The Reboot Chronicles with Dean DeBiase

Best-Selling Author, ex-Coke CMO and Marketing Visionary Sergio Zyman spoke with The Reboot Chronicles about what was said to be an epic fail in marketing (remember the introduction of New Coke?). As the first person to EVER hold the title of Chief Marketing Officer, he should know! Lots of good nuggets in this episode, from his thoughts on pandemic marketing to why marketers are still focusing way too much on TV—including $6 mil. Super Bowl Ads.

We had to, of course, address the elephant in the marketing room of the introduction of New Coke. So was it the debacle it was reputed to be? For those of you not around in the ‘80s it was all over the media. A guy at Coke dared to do what pretty much every soft drink in the world does now on a regular basis: introduce a new flavor. But here, someone was messing with an iconic brand. In response to the onslaught of the Pepsi Generation (that’s what young people drink!) Sergio backed the introduction of an updated formulation for Coke. Turns out there were a whole lot more lovers of the classic formulation than the company expected. Within a month, “Classic Coke” was back, fans were delighted.

So what was the real story? As Sergio relates, there is more to it than I ever understood:

Long before the rise of Kim Kardashian or Jeffree Star, there were veritable armies of direct sales people going door to door selling their wares by telling stories and using their personal passion for the products. What happened to that model in the age of the influencer and with a pandemic that seems to never end? To understand direct sales today in health, beauty and wellness, I spoke with Tyler V. Whitehead, new CEO of Arbonne, about how his work and life, embody the principles of the Reboot Chronicles: be nimble, adapt to what life throws at you and always be leading

Heart to Beat: What A Cardiac Surgeon’s Experience Says About Leadership

Dr. Brian Lima

At the Reboot Chronicles, we most often talk to business executives about their challenges and triumphs. I met Dr. Brian Lima speaking at a conference and decided to up our ante to life or death issues. Dr. Brian Lima is a cardiothoracic surgeon and bestselling author of an inspirational autobiography, Heart to Beat, was awarded the 2020 top doctor of the year. I spoke with him about how his work and life embody the principles of the Reboot Chronicles: be nimble, adapt to what life throws at you and always be leading.

Dr. Lima is a global authority on advanced heart failure, heart transplants and medical circulatory devices. In his world, there is no room for failure. How does he keep the stress in check? How did he rise to this position?

When I met Dr. Lima, I was struck by his childhood story about how he came to want to be a doctor. Lots of people would probably mention a character they saw on TV as an inspiration. For Dr. Lima, it was at the age of 10 seeing his father have a heart attack. He turned the fear and helplessness into a desire to become a doctor. When he got to a surgery rotation in his training he found his “do what you love” moment.  As he says: “Surgery was love at first sight. And it was just a natural fit. It just seemed to click. I couldn't think of myself doing anything else.”

And while surgeons are renowned for their confidence and egos, Dr. Lima is rather modest about his abilities. He’d agree with the old “99% perspiration” adage. Surprisingly, he never felt like heI was the smartest kid in class. “I felt like I always had probably a lower IQ relative to what I would you know, what I thought of as really geniuses with photographic memories.” What was his solution? He worked two or three times as hard and excelled even though it took him longer periods of time to absorb the information. He felt like an underdog but that was part of his motivation.

If, like me, you have found yourself at large conferences wondering where the diversity is, you would have been surprised and delighted to see Shelley Zalis leading groups of like-minded women across the giant trade halls of CES, the esplanades of Cannes Lion or the conference rooms of the World Economic Forum.. Shelley, who built her career in market research, responded to a need for connection, first among women, now among all those seeking greater diversity and inclusion in an organization called The Female Quotient. From its beginnings as an ad hoc networking organization, the group has expanded to take on representation of women in media and mentorship of the next generations of leaders. What started as “The Girls Lounge” has turned into the “Equality Lounge” and now embraces male attendees as well. Before Covid, it was operating as pop ups at 70 major conferences around the world. I sat down with Shelley to talk about her journey.

