Exceptions With Jay Acunzo

In the Season 1 finale of #Exceptions, host Jay Acunzo goes inside a seemingly ubiquitous brand in the business world today: Zoom. In talking to the company's CEO Eric Yuan and head of marketing Janine Pelosi, we learn why they refuse to settle for conventional wisdom and how they orient their team to push past "best practices" to build an exceptional customer experience. Plus, the heartwarming story of a second-grade teacher connecting his students to countries across the world through the Zoom platform.

In this episode of #Exceptions, a revelation about leadership and team happiness and retention in B2B. Indianapolis startup Lessonly teaches us about the communication principle most needed but often overlooked across the corporate world. It's one that explains why customers send Lessonly unsolicited letters praising them, and why the company's VP of Marketing spent a recent evening alone in his garage, spray painting 700 toy llamas gold.

First Round Capital is one of the most widely loved venture capital firms in tech -- no small feat for a VC firm to claim. Through their platform (VC for brand marketing and value-add projects), they've built the Harvard Business Review-of-Startups, hold 80+ events per year for their portfolio companies, and even help founders pitch them through a program called Pitch Assist. Today, host Jay Acunzo talks to First Round partner Bill Trenchard and how and why FRC bets on brand (and how that changed the VC world for good). We also hear from the founder of a growth-stage startup, Lloyd Tabb of Looker, who describes his experience with Bill and the First Round brand.

How to convince an old-school CEO (of a legacy brand) to push forward with a rebrand. We'll explore this and more in the latest episode of Exceptions.

A brand based on truth? That's what ProfitWell co-founder & CEO Patrick Campbell has set out to achieve. But what is a brand based on truth exactly? Well, it's about going deeper to cut through assumptions and push past egotistical decision making to find...the truth. With so many metrics, it's all too easy to pay attention to what makes us feel good, rather than what's actually good for our business. So how do you actually face the truth? We dive deeper in today’s episode of #Exceptions to find out.  In this episode: 1:40 - Introduction to ProfitWell 2:25 - What makes ProfitWell different? (The idea of Truth) 3:58 - Andy Cook’s experience using ProfitWell 6:14 - If ProfitWell were a person, who would it be? 7:30 - The fear of not making money vs. how to maximize your business 9:30 - Face the truth-Brand, Product and Content 12:00 - How many businesses start with a faulty foundation 13:54 - Build the foundation of your understanding first. 14:28 - Hear from ProfitWell’s founder and CEO, Patrick Campbell. 15:12 - Explore how brand is truth 17:00 - Understanding what you stand for is brand 18:33 - ProfitWell’s dashboard is free because it highlights problems. 19:40 - Solving the cause of the problem 21:20 - ProfitWell’s content 25:55 - Patrick’s take on building an audience 27:06 - Are you building your brand around a unified concept? 28:11 - What is the one simple idea that customers are really after? 28:23 - Can you package it as one simple story? 29:46 - Does your content actively pursue the truth about your customers’ problems? 30:54 - Have you actually found the truth? - Set aside your ego. Before you go, leave a 6-star review and be sure and share this podcast with your friends! And connect with us on Twitter. Follow @jayacunzo, @seekingwisdomio and @drift.

On this episode of #Exceptions, we’re going inside Buffer. Buffer sells social media management tools for marketers, allowing you to schedule and analyze everything. It’s used by companies like Shopify, HelpScout, the Denver Broncos, and thousands more. The entire company is run on a platform of radical transparency. They’ve been publishing their revenues, metrics, and even employee salaries for years now. They’re truly walking the walk. Buffer doesn't just pay lip service to transparency. Buffer takes action. Buffer is creating something deeper than traffic. They’re starting conversations and then following through with their community. Through their public slack channel of over 5,000 members, they’re moving customers from traffic to audience to community. Think about your own company. Do you treat your customers as humans? Or merely as transactions? If the answer is the latter, that’s okay. These are changes that any company can make.

