Latest / The Starfish Storytellers / 2024 Episode 1-Founder’s Episode: 1st Year Business Stories and Lessons Learned with The Black Dog Group

Transcript

2024 Episode 1-Founder’s Episode: 1st Year Business Stories and Lessons Learned with The Black Dog Group · The Starfish Storytellers

• 0:00
  Welcome to the Starfish Storytellers, the podcast that makes a difference one story
• 0:04
  at a time by bringing storytelling to life.
• 0:15
  After spending a decade in corporate America, it was exciting to be an entrepreneur again
• 0:19
  when we launched in February of 2023.
• 0:22
  Definite highlights from my first year as a Markham leader included landing my client
• 0:25
  contracts and creating beautiful content that told their brand stories.
• 0:30
  It was exciting to have opportunities to see their products and services come to life
• 0:33
  in such assets as ebooks, white papers, social posts, and videos where we use storytelling
• 0:39
  to share the value they provided to their customers.
• 0:41
  However, I'll say that my favorite thing to do was to teach storytelling, mostly because
• 0:46
  I got to hear other stories.
• 0:48
  My good friend Dale Grenfell quoted Maya Angelou on a recent episode of this podcast that there's
• 0:53
  no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside of you.
• 0:57
  And that is so true.
• 0:59
  I've met and interviewed some of the most interesting people both in this podcast, in
• 1:04
  storytelling seminars, and in storytelling classes.
• 1:07
  And I wanted to tell you about a few of them.
• 1:11
  There was a woman who moved to the US from China five years ago, but she didn't speak
• 1:15
  English proficiently yet so she turned to storytelling to improve her language skills.
• 1:20
  There were the woman wearing many hats at the start-up where she worked, and she knew
• 1:24
  that by picking up some storytelling tools, it would help her add brand stories to her
• 1:28
  investor proposals in order to grab their attention.
• 1:32
  A story that made me laugh was from a product manager who was nervous during a recorded
• 1:37
  presentation.
• 1:38
  And she later saw the recording and was so shocked at how she did, she donated the shirt
• 1:43
  she had been wearing that day to charity just so she didn't have to see herself in it ever
• 1:47
  again.
• 1:49
  I remember the construction company entrepreneur who was going before government planning boards
• 1:54
  and in order to refine his pitches and presentations, he wanted to infuse them with stories.
• 2:02
  I got to coach a woman who was building out a new ministry in her church.
• 2:06
  She wanted to bring her own heritage stories to her work in order to connect the people
• 2:10
  she would be serving.
• 2:13
  One amazing woman I remember she struggled with and came to terms with Alopecia and she
• 2:19
  planned to tell her story to health boards and hospitals, but she wanted to improve her
• 2:23
  public speaking because she wanted to be able to present her story with a little bit more
• 2:28
  impact and a little less emotion.
• 2:30
  And then there was the COVID nurse who after a few years of exhausting heartbreaking work
• 2:37
  retired and was thinking, I'm going to try my hand at something different and went on
• 2:42
  to try stand-up comedy.
• 2:45
  So she worked on public speaking to practice delivering her story from the front of the
• 2:49
  room.
• 2:52
  I think the most powerful and haunting story I heard though came from a man from Haiti
• 2:56
  who survived the January 12 earthquake over a decade ago.
• 3:00
  He conveyed in painfully beautiful detail a moth's story, a moth's style story of how
• 3:07
  he watched people trapped in the rubble and how powerless he felt at not being able to
• 3:11
  save them.
• 3:15
  I truly believe the world is a better place when we tell our stories.
• 3:19
  Whether from corporate setting or from a very personal place, stories have power.
• 3:24
  The power to affect change, the power to heal, the power to create growth, the power to make
• 3:31
  a difference one at a time and I'm really just happy I've been able to witness this.
• 3:59
  Hello, my name is Leanna Henry and welcome to the Starfish Storytellers.
• 4:03
  I'm the CEO of the Black Dog Group, a Marcom and project management firm headquartered on
• 4:08
  the east coast of the US in quaint colonial Bedford, Massachusetts.
• 4:12
  I'm your host and passionate about storytelling and I'm actually on a mission to raise up
• 4:17
  the next generation of storytellers.
• 4:19
  We've named ourselves the Starfish Storytellers after the Starfish Story.
• 4:23
  The moral of the Starfish Story is based on the power of one.
• 4:27
  No matter how big the challenge, each action we take makes a difference and has an impact,
• 4:31
  one step, one starfish or one story at a time.
• 4:36
  Usually we open each podcast with a story from one guest, but in this extra special,
• 4:43
  Founders New Year's episode, you'll get to hear from our core team who will share their
• 4:48
  first year highlight stories meant to inspire and connect with you.
• 4:52
  Then we'll break it down to what it's been like at the Black Dog Group and share some
• 4:56
  of our lessons learned, some predictions and some goals for 2024.
• 5:01
  So thanks for tuning in.
