Inside The Strategy Blueprint: Lessons From 30+ Years Building Iconic Brands with Angelo Ponzi

Freddy D: 00:01:55

Hey Superfans superstar Freddie D. Here in this episode 116, we're joined by Angelo Ponzi.

The founder of Kraft is a marketing and brand strategist whose career spans more than three decades, delivering game changing results across countless industries. As a Fractional and interim CMO, he has partnered with iconic brands like AT&T.

Ericsson, Kendall Jackson, Disney and many more guiding teams, both large and small, through every stage of the product life cycle.

In addition to his work as a fractional executive, Angelo is also an author and speaker with deep expertise in crafting holistic business and creative brand strategies. He excels at identifying opportunities, building powerful go to market plans, and driving revenue growth with minimal risk.

His unique perspective, honed by founding and selling two companies, gives him an unparalleled understanding of the challenges brands face today.

Known for his collaborative approach and steadfast commitment to data driven insights, Angelo helps brands reposition, capture market share and launch successful new products across B2B, B2C and D2C markets. Get ready for an inspiring conversation that unpacks invaluable lessons on brand strategy, innovation and leadership.

Welcome, Angelo, to the Business Superfans podcast. How are you this afternoon?

Angelo Ponzi: 00:03:35

I'm doing great, Freddie, thank you very much. I'm happy to be here.

Freddy D: 00:03:39

Yeah, we're grateful for your time to be on the show and I really like to get into some of the things that you've done. But more importantly, start off with your strategy blueprint book that you wrote and how does that impact businesses and what's that about?

So what's the backstory to the story that led you up to writing the book?

Angelo Ponzi: 00:03:59

Sure. So in my world, as a fractional Chief Marketing officer, focus on the strategic side of marketing. I don't even think about the tactical stuff.

I want to understand the market. I want to understand your customers, your prospects, your competition. I need to understand those nuances.

I need to understand internally how your team thinks so I could match it up with how the market actually thinks and to look for gaps and opportunities then utilizing this data. So I have a market research background and so everything is fact based for me. Basically. Let's get out of the boardroom. Quit talking to yourselves.

I can give you a bunch of case studies on why that doesn't work.

Freddy D: 00:04:39

And drinking your own koolaid.

Angelo Ponzi: 00:04:41

Oh my. Yeah, exactly. And sometimes we know what happens when you drink in those situations that you drink the Kool Aid.

And I use that information to help define messaging and positioning and then also to help build revenue growth plans and then eventually in the plans, of course there's tactical stuff. That's another bailiwick. But my company now is 11 years old. It's not the first time I've gone out and started my own company.

I was fortunate to grow an ad agency and to sell it and, and a research company. But. But I also had a couple flame outs as well which were great learning experiences.

But during the past 11 years and dealing with a lot of small and medium sized businesses and I walk in and it's like, hey, this is perfect, let's do our strategic planning. We're going to go. And they go, now we just need tactical stuff.

And, and so you hear that and it's, do you understand what those steps are and why it's important?

So over the last 11 years and looking at the way I approach business and what I do, started to create this kind of foundational work that I believe needs to be done. Heard the phrase people working in their business instead of on their business studies and things that I've done.

I find that a lot of small to medium sized businesses don't spend a whole lot of time working on it. Therefore the strategic stuff, you're making, sales, you got money in the bank, therefore business is great and you've been around.

That doesn't always mean business is great and it's too easy to get a turn. So the premise of the book is all about that strategic foundational work.

Understanding everything I just told you about your customers, your prospects, looking at strategy versus tactics, how do you scale your business, what is truly brand messaging and how do you create that story?

Narratives that help you define how you position yourself in competitions and understanding your customers, which is I think what we've indicated before. How do I market to you if I don't know you? How do I change your behavior?

How do I understand your motivations and what your concerns are as a customer? B2B B2C doesn't really matter. Then I can market to you because now I know what's important. Otherwise it's important to me, the organization.

And that isn't always aligned with what the market thinks. So that's really where the premise of the book came.

And so it's really focused on more of that strategy side about budgeting and all sorts of things versus how to create a social program or digital well.