We now welcome onto The Reboot Chronicles Tom Deierlein. Bronze Star and Purple Heart Recipient and serial entrepreneur.  On this Veterans Day, we are honored to have Tom, a 1989 graduate of West Point, who is also an Airborne Ranger, Wounded Warrior and angel investor. Tom was recently named Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of The Year, Greater Washington and is the co-founder and current CEO of a major systems integrator that specializes in data center solutions for the Federal government. But unlike most of us, Tom (at the age of 38) had a call to duty that took him to the frontlines of Iraq leading a regiment. A sniper cut short his service. He not only had to learn how to walk again, he had to reboot his business and personal life as he reentered the civilian world.

I recently sat down with Christopher Gavigan, the founder of Honest Company, (which had a wildly successful IPO this year) to talk about Prima, his latest venture. With this company he is boldly going into the premium CBD space, separating the “woo woo” from science, and in the process bringing pain and sleep relief to a Covid weary world.

Chris started thinking about CBD products before he teamed up with Jessica Alba to launch the Honest Company in 2012. His latest venture went on hold as he built one of the most successful subscription-based CPGs of recent times. He’s someone who understood the potential for purpose driven, natural, healthy, clean nontoxic lifestyle goods. He’s also a champion of human health social entrepreneurship, and author of a bestselling book I like called Healthy Child, Healthy World: Creating a Cleaner, Greener, Safer Home.

Keep learning, even at home

The COVID-19 pandemic closed offices and schools around the world last year. 1.6 billion students around the world had their schools closed in April 2020 or 90% of all students. My partner is an assistant principal at a K-12 school in Colorado, and I have witnessed first-hand the new challenges that she and all educators and learners have had to navigate.

On the Reboot Chronicles podcast, I recently interviewed Jeff Maggioncalda, Board Member at Silicon Valley Bank and CEO of Coursera, which provides anyone anywhere with access to online courses and degrees from world-class universities and companies. Coursera, which was once known as the Craigslist of education, enrolled 30 million new learners in 2020 and grew revenues by 64% year over year.

Lifelong, “chunky” learning has moved from a nice to have to a must do! The world is moving and changing faster than ever, so it is critical for everyone to continue to learn new skills to stay relevant and grow personally and in their careers.

Higher education reinvents itself

Jeff detailed how Coursera was not a business at all when it started, and grew from the “Craigslist of Education” to a multi-platform business. Initially it only offered free courses directly to consumers. Many top universities, expanded their businesses when they began publishing their content and supplying it to global audiences through Coursera.

Now as a business, Coursera has three institutional channels—one for businesses, one for campuses and one for governments. “What they're all looking for is really high quality, online courses that they can get and use for their constituents,” said Jeff of their customers.

The higher education business model is under pressure and somewhat fragile. Their curriculum is an institution’s core offering or the family jewels. However, from Jeff’s point-of-view, tools like Coursera are allowing the higher education sector to reinvent itself. Universities are collaborating and licensing content from other academic institutions. This is very similar to textbooks, but just with the digital mechanism that empowers speed and scale.

There is more content available to consumers than ever before. Content that stimulates almost all our senses -- streaming video, podcasts, short social clips, blogs and much more. With so many content options, creators have to produce high quality content to be rewarded. And the more that quality content is rewarded, the more incentive there is for brands and creators to elevate the content they are making.

My recent guest on the podcast, Triangle Capital Partner, Richard Kestenbaum believes this pattern has us in the golden age of content. Richard is an expert on consumer products, apparel, retail and digital markets, co-author of three books on finance and computer programming as well as a Forbes contributor.

I also recently contributed a Forbes article about the creator economy that explored how influencers and content are reshaping retail and the consumer experience. Amway, an unexpected leader, essentially created the influencer economy by working with and launching entrepreneurs—which is really what creator/influencers are.

Many challenges that companies face stem from a disconnect between sales and marketing teams. Finger pointing between the two departments, who ultimately have the same end-goal, can infect an organization. Next to reputational damage, it is a CEO’s worst nightmare.

