Channel Mastery - Ep. 69: Margo Aaron
“The paradigm shift is that you need people around you who normalize what the modern economy looks like.”
- Margo Aaron
EPISODE PREVIEW:
Margo Aaron is the best friend we all need. She tells us we’re enough, and we’re going to be okay. Then she smacks us upside the head with some straight talk: get off our as**s and put in the work. The twist is that Margo isn’t a motivational speaker or a SoulCycle instructor: she’s a research psychologist and marketer extraordinaire. Her assurances and tough love aren’t about feeling better about ourselves, they’re about making significant changes in our businesses. On today’s episode, Margo and I tackle a rather large issue that we chip away at each week on Channel Mastery: the paradigm shift in business operations. But we tackle it from a broader business perspective and more importantly, how we’re all making it more difficult than it needs to be. Margo and I encourage you to just get started from where you are, doing what you’re inherently good at, but using new methodology and test and learn it on new channels. This is how you learn more, and be more effective by getting in there, being authentic and not succumbing to analysis paralysis. And, a spoiler alert: Today, we’re operating in a connection economy. Relationships rule. Transactional business approaches? Not so much. This is a downright motivating episode, and there’s nothing soft about it. It’s about getting results. If you’ve ever had the slightest sense of overwhelm about being remarkable to your omnichannel consumer, this episode is for you.
GUEST PROFILES:
margo aaron
With a Master’s degree in psychology from Columbia University and a background in academic research, Margo Aaron understands what motivates people to shop and buy. From academia, she pivoted to consumer goods strategy and consumer marketing. Her academic history grounded two questions that lead her in the new direction: How do you get someone to care? How to get them to take action? In the business world, she worked with a few small brands you may have heard of, like Starbucks, Target and Seattle’s Best Coffee.
SELECT QUOTES:
“The paradigm shift is that you need people around you who normalize what the modern economy looks like.”
“My argument…is it’s not actually the skills you need to learn, it’s what you need to unlearn, andthe things that you need to let go of that no longer work in today’s world.”
[We are building real relationships in the modern economy by] “…focusing on efficiencies and using the digital tools not as a barrier, but as an increase to connect.”
“A lot of the things aren’t a direct ROI, right? It’s a long game, it’s a long tail game of adding value, showing up, remembering someone’s name. These things are actually core principles that have worked for most all time. What’s changed is that you can’t dupe people anymore.”
“I think we have a tendency to show up in an inauthentic way and in today’s economy, it doesn’t work. It doesn’t work, because we are so connected and we are so everywhere all the time that you have to show up fully as you.”
[On brands as media] “It doesn’t have to be sophisticated; it just needs to exist and people want that kind of thought leadership. And then, you cement yourself as the person who knows the most about this thing.”
“The competitors in your space don’t freaking matter. They just don’t. They are irrelevant to your market. Your market is legitimately not sitting and deciding between you and four other brands every single time. They’re literally deciding between you, and how hungry they are, and their crying baby, and whether they should get a drink with friends.”
CONNECT:
Connect with Margo on LinkedIn
To Sell is Human, by Dan PinkHubspot