FLIP THE SWITCH

Hosted by EngageMint's Managing Partner, David Millay. We sit down with leaders in customer & employee experience to tease out new mindsets, core principles and best practices. Built specifically for leaders in sports & entertainment.

Flip the Switch

122: Inspiring Impactful Change w/ Guido D’Elia

To orchestrate a compelling game day experience for all fans requires thinking more like a play caller, an offensive coordinator, rather than simply directing a run of show. In this episode, David Millay and Katie Rudy sit down with Guido D’Elia, a consultant in strategic communications and college athletics game day experience. As Penn State’s Director of Football Branding and Communications, Guido was the mastermind behind the “Penn State Whiteout”, an experiment that has resulted in one of the greatest game day experiences in college football. Through insights from the Whiteout, we unpack how to deeper engage your fans and strategies for successful change management.

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Flip the Switch

121: How to Incite Loyalty and Increase Customer Retention w/ Ed Frame

It’s 5x cheaper to retain an existing customer than acquire a new one and increasing retention by 5% can increase profits by 25 – 95%. Yet so many companies still prioritize customer acquisition over retention. In this episode, David Millay and Katie Rudy sit down with Ed Frame, CEO and Founder of Exemplify CX and discuss his 7-phase approach to Customer Longevity, converting buyers into repeat customers and brand advocates.

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Flip the Switch

120: The Simple Science Behind Successful Marketing Strategies w/ Phill Agnew

Today’s guest is Phill Agnew, a senior product marketing manager at Buffer. After struggling as a marketer in his early career, Phill discovered behavioral science and started applying psychology principles to improve his work. From distinctiveness, social proof, primacy effect and framing, Phill developed the Science of Marketing course and The Nudge Marketing Podcast to help others understand how to boost their marketing strategy.

This episode explores key strategies to apply in each of the sales funnel phases – awareness, consideration, acquisition and retention.

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Flip the Switch

119: Reframing Retreats & Resetting Your Operation w/ David Millay and Katie Rudy

In the daily grind, it’s hard to find time to work on the business when you are working in the business.

Staff retreats offer teams the opportunity to reset, reframe the operation and define goals for a new chapter.

In this episode, David Millay and Katie Rudy break down approaches to team retreats and key activities to include to break the cycle and improve your operation.

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Flip the Switch

118: The Parallels Between Rabid Fandoms and Religions w/ Jodi Eichler-Levine

Taking a non-traditional exploration of fandom, today’s episode features Jodi Eichler-Levine, who studies the parallels between classic religions and fan cultures. After learning of Jodi’s research from her a Twitter-trending analysis on “Disney adults” or “Disney-files”, David and Jodi take a deeper dive into the principles that Disney has utilized to create evangelists of their brand and the strategies and tactics brands can adapt to their organization to inspire their own fanatics.

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Flip the Switch

117: What Drives Customers to Buy w/ Katelyn Bourgoin

Before the “driveway to driveway” customer journey begins, there’s the whole buying process. What prompted the customer to consider your brand, product or service? What motivated them to complete the purchase? This week, we’re jumping into the psychology behind why people buy with Katelyn Bourgoin, CEO of Customer Camp. Katelyn and David hit on the journey before the journey, the four key trigger events that lead to purchases and solutions companies have created by truly listening to their customers.

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Flip the Switch

116: The 5 Key Elements Impacting Powerful Customer Experiences w/ Elizabeth Dixon

To design a first-class customer experience, it starts with the mindset, the stories we’re telling ourselves internally and the framework for how we’re viewing the world and aligning it with what we want to create for people around us. In this episode, David sits down with Elizabeth Dixon, entrepreneur and business leader at Elizabeth Dixon Speaks. Elizabeth has worked for or alongside several customer-centric organizations, including her current role of Principal Lead of Strategy, Hospitality and Service Design at Chick-fil-A corporate. Combining best practices and insights from her career, Elizabeth shares the 5 key elements of a great customer experience. From mindset, we discuss the differences between service and hospitality, customer clarity, defining what makes your organization unique and innovating to meet customer needs.

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Flip the Switch

115: How the Savannah Bananas Create the ‘Greatest Show Possible’ w/ Jesse Cole

Our first three-peat on the show, we welcome back Jesse Cole, owner of the Savannah Bananas. In previous episodes, David and Jesse have jammed and brainstormed, but in this show, we unpack the Bananas’ 5-E-Framework that has propelled their Fans First model into a global phenomenon. What the Bananas lack in detailed processes and metrics, they make up for in intentionality, in-depth knowledge of their product and fans and the impression they leave through every step of the in-person and virtual experience.

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Flip the Switch

114: Creating a More Captivating Customer Service Training w/ David Millay and Katie Rudy

Customer service training shouldn’t be something you have to do, but something you get to do, to empower the event staffs that serve your fans and represent your brand.

In this episode, David Millay and Katie Rudy break down the the key components, resources and best practices to running a more captivating training.

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Flip the Switch

113: The Building Blocks of LEGO’s Content & Fandom Strategy w/ James Gregson

Similar to the passion fans have for Disney, young kids and adults alike have deep emotional connections with LEGO. In this week’s episode, James Gregson, creative director for LEGO Group’s internal creative agency, breaks down the content strategies that elicits that fandom and helps “inspire the builders of tomorrow.”