• 5:03
  Now let's get started.
• 5:04
  With me today is the rest of the core team of the Black Dog Group.
• 5:08
  Meet Phillip Henry.
• 5:09
  He's a co-founder, the COO of the Black Dog Group and the principal of Black Dog Management,
• 5:15
  our project management agency.
• 5:17
  Here's his story.
• 5:22
  Due to some great timing and great networking, my first client fell into my lap almost right
• 5:27
  away.
• 5:29
  We were already in process of standing up the Black Dog Group when I interviewed with
• 5:32
  and got hired for my first contract with my first client.
• 5:36
  I came into what was a divestiture project in the middle of the effort and it was very
• 5:41
  chaotic.
• 5:43
  Their immediate problem was a lack of communication and managing what was coming in and going out.
• 5:49
  So I was able to help coordinate teams and solve that problem for them.
• 5:54
  I met a lot of good people, experienced a lot of stress and stepped up my ability to
• 6:00
  communicate more than just wrote data.
• 6:07
  Also here is Julia Meesmer, our marketing assistant who worked diligently on BizDev
• 6:12
  and events with us from the beginning to get us off the ground and started off on the right
• 6:16
  foot.
• 6:17
  Here's her story.
• 6:23
  When I came to Black Dog Group, it was almost as if fate was stepping in because I had just
• 6:28
  fallen upon some hard times and I was looking for some work in an industry that I really
• 6:35
  I didn't have much experience for because if you don't already know my background is
• 6:38
  in biomedical engineering and child care.
• 6:41
  And so it was a great new adventure to begin working with the Black Dog Group and working
• 6:46
  with Leanna and Phillip.
• 6:49
  Leanna is someone that I've known for a really long time and she's always been a great mentor
• 6:53
  to me and she noticed that I was having some trouble with this hard time and she worked
• 7:00
  with me to empower me to find me a position that I could do at the growing Black Dog Group.
• 7:08
  And so off began the data axle marketing spreadsheets. I worked tirelessly for months on these spreadsheets.
• 7:19
  We began with I think over 5,000 names and we have gotten it cut down to about 4500 names
• 7:25
  which doesn't sound like a lot of progress but it is very great and I've sorted through
• 7:31
  every name and put them in their individual spreadsheets so hopefully this will be a great
• 7:38
  resource that we can use in the coming year to get some more contracts in industries that
• 7:44
  we haven't worked with before.
• 7:50
  Welcome to Jake Meesmer, our podcast and social media manager as well as video producer.
• 7:55
  He is our Marcom agency's creative and promotional arm. Here's his story.
• 8:05
  So when I was approached by Black Dog Marcom to join their team for audio visual editing,
• 8:13
  the podcast was just an idea floating around in space and after coming onto the team I
• 8:20
  was able to work with Leanna to really solidify what she wanted to produce and what we wanted
• 8:26
  to tell with the story. The story telling podcast I mean. We have our own story behind
• 8:32
  it but we are trying to investigate the stories of the people around us locally and corporate.
• 8:41
  Coming onto this I really had the experience to edit a podcast to work on videos but over
• 8:49
  this year it's just been a really big learning experience for me, really refining what I
• 8:54
  could already do and picking up new skills as well.
• 8:58
  Really going into next year I think that we are going to just keep refining those skills
• 9:04
  and keep learning together.
• 9:10
  Well hello everyone. So hello.
• 9:15
  Hello.
• 9:16
  Everybody can say hi.
• 9:17
  Say hi back.
• 9:18
  Okay.
• 9:19
  Everybody can say hi.
• 9:20
  If it's bad I'll cut it out.
• 9:22
  Hi.
• 9:23
  Because he's the podcast manager.
• 9:25
  So we got together today for a few reasons. First we just shared stories about what stood
• 9:29
  out for us over the last year but we also wanted to look ahead to share our own predictions
• 9:34
  and maybe give a sneak peek into what's to come.
• 9:39
  So I'm going to talk to you first Phillip. When we launched at the beginning of the year
• 9:44
  we weren't sure what this was going to be and it's no secret that we're a husband and
• 9:48
  wife team but I felt pretty strongly that we needed to work to our strengths. So Phillip
• 9:54
  when we launched what were your thoughts about what you thought this company would look like?
• 10:01
  Well to be honest when we launched I really wasn't sure what this company was going to
• 10:05
  look like having spent my entire life in corporate America.
• 10:10
  My first year was in some ways for Black Dog Management an extension of that with me working
• 10:15
  on my one project for all of that time but for the Black Dog Group for our company there
• 10:21
  was a whole set of responsibilities that I didn't fully comprehend, realize what they
• 10:29
  would be like. Reconciling the books, making scheduling arrangements for the 401k, getting
• 10:36
  our benefits in place, all of those things as the COO for the Black Dog Group. Those
• 10:43
  were really stretching me outside of my comfort zone and requiring much more than time management
• 10:51
  and scheduling. It required some research and follow-up skills that frankly will just
• 10:58
  fully flesh out my profile of what I can bring to us and to our clients.
