Standing Out: A Podcast About Sales, Marketing and Leadership
Standing Out is a show created to help individuals and companies improve their sales & marketing outcomes, as well as their leadership development. Each episode we have an expert who has a unique perspective on sales, marketing and/or leadership providing insights from his or her experiences. And we throw in a few laughs from time to time. Be sure to hit Subscribe wherever you listen to our podcasts.
Standing Out: A Podcast About Sales, Marketing and Leadership
Creativity and Business Success with Coleman Ruffin
Join us for Standing Out with special guest, Coleman Ruffin, AKA the Glue Guy! This episode centers around the concept of social proof and its immense power in influencing buyer behavior. Trey and Coleman1 discuss how companies can benefit from turning satisfied customers into advocates by leveraging their testimonials, hosting engaging customer events, and creating feedback loops to ensure continuous improvement and connection.
Thank you to our sponsor, Salesdash CRM – A CRM for Freight Logistics. Salesdash CRM is built for freight broker & agent sales teams. Manage your shipper prospecting and follow-ups. Organize your carriers and the lanes they run. Learn more at www.betaconsultinggroup.com/standing-out
Standing Out is a sales, marketing & leadership podcast powered by BETA Consulting Group, created to highlight best practices from industry leaders with incredible experience and insights! The goal is to entertain, educate & inspire individuals & companies to improve their sales, marketing & leadership development outcomes.
Hey everybody, welcome to another episode of Standing Out. I'm your host, trey Griggs, founder and CEO of Beta Consulting Group, so glad that you're with us here today on Standing Out. When you get a chance, check us out at betaconsultinggroupcom and see how we're helping companies with their sales and marketing strategies and event management all kinds of good stuff there. Just check it out when you get a chance, betaconsultinggroupcom. And before we get our show started today, a couple of announcements, a couple of things going on. First of all, we got Manifest coming up. That's the conference in February in Vegas, probably the biggest conference that we have in the industry. That's going to be taking place out on February 9th through 12th or 10th through 12th, right around that time.
Speaker 1:And we just you may have heard this, but last Friday on Word on the Street, we announced our manifest ticket giveaway. That's right. We're going to be giving away a ticket to manifest, which is a hot commodity. Listen, this is like a $2,000 prize that you can get just by doing a couple of simple things. Here's what you got to do Watch Word on the Street on Fridays at noon central and then just make a comment on the show. And every week that you watch the show and make a comment, you will enter into a raffle to win that free ticket that we're going to draw on February 1st. On February 1st we're going to make that drawing, or maybe we'll do it on 31st, we'll figure that out, but you've got plenty of opportunities to enter. There's three more shows here this month friday noon central word on the street. You can find it right here on linkedin, facebook, uh, twitter and on our youtube channel. We'll be giving that ticket away and hopefully we'll see you out in vegas at manifest.
Speaker 1:Also, I want to say thank you to our sponsor, sales dash crm. My good buddy josh lowe's over there. Listen, just remember not all crms are created equal, especially when you know most theoreMs are not built with your freight brokerage in mind. If you're a freight broker, you've got to pay attention. Sales-crm is built by freight brokers, exclusively for freight brokers, so be sure to check it out at sales-crmcom or you can learn more about it on our website, betaconsultinggroupcom. Forward slash standing dash out. You can request a demo right there on site.
Speaker 1:Final announcement is this it's not too early to sign up for the next edition of the Broker Carrier Summit which is coming your way. It's Indianapolis, april 28th through May 2nd. It's Summit Week and it's going to be tremendous. Definitely want to see you there. If you are a broker or a carrier or anybody who services brokers or carriers, tech service provider, recruiter, whatever it is you got to be there. So make sure you go to BrokerCarrierSummitcom and get signed up today. It's going to be an incredible event. A lot of big things planned for that, a lot of good things coming their way. All right, let's get this show on the road today. Today's guest might be familiar. He's been around a little bit, not only on the shows that we do on Word on the Street, but also in the industry, most importantly, right here at Beta Consulting Group. Please welcome to the show the VP of Operations, coleman Ruffin. Are you working? What kind of?
Speaker 2:work. Do you do? The song will just never get old.
Speaker 1:It never gets old, that entry, that song, I'm telling you.
Speaker 2:DJ Premier, one of the best that is out there. It's the thickest beef that have ever been in the rap game and it's just never going to change. Never going to change.
Speaker 1:You know it's a good song when it just makes you want to move. That's when you know it's a good song. You just kind of feel like you're vibing, makes you want to move. That's one of the best ones. That's your walk-up song on Word on the Street pretty good, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'm still saying first but I'll take it, I'll take it, we're placing, we're meddling. I mean, when you think there's like 11 people that come in and out of that show, that's pretty good, that's pretty good. You know, that's top 90 percentile, whatever good. To have you on the show man a lot of times. You're watching the show or producing sometimes or whatnot, and yeah, and the scene is doing a lot of work around here. You're definitely the glue guy keeping all of us together around here. But today we get to talk about something a little bit different. But before we get into that, a little fun fact. I didn't even know this about you. I got I'm learning something today. I can't believe this.
