Latest / In The Business of Humans / Humanity Through Video, with Ben Nathan + Fran Bryzski (Presented by: Hark)
Transcript
- Speaker 3: What do you get when you take a former manager plus report combo who are now real life friends? One, a management coach and sudden viral internet star who shoots from the hip and the other, a CX exec turned advisor who overthinks everything? This podcast. Welcome to the business of humans. I'm Joe, founder of CX Joe advisory and the overthinker. My partner in crime is Linda. She's the founder of leveled up leadership and the internet star. Join us as we talk about business, relationships, humanity. success and also failure through the lens of friendship, heaps of radical transparency and honesty and zero BS. If you've ever watched a performance metric move, like churn rate starting to dip or attention rate going up and had no idea why, you know the drill. You pull up the dashboard and another, you stare at the same numbers everyone else is staring at. Maybe you fire off a survey and hope something useful comes back in three weeks. Those metrics, that's first party data. It tells you what happened. It never tells you why. That's the problem Hark solves. They go out and get you net new zero party data, explanations for what's driving up churn or why the new product launch flopped straight from the customers in days, not weeks. And for anyone who's spent time on the CX side, like I have, and like Linda has, you know exactly what voice of customer usually turns into, tools that analyze what you already know. Hark goes and gets what you don't have yet. It's listening infrastructure for performance. A metric moves, Hark's AI agents know why. and it asks the right question to the right customer at the right moment, then hands you back the answer so you can actually act sharper, creative, better PDPs, smarter launches. Most of it comes back as real video and audio. So it's an actual human talking, not another checkbox. It's the always on teammate that's always out there getting you the insight you didn't know to ask for. And on top of all that, Hark is run by a wonderful group of human beings. They're going to be by your side at every step of the way. So go ahead, check Hark out at sendhark.com. Sendhark.com. Tell them Joe and Linda sent you. You won't regret it. Let's get started with today's episode. Hello, Linda. How's it going? Speaker 1: Hi Joe. you know, live in the dream, all the things, know, good. It's, you know, we record these episodes ahead of releasing them, right? So it's a holiday weekend. It's an interesting kind of holiday weekend. You know, for me, it was my grandma's birthday. my grandma only passed, geez, like five years ago, I think. so it's all Speaker 3: Yeah, what does the day mean for you? Speaker 1: Well, so, know, people all the time are like, what are you up to? What are you doing for the fourth? And for me, it was almost grandma's birthday. So it was like, I don't know. I'm to go hang out with my grandma. And she lived in this tiny little town in, central Utah. And we would go to a parade every year. But the thing is, is like the parade, you know, would last maybe 40 minutes. And it was like, bunch of locals walking their cows. there's always, because there's dairy farms. So there was always like, would parade like the giant cow and every, every now and then the cow would get loose and we would have to worry about being trampled. Speaker 3: Was it a medicine cow? Speaker 1: It was menacing, right? And it was the kind of that had like, was big. Yeah. And it wasn't just like a heifer, right? Like, cause there's a difference between like a regular kind of like dairy cow. This cow was not the dairy cow. This was the show cow, right? Okay. That they would walk up the street and that one gets a little squirrely, right? Like every now and then gets a little like, and it gets loose and then we have, we all have to run away. but also because they're a small town. Speaker 3: And yeah, they're big. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Speaker 1: they still throw candy at you. And so yeah, there's some floats and some people do some very interesting floats. And there's the three dance studios that happen to be all there and the high school marching band and all of the things, but really it's about the candy. but the thing is this like bigger town parades don't throw candy at you anymore. And so I'm like, is it even a parade? Does it matter? Speaker 3: grave. Speaker 1: Because if I'm not getting free candy out of this, I want the damn tootsie roll. then is it even so we don't do any of those things. We don't do those things. We don't do, I'm not huge on fireworks, but we would always watch the town fireworks. And so we didn't have to set, you know, it's just, so it's kind of an odd time for me because I've had, and my grandma lived until she was like 94. And again, she only died a few years ago. So almost my whole life, this is what. 4th of July was for me and so it's always kind of an interesting time because I don't have any traditions because of that. Speaker 3: Yeah. Yeah, I think it's beautiful though. I'm glad you shared with me in the audience. You know, you kind of lean into certain things in life, right? If it's a little bit of a different experience and emotions and honor and grandma, you know, maybe you still have a hot dog, watch some fireworks. But I think it's beautiful. And yeah, actually, the 20 year anniversary of my dad passing is coming up this July 31st. So. I know what you mean. know, it's always like the middle of summer and a certain feeling and you know, it brings some things back. always trying to take a moment to think of some good memories. I thought of something else, Linda, that I want to mention in response to your story. You know, I'm sure this is like this for you. Like, if you go first, then I have a million things I want to say. Sometimes I go first and then you jump in. But speaking of menacing animals, I don't think I ever told you about the time that I was taken away on a horse into the mountains of Nicaragua. Have I? So my sister, I almost forgot about it, but I'm so happy I remember now. My sister did Peace Corps in Nicaragua, which, you know, I really admire her. My parents did too, by the way, in a place called Trac, T-R-U-K. It's not called that anymore. I'll save my parents' Peace Corps for another episode, but I visited my sister. It was in this town. I think it was called Boaco. Speaker 1: feels so right for you. Speaker 3: And it was really like out there. It was in the mountains. It wasn't the capital at all. We took vehicles where they were like selling chicken to eat or just the whole chicken to take home like on the van, et cetera, et cetera. We got there and she took me over to her friend Arlen's house and it was great. I mean, we ate, I actually remember the rice and beans I had were like some of the best food we've ever had and Arlen was super sweet and all of that. And then it was revealed that Arlen's dad actually lived up in a hut in the mountains and they kind of pointed at it to me and like, wow, really interesting. So later in the visit, this man comes galloping down the mountain on a horse and they come to visit. I don't know how that works. I think both. I don't know the proper lingo here. I think both of them were galloping and then they stopped and Speaker 1: hoping the horse was gay. Speaker 3: my Spanish was like, it was better at that time, but it still wasn't great. You know, I knew enough words, I could cobble together a sentence, but I didn't understand when they start speaking really, really fast, like in their local dialect into each other. Basically Arlen and her dad worked out that I should get on the horse and try it out. So I'm looking at my sister's, my sister's looking at Arlen, everyone's reassuring me like it'll be fine. And I get onto the horse and like the moment I get on, it's just like, it just starts galloping away so fast. I almost fell off like immediately I'm holding on for dear life. I'm like kicking it and screaming at it in English, which, know, is not going to work on many levels. And it just took off. And it was just it literally just started to go up the mountain. And it was absolutely terrifying. My sister said she was terrified, too. It took me on a ride for a couple of minutes and it galloped back down. And I got off and I was terrified and breathless. And Arlen and her dad were laughing. They were just like, yeah, we knew it come back. We figured it'd be an experience. And it was. Speaker 1: Well, that is an experience, right? Speaker 3: I'm curious how you're going to pivot from this one. Speaker 1: Well, what an experience and like speaking of experience. Now we're going to pivot today, but today's episode is sponsored to provide a better experience for people. Do you want to tell us about that? Speaker 3: Speaking of experiences, my God, that was an amazing pivot Linda. And we're going to get into today's episode. It's one of those like pinch me episodes as corny as that sounds. We actually have two people on the show today. I would say both have really inspired me for years. We'll talk about Ben. I've known him for, guess about 20 plus years now. We'll learn all about Ben. And then we have Fran on today's show too. The last few years has been a friend and a partner and just an amazing support for me. And so speaking of support, It's actually Fran Briskey's company, Hark, who's