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Shooting for Stars & Solving Problems with Lizz Behler · We Built This Brand

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Pulling social into everything.
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When I say "social," and I'm kind of laughing at myself because
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I can't even imagine how many times I've said this in the last
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couple of years is, social is not just a platform, it's a behavior.
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And that's why these channels exist, and it's something
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that Big Spaceship, SPCSHP has done really, really well.
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And so really wanted to like tap into that.
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How do we position that as, you know, what we do as part of our core offering?
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Welcome to We Built This Brand, the podcast where we talk to the
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creators and collaborators behind brands, and provide you with
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practical insights that you can use in growing your own business.
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Today we're talking with Lizz Behler, Senior Vice President Brand
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Offerings at SPCSHP, an independent agency of creative specialists,
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exploring new ways to engage and connect with people today.
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Now Lizz was hired at SPCSHP to help them rebrand their company, and
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so she has a very unique position on marketing and branding for them.
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Lizz was a lot of fun to speak with too, and we discussed
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everything from the importance of branding your company
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to what it means to be a creative problem solver.
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If you like books, spaceships, or the challenges of marketing and
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branding, I think you'll really get a lot out of this conversation.
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That said, here's my conversation with Lizz Behler of SPCSHP.
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Alright, Lizz, welcome to We Built This Brand.
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Thanks Chris.
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Happy to be here.
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Absolutely.
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it's great to have you, and I am excited to talk to you today about what you do
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at SPCSHP and just some of the more fun stuff around creative problem solving.
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So, let's just dive in.
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I always like to start with learning where you got your start and how
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you got to SPCSHP, and of course, I'm gonna have to ask what SPCSHP
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is, 'cause some people are gonna be like, what are you talking about?
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So.
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Well, how far back you wanna go?
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Oh man.
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Just your professional journey is fine.
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Not childhood or anything.
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Yeah.
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Well that's good.
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We'll keep, yeah.
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So I actually came up through the creative track before I went into strategies.
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It's now College for Creative Studies.
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I want to call it Center for Creative Studies, but that's it was
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when I was there, immediately went into marketing and advertising.
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And I loved being in creative.
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I was there for about the first six, seven years, and at
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about that mark I started to find that I was doing more
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research, and I just loved the study of people of culture.
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It just to fuel my creativity, and I had an opportunity to apply for
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a job in strategy, and so I made the switch and never looked back.
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So I've had the privilege to work at a lot of different agencies and
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the past, I wanna say about 12 years, I've worked almost exclusively for
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New York agencies, which is kind of interesting given I'm in Detroit.
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But, I find there's so much energy and talent there
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that it's, you know, privilege to get to work with them.
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So for the past two years, I've been at SPCSHP,
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and SPCSHP, formerly known as Big Spaceship.
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I joined in order to rebrand reposition the agency.
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So it was a really interesting time for the company and,
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you know, was tapped and met with the few people internally,
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and it seemed like an amazing challenge and opportunity.
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So I joined.
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That's really neat.
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So, that works, that ties in really well.
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'cause I was really curious about the name SPCSHP, and I saw
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Big Spaceship as well, and I was wondering how that all changed.
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So you, you had a front row seat to that.
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So let's dive into that a little bit.
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Tell me about that challenge, because that's a big
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challenge to come in and be the first thing you work on too.
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Well, and you know, honestly that is why I joined though, is like, what a
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cool thing to join a company to do what we do for so many clients, you know,
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brand strategy, brand positioning, all the identity systems, and joining
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SPCSHP again at the time, Big Spaceship, the ask was to support that shift.
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What do we need to be in today's market?
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And yeah, the intention coming in was not, oh,
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well you definitely need to change the name.
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That was not where things started, but it was a 10 month journey very closely
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with our founder, Michael Lebowitz, and a lot of the creative crew in house.
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And what I found was all this amazing through lines.
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Like, that was kind of where I wanted to start is what do we already have?
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What do we do really, really well and what are the
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things that are maybe getting in the way of that?
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And you know when they started to peel back those layers, as you
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know, again, as you would do for any brand, I started to find this
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amazing cultural thread, like Big Spaceship started developing
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websites, but they weren't just websites, like transactional.
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They were really immersive experiences.
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They were about bringing people together, which is
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something from a web experience standpoint is pretty
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unusual given, you know, we were founded in 2000, right?
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And so websites then were pretty transactional, like basic blocking tackling.
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So that was a really amazing starting point
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to see for an agency, and then more recently,
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pulling social into everything.
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When I, when I say social and I'm kind of laughing at myself because
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I can't even imagine how many times I've said this in the past
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couple of years, is social, not just a platform, it's a behavior.
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And that's why these channels exist, and it's something that Big Spaceship,
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SPCSHP has done really, really well, and so really wanted to like tap into that.
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How do we position that as, you know, what we do as part of our core offering?
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And I know you're gonna ask me this, you know, SPCSHP with no vowels, like.
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Why the no vowels?
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I mean.
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I literally had that question written down.
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A lot of people do.
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It's funny, like I said, the intention was not to change the name,
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but as you peel back the layers and wanted to get to simplicity of
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what we are, we ended up coming to SPCSHP because the kind of core
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DNA is about curiosity, that exploration, experimentation, and so
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when you think of a spaceship and, you know, I used to have this
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plastered on my walls, there's that kind of unbridled curiosity.