The conversation covers the product partnerships and user-generated content that LEGO utilizes to strengthen relationships and bring new fans into the ecosystem and the creative process James’ team employs to build campaigns.

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Flip the Switch

112: How to Become Customer-Centric vs. Customer-Focused w/ Annette Franz

The terms “customer-focused” and “customer-centric” are often used interchangeably, but there are distinct differences from how an organization is culturally structured to how they serve their customers. In this week’s episode, Annette Franz joins David Millay to discuss her latest book, “Built to Win: Designing a Customer-Centric Culture that Drives Value for Your Business” and the 10 principles to become a more customer-centric organization.

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Flip the Switch

111: Driving Deeper Engagement Through Digital Activations (Part Two) w/ Nick Lawson

Nick Lawson, Co-Founder and CEO of SQWAD rejoins the podcast to discuss the current state of the digital space, sponsorship activations and fan engagement. With much to cover, we split this conversation into two episodes. Listen to the first episode here. In part two, we jump back into the conversation with David Millay and Nick discussing the problems with sponsorship and the deep dive that SQWAD has done to solve them. This episode features strategies and tactics to help organizations and sponsors develop successful campaigns that meet the four steps of awareness, engagement, action and retargeting.

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Flip the Switch

110: Driving Deeper Engagement Through Digital Activations (Part One) w/ Nick Lawson

Nick Lawson, Co-Founder and CEO of SQWAD, joined David Millay on Flip the Switch on March 1, 2020 to discuss the role of digital activations in sports sponsorship. Just two weeks after, that episode became a playbook, as sports leagues and teams turned to digital and virtual platforms to engage brands and fans throughout the pandemic.

Two years later, we invited Nick back to discuss the current state of the digital space, sponsorship activations and fan engagement. With much to cover, we split this conversation into two episodes.

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Flip the Switch

109: Aligning Strategy, Culture and Leadership w/ Len Perna

In today’s episode, David is joined by Len Perna, Chairman and CEO of TurnkeyZRG. Having managed more than 1,400 executive searches, from coaches to middle management to executive leaders, Len shares how his talent advisory firm aligns clients on strategy and cultural fit with the current marketplace, the key attributes they look for in leaders and the “Moneyball” methodology they use to evaluate candidates.

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108: The Core Principles Driving Employee Motivation w/ Dr. Scott Rigby

Salary increases and rewards have their place, but to inspire connection and tenure with your employees requires more. In this episode, David Millay and Dr. Scott Rigby, Founder and CEO of Immersyve and MotivationWorks, dive into self-determination theory, employees’ three basic needs and the obstacles employers must overcome to motivate their teams long-term.

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107: Harnessing the True Power of Community in Your Fanbase w/ Christina Garnett

The power of community emerges when companies embrace the directional relationship members form not just with their brand, but with other members. In this episode, Christina Garnett, senior marketing manager for offline community and advocacy at HubSpot, joins David to talk about the magic of tapping into common passions and making your fans the hero of the story.

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106: Forging a Non-Traditional Career Path w/ Paul Millerd

In the last two years, individuals have challenged the traditional scripts of career paths, a factor contributing to the Great Resignation. On today’s episode, we sit down with Paul Millerd, a solopreneur and author of “The Pathless Path: Imagining a New Story for Work and Life.” Since leaving his corporate consulting career, Paul has studied the concepts behind burnout, work-life balance and the economic impact on the current job market. This episode provides insight to employees willing to leave full-time jobs to explore and experiment and how you might be able to retain them and increase their value to your organization.

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105: Storytelling and Personifying a Brand Voice w/ Amie Kiehn

In this episode, we are joined by Amie Kiehn, Social Leader and Head of Community for Gondola. During Amie’s time with the Carolina Panthers, she cultivated a brand personality across their social media platforms with a voice known for its wit and snark. Rather than just focusing on events, Amie and her team connected with fans by listening to the community and experimenting with creative content and comments on other viral posts. We cover everything from brand personas, content calendars (or lack thereof), understanding the creative process and “work-life balance.”

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Flip the Switch

104: Moving to a 32-Hour Work Week w/ Josh Foreman

It’s not every day we are turning to global debt collection companies for inspiration. Today’s episode features InDebted CEO Josh Foreman. Josh had a vision for creating a customer-centric debt collection agency and the organization has more than 2,000 5-star reviews on Google. While we dig into some of the strategies and tactics that led to those reviews, this conversation largely focuses on the employee experience. In September 2021, InDebted moved to a 4-day, 32-hour work week. We provide a full roadmap for implementing the asynchronous work schedule in your organization.

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103: Learning to Lead Like Amazon w/ John Rossman

To become the digital leader and business disruptor Amazon is today, the company has firmly operated on 14 leadership principles. First and foremost, they are driven by customer obsession.

This week, we are joined by John Rossman, managing partner of Rossman Partners, author and keynote speaker. John spent nearly four years as an Amazon executive, responsible for launching and scaling the merchant integration team and Amazon Marketplace business, which accounts for more than 50% of all units sold on Amazon.com. Since leaving, he has helped organizations understand the strategies and core principles that propelled Amazon to success.

Before you think “this isn’t applicable, I don’t have Amazon’s staff or budget”, the tangible tactics can be applied to help businesses of all sizes excel.

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