Freddy D: 00:07:14

And strategy is really important in businesses. It's often overlooked. We get into, you know, the logo and the branding and making it look cool and all the nice colors and all that stuff.

But really what you're Talking about is you need to back up a little bit and first off, define what was a customer avatar. Now it's called customer Persona. And put that together.

Together is first off, who's your target market, where do they live, what do they do, what are their life challenges?

And then you can start putting together the strategy like you're talking about to be able to go to that type of a market so that the messaging that you're putting out there resonates with them. They go, oh yeah, that's me versus, you know, spray and pray, which is what a lot of businesses do well.

Angelo Ponzi: 00:07:59

Too on the B2B side. And we're talking a little bit earlier about you come from the SaaS world and I've had an opportunity to work in that as well.

It isn't just one person.

It could be the engineer that's thinking that I want to test a product or I want to do something, but it's this CFO that's going to write the checks and it's maybe the IT guy that's going to be doing all the testing.

So all of a sudden you've got multiple Personas within one organization that are all looking for something a little bit different when you talk to them. So it gets back to creating those Personas and truly understanding the dynamics and that the customer journey has been played for a while.

But it is true. It's what's that hierarchy? How does it work? And then even go to the consumer side.

What's going to motivate people to buy your T shirt versus somebody else's or change your sneakers or whatever it happens to be. You can't do that just by throwing product out there.

Freddy D: 00:08:54

No, you can't. And then the other thing too is that you're made. Me remember years ago when I transitioned from engineer into sales, I was very fortunate.

The company put me through some really high end sales programs. And there was one company I was selling to and I was selling engineering software and manufacturing software to them.

And I was talking to the VP of engineering and we got along really well and everything else. And I had remembered my training, you need to sell wide.

So I went to the CFO of the company and talked to him about budgeting and what's going on in the company, everything else. And I found out that the VP of engineering wasn't really buddy buddies with the owner of the company.

It was the VP of manufacturing that was always golfing with that owner. So I started talking with the VP of manufacturing and it turned out he had the budget for everything. The other guy didn't have any budget.

So the reason I bring that up, and I ended up getting the sale and that's a whole nother adventure story.

But I bring that up because you're right about the importance of being able to understand all the players and all the Personas in that organization and be able to message to them appropriately.

Angelo Ponzi: 00:10:09

Yeah, no, absolutely. There isn't a one size fits all message in marketing. And even though a lot of companies do that, it doesn't work.

And so you've got to understand what's relevant and important to your audience. How do you become relevant in their world? I've worked with companies and I was like, here's what we want you to do.

But that you're talking about your company, hey, it's great that you're 75 years old and that's a good reason to believe, but not a reason to buy just because you've been around a while.

Freddy D: 00:10:38

That's just a validator.

Angelo Ponzi: 00:10:39

Right? Getting folks to understand what's really important.

Sometimes I'll take them through a process and have them help me identify what's truly a point of differentiation. And I get stuff like, we got great people. Yeah. Every company is going to say, got great people. We've been around for 25 years.

Yeah, but your competitor's been around for 26 or 24, maybe 50. Okay, so how do you combat that? And again, what's really relevant? Am I buying? Because you've been around a while. We have that old saying, right.

Many years ago, if you buy an IBM, you won't get fired kind of thing.

Freddy D: 00:11:14

Yeah, I remember that.

Angelo Ponzi: 00:11:15

Yeah. That doesn't necessarily apply now.

Freddy D: 00:11:18

There's a lot of different ball games.

Angelo Ponzi: 00:11:19

Yeah.

I think companies lose sight of that because again, especially small companies, they fall in love with their product or their service and everybody in the world wants to buy it. And that isn't always true. And again, there's a lot of statistics about startups and failures and things like that.

And a lot of times it's just they didn't listen to the market or didn't do enough research, which I've also found.

I've done some mentoring at some of the universities and some of these startups and I remember asking them, did you do some research to validate your idea? And they go, oh, yeah, yeah. I talked to my mom and my dad and my sister and my cousin. They all loved it.

Yeah, of course they did my ideas too, but they didn't always work.