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You're immersing yourself in a solar system, a planet, whatever it is to
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understand what's there, and it's that type of mindset that we want embody.
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I remember the conversation with Michael about the name SPCSHP, and he
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goes, I can pull up the note that I have from 2000, or you know, pre-2000.
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I wanted to call the agency SPCSHP, but
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someone else had taken the name at the time.
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And I was like, well that's interesting because as we talk
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about what we're trying to create, it's not just about one
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big SPCSHP, it's about how we work with other entities.
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And so that was platform for why we changed to SPCSHP.
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Now the vowels were really focused on adaptability and speed,
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and even without the vowels, you can still read it as SPCSHP.
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And so that was why it was intentionally done of how much do
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you actually need in today's world, what cues from a verbal
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standpoint or from a visual standpoint, do you need in order
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to come to our name, so that's why the vowels aren't there.
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You know, we we're a little bit more clever than that, but it was really
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that experiment with today's culture and the nomenclature of today.
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Oh yeah, that makes total sense, and I like that there's
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a story behind it that goes into the brand itself.
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Like, just randomly saying, "I want it to be named SPCSHP." Cool, but now
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you have meaning behind the name other than just having it be the name.
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And was there another meaning behind SPCSHP?
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Like did the founder have a reason he wanted to call it SPCSHP
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when he started, or did he just think that was a cool name?
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Think about when you're a kid and just those moments of awe, right?
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And a spaceship is something as a kid, I mean,
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wow, that seems so limitless, so powerful.
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Like the adventures you could go on, the
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level of creative mind that that unleashes.
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And so that was very much part of it.
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And, you know, when Michael founded the company, that
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was definitely the spirit that he brought to the table.
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He still does today and so does our crew.
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So it still fits.
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That's awesome.
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That's really cool.
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I can think of a lot of things in my life regarding like
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space travel and things like that, that, yeah, it's inspiring.
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It's fun.
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It's, you know, something I've always been interested in.
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So I can see how that makes a lot of sense, and when you're talking
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about doing unique websites, like you talked about one-offs and
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things like that, that, to me, makes, yeah, like SPCSHP sounds
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like the type of company that would make that, if that makes sense.
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So that, that's very, very neat.
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So, what is your approach to working with brands like?
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Ooh.
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It's my favorite thing.
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I always start with stakeholder interviews.
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It sounds so silly, so basic, but really talking to people to
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understand the unique perspectives that you have internally,
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and you know, I often start with just the basic questions of,
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"Why'd you join? Why are you here?" regardless of the brand.
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You joined for a reason.
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What was it?
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And now that you are here, what are the things that you think are.
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Most interesting, most valuable.
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I often like to ask the question of, what's that thing that you know about the
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brand or company that maybe other people would find surprising or don't know?
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But I find that so many of the positionings that I've come
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to regardless of brand, have been through those interviews.
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It's, you really want make sure that it's something that exists.
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It's authentic, that you're not trying to manufacture something
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for a company or brand unless you're starting from scratch.
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You're like, "What are we gonna be?" But when you join a company, It has
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to feel on brand, you know, when you're repositioning, when you're trying
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to simplify things or move to a, you know, a different set of offerings.
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And so starting with those interviews and then even before
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I joined SPCSHP, I went through kind of the book of work.
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You know, "What type of creative output?"
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"How are we communicating out in the world?"
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"What type of clients?" And particularly with SPCSHP, it was
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what type of clients do we work with now, but also what are areas
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that we're curious about that we wanna explore and expand into?
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And in what way?
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And so the unique thing with SPCSHP is it wasn't just rebranding
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and positioning, it was also going, what are we gonna offer?
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There are so many agencies out there as a very, very crowded space.
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What do we do that is, you know, unique to us?
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I say unique to us and It's difficult to say that because there's so many
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adjacencies and overlap, but still like, what do we wanna do with our
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superpower and the strength that we wanna continue to fortify and build?
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And so that was also very much part of it.
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And again, it came from those interviews, those conversations.
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Yeah, I call that getting fingertip close to the customer.
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Actually being able to put your hand on the product,
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being able to be there with the, the client and stuff.
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I remember the first time I ever did that years ago in marketing, and it
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made such a huge impact on the project we were working on because we had been
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there, we understood their needs, we understood their challenges, and yeah,
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it's just one of those things that I think is way undervalued a lot of times.
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So I'm glad to hear you say that.
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'cause it does matter to hear from the, as you said, stakeholders within
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the organization and even outside the organization that are, you know,
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consumers and whatnot to understand their needs and desires for the products.
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So, that's great.
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That's a great starting place, and so you have that.
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I also noticed your tagline is, you know, making
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meaningful connections through empathy and clarity.
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So how does empathy play into things?
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I'm very curious.
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Well, you have to start with that deep understanding of people, right?
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I think that understanding situations people are in, you know, whether that's
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a consumer, a brand, a business that you're working with, kind of that whole
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chain if you will, is really, really important in how we create stories.
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You know, on behalf of the brands that we work with.
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I mean, everything is a storytelling vessel, right?
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Whether it's a product or a social media post, but you have
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to have that understanding off the people that you're trying
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to connect with in order to make that something valuable.
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And that takes work, and it also, much like the interviews,
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it takes really active, intentional listening and research.
