June 12, 2025 • 24 mins
Ever wondered what goes into creating compelling content? Meet Zac Hazen, our Content Specialist, as we shine the spotlight on his journey, creative process and what fuels his passion for content marketing.
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Hosts: Rich Mackey & Catelin Drey
Producer: Zac Hazen
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
what is up?
My friends, including my zachfriend uh, welcome back to
cocktails, tangents and answers.
I am caitlin, the officeextrovert at antidote 71 and the
uh resident asker ofdelightfully nosy questions.
Most of my co-workers toleratethis, some better than others,
(00:28):
so one of my favorite people totalk to is my guest today, zach
Hazen, who is our contentspecialist expert enthusiast.
He brings the best energy andhe's also bringing us a whiskey
soda, which was surprising to me.
Can you tell me why you chosewhiskey soda?
Speaker 2 (00:50):
so I think honestly, like I was really thinking right
, like what do I order when I goto a bar?
Speaker 1 (00:57):
and it's always pretty different because it
really depends, but you orderlike the weirdest yeah baddiest
like off the wall stuff.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Whatever, the most unique thing is that I don't
think I can get anywhere else.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
That's like what.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
I'm like, attracted to, but like, if I'm at like a
dive bar or like just like anykind of like bar where I, like
you know it's like the same menuyou'd see at almost any other
bar, like a dive bar, right,like domestic beer stuff, like
that I would say miller lightand bud light and if you come on
the right day, we might have astella.
(01:33):
There you go exactly and I thinkin those situations I would
probably just get whiskey andsoda and even maybe even whiskey
on the rocks, depending,depending on the bar, wow, but
yeah, god, my heartburn.
Another thing I like to thinkof when I like for whiskey soda,
it's kind of just like ahighball.
I mean it is a highball, yeah,but not dive bars don't have
(01:55):
highballs.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
So it's whiskey soda.
Okay, okay, that makes sense, Ilike whiskey a lot.
I think it's probably myfavorite spirit, that is so
funny Because in my head youpicked just a shot of chartreuse
.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
That was on the table .
That was on the table but I waslike, okay, I don't think many
bars are going to havechartreuse.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Not every bar has a chartreuse.
Yes, and I think so let's put afiner point on that right that
the purpose of this is like yourgo-to, like your security
blanket, your cocktail securityblanket.
You know you can get it at mostevery place.
So, like in this case, it'slike a like a jack and soda or a
jack and coke if you want toget really.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
I mean chances are, Do you do?
Like cola or soda Are you doinglike whiskey, like soda water,
soda water, okay, but it really,I mean, it really depends on
what whiskey they have, right?
Because, I don't think I wantto do Jack and soda, I'd rather
just do like a Jack and Coke, ifI have to Not going to seek
that out.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Seriously, my esophagus is like it's revolting
right now.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Jack is like it's too distinctive a flavor for me and
it just tastes like it doesn'ttaste good to me.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Isn't that the bananas one?
That's the one that tastes likebananas, right?
Speaker 2 (03:19):
I mean honestly, I've never thought of it that way,
but it does kind of like remindme of bananas, now that you say
that.
It's just like really sharp,like when you're drinking Jack.
You know you're drinking JackLike you can.
You're able to probably tasteit If you drink it before you,
you'll know it basically.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
You'll know, yeah, it stands out really well Okay.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
So if it's not Jack, what is the like in a well
whiskey scenario?
What are you looking for?
Oh my gosh, that's such a hardquestion because, like you,
never know what a bar is gonnahave for whiskey, and so,
honestly, I just try and findsomething at like a mid-range
price that's not gonna like costme a ton, but isn't like like
plastic bottle level.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Seagram 7,.
Please, I'll take some CanadianClub, something like that.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Like I can do, jack, but I don't know.
Crown is okay, I guess Okay.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Okay, that's helpful.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
I like the context.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Okay, I am always so disheartened when I go to a bar
and I'm like I will have a ginand tonic with lemon.
This is like a preview intowhether I ever ask myself these
questions or someone else doesbut, usually it's gin and tonic,
and then um, and then I wantlemon, but I always try and get
(04:39):
hendrix so I'm like I'll take ahendrix andic, and oftentimes
people are like who they're likewe have.
Bombay Sapphire and that's itand I'm like I guess that'll
work and they're very different.
Okay, we've covered theimportant things that Zach would
(05:00):
like a whiskey soda Ifchartreuse.
I was also thinking like Malort.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
You strike me as somebody who would try it.
I think I've had Malort two orthree times and unfortunately I
never remember what it tasteslike.
So every time I'm in asituation where like do you want
to try Malort?
I'm like I can't remember whatit tastes like I got to do it.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
I will try it again for the first time time.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
I don't know if it's so bad that I'm like pushing out
of my head or like I can't trynot to think about it.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Yeah, I don't know that I've that, I've actually
tried it, but I think I've heardthe flavor profile and just
been like that's not for me.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
I don't think it's supposed to taste good.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
That's like the thing , like I feel like it's like
just supposed to taste bad fair,yeah, yeah, okay, tell me, tell
me who you are.
Who are you zach?
As you said how did you gethere?
Speaker 2 (05:55):
oh man, I've been well honestly, it's your.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
It's always like your work anniversary yesterday so
my four-year workiversary isyesterday.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
My little baby's sad.