sponsoring today's episode. And we're going to hear about Hark a little bit during the episode. Our listeners will be treated to a beautiful kind of deep dive, you know, into Hark around the middle of the episode. But Hark is a really interesting business. The way that I first learned about Hark was leveraging video and leveraging video in a way in our customer experience world to actually bring insights directly from the customer's mouth literally. so kind of like really it's incredible the way that video breaks through from other mediums. And that's something we're going to be talking about all of today's episode. As everyone will see if you head to the web website, which is sendhark.com sendhark.com, you'll see that it's a holistic platform. get customer insights and they have amazingly brilliant ways to actually hone in. and get insights from those customers directly at the exact moments that you want those insights, maybe insights that you never would have captured before running your business another way. It's still video, it's audio, it's written, and then have an amazing engine behind the scenes that turn those into actionable insights and trends for the business. And I could give one quick example because we actually were a Hark customer at AG1 when I was head of customer happiness there. And I'll give one quick example. We use Hark for a lot of things. But one example was one time we got a video from a loyal customer and he gave it to us a little bit. It actually wasn't a positive video, but he let us know, I count on this product. I take it every morning. You didn't get it to me on time this time. He told us, you know, his understanding of why that issue had occurred and it just broke through like, you know, tens, hundreds of thousands of conversations are coming in that one. Our director of customer happiness forwarded to me. I forwarded to my boss. It was like, all of leadership were kind of workshopping, like how could we never have this happen again? Of course we took care of that one customer, but we also learned a lot from that experience. So that's a real life example of how video kind of breaks through, again, which is a theme of today's episode. And also an example of why France Business Hark is, it's legit. It really drives great outcomes. Speaker 1: That's incredible. And I think that that is so, you know, I've been in those meetings. I've sat in those meetings where it's like, what is the customer saying? What is it like? Why can't we retain these people? Why can't we do these things? And sadly, so often in customer support, you don't hear from like your middle of the road people and you don't hear from the people who, you you get some super happy people, but nobody's calling you going like, this is the most amazing. you can hear is like, whatever the trend is. of that time, right? Which correlates what is whatever with the business. so having access to things where it's giving you real feedback and actionable feedback and data that you can apply to your business to really truly understand your customer and then put the customer at the center of everything that you do is incredible. Speaker 3: Yeah, well said, Linda. Well said. And as we kind of get this like little drum roll building up to our first s we're going to welcome on, which is actually an incredible human and entrepreneur and filmmaker, Ben Nathan. I'll just give the quick background on today's episode. think Linda is winning in the competition of bringing ideas for cool episodes. I'm trying to catch up. Right. And One day recently I texted Linda, like, have an episode idea. And then I think it was a day or two later. I'm like, I have another one. I was beaming. I was so proud of myself. And especially just because I always picture you, Linda. I like to picture in the other ends like that, Joe. I am so proud of him. Damn it. Am I happy I'm doing this podcast with Joe Gilroff really knowing you. You're like, yeah, whatever. And you go back to what you're doing. But I like to picture it a certain way. And Ben, who we'll welcome on, really gets credit for today's episode because Linda and I are always thinking about how to bring interesting concepts to the pod. And the unifying themes are always, one, it has something to do with business, the workplace, careers, and two, it always has to do with humanity and that common thread of humanity. And so I actually had a great opportunity to catch up with Ben on life and business. And it really got me thinking. And that's what had me text Linda that day saying, you know, it's really interesting. We've talked about humanity in the workplace and in careers in so many different lenses, but we haven't really talked about different mediums. You know, there's like written medium and, and, and, and, know, spoken and all of that nowadays so much as AI and you have like a million social media platforms. But then the conversation I have, Ben really got me to thinking about this very, very powerful medium of video. And, know, the more Linda and I got to talking about it, we'll hear from Ben directly the way that he thinks about leveraging video. in business and career and also driving positive impacts in the world. And we'll hear from Fran later in the episode when we open up a panel on that. And Linda, you're a bit of an expert too in your own way for sure on leveraging video in career and kind of injecting a lot of humanity, I think, in the video. So we'll bring on Ben shortly. But yeah, Linda, anything to add? What kind of has you excited for today? Speaker 1: You know, I think it is a really interesting topic, especially when we put AI in the mix and we talk about kind of all of the things that are happening and how easy it is to kind of lose that humanity in when it comes, which is such an interesting thing because I think our lives are more in video than they ever have been. Right. Truthfully, like I told somebody the other day, I message back and forth on Marco Polo, which they should sponsor this. But anyway, so I message back and forth. Speaker 3: Linda, we have a sponsor ready today. You're so greedy. Speaker 1: Next time. I know, right? It's fine. It's fine. No, but so we message back and forth. And sometimes when I'm almost like fatigued from doing videos, I'm just like, we're not supposed to be on video this month. We were never meant to look at ourselves this much. Right. And yet we do. And I've made a career out of it I've been able to be very successful with this. But I do think that there is so much humanity that is lost. because it is still so performative. And how can we find that? How can we find that genuine thread to present to people? So it's not lost because, you know, I think about, I think about the field that I'm in and I think about how many people who are out there who are doing similar work to what I'm doing and they reach out to me all the time and they're like, how is it that it's working for you? Like, why is it working for you? I can't get it to take off. I'm like, It's cause you're not coming across as genuine. And I think that that is so important. And I would say that whether you watch my videos on whatever platform you see my videos, or you watch this, or you have an interaction with me in person, I think they're all pretty similar, right? I don't think that's your performative. I think they're all pretty similar. Speaker 3: Yep. I love that. Speaker 1: So I'm excited about today's episode. we intro Ben? Speaker 3: Yeah, let's do it and you know, just want to quickly comment that that theme also of authenticity and the way that authenticity really rings true in video or at least if you're doing it the right way to your point, Linda, that'll be something we come back to today as well. But yeah, I'm really excited. I'm going to this reminds me of one other guest we had in season one where I'm going to embarrass a friend and someone I really admire with their long form bio because I think they deserve it. You know, it's worth it. We all don't hear these accolades often enough. So yeah, I'm going to tell you about Benjamin Ryan Nathan, who someone some of our listeners might know. And I have a hunch more will know in the future. He is an award winning filmmaker based in New York. Over the last two decades, he's worked in TV, film and advertising. He's produced, directed and edited over 200 commercials, viral videos, short form documentaries and branding and marketing projects. His work has garnered over what's this number? It's big 20 million views online and on television. Dedicated to using the art of filmmaking as a tool to better the planet also, he's collaborated with major organizations including the UN Environment Program, Natural Resources Defense Council, Human Rights First, Sesame Workshop, that's a fun one, the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities, Acoustic Ground, which puts out amazing documentaries including on Netflix, have a watch, American Cancer Society, Arm Technologies, and National Dance Institute to bring inspiring and powerful stories of human transformation to a wide audience. Early in his career, Ben served as editor on a series of over 70 short films created with renowned documentarian Ken Burns, little name drop there, and assistant directed the PBS Lifestyle series, Moment of Luxury. He's currently directing two independent feature documentary films to be free on labor trafficking in the United States with executive producer Martin Sheen