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So that's kind of core to what we do.
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Yeah.
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That's great.
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That's great.
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So as you've built the brand, how have you seen, since
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you spent that time helping kind of rebuild, rebrand, all
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of that, how has that affected the company as a whole?
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Because obviously with what you all do, you're not just doing that task
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of rebranding and saying, all right, cool, we rebranded the business.
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Like if you were with, I don't know, I'm gonna, random company that came into my
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head, Fastenal, you know, they do nuts and bolts and all those kinds of things.
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You know, you're not just rebranding Fastenal, and then
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going, okay, we're gonna go back to selling nuts and bolts.
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You're nuts and bolts are exactly what you just did.
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The branding and the rebranding and the marketing.
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So, how did that process impact what you now do at SPCSHP?
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We definitely have much more clarity on what type of work we wanna do.
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For example, I know we started with websites.
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A lot of people still know us for websites, and we have an amazing, you know,
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network of partners now to achieve that, but we alone don't do websites.
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What we do is more storytelling.
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So when you come back to that empathy and connection, it's
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really storytelling through creative content is our primary.
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And so it's a little bit more narrow than it used to be, but
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for a very intentional reason if you're, you know, trying to do
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everything, you're not gonna do anything really, really well.
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And so there has to be that experimentation type mindset.
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But how do we bring focus to it to get even greater creativity?
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You know, I think about it as like limitation
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and compression drives new creativity.
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It's no different than limiting what we offer
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and how we approach creativity as a whole.
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I mean that, that definitely makes a lot of sense because
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you're, yeah, as you focus and as you find that space
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where you work best, like that's where you need to go.
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Trying to be everything to everybody is hard, and I'm sure even that transition
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was probably a bit of a challenge too, and may still be for all I know.
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But outside of that, I noticed Chase Bank, I
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think y'all have done some work with recently.
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Are there any good examples of where you've been able to implement this,
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implement your new practice and your new thoughts and branding, so to speak?
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So when we, on the other side of the branding, branding, repositioning, and I
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would still say, you know, change is something that we're still experiencing.
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I mean we can come back to this, but being acquired by MSQ introduced new
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change, and so we were already working through our own and that, you know,
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brought new, but as far as how this impacted, you know, what we do, what
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we've been able to accomplish since then is, you know, we've landed for
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new clients, I can't speak to all of them because we're not publically
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sharing that yet, but one of them that I will, we work Dairy Queen.
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No different than what we did for the branding.
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I was gonna, you know, give Cory Galster, he's
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our amazing designer who did our SPCSHP branding.
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He also, he and his team did the Dairy Queen system and identity.
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So that same type of mindset and curiosity we directly applied there.
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The storytelling of how do we do that with paid and social for them.
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They were one of the first partners that we
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were really able to implement that focus on.
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Like I said, we have a few other.
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We're working with Dropbox is another one that I can mention.
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There's one I'm super excited about but can't share just yet.
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I even, you know, tempted to seek some permissions this morning, but no, go.
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But, you know, what's nice about it is because of that focus, and
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because of how articulate we're able to be with who we are and what
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we offer, we saw immediate impact on, oh, I know how to work with
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you, when to work with you, which is a challenge for any agency.
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You know, when there's so many of like, what would I turn to you for?
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We're finding that more and more companies understand that more
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clearly than they ever have of what do I turn to SPCSHP for?
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And so that is a big benefit and a big impact, and it really
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helps us even now with how we fit within the overall MSQ network
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of what do we do and then when do we tap into our network.
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Because a network is, you know, I'll call other
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SPCSHPs, even though they're not called SPCSHP.
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They're part of your fleet.
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They're part of our fleet.
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Yeah.
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Your fleet of SPCSHPs.
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Yes.
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Awesome.
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Okay.
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Well that,
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that is definitely a really cool way to think about it and
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a cool way to think about what you all are doing there.
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So one of the things I wanted to talk about today is we really
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get into things here, is just that challenge, I noticed that you
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said in your bio that you really enjoy creative problem solving.
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And I can already tell like these challenges and these things
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we've been brought are definitely huge examples of that.
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But what does creative problem solving mean to you?
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When I think about creative problem solving, it's the awareness
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that there are many right ways to a solution, and it's
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about finding the best solution for that circumstance, okay?
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And so whether that's for a particular brief that a client gives us.
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Which is interesting because I think that oftentimes we
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have, I'll call it like the negotiation with a client
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over a brief of what are you actually trying to solve?
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You know, sometimes, you know, often when clients come to you and
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ask you like, this is what I need, you, like, paint in this box.
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You go, okay, but why?
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Right?
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What are we trying to do?
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And that's that moment of like.
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We, you know, are, we're accountable to impacting business.
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And so it's important that we ask that question, and
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that's part of the creative problem solving question.
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It starts our process.
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It starts very early from that first moment of conversation, that first brief.
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So it's not just that creative output which is, you know, ultimately
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how it's represented in the world, but it starts there of like,
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if there is a unique business challenge, like when you look at
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Dairy Queen, which is, you know, they are known, and I mean like
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childhood love for Dairy Queen and soft serve there, but that's what
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they were known for and they've expanded their whole product plan.
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How do you support a brand that's gone from, you
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know, years and years of being known for treats?
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To expand into other food, you know, like your chicken strips.
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Like how do you support them in that change and without losing your core base.