• 11:05
  Yeah, yeah it's been definitely like a real learning curve for sure. So next, so we opened
• 11:18
  up the two agencies under the Black Dog Group. Mine is Black Dog Marcom, yours is Black Dog
• 11:23
  Management and I knew that we initially had to have an online presence but we had to get
• 11:28
  the word out to find customers so we purchased a marketing list of leads and it was pretty
• 11:33
  big and pretty unruly. Julia, you came in to help us get organized with this and what
• 11:41
  was that like for you?
• 11:43
  It was big and unruly, do not do this list justice. This thing was very intimidating
• 11:50
  when I got my hands on it and so it was a seemingly very daunting task to get it organized
• 11:57
  which because I'm so great with organizing it was not as scary as I thought it would
• 12:04
  be and now we have a great set of sheets and lists of people that we are going to be reaching
• 12:11
  out to in the new year. That will be really helpful for drawing up more business and hopefully
• 12:17
  getting into other industries besides software.
• 12:20
  So after we started working on the leads list then obviously we needed to look at ways to
• 12:24
  market ourselves and we did this with the podcast and some organic social media. So
• 12:29
  Jake, you've been the podcast producer for this year. How has that been for you?
• 12:35
  Well it's been a learning experience, let's just say that because when my initial experience
• 12:40
  before coming in was more video editing and even though I work in Adobe quite often my
• 12:47
  experience is more with an illustrator. I do have the experience in Premiere as well as
• 12:53
  audition but it was like a relearning experience almost picking up all those skills again like
• 12:59
  just getting back in there and refreshing myself and all that. I think it's been a really
• 13:04
  good experience to work on this podcast to be able to be creative with some of it.
• 13:10
  Figuring all that out, I remember one of our first meetings just sitting down and working
• 13:15
  out the logo. So basically I've been working on this since the start with you. So it's
• 13:25
  been almost at this point feels kind of like a passion project.
• 13:28
  It is. I mean it's a marketing tool but it's definitely, I think we will talk more as we
• 13:38
  go into the other questions too but I think it's definitely something where the more we
• 13:44
  do it the more we see where we want to refine it.
• 13:47
  Exactly and that's kind of what we've been doing towards the end of season one is kind
• 13:52
  of honing in on more what we want to do with it.
• 14:01
  Cool. Well thank you everybody for your, you know, sorry talking about our beginnings.
• 14:09
  Now I've got some questions for you that you're going to have to answer on your own. So first
• 14:14
  question. Trivia time.
• 14:16
  Trivia time.
• 14:17
  Trivia time.
• 14:18
  I don't participate in trivia. I will be taking my leave at this point.
• 14:22
  Yeah I don't.
• 14:23
  I'm really good at trivia.
• 14:24
  Okay so first question. Were there or what were the projects that challenged us?
• 14:34
  Well for me I only worked on one project for our first year in business and that would
• 14:40
  be the external project that I divested your project for my client. It was a challenge
• 14:45
  because it was my first experience again as I mentioned outside of corporate America so
• 14:51
  I needed to realize that there were going to be gaps in information I didn't know about.
• 14:56
  There were going to be people that I didn't know who they are and there were going to
• 14:59
  be parts of the company that I don't know how they run and as a hired gun it's not my
• 15:05
  job to come in and figure some of those things out. My job is to come in, solve the immediate
• 15:11
  problem and then leave and I need to be comfortable and I'm getting comfortable with being able
• 15:17
  to do that. I don't need to exist on the periphery and be outside of just my role and I'm really
• 15:27
  fine with that actually.
• 15:29
  Cool. What projects were challenging you Julia?
• 15:37
  Well definitely the Axle Marketing spreadsheet because it can be challenging to put each
• 15:46
  of these companies into category because a lot of the time they don't fit into just one
• 15:51
  category. That was really interesting because I had to do a lot of research on each company
• 15:59
  just for the categorization, not just for expanding what we would know about the company
• 16:05
  but for the preliminary sorting of the spreadsheet. It was really nice. I got to know the companies
• 16:11
  that we were thinking about reaching out to and so I think that will help a lot in the
• 16:17
  future with more personal interactions.
• 16:21
  Yep going forward for sure.
• 16:23
  And for you Jake?
• 16:24
  Oh there's quite a few projects that were challenging for me. Let's just say that. Not
• 16:32
  necessarily anything due to proficiency in the applications that I've been using but
• 16:40
  fixing some audio issues that we've had with certain ones and there's one coming out in
• 16:46
  the second season that there's a big audio issue with that I'm still working on to this
• 16:51
  day but also some of the projects we've lost assets for like video and I've had to go in
• 16:58
  and figure out different ways to produce that for our social media and all that. I can't
• 17:05
  name an exact, I can't pinpoint it for you but there definitely have been challenges
• 17:10
  around the production of this podcast.