It doesn't seem like it's beenfour years, it's almost five now
.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
It truly doesn't.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
We're on our way to five, but honestly, I just
graduated college.
Four years ago, I applied to bea digital marketing specialist.
I did not get hired to be adigital marketing specialist,
but I was like I didn't knowthat.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
I was hired to be a marketing coordinator, so I was
like a bonus hire, because Iguess they liked me.
You are very likable.
I appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
The number one thing we should know about Zach is
he's?
Like that.
Zach has the goldenistretrieverist energy of anyone on
our staff.
He's just like where are wegoing?
What are we doing?
It's gonna be the best everytime.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
But yeah, I would say like uh, I got hired to be a
marketing coordinator.
I'd always been doing.
My previous internships Iworked at a trucking company
doing, like uh, basicallycontent, a little bit of like
digital marketing, seo and ads,and then before that I did
another, another digitalmarketing internship and before
that I had like a radiointernship where I was like
(07:17):
helping run a radio station andran their social media accounts
too.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
So when I started working here, I basically no, it
was in my hometown of like athousand people, so oh my gosh,
okay, I was like I didn't knowthis radio thing okay yeah, so
that was pretty fun.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
It kind of helps with the podcast, but um.
I think I've always leanedtowards like the content
marketing side of things yeah sowhen I got here, it kind of
just naturally happened a lot ofwhat I was seeing or a lot of
like the projects that I startedworking on.
I saw like content marketingthings in areas where I could
help, and I think it justnaturally progressed to where I
(07:53):
am now as a content specialist.
But yeah, that's kind of how Igot here.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
That's yeah, and I think you kind of touched on
what you do here.
So it's really like any timesomeone needs ideas for things
that their business should betalking about is like your
wheelhouse.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
I definitely love brainstorming.
That's on my LinkedIn.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Yeah, it's like you.
You have this ability to belike.
That's interesting to me.
I wonder what other threads Ican untangle and find and like
how can I relate them back tothese like target keywords?
And, like you do a good job, Ithink of putting yourself in the
shoes of someone who would beseeking that information where
it's like I know enough aboutthis topic.
(08:36):
But what can I learn to makemyself a better consumer or make
a better purchasing decision?
And I I just anytime you comeback with stuff I'm like, oh,
that's actually a really goodidea, that's a good point,
that's very interesting.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
And then, um, to be able to like turn that into like
a you know, it's really likeuniverse building because, like
you're a little bit of a nerdlike my husband right like it's
like yeah, like, yeah, like youwant to go, um, go into the
universe of like now I can'tthink of any of the words, but
like you're doing, like a littleDungeons and Dragons thing or
like a little, um, a little war,imagination kind of stuff yeah,
(09:14):
yeah, exactly, thank you, um,yeah, I love it yeah, and
honestly I think, um, the thingI really like about like
brainstorming in general is justleaning on the people around
you to create good ideas becauseit feels like when you're
working together as a team andpulling in people that are
different experts in their ownfields and areas, it's really
rewarding to see them getexcited about the things that
(09:35):
you're getting excited about,and it turns a good idea into a
great idea.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
Yeah, zach and I are, we have similar like energy
wavelengths.
We did like a little teambuilding thing where it was like
okay, identify where you are inthis like map of you know.
I don't remember what the wordswere, but it was like zach and
I were together in both groupsbecause we're like we think
(10:02):
we're this which was true, likeand was validated by other
members of the team, and thenwe're like we want to understand
how to talk to people that aredifferent from us and we didn't
know, like we didn't set up tosay like I want to be partnered
with zach because we are so no,we just like showed up in the
zoom breakout room and we'relike oh hi, again.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
It was really funny, like the second or third time,
because I wasn't expecting itright yeah, like hey here we are
I think we?
Speaker 1 (10:29):
I think we learned some things about ourselves and
the people that we work withthat day.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Yeah it was like a work or like an office or work
team personality test, where wekind of figured out how we all
work together and how we likeworking together.
It was pretty cool yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
I think too too, you kind of touched on this that,
like you, like brainstorming, Ido better thinking when I can
like put something out and like.
Even so, like I have a groupchat, that I'm super active in
for some like personal volunteerstuff, where I'm like okay, I
have this idea and I like put itout there and then get feedback
(11:09):
and I'm like oh, yep, actuallyyour language around this or
your idea around this is better,and how do I like incorporate
that and how do I likesynthesize?
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Like it, just it's.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
I agree with that.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
I work better out loud, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
I agree with that.
Like sometimes I'll throw outan idea to Riley or like Megan
and then they'll tell me, oh,that probably won't work or oh,
like, that's a good idea, let'sdo it in this way.
But it's really good to likethrow it out there and see what
happens, especially like whenI'm able to talk about it in
person, like this is kind ofwhat I was thinking, and then
(11:45):
getting other people's input andfeedback is really rewarding.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
So I totally know what you mean yeah, and I think
too, it's like the democracy ofan idea is really important.
Like like here the hierarchy ofour company is not really steep
.
Like we're pretty flat in termsof, like, supervisory and
(12:09):
leadership and things.
Like we want the best idea towin, no matter where it comes
from, and if that's the newestperson on the team or the intern
, great.
We want that type of creativity, because that's what I mean.
