Rachel Popp is a co-founder of the PR agency Big Fish Collective. Her agency works with brands like Kelty, Tentree, and Zeal Optics. Fresh out of college Rachel dove headfirst into the ad world cutting her teeth at big agencies. However, after a few years, she realized she needed to find a better career fit so she began to look elsewhere.

Between Outdoor Retailer, a delayed plane, and a glass of wine, Rachel met her future business partner. Fast forward to today in this episode Rachel reflects on the things she learned and challenges she's faced along the way as she's fought for her place in the outdoor marketing industry. 

Big Fish Collective: https://bfcollective.co/

From the episode:

"If it wasn't me sharing an idea about social media then people didn't take me seriously."

"After I showed that I had what it took, they were like you're young but ok, let's do it.

"The two things most valuable things about being young is your energy and your passion for what you're about to do."

-

Episode produced by:

Port Side Productions

https://www.portsidepro.com/

-

Social Channels

@backcountrymarketing

@portsideproductions

@coleheilborn

In this episode, Lisa Slagle the founder and Creative Director talks about the founding of her agency, Wheelie. We talk about loving the process, doing work that matters, and how to stick to your values as you and your company grow. She also shares her biggest challenges she's faced building Wheelie into what it is today.

Website: https://www.wheeliecreative.com/

From the episode:

"I think beautiful creative work drives sales"

"It's great to have goals but it is really important to notice if you actually like the process."

"Sticking to your core values is really easy if it's just you. When you open up to collaboration - do our core values as a company include everyone?"

Nate Nichols is the founder of the Palette Group and the co-founder of the Allyship and Action Summit.

Based in New York, The Palette Group is a creative agency that serves its clients through unfiltered creativity and self-expression. Self-expression is such a key component of being creative, but what does encouraging self-expression really mean in the ad industry? As Nate says "If people can't self-express in our industry, then what is our industry?" The truth is there are many people who don't feel comfortable being themselves. 

In this episode, Nate shares his personal experiences with racism in the ad industry, how that's affected his life and career path but also what he's chosen to do with the platform and voice he has.

If you're interested in learning more about Allyship and Action check out their website and upcoming webinar on August 4.

https://www.freelancercybersummit.com/events/allyship-and-action

From the episode:

"Brands are just pouring all of this money into finding pockets of culture that can blend their products and their brand ethos."

"I want to make content that inspires culture and society"

"I'm working hard, why don't I have access to things, like a nice apartment or healthy food?"

"How do we get the advertising industry - when they posted a bunch of black tiles on Instagram and did all of these statements, how do we build a forum for people to speak what they're feeling."

Brennah lives in Denver, Colorado, and runs Great Escape Media. Focused on providing in-house quality production and strategy resources, she fills the need between large agencies and the smaller brands that don't need a giant working on their behalf.

The video production world has gone through a tumultuous change over the last 10 years. Through advances in technology and low barriers to equipment, there has been a rise of one man, two-man shops that are producing amazing work. In this episode, we talk about these small shops, what roles they play in the market, and how companies like Great Escape Media fill a gap in the industry.

"There is this personal touch you get with these small shops that you might not get from bigger agencies."

If you want to meet anyone in the bike and snow world, Chad could connect you. He's spent his career working at snowboard and bike brands for the last 20 years. From Jones, Nidecker, Options, YES, Spacecraft, POW Gloves to currently Ride Concepts. Chad has worked closely with each of these company's founders to grow them into who they are today.

In this episode, we discuss a variety of topics including the challenges Chad and Jeremy Jones faced from day one, to the rise of new media. We talk about the role that ski and bike films play in the industry and the future of filmmaking in a "send it" community. 

From the episode:

"Take the opinions of others, but don't let that steer your course." (when it comes to building a brand)

"Good brands aren't built on the opinions of your peers, they're built on your opinion and your belief in yourself."

"Media is a way to gain knowledge now"

As a small team, how do you manage 5 very different bike brands? Jill and her team at Alta Cycling deal with this daily as they manage Diamondback, Raleigh, iZip, Redline, Haibike, and Ghost. In this episode, we talk about how they manage and differentiate each of the brands from each other but also from their competitors.

From the episode:

"You can't ignore a brand's heritage, but you do want people to know they are distinct brands."

"Should every brand be in digital? Because then are we cannibalizing our own buy and competing with ourselves?

"Being a bad artist made me a better marketer because it made me think a little more creatively."

Chris Dickey is the founder of an outdoor PR agency named Purple Orange. Working with brands like BioLite, Peak Design and Oru Kayak, Chris and his team kept noticing short-lived results from outstanding PR work.

This troubled Chris and motivated him to build a tool called Visably. Visably provides marketers a way to check their brand ranking against a keyword in search. It's no longer about someone finding your website but recognizing your brand.

In this episode, we cover a wide range of topics from Google's algorithms, brand vs distribution, and advice for new companies on where to invest their marketing dollars. 

From the episode:

"How could we have won this big award but not move the needle (for our client)?"

"70% of all traffic goes to the first 5 organic links"

"If you want to know where your brand sits in search, you can't do it right now."

Josh Weichhand is the Marketing Director at Chaco. In this episode, we chat about doing work you believe in and not giving up on the path to doing so. 

We also talk about Chaco's use of their brand voice during the Bears Ear protection rollbacks and about Josh's own journey of finding his voice and doing work he believes in. For many, the journey to finding a good fit in a career is not without challenges along the way. For Josh, it took 6 unpaid internships, a summer fishing in Alaska, and a 9-month road trip to finally find his place at a company he had been a customer at since summer camp.

From the episode:

"All of a sudden Chaco found itself on the front lines of this very important conversation in real-time and had some credibility to it because we're an established partner of the National Park Foundation."

"There's something about having this one really great pair of sandals that have been with me through it all and then getting to share it with people professionally." 

Jay Matthews is the Director of Marketing at Sitka Gear. Sitka is a high-performance manufacturer and industry leader for hunting apparel and gear. Jay's career started on the football field but when life had different plans he ended up at Nike's SPARQ program. Spending his time learning from the best, Jay left Nike as a brand manager and ultimately landed his dream job at a company that stands for his own personal values.

In this episode, we talk about the commitment to solving a problem with your product over profit, the rise in the conscious consumer and what that means for brands, and how storytelling transcends everything the team at Sitka does.

From the episode: "I think the commitment to earning that trust comes from guaranteeing that the product will do what you say it'll do."

From a young age, John has been fascinated with the ad world. From reading Ad Age magazines in high school to spending the last 23 years working in all disciplines of the industry, John is currently the Chief Strategy Officer at Drake Cooper. In this episode we chat about the role of creativity in the ad world, defining the problem you're trying to solve, the balance between art and commerce as well as John's experience working at the agency his father started.

From the episode:

"We have this little pool of money, who do we focus it on?" "...we have to really define the problem in order to help."