Freddy D: 00:12:00

It was face plant.

Angelo Ponzi: 00:12:02

Yeah. Yeah.

Freddy D: 00:12:04

So. But you bring up a great point because really think back of we've been both around the block a couple times. How many businesses that were big.

You mentioned IBM, Digital Equipment Corporation was huge back in the day. And they're gone. They didn't pivot. They had one belief.

Same thing with the multitude of software companies that don't exist anymore, that were big dominant players. They didn't tweak their strategies based upon how the market was changing. They weren't keeping up to date and they're out of business today.

Angelo Ponzi: 00:12:39

Right. Well, Kodak's a great example. Kodak invented the digital camera.

When you research it a little bit, I think the lines I found very interesting is people saying, nobody's going to want to look at pictures on their television. Blockbuster. Yeah, Blockbuster had a chance to buy not only Netflix, but Redbox.

And their comment is nobody wants to wait for a movie to come in their mail. But obviously they were not looking at disruption and innovation and streaming was coming along and they got buried.

And Netflix has done pretty well for themselves.

Freddy D: 00:13:16

Netflix has taken out movie studios.

Angelo Ponzi: 00:13:18

Yep, yep. I used to be an avid moviegoer. Now I have to think twice is okay. If I wait, it'll be on TV within three months or less.

Do I really need to go spend 40 bucks to go to the movies? Exactly right. I call it keeping your fingers on the pulse of what's going on.

And it's not a, hey, we did a strategic planning session in October and therefore we don't need to do it anymore. No, it's constant. It's every day. You have to get this constant feedback. Your competition could be launching new products and services.

Things keep going on, all of a sudden you're not getting the sale when somebody else is. Why? Price is not always the answer. Right. You need to understand what happened.

And so a case in point, working with a large H Vac company and what we found. The company told me our clients love us. Great, then let me talk to them. And so I did. And they were right. They were loved.

However, their primary customers, the mechanical engineers, were all 60 plus getting ready to retire. The new generation didn't actually like them very much. Why? Because they didn't have any environmentally friendly products.

The competition was now offering not only environmentally friendly products, they were offering package deals that my client was not. So the long story, very short, it was, if you don't do something now, you won't be around in five years because those engineers are retired.

These guys are not accepting you. You're not getting deals from them because not one person's doing the deals.

There's multiple engineers within an organization and that was pretty eye opening for them. And it all happened just by having a conversation with the market.

Freddy D: 00:15:06

And let's continue that story. How did you transform them? I'm sure they've become super fans of the work that you did with them. So let's talk about that.

Angelo Ponzi: 00:15:15

Yeah, so one of the things that we did is we created some educational programs that they would take to their clients and run these kind of lunch hour seminars and stuff and bring in the food. So they literally were going out and doing educational programs.

So they went out and found some new products to rep that were offering environmentally friendly products, looking at heat pumps or things like that that they didn't have in their lines. And so they started changing their properties that they offered.

They also increased some of their inventory so they really weren't in a situation where it was like, we don't have the products. And so they started increasing inventory and then frankly changing their websites and things like that.

The tactical side of it that told the world what they were doing and just being broader and more transparent about that instead of relying on just the sale communication. And that worked out really well for them.

Freddy D: 00:16:12

So you could say that they're a big, super fan of the transformation that.

Angelo Ponzi: 00:16:15

You did with them. I would believe they are. Yeah.

They were able, my consultation in a sense, to step back and I forced them to work on their business and not in it because ultimately those decisions have to. It's now, oh yeah, we'll just go add equipment. There's a lot of other things that had to happen. What's it going to cost to bring in more inventory?

What's it going to cost to do those training programs? Who's going to do those training programs? Who's going to build those programs? What do they look like? How often do we do them?

And how can we take some of this data that we've now learned from all this research and translate that into something that's very actionable? And then of course, who does that? Because I always make one person responsible. So you have somebody to go to.

Not five people, not a group, one person, let them sign up the group. Then you work with the group. I remember working with another client who I still sit on their board.

And I was also working with sales and marketing at the same time. And so I went to the first sales meeting that I had gone to and it was like, okay, Freddie, how'd you do this week?