• 17:16
  I think for me the first thing that comes to mind for challenging was time management.
• 17:21
  I think as a leader of an agency with big clients managing time with staff, managing
• 17:35
  time with clients, client projects and being able to do all of the things that the agency
• 17:41
  required. I think that was a big challenge for me and that's something I know I'm going
• 17:45
  to work on continually going into 2024.
• 17:50
  So next question is what were your favorite things that you got to do? Julia do you want
• 17:57
  to start us off?
• 17:59
  Just give it right to me. I'm honored. One of my favorite things, my favorite day that
• 18:04
  I have worked still to this day was when I got to help build gift baskets for one of
• 18:12
  the events that we were donating, the Black Dog group was donating gift baskets to and
• 18:17
  that involved I got to drive all around Burlington and Bedford and pick up gift cards from local
• 18:24
  restaurants and that was really exciting because there was a couple of places that I mean I've
• 18:29
  lived in this area for a while but there were a couple of places that I had never been to
• 18:33
  or been in and it was really nice to see different parts of where I've been living for most of
• 18:40
  my life and I got to go to the pet store and build a little dog basket for one of our baskets
• 18:46
  we were donating that was really fun. I also really enjoyed going to events and helping
• 18:53
  out Leanna with presenting to these groups of people in a business setting because that's
• 18:59
  also a first for me which was a very very exciting chapter of the company.
• 19:07
  Very good. Jacob?
• 19:09
  So we're going on a board right now.
• 19:11
  Yes.
• 19:12
  We're going to give everybody a turn to like start.
• 19:15
  I'm joking.
• 19:17
  I know I was surprised because the order is different too on the script.
• 19:21
  I know right?
• 19:22
  I thought I was going last this whole time.
• 19:25
  Anyways, one of my favorite things that I got to do this year was audio searching and
• 19:32
  that's going on royalty free websites and just listening to audio and I'm just kidding.
• 19:38
  Really? That was your favorite part?
• 19:39
  Oh that was definitely my favorite.
• 19:40
  That sounds absolutely thrilling.
• 19:42
  It was honestly and it's a venture for the senses.
• 19:49
  I just my favorite thing was just it had to be the podcast as much as I enjoyed putting
• 19:54
  together like collages and stuff because I am a fashion designer.
• 19:58
  I make mood boards so collages are like second nature but I really enjoyed my favorite thing
• 20:04
  was probably just listening to all the stories that came through with the podcast as well
• 20:10
  as being able to really flesh out what some people were saying through the audio searching.
• 20:20
  One of my favorite ones I think it's I don't know it was Alayna's I believe.
• 20:25
  Her story was so powerful and I was one of my favorite things was finding that audio
• 20:30
  for her because I really felt like it fit her for what she was saying.
• 20:35
  For sure.
• 20:36
  Yeah.
• 20:37
  Philip?
• 20:38
  All right so my favorite thing this year was actually working remotely from anywhere being
• 20:44
  able to do that albeit extremely stressful when we did it at that time in the project
• 20:51
  that I was working where I was losing my mind being able to do it when we were in Maine
• 20:56
  was a blessing and at a less stressful time should we try to do that again it will be
• 21:04
  more enjoyable but the ability to do so was just unparalleled and that was my favorite
• 21:10
  thing of the year.
• 21:13
  I think my favorite thing was our professional development learning about the moth and getting
• 21:20
  on the moth stage.
• 21:22
  I think hands down love, love, love that and just getting to be in front of that large
• 21:31
  of a group to tell our stories was a powerful experience and really fuels that drive for
• 21:38
  me to really be a storyteller.
• 21:44
  What do we think our most significant accomplishments were?
• 21:48
  Now I think when we're thinking about that we're thinking about what do we think Black
• 21:52
  Dog Group has done well?
• 21:55
  What have we accomplished?
• 21:56
  Or what do you think as being a part of the Black Dog Group team you've accomplished that's
• 22:04
  been most significant?
• 22:06
  You start Jacob.
• 22:09
  I think one of our most biggest or one of our largest accomplishments this year was
• 22:16
  the most biggest.
• 22:19
  One of our largest accomplishments here is probably winning the BTV Award for Best Podcast
• 22:25
  of this year.
• 22:27
  Not to toot my own horn or anything but that's congratulations.
• 22:32
  Thank you.
• 22:33
  It was honestly it felt good to hear that we were actually doing well.
• 22:40
  We've been, it's our first season as a podcast and it hasn't grown as large as we'd like
• 22:46
  it to have grown but to have that validation from an outside source really was a big accomplishment
• 22:54
  for me as well as probably our whole team working on it.
• 22:58
  For sure.
• 22:59
  Yeah.
• 23:00
  Phillip?
• 23:02
  Most significant accomplishment.
• 23:05
  In terms of Black Dog Management it was kind of a two-fold thing.
