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

130: Storytelling and the Science of Cool (Part 2) w/ Troy Campbell

In the second half of this two-part episode, we’re diving into why Disney uses portals, the principles of meta-modernism and why something is “cool” with Dr. Troy Campbell. Campbell is the Chief Scientist at On Your Feet and his research and career has centered around the intersection of scientific minds and artistic hearts and how to create and capture original and powerful ideas and make amazing things.

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Flip the Switch

129: Storytelling and the Science of Cool (Part 1) w/ Troy Campbell

In the first of this two-part episode with Dr. Troy Campbell, we’re breaking down the principles behind storytelling and what makes something “cool.” Campbell is the Chief Scientist at On Your Feet and his research and career has centered around the intersection of scientific minds and artistic hearts and how to create and capture original and powerful ideas and make amazing things. Part one hits on why Nike ads are simple to make and how brands like Disney borrow stories.

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Flip the Switch

128: Discovering the STORY Behind Superfandom w/ Brittany Hodak

Previously on Flip the Switch, Brittany Hodak shared her ‘SUPER’ framework that brands can leverage to increase loyalty and fandom. With her new book, Creating Superfans coming out today (January 10), David Millay welcomes Brittany back to the show to discuss new frameworks and models that small businesses and global brands everywhere can implement to convert customers and employees into superfans.

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127: Finding Purpose and Building a Community w/ Gina Bianchini

When it comes to identifying your purpose or purposes, it’s all about having a clear intention for your time, your talents, your energy and your focus. What makes you happy. But more importantly, it’s about turning your purpose or purposes into something actionable and making them matter. After helping thousands find their purpose through her companies Ning and Mighty and her Community Design course, CEO and Founder of Mighty Networks Gina Bianchini joins the show to discuss the frameworks to finding purpose and manifesting it as a future story from her new book, Purpose: Design A Community & Change Your Life

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126: Secrets to Success in Customer Service and Company Culture w/ Dennis Snow

Following a 20-year career at Disney, Dennis Snow identified 10 key lessons that all organizations could follow to achieve the same success in customer service and company culture. Since leaving the magic, Dennis has spent the last 23 years inspiring organizations on how to adapt those 10 lessons and apply the core service principles to their operation.

In this episode, we unpack the lessons from his two books, “Lessons from the Mouse: A Guide for Applying Disney World’s Secrets of Success to Your Organization, Your Career, and Your Life” and “Unleashing Excellence: The Complete Guide to Ultimate Customer Service”.

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125: Bringing Greater Hospitality to the Ballpark w/ Eric Weisberg

The baseball business is a relationship business and has the same core values as any other hospitality industry. It’s a practice that Eric Weisberg preaches as the Vice President of Fan Experience. In this episode, Eric discusses the influences roles with Disney and the Kansas City Zoo has on his career in baseball, his “Fan Host for a Day” program and how to show up for a job in the sports industry.

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124: How to Intentionally Serve Your Premium Clients w/ Lisa Holladay

In today’s episode, we’re joined by Lisa Holladay, Chief Experience Officer at Tiger 21, a premier high wealth membership organization. Lisa has spent her career in service hospitality, with stops at Mercedes-Benz and Ritz-Carlton. By viewing customers as owners, guests or members, each of these brands have created more personal relationships, resulting in more memorable experiences.

We break down the principles that make these brands synonymous with guest experience, from their customer framework to the strategies that empower staff, encourage trust and enable transparency within the memberships.

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123: Cultivating Meaningful Conversations Through Social w/ Brooke Sellas

In today’s episode, David Millay and Katie Rudy are joined by Brooke Sellas, Digital Customer Experience Specialist and CEO of B Squared Media. With more than 15 years of marketing experience and 10 in social media management, Brooke recently authored a new book, “Conversations That Connect.” We dive into several tactics and strategies from the book, demonstrating the value of social media listening to connect with, converse with and convert customers.

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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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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