and Come Dance with Me about the power of dance to transform children's lives based on the work of Jacques I don't want to butcher his name. This is terrible. He's an American treasure and Ben's hero, D'Ambois, and Ben will correct me, and National Dance Institute. Speaker 1: Speaking of some name drops. So Ben has written and directed groundbreaking films and campaigns working with top celebrity talent, including Deborah Messing, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Misty Copeland, James Corden, Julia Louis Dreyfus, Montana Tucker, Adrian Greener. I don't think I said that right. Bill Nye, the science guy, Blythe Danner, Giselle Bündchen, Don Cheadle, and James Cromwell. Speaker 3: I'm a huge Don Cheadle fan. Every movie is and tends to be magnificent. In 2012, lastly, Ben founded All of Us Films to bring together top creative talent to create media that makes a profound positive impact in today's world. Under his leadership, All of Us Films has forged strategic partnerships with organizations and individuals throughout the film industry to collaborate on projects that entertain, educate, inspire, and unite. With their new offering, Impact Reel, which I know we'll hear about today, His team is bringing a new, more accessible model to the same mission, which we'll have much more about on today's episode. All right. And here's Ben. We got, we did the long intro. See, I told everyone to be a little embarrassed, but I was looking at the long intro and making a shorter one, but I think everything in there deserves some accolades and deserve mentioning Ben and a huge welcome on the podcast. Thanks for being with us today. Speaker 1: It is Ben. Speaker 4: there. Thank you, it's really a pleasure to be here. Speaker 3: Do you, I think first things first, I actually don't say this lightly because like I said, I know he's a huge force in your life and literally like a national treasure. What is the correct pronunciation of Jacques name? Speaker 4: So he pronounced it Jacques d'Amboise. Speaker 3: Demboise, okay, thank you. So Jacques Demboise, and now that I haven't completely butchered it, probably a few people listening will go, that's Joe is trying to say. And it's ironic because Ben, I don't know if you would have guessed why Linda jumped in to read the paragraph that she did. But ironically, was because when we were preparing, I was terrified of saying all those celebrities' names. Because I'm really bad at saying celebrities' names. Linda's like, I got it, it's Gisele Bunchin. I think just like a lot of things in life is really how broad it goes. But I tried to avoid that moment humorously, it didn't fully work. Speaker 4: Tag-teamed expertly. Speaker 3: Excellent. Excellent. Speaker 1: Yeah, he's, he's like Bill Nye and I'm like the science guy. Bill Nye is a science guy. And he's like, yeah, I'm gonna calm down. Calm down. know. Bill Nye. Speaker 3: Yeah, could have done it where I said, Vilnai, and then you're in the background like this science guy. That would have been fun. Yeah. Next time. Next time. Ben, I'm sure people have so many questions, sort of like how all of this happens and what all these fascinating people were like. I'm going to kick it over to you, you know, to start out just really general kind of whatever direction you want to take it to just expand on that incredible intro. Queue the joke that you'll say that was, you know, that was pretty thorough, Joe. But no, like just maybe anything you want to add and also just explain a little bit more what you're working on nowadays. Speaker 4: Yeah. Well, I mean, first of all, I'm so happy to be here with you guys. I think what you're building is really great and important. You know, we're all in the business of authenticity. So that's really what, when I started all of us films, it was really out of this desire to use all the great tools of film to sell and promote and, and educate and entertain about good things. You know, I had done commercials for a lot of other kinds of things that just were fun to work on, but weren't. Speaker 3: expect. Speaker 4: the kinds of things I was really excited to be selling. And so this was just a big leap, but also a hypothesis that there could be a business around promoting positive things. So that was really the mission. And we've just really stuck with that for the last almost 14 years. Speaker 3: Yeah, it's amazing. It's amazing. I think it's something we talk about sometimes on the podcast of like Linda and I having come from, you know, we worked at various different businesses and we're the startup guy. Linda has a nice breadth of different companies and sizes. She's worked out from super corporate to startups and we had our overlap at Daily Harvest. We're always thinking about it from the standpoint of, know, we're just doing the CX thing and now Linda does a lot more with content and I do the advisor thing, but how could we try to go about it in a way that is this tiny little positive spark? And Ben and I have been friends for a lot of years, which has been such a joy via my wife, Ena, which is just like one of those incredible things in life, you know, meeting Ben and sharing a lot of experiences over the years. I think we'd always bond a little bit, Ben, but it always from the standpoint of me saying, you know, this business I'm working with or the way we're trying to go about business, like we're trying in our own little tiny way to do it with a positive spark. But you know that I always really admired, you know, sort of where you are in that spectrum or that scale. where you've got to pay the bills and you've done incredible things as an entrepreneur, but also I think it's always been front and center and really obvious that you choose your work in a way. We really want to drive a positive impact and I really admire that. Speaker 4: I appreciate that. think like we have, especially as media makers, which kind of we're all in that bucket now, but you know, the more, the more audience you have, I think it comes with a responsibility and not everybody sees it that way, but, I do. it's, know, what are we going to do with that? Like eyeball time that people are giving us. How do we help, you know, of course we want to entertain people because that's why they're paying attention in the first place, but then what other good thing comes out of because they saw this. Speaker 3: Yep, definitely. Speaker 1: And I think it's so easy for us to sit and talk about, especially when we think culturally, right? Like culturally, especially in the United States, we have made millionaires and billionaires out of awful people, awful people. And we've celebrated poor behavior, right? We are to this point where, you know, you turn on any, like you turn on Bravo and it's all just people being awful, right? people who are just treating each other poorly and having fits. And we've almost created this, well, we have created this culture of poor behavior of if I just stop my foot and hold my breath and behave in a way that is just so deplorable, I will get what I want, right? Or I will get internet famous or I will get whatever, right? And I think that I love this idea of like, could we find something good? Could we figure out something? and celebrate something good because I don't know that we see enough of that because we have come to this point where we're celebrating poor behavior so much of the time. Speaker 4: And it's a vicious cycle too, because you, you know, they say like, you know, if it bleeds, it leads. If we constantly are fed that kind of information and it, you know, it, triggers that part of our brain that's that survival instinct or that, you know, have to react to something. It, keeps us thinking that that's how the world is. And we don't get the other positive stuff often doesn't get to our feeds. It doesn't get to us in any other way. So it just keeps us thinking that that's how it is. And then we see more of it and that's how it is. We start to act that way sometimes too. it just, it all like, know, fiction becomes reality and reality becomes fiction. And it's all this mishmash. So I think that's why it's so important. think Plato said something to the, to the effect of like the people who control the stories control society. So we're as storytellers, we have to really think about what kind of an impact are we trying to have? And it's not, you know, when they're, when you're telling a positive story, you still need drama, you still need suspense, you still need. something changing over the course of a story, you still need stakes, but does it have to be all this doom and gloom and like terrible stuff and celebrating bad behavior and you know it I don't think it has to be that way and I think that's that's that's my mission is like how to share those kinds of stories and have it translate to some real world behavior. Speaker 3: So powerful. really, really is. And as we were talking about storytelling on today's episode and then specifically video, obviously there's different ways to tell stories. But I think all of us would agree that video is one of the most powerful. And we'll talk about video in terms of storytelling and also insights in business and all the things today. Ben, and then I'm curious, Linda, if you also want to weigh in after Ben, but why is it that video breaks through in a way that no other medium does? Speaker 4: Great question. mean, I think a lot of people have probably put in academic research