• 23:10
  Number one naturally was the successful completion of the Diabesditure Project that I mentioned
• 23:14
  you know 16 times already in this podcast but the second thing was what happened over
• 23:19
  the last six weeks or so of 2023 where I found or another company got in touch with me to
• 23:30
  reach out and ask about my the project management services that we could provide.
• 23:35
  So we went and had a meeting with them and found out what they'd like to do and put together
• 23:39
  a proposal for how we can help them solve their problem and they accepted it and I'm
• 23:44
  very excited.
• 23:45
  This company is in Wuburn, they have the US office in Wuburn and I'm very excited to be
• 23:50
  starting that in January of 24.
• 23:53
  Nice.
• 23:54
  Julia?
• 23:55
  Well, I'm sure that you can guess what I'm going to say but my most significant accomplishment
• 24:02
  is definitely sorting the entire Axle Marketing spreadsheet into their own individual spreadsheets
• 24:11
  and hopefully my greatest accomplishment for 2024 will be scrubbing all of those spreadsheets
• 24:19
  and having complete lists ready for use.
• 24:22
  Which will be great.
• 24:24
  That's what I'm very excited for.
• 24:26
  More spreadsheets.
• 24:27
  I know, isn't it great?
• 24:29
  I love spreadsheets.
• 24:31
  See this is why I do what I do and you do what you do.
• 24:36
  Okay shady lady.
• 24:38
  I just couldn't do podcasts as well as you can.
• 24:41
  Oh I know.
• 24:42
  I can do spreadsheets really well though.
• 24:45
  Yes.
• 24:46
  I'm just kidding.
• 24:48
  Let's move on.
• 24:49
  I'm guessing that we're going to have some bloopers at the end aren't we?
• 24:54
  Yes, we should have outtakes.
• 24:56
  We're going to have outtakes.
• 24:58
  That'll be fun.
• 24:59
  So this question is just for you.
• 25:01
  As the COO and other half of the Black Dog group, what has brought you the most joy in
• 25:10
  your business this past year?
• 25:13
  Most joy in my business the last year.
• 25:17
  I'd have to say it's a combination of personal goal and what can be used in Black Dog management
• 25:25
  but it was obtaining my PMP.
• 25:28
  That is something that was on my bullet list for many, many years and in the middle of the
• 25:38
  crazy project that I was on, I underwent, I did the weekend course.
• 25:43
  I did the studying for several hours each week.
• 25:47
  I wrote the test and I successfully got my PMP on the first try.
• 25:52
  So that is, and I'll be able to use that.
• 25:55
  I already come up in, like I mentioned in the last segment about the client that I'm going
• 25:59
  to be starting in January that came up in our conversation when I was selling them on
• 26:05
  the proposal of what we could do for them.
• 26:07
  They asked outright, do you have any certifications?
• 26:09
  And I was able to answer, I have my PMP.
• 26:11
  So it's already starting to reap benefits.
• 26:15
  Nice.
• 26:16
  Congratulations, Diva.
• 26:18
  Congratulations.
• 26:22
  I mean, I think for me, the same thing I said before is just having met as many people as
• 26:28
  I've met out there doing the storytelling.
• 26:33
  Just hearing people's stories is just so powerful and very moving.
• 26:39
  And I remember just coming home from storytelling classes and just feeling so energized and excited
• 26:47
  and just blown away by everything I heard and it was just makes me want to do more of it.
• 26:54
  So it was good.
• 26:57
  Okay.
• 26:58
  So next question is, as we take stock of 2023, in what ways did we make a difference this
• 27:04
  year?
• 27:05
  So I'll start with that.
• 27:07
  I think that, you know, we came out, you know, full tilt and we got involved with a bunch
• 27:16
  of organizations.
• 27:17
  You know, we got involved with BTV.
• 27:19
  We got involved with the Bedford Citizen.
• 27:22
  We went to the Rotaries.
• 27:25
  They had a packing meals for their Rise Against Hunger programming.
• 27:32
  So we participated in that.
• 27:34
  We got involved with the Burlington Area Chamber of Commerce.
• 27:37
  We got involved with the Bedford Area Chamber of Commerce.
• 27:39
  And so, you know, we've tried to, you know, donate and be a part of a lot of different organizations.
• 27:47
  You know, I think the biggest things that are really on our hearts, we are the Black Dog Group,
• 27:54
  is that we love to give to rescues.
• 27:57
  We love to give to both dog rescues and we love to give to guinea pig rescues because
• 28:03
  we're a guinea pig family too.
• 28:05
  And it's just, I think that has just been, I think, true to our, true to my heart and
• 28:11
  something that I feel like is, you know, true to the sort of foundation of this podcast,
• 28:17
  which is making a difference one step at a time.
• 28:20
  So what ways do you think we made a difference this year, Phillip?