Speaker 2:You started a sweatshirt company yes, uh, that is something that has been a definite new venture. And when we say started, like literally have a couple of mock-ups, I can do a little modeling session here for you in a second, something that my wife and I wanted to just play around with and do some stuff on the side. She is definitely the creative one and has taken run with a lot of more of the designing aspect and things like that. We officially got some of our first little samples in there, that's our little logo Roughening.
Speaker 2:That's a great name. Look at that in the back low, lower, little, lower, little, lower, little lower there we go. Look at that nice with a little sun, little mount fuji, and so everything that we've got is is mountain themed and the whole the whole story behind it is trying to get people outside. So everything that we've got is, like you know, fun designs for for outdoorsy types of activities I love it.
Speaker 1:I mean, your name is, just so you know, iconic when it comes to that roughing for that yeah it's a. It's a great brand, dude, it's a great brand. So this just started recently. When did this uh kick off? When did this launch?
Speaker 2:I mean literally picked these up yesterday so we don't even have a website when we have a website, we haven't officially launched it, we haven't, like, done any socials or anything like that, because we wanted to make sure a that we liked the sweatshirts. These sweaters absolutely love. We've talked about quality so many times. These are nice, heavy hoodies that are going to last for a long time. Um, and then we also tested out a couple of different people to do the, the prints and the sewing and all that fun stuff and literally just pick these up and absolutely love them.
Speaker 2:So so I started it and designed it and whatever. Within the last month or so, when we were on parental leave, we were looking for stuff to do on the side, just be a little creative. And then, yeah, we officially got some stuff going on now.
Speaker 1:I love it, man. I think it's great. Uh, you and Jesse do it something together. That's right, yeah, thank you.
Speaker 2:The kids love it. It's got to be great. Um, this is really cool, man. So is it? Is it literally only sweatshirts? Uh, yes, as of right now, like that's the only goal that we've got. I mean, we've got other things that we could do, but we're focusing on this right now.
Speaker 1:I'm not trying to overshoot our skis here I mean, who doesn't love a great sweatshirt? You know is it. Is it all hoodies? Is it crew neck? Is it?
Speaker 2:right now we've got both. We've got both hoodies and crew neck. We're talking with them. I was talking with morgan earlier. She's like I'm more of a crew neck person, like we can cater to that as well. Um, but again, we were really just focused on on making sure that the quality was there, because I mean, you can hold this hoodie compared to just like an average one that I've got and you can feel a weight difference in there. I was out as soon as we got him. I was out taking him to trash yesterday just wearing this. I'm like man, I actually feel pretty good and it was chilly out here in denver. Is it heavy or is?
Speaker 2:it soft like what heavy, uh heavy for sure. Soft on the inside, um, but it just feels like it's one of those comfy hoodies, right, like you put it on. You're like okay, I feel like I'm comfy cozy love it, love it.
Speaker 1:Let me get my hands on one of those. I think that I don't know if this is anecdotal or not, but I think that girls tend to like the crewnecks more than the hoodies. My daughters love crewnecks. Hoodies hit or miss. Crewnecks can't get enough.
Speaker 2:I know you got to cater to both. Got to cater to both Because I mean I've got okay. One thing I will say shout out to Costco, the Kirkland swag that they've been putting out there is so comfy. I've got a Kirkland crew neck rocking in my closet that I wear all the time. So yeah, I I understand both sides.
Speaker 1:If only their golf balls were as good as their sweatshirts and their clothing, you know, I mean, that would be good.
Speaker 2:I mean rumor has it right Pro V1, same factory. They had the whole lawsuit. Maybe they are as good.
Speaker 1:They just don't have the right name. That's true they might be. I mean my golf game. It wouldn't matter at this point. I could probably hit some Kirklands and shoot the same score. It doesn't really matter.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I hit balls that I find in the pond 100%.
Speaker 1:That's right. I mean, that's where I find most of my Pro V1, so on and so forth. But I want to get to something else here in just a little bit, and that is we're going to talk today about social proof. Now, before we get to that, we have to talk a little football. My friend, we got to talk a little football. It's the NFL playoffs, college playoffs. Just to be fair to everybody, we're recording this on Friday or, excuse me, on Thursday, the 9th of January. So we don't know what happened in the NFL playoffs, but we know the chiefs and lions are going to be there for sure, cause they both get by. So my question to you is which one of those two teams, if you had to just pick one, they both don't make it to the super bowl. If you had to pick one to make it to the super bowl the chiefs or lions which ones do you think?
Speaker 2:actually get through. Uh, lions Hands down A, because I hate the Chiefs, but I also just think that they have not been. They've been winning games. They have not been winning games convincingly, though, and that is a scary thing to do in the playoffs. Now what I will say if the Lions lose a game, it's going to come down to one of Dan Campbell's's decision on fourth and three, like in the second quarter or whatever it is where he goes for it when he should take three points. That's what it's going to come down to, not that I'm saying that I disagree with him, because I absolutely love his coaching style, but sometimes you got to make the, the right football decision, as opposed to the, the gut football player in you, yeah well, with dan campbell, the right football decision is only known in hindsight like, yeah, just don't know, because he goes for it on fourth down and they get it so much that it's like, oh, that was the right decision.