and thoughts on that. think on a base level, we react to reality. We perceive as reality, right? Written words on a page have a beauty that, you know, video doesn't, it's a different kind of of a beauty, but video is probably as close to reality, to real lived experience that people get. So when you're... watching a video, it's, I think it plays on that part of ourselves that, that craves reality, that craves real life interaction. So we're seeing, you know, even if it's just a talking head, a person talking to camera, that feels like, that person's talking to me, especially if they're done authentically. I have a feeling that that is, you know, one way of looking at why. And then it's, then it's like, okay, how do we think about the emotions of the people watching this, not just the emotions of the people on the screen, but those other, you know, secondary or tertiary emotions. And, and, and why are we trying to create that emotional sensation? What experience are we trying to transmit? Because it is that like, one of the closest ways, one of the closest things to an experience of reality as we have, you know, of course there's like virtual reality, all kinds of other stuff, but this is something we're seeing and experiencing every single day. from our computer screens to our TVs to our phones everywhere. So I think it's a very, very familiar, you know, close to reality experience. Speaker 3: I love that. Yeah. Makes total sense. Speaker 1: Yeah. I think it also breaks down the communication barrier, right? So as someone who's made their career in customer support and you know, we, I came up when it was just phone calls, right? The only way to interact with someone was with phone calls. And then as the digital world kind of emerged, we were going to chat and then we were responding to emails and we were doing these things and We always, I think once a year I would go through some kind of communication course. And when I did my masters, I did a really long communication course, but there's, you know, we talk about the sender and the receiver, right? And the sender could have a certain intent, but depending on whatever's going on with the receiver, they may not read the intent, right? You could write a completely cordial email being kind and thoughtful in all of the things. You know, I actually think about how often I would communicate with Joe and Joe and I would come back. And it's so funny. Like if you were to go back and look at our communications over Slack, you would just giggle because Joe would write me like three paragraphs and I would respond with like, thumbs up. Even today, he sent me a message. He's like, Hey, I'm running a little bit late. And he gives me this wonderful explanation. I had actually received it on my watch while I was making my protein shake. And so I just responded on my watch with, okay. Speaker 3: scene. Speaker 1: And I didn't even like, I always spell it okay the correct way. It was the abbreviation. It was just like, okay. Speaker 3: Cool. Yeah, I think about 80 % of the text I send to Linda, I get that response. Okay. I always just picture the tone to be exactly what I want it to be. So it's very expressive, actually, in its own way. Speaker 4: video is like it eliminates a lot of that guesswork. Speaker 1: Yes. It bridges that gap. So, and, know, I am a very sarcastic person, but I try and not write that, but I can do that in video. can do the sarcasm and people can get it, or I can be angry or I can be excited. And maybe I'm speaking in all caps, but not yelling in all caps. Right. That's really kind of where I believe the video breakdown, where that's bridging the gap for us, right? And that it's a way for us to communicate in a better way. And I think if you were to pull a hundred people, I bet you would find that the majority of people say like the biggest flaw that we have, whether it's in business, whether it's in life, boils down to communication. And so if we have a way of bridging that gap and creating a space where we can communicate more Clearly, I think that's a good thing, right? Speaker 4: Totally. using different communication tools where they excel. Like, you know, I always talk about, if you have, if you, know, if an organization wants to put out something about the impact that they're having, know, you don't necessarily want the executive director of a nonprofit to go on camera and say, Hey, we served 5,000 people this year. Cause you can read that, but what you can't read is the experience of one of those people. Yeah, exactly. organization affected their lives and that's going to be really powerful on video. And then you want the backup. Here's all the statistics and here's all the other stuff that you can and that's great or see in an animation and that's great. But, know, telling about it versus showing it's, you know, that age old show me versus tell me that's, that's, that's where video really excels. Speaker 3: I agree. And this feels like too perfect of a sort of bridge. So I'm to go for it of asking you a question, Ben. And then once we welcome Fran on, we'll get his perspective, too. But what you said really resonated with me. And it actually took me back to this conference I went to that I loved. And I knew there was someone with an impressive title at Airbnb who is going to speak. Be careful not to spill their beans too much. But it was at a conference or whatever. And what was really interesting to me is there was someone who was in charge of a lot of their voice of customer and storytelling and insights programming. And whatever company I was at then, I sure looked up to Airbnb. So it's like, I can't wait to hear like what techniques they have. And it was, it was funny. He was a very genuine and effective presenter. And he was basically telling us about tactics of how he tries to get anyone at the business to pay attention to what he's saying and customer stories. And it's funny cause it was a bunch of years ago, but they had had this breakthrough where they had customer videos instead of written. And then it was his job, one of his jobs in the business was to pick them out and try to share them across the org. And then he would like, you know, bribe people to watch the video. I mean, it's always hard getting people's attention, but his point was that with video, had more of a fighting, fighting chance in an organization of that size of capturing people's attention. So I actually wanted to ask you to talk a little bit more about impact real and how this whole dynamic we're talking about kind of relates to impact real and why it's interesting to you and to lots of other folks you're speaking with. Speaker 4: Totally. Yeah. mean, Impact Reel is something that was born out of a need that we were seeing where a lot of our clients, whether they're mission-driven companies or nonprofits or NGOs, they would produce one kind of really beautiful big film. You know, it might be three or five minutes or two to four minutes, but it was like once every year or once every two years, and it might be for a gala or for a big event or something. And then in between, they didn't have that sort of like really powerful emotive content. And they have to fill their social media feeds with something. So they put things up, but it wasn't this consistent flow of beautiful, powerful stories. So we're thinking about how do we help bridge that gap? You know, a lot of organizations are dealing with funding cuts. can't be that they're going to spend the same amount of money times five to produce this every few months. So what can we do? So the idea was let's interview people using our skills as documentary filmmakers over their phones. We're going to record those interviews. So it's like the equivalent of a FaceTime call, but the quality is much better. So we interview people connected to the organization every month. It's a monthly subscription service. So it's recurring. We're making sure that, you know, of course the basics, like they're framed right. They sound good. But then beyond that, getting that authentic message, getting that authentic storytelling from people who aren't necessarily used to being on camera. Maybe it's somebody who, who Is a donor to an organization and they want to talk about why, or maybe it's somebody who benefits from some services, but they are not used to being on camera. We can have that conversation with them just as a person to person connection. They make sure that they're relating that story in a way that, feels authentic and it gives all the information that we, need to tell a story. And then we get that footage automatically. edit it, we add a B role or supporting content that the organization might. provide for us so that we might film and music and we bring our skills as filmmakers to make that 30 or 90 second social reel something that's really, you feel something because it. It's different than somebody recording by themselves for most people, not you Linda, but for other people, might have difficulty seeing their authentic selves talking to a device with nobody else on the other end. So that ability to have a real human conversation, I think is, is, is a powerful thing. And it's, so this is meant, impact reel is really meant to provide anywhere from one to five really powerful social reels or email campaign pieces in every month. So that it's repeatable. It happens all the time. And it's something that your audience comes to expect and comes to learn