• 28:24
  I, in all honesty, I need to jump on the coattails of what you mentioned because a lot of the
• 28:31
  outreach and the charitable services and things that you took the step towards were things that,
• 28:40
  with me being an entrepreneur for the first time, I never would have thought of, but they were all wonderful,
• 28:45
  you know, filling the food baskets and all participating in all the rotary events and talking to all those great people.
• 28:51
  It was just wonderful to meet so many smart, talented people who shared a love of just being a small,
• 29:04
  independent-ish business like we are.
• 29:07
  So, yeah, I enjoy doing all of the things that, with all of those same things.
• 29:14
  What do you think, Julia?
• 29:17
  I just want to begin what I'm saying with, when Leana says that they are a guinea pig family,
• 29:22
  that is a major understatement.
• 29:25
  I've had the, literally, I have had the privilege of visiting their house in Bedford and seeing the setup that they have
• 29:33
  for their guinea pigs and it is incredible.
• 29:37
  And the guinea pigs are so cute and so sweet.
• 29:40
  And it makes me happy that I'm able to be a part of a company that gives back to charities and rescues,
• 29:50
  especially for dogs and guinea pigs because they are very cute.
• 29:56
  And I'm not so sure about how I made a difference for the company, but I know that Black Dog Group really made a difference for me.
• 30:07
  And I'm honored that Leana decided to take a chance on me and bring me on to the team because it really turned my year around.
• 30:15
  And I'm looking forward to a lot more success with the Black Dog Group in 2024.
• 30:21
  What do you think, Jake?
• 30:23
  Oh, you're looking at me? Okay.
• 30:26
  Well, if we want to talk about a difference that was made through the podcast, I mean, we just getting all these different people from like around town,
• 30:37
  like we had the pastors from the church on the common, we had the Bedford Historical Society come in.
• 30:45
  It's created, we've kind of helped foster a little bit of local kind of outreach almost and community.
• 30:56
  But we've also helped some, you know, some people who teach classes to promote or, you know, just allow people to tell their story for social change
• 31:09
  and their social impacts on our podcast. And even though it might not be reaching as many people as we would like to, it's even if one person who hears that and going off of our saying that we say every episode,
• 31:22
  even if one person hears that and it makes a difference for them, then we've made a difference for who knows how many people they'll affect.
• 31:28
  Exactly. And I think a couple of things as you were talking, I was thinking about how, you know, we, I mean,
• 31:38
  we made a difference, I think another organization, well, we were big on the Trevor project.
• 31:44
  Oh yeah, we put that up on our donor page this year, I believe. Yeah, it was towards the end of the summer, I believe, right?
• 31:52
  Yep, yep. So we did, we were, you know, we're very much about social justice and we want our team to be their authentic selves when they're here,
• 32:04
  and that's really important to us. And, you know, I think there was another thing that you were saying about making a difference locally,
• 32:14
  but I think we did give people an opportunity to tell their stories across the globe because we are out there, we're out there on Spotify,
• 32:21
  we're out there on Amazon, we're out there on Apple, like we're out there. And so people's voices can be heard beyond, you know,
• 32:29
  we're grateful and lucky that we have this wonderful studio that we can record from. But then we, again, then we get to broadcast the word,
• 32:37
  even beyond, which is huge. So.
• 32:40
  Yeah, having that outreach to a global stage even, I remember we had like, we have like downloads and like, where? It was somewhere in Europe,
• 32:49
  somewhere in the middle of Europe, we had people downloading our podcast, which was crazy to me, I'm like, oh.
• 32:56
  That is so exciting. Yeah, the word is getting out. It's getting out there. It's just, we need to, I think, we definitely made a difference for some people this season,
• 33:07
  a lot of people this season probably, but, you know, once we get a bigger following and a bigger reach, we can definitely make more of a difference to more people.
• 33:16
  For sure. And that's what the Starfish story is all about is the power of one is that, you know, it's not that it's going to make a difference to every
• 33:25
  starfish on the beach, just that one that you gave a hand to.
• 33:30
  Yeah, we're all we're all starfish roasting on the beach right now.
• 33:33
  Oh, yeah.
• 33:35
  One thing I will say when you were saying to is the editor of the Bedford Citizen actually said to me that, you know, you guys have a lot of people talking about storytelling now.
• 33:49
  So we basically, because we're just out there saying the message over and over and over and over and over again, other people are talking about storytelling and how important it is.
• 34:00
  Oh, your storytelling is very important. Oral tradition is incredibly important. And unfortunately, it's been dying recently.
• 34:07
  And so it's, it's great that, you know, we as a group and you as a as a the main idea behind it was able to kind of rejuvenate storytelling to an extent around in their community in this area for sure.
• 34:23
  Yeah, and beyond. So that's very cool.
• 34:26
  Yeah.
• 34:27
  Great. So looking ahead at 2024, what are some predictions we can share. So, you know, we've been doing what we're doing. You know, what do we, what do we think people in 20, you know, going forward in 2024, what should people be looking at or considering in the areas that we've talked about.