Did you have a chance to get out and talk to some clients. No, I was kind of busy and putting out some paperwork. I really didn't make any sales calls this week.

Okay, you get back out there next week and did it again. It was like they're letting people off the hook. And I was like, whoa, timeout, timeout.

Freddy D: 00:17:36

You got to get every buy in from the whole team into the strategy. Because if they're not on board, I use the example of a racing rowing boat. You got eight people in that rowing boat.

Everybody has one oar, not two to one.

Angelo Ponzi: 00:17:51

Or.

Freddy D: 00:17:52

Now if you don't get everybody in line in synchronization, you ain't going to one place fast. You're not even going in a circle.

Angelo Ponzi: 00:18:00

Right.

Freddy D: 00:18:00

Because everybody has an own roar. So your boat's going like this, going no place. So you've got to take what you've put together.

Here's a new strategy and it's going to go through the entire company to get everybody on board.

Angelo Ponzi: 00:18:13

And that's a great point. And one of the things I look at is, I think I mentioned it earlier, it's not only externally but internally.

Freddy D: 00:18:21

It starts internally.

Angelo Ponzi: 00:18:22

One of the first steps, I have a sales and marketing assessment that I give to the strategic team individually. And then I bring it together and I look, first of all, are they in alignment? Do they agree? Where are the gaps? I use this as one of my examples.

But one of the questions at the time, I've modified it since. But one of the questions was about onboarding. How good is your onboarding program? I forget. Exactly.

And the CEO rated it a five, but the guy running the program rated it a one. And they were like in the conference room going, you think it's a one? He goes, you think it's a five?

I'm more concerned about the fact that you've worked together for 26 years and this is now a question on the same page. Yeah, been on the same page in 26 years. That's the problem. Right.

Freddy D: 00:19:07

And it goes further. Sure. The sale isn't the transaction, the sales, everything that happens after the transaction.

Angelo Ponzi: 00:19:15

Exactly. Right, Yep.

Freddy D: 00:19:16

So you have to have a whole strategy in place to say, okay, first we got to get the strategy in place to get them to buy our stuff. But now we have to have the strategy to how do we onboard them?

And more importantly, how do we really transform them into brand advocates or what I prefer to call business super fans who are now promoting your business. So you're maximizing your marketing dollars and you create long term customers.

Angelo Ponzi: 00:19:44

Yeah, exactly. Well said. That's a great example.

Another one that I've used in the past is we're sitting in a conference room and we're doing a little Ross session, and the CEO turns the head of sales and says, what's your wish today? What do you want? I want a million dollar order. People clap in and I want time out. Mr. Inventory Manager, do you have the inventory to fulfill this? No.

How long would it take you? Oh, it's going to take us six weeks to get the inventory. Okay, manufacturing in six weeks. So you have the capacity.

Now we've got all these other orders that are backlogged and by the time we get to this is 90 days out. So I just turned to them and I said, that million dollar order just hurt you.

It hurts you because you've made commitments, you've made promises, and you can't fulfill them. So not every business is good business. And you have to understand, and you made this point earlier, the dynamics within the organization.

People have to understand their roles and their contribution to the whole. They're not just the accounting person, they're not a salesperson. They're part. That team has to work together.

And if you don't know all these different pieces or you don't have the systems to make that happen, there's potential bigger issues than just making a sale.

Freddy D: 00:20:57

Sure. And that's why I go back with the rolling team. You got to get everybody in sync of what the strategy is, what the mission is.

Otherwise you're not going anywhere. And perfect example there, Angelo, was the fact that everybody looks at the sale number.

But what all happens on the back end of that, and which is what we talked earlier, that's how you really create superfans, is be able to deliver. Getting the paperwork is the easy part. Getting the contract signed, that's duck soup.

It's everything that happens after that is what I keep emphasizing to people, is that's the sale. That's the most important part.

Because people will forget what you did, they'll forget what you said, but they'll never forget how you made them feel.

Angelo Ponzi: 00:21:40

Yep, that's that emotional connection.