about. And it can be applied to any type of company, any brand. Human stories are the thing that connect people to a brand or to an organization or to, you know, I always say like people don't give to, people don't give to missions, they give to people. So that's, know, in owner space, but it's the same in the investment space. It's the same in the purchasing space. They purchase something because it makes them feel good. They feel a human connection. There's something that matters to them. So this is a way of communicating that in a reliable, consistent way. Speaker 3: I that. Yeah, I love so much about it. And I feel like sometimes business mirrors life. And this is like a whole other 10 episodes. But, you know, there's not always enough funding and respect for all sorts of arts, mediums and including video. And that's in life. But then when you think about business, too, I it happens sometimes. I know the places I've worked. Sometimes when things were going great, we'd have like two hundred thousand dollar budget for that year is like case studies and traveling to clients or more. And then sometimes you don't have that much funds and I think it's pretty incredible. Just basically the access to, you know, really compelling videos and customer stories and so forth with chops like Ben's and his teams to businesses. So I think that's amazing. And I would like to go ahead and round out, you know, our panel today and today's guests. And I'm also laughing and like when I said it's a pinch me episode, it's because, you know, Linda and I joke about the stuff of like all the why of doing our podcasts and days like today, feel like it's just an excuse and a trick of mine to introduce people that I always wanted to introduce to one another. So now I get to for Fran and Linda and Ben to all meet properly. So a little bit more about Fran Briskey is the CEO and co-founder of Hark, which again is SendHark.com. It's a New York City based startup pioneering a new video first approach to customer feedback. Fran has over a decade of experience working in many customer facing roles from startups to Fortune 50 companies. In addition to his role at Hark, he is a portfolio advisor at Hatch Adventures. Fran is highly focused on humanizing data through customer stories. He has seen firsthand how customer feedback falls flat internally when it should be seen as a growth driver. See all the connective threads. See, this is Love the threads. Fran believes that bringing, excuse me, the feedback to life will create more engagement internally. Pardon me. Speaker 1: Love. Speaker 3: for organizations which will result in better products, faster feedback loops, and a customer first culture. We could all agree to that. At Hark, Fran is helping reinvent how brands connect with their audience, offering a fresh perspective on customer insights and voice of customer programs. So welcome to the podcast, Fran. Speaker 4: . Speaker 1: Hi, Fran. Speaker 2: Hey, thanks for having me. Thanks for making me sound so important. I don't think Joe you realize so Ben you edited the Ken Burns docu series like the Vietnam War. Speaker 4: I wish I could take credit for that, but I can't. were working with a, I was working at another company before I started my company. And there was a tour company that was making these films, making kind of bus tours around the U S based on Ken Burns films. So they had the national parks tours. had baseball tours, civil war tours. And we would, we actually got to work with the footage of Ken Burns that didn't make it into his bigger films and make these shorter films. But the feedback process of working with him and getting to shoot some additional interviews with him and, you know, meet him and, I mean, was like, and it may is like going to school again for film. It's an incredible experience. Speaker 2: Yeah, I talk about threads. My five kids, seven and under. So when my wife was pregnant with our twins, four and five, she would go to bed very early every night. And my dad was in the Vietnam War. And we have this like, just like to talk about the power video. I read a lot about history. I did school projects on the Tet Offensive, like I'm very into it because of that. But the way Ken Burns went through that, and made you feel like if you haven't watched it, it's very interesting. like there's an episode about My Lai and going into the village and what happened and what that did for my dad and I in terms of like conversations we could go deeper on. Built like a much stronger connection. just, it's very, I could read about, I've read about the Vietnam War since, Vietnam conflict since I was a kid, but like seeing it in that way, a whole different understanding for like what happened at Kent State and just the whole thing. anyway, I just very much agree. Obviously, I Hark for a reason, but video can just create a much stronger bond between people in general, because it provides a perspective and context. Speaker 4: That's an amazing example of something that happened on a screen and then translated to off screen to a real human bond. So that's the goal. I I wish I'd had the opportunity to work on that, but that's the point, I think, certainly for my work. mean, Ken Burns is like, he's just such a master. Speaker 2: I don't know who he was. stumbled, I was scrolling like, what am going to watch by myself? Cause she's going to, my wife's going to bed like seven o'clock every night. And I put that on it. She's tired. My goodness. Speaker 3: Yeah. Side note, Linda, are you still thinking about the five kids under seven? Yeah. Yeah, I'm sure a lot of listeners are. I think probably all four people on today's podcast on this call are pretty effective multitaskers. I would say that Fran is one of the most effective I know in my life. Do you remember Fran? And hopefully this isn't oversharing, but there was one time I kind of wanted to bounce something off Fran and I want a favor and the type of person and friend Fran is he's like, of course, you know, call me in 10 minutes and then It was like, Fran's company was closing a fundraising round with like a deadline in those same 15 minutes. He was leading his team in an offsite. I don't know, you probably had four kids crawling on you. I'm not sure. And he's just like, no, go ahead, man. I'm just totally here for you. Like, how could I help? And it was just all the things at once. So. Speaker 2: That was a stressful moment. I remember I got a phone call in middle of it because we were negotiating the final terms and then I was like, hold on one second. Yeah, I remember that. Speaker 3: apologizing profusely. I'm like, really okay, So great multi-task, great human. Fran, to kind of ask you, you know, one of the questions, I'll even broaden it a bit and then just open things up, you know, to this wonderful group. you know, we talked to Ben about why video breaks through more. I know that actually Hark is even more than video, you know, but one of the initial kind of, you know, angles was the power of video and especially in customer stories. And so, Fran, I want to ask you about why you think video hits so hard and then... The expansion of the question is like, there something even more to it in today's world where just like we were even joking earlier this episode, but like so many communications are like abbreviated words and you know, like little phrases and like everything sped up and automated and is there something about it? Like today where video just really still hits for people. Speaker 2: Yeah, I think it's, um, you know, we went through the creator economy and now the world is quite different. Creators are still surging. And I think it's because they're just so good at providing content that's digestible very quickly. Um, I think that the number one, like source of value or like thing is attention. Um, I know, know what my company, like, I don't know if you all use Claude, but I used to get reports from like internal reports. All of a sudden they turned into like 10 page reports with so much more information, but I can't digest more. I think there's a reason why as a society, we've all gone towards Instagram and Snapchat and TikTok. And know Linda, mentioned Marco Polo, like these ways of interacting have all taken off. And that was a big precipice is like, why did I start Hark? Because I'm seeing the way that humans are engaging with each other. They're craving that attention. They're craving more content because it's easier to digest for them. but so much of what's happening from business to consumers, just like plain text and it's not human. So I think we are all craving attention. think video is just the easiest way for us to digest. Like we were made as humans to talk to one another and that's the easiest way for us to understand everything going on. So I think the point you bring up around like maybe Joe over analyzing things or seeing a text and like, well, is it that tone? it this tone? Like. You know, it's very, very important to understand everything in the situation. So yeah, I mean, think that's, that's clearly why it breaks through. when you talk about like in a business sense, you brought the Airbnb example. We're inundated with stats and metrics and figures and all the quantitative data in the world, but the emotional threads and heartstrings is what can spur a much deeper conversation. As I just mentioned about with me and my dad and as humans and operators, like we're built to make