That's what makes good ideas,like you said, work really well,
(12:30):
or makes a good idea better.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
And I think that's really important in content
marketing too, because contentmarketing specifically, like
your social media, is areflection of your team and the
faces and people of your team.
So when you're getting theirinput and pulling together their
ideas and basically puttingthat stuff out there and showing
off their expertise, and whensomeone on the team has a really
(12:54):
good content idea and then Ican help make that a reality,
yeah that's really cool andrewarding for me and them, and I
think that's a like why contentmarketing is so interesting to
me.
One because, uh, it's justthere's a lot that's interesting
to it, yeah, but so we startwith two.
Give me two well, like I said, Ilove uh creating content.
(13:15):
That's a reflection of ourteam's expertise in a way that
uh will basically resonate withour target audience, because I
think that's also another thing.
That's really cool is, likewith content marketing, you're
basically trying to think putyourself in your target
audience's shoes and connectwith them human to human,
because that's the mostimportant, like well-performing
(13:36):
content.
You're not trying to just likeput a strategy out there and
seeing if it works.
You're trying to connect withpeople so I think that's really
interesting and I think solvingor like basically solving that
like challenge is really funbecause, yeah, when you create a
piece of content that reallyresonates with your audience,
(13:57):
it's super cool to like see howthat does and see people get
excited about it it's a goodfeedback loop and then you're
like, how do I have the nextgood idea?
Speaker 1 (14:06):
yeah, what's your?
Speaker 2 (14:07):
favorite.
Oh yeah, what's your favoritetype?
Speaker 1 (14:11):
what do you love to create?
What's your favorite type ofthing to make?
Is it blogs?
Is it videos?
Speaker 2 (14:16):
honestly, I, if I never had to write another
social caption again, I would bethe happiest social captions
can get kind of uh, like it canreally like they're definitely
like interesting to like writebecause it's short form copy and
like.
Connecting with your audienceon social media is always
changing because of differentalgorithms, but for me I think
(14:40):
my favorite.
I really had to think aboutthis like beforehand there are
so many yeah yeah, I think.
I think video scripts are themost fun because seeing Writing
a video script down and thenseeing how the video actually
turns out after either.
I record it, megan records it.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
After it's edited, like it's really cool like
journey seeing it from likepoint A to point B.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
And it's probably like my most fun like way to do
like storytelling, because Idon't know, it's just like you
get.
It's probably like my most funlike way to do like storytelling
, because I don't know, it'sjust like it's a little bit of
everything.
Right, you get to write ascript and then you get to
either record the video or likehelp record the video and then
from there like it's edited intoa new, like polished thing and
I just really think it's cool tolike see that whole process
(15:28):
happen.
Yeah, I also really like thepodcast.
Like I think playing thosetopics and, uh, putting them out
there is a lot of fun.
Like this new series idea isreally fun.
So whenever I do the prep forit, specifically like helping me
, like helping you come up withquestions for this like it's
really fun.
But yeah, video scripts seem tobe the most fun to me and this
(15:49):
is basically a video script.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
This is video improv.
That's what you're doing whenyou make a podcast, prep doc.
You're doing video improv andthen you have like scripted
video.
You never know what I'm goingto say.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
And honestly I like podcasts for that reason too,
because you set these parametersand then you see what happens
and usually really gooddiscussions come out and really
good like uh, thought points.
And that's really rewarding too, because it's like they took
this one question or sentence Ihad and turned it into this like
awesome story about yeah Idon't even know or like this
(16:29):
really good case study examplelike I don't know.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
It's really cool.
Yeah, okay, tell me one projectthat you're really proud of,
that you've worked on here Ithink, oh man, that's a tough
one.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
There's like a lot of projects that I've had fun with
yeah um, I think the podcastit's definitely been like the
most like.
It takes a lot of time andeffort to pull a lot together
and seeing the episodes go outand like and seeing some of the
things that come out of them,like I said earlier, I think
(17:02):
it's really fun.
I also selfishly like my foodblog that I wrote because that
has performed pretty well.
Even though it's notnecessarily marketing adjacent,
it's something that I'mpassionate about.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
It is not related to our business at all.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Okay, that is the perfect segue into your most
unpopular food opinion oh, Ithink, as someone who has lived
in the midwest and born in themidwest, obviously raised in the
midwest- I don't live therecurrently careful.
I think ranch is really gross.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
Oh, but I that's like my biggest hot take you're
never gonna be allowed to setfoot in the state of Nebraska
ever again.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
And the funny thing is, like Chloe loves ranch, it's
like one of her favorite likethings to put on everything.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
I want to talk to Chloe about ranch.
I went to a drag show in Omahalike a month or so ago and the
queen that was performing wasfrom Omaha originally.
She did a ranch off where shehad like Runza and like is it
Franny's or Franny's?
Speaker 2 (18:14):
I don't know, I can't remember, but Runza is supposed
to be really good ranch,according to Chloe.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
Yeah, she had three different ranch dressings from
like local Omaha slash Nebraskaestablishments and she got them
all right.
Ranch according to koi.
She had three different ranchdressings from like local omaha
slash nebraska establishmentsand she got them all right.
It was like a blind taste testthat's crazy.
If she could name the restaurantand which ranch that's talent
yeah, I was very impressed andthree for three, like out of the
gate.