I use a technique called laddering, and I really look at functional attributes of the product, let's say, and then I ladder it up to the emotional connection. Because ultimately that's how I made this person feel. Right. Safe, secure. I made a good decision.

I'm not going to get fired tomorrow because I bought this product. It's not an easy process.

But to make those connections and then understand from a marketing and a sales Standpoint, how do you take that now and get face to face with somebody and make sure they understand that communication.

If you look at an hourglass, that sales in the middle and everything else happens on top and happens in the bottom, but there's one instant when that actually that signature gets done and then everything else after is having a baby. I remember telling my wife, it's not the nine months, it's the rest of our lives.

Freddy D: 00:22:30

Right. It's exactly correct. That's a very good analogy because. Yeah, it's that continued relationship with the customer.

In a previous business, I had a relationship with the customer. We had a big transaction. It ended up helping me being close to a million dollars worth of revenue in one deal.

One customer we would spend every month we would get together and we'd have five minutes of conversation about business because everything was running smooth and if there was issues, I was on top of it and I had my team take care of it right away. We would spend 10, 15 minutes just socializing. Where were you going on vacation? What are you doing for the next month? All that stuff.

Because that's the feel good part.

Angelo Ponzi: 00:23:14

Right.

Freddy D: 00:23:15

And there was a trust that they had with us that if there was an issue, we take care of it just like that. And there was the stress level was there's a hiccup, no big deal, Freddie deal. Get it taken care of. And I did. And that was it.

So you're absolutely correct. Is that whole aspect of the whole engagement of the team and in getting the team on board and then that transcends to the whole customer journey?

Angelo Ponzi: 00:23:42

Yeah, absolutely.

Freddy D: 00:23:45

So let's get into some of the other things that you do. We're talking a little bit about strategy. Let's get into things that business people overlook.

And that's competitive analysis because that is critical to really understand what your competition's doing, how they operating and how do you compete and how do you stack up to them?

Angelo Ponzi: 00:24:06

Yeah. One of the biggest frustrations on my side is as I mentioned earlier, companies think of their competitive analysis as a one and done for the year.

And to me that's. It's an ongoing process because there's an ebb and flow of outside influences not only from the competition.

Could be interest rates, it could be politics, it could be weather. All these different influences can affect your business.

And by not paying attention to the competition, understanding the products that they're selling and how you match up and where the points of difference and just to having this collection process of information. There is an ebook on my website about running a competitive intelligence program.

And the reason I put it together is this very topic is because, you know, for them, we wouldn't talk about competitors for another year. And meantime, I'm going, what's the data? What have you collected in the last 30 days so we can look at it?

And so having one person in charge of being that collector and synthesizer of that information and then putting it out to management really helps. Because, again, you just don't know what's going on with your competitors if you're not paying attention to them.

And we've probably all been in situations, and I know I have. When you turn around and find out that they're right behind you, in the meantime, you thought they were down a different road than you.

And they're watching you. I always look at it, they're watching you. And if you're not watching them and you're doing yourself a disservice.

And so it's extremely important to understand, not only from a product standpoint, but from a messaging standpoint. And did they change their message? How are they positioning themselves? Why is that different? How do your customers think of them versus you?

One of the questions I like to ask is, how do you think you're perceived by your customers? Then I go out and I talk to their customers and say, what do you think of this organization?

And if they don't align and your competitors align better than you do, then you've got an issue that you need to deal with. How do you change that?

Back to the H Vac company, they thought X, Y and Z, and it turned out to be they were missing a lot of opportunity because they just weren't thought of as an environmentally friendly product or solution.

So I always encourage companies that get a program, get your benchmark, and have some kind of cadence to it where you're out collecting data, whether it's messaging or whether it's product, whether it's pricing, you should have an ongoing and steady program that gets reviewed, whether it's once a month or once a quarter at a minimum, so you can make adjustments to your efforts.

Freddy D: 00:26:45

It's very important to review and tweak. I mean, you've always got to be tweaking. I have a buddy of mine that used to be an airline pilot for one of the commercial airlines.

And we would talk and he says, do you understand there's technology in here that is always tweaking the airplane based upon the wind velocity, the weather conditions, and everything else? He goes, if that wasn't there, we would never get to the destination.