• 34:43
  So I'll get us started.
• 34:45
  So when it comes to content marketing, AI is going to be more integrated. It's all we hear about is AI, right. So for content creators or even for just companies, make sure that your messaging is conveying.
• 34:56
  Trust. If your brand voice doesn't sound like someone your customers want to have coffee with, you should rethink it.
• 35:04
  When it comes to social media, I know this is sort of an old message, but it's, I think, because of needing to have messages that that have trust be on the channels where your customers are talking and how do you know they're talking.
• 35:17
  You get to, you can use tools like social listening tools or audience research tactics and then you can join your customers on those channels.
• 35:27
  Video is king motion for content is king. And even if you're using stills, if there's a way to include movement, that's key, but short videos are king.
• 35:40
  We, you know, it hasn't changed that we have still been reduced to the attention span of a goldfish, which is about seven seconds.
• 35:49
  So short videos are going to explode. Don't forget that authenticity is going to resonate.
• 35:55
  And human storytelling is what will combat the flood of sameness that AI is probably going to create.
• 36:03
  So that's so that's my predictions for 2024.
• 36:07
  Oh, yeah, no, it's, it's, it's crazy. The all the AI that's coming out and I was, I was just thinking about that.
• 36:14
  Well, not to cut any beat off, but I was just, I want to jump in and just kind of bandwagon, you know, with AI taking over is a lot more technology for creating, you know, creative things like imaging script writing, there's probably going to be like deep fakes somewhere for voice editing.
• 36:34
  And, you know, AI can be a thing for podcasts and, you know, while you can use as a tool, I think it's important to connect with an audience through genuine creation of that.
• 36:45
  And I think that in an era of AI, that kind of genuine human kind of, I don't want to say art, but kind of product is what's going to attract more customers to you.
• 37:00
  And also on the on the notion of short videos, short videos are definitely if you want to reach a younger audience, the short video route is the way to go because every single platform has short videos, YouTube has shorts, Instagram has reels,
• 37:16
  TikTok is itself.
• 37:19
  So I think if you want to reach a more, a more modern or a younger audience, the short form video is definitely the way to go and I think it's only going to get larger from here.
• 37:29
  Yeah, good point.
• 37:31
  Julia, I also want to I also want to bandwagon. I'm a big fan of bandwagoning sometimes, but I want to express that. I think it's important to not to rely on AI to generate all of these creative ideas and because the whole point of storytelling is human connection.
• 37:51
  And that's what clients are looking for when they are going to a company for help is they they want to connect with the people that are going to be doing the work for them.
• 38:03
  I know. And I'm sure that many other people, including lots of our listeners can express the the annoyance in trying to get help for something and having to go through the robo collar.
• 38:17
  And so that's another incentive of what I'm hoping that our future will look like is still that human connection, you know, working with the people working with the companies and not just moving away from maybe relying heavily on AI.
• 38:36
  That's what storytelling is all about.
• 38:39
  Yeah, good point. Good point.
• 38:41
  Philip, what are your predictions?
• 38:44
  Well, I had AI written down, but there's nothing more that I can add to that. But beyond that, I think for my for my personal fraction of the black dog group project management space.
• 38:56
  I think that there is there is going to continue to be a huge demand for people that do what I do project managers and I believe that the economy is going to shift somewhat to being more of a project based economy, where it's going to be
• 39:13
  less operational, less day to day and more about we have six months to turn around this new thing. We have four months to introduce this new process. We've got a certain amount of time to take something and or to try to take something and make it out of nothing.
• 39:30
  So I think that there's a huge demand for that that's going to continue. And, you know, will we will project management be able to use a course that will as a collaboration tool to help with various different aspects of it putting together statements of work, collaborating
• 39:45
  on timelines, etc. So AI is going to find its way into everything that we do. But in terms of specifically from my, you know, from my area, I think that's the direction we're going to go in.
• 39:58
  For sure. I think also one more thing before, I don't know if we wrap this section or not, but one more thing, but I certainly think that that AI is a very, it can be a very useful tool for creating outlines bare bones kind of things but you really need to when you when you
• 40:16
  use AI you need to take what it gives you and inject that humanity into it almost because it can't reproduce things humans human brains do one to one it can give you the idea of it but it's not something you could should rely on 100% of the time.