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And so to me, what a cool problem to solve, right?
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Because well, who doesn't love both those things?
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I mean, so when I think about it, that's like in particular to a brand,
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there's also creative problem solving of like what to know about people today.
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I think that we're
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very interesting time where you can express and discover
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your identity in so many ways, and I think it's amazing.
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And ultimately, identity is core to who we are as individuals,
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but it's also, you know, we talk about connection.
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Identity is what brings people together.
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It's how communities form because of some similar, you know, aspect
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of their identity or beliefs or, you know, even just interests.
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Like, "Hey, I love ceilings," so I surround myself with people that love it too.
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So, all of those things are considerations for how you creatively problem solve.
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There's no kind of two similar problems.
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The the notion, even the word like creative.
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What does it mean to be creative?
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Every single field everywhere requires a level of creativity.
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I mean, there was a moment of time in my life where I thought I was gonna
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go into law, and that's because I found the constraints and the deep
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understanding so interesting, and to be a really exceptional lawyer, you
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have to know all the those things, but you have to work in and around
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them, so to speak, and that's creative problem solving within legal system.
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To me, that type of mindset of what do I need to know to really
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understand then am I working in it or am I working around it?
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Where my head goes with this is thinking about people that come and say, "Hey,
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I want to do X," and it's something that's very generic or very stereotypical.
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I use the example all the time here on We Built This Brand about going viral.
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You know, you hear people say, "I want to go viral." Okay, what does that mean?
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What does that viral video do for you?
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Like what, what do you really benefit from doing that?
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Or, like, you know, for my company, HumblePod, we do podcast production.
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People want to, you know, get advertisers.
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And I'm like, yeah, but is that really what you need for your business?
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Or do you need revenue coming in?
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Do you need to find a way to use this to position your brand better?
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Like what is the real benefit of this for you?
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And I think that, you know, starting with those questions is always
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really helpful 'cause sometimes you weed clients out there too,
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but but that's also a really good time to start.
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That's where the creative part starts is figuring out what that
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first question you need to answer is, which is what is going to
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help you or help the client be the most successful that they can be.
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What are, how are they gonna walk away feeling like it was a success?
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And that's where I always start anyway, so that, that's really cool.
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You know, I was gonna ask you like, how do you use that?
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How do you use creative problem solving in your day-to-day work?
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And it sounds like you've kind of answered that a lot, but I'd
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love to hear more about that too 'cause I'm sure there's more.
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It's so, it's interesting, there's, you know, my day-to-day is different in the
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sense that I'm working on the business of SPCSHP and in the business of SPCSHP.
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And so you have different types of problems that you're trying to solve.
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Like, when you're working, you know, on the business and you're
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supporting teams and mentoring teams and supporting growth, your
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creative problem solve might be, gosh, I really see, you know,
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this individual is so strong at this, and I wanna see them grow.
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What is that thing that I can introduce that might make them a little bit
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uncomfortable, but start to challenge them so that they, you ignite that growth?
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That's creative problem solving within, you know, people management and
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because, you know, people are the most valuable asset of any company.
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So I view that as like one of the most powerful and, you know,
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should be focused on problems to creatively solve is how do you
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keep people, you know, continuously growing within the business?
23:40
You know, I brought up Dairy Queen, and I wanna
23:42
bring up my other client, but I can't yet.
23:45
They Oh yeah, I know.
23:46
Trust me.
23:48
It's such an interesting new industry and there's so many
23:50
constraints that make it very creatively challenging in the fun way.
23:55
Where are you trying to go from a business standpoint?
23:58
You know, I love reading quarterly business reports and financial
24:01
reports because you start to understand not just the state of the
24:04
business that you are working on, but how that's impacting the whole.
24:08
And maybe things that you weren't previously considering.
24:12
Within Chase, the interesting thing you brought, you asked about them earlier.
24:16
We've been a partner with for over seven years, and we continue to work
24:23
with them on a project basis when we're AOR with many other clients, but
24:27
with Chase, It's a new problem that they bring us to solve, and they don't
24:32
always come with that, you know, here specifically, check this box, do this.
24:36
But now they're coming to us as advisors.
24:39
I'm like, how might we solve this together?
24:41
And so it's been an interesting evolution of our relationship.
24:44
And honestly, that's how most of our relationships started with SPCSHP.
24:50
Even when we were Big Spaceship, I know you've probably seen that we were
24:53
Starbucks partner for, you know, agency of record for many, many years.
24:57
That started with a project.
24:59
And that project grew into an amazing relationship, a trusted
25:03
relationship ultimately is business changes, you know, needs change.
25:08
and that sense, that departure at about, you know, that nine year mark.
25:11
But it's amazing to see that type of trust of like, I don't know exactly
25:17
how to solve this, but like, we're gonna introduce this new product.
25:21
How should we launch it?
25:25
These types of consumers, how do we do that?
25:28
They're all unique and super, super interesting and you know,
25:31
you're gonna approach each of those a little bit differently.
25:37
So you mentioned keeping employees growing and inspired.
25:41
What do you do?
25:44
How do you help your employees grow and stay inspired?
25:47
Because in a creative agency, I think it's easy to get burned out
25:51
on the day in, day out, you know, rote, "Okay, we gotta make sure
25:55
the social posts go out. We gotta make sure this content gets out
25:57
there, and that we have everything drafted by five o'clock or they're
26:00
not gonna see it, and it won't get out," and all those anxieties.