And so really what you're doing is you're helping people get to their destination by making the tweaks that need to be made to keep them on course. Because otherwise the wind's going to blow them this way and they're going to blow them out of the game.

Angelo Ponzi: 00:27:25

Yeah, yeah, no, absolutely. And those all become important.

One of the things I've done in the last year, I've been working in the M and A space in working with different investment bankers and PEs, trying to. You're going to do an acquisition. Everybody talks about ebitda, right. What do the numbers look like? Well, my point is, hey, the numbers look great.

Now what? How do you put the companies together? Or you're going to put them together? What's the cultural fit? What's going on with the employees?

Are all feeling threatened? Are you going to lose your top people because they're afraid based on what you're doing? What's cannibalization of the products?

What are the profitability of the products? Are you going to be having two products you're basically selling to the same company? They're basically the same products. So now what happens?

What are you going to kill? Or the revenues of those? What are the profitability of those?

And really getting involved in helping companies really dissect all of that and saying, yes, the numbers look good, but here's what happens, here's what the market looks like, here's the dynamics, here's how you're going to grow. By the way, this company you're buying pretty saturated into this marketplace because of their competition.

You're not going to get that much more share out of that. Now we need to look at adjacent markets. And so again, back to my whole premise of being strategic is how do you grow the business? You can't.

You're going to grow through acquisition. But a lot of companies now that two companies, I don't know how to put them together. Yeah.

Freddy D: 00:28:47

There's so many. You and I could probably talk for hours on stories of botched mergers.

Angelo Ponzi: 00:28:52

Yep.

Freddy D: 00:28:52

You know, and top people disappear. I went through several in the SaaS world, I went through several acquisitions.

And even though I was top sales guys, I got the plaques and all that stuff. The acquiring company is in charge of the acquired company. So their team is going to be the preferred team.

Doesn't matter who you are or what you are, because it's just the dynamics of how it's been done and is still done today from that perspective. And they're not taking the time to really analyze the whole equation.

They're looking at the numbers, they're looking at it superficially, I'll word it, which is probably an accurate word. And they look, oh, this makes sense, we're going to do this to good profit, blah blah, blah, done. And it comes a train wreck.

It's amazing how many train wreck acquisitions take place regularly.

Angelo Ponzi: 00:29:44

Yeah, it's funny, at my last corporate job, the recruiter came to me and I was just coming off of working after I sold my company, the company I worked for or bought me put us together so they didn't merge us. They kept us separate along with one of my partners. So for eight years we basically had to ran our own company. Then they decided to absorb us.

And so that's when I said, okay, I don't want to be absorbed. I went from being the number two guy in a 25 person firm, I would've been one of 750 people. And that's not what I wanted in life.

So I went and took a corporate job. And the recruiter was like, it's a small company, it's been around for 30 years, there's some options, opportunities for you and blah blah blah.

So I took the job. Six months later, they sell it. And I of course had no options or anything.

And the company that bought us, so it was a evidence based research company, which is really just fascinating considering I come from a traditional research world over talking to customers. They didn't ever talk to customers. It was all evidence based anyway. And they had a great history, which was really exciting.

They worked with Anheuser Busch, which I had an opportunity to work with and Purina and all these big name companies. Anyway, this company comes in and buys them because they want our process and our government side of the business.

We had two sides, commercial and government. And I'm on the commercial side. So this company comes in, buys us.

And over that course of the next two years, I can see my division, the commercial division, shrinking. I could see that the dynamics of the company was changing.

So new CEO comes in and we're making presentations to the new CEO and the old CEO, the guy that made the initial acquisition, sitting next to me. And so I get up, I give my presentation and he comes down, he leans over and he goes, that's fascinating. I had no idea.

Now you know what I wanted to say to him. You've been here for two years and you never once even walked across the hallway to understand what we did on our side.

So I'm standing in front of the new CEO making a presentation to the organization. And at the end of his presentation, I raised my hand and said I didn't see my division up there on the screen. And I watched him panic.