• 40:33
  That is exactly what I was going to just say because I this is what I hadn't I didn't express this earlier when we're talking about challenges during the trivia portion of the podcast. But one of the big challenges with working with this big spreadsheet with, you know, 5000 different
• 40:50
  companies and people's names is that, you know, a lot of the categorization is not incredibly accurate because I'm assuming I'm not sure because Leon is the one that I got the list and gave it to me but I'm assuming that, like majority of these names were pulled from various websites and resources to create this list
• 41:10
  and unfortunately when that happens there's a lot of errors and so a lot of the time there were some people that didn't work for the company or they worked somewhere else or we couldn't really find them or their websites were different and and so that's why I think it's important to
• 41:26
  you know AI is a useful tool but just remember that it is a tool that you know you can have in your toolbox but don't rely on it and so that's why I think I'm looking forward to to really getting in and going through all of the websites because that's not something that the
• 41:45
  AI can do that's what we still need the human touch for. Oh good points everybody. Yeah, I mean it's, you know, in the content marketing world it's, it's, it's kind of still people are torn, you know, it's, it's for content marketers, you know, I initially it was like well, make sure you've got a good plagiarism checker because it's
• 42:05
  it's just pulling from everywhere and it's probably copying exactly everything the same and depending whether you're in academia or whether you're in business or you're quoting something that can be a problem.
• 42:17
  And yes it can give you the bare bones sort of outline that you were talking about Jacob but you're right it's, it's going to sound like everything else out there it isn't going to sound like you, unless you inject yourself.
• 42:32
  Yeah, and I've been I've been actually, I don't want to quote any sources of this but I've been hearing through the grapevine that AI has been pulling from AI. And so a lot of information that's been circulating has become a little bit convoluted because it's just it's echoing back and forth and
• 42:49
  almost like a little bit of a game of telephone so you constantly constantly using AI can actually lead to quite unreliable results.
• 42:58
  For sure, for sure.
• 43:02
  So, we're going to wrap with.
• 43:06
  How are we growing in 2024 where we headed next as black dog Markham. We've got some exciting things coming in 2024. I'm, you know, I'm looking at sort of the storytelling realm and where we're headed so we'll be getting certified in guided
• 43:25
  photography there's a push towards writing folks, folks writing their memoirs.
• 43:32
  We'll also be getting the FA a part 107 drone license because we want to be able to offer drone photography and videography to our website clients.
• 43:42
  And it seems it's very, very important to have sort of that level of of motion on your homepage. And, and we're bringing back some old partners and joining forces with some new partners so we're growing and it's exciting it's a exciting time.
• 44:01
  But well, I think for black dog management, we're going to be working or trying to work on a slightly different model for the business as opposed to one large project spanning months and months and months over the course of the over
• 44:16
  months. We're going to work on a model where we have multiple projects happening simultaneously and it's less about the certain number of hours for a particular project per week, and more about the value that we can provide our customers, if we can simultaneously
• 44:31
  provide an incredible amount of value for multiple customers, then not only do we benefit from it, our customers benefit from it and our network will grow exponentially, just simply by word of mouth.
• 44:45
  That's great. So how are we growing in 2024, Julia?
• 44:50
  I really want to expand our client base in the marketing wing of the division. I think it will be very exciting to use the leads that I worked so hard on for the past year.
• 45:04
  And I'm looking forward to building some personal interactions, connections with potential clients. It's going to be very exciting.
• 45:16
  Jake?
• 45:17
  For me, I think going forward into next year, the Starfish storytellers has kind of almost outgrown its juvenile phase. We had our idea, we've worked through what we really want to present with it, and I think moving forward into 2024, we have a lot more clarity for what we want to present.
• 45:40
  There might be a tone shift, potentially, for what's coming up. But I just think that now that we have our clarity and we've pinpointed the ideas we want to present, I think that we can grow in the direction we want to and maybe actually really, really expand our listener base.
• 46:01
  Well, I think it's having a vision of where do we want to go. And I think, I know we've talked about, we sort of launched with a sort of every storyteller, and that's fine.
• 46:15
  Yeah, that's great for getting started.
• 46:18
  Getting started, garnering support, because that means you're kind of, with that, you're playing the everyman. At that point, you're kind of giving everybody something to latch on to and relate to.
• 46:31
  But I know we discussed going forward into 2024, shifting more into a corporate tone, just to reflect how we want to relate to different businesses and use it more as a, as an advertising tool for business, B2B, business-ing, business-ing.
• 46:48
  Yeah, that's a word.
• 46:51
  So I think that that tone shift will really give us the clarity we need to really refine our, I wouldn't say practices, but ideology around it.
• 47:04
  Yeah, for sure. For sure. Yeah, I mean, I think we're going to grow in so many different directions this year. And I think that's really, really exciting.
• 47:13
  Up and out.
• 47:14
  Yes.
• 47:15
  To infinity and beyond.
• 47:17
  That's right.
• 47:18
  So, well, that's all the time we have for today. Thank you, everybody, for being here.
• 47:24
  Thank you, Liana.
• 47:25
  Thank you so much for having me.
• 47:28
  It was really good to reminisce and we're just getting ready to explode into 24. So it's very exciting.
• 47:36
  And to our listeners, whether you hear us locally from the BTV studios in Bedford, Massachusetts, or across the globe on such podcast channels as Spotify, Apple Podcast, or Amazon Prime, thanks for listening.
• 47:49
  We hope you enjoyed this special episode and we'll see you next time.
• 47:53
  Happy storytelling.