Speaker 1:But analytically it was definitely not the right decision, but they seem to get it more times than not. I'll say this I do think the lions are a tough team to beat. They really put it on the vikings in that last uh, you know regular season game and show that they're they're legit. I think they're going to be really solid. I definitely think that they have their best chance to make the Superbowl and they have the taste. They were so close last year. You got to think that they're just thinking about that. It reminds me of the 2014 Kansas city Royals that got to the finals against the giants. The world series against the giants lost in seven games at home and you're like, oh, like could have been devastated, but they had that taste. They came back and they won in 2015.
Speaker 2:So yeah, and they're getting healthier too. I mean, they got eight Hudson back, who is literally one of the more key components of their whole defense, and that's one of the struggles they've seen, is they? I think they're missing eight starters on their defense for most of the year, but their offense was just humming. So much. If they can actually stop teams scary.
Speaker 1:Yeah, their goal line defense was really impressive, so I think they have a really good shot. I do think the Chiefs are also peaking at the right time with their people getting healthy. I mean, they've got four great wide receivers. Now They've got three great tight ends. They've got two great running backs Obviously Patrick Mahomes. Their offensive line is kind of figuring some things out. Their defense is really good. Their rookie cornerback Hicks is phenomenal. I think they can make a run. I'm really hoping for a Chiefs-Lions Super Bowl and then, honestly, I don't care who wins. Like I'd love the Chiefs to win, because people know I'm a big Chiefs fan. Three-peat, that'd be great, but I'd love to see the Lions win. That'd be a great story.
Speaker 2:I yeah. If the Lions make it there, I'm 110% rooting for them, but I I still. In the end, I think it's going to end up being Ravens Eagles. That's what I'm going with.
Speaker 1:I can see that too. I can definitely see that too. If it is Chiefs Lions, the entire country is going to be rooting for the Lions, except for Kansas City and Missouri.
Speaker 2:Everybody. Yeah, literally yeah. It's like you look at the map and it's just going to be all blue. It's going to be blue out All blue 100%.
Speaker 1:That's how it's going to be. Oh, it's going to be crazy. And this college football playoff what have you liked about it? So far, 12 teams. I feel like there should be 16 teams. I think that is a better number. It'd be the same amount of time. No buys, I matter, all the way up until the you know, the final four. Uh, yeah, similar to similar to the professional uh level. What are your thoughts about it?
Speaker 2:it's so much better than what it was before, but it's also just so subjective too. Right like there are some teams in my opinion that should not have been there over some other teams, um, but the more people that actually get a chance to make it to the playoffs, I think you're truly trying, you're doing better at determining the best team. But on the cusp again, there's still just I mean, some divisions are so much weaker and just because you win your division, you're not better than half the teams in the SEC, like those teams have beat you nine times out of ten, even if that one time. But this is definitely a huge step in the right direction for the college football.
Speaker 1:Well, I remember back in the NFL game that the Cowboys or the Eagles would win the NFC East with a 7-9 record. So the NFL has that too, where it's like you win your division, you're in, but you're not in the top seven teams in the conference. No way For sure. I think that's kind of the part of it. But if SMU had beaten Clemson Clemson's not in Alabama gets in, somebody gets in it changes the dynamic a little bit maybe. Yep, people feel better about it. But I do like the fact that you have a shot though. It's one thing I like about March Madness in basketball is that you could be the 15th seed team, but there's a chance. You can get to the Sweet 16 or the Elite Eight. We've seen that happen, even Final Four. You know, butler is an 11 go to the Final Four and even a championship game. So I like that. There's a possibility or an opportunity.
Speaker 2:That's why I think six teams makes the most sense. I'd love to see that. Yeah, I mean, I 100% agree. And again, the last part, the last, I don't know four to six teams that make it in. It's always going to be big, like. I don't know if there's necessarily a right answer. That's just my opinion, because I'm just like, oh no. This. Because I'm just like, oh no, this team should definitely make it, even though they might not have as good of record or whatever it is. They're a better team, but I get where they're going with it.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, we were agreeing way too much here. I think we need to move on. Usually there's some conflict here. We're agreeing on this way too much, and probably not what people came to the show to listen to about today. We think about marketing, we think about sales. Think about those types of things of how you can really stand out.
Speaker 1:One thing that comes to mind that most people don't think about is the value of customers speaking on your behalf social proof, especially if it's organic. We actually posted about this recently on linked you and I did. You made me aware of a post that somebody put. When somebody posts organically about how great your company is, that goes a lot farther than most things that you do from a sales perspective cold calling, emailing, even going to trade shows you get some people that will speak on your behalf, especially organically, and post about how great their experience was with you. Game over, that's a huge thing. Why do you think it is that companies don't focus on this? Why do you think it is they don't think about this in their sales and marketing strategy?
