Latest / The Marketing Brief / Social Fabric Sessions: E3 Brett Lyons
Transcript
- Brian: Hello and welcome back to the Marketing Brief Podcast. I am your host, Brian O'Quan, and I'm welcome welcoming you to what we're calling the social media sessions. This is a subset of our regular weekly podcast. Same premise though, we're meeting with an industry expert. And today we're very excited to invite in Brett Lyons. Brett, how are you doing today? Brett Lyons: I'm doing great, Brian. Thank you for having me here. Brian: Yeah, we're excited to have you as a guest. I know you're working as a fractional, like a lot of us are right now. how would you like to introduce yourself to the podcast listeners? Brett Lyons: Sure, absolutely. It's great to meet everybody. I've spent my career kind of at that intersection of creating strategic partnerships and revenue across sports, media, entertainment, and tech. And so just recently left a role where I was chief commercial officer for a sports AI tech company and have then formed a a fractional space really focusing on sports, tech, and marketing. Brian: Awesome. And of course you're part of the social fabric, which you're excited about. Brett Lyons: Absolutely. Yeah. Brian: And that's why we're here. We're here to to kind of better know a brett. Brett Lyons: Excellent. Super excited about this. Brian: Well, we've been we've been talking about community and really kind of started this podcast to explore the idea that relationships shape opportunity. And therefore, you know, you you you build a community to build those relationships. And really that helps shape opportunity. I guess I'd want to start here. Just how do you define community? What are the communities that you're a part of right now in your life? Brett Lyons: Yeah, I mean I've I've been thinking about this a lot as we were leading up to this and I think I moved between a few different communities. One of course is that kind of professionals, sports tech ecosystem community. There's the marketing and media and entertainment communities, and then you know, and then friends, right? Just kind of pure social community as well. And what I think was interesting is, you know, as we build relationships. the lines of between all those kind of blur, right? and so you know, I'm excited about the social fabric because it brings together kind of all of those buckets of of of intentional people, leaders, really original thought people, but also friends as well. And, you know, and I think that relationship cell, in some industries, I had a conversation with somebody yesterday. And they said, Hey, you know what a lot of these companies are using this method methodologies of selling and I'm like, but what about the relationships? Right? That's where the trust and authenticity comes from. And yeah, I'm he was in full agreement, but so I think community is super important across everything that we do. Brian: Yeah. Yeah. And three major trends that my consultancy identified this year were community, trust, and authenticity. So you you nail them all right right there in that statement. But it's all like it's so authenticity has always been important in marketing, right? You you need to connect with your consumers, you need to do it in an authentic way. But it's become so much more important now that we seemingly live in this increasingly inauthentic world. I just read an article in the New York Times today about how There's these AI influencers that are that are selling wellness products and they're completely fake. They're they're and they're not real. They're just complete AI fabrications. And it it just gets me to that point where it's just like I you know, authenticity is what's going to win out in the long run. Like that could work for a little while until you get the New York Times article out there, right? But authenticity is gonna be gonna be what works in the long run. Brett Lyons: Right, exactly. Yeah, you know what? It was interesting. I so I moved around a lot as a kid, right? doing my father's business. he was in radio. So I I went from kind of really different communities, from Minneapolis to Albuquerque to Wichita, Kansas, and then to LA for college. So I kind of found myself being the new kid a lot, right? And I think I learned at an early age of that being authentic and and you know, and how you show up. is really critical in building relationships quickly and, you know, and still friends with everybody across all those cities to this day. Right. so I think that auth you know, you know, really focusing on being authentic around the around the horn almost gets you those relationships that that can la last a lifetime. Brian: Yeah. It's always easier said than done because I I think about when I was growing up and and I wanted to be part of friends' groups. Like I would just like transform myself into them and didn't even realize I I was doing it. I was just like, Hey, I I'm one of you. Look, I like all the same things, right? So it's it's one of those things where I think we always want to be authentic, but it takes it takes work, it takes a while to like get that self actualization of like Am the is this me? Am I am I being my true self? But it I think it's something we always wanna be. Brett Lyons: Yeah. You know what I I I have two teenage girls and I try to, you know you know, and they try to do that. They try to, you know, manage between friend groups and all that. And I'm like, you be you, right? And you know, and the right friends will come to you at that time, right? And I think same with business relationships, right? Is You bring the value, you you know, you build the relationships and the business will come to you. Brian: Yeah. And and always easier said than done, but it's tried and true. I've seen it it work. The the the quote I always have in my head, I don't even know who it is, but it's like, be yourself because everybody else has already taken. That always rings in my head. Yeah. Speaking of the social fabric, Brett Lyons: that's a good one. Yeah, absolutely. I haven't heard that one before. Brian: Is there something that that you think you can get out of this community? Is there something that you think you can give to this community? Basically, w why is it that that you kind of wanted to be part of the set the social fabric? Brett Lyons: Well, I I think, you know, what I found so far is it's just a great diverse group of people who care, right? and I think, you know, you know, you know, starting with the pandemic, you know, people work remotely and I think we're all craving that human connection, right? And I still work remotely. I here I am, you know, at home, right? And and I think that there's that craving for human connection with People with similar values, similar thoughts, similar, you know, kind of working in in and