And I came home that night and I told my wife, I'm going to go back and work for myself again. I can't do this. And there was a great example.

They took this very culturally driven, I don't want to use the term mom and pop, but it was like a mom and pop that had tremendous exposure in big companies and just totally changed the culture. A lot of the people left and my division basically ended up shrinking down from, I don't know, 20 people, down to maybe a couple after I left.

That's just my own personal example of one that worked. We weren't absorbed and we were absorbed. It didn't work. And then one that got acquired and watched it fall apart.

Freddy D: 00:32:49

That's a perfect example of the best way to not create super fans internally.

Angelo Ponzi: 00:32:56

Yeah.

Freddy D: 00:32:57

Because if you don't have super fans internally, you have zero chance of having super fans externally.

Angelo Ponzi: 00:33:03

Yeah, absolutely.

And the super fan, I love that phraseology because I tell companies, everybody in the organization needs to understand what the organization is about. They need to be privy to the strategies and stuff like that. Why?

Because if you had 10 people, 50 people, hundred people, when they walk out the door at night, they're your brand ambassadors, super fans.

Freddy D: 00:33:25

They got to be excited about where they're working. They got to be excited about what the company's doing, the direction, the impact that the company's having. Because that's the front line.

It's not the CEO or the VP of marketing and the VP of sales or the cfo. They're not the front line. The front line is the team. It's the person that picks up the phone that answers the inquiry.

If they're feel disgruntled and shortchanged, that tonality comes across. You can't hide it. Yeah, you're going to feel something's off versus someone that's all bubbly and excited. I use sports analogies a lot.

You look at a football team and look at this past super bowl, the guys who are having fun high fiving and everything else. And you can see it when they come out on the field before the game even starts. You can see who's got the energy and who's got a stalic face.

The guys that are fired up, relaxed, they kick butt all the time. And the other guys are into a reactionary mode. They're frustrated, they're discombobbled and there you have it.

Angelo Ponzi: 00:34:33

Yeah. And it's true.

There's nothing worse than walking down the hallway and asking the accounting manager, what do you think of the new strategies that are going on? And they go, I have no idea what you're talking about, or the HR person or anybody else. They'll have some kind of an idea.

One of the early agencies that I worked for, they used to hold a monthly state. He called it the state of the state.

He'd literally stand up, talk to the entire company, talk about new business, talk about business that was long, business that was lost, talking about whatever it happened to be. You always felt like you knew what was going on in the organization, which gave you a great comfort.

And, and because again, you were part of it, you were just not working there, you were part of it and you felt like it was home and family. When I've had my own businesses, that's the way I run it. I do it now.

I have a small team and I make sure people are involved and they understand that, hey, we just picked up a new account, or hey, we just lost some business or something happened, or hey, I need everybody to stay late. And nobody complains. Why? Because they understand their contribution and their role. That's unfortunate.

Freddy D: 00:35:40

Well, they're super fans of what they're doing of the company that you're leading. That's the bottom line.

Angelo Ponzi: 00:35:45

Yeah.

Freddy D: 00:35:45

One things I learned about management is your job is to empower people and then really help them be successful and then get the heck out of the way.

Angelo Ponzi: 00:35:53

That's exactly right.

Freddy D: 00:35:56

So as we kind of get closer to the end here, Angelo, any last tips that you want to share to our listeners? Things that they should really think about?

Angelo Ponzi: 00:36:04

We didn't talk about this, but I'm happy to, you know, do any follow ups. But get out and talk to your folks. Do some market research. Doesn't have to be expensive.

Get out of the boardroom, quit talking to yourselves and get out there and have conversations with your customers. Understand the market and how that can play and help shape. Spend time working on your business and not just in it.

And I know it's hard, I even struggle with it. Right. Because we get going. But to find time to work on it and do some thinking.

A friend of mine, she literally goes away a couple weeks a year and just does her strategic work. And those are the areas that I really think people need to focus on and understand and quit worrying about.

I put marketing out there, but tactical, there's branding and brand building and that takes time Takes time to build your organization, to build trust and loyalty in the customer base. Hey, we could put out a campaign in the next 15 minutes if we want. Might not be very good, but we can do it.