Speaker 2:I think more often than not, it's just because the roles that we put around people and what I mean by that is sales is typically so focused on net new sales and that's saying, okay, I need to go, I need a prospect, I need to land this piece of business. That's not a new logo business, if you will. Customer success tends to be, or account management side tends to be, more focused on their specific account and how to grow that account right Like there is. There is a marriage between those two types of roles and that is utilizing your current customers to obviously grow a wallet share with them, but having them network on their behalf. So I think it's something that's just. It's a little bit under the radar and we were talking with Jennifer Karpis Romain about this. Executive Director of TMSA. Shout out TMSA phenomenal association there. But they did a survey with a lot of the people within that association and they found that it was I think it was only like 30 to 35% only utilize or have some sort of framework for their customers from a feedback perspective and to help them just get better and get the word out there. So it's like it's just something that's overlooked within a lot of companies.
Speaker 2:And tying this back to football, I think Dan Campbell and the Lions are a perfect example of this. I mean, for anybody that's followed sports. You hear, like micah parsons podcast. You hear aminara saint brown, their podcast, talking about it, and there is something that has been consistent with every single person that's been a part of that organization or knows about it, even people that haven't played with them. They're like dan campbell is building a phenomenal culture. This guy is in your corner. You want to play for him. And again, that just starts the the wheel of people and maybe free agency, whatever it is like. Hey, I've heard he's doing something great he's, he's looking out for players. I want to go there. And it's the exact same thing in business yeah, it's so true.
Speaker 1:I mean, I think about that. I think about the players that are like coming to play for the chiefs because they've been winning and people want to be a part of the culture. I think about back in the day when the cardinals st louis cardinals were really the cardinals of kind of old the players would tell other players around the league that they wanted to join the team.
Speaker 1:You need to come, you need to, you need to talk to your agent, you got to get here and play in fact, that's how matt holiday got nolan arenado from the rockies yeah, to come to the cardinals, because he said you got to come play. When the players are seeing your praises as a coach, then other players will come to you and then you get better deals because people play for less and they'll play harder. It's crazy, but it's such a great analogy to business and I think that the problem is one I think the companies aren't doing the pluses, the extra things to kind of wow their customers number one. But two, they're also not helping their customers be in a position to do that. Like, if you have customers that are happy and you put them in a room with prospects, they'll sing your praises. A lot of times companies don't think about well, let's do that, let's have an event, let's do whatever it is. They just don't think about those kinds of things.
Speaker 2:Yeah and think about it from rewarding your customers too. Like, hey, I want to host a I don't know a suite at the Rockies game or whatever it is. I want to bring you in there's going to be a couple of other customers and then bring in some of those prospects to your point and I don't even feel like you need to say, hey, we're doing this and our prospects are going to be there, right, like you can just market it as a brokerage, leadership or a networking event here in Denver or whatever the location is, and those people will get together and they'll automatically talk business about how they got to where they're at, technologies, whatever that they're using, and that is gonna come up, I guarantee it, because of what you've provided your customer.
Speaker 2:Now, this all does start with having a good product or service, and making sure if you don't have that might not have happy customers and you need to take some time and work on your product if it's not good.
Speaker 1:That's obviously really, really important to do that. But you know there's something to be said about that too, because that's creating a feedback loop. Like the way to have a really great product is to listen to your customers, and so it's opening these lines of communication and letting your customers be a part of the journey to help you create a great product, and then they'll feel like they have a little bit of ownership in it and then they're more likely to talk about it. So I think that companies oftentimes are afraid of customer feedback. I think they're a little afraid to ask what do you think about what we're doing or what we've done? Yeah, the kind of value. Or they just lose track of time. They just don't have the time.
Speaker 2:They want to miss the best time to do it, but either way, I feel like they're missing out big time 100% and that's part of why we are trying to build customer advocacy programs for clients. And it really, to your point, does start with that customer feedback loop. Again, a lot of companies aren't doing it. But you'd also be surprised when, if I am a customer success manager at a tech provider and then I go to my customer and say, hey, what do you like, what do you dislike? Sometimes clients aren't as open to really telling you some of the bad things they're like oh my God, this is the worst fricking product I've ever used. I'm going to jump ship in a month.
Speaker 2:Right, like coming in as a third party, it helps ease some of those tensions Like, hey, listen, we're coming in and we're trying to help really build this business and get the honest feedback. What are those things that you like and dislike? I mean, we've had conversations with some of our customers customers and I feel like they've been very candid and open with a lot of the things that they've said, which then in turn again can make the product better and customers a lot happier. We know companies that are doing some pretty good job with this, like Shoutout, 3pl Systems and other companies that are using user conferences, having those open discussions about hey, we're in person, we're here to make this product for you. What do you like, what do you dislike? What can we do better? From an anything standpoint, it's huge.
Speaker 1:It speaks volumes to them. Those calls with our clients' customers are some of my favorite ones, because you hear the more candid feedback. A lot of times they'll actually say something that the, the our customer, is doing well and they don't even know it, like sometimes it's a positive feedback loop and sometimes it's, you know, an improvement feedback loop, but they're definitely more candid, especially with a third party.