It was like this is runza, thisit was amazing, it was truly
(18:41):
amazing yeah, I just, I don'tknow, I just don't like it, it's
just not like.
Do you like something that Ibased I?
Speaker 2 (18:48):
love mayo, I think, yeah, there's just something
about like ranch.
I don't like sour cream either,and maybe that's like similar
kind of buttermilk.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
Oh god, now I just want some, like some chilies has
really good ranch okay.
Uh, amigos, is supposed toreally good ranch Okay.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
Amigos is supposed to have good ranch too, apparently
.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
That might have been.
Is that in Omaha?
Speaker 2 (19:08):
I think it is.
I don't know if it's like aNebraska thing, because I don't.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
That might have been one of the three choices.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
I would not be surprised that one's, like I
think, pretty popular.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
Okay, that's fantastic yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
I mean, you're not not gonna get canceled, but
that's like it's a pretty hottake, I know.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
Yeah, yeah, when that question came up I was like all
right, I have the perfect one II don't know if I have like I
don't know if I have like anunpopular food opinion.
I also firmly believe that weshouldn't do things that don't
make us like feel good.
So it's like if ranch doesn'tmake you feel good, you
(19:47):
shouldn't eat it.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
That's like absolutely correct.
I'm the type of person thatwill try like anything once and
if I don't like it 100%.
I will not try to get well,even if I don't like it, unless
it's.
Malort, that's true, very true.
If I don't like it malort,that's true, very true.
Well, even if I don't like it,I think I'll maybe give it a
chance in the rightcircumstances, like malort.
(20:09):
So, or if I really don't likeit, I'll forget that I don't
like it and then I'll try itagain.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
It's this perpetual cycle just to see what happens,
what is okay, what is theweirdest thing you've ever eaten
?
And then we got to wrap.
We could spend this could go onfor hours.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
Oh my gosh.
So my favorite restaurant inOmaha is Koji.
Okay, and I didn't know that Iwas eating this, but basically
like their whole thing isthey're in Izakaya, which is
like it's like a bar restaurant,like a kind of spot that's like
really cash, it's okay, reallycasual, like you go there to
(20:47):
like eat and drink, basically,and it's like small plates and
it's like food that's made fordrinking, basically okay and
anyway, uh, they have uhyakitori with like the
traditional, like charcoalgrills, so it's like skewered
meat and they have like specialsand usually it's like meat that
you don't get to try like veryoften and mystery meat it wasn't
(21:11):
mystery meat, but uh, they werelike oh, we have like oysters,
right okay, and like that's notthat weird.
Well, no, it wasn't.
It wasn't actually like oysters, it was like it's basically
like chicken gonads was what itwas like rocky mountain oysters,
yeah, chicken yeah, they saidlike chicken oysters and my
brain was like, oh, oysters.
(21:31):
And then I came out and I waslike what is this?
Speaker 1 (21:33):
I tried it.
I was like so small it was.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
Yeah, it was interesting.
I never thought I'd tryanything like that, but
definitely probably the weirdestthing I can think of off the
top of my head.
Huh, but I mean the food is sogood there that it didn't matter
I love it.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
I have a weird like mind over matter thing where,
like, if I know something islike not typical midwestern fair
, sometimes I'm like, ah, nope,I don't think I can do it, like
the gag reflex kicks in evenbefore like the food has arrived
.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
Well, if you like if you want to try something
midwest like coated, at Kojithey have a ranza which is like
a bao bun, kind of like taco,but it has runs of filling in
the middle and it's really goodand the chef is James Beard,
nominated twice Okay.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
It's not even that expensive either.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
It's really good it's in Countryside Village.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
Okay, this is a good tip, zach.
We're like this is going to bea 15-minute episode.
It has been a half an hour andwe are still yammering on.
We like didn't even.
We didn't even get to all thesegreat questions.
But I think we got to know alittle bit more about you and I
appreciate you taking the timeto chat with me and being a
(22:56):
willing subject thanks forhaving me.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
I mean, I'm always here anyway as a producer, but
it's nice to be on the cameratoo.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
Thank you for coming to your own podcast that you
encourage us to record weekly.
You can find Zach on LinkedIn,zachary, are you Zachary Hazen
or Zach?
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Hazen, I think you're Zach, I don't know.
I always switch it up.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
Honestly, it depends If they make me say my full name
.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
I say it but yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
Otherwise, you can find him by interacting with any
of our Antidote 71 LinkedInposts, because you know he's
popping up in those commentsleft and right.
And, as always, you can findour agency at Antidote
underscore 71 on social, or youcan visit ctapodcastlive to send
us a question.
Or, if you want to get reallyweird and head back to 2009, you
(23:50):
can leave us a voicemail at402-718-9971.
Thank you, as always, forlistening and we will catch you
next time.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
See ya.
what is up?
My friends, including my zachfriend uh, welcome back to
cocktails, tangents and answers.
I am caitlin, the officeextrovert at antidote 71 and the
uh resident asker ofdelightfully nosy questions.
Most of my co-workers toleratethis, some better than others,
(00:28):
so one of my favorite people totalk to is my guest today, zach
Hazen, who is our contentspecialist expert enthusiast.
He brings the best energy andhe's also bringing us a whiskey
soda, which was surprising to me.
Can you tell me why you chosewhiskey soda?