around the same things, right? So I think helping build that. And then I moved to from California from the Bay Area and was in LA for a long time, but we moved to Scottsdale during COVID. And I think being able to have a chance to help build the social fabric here in in Phoenix and Arizona here is super exciting as well. I think there's a great diverse community of of smart entrepreneurial leaders, but I haven't found, you know, other than, you know, a friend of mine who does like all these sports barbecues, you know, when it's not 115 out, right? is, you know, but how do you start to build that community? And I think that there's a hunger for it. So I think that between, hey, how do you expand your quote, social and professional circles with like minded folks, as well as the opportunity to help build that in real life. It's super exciting. Brian: Mm-hmm. Yeah. I I similarly made my wife and I made a a pandemic move to Colorado and now we're back in in Southern California. But what was that like when you landed in Scottsdale? Was it still during the pandemic that that you moved? Brett Lyons: It was twenty twenty, right? I mean, so is early pandemic. it was good, right? I mean, first of all, you know, c compared to California, you might have found this when you're in Colorado, is Arizona was choose your own adventure with COVID, right? It's you know, if you wanted to mask up and stay at home, you could. If you want to be at a bar with a bul bunch of strangers, you could do that also, right? I mean, we chose the former kind of, you know, with young kids and and everybody's health. But I, you know, and I found, you know, I I found friends who were here and, you know, and those friends introduced me to others and all of that. And so it organically started to grow. And I think, you know, Scottsdale is a very kind of transient town meeting. Hey, a lot of people aren't from here, right? So there's a lot of kind of like minded openness. Brian: Yeah. Brett Lyons: to network and create friendships like that as well. Brian: Yeah, and certainly you've you've had that experience from moving around as a kid. Was sports another way that you kinda got got in, like, you know, going to watch games with people? Brett Lyons: Right. Yeah, absolutely. So as I mentioned, a a friend of mine who's in the sports business, he throws these amazing you know, catered barbecues at his house for the for the kind of sports ecosystem here. so you know, it's one of those things. Again, it's another community where everyone just wants to help each other. Right. so like I found bits and pockets here, but nothing kind of that we could help build at scale, right? Or Brian: Mm-hmm. Brett Lyons: Is outside of sports, for example. Brian: Yeah. So you you brought up this before and you kind of mention it now. One of my questions for you was do you feel like we've become too transactional professionally? That, you know, that is what is driving us professionally and that relationships should be a a bigger part of of coming how we interact? Yeah. Brett Lyons: absolutely. I mean, yeah, I think LinkedIn is a great example of how transactional it's gotten, right? I mean, it's all about, how many connections. You kind of judge people who you connect with on, you know, how many followers or how many connections they make, right? Or how you know, it's a very transactional side of things. you know, but I I do think that there is that clamoring for deeper connection and and And also in real life. So I think, yeah, I think the the you know it has gotten a bit transactional, but I think people are are definitely wanting that. I've seen, you know, a few different communities kind of pop up as people are trying to explore hey, what is this niche that I want to be a part of? And what is the right way to help kind of foster and grow that that community. Brian: Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I I've similarly seen the same thing and in this fractional space, you know, I get introduced to people and that's usually how I get business. And the really hard part is like trying to go out and actually do cold calls and talk to people who I don't know, right? And try to win business that way. Like that's not really that's expensive and and doesn't really work as well as the soft introduction. Brett Lyons: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Right. I mean, I was just on the phone w with a friend and and he was like, God, you know, you know, because I just started this fractional thing about a month and a half ago. And he's, you know, and I already have a few clients and like, Hey, how'd you get that momentum? I'm like, I reached out to my network, right? I reached out to my friends, right? I mean, you know, my earlier, you know, my customers are people who I've known. Right. And so I'm a known commodity and and that cold calling is brutal. Right. Yeah. So, you know, my brothers in the mortgage business has always kind of had this this referral business that's fueled him for decades. Right. And it's about the same thing. Brian: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Completely. Well, I have some fun questions for you. Do you know when the last time you danced was? Doesn't have to be in public. Brett Lyons: Yeah. Okay. No, out no. you know what? I actually danced with my d my youngest daughter about two weeks ago, just before she went to sleepaway camp. Right. We were having fun in the in the in the living room and she and I danced a little bit. Brian: that's awesome. That's amazing. was gonna ask you who else should we talk to? Is there anyone in your network or anyone that you know in social fabric network that you think we should have on the podcast and talk to? Brett Lyons: God. I think the the the the list could be great. but as you know somebody else who's kind of part of the social fabric community, I would think of as is is Michael Heller, right? Super good guy. new parents as well. Arizona native. So he's one of the guys who I first connected with when I moved back when we moved here here to town. and you know, hard of gold. Brian: Okay. Awesome. Yeah. Awesome. He'll have to be part of the the Arizona chapter. Brett Lyons: Absolutely. I've already told him about it. Brian: That's great. Well, it was been it's been great getting to know you a little bit better. Do you have any other do you have any questions for me? Okay. Brett Lyons: No, absolutely. This has been fantastic. Thank you very much. Brian: Yeah, I really like this format for getting to know members of the social fabric. So thanks for spending your time with us. Brett Lyons: Yeah, absolutely. And then if I can be of any Brian: Appreciate that. Yep. That's what it's all about, right? Cool. Well, thanks for joining us. And to the listeners out there, stay curious. Keep building your community.