Speaker 1:I think that's incredibly, incredibly valuable to think about that. So let's talk for a minute about you know this program that we're putting together, that you're going to be launching here, that you're you're going out to talk about, talk about what you're going to be doing for customers and how that really impacts. I think it's. I think it's. I think it spurs from all the things we've learned over the last year and a half talking to customers, talking to their customers.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that is the real foundation of it. And, again, it's the end goal being affecting your bottom line and drafting revenue right, like I think there's always been this clear, or I guess, separation of powers between marketing and sales, where sales is actually driving revenue and marketing is like how is it actually doing anything? Right, it's hard to measure. This is the ROI on it, and I think that from a customer advocacy standpoint, you can do some of that. But, starting at the foundation of talking with your customers and that is going to be me, our team, like this is going to be people that are born and raised in the freight industry, understand a lot of things that are going on. We're not going to offshore this or anything like that and have those conversations and from those we're going to get a couple of different things.
Speaker 2:We're obviously going to get the feedback, the positive and the negative and then, for those that are willing, we're going to get actual social proof from so, whether it's video recordings that you can utilize for social media website and then just quotes that you can utilize for whatever it is as well. So you're getting social proof, you're getting the honest feedback from your customers, and then what we're doing is we're going to set up again maybe five to 10 customers that are your biggest fans and those are customers that you can have prospects, call, tell them about their opinion. Those are the ones that you're going to take to, uh, a rocky's game suite, whatever it is, and then bring prospects around them and we're going to help coordinate all of that. So the whole goal is to build out a framework where your customers are set up for success to help sell for your company. Right it's? It's really setting up a different um cog in the wheel of sales for a company.
Speaker 1:That's my favorite part is that last one. You said about having an event where customers and prospects come together. I remember during my time at Lean, this is like one of our biggest sales strategies is taking 20 people to a Cubs game. We did that one time. We had like five or six customers and about 14 prospects. By the end of the night the prospects were like, hey, we need to get this going. Now they've talked to customers who have said I couldn't run my business without this. And when you get that type of interaction, man, it's so powerful and it doesn't take that much work. It's not as hard as it is. But let's be honest, the reason why companies aren't doing this is usually because they don't have the time. It's just one extra thing they don't have the time to do it. Or it's an awkward conversation to call your customer and ask for feedback. Sometimes it's awkward. People don't want that. So eliminating the awkwardness and overcoming the time issue that's what this program is all about.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I think to your point. The biggest hurdle for a lot of companies is the time, Because calling and talking with your customers every day, right Again you have customer success managers, but a lot of times they aren't getting the best.
Speaker 1:Yeah, exactly yeah.
Speaker 2:So time is a huge function of this. And then, if you're looking at it, from getting your customers and prospects together. Sometimes it's definitely time coordinating that, depending on the event. Right, Like if you're setting up a suite at whatever, it is sure it can get expensive too, but these aren't things that need to be crazy expensive either. Right, you go to conferences. You're going there to land business. More often than not, your customers are already there Host a happy hour or host a dinner. It doesn't need to be anything super extravagant.
Speaker 1:You can do all kinds of fun things. You can go to a really nice go-kart track if it's a warm day. You can do a mini golf tournament. You could go to know local sports outing and whatever. Whatever you have in your, in your area, you can do all kinds of stuff. You could do dinners. You could, you know, do a fishing trip, something simple. If you're, if you're in minnesota, on a lake, you know you bring people. Yeah, you can do all these things based on what's there.
Speaker 2:You have to spend a ton of money just getting people, exactly it's getting people together and then I would say, trying as hard as you can to make it memorable, right, like getting people together is probably the most important part, but you don't necessarily want to do it. At an Applebee's, I mean, maybe that's memorable. People are like oh man, these people took us to an Applebee's, but they're probably shared experience somewhere.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah exactly.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you want something like that, like to your point, bonding over top golf, anything like that, but make it as memorable as possible dude, I'm, I'm just kicking on this, uh, mini golf championship idea.
Speaker 1:That could be. That could be pretty epic to have something like that with a nice dinner. I'm thinking kansas city, I mean just all kind of fun stuff. It's, it's, there's, there's no end to what you can do with something like this.
Speaker 2:A lot of fun yeah, and I was gonna say that is one area in my golf game that I am good at. You put some dragons on the putting green for some reason. I'm just like Windmills it doesn't matter. Yeah.
Speaker 1:Doesn't matter. Oh, I love that man. Well, that's cool man. Well, how can people get ahold of you? Let's just get that out of the way before we have a little bit of fun.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean easiest way is Go to betaconsultinggroupcom checks out on LinkedIn, whatever it is. But probably the easiest way is shoot me a DM on LinkedIn or just email me again, coleman, at betaconsultinggroupcom.
Speaker 1:I love it, man Love it. I'm so excited about this for companies because social proof is so needed. I heard a statistic that 77% of buyers say that what customers have to say is the number one reason why they choose to buy.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and this is and that's across the board, right, like I, nobody was even trying to sell me on this and I put put a post out on this on LinkedIn. But breakfast burritos huge fan of them here in Denver, if anybody's ever looking, I got the list, trust me. But I was getting served things on instagram from people that were just trying different foods out there. Like man, this breakfast burrito is really good. And then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, within that same month, I had three or four friends come up to me like man, have you tried this new restaurant? Like it's really good? Hadn't heard of the restaurant, never got served anything from the restaurant directly. This is just organic reach for people that were talking about a good product and I tried it and it's. It's not the best, it's second on the list, which is a huge step above a ton of the other ones I've ever had. Um, but I go back all the time it's.