judgment calls. We're built to infer. built to make bets. And I think the ones that are just like, I need all the data to support my decision. Like there's, there's a role for that, but the CMO executives and CEOs are there to place big bets and get outsized returns. And if you're going to do that, you've got to have a hunch and to get a hunch, you've to understand all angles and to get there. I believe video is by far and away the best method to get there. Speaker 1: I totally agree. And I think all of us, I mean, you you gave your, your example at the beginning, talking about how those films really spoke to you how that created an emotional connection for you in other parts of your life. Right. I think each one of us can think about a time that we listened to a speech, watched some, like even there, even some commercials that may just like trigger that thing, trigger that emotion and everyone can remember those moments. I cannot remember any emails other than the ones where I was like, my God, that was the longest email ever. But other than none, again, I left with an impression, not with information. Right. And, and I believe that video is, and again, that's why I think that there's so much attention on things like Instagram and, and those types of things. I think it also taps into our natural kind of voyeuristic characteristics as humans too. Right. We would much rather like see what's going on versus like read. what's going on. I, yes, am. Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm Joe. You mentioned the example of brand loyalists coming in and giving it to you at your past company. But do you remember what the MPS score was then? Do you remember what the CSAT score was after? I think we've dumbed down brand loyalty to a numeric value because we're trying to track it. But it's just not how humans engage. Coincidentally, at the same time, customer acquisition, a lot of people just would rely on Meadow's algorithm and just hope that it refined itself to track the right people. But now that's gotten harder than ever. So what I find is organizations want to speak to their customer. They want to know who those personas are. And they can't just rely on like once a year doing a study with McKinsey and hoping that pans out and then saying, here's our persona. Here's how we talk to them. And they're on a PowerPoint site. Like it's got to be a dynamic, always on fluid connection and conversation because things change too quick. the way I'm operating now is very different than just six months ago or a year before that. I think further On the qualitative side, I've got as I meant, like I have a lot of kids, I've got going on. I'm learning how to play ice hockey at 37. But you don't know that from quantitative data around like me purchasing cane sneakers. You just know that I'm a white guy who's 37 and I live in New York. But you could target me much differently with like, hey, like you got a lot going on, like you need to recover. We're the best to do X. Like it's a very different message. You know what I'm saying? Speaker 3: Yep, definitely. Speaker 1: Can I say the big plus to having the videos? It keeps your CEO out of your customer service inbox, which, Joe and I can attest to, is never a good idea. Speaker 3: Usually, usually a good thing, especially because they might respond to the one customer in a way only they can. It's awesome. But then they have so many questions for us and everything falls, goes off the rails. I have like a genuine sort of observation or question. I'll post the group and maybe then I'll toss it to you first. But I can't decide whether video is it always brings out more authenticity than other channels or is it maybe a twist on that of like it has the potential to, but it sounds like you really have to go about video creating in a way that that is authentic and that kind of breeds authenticity, right? And the way that you go about your work, probably the way that you get feedback out of other people. We talked about, you know, Fran and inviting so much feedback from customers and Ben with all the work you're doing, including impact real. So can you help me to think this through? Like, is it, you know, is it the former or latter? Like, you still have to dedicate yourself to going about? the video creation work in a way that makes sure that authenticity does shine through. Speaker 4: I think that's the key because not everybody can turn on a camera and speak in an authentic way and have it be natural. Right. So we all have seen lots of social content where it feels like we're being read to and we probably are. It's something to see people's eyes moving across the screen and the teleprompter. Right. So it's not that video is like the solution for that. It's about how we use it. So, know, why impact real or why any kind of documentary set up or you're interviewing someone's because you're having a real human interaction and recording that and putting that out. But, I think that that's why podcasts are so great. And that's why, especially ones like this that are conversational, like everyone's just here chatting and like you hear people saying, aha, right. Yeah. And that's not all just like cut out and cleaned up. It's, it's not. Speaker 3: We don't cut anything out Ben, so you're in luck. Speaker 4: That's Greek. So I think like that is how it's about how you use the tool. Right. Sometimes, you know, like would we ever say that, you know, Shakespeare should have been video? No, like Shakespeare is Shakespeare and like it's beautiful and it's an art form in and of itself, but it's being used. mean, of course he didn't have the option of video, so maybe he would have done selfies the whole time. Who knows? But, but that's, you know, that was a choice to, have this written word. And that we still interact with that. But when we do it, we're reading it and we're trying to embody it and we're trying to bring it off of the page and into our reality. So it's about how we use the tools. It's not, I don't think it's a one tool fits all. think it's finding the right tool for each different type of communication. Speaker 3: Yeah. And are you actually focusing on tactics like when you're preparing something, as I know you are now, that might even be submitted to film festivals, like, it's going to be that polish and it needs to be, and you have backers and you've been working on it for years, but are there tactics that you use to still try to make that polished product feel more authentic and almost like, you know, improvisational in a sense? Speaker 4: Totally. mean, when we're filming interviews for one of our documentaries, first of all, we're trying to make it feel like it's not lit, even though we have, we're there with the rates and crews of all this stuff. want to make it look natural, you know? So that's one thing we do to just kind of bring that authentic feel. actually was talking with, um, one of, uh, the editor on one of our projects, uh, yesterday about how sometimes as a filmmaker, even as a documentary filmmaker, we're heightening reality intentionally, or like sometimes like reordering things slightly in order to create a desired experience in the viewer. So it's not always about being exactly literal about how something happened, but it's about like what experience and understanding are we generating in the audience? And that's got to be true to what the original thing was. that's, so we're using A lot of different tools, you know, are we having the person being interviewed looking straight into the lens or are they looking like off camera more like 60 minutes style? That's a, that's a technique. Something we use on a bunch of projects is, it's this like mirror system. That's, the official name of it is called the interotron. It was created by Errol Morris, who's a amazing filmmaker, but basically it's a series of mirrors where the person who's being interviewed can look straight into the camera lens. And then. the they're seeing the director. So they're not seeing the lens. They're seeing a reflection of the director and the director sitting next to the camera, seeing a reflection of the person being interviewed. So that eye contact, sort of like we all have right now, we're seeing each other, but we're looking into the camera. It's like that. And that's a very intimate kind of deep effect. I think one of the great examples of it is the movie, The Fog of War. which has this like, you know, straight direct to camera interview with McNamara, about these very intense topics. it brings, brings it to life. And you feel like you're like that voyeuristic kind of thing you were talking about, Linda, that like, feels like we have this view into this person's world that we wouldn't have without, without that. Speaker 3: That's amazing. And Fran, pivoting to you and thank you, Ben. You have me so many thoughts and replies in my mind, really well said. And I'm smiling a little bit because, Fran, I feel like in your world and with your product, you don't really have to work very hard at sort of the authenticity because it's really just asking customers to speak into the camera at the moment that they had something to say. And I'm actually thinking back again to AG1 where we worked with Fran. We were a customer. And I'm just thinking, I'm remembering like there were times that people would weigh in and the lighting was terrible. They were either thrilled or they're even grumpy about something, which could be