Well, first of all, if you don't have a little bit of fun and incorporate the human aspect of living and working together all the time. And we spend more time with our work co-workers than we do with our spouses. Well, not in my case, because I work with my spouse, but a lot of times, if you look at how much time is spent with the people that you are with every day, it's your co-workers. So I feel like if you are just robotic in what you're doing and not engaging and not being, you know, that team player or having, being a part of the culture, you're going to make life miserable For yourself. Right. And so I feel like having time that you can naturally and be okay with spending some of that, it is an ROI in your, you know, you're investing in your people and you're investing in them Wanting to stay, right? Can that retention. And we know that when somebody leaves a company, it takes just twice as much or even more to replace them. And then all of the knowledge that they've, that has just been left behind because they've left the company. So you want to do the things that are going to help retain those people. And, you know, we spend time, we also do once a month. Now we do, we used to do it every week, which is a little okay. I get it, but now we do. So it originally started out as Friday fun lunch, but then people take Fridays off. Some of us do, you know, summer Fridays off and, you know, have the four day work week. Fine. So then we moved it to Wednesdays. So then it become lunch instead of funch. So Friday fun lunch and then lunch. And now everybody's is only, I mean, all of us are all in the office on Mondays. So now it's munch. So we, once a month go, we celebrate, you know, work anniversaries where I like to call workversaries or birthdays or something that we're celebrating. And we actually came up with some things that we always go through. So it's successes and frustrations, celebrations and appreciations, new technologies or book or blog reports. Or anybody that's reading a book, tell us a little bit about it or a blog or something, new technology, something like that. And then a question of the day. And so we always come up with a random question. What's your favorite cereal as a kid? Or what was your favorite cartoon to watch? Or, you know, who are you rooting for the Super Bowl? Right. I mean, so we always come up with something fun and we all participate and, you know, successes and frustrations, you know, if we're in a public place, we are careful about our frustrations, But it's important to acknowledge, you know, big successes, big wins all the time. ([Time 0:13:40](https://share.snipd.com/snip/80531b42-2406-4cd5-b00e-0b63dc3b5b1e)) - **Camping Builds Team Culture** - Pepper Shock Media goes camping yearly with employees and families to strengthen culture. - Outdoor activities create strong bonds aligned with their local Idaho lifestyle. Transcript: Rhea Allen Because every year, all of us with our spouses, our kids, pets, everybody, we go camping together as one big, huge Pepper Shock family. And if you're not a camper, you're probably not going to really appreciate the culture that we've built. I mean, it's not mandatory. I mean, you know, it has happened, but it's really important to us because we love the outdoors and especially here in Idaho, we have all the seasons and it's definitely, you know, we Live here on purpose. We can do work anywhere, but we purposely choose to have, you know, Idaho as our back, you know, our back door. So that's a really important part of our culture to, to enjoy hiking and, you know, those types of things. And so it's fun and people look forward to it. It's, you know, what are we going to do this year? What are we, you know, are we going to go rafting? Are we going to go, you know, hiking? What are we doing? And so it's something fun and it's always been a part of our culture since, you know, since we started and it's definitely something that we really enjoy. ([Time 0:17:00](https://share.snipd.com/snip/208572b6-c90a-406e-8b92-fc50295048c1)) - **Virtual Fun Builds Remote Bonds** - Use virtual team engagement tools like show-and-tell sessions to foster connections remotely. - Sharing personal interests during these sessions enhances bonds among remote team members. Transcript: Sara Nay That's great. And that's how I mean, I answer that question as well. When people ask about ROI, it's you're going to retain people longer, they're going to be happier, you're going to enjoy work more. And to me, that's like the best kind of ROI you can get. So I think that's great. And I love your examples, because a lot of what you shared are in-person opportunities because you work in person where I run a virtual company. And so we're trying to do some of that stuff virtually, which is really interesting as well. And so we do things like I mentioned, like the show Intel on Slack, that's just like such a small thing. And all we do is we ask a random question every single Wednesday at a scheduled time, and then people answer the But when you're remote, you don't get time to, you know, what's your favorite Movie? What'd you do this weekend? What'd you, you know, you don't have time for like all of those things. And so that question, then, you know, someone might ask, what's your favorite movie? And then like three people are like, oh my gosh, that's my favorite movie. I can recite every line. And now they have this like bond that they wouldn't have had just through like work meetings and going through the the motions. ([Time 0:18:40](https://share.snipd.com/snip/bb0113b4-11b5-4d0d-804c-48bec3a6833b)) - **Continuously Build Culture Together** - Actively guide your company culture to avoid losing control over it. - Unite departments with shared goals and continuously nurture culture beyond one-off events. Transcript: Sara Nay Yeah, absolutely. Rhea Allen I think the important thing to remember is that culture is going to be there whether you help guide it or not. The culture can be what you want to mold it and grow it into, or it's going to become something that you have no control over if you don't participate in the culture that you want your company To have. And so I think if you can identify that there might be some needs in the areas of bridging the gaps between the different departments that come together and how they can work together To help build the culture that you want between HR and marketing and ops and all of the different areas that you have in a company, how can you make it to where everyone is singing from the Same sheet of music and it's all in tune, right? You all have the same goals in mind together that they build together. So just recognizing that there is a need for that. And it's an ongoing thing. It's not an overnight like, oh, well, I did a company picnic. I'm good for a while. Sara Nay Check that box. Rhea Allen Yeah. You've got to continuously build it, continuously grow it and do things to continue to have your employees engaged. ([Time 0:20:26](https://share.snipd.com/snip/6996baea-cee2-496e-912a-928a40447616))