I recently welcomed back a great leader and friend to the Reboot Chronicles podcast, Scott Miller, best-selling author, fellow podcast host, leadership coach, columnist and advisor to FranklinCovey, to talk about his latest book, Marketing Mess to Brand Success.

Inspired to help sales and marketing teams get on the same page, Scott’s new book was pulled from his 10 years of experience as a public company CMO and various sales and leadership roles. He strongly believes that sales and marketing have to “stop the finger pointing, get on the same boat and start rowing the same direction.” Similar to the other books in his Mess series, this book outlines 30 challenges that he had in his marketing role which every marketer needs to understand and learn from his mistakes. No matter what you are doing, you will enjoy his new book.

I laughed at many of the challenges when reading the book as they were messes I’ve participated in, in my past CMO and CRO roles.

Bruise hard and heal fast

While it sounds painful, to bruise hard and heal fast is valuable life advice.

Throughout all aspects of our lives, lots of people give unsolicited feedback. This is especially true for marketers, because everyone thinks they can put on their marketing cap and give you their opinion on your campaigns and branding efforts.

Scott advises to be the open-minded marketer who is open to other stakeholders’ insights. Take the feedback. Forget the bad suggestions. Implement the good. Then heal fast and pivot. Don’t go down with one campaign that you’re especially passionate about. Think longer-term about protecting the power you have over the brand.

Good advice, many of us can relate to, I definitely fell on some swords I should not have when I was a CMO of a large B2B company in my 20s and when CMO of LG Zenith.

Serial CEO and entrepreneur Jeff Hoffman has had his hands in a number of different ventures, including Priceline, a Grammy-winning jazz album, an Emmy Award-winning television show and a best-selling book. On this episode of the Reboot Chronicles, I spoke with Jeff about 1871, the travel industry, helping entrepreneurs, the current financial craze of SPACs and crowdfunding and how to successfully scale your business.

Inspired by 1871

As the chairman of the Global Entrepreneurship network, Jeff’s focus is to create ecosystems for entrepreneurs in any geography and ecosystems, allowing for a breadth of experiences and backgrounds. Jeff was inspired early on by our Chicago-based incubator 1871, ranked the top global business incubator, with over $1 billion of funding associated with the member companies since inception. We have various corporate and entrepreneurial programs, with hundreds of startups and DEI initiatives for women, Hispanics, African-Americans, Veterans and Neighborhood Accelerators. Jeff and the Global Entrepreneurship team are also focusing on initiatives for female entrepreneurs and minorities, ensuring that they have the resources to succeed and grow their companies.

The Art of Scaling

Jeff and I have been deeply involved in scaling businesses, which led to an interesting conversation about how every startup is different. It’s not enough to provide generic advice to an entrepreneur—you need to assess the business, people and market to give advice situationally. While some might need examples of how to pitch investors, others might require direct funding and scaling help. As scalers, we exist to create the experiences and space that early stage, growth stage and corporate innovators need while they build extraordinary businesses.

Unreasonable Expectations

Working with one of his mentees, Daniel Epstein, Jeff’s involved in the Unreasonable Group, which was named after the George Bernard Shaw quote that reasonable people adapt to the world around them, while unreasonable people expect to adapt to them. The idea behind the group is that entrepreneurs are the people most likely to solve the world’s biggest problems, so they focus on social entrepreneurship. To play into the idea of being “unreasonable,” the team spent over 100 days on a research ship, dedicating different boat decks to various initiatives. For example, the fifth deck was an incubator, where mentors would meet with entrepreneurs and help them grow their start-ups—sounds like the area I’d hang out in!

Mentors would join the ship as they circumnavigated the globe, creating a collective of investors that companies could tap into for all aspects of their growth strategy. While this might not have been your traditional cruise ship, participants enjoyed themselves, and over $4.5 billion was raised though this and the other Unreasonable initiatives so far.