very, very helpful as well. But there were other times that somebody would take us on the walk, like walking their dog with them. But Hark was the product that had sort of facilitated and created that moment. We never would have gotten it otherwise. And it's like, Hey, AG1, am I live? And it was like, I take AG1 before I walk my dog. Is this okay? Am I allowed to say this?" And then they would talk for a few minutes about their impressions of the product and what they'd like to see. And it was invaluable. Or one time somebody, don't know, Fran, if you remember this one, was on a yoga retreat in some remote part of India. And it was just like in that moment, probably because she had taken her AG1 or whatever, but it was just the moment she wanted to share with us. And it really broke through to me again. I don't think she was going to take out her phone and type out an email to AG1. was because the video, the moment, the opportunity to create a video was there. Yeah, friend, are your thoughts on all of this? And even if you want to talk about this, like really authentic moments that you see in your world. Speaker 2: Yeah, interestingly, I don't think they all, so with Hark, we do video, audio, screen recording and text. It's not all video. I really think it depends on the ask. People just want a way to give context in the best way. And that might be a short text message with a picture of what they're talking about. That might be an audio snippet where they wanna talk and they don't wanna be on camera, but they wanna tell you about why they're requesting something. It's very different than a chat bot of like, my thing is damaged versus, I want to show you this because I think you guys can do this better, whatever. So there's different methods of communication. What I find with a lot of our customers specifically on the brand marketing and performance marketing side is UGC is sort of like the Holy grail. It's like, we want more UGC. And it's titled user generated content, but it's all fake. Like it's all kind of bullshit. Like we're paying people to come in. and do this like really like to Ben's point, like really polished video and like the lighting is a certain way and here's how we want you to say it. And it's fake. And I think people are just really seeing through that. We're smart as human beings. We understand this and we're on there. And I think people are fatigued by it candidly. So what we're finding from a lot of our customers, interestingly, which is not what I got the product for, but they're just like, we want that like raw organic, just real. Like the thing you mentioned, Joe, like someone's in India, they're on a yoga retreat. They're just talking about like their day. That's very, very different. And I'm finding we've leaned really hard into diary studies, the platform without all the bells and I don't want to get a little jargon, but basically what the AI does is it figures out what's happening in your business and who should we reach out to? And why should we reach out to them at this time? So like a metric might move and we're like, Hey, we want to get the why, not the what. Um, I think customers really enjoy that. They're like, Oh, like you're reaching out to me with a specific question. Cause you want to get better. Not how generic, like we value your feedback. Would you take five minutes to do it? Like no one cares. I think the same thing is starting to happen with like reviews and UGC. Humans are smart and they're like, I don't care about all this fluff. Like just give me the real authentic and I'll probably be a more loyal buyer because of it. Speaker 3: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Speaker 1: Yeah. And I think, let me tell you, I struggle with sometimes with tasks. The written tasks. am definitely, I'm probably undiagnosed ADHD. It's fine. I function just fine. Okay. Don't worry about me. But if I can stop and like do a voice note or send you a quick video or whatever about my feedback, we're also like super fatigued with surveys. I'm so over surveys. Like I can't even stand it. And of course, always the ones that I want when I'm flying on Delta, come on Delta, I never get them. but we having the opportunity, I think that that's where you reach out. Not only are you getting a more authentic bit of feedback, right? And you're going to get more feedback because you're going to open up this space for people who are like me, who are like, I'm not going to write the things, right? Speaker 2: You like Delta? Speaker 1: It's bit of a love hate, honestly. Speaker 2: I, I, they're like my favorite line, I, great example. They don't use my product, but if they hear this. Speaker 1: Delta should. Delta, hey. Speaker 2: crazy experience on the plane and without getting into the whole what happened, but we were walking off the like off the plane through the tunnel to get like after we landed and so many people were irate and they were talking to each other like, like I wish I could give them this like there was genuinely saying this. I wish I could like give them the feedback. I can either like go somewhere, but they're not going to do anything. And I remember one person like the price and a stupid survey, but like that's not going to and then they kept walking. I'm just thinking in my head like what if you hit them in the moment like you're walking. Hey, real quick, like anything on the flight you want to share, you record it as you're walking to get your bag and you're just like, Hey, like, yeah, like this whole thing happened. And then if Delta C is like a theme of that, very interesting, right? And that's a negative experience. But what about a positive experience where it's like, there's still, I've seen this, like a stewardess, like help me calm down my baby, like incredible experience. And like to have somebody share that and then Delta can use that to be like, our stories go above and beyond. Look what they did with this passenger. Now you're like, Now you're driving trust in the economy. That's on stage. That's authentic. It's real. I just, when such a missed opportunity. Speaker 1: I completely agree with you and Delta is definitely missing out and should definitely contact her. Speaker 3: a thousand percent and this is the part now I'm smiling because anyone who listens to our pod knows that Linda always tries to wrangle me and land the plane and I just like resist a little bit. One quick question and probably you know we'll land the plane soon but Linda I really have like one very genuine question because you could have started like answering all of these with the way that you leverage video. Harkening back to the Hark that's funny. Harkening back to you're welcome. Parking back to that moment where, you know, we talk about where I was in Montenegro last summer and texting you and like, my God, did you just go viral? But you were creating great content and everyone who would watch it would appreciate it. But then there was like this inflection point and suddenly it was hundreds of thousands or millions of views. did you like was there any change in what you were doing when it comes to authenticity in video? Because we've talked about like your style and anyone who watches your videos online knows it's a million percent authentic. Just you're in the car, you're at home, you're wherever you, you know. you start recording and you go, but did you, was that like with intention or that's just always the way you approach it? Speaker 1: There was definitely a shift in how I was doing some things. So I had learned a little bit more. you know, I, I believe that again, like I said earlier in the podcast, whether you're here, whether you're on my content, whether you're having a conversation with me, I believe that you continue to get the same person, right? You continue to get the same person. I did learn a little bit more about how to grab people's attention. that specific video, which I, nine million on Tik TOK. million on Instagram, know, a of views. But I remember having the conversation with you, Joe, and you were like, showed my brother that post. And I was like, this is exactly who Linda is because I was drinking my diet Coke, right? From McDonald's because it's the best diet Coke. I will fight anybody who says anything different. and it was just a moment. I was like waiting to pick up my nephew and it was this moment of like, I've got to get this thing done. And so I just recorded it. And I think that that was one of those turning points for me of understanding. Authenticity over performative, right? And yes, my posts are still performative because you have, you have 90 seconds, right? Like you, if you were to listen to me, I mean, I would drone on forever, but you know, there is, there is this performative thing, but I think what comes through is really just like, I'm really trying to help you. I'm really trying to give you a little nugget or a little something, or I'm trying to make you feel seen. And I think that even, even if I figured out some of the attention things and figured out how to do the things, I believe that the, the, authenticity that comes through my post is so much of like, Hey, this is really just coming from a good place. And ultimately, I really just want you to feel seen and I want you to feel like you're not alone because from my personal experience, when I was going through it, I felt so alone and I was like, holy shit, other people feel this way. That's weird. Right. Cause