Speaker 2 (00:50):
so I think honestly, like I was really thinking right
, like what do I order when I goto a bar?
Speaker 1 (00:57):
and it's always pretty different because it
really depends, but you orderlike the weirdest yeah baddiest
like off the wall stuff.
Speaker 2 (01:05):
Whatever, the most unique thing is that I don't
think I can get anywhere else.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
That's like what.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
I'm like, attracted to, but like, if I'm at like a
dive bar or like just like anykind of like bar where I, like
you know it's like the same menuyou'd see at almost any other
bar, like a dive bar, right,like domestic beer stuff, like
that I would say miller lightand bud light and if you come on
the right day, we might have astella.
(01:33):
There you go exactly and I thinkin those situations I would
probably just get whiskey andsoda and even maybe even whiskey
on the rocks, depending,depending on the bar, wow, but
yeah, god, my heartburn.
Another thing I like to thinkof when I like for whiskey soda,
it's kind of just like ahighball.
I mean it is a highball, yeah,but not dive bars don't have
(01:55):
highballs.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
So it's whiskey soda.
Okay, okay, that makes sense, Ilike whiskey a lot.
I think it's probably myfavorite spirit, that is so
funny Because in my head youpicked just a shot of chartreuse
.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
That was on the table .
That was on the table but I waslike, okay, I don't think many
bars are going to havechartreuse.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Not every bar has a chartreuse.
Yes, and I think so let's put afiner point on that right that
the purpose of this is like yourgo-to, like your security
blanket, your cocktail securityblanket.
You know you can get it at mostevery place.
So, like in this case, it'slike a like a jack and soda or a
jack and coke if you want toget really.
Speaker 2 (02:44):
I mean chances are, Do you do?
Like cola or soda Are you doinglike whiskey, like soda water,
soda water, okay, but it really,I mean, it really depends on
what whiskey they have, right?
Because, I don't think I wantto do Jack and soda, I'd rather
just do like a Jack and Coke, ifI have to Not going to seek
that out.
Speaker 1 (03:02):
Seriously, my esophagus is like it's revolting
right now.
Speaker 2 (03:06):
Jack is like it's too distinctive a flavor for me and
it just tastes like it doesn'ttaste good to me.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
Isn't that the bananas one?
That's the one that tastes likebananas, right?
Speaker 2 (03:19):
I mean honestly, I've never thought of it that way,
but it does kind of like remindme of bananas, now that you say
that.
It's just like really sharp,like when you're drinking Jack.
You know you're drinking JackLike you can.
You're able to probably tasteit If you drink it before you,
you'll know it basically.
Speaker 1 (03:36):
You'll know, yeah, it stands out really well Okay.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
So if it's not Jack, what is the like in a well
whiskey scenario?
What are you looking for?
Oh my gosh, that's such a hardquestion because, like you,
never know what a bar is gonnahave for whiskey, and so,
honestly, I just try and findsomething at like a mid-range
price that's not gonna like costme a ton, but isn't like like
plastic bottle level.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
Seagram 7,.
Please, I'll take some CanadianClub, something like that.
Speaker 2 (04:09):
Like I can do, jack, but I don't know.
Crown is okay, I guess Okay.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Okay, that's helpful.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
I like the context.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Okay, I am always so disheartened when I go to a bar
and I'm like I will have a ginand tonic with lemon.
This is like a preview intowhether I ever ask myself these
questions or someone else doesbut, usually it's gin and tonic,
and then um, and then I wantlemon, but I always try and get
(04:39):
hendrix so I'm like I'll take ahendrix andic, and oftentimes
people are like who they're likewe have.
Bombay Sapphire and that's itand I'm like I guess that'll
work and they're very different.
Okay, we've covered theimportant things that Zach would
(05:00):
like a whiskey soda Ifchartreuse.
I was also thinking like Malort.
Speaker 2 (05:06):
You strike me as somebody who would try it.
I think I've had Malort two orthree times and unfortunately I
never remember what it tasteslike.
So every time I'm in asituation where like do you want
to try Malort?
I'm like I can't remember whatit tastes like I got to do it.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
I will try it again for the first time time.
Speaker 2 (05:25):
I don't know if it's so bad that I'm like pushing out
of my head or like I can't trynot to think about it.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Yeah, I don't know that I've that, I've actually
tried it, but I think I've heardthe flavor profile and just
been like that's not for me.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
I don't think it's supposed to taste good.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
That's like the thing , like I feel like it's like
just supposed to taste bad fair,yeah, yeah, okay, tell me, tell
me who you are.
Who are you zach?
As you said how did you gethere?
Speaker 2 (05:55):
oh man, I've been well honestly, it's your.
Speaker 1 (06:00):
It's always like your work anniversary yesterday so
my four-year workiversary isyesterday.
Speaker 2 (06:04):
My little baby's sad.
It doesn't seem like it's beenfour years, it's almost five now
.
Speaker 1 (06:11):
It truly doesn't.
Speaker 2 (06:12):
We're on our way to five, but honestly, I just
graduated college.
Four years ago, I applied to bea digital marketing specialist.
I did not get hired to be adigital marketing specialist,
but I was like I didn't knowthat.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (06:29):
I was hired to be a marketing coordinator, so I was
like a bonus hire, because Iguess they liked me.
You are very likable.