26:03
So how, how do you keep your team growing and inspired.
26:07
In the ideal circumstance you have more space for that.
26:10
I would say right now, there's a lot of interesting demands happening in
26:15
marketing that are making it more and more difficult, so I do wanna recognize
26:18
that, but one of the things that I've done with almost every team, it's a
26:25
little bit more difficult during, you know, with remote working, but at the end
26:29
of every year, in order to like kick off the new year, one of the things that
26:33
I've historically done is I've found a book for every individual on my team.
26:37
And that book is not the same book.
26:40
It's not like, you know, go out and read "Culture Code," which you should if
26:45
you haven't, but it's, you might like "Secret Life of Colors" because that
26:50
explores the depth of color and color theory and psychology or whatever.
26:55
Or there's something unique about that in the sense that
26:59
I need to know someone who they are as an individual.
27:02
Like what makes them tick, what things are happening in
27:05
their lives too, and how do I give them something kind of
27:11
meets where they, while also potentially inspiring them.
27:15
I use that example because It's kind of that once a year, I have to
27:18
admit, the past years it has not been something I've been able to do.
27:23
It's been very difficult.
27:24
Remote working and with our kind of our team distributed, but
27:29
within SPCSHP, a lot of that comes down to really listening.
27:35
Like to inspire someone, I'll give you this example.
27:39
An amazing researcher and analyst on our team being bogged down by pulling
27:45
data, and I was like, well, what if we find a way to automate that?
27:51
And we're working within our MSQ partner now
27:53
and MSQ data and they're building us a tool.
27:56
And what I love about that is now on the other side of that tool being built,
28:01
she will be able to do what she needs to do to fulfill like those client
28:04
needs, but also she'll be able to spend that time thinking more around it.
28:08
And so it's making the space for it.
28:11
I think that's probably the biggest challenge right now is trying
28:15
to wedge that space for people so that they can be inspired
28:19
by the individuals within the company, but also on their own.
28:24
So, I would say that's a transition that we're going through
28:27
as a whole is trying to wedge those small moments of it,
28:32
but those are just a couple examples, hopefully that.
28:34
No, that's really good.
28:35
I think the books, It's a very personal thing to pick an
28:39
individual book for an individual and say, "This is the book for
28:42
you," as opposed to, "Alright, this is the theme for the year.
28:45
We bought 15 copies of Mark Schafer's latest marketing book," and there you go.
28:50
I think that means that probably means a lot to those individuals when
28:53
you're able to do that, and then keeping people growing and inspired is
28:58
always gonna be a challenge in finding, helping them find that space.
29:01
What do you do yourself to stay growing and inspired?
29:05
It's an interesting thing for me because I, gosh, I
29:10
was talking to my husband about this the other day.
29:11
I used to, every day I'd wake up, I'd read so much information, so much content.
29:16
I still am an avid reader.
29:18
I mean, I've read.
29:19
12 books this year, we're in April.
29:21
I'm trying to break some records from last year, but that's one way.
29:25
But the other thing is I also have children and
29:28
I'm kind of rediscovering the world through them.
29:31
And so, you know, things like last night I sat down, and they're
29:36
playing Animal Crossing and they wanna, you know, redesign things.
29:39
For me, I was like, oh, why is this like that?
29:41
Oh, why?
29:42
You know,
29:44
it's inspiring because I'm seeing the world through a different lens.
29:49
Like I am not a 10 or 12-year-old child, you know, but I am
29:52
experiencing what they're experiencing and I'm asking questions and
29:55
I'm listening, and it's like they have their own little language.
29:59
They have their own like culture that they've created even with each other.
30:03
And I think that's interesting because you know how
30:05
that applies directly to what I do professionally.
30:08
This morning I was having a conversation putting together a pitch with a
30:12
few other crew members, and some of the things that came up in conversation
30:18
with my daughters inspired me to go down some research rabbit holes.
30:21
And those research rabbit holes are directly reflected in
30:25
some of the content that we're now creating for the pitch.
30:27
And so not how I thought I would end up there, but by being
30:32
kind of like open in that sense, it allowed me to be led there.
30:36
Yeah, kids are definitely a big inspiration.
30:38
I have kids too, and yeah, definitely always learning something even
30:43
from them or finding out what little world they're in, you know,
30:46
and having to be plugged into that content, forcibly a lot of times.
30:52
Alright we're watching, you know, five hours of Bluey today.
30:55
Okay, well that'll be fun.
30:58
Rainy days are the best.
30:59
What can I say?
31:01
But yeah, so like, you know, things like that really help and
31:05
then just rediscovering your own ability to play, I think, a
31:08
lot of times too with kids and having to play by their roles and
31:11
be creative again, it's yeah, definitely an inspiration source.
31:16
So that's great.
31:16
That's great.
31:17
And reading too.
31:18
Do you, do you have a specific topic of books that you try
31:21
to read through, or is it just, "Hey, I keep reading up.
31:23
It's kinda like lifting weights.
31:25
It's just what I like to continue to do and consume.
31:28
" I found last year was an interesting challenge I made for myself.
31:32
So I started, my husband heavily influenced me,
31:36
and I tried to start my year by setting goals.