So I think you got to step back, as you said earlier, and analyze and understand why didn't it work? What's wrong with our messaging and what's wrong with our tactics or our execution or our channels. I worked for the company.

When I did their analysis, I found that they were investing in five vertical markets equally investing their marketing budget. The two of those verticals never yielded any money.

That's 40% of their marketing dollars going into a market that never in history yielded any real return on investment. So my recommendation, get rid of them.

Freddy D: 00:37:40

Yeah.

Well, I'm going to emphasize one thing here that you really talked about talking to your customers, and I'm going to put a twist to that because really, your employees are your customers. Suppliers are your customers. Your contractors are your customers. Your distributors are your customers. Your complementary business is a customer.

Your banker is a customer. You need to really treat that whole ecosystem as customers because that's really the difference. I think people overlook that and look at focusing.

Well, that's my customer. But really everybody's the customer.

Because if you don't take care of your supplier, your H Vac company, as you mentioned, and you don't have a good relationship with that supplier, don't expect any favors anytime soon.

Angelo Ponzi: 00:38:29

It's a great point. It's a great point.

Freddy D: 00:38:32

So, Angelo, it's been pleasure. How can people find you?

Angelo Ponzi: 00:38:36

The easiest way is LinkedIn. I'm on LinkedIn. And so if they want to connect with me or check me out, that LinkedIn has a place to go from there to my website.

And so you can see all the offerings that I have as free ebooks and videos.

Freddy D: 00:38:53

You've got marketing, competitive intelligence.

Angelo Ponzi: 00:38:55

Yeah.

Freddy D: 00:38:56

Storytelling workshop. So you got some questions? We'll make sure that we put that into the show notes.

Angelo Ponzi: 00:39:01

Yeah. And then the book listeners. And the book actually just came out. So you're one of the first to actually talk about the book.

The book just literally that that page on the website went up yesterday. Wow, this is really good timing. There's the book, there's the COVID And dude, I've been working on it since November.

I told somebody today, there's 30 plus years packed in this book.

Freddy D: 00:39:21

That's one of the things I brought up. The fact many times I'll bring it up again is you can learn from somebody's 20, 30, 40 year experience in a week and really shortcut the process.

If you really take the time to either read the book, listen to the audio. I usually do both.

I usually listen to the audio and still buy the book because there's stuff in the book that the audio talks about and you can't see it through the audio. You gotta flip through the pages, right?

Angelo Ponzi: 00:39:49

Yeah.

Freddy D: 00:39:51

So Angelo's been a pleasure having you on the Business Superfans podcast show. Great conversation, great insight for our listeners and we definitely would love to have you back on the show down the road.

Angelo Ponzi: 00:40:02

Yeah, I'd be happy to. This has been a lot of fun and hopefully your listeners get something out of it.

Freddy D: 00:40:08

Thank you again for your time.

Angelo Ponzi: 00:40:09

All right.

Freddy D: 00:40:14

Before we wrap, here's your quick debrief. Every conversation focuses on a single pillar of the Superfans framework.

Nine road tested steps that turn a spark of possibility into unstoppable scalable prosperity. The nine pillars S Start Strategic positioning and purpose.

You unite stakeholder synergy P Propel magnetic messaging E Elevate every stakeholder experience R Rally referrals and reputation S Foster financial fitness A automate for exponential leverage Nurture lifetime loyalty S Scale and sustain prosperity Each episode concludes with a Superfans Success Spark, a practical guest driven action distilled from today's conversation that you can implement within 24 hours.

Follow the nine episode cycle, apply every spark and you'll build a proven playbook for turning stakeholders into loyal superfans, accelerating referrals, reputation and revenue. Here's this episode's Superfan Success Spark P Promote Magnetic Messaging so here's the top insight how do I market to you if I don't know you?

How do I change your behavior if I don't understand your motivations and concerns? Angelo Ponzi so here's your action to do in 24 hours.

Review your website or latest marketing email and check if your messaging speaks directly to your ideal customer's needs and challenges. Instead of just listing your company's features, rewrite one headline or paragraph to address what matters most to your customer.