I appreciate that.
Speaker 1 (06:40):
The number one thing we should know about Zach is
he's?
Like that.
Zach has the goldenistretrieverist energy of anyone on
our staff.
He's just like where are wegoing?
What are we doing?
It's gonna be the best everytime.
Speaker 2 (06:54):
But yeah, I would say like uh, I got hired to be a
marketing coordinator.
I'd always been doing.
My previous internships Iworked at a trucking company
doing, like uh, basicallycontent, a little bit of like
digital marketing, seo and ads,and then before that I did
another, another digitalmarketing internship and before
that I had like a radiointernship where I was like
(07:17):
helping run a radio station andran their social media accounts
too.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
So when I started working here, I basically no, it
was in my hometown of like athousand people, so oh my gosh,
okay, I was like I didn't knowthis radio thing okay yeah, so
that was pretty fun.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
It kind of helps with the podcast, but um.
I think I've always leanedtowards like the content
marketing side of things yeah sowhen I got here, it kind of
just naturally happened a lot ofwhat I was seeing or a lot of
like the projects that I startedworking on.
I saw like content marketingthings in areas where I could
help, and I think it justnaturally progressed to where I
(07:53):
am now as a content specialist.
But yeah, that's kind of how Igot here.
Speaker 1 (07:58):
That's yeah, and I think you kind of touched on
what you do here.
So it's really like any timesomeone needs ideas for things
that their business should betalking about is like your
wheelhouse.
Speaker 2 (08:12):
I definitely love brainstorming.
That's on my LinkedIn.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Yeah, it's like you.
You have this ability to belike.
That's interesting to me.
I wonder what other threads Ican untangle and find and like
how can I relate them back tothese like target keywords?
And, like you do a good job, Ithink of putting yourself in the
shoes of someone who would beseeking that information where
it's like I know enough aboutthis topic.
(08:36):
But what can I learn to makemyself a better consumer or make
a better purchasing decision?
And I I just anytime you comeback with stuff I'm like, oh,
that's actually a really goodidea, that's a good point,
that's very interesting.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
And then, um, to be able to like turn that into like
a you know, it's really likeuniverse building because, like
you're a little bit of a nerdlike my husband right like it's
like yeah, like, yeah, like youwant to go, um, go into the
universe of like now I can'tthink of any of the words, but
like you're doing, like a littleDungeons and Dragons thing or
like a little, um, a little war,imagination kind of stuff yeah,
(09:14):
yeah, exactly, thank you, um,yeah, I love it yeah, and
honestly I think, um, the thingI really like about like
brainstorming in general is justleaning on the people around
you to create good ideas becauseit feels like when you're
working together as a team andpulling in people that are
different experts in their ownfields and areas, it's really
rewarding to see them getexcited about the things that
(09:35):
you're getting excited about,and it turns a good idea into a
great idea.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
Yeah, zach and I are, we have similar like energy
wavelengths.
We did like a little teambuilding thing where it was like
okay, identify where you are inthis like map of you know.
I don't remember what the wordswere, but it was like zach and
I were together in both groupsbecause we're like we think
(10:02):
we're this which was true, likeand was validated by other
members of the team, and thenwe're like we want to understand
how to talk to people that aredifferent from us and we didn't
know, like we didn't set up tosay like I want to be partnered
with zach because we are so no,we just like showed up in the
zoom breakout room and we'relike oh hi, again.
Speaker 2 (10:21):
It was really funny, like the second or third time,
because I wasn't expecting itright yeah, like hey here we are
I think we?
Speaker 1 (10:29):
I think we learned some things about ourselves and
the people that we work withthat day.
Speaker 2 (10:35):
Yeah it was like a work or like an office or work
team personality test, where wekind of figured out how we all
work together and how we likeworking together.
It was pretty cool yeah.
Speaker 1 (10:48):
I think too too, you kind of touched on this that,
like you, like brainstorming, Ido better thinking when I can
like put something out and like.
Even so, like I have a groupchat, that I'm super active in
for some like personal volunteerstuff, where I'm like okay, I
have this idea and I like put itout there and then get feedback
(11:09):
and I'm like oh, yep, actuallyyour language around this or
your idea around this is better,and how do I like incorporate
that and how do I likesynthesize?
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
Like it, just it's.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
I agree with that.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
I work better out loud, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
I agree with that.
Like sometimes I'll throw outan idea to Riley or like Megan
and then they'll tell me, oh,that probably won't work or oh,
like, that's a good idea, let'sdo it in this way.
But it's really good to likethrow it out there and see what
happens, especially like whenI'm able to talk about it in
person, like this is kind ofwhat I was thinking, and then
(11:45):
getting other people's input andfeedback is really rewarding.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
So I totally know what you mean yeah, and I think
too, it's like the democracy ofan idea is really important.
Like like here the hierarchy ofour company is not really steep
.
Like we're pretty flat in termsof, like, supervisory and
(12:09):
leadership and things.
Like we want the best idea towin, no matter where it comes
from, and if that's the newestperson on the team or the intern
, great.
We want that type of creativity, because that's what I mean.
That's what makes good ideas,like you said, work really well,
(12:30):
or makes a good idea better.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
And I think that's really important in content
marketing too, because contentmarketing specifically, like
your social media, is areflection of your team and the
faces and people of your team.