Speaker 1:It got you there, though, like it got you to try it out, and I think of, like the pizza reviews that dave portnoy does. You know barstool? Yeah, like that's the whole thing there where he's going, he's reviewing pizza and if he gives it like an 8.5, you kidding, you got to go yep you know, I mean his reviews uh seem to seem to matter and really move the needle, and it's it's no different with your customers.
Speaker 1:Your customers have the same opportunity to do that, especially if they have a brand that people know. But even if they don't, they're just people telling about their experience. It's really powerful, it's cool yeah, yeah it.
Speaker 2:If you aren't doing it, you have to be doing it, and if you don't know how to do it, that's why you gotcha, we can give you we can give you the framework and then you run with it from there.
Speaker 1:That's right. All right, dude, we got to have a little bit of fun here. We're going to play a game here today. We're playing a little game called this or that. All right, it's just like it sounds. We're going to give you two options and you have to tell us which one you prefer this or that. Here we go. First option coming up is this you can only hear one song for the rest of your life. Would you rather it be Baby, baby, baby by Justin Bieber or Red by Taylor Swift?
Speaker 2:Don't well, justin Bieber hands down. I don't know the.
Speaker 1:Red song by Taylor Swift, but I had to listen the same song from her for the rest of my life. I would not be a very long one. I, I have two daughters. You have a young daughter, so you're not there yet, but I know both of these songs quite well actually, because we we like both of them. If I had to listen to one honestly, I think in this case I would pick Taylor Swift, because this is actually a pretty soothing and cool song. The Justin Bieber one is a little bit upbeat. It's not bad, but it's kind of kid.
Speaker 2:It's when he was younger, I think if I'm thinking of the right one, so I'd pick Taylor Swift on this. Y'all sound the same to me, sorry.
Speaker 1:All right, it's fine. Okay, next one, that would you rather.
Speaker 2:Always feel hungry or always feel tired. Oh no, that's a tough one as a new dad. As a new dad, because you always feel tired now, I'm sure yeah, I think I would say honestly hungry, because I don't know if there's anything worse than sitting at your computer something and feeling like you're falling asleep, like how are are you going to get anything done? I think I would. I think I can fight the hunger a lot more than the being tired.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I think you're right about that. Being tired is pretty miserable, especially if you can't fall asleep Like if you can't. So I'm assuming this is you can't fix it, you can't eat something, you can't always? Yeah, that's exactly.
Speaker 2:You're always feeling.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, feeling hungry is one thing, but if you know you just ate, for example, and you still feel hungry, no big deal Like that's easy. But yeah, yeah, I'm with you on that, I'm okay, we're on the same page on that. Okay. Next one, this or that. Would you rather spend the day wearing wet socks or with a popcorn kernel stuck in your teeth?
Speaker 2:oh who I know these are hard these are a lot harder actually than I thought. I I'm okay, I'm gonna say wet socks. The downside of that is that if you got wet socks and you're out in the winter or something like that, you legitimately could have your feet freeze. So that's the one downside. But having a popcorn kernel or anything stuck in your teeth that you can actually feel like something substantial, that's got to be one of the worst feelings ever.
Speaker 1:Maybe, maybe. But I think that maybe it could be like braces. You know how when you first get braces you feel them all the time and then after a while you stop feeling them because they're just there. Maybe the popcorn kernel turns into that. We're like you feel it at first and it's annoying, but then, if it never goes away, you just move on. The wet socks thing no way dude no way, I can't do that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I hate wet socks.
Speaker 1:I really hate wet socks, no, no, you might have convinced me.
Speaker 2:Actually maybe I'll go pop in the do the kernel you'll get over it.
Speaker 1:It's like you know. It's like when you wear your wedding ring in the first, first, like months, it's like you feel it all the time and then you don't feel it anymore, like I think, I think, I think theoretically, that could be the same thing with wet socks, though.
Speaker 1:Right, I guess I don't know I don't know that I'm ever gonna like not know. My socks are wet all the time. I don't think I'm ever gonna get over that the squish, the squish and the you know wrinkling of the feet. No, no, I'm not. I'm not getting over that, I'm not doing that that's pretty brutal okay, all right. Next one, this or that would you rather spend a week in the woods without a tent, or a night in a real haunted house?
Speaker 2:So initially, my whole thing is I would love to actually do a week in the woods without a tent, like I would love to be able to just figure it out. I think I would actually do all right with that. I'm not trying to pump my own tires, I'm not saying I would last 100 days or anything like that, without any food or anything, but I think I would do pretty good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it'd also be kind of cool to experience a haunted house. Now, I believe in that stuff. I 100% believe in it. I don't like to mess with it, because I've seen the scary movies and I know how they start. Somebody wants to mess with that haunted house or like opening up the door or whatever it is. So as long as if it was a one-time thing and never affected me, I would. I would like to do the haunted house too, but initial gut going into the woods.
Speaker 1:I'm definitely going to the woods, and you know how I feel about scary stuff. I just don't have time for it. I'm not, I'm not here for any of that scary stuff at all. I got no, no, no, even if it's raining, I'll be fine, I'll figure it out. That's what I want.