31:38
And last year, one of my goals was to read at least
31:41
a book a month because I had fallen off my pace.
31:44
And the reason I did that was just to try to get my speed up because I
31:48
used to read many, many more research reports and in former jobs, and so
31:52
I was like, alright, how do I get that speed back to where it should be?
31:55
And then now It's more, it's fiction.
31:58
It's nonfiction.
32:00
Like right now I'm reading a parenting book because,
32:04
you know, you can, I think always learn something new.
32:08
I have two girls getting ready to go
32:10
through, you know, some major hormone shifts.
32:12
I was like, God, help me.
32:14
You know?
32:15
So it really depends on what I'm trying to learn.
32:18
You know, if I'm just trying to read a book because
32:21
I'm in, you know, I'm in two book clubs, right?
32:23
And so I'm like, well.
32:25
I'm gonna read this non, or this fiction
32:27
book so that I can be part of that community.
32:30
That is a different intent than I'm gonna read this book so
32:32
that I can better understand like all the crazy things that
32:35
are ahead of me with these girls as they start to develop.
32:38
So it's usually pretty intentional in how I'm going and picking.
32:43
But then what I love is people recommend books to me all the time and I
32:48
have like a little cue and good reads and it's one of my favorite things.
32:51
It's like, oh, I dunno if I'm gonna read that or not as well.
32:54
I do wanna read.
32:57
I'm saying this now.
32:58
It's like accountability because I'm saying it out loud.
33:02
Alright, let's hear it.
33:03
I wanna read Dune.
33:05
So my husband read Dune, and I bought him this
33:08
amazing edition of it, and I was like, wow.
33:09
It came in, I was like, this is heavy.
33:13
I loved Dune.
33:15
Watched it on a repeat, like, wow, what amazingly beautiful story.
33:19
Thinking about when it was written.
33:21
I was like, I need to actually get back to the text
33:23
and read it, you know, versus just watching it.
33:26
But I find it really intimidating, and honestly it's because
33:29
it's such a heavy weighted book, not just the content.
33:35
But I also feel like that's part of the experience.
33:37
So some books I might read on Kindle.
33:39
That one I need to read cover to cover in an actual tangible book.
33:42
I think that's part of the experience.
33:44
So, we'll see.
33:46
I don't know if that'll be a this year thing,
33:47
but maybe I'm ramping up for it for next year.
33:50
So I did the audiobook of Dune before I watched the movie 'cause
33:53
I had never done the books at all, and I delayed on the movie.
33:58
'cause I didn't have a ton of my, like I have friends that like it, but nobody
34:02
was like, "Hey, come to the movie with me." So I was like, okay, I'll just
34:04
wait and do whenever, and it's, yeah, it's intimidating but it's really good.
34:10
There's a lot of depth in that book and for what it's worth, the audio book's
34:14
actually really good, although I probably read it first if you're at that
34:19
level where you've seen the movie multiple times, but very true to the movie.
34:23
I will say at least the first book and yeah.
34:26
That's really neat.
34:27
Yeah.
34:27
Books are, I'm reading more right now 'cause, I finally decided my son is
34:32
six, and so I decided he needs to like start, I need to start him on some
34:38
more advanced reading, and so I just dove right into the Hobbit with him.
34:41
And that's been a really fun experience reading that 'cause
34:44
now I'm reading that out loud, and that is a challenge.
34:50
That is, oh my gosh, but it is, it has been a lot of fun.
34:53
So yeah.
34:55
Big reader.
34:55
I enjoy reading.
34:56
So I was just curious kinda where your, where your head was at with that.
34:59
That's awesome.
35:00
Okay.
35:00
Well, yeah.
35:02
So what,
35:03
just broadly speaking now, let's kinda widen out a little bit.
35:06
What is top of mind for you in your industry right now?
35:10
What things are you thinking about and anticipating
35:12
maybe for all your clients in the coming year?
35:15
Right now, I find
35:19
there's such a focus on, I'm gonna separate content from storytelling.
35:25
There's such a focus on content.
35:28
The things, right?
35:30
The actual and the volume of it, and when I think about not just, you know,
35:37
SPCSHP, but just as a whole, what are the stories that you need to tell?
35:42
And I think about stories in a couple ways because oftentimes
35:47
when you hear marketing, you think about, oh, that advertising,
35:50
you know, that piece of advertising I saw, you know, while I was
35:54
watching Netflix or while I was flipping through social media.
35:58
But marketing, really, really good marketing, is also about
36:02
understanding what consumers need, want, maybe don't know, right?
36:07
And introducing products.
36:10
So when I think about some of the greatest opportunities on the horizon
36:14
right now is working with brands that really wanna understand their
36:19
consumers, but also working with their development team, their product
36:23
development team to start to create and fulfill those things, and
36:27
then market it, and you know what you would consider that traditional
36:31
way of marketing, but that to me is like the real opportunity.
36:35
I mean, there's so much just stuff in the world.
36:39
Like I don't even know the numbers anymore.
36:41
I used to keep track of like how many, you know, brands
36:43
do we see in a day, can't even keep track anymore.
36:46
And so when I think about the next, you know, three, five years for brands
36:53
is really dialing in on what will be most meaningful to the consumers
36:59
that I'm trying to connect with, rather than think about it as a volume
37:04
approach, which is a really difficult shift for a lot of brands to make.