So when you're getting theirinput and pulling together their
ideas and basically puttingthat stuff out there and showing
off their expertise, and whensomeone on the team has a really
(12:54):
good content idea and then Ican help make that a reality,
yeah that's really cool andrewarding for me and them, and I
think that's a like why contentmarketing is so interesting to
me.
One because, uh, it's justthere's a lot that's interesting
to it, yeah, but so we startwith two.
Give me two well, like I said, Ilove uh creating content.
(13:15):
That's a reflection of ourteam's expertise in a way that
uh will basically resonate withour target audience, because I
think that's also another thing.
That's really cool is, likewith content marketing, you're
basically trying to think putyourself in your target
audience's shoes and connectwith them human to human,
because that's the mostimportant, like well-performing
(13:36):
content.
You're not trying to just likeput a strategy out there and
seeing if it works.
You're trying to connect withpeople so I think that's really
interesting and I think solvingor like basically solving that
like challenge is really funbecause, yeah, when you create a
piece of content that reallyresonates with your audience,
(13:57):
it's super cool to like see howthat does and see people get
excited about it it's a goodfeedback loop and then you're
like, how do I have the nextgood idea?
Speaker 1 (14:06):
yeah, what's your?
Speaker 2 (14:07):
favorite.
Oh yeah, what's your favoritetype?
Speaker 1 (14:11):
what do you love to create?
What's your favorite type ofthing to make?
Is it blogs?
Is it videos?
Speaker 2 (14:16):
honestly, I, if I never had to write another
social caption again, I would bethe happiest social captions
can get kind of uh, like it canreally like they're definitely
like interesting to like writebecause it's short form copy and
like.
Connecting with your audienceon social media is always
changing because of differentalgorithms, but for me I think
(14:40):
my favorite.
I really had to think aboutthis like beforehand there are
so many yeah yeah, I think.
I think video scripts are themost fun because seeing Writing
a video script down and thenseeing how the video actually
turns out after either.
I record it, megan records it.
Speaker 1 (14:58):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
After it's edited, like it's really cool like
journey seeing it from likepoint A to point B.
Speaker 1 (15:04):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
And it's probably like my most fun like way to do
like storytelling, because Idon't know, it's just like you
get.
It's probably like my most funlike way to do like storytelling
, because I don't know, it'sjust like it's a little bit of
everything.
Right, you get to write ascript and then you get to
either record the video or likehelp record the video and then
from there like it's edited intoa new, like polished thing and
I just really think it's cool tolike see that whole process
(15:28):
happen.
Yeah, I also really like thepodcast.
Like I think playing thosetopics and, uh, putting them out
there is a lot of fun.
Like this new series idea isreally fun.
So whenever I do the prep forit, specifically like helping me
, like helping you come up withquestions for this like it's
really fun.
But yeah, video scripts seem tobe the most fun to me and this
(15:49):
is basically a video script.
Speaker 1 (15:51):
This is video improv.
That's what you're doing whenyou make a podcast, prep doc.
You're doing video improv andthen you have like scripted
video.
You never know what I'm goingto say.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
And honestly I like podcasts for that reason too,
because you set these parametersand then you see what happens
and usually really gooddiscussions come out and really
good like uh, thought points.
And that's really rewarding too, because it's like they took
this one question or sentence Ihad and turned it into this like
awesome story about yeah Idon't even know or like this
(16:29):
really good case study examplelike I don't know.
Speaker 1 (16:31):
It's really cool.
Yeah, okay, tell me one projectthat you're really proud of,
that you've worked on here Ithink, oh man, that's a tough
one.
Speaker 2 (16:42):
There's like a lot of projects that I've had fun with
yeah um, I think the podcastit's definitely been like the
most like.
It takes a lot of time andeffort to pull a lot together
and seeing the episodes go outand like and seeing some of the
things that come out of them,like I said earlier, I think
(17:02):
it's really fun.
I also selfishly like my foodblog that I wrote because that
has performed pretty well.
Even though it's notnecessarily marketing adjacent,
it's something that I'mpassionate about.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
It is not related to our business at all.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Okay, that is the perfect segue into your most
unpopular food opinion oh, Ithink, as someone who has lived
in the midwest and born in themidwest, obviously raised in the
midwest- I don't live therecurrently careful.
I think ranch is really gross.
Speaker 1 (17:37):
Oh, but I that's like my biggest hot take you're
never gonna be allowed to setfoot in the state of Nebraska
ever again.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
And the funny thing is, like Chloe loves ranch, it's
like one of her favorite likethings to put on everything.
Speaker 1 (17:53):
I want to talk to Chloe about ranch.
I went to a drag show in Omahalike a month or so ago and the
queen that was performing wasfrom Omaha originally.
She did a ranch off where shehad like Runza and like is it
Franny's or Franny's?
Speaker 2 (18:14):
I don't know, I can't remember, but Runza is supposed
to be really good ranch,according to Chloe.
Speaker 1 (18:18):
Yeah, she had three different ranch dressings from
like local Omaha slash Nebraskaestablishments and she got them
all right.
Ranch according to koi.
She had three different ranchdressings from like local omaha
slash nebraska establishmentsand she got them all right.
It was like a blind taste testthat's crazy.
If she could name the restaurantand which ranch that's talent
yeah, I was very impressed andthree for three, like out of the
gate.