Speaker 2:Talk about wet socks.
Speaker 1:Well, yeah, but after a week I'm back home and it's warm. So you know it's a limited time situation in that regard. Haunted house I don't know if I'd ever get over it.
Speaker 2:I don't know, I don't know if I could ever sleep again, if I was in a haunted house, I mean, that's not it'd be kind of cool experience nope, not at all.
Speaker 1:All right. Next one, this or that last one. Here we go. This or that. Would you rather meet bigfoot or an alien?
Speaker 2:easily alien bigfoot actually, I was gonna say bigfoot's more realistic out here in colorado, but that's a lot. I think aliens are everywhere I I wouldn't be shocked if we have met aliens before. Honestly, and we don't know there's yeah, there's some weird people out there. They might just be aliens in disguise, because they haven't figured it out.
Speaker 1:Yet I will say, men in black made me think twice about that because those people, like some of those uh, you know, aliens, were inside of human bodies and acting very human. I could go with that. Now I think that we would know if some somebody was an alien just from a look perspective, if they would look differently. But if it's like Men in Black, where they're little creatures and they control bodies, that I think is very possible.
Speaker 2:I've seen some people that's on the fence that they could have been aliens. I'm not going to lie.
Speaker 1:It's very possible. Would you be afraid at all if you met an alien? Do you think Would you be concerned? The unknown, what could they could do? I mean, like would there?
Speaker 2:be any fear. Can you know, can you? Could they talk to you like?
Speaker 1:yeah, that'd be weird.
Speaker 2:Would you shake their hand? I well, I think it's like in encountering anything that you're not, that's out of the norm, right like if you come face to face with a bear, probably going to be pretty scary, right like yeah, but I ain't trying to shake his hand I ain't trying to interact with it nah, I ain't doing that.
Speaker 1:But an alien you feel like is like a more like a human life form in some form or fashion, like it's more of intelligent life form in that way. I think that's how we think of aliens. We don't think of them like animals.
Speaker 2:So I don't know like. I've also gone down some late night rabbit holes with aliens and things and the odds are from. So it's one of two things if they're here on earth, it's either they're here for exploration or they're here because they need to be, because their plan's gone or whatever, and they're going to take over the world. So it's like I I would be a little bit freaked out. I'm not gonna lie, but at that point like what are we gonna do?
Speaker 1:are there any influential world leaders that you think fit into the alien mold? Are there any politicians, or yeah?
Speaker 2:elon musk is a hundred percent an alien I wouldn't call him a world leader. Like do I think?
Speaker 1:he has influence influencer. I just mean, like you know, yeah, yeah yeah, that dude is an alien.
Speaker 2:He is a hundred percent an alien I mean he definitely runs with him and hangs out like he's he definitely.
Speaker 1:He doesn't seem to need sleep. He gets way more done than anybody else on the planet. Uh, he tends to think four or five moves ahead of everybody else. It seems like.
Speaker 2:It seems like his strategy is going to work out some names, his kids, weird names, x and some numbers.
Speaker 1:I think one of them's just numbers, that's, yeah you might have a point there. You might have a case, for you must be in an alien. That's yeah, that's an inch. That's an interesting hot take. We should have that on hot takes on world of the street. That's actually an interesting hot take we have to yeah, you have to begin.
Speaker 2:If I'm putting my money on anybody and I'm a gambling man, it's him it's him.
Speaker 1:yeah, there's got to be only a few worldwide. I, I think him. There's probably a couple of world leaders, political leaders, that are just weird. They're just kind of weird when they talk. It kind of just seems weird. I don't know you can make the case for Mitch McConnell because he freezes up, I don't know there we go Very weird.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's like what's going on? What's going on, I don't know. I'm not sure exactly what's going on there, so well, anyways. Well, all right, that was this or that. Nice job, my friend, well done that. Uh, that was a good round. It was a good, good, good round of, uh, this or that, all right random question random question of the day.
Speaker 1:All right now, I don't like this question. I haven't seen it. Oh, we got a little glimpse, I didn't read it. Uh, this could be a good one. Could be a total dud, I don't know. It could be funny. Could be a good one, could be a total dud, I don't know. It could be funny, it could be serious. Let's see what we got today. Random question of the day today is do you believe in any conspiracy theories? Oh, let's go down some rabbit holes. What are they?
Speaker 2:Oh, man, you know the joke.
Speaker 1:You know the joke the difference between a conspiracy theory and the truth About three months. Oh, At about three months at this point. Three to six months.
Speaker 2:Yeah, jeez, there is a great like little. You can watch it on YouTube. There's a short film or whatever it's called, the zeitgeist. Now, I know that there's a whole thing about this, but they go into some some pretty big conspiracy theories. There are definitely some that are convincing, ones that I necessarily believe in, who knows. I mean, there's this whole one about the Titanic not being the Titanic, and it was this whole other thing that my father in law is 110% convinced is true. I mean, you saw a documentary about it on Netflix. He's like you know the Titanic didn't happen, like it wasn't a real thing, Like, um, yeah, maybe not.