we all like to think that we're unique humans and sometimes it's, just nice to know that there is no original thought. So Speaker 4: 1000 % Because it reminds me a lot of one of my mentors, Scott Nielsen. always says, life is a performance, but we're the best at playing ourselves. So it's like, we're not actually our personalities, but I think I, on a spiritual level, I think we're something deeper than that, but we are performing our, as ourselves on a daily basis. making slight adjustments to how you do that is not necessarily an authentic. it comes off as that inauthentic, then it is. But if it is you just like reordering something, then it's, still authentic. It's just, you know, you're aware of who your audience is in that moment. Speaker 1: Yes. Amazing. Well, I think we did the thing guys. We talked the video, we talked about authenticity, we talked about being humans, we talked about airplanes. So I don't know that we could have more complete episode than we had today. But because I always have to close the episode this way. And because we want to be human and it's not always like fun and good times. I'm going to ask you if there's, you've got something you want to share with the people that's got you a little hot under the collar. So, Ben, I'm going to just go alphabetically here, Ben, I'm going to start with you. anything you want to share with the people that's got you hot under the collar. Speaker 4: I think it's, was thinking about this and like something that we talked about in our conversation, like all the different modes we can use for communication these days, like do video, we can do audio, we do text. There's sometimes that I'm communicating with people and WhatsApp is sometimes the easiest way to do that. If we're working on an international project, it's real time, you know, talking back and forth. And sometimes it's just an inundation of voice messages that could be a text, like a voice message to say, okay. It's just like. I too much. so that's sometimes I get, sometimes I get a little, a little hot under the collar about that. I'm like, why is it? And then if it's in another language, then it doesn't give me that like transcript automatic. was like, either the technology has to catch up or the people have to like, I don't know. So that's, maybe I can have a status that says like text only for the next 10 minutes or. Speaker 1: I think you should actually just put it in there. That could have been a text. I like, I challenge you. I tell it's like, yeah, it's kind of like, um, you know, it at work, that could have been an email instead of that 90 minute meeting. thing. Amazing Fran, anything you want to share with people that's got you hot under the collar. Speaker 2: Yeah, everything talking about writing because of AI is sounding the same in the sense of the whole every time I read like a long paragraph thing in the second paragraph it says, not this, not that, but this and it drives me insane because it's just so obvious and I know people are talking to AI and reformatting it but it's just the same. I just I crave uniqueness. so much. fact, a lot of times I'll spell things wrong and not change it just so people know like I'm actually writing this. I'm not, you know, it's not it's not perfect. So that has me out of the color. Speaker 1: and the dashes. Speaker 2: Those are, I mean, I feel like those are yesterday's news. It's like now the structure of it is so obvious. You're like, just change it up a little bit. Like just write something on your own. Speaker 4: I just asked Claude to misspell some things on purpose. Speaker 1: Smart, I tell Claude no dashes. I'm like, don't do the dashes. And it needs to sound like a human. I score a lot. Speaker 3: I was thinking about that. Speaker 1: For me, Claude is a he. Yeah, yeah, for me, he is. Speaker 3: Everyone has strong opinions on these things. I'm helping to a French like part of this wonderful business and you like it like food samples and stuff. The point is you interact with an AI and it offers like, does your family want crackers or coffee or whatever? And I referred my sister and then we found out one time talking that my AI for that business is a woman. And we have this great rapport, you know, purely platonic, but like we're great friends and everything. And my sister's is a man. And she pictures like the way he looks and we were just arguing about it for, it was amazing. Speaker 4: I was talking. Go ahead. Speaker 1: I picture Claude as a man because I really enjoy telling him what to do. Speaker 4: That's fair. was talking to somebody recently who called a customer service number and had a whole conversation with this great representative who was really helping them. And, and they asked one more question and the representative said, that's a great question. Let me get you over to a human being to can answer that. And, and they were like, what this whole time? This was not a human being. Speaker 3: I guess it was a pretty good AI. Speaker 4: It's scary. Speaker 3: Yes. Speaker 1: It's like having a conversation with Teddy Roosevelt. Weird. If anybody got that reference. No, nobody got the reference. Okay. Speaker 3: This is me right at the end of the episode completely reeling now. I'll go on theme a little bit from other people's. and there's a very entrepreneurial spirit on today's panel. So you'll kind of relate, but I used both Claude and chat GPT and running my little one man, business. And last night I just wanted to tweak an invoice to send the client a different invoice. And I was just having trouble and I was really tired and I went to chat GPT and, Sometimes it has me hot under the collar when the scope increases just wildly, especially when I'm tired and very like kind of prone to, to, suggestions. And so like 40 minutes later, we were like redoing like my whole CX Joe, like color scheme and like brands. And it was like, wait, I don't want to just leave things here. That's the easy way out. Let's think about how to make a cohesive with proposals. And I was like, yeah, totally. And then it was like time to put the kids to bed. was like an hour later. It's so much to do. And I was like, I haven't made the damn invoice. and eventually it had to get really cross with it. was like, please stop. Please just send the invoice right now, please. And I go to do something else and I came back and it was still resisting me. And I just had to get really cross with it and just stay on that one window. And I finally won. It was like an hour and a half later and I changed a few numbers and words. Speaker 1: Outstanding. Speaker 3: But that's just me. What about you, Linda? Speaker 1: Yeah, my electric toothbrush has really got me hot under the collar. And I'm going to tell you why. So it's got a great battery life, but when it comes time to charge it, it takes me 11 hours to charge my toothbrush. And I just am like, I can charge, can speed charge my phone in like an hour. My son drives an electric vehicle. We can charge that bad, but a whole car that carries humans in eight hours, right? And my toothbrush takes 11 hours. And I find that unacceptable. Like, come on. Speaker 4: feedback video. Speaker 2: should be. Speaker 1: Well, but what I'm saying, you know, now that we're going to connect the dots, right? You know what doesn't take a lot of time? Gathering customer feedback using hearts. Speaker 3: Nice. Ben with the setup, Linda with the slam dunk, Fran smiling. Yeah. We do want to thank both of you for being here so much. Ben, can't thank you enough. This was kind of a dream to have you on. This could literally go on for hours. I know you're probably both late to things and we're sincerely sorry. It's hard. We could talk to you for hours. But Ben, thank you so much. And I really want to encourage everyone. to keep an eye, you or someone you know probably could use Impact Reel for your business. Keep an eye out on all of us films too. There are amazing things coming down the pike there. I want to also thank Fran for coming on today's podcast and we do wanna thank you and thank your team at one more time for sponsoring today's episode. And we've talked a lot about Hark today, but what I wanna add on kind of the human touch, I mean, it's cool because you have like the video aspect we talked about. You have great broader technology and you just have a great group of human beings, which probably anyone listening to today's episode, get a sense of friend and you hire your team the same way. So I think it's like this awesome trifecta and, you know, thank you very much. I'm going to shut up now and actually let our guests respond. But, you know, thank you both so much. Speaker 1: Yes. Speaker 4: Thank you. been great. It's been a really fun conversation. I love how everyone's coming at this from a slightly different angle and we're all, you know, exchanging our stories and ways of experiencing video and feedback and authenticity. So thanks guys. It's been a really, really great conversation. Speaker 2: Yeah, likewise. I met Joe through actually an investor when I was raising another round and every time we talk or introducing to somebody, it's just interesting. Like the world is very, very small and could be missing to go to Google. So thanks for having me on. It was a lot of fun and I appreciate it. I am late to get my kids though. Speaker 3: It's nice being in space with good people. Take care. Thanks everybody. See you next time. Bye. Speaker 1: Okay.