37:09
I would say more so legacy brands, but you see some of these newer brands,
37:14
and I know you're gonna come to, you know, one of my favorite brands,
37:19
as of late, which I'll come to in a minute, but they're more nimble.
37:24
They test, they experiment, and that is a hard mindset for a legacy brand to
37:32
often adapt, and not all, I don't, you know, you can't throw a blanket statement
37:35
out there, but it's one of those things like, I would love to work with more of
37:39
those brands that are just open, like this is gonna be really ugly and really
37:44
painful because of change, and we've been around for however many years, but
37:49
that type of nimbleness in experimentation and know that not everything is
37:54
going to be the most successful thing, but that mindset shift is what most
38:00
brands should be focused on and what brand partners should be focused on.
38:03
Yeah.
38:05
Yeah, I think that speaks a lot to just the fragmentation of the internet as it
38:11
is right now, because, you know, one thing that we're seeing a lot of is you,
38:16
like, it's hard to be on one platform or to do one thing to many platforms, like
38:21
the same piece of content that we may put on YouTube for YouTube short, even for
38:27
this episode, maybe what I'm talking about right now will make it really meta,
38:30
if our editors catch this, but you know, like this might perform well on YouTube
38:37
shorts, and it might not perform as well on TikTok, and the content and the
38:40
way you communicate on one platform isn't the way you communicate on another.
38:44
And so that whole challenge of like, how are you.
38:48
Creating your content and how are you being intentional with your
38:50
content for the audience you're trying to reach is a big challenge.
38:53
And yeah, you gotta be willing to take a risk and go,
38:55
you know, we may not have a big audience for this.
38:58
Like, I always try to set the expectation with people on podcasting.
39:01
You may not become famous overnight.
39:03
Podcasting is a marathon.
39:05
I mean, true podcasting, unless you have, you know, unless you're able
39:09
to have like Kevin Hart as your host for the episode or the show, you're
39:14
not going to come outta the gate swinging with thousands of downloads,
39:18
and you need to be willing to understand what your alternative strategy
39:22
is here and what you're gonna get out of it, because it still may be
39:25
just as valuable in the end, but you don't, if you are just looking at
39:29
the large number and not seeing it, you may not get that right off hand.
39:34
So yeah, totally, totally a big challenge, in the industry.
39:38
So yeah, I would love to hear more about this experimentation
39:41
and things that are being tried 'cause there's all kinds of
39:43
stuff right now that are, things that are happening around us.
39:46
And I know everybody talks about AI.
39:47
I don't want to go into too much detail on that 'cause I feel like that's
39:51
talked about ad naseum on other shows, but even some of the creativity
39:55
that I'm seeing in that industry right now is really impressive.
39:58
Some stuff that I'm seeing is like, okay, this is scary.
40:02
It's not coming for my job, but it is wild what people are able to do with it.
40:08
So yeah.
40:08
So that's very cool.
40:09
That's very cool.
40:10
So yeah,
40:12
You alluded to it, so I'll just go ahead and ask.
40:14
Last question I always like to ask on this podcast is,
40:17
you know, what brand do you admire the most right now?
40:19
And I'd just love to hear from you, like, what brand is that?
40:21
I know you were excited to talk about it, so let's dive in.
40:25
Well, I laugh because it's a brand that sits in my fridge,
40:30
and it kind of warmed its way in there, but it's poppi,
40:34
and it's not, you know, I look at their latest news of
40:37
being, you know, acquired by Pepsi, and I'm like, amazing.
40:41
Good for you.
40:42
But the thing that I love is how they started.
40:46
So they were what Mother Beverage, I think is what they were called.
40:52
There is, you know, two young women that started.
40:54
One, they kind of stumbled into this area because of some health issues, right?
40:59
And so those health issues led to the product development of
41:03
something that would be better for your overall gut health.
41:07
Not something you think about when you think about, you
41:09
know, a can sitting in your fridge is like, oh, I'm gonna
41:11
drink this thing, and it's gonna impact my gut health.
41:15
I also think it's really, really cool that, you know, they went on
41:18
Shark Tank, and that, like a lot of people don't know because they
41:22
were still under Mother Beverage, you know, and they secured this deal
41:28
with a beverage industry expert like, and it just exploded from there.
41:32
They went into rebrand.
41:33
That was 2020, and all of a sudden 2020 on, you're like,
41:36
"poppi, like yeah! That fizzy pop-like drink that's sitting
41:40
in my fridge," like it's just the packaging and design.
41:44
Their whole brand story, it's so well crafted,
41:48
and then how they continue to double down.
41:50
You know, they find those right influencers.
41:52
It's not just about getting, you know, a can of poppi in their hands, right?
41:55
Like when they went out and created, you know,
41:58
custom sweatsuits for, you know, influencers.
42:01
They, they're thinking about beyond the product,
42:05
beyond the liquid that's sitting in that can.
42:08
And so I'm not surprised that they were bought by
42:11
Pepsi, and I'm like, that's why I got, I saw that news.
42:14
I was like, good for you.
42:17
You created something before because you were seeking your own benefit, right?
42:21
You needed to think about your own gut health, and you've now shared that
42:25
with the world, and now it like Pepsi's adding it to the overall portfolio.
42:29
To me it started with something like a positive intention.