Customer support professionals remove the obstacles and clear the way for your customers to appreciate your product or service. They are the front lines of your business, representing your name day in, day out. Often time, customers service pros may be the only face or voice of a company someone can connect to the business. Yet, these individuals, the ones bearing the flag for an entire organization, are typically overworked, underpaid, and underserved. Meet Help Scout. Help Scout hasn’t just built a kick-ass SaaS product that enables CSRs and others to perform faster and better. They’ve created a culture where these professionals on the frontlines are valued, heard, and understood. Their clients love the product and the company, because both are built around them. From Help Scout’s customers, to their employees, to their CEO, to even those unhappy with how Help Scout’s changing the industry, I heard one thing in common with every stakeholder: Help Scout is ruthless about customer-centricity. They are an #Exception. The Seeking Wisdom Official Facebook Group is live! One place, finally, for all of us to hang out, get updates on the podcast, and share what we’re learning (plus some exclusives). Just search for the Seeking Wisdom Official group on Facebook. On Twitter: @jayacunzo and @seekingwisdomio

What if your brand could be the battle cry, the rallypoint, the symbolic meeting place for your customers? What if your brand could transform your audience into a community of participants? That’s exactly what InVision has remarkably accomplished. They’ve found and listened to their community. They haven’t just provided solutions, they’ve understood the problem. They’ve created an elevated surface for their customers to have and share a voice. The InVision brand has built a platform. Is transforming your brand into a platform difficult? Yes. Impossible? Not for a #Exception. Visit https://hypergrowth.drift.com/ to get your tickets today and come see speakers like Jocko Willink, Molly Graham, Chaka Pilgrim, Amelia Boone, Grant Cardone, and more in September.     PS. The Seeking Wisdom Official Facebook Group is live! One place, finally, for all of us to hang out, get updates on the podcast, and share what we’re learning (plus some exclusives). Just search for the Seeking Wisdom Official group on Facebook. On Twitter: @jayacunzo and @seekingwisdomio

Wistia is a company that markets a mission, not just a bunch of products. A few years ago, you might have described Wistia as a SaaS company that offers video hosting and analytics. But thanks to a major product launch this year, the company is in flux. They’re in growth mode, but they’re also in control of that growth. Like all other brands in the #Exceptions series, Wistia puts a huge emphasis on customer centricity. It’s one of the biggest reasons why more than 30,000 companies worldwide use Wistia products to create, host, and measure their videos, including companies like Mailchimp, Sephora, Zendesk, Squarespace, and Casper. Use the promo code SEEKINGWISDOM when you get your tickets to HYPERGROWTH 2018 and save $500 today (just $199 for your ticket). Visit https://hypergrowth.drift.com/ to get your tickets today and come see speakers like Jocko Willink, Molly Graham, Chaka Pilgrim, Amelia Boone, Grant Cardone, and more in September.     PS. The Seeking Wisdom Official Facebook Group is live! One place, finally, for all of us to hang out, get updates on the podcast, and share what we’re learning (plus some exclusives). Just search for the Seeking Wisdom Official group on Facebook. On Twitter: @jayacunzo and @seekingwisdomio

In the very first episode of #Exceptions, we meet a company so excited about building a brand that it kind of feels like they name the whole company after how they feel. In this one, Jay explores Gusto, a SaaS platform that helps automate and improve your payroll, benefits, and HR processes. They launched in 2012 and employ over 500 people across San Francisco and Denver offices. They’re valued at over $1 billion. In 2018, Gusto was named to the Fintech 50 by Forbes. They’ve also made the list for best places to work in both office places. Today’s big idea: Be better than a commodity Use the promo code SEEKINGWISDOM when you get your tickets to HYPERGROWTH 2018 and save $500 today (just $199 for your ticket). Visit https://hypergrowth.drift.com/ to get your tickets today and come see speakers like Jocko Willink, Molly Graham, Chaka Pilgrim, Amelia Boone, Grant Cardone, and more in September. PS. The Seeking Wisdom Official Facebook Group is live! One place, finally, for all of us to hang out, get updates on the podcast, and share what we’re learning (plus some exclusives). Just search for the Seeking Wisdom Official group on Facebook. On Twitter: @jayacunzo and @seekingwisdomio