Speaker 2:There are actually and I hate saying it because there's obviously a lot of lives lost there's a lot of convincing kind of facts for conspiracy side of things about the 9-11 attacks. Like I, I never want to say that that was fake, but there was a lot of things and a lot of things that added up to being like, okay, was this kind of a setup? So that one is one that comes to mind. But yeah, like there's a lot that are out there.
Speaker 1:What about the moon landing? Do you think we landed on the moon?
Speaker 2:I 100% think that we no, I know we landed on the moon. The second that I saw that person that didn't think it was real run up to Buzz Aldrin and start yelling at him saying that it wasn't real. He punched him in the face. I was like buzz, I know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right. I mean it's interesting to think about that. There's that flat earth. I mean, yeah, come on guys, where do people do it?
Speaker 2:That's like there is actual science that proves that it's not.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there's there's or there's satellites that orbit, something like there's. You know there's math behind this. Like I was a physics teacher, I know the math of orbital, you know velocity and all those things that make it pop like. You can't do that around a square, around flat stuff.
Speaker 2:You can't yeah, that one. Yeah, those that believe that. More power to you. You believe in something? I'm the same way. If I believe in something, I will argue to the death about it.
Speaker 1:But like you're wrong, sorry right, right, like the greatest wide receivers in nfl football, which we won't go into that now.
Speaker 2:Here's the interesting right about that, by the way you were.
Speaker 1:You were pretty right. You're right on about that at least. At least the community out there agreed with you yeah me um, what do you? I mean, we got there's a chance that there's some things that could come out soon, like jfk files, and there's some things that could be released soon that we could see if things are what we think they are, if there's more, if there's less.
Speaker 2:I mean it's yeah, it's interesting and there'd be a lot of people that are proud that they're like. We knew it was right for 34 years. Whatever it was like it's, it's been like this forever.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, geez, that's what I'm thinking about. Jfk died 61 years ago, dude, yeah it's 2025.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh 61 years and two months ago he died yeah that is crazy, um, but yeah there, some of these will come to light eventually, for sure, but you gotta think so I think this might sound stupid of me, but I also think that conspiracy theories are, to a certain extent, important, right, like if you aren't challenging the status quo of what the media is telling you, or whatever, right then, what do we do? We're just following one source and saying, oh yeah, this is true. I don't, again, agree with a lot of them that they're saying, but trying to fully understand the picture and then make your own informed decision is important.
Speaker 1:So it's fair to say you're open to conspiracy theories.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I love it, I love listening to them, but again, like flat earthers, like that to me it's just wrong.
Speaker 1:That's a bridge too far, that's not. Yeah.
Speaker 2:That's not good enough. Yeah, that's a little bit too much.
Speaker 1:We can't do that. All right, colman? Hey, listen, let me just tell you this before we get off here man, you've been with Beta now for a year and a half almost two years helping out, because you did some contract work before you came on full time. I got to tell you, dude, it has just been a joy working with you, man, I absolutely love working with you, getting to know you, getting to know, jesse, what you stand for, how you work. You truly bring everybody together. I got to tell you, people would be crazy not to want to work with you. So I'm excited for you know, the customer advocacy, social proof stuff. I'm your biggest fan dude I want you to know that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I appreciate that, and likewise it's been a blast so far. We've done a lot of figuring things out, but it's.
Speaker 1:I wouldn't trade is how to win the post and pray classic, yet Like you got to work on that. And I think your golf game is going down. You got a new kid Dude. You don't have time to go practice and play anymore.
Speaker 2:It's winter. When have you gotten out and practiced and played? I'm in the league every. Tuesday what's up?
Speaker 1:Are you going to keep being in the league? That's the thing. If you keep it going, there's a chance. I'm just saying, if you know, father time is undefeated. Dude, it's hard, it's hard to get out.
Speaker 2:Oh.
Speaker 1:I'm definitely not getting any better. I'm not getting any better, You're just. You're not getting any worse. Find some strokes. Yes.
Speaker 2:Raising my handicap significantly. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I got to work on that. Or in that case, yeah, you just get worse, make your handicap worse, and then we just dial in that we're good, we're good.
Speaker 1:Awesome man. Well, hey, listen, it's great having you on the show and just having you part of Beta Consulting Group. I'm so excited for 2025 has us and where we're headed, and uh, it's good stuff, dude, it's all great stuff. So we'll have to get you back on here sooner than later. If you want to follow colman, follow him on linkedin, send him an email. Colman, at beta consulting groupcom, we'll see you on the flip-flop dude. Peace out brother, always a pleasure, always.
Speaker 1:Hey, make sure you come back every tuesday for an episode of standing out with great guests like colman ruffin. And don't forget, we are syndicated on reads across america radio. Thank you so much for listening along with us on their trucking tuesday lineup. If you're not a part of wreaths across america, please go check them out. Wreaths across americaorg. And you can sponsor a wreath with us in mind by just doing a forward slash standing out, and you can sponsor wreath for next december's or this december coming ups annual event of laying wreaths on the tombstones of our veterans out there across the country. With that said, remember, friends, stop standing still, start standing out. We'll see you guys. The name Fadi means ''Clean'', religion ''Muslim''. Thanks for watching, guys.