42:35
I say the word intention a lot, it's just my 20-something years of yoga
42:39
practice showing, but they did that and they continued to show up that way
42:43
as a brand and continued to double down on their identity and the value
42:48
that they bring to people, the personality, the type of life they wanna
42:52
live, and I think that's why they're seeing the success that they're seeing.
42:56
So it was kind of an easy question, staring that can
43:00
face every day, and it's just like, it's beautiful.
43:03
So.
43:04
Now you're making me thirsty.
43:05
Oh,
43:09
I have a little bit of coffee left, so that'll do
43:11
for now, but now I'm craving something carbonated.
43:14
But yeah, no, that's, poppi's a cool brand.
43:17
I've only had a little bit of experience with the brand or
43:20
at least, you know, buying the drinks, but they are good.
43:23
I have enjoyed it, and I've found myself going more for alternatives to
43:29
soda and even beer and things like that have, I don't know.
43:33
I would say it's partially the pandemic, partially some personal stuff that I
43:36
won't get into on the podcast, but I haven't been drinking as much, and that's
43:41
ironic if you know my history, which was a craft beer podcast prior to this one.
43:46
So I very much understand when I hear you go, "Yay, go Pepsi," I'm
43:49
like, that is so antithetical to everything in the craft beer industry
43:53
where they're like, "Oh man, you got inquired by Anheuser-Busch.
43:56
Well, screw you.
43:56
We're not buying your beer anymore."
43:58
I think my, "Yay, go Pepsi," was more "Yeah!" for the founders of
44:03
like, you know, I think it's funny because I don't even drink soda.
44:08
I mean, that's like such a rarity and so the fact that I'm drinking
44:11
poppi is kind of off-brand for me a little bit personally, but, you
44:18
know, it's yeah, I can definitely see how like in the craft beer space.
44:22
My dad and I used to brew beer, and that was just for us, you
44:27
know, like I don't know when to get to our German roots and
44:30
understand how do we actually make really, really good beer.
44:32
Really, it smells horrible making it, but, you know, tasty on the otherside.
44:37
But yeah, it's interesting to see small indie brand, that's what
44:42
I viewed poppi as, you know, formerly, you know, Mother Beverage.
44:45
And that success, and I always, you know, you think about how many small
44:51
businesses fail and how many experiments fail, and so it's this kind of rally
44:58
in my mind to push for that curiosity, that experimentation, and know that
45:04
like, yeah, for every failure or every few failures, there's still those wins.
45:08
And that's, you know, what it means to me.
45:09
When I was like, oh yeah, poppi all the way.
45:13
Yeah, no, and that's, and that's great.
45:14
And I'm not trying to downplay them to be clear, like being acquired by Pepsi.
45:18
'cause like I saw that in the beer industry.
45:21
My over time, my observation was that most of the people that start a brewery,
45:26
and I don't know how true this is where you're at up around Detroit, but in our
45:29
area, we have a lot of people that are like in their forties and fifties that
45:34
have been in a craft beer for a long time, that all of a sudden start to brew,
45:38
and they home brew, and then they go out and they become a commercial brewer.
45:42
And like, that transition is always, almost
45:45
always someone with an engineering background.
45:47
You know, someone who's had a previous career, and they've built that, and then
45:51
all of a sudden they build something that somebody wants, and they wanna buy?
45:55
That's their ticket outta retirement.
45:56
There are millions of dollars in the hole for this equipment,
45:59
and then they get to sell it all and make money back.
46:01
I mean, good for them.
46:02
Like, I don't begrudge anybody for that anymore, but
46:06
like, it definitely, you know, there's always the, just
46:10
the concern about, oh, is the quality gonna go down?
46:12
Are they gonna change the recipe?
46:13
Are they gonna, you know, what are they gonna do?
46:15
But for the most part, you know, that's not been an issue.
46:18
And I'm sure it won't be for poppi.
46:19
So.
46:20
And I don't know a year from now, right?
46:22
We dunno.
46:22
We dunno.
46:23
We dunno.
46:23
They could, they could be adding in high fructose corn syrup, and, you know.
46:27
No, I'm kidding.
46:30
That would be, I mean, yeah, I'm trying to avoid it as well.
46:33
I actually prefer, like, if I buy Coke, I try to buy the Mexican Coke.
46:39
You know, the one with the real cane sugar
46:40
and stuff like that in it, when I buy.
46:42
But yeah, that's cool.
46:44
But yeah, That's great.
46:45
So poppi's a poppi's a cool brand.
46:47
Well, great.
46:48
Well, where can people connect with you and, and learn more about SPCSHP?
46:52
Well, people can connect with me on LinkedIn.
46:55
Lizz Behler.
46:57
SPCSHP is also there.
46:58
Or SPCSHP, no vowels, .com.
47:01
You can also connect with some of our crew members through the website there.
47:05
You'll find us in all social media channels.
47:08
Awesome.
47:08
Well, Lizz, thank you so much for coming on.
47:10
We Built This Brand.
47:11
It's been a pleasure to have you today.
47:13
Thank you, Chris.
47:14
Thanks for checking out this episode of We Built This Brand.
47:17
Don't forget to like, follow, and subscribe on your player of choice.
47:21
You can keep up with the podcast on our website at webuiltthisbrand.com.
47:26
If you liked this episode, please give the podcast a five star review and make
47:29
sure to tell all your friends about it so we can continue to build this brand.