Staying Ahead in a Disruptive Market: Proof Point Mashup Episode With Top Business Leaders

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Welcome to the Proof Point Podcast where we decode digital success one click at a time. We share key takeaways fueled by data and insights that your team can implement today to drive growth. Now, let’s get started.

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Hi, it’s Stacie Porter Bilger, your host for this podcast, where I feature B2B and DTC e-commerce businesses sharing marketing and sales strategies to kickstart growth. On this special edition of the show, we’ll take a look back at some of our favorite conversations from previous episodes. This episode is brought to you by Proof Digital.

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We are a strategic and creative performance marketing agency partnering with organizations to create data fueled marketing engines that drive growth and deliver a tangible ROI. Founded by Stacie Porter Bilger in 2012, Proof Digital employs a strategic marketing approach by blending today’s marketing tools like SEO, PPC, and paid social ads with traditional sales funnel processes. Ready to get results? Visit ProofDigital.com to learn more.Now, let’s hear some parts of our favorite conversations from past episodes. 

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Nobody’s a perfect person. Nobody’s a perfect company. And, you know, I think one of the things that’s really important is, you know, companies are all made up of humans, right? Yeah. And unless, until we’re all AI. And, you know, there are times we get great stuff out of that.

(1:31 – 1:52)

There are times that are, there are struggles. Yeah. And I think that one of the things that our partners that we work with, you know, like I mentioned a truck not showing up or whatever, how do you react? What do you do? But again, if you, you know, if you really are partnering on, it’s a two-way street, right? Because they need to also think about what’s good for you.

(1:57 – 2:11)

And seeking out those relationships, I think is really important. And those are the ones that are the most satisfying. And again, I think it goes back to this, you know, we’re built to interact with each other on a psychological, social, spiritual level, but also it’s, and I think that’s what makes, you know, doing business that way more satisfying.

(2:15 – 2:39) 

I do feel like I brought us back into the digital age versus where I do remember a conversation I had with my dad when we, when I was first starting to get into this marketing side of things that he said, everybody knows the Blackburn name so that we didn’t really need to spend a whole lot of money on marketing. And I just didn’t agree with that at all. I mean, they probably did from 20 years before that, but not, I mean, the proof is in the pudding right here.

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I’m looking at these numbers. It’s right there. So that’s how badly we needed to up our game.

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It does make a big difference when you have someone that has kind of been through the same things that you’ve been through. It changes. When someone can say, Hey, I’ve been through the same thing that you’ve been through.

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And this is how I, this is how I, you know, made a change in my life. And this is what I did. And to have that guidance and that peer support in somebody that is like-minded that can relate to you, it makes all the difference.

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I started, you know, one of the big things I determined early on that we, you know, we are most everybody that works for me was a former executive that wanted to get out of the grind of traveling the country, the construction world and have a little bit, you know, better work-life balance. But still doesn’t mind getting into the weeds of a project. So, you know, we, we, that’s where we differentiate ourselves in my opinion from our, our competition, you know, they may have a younger, you know, PM with not much experience on the project and, and they may have a deeper bench above them of, you know, executives all over the country, but we are, our executive level team is boots on the ground of every project.

(4:00 – 4:17)

You know, cause, and that’s one reason why we are geographically located and not doing right all over the country is, you know, we’re pulling executives that want to get off the road. So the thing we want to do is take a project out West and all of a sudden put somebody back on the road, but have the ability to have executives that will live 15 minutes from a project site or 30 minutes. 

(4:19 – 4:47)

I mean, it’s important to be nimble and to pivot. Companies who do not pivot do not survive. They don’t survive. There’s a lots of disruption. I mean, I’ve been involved in disruption back in when I was in political world. That’s a disruption. But Google disruption the pandemic was a disruption, virtual, not virtual.

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We, we were set up economically before the pandemic to deal with that pivot, watching economic data. What did we need to pivot to e-commerce? We pivoted to e-commerce more. I mean, we had a little bit, but we, I, we consciously said, okay, people’s consumer behavior is, is digital.

(5:12 – 5:25)

We need to elevate our game on e-commerce B2B and B2C, but B2C had already kind of matured a little bit. B2B had, is still evolving. And younger generations more and more will require that.

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Understanding too, and keeping ahead and understanding where those big guys are going, where what’s, what’s, I mean, what’s the competitive market look like? I mean, I mean, Google’s changing all the time. They have algorithm changes. They have lawsuits that come after them.

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You know, you have to, you have to look at what’s in the marketplace. Facebook, Facebook had some downturns, but that, you know, they bought Instagram. They either made some other good things.

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You have to watch those tools in which you leverage. Now, probably the biggest disruption, what we’re going to see in decades is AI. And we’re at the forefront of using AI.

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I’m on a panel here in a few weeks on AI. Learning again, staying a hot head, you have to be able to pivot. It’s going to change the way we work. And if you’re not paying attention to AI, you won’t, that pivot won’t be, you won’t be successful in the coming decade in business, because it’s going to dominate efficiencies, how we communicate, how we do, you know, do processes, all those things. 

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Thanks for listening to the Proof Point Podcast. We’ll see you again next time. And be sure to click subscribe to get future episodes.