It was like this is runza, thisit was amazing, it was truly
(18:41):
amazing yeah, I just, I don'tknow, I just don't like it, it's
just not like.
Do you like something that Ibased I?
Speaker 2 (18:48):
love mayo, I think, yeah, there's just something
about like ranch.
I don't like sour cream either,and maybe that's like similar
kind of buttermilk.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
Oh god, now I just want some, like some chilies has
really good ranch okay.
Uh, amigos, is supposed toreally good ranch Okay.
Speaker 2 (19:03):
Amigos is supposed to have good ranch too, apparently
.
Speaker 1 (19:05):
That might have been.
Is that in Omaha?
Speaker 2 (19:08):
I think it is.
I don't know if it's like aNebraska thing, because I don't.
Speaker 1 (19:11):
That might have been one of the three choices.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
I would not be surprised that one's, like I
think, pretty popular.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
Okay, that's fantastic yeah.
Speaker 2 (19:24):
I mean, you're not not gonna get canceled, but
that's like it's a pretty hottake, I know.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
Yeah, yeah, when that question came up I was like all
right, I have the perfect one II don't know if I have like I
don't know if I have like anunpopular food opinion.
I also firmly believe that weshouldn't do things that don't
make us like feel good.
So it's like if ranch doesn'tmake you feel good, you
(19:47):
shouldn't eat it.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
That's like absolutely correct.
I'm the type of person thatwill try like anything once and
if I don't like it 100%.
I will not try to get well,even if I don't like it, unless
it's.
Malort, that's true, very true.
If I don't like it malort,that's true, very true.
Well, even if I don't like it,I think I'll maybe give it a
chance in the rightcircumstances, like malort.
(20:09):
So, or if I really don't likeit, I'll forget that I don't
like it and then I'll try itagain.
Speaker 1 (20:13):
It's this perpetual cycle just to see what happens,
what is okay, what is theweirdest thing you've ever eaten
?
And then we got to wrap.
We could spend this could go onfor hours.
Speaker 2 (20:24):
Oh my gosh.
So my favorite restaurant inOmaha is Koji.
Okay, and I didn't know that Iwas eating this, but basically
like their whole thing isthey're in Izakaya, which is
like it's like a bar restaurant,like a kind of spot that's like
really cash, it's okay, reallycasual, like you go there to
(20:47):
like eat and drink, basically,and it's like small plates and
it's like food that's made fordrinking, basically okay and
anyway, uh, they have uhyakitori with like the
traditional, like charcoalgrills, so it's like skewered
meat and they have like specialsand usually it's like meat that
you don't get to try like veryoften and mystery meat it wasn't
(21:11):
mystery meat, but uh, they werelike oh, we have like oysters,
right okay, and like that's notthat weird.
Well, no, it wasn't.
It wasn't actually like oysters, it was like it's basically
like chicken gonads was what itwas like rocky mountain oysters,
yeah, chicken yeah, they saidlike chicken oysters and my
brain was like, oh, oysters.
(21:31):
And then I came out and I waslike what is this?
Speaker 1 (21:33):
I tried it.
I was like so small it was.
Speaker 2 (21:36):
Yeah, it was interesting.
I never thought I'd tryanything like that, but
definitely probably the weirdestthing I can think of off the
top of my head.
Huh, but I mean the food is sogood there that it didn't matter
I love it.
Speaker 1 (21:50):
I have a weird like mind over matter thing where,
like, if I know something islike not typical midwestern fair
, sometimes I'm like, ah, nope,I don't think I can do it, like
the gag reflex kicks in evenbefore like the food has arrived
.
Speaker 2 (22:09):
Well, if you like if you want to try something
midwest like coated, at Kojithey have a ranza which is like
a bao bun, kind of like taco,but it has runs of filling in
the middle and it's really goodand the chef is James Beard,
nominated twice Okay.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
It's not even that expensive either.
Speaker 2 (22:30):
It's really good it's in Countryside Village.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
Okay, this is a good tip, zach.
We're like this is going to bea 15-minute episode.
It has been a half an hour andwe are still yammering on.
We like didn't even.
We didn't even get to all thesegreat questions.
But I think we got to know alittle bit more about you and I
appreciate you taking the timeto chat with me and being a
(22:56):
willing subject thanks forhaving me.
Speaker 2 (23:00):
I mean, I'm always here anyway as a producer, but
it's nice to be on the cameratoo.
Speaker 1 (23:05):
Thank you for coming to your own podcast that you
encourage us to record weekly.
You can find Zach on LinkedIn,zachary, are you Zachary Hazen
or Zach?
Speaker 2 (23:20):
Hazen, I think you're Zach, I don't know.
I always switch it up.
Speaker 1 (23:23):
Honestly, it depends If they make me say my full name
.
Speaker 2 (23:27):
I say it but yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
Otherwise, you can find him by interacting with any
of our Antidote 71 LinkedInposts, because you know he's
popping up in those commentsleft and right.
And, as always, you can findour agency at Antidote
underscore 71 on social, or youcan visit ctapodcastlive to send
us a question.
Or, if you want to get reallyweird and head back to 2009, you
(23:50):
can leave us a voicemail at402-718-9971.
Thank you, as always, forlistening and we will catch you
next time.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
See ya.
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