September 30, 2025 • 48 mins
In the 36th episode of CultivatED Marketer – your go-to professional development podcast for marketing and communications professionals – the hosts sat down with Valerie Morrow, Director of Social Media at Dairy Farmers of America. Valerie is a seasoned social media leader with nearly 15 years of experience, and explores with the group how marketing communications strategies can adapt in a fast-changing digital environment, integration of data and storytelling, the impact of AI on social media, and the evolving role of social platforms in SEO.
Don't miss Valerie's expert tips on creating intentional content, building engaged communities, and managing social media strategies effectively.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Cultivated marketer, episode 36,social media, and being conscientiously
(00:06):
Curious with Valerie Morrow In thisepisode of Cultivated Marketer, you're
gonna want to tune in as we talk withthe director of Social Media at Dairy
Farmers of America, Valerie Morrow.
In it, we talk not just thecreative side of things, we talk.
The science of social media as well,and being conscientiously curious
(00:30):
how to develop good KPIs, how to sellsocial media programs within your
organization, how to develop your goals.
It's an amazing conversation thatmarries both the art and the science
of social media and how you want to.
Think through that and work withinyour organization to become a better
(00:53):
communicator or a better marketer.
So you'll definitely want to checkthis episode out with Valerie Morrow.
(01:15):
Okay, Julie, Matt.
We're having this conversation.
Some of this conversation was a littlebit, I'm gonna be honest with you because
I had the chance to, to visit withVal a lot, Valerie, a lot at Digital
Summit, Minneapolis, about a monthback, and so there were some things I
already nuggets from that conversation.
(01:36):
I said, we're, when we gettogether to talk on the podcast,
we're discussing these things.
So some of this was not a surprise, butsome of the elements that she brought
forward, even just her close aroundprofessional development and some of
the, the ways we should be thinkingabout professional development and goal
setting really were highlights for mein that, in that conversation we just,
(02:00):
you know, we're, we're gonna have withVal here and share with everybody.
Yeah, you know, sometimes we, we lookfor a little eclipse that I know that
your great production team there will puttogether for us on social with a little,
you know, just a bit of a soundbite.
I'm sitting, I've got like seven thingswritten down, so whoever does that will
have, you know, without vision, we perish.
And just so many great factoids.
And again, her focus on strategy.
(02:21):
And I know Julie, you're alwaysreminding us on LinkedIn, guys, we
gotta thank strategy, not tactics.
Boy, talk about somebody whopersonifies that so well, I just
thought it was a great conversation.
What a super smart marketer, uh,you know, really glad we had her on.
Yeah, I really like how she talkedabout what she encourages her team to
do, and, and I'm probably not gonna saythis right, so you can get it directly
(02:42):
quoted from the podcast, but she talkedabout how she encourages her team to
be curious, but through the lens ofbasically their strategic plan, what
are they actually trying to accomplish?
So.
You can have all the ideas you wantor think about all the trends you,
you've seen out there, but let'sput that lens on that idea, put that
lens on that thought of what are weactually trying to accomplish here?
(03:06):
What's our strategy?
And I thought that was areally good way to say that.
So she's, she's sharp.
Yeah.
Was that the, that was the point inthe conversation where we were talking
a little bit about the, the mo, theTaylor Swift Orange moment, right?
Yeah, that's right.
Right?
That's right.
And so, and, and I think it wasconscious, was it consciously curious?
We'll get it direct from her,but I think I might was, yeah.
(03:29):
Was it consciously curious?
Consciously
curious.
Yeah.
Be consciously curious and Ithink I need to write that down
and another good sound bite.
Put it
on my computer.
Yeah.
The other soundbite I tookfrom her is Block and Protect.
Having, yes.
Having LED and started some socialmedia teams or large brands, it's not
just about going viral and sometimes,sometimes it's about protecting the brain.
(03:50):
It gets almost.
To that Amy Whitfield conversation.
It's about monitoring and listening forthe things that are being said, and then
even blocking and protecting the brand.
She talked about it, I think more inrelationship to blocking and protecting
your own space, which is mm-hmm.
I just think is a, is a goodprofessional development lesson.
(04:11):
But I think even in the world ofsocial media, I'm even watching some
of the things that have just happenedwithin the last week where certain
brands, certain people are coming out.
Speaking one way or another, and itbecomes almost a crisis calm situation.
And ultimately, social'sa fulcrum for that, right?
Yep.
So hearing her use that termblock, I need to put the block
(04:32):
and protect sign up above,
she said focus.
She says you're gonna, I don'tremember how she said it, but she.
Said, success comes from being focused.
And I thought I needed to hear that today.
So
I'm just so glad thatshe emphasized just that.
Just like all of our othermarketing channels that have
been around for decades, right?
We have to put the same level ofstrategic focus on social media.
(04:55):
I think so many, and we talkabout this a bit in the show, but.
So many of the social media successstories that we see from much
earlier maybe in the platform'sdevelopment were frankly things
that brands sort of lucked into.
Mm-hmm.
And I think the admonition from,from Valerie and the experts
in this field are No, no, no.
You have to, you know,luck's great, but I'll take
preparation and strategy any day.
(05:15):
And, and yeah, she spent a lot oftime on that, which I'm glad she did.
And I, and I appreciate the twoof you allowing me to do a little
bit of a deep dive with her.
With respect to AI because,oh no, that was fascinating.
That was good.
I think that whole notion of, toextend that further, Matt, that whole
conversation around social media beinga strategic platform is even gonna take
(05:38):
on greater weight now as we're seeingthe LLMs start to use it as the primary.
Citation sources, and so mm-hmm.
We got into that conversation a little bitabout Reddit, but the other one is Wiki,
or you know, Instagram's being pulled intothe indexing now Pinterest is the top,
(06:00):
so there's gonna be more strategic intentthat needs to go into, and she, she hit
on it about being audience first, right.
And answering the audience's questions.
Yeah.
The way social media is gonna be used isgonna be vastly different five years from
now than the way it was five years ago.
That's right.
That's right.
So any other final thoughts?
Just so much to unpack inthe conversation with her.
(06:22):
Yeah.
Really, I,
I actually think I'm gonna have myintro to marketing students listen
to this and write a paper forextra credit because it's not good.
It won't be the first time a class hasheard a cultivated marketer episode.
I will tell you that dailybecause I've got a whole catalog
eclipse that, that my crew hears.
They probably get tiredof it, but that's how I
got listening to this podcast.
Yeah.
Back when I was, was at ku.
Yep.
And, and what our listeners can'tsee is me smiling like the chat.
(06:45):
Shower cat at that stadium of theTill Prince brand plan steeping my
fingers together tomorrow, the world.
Oh, all right.
On that note, we've just evolvedinto silliness so it with you two.
I've always appreciate the time.
I appreciate the partnership.
You bet.
(07:05):
We'll jump into this conversationwith Valerie Marrow talking about
social media and so much more.
Hope you enjoyed theconversation as much as we did.
Welcome to Cultivated Marketer, where wetalk marketing professional developments.
(07:27):
Your garden of opportunity grows.
This is Brent Bowen.
I'm Matt Tidwell.
And I'm Julie Maan.
And our guest this time is a seasonedsocial media leader with nearly 15
years of experience driving engagementfor both brands and agencies.
She holds a master of arts and masscommunications from the University of
(07:50):
Central Missouri, where she largelyfocused her coursework on corporate
and organizational communication.
But now she's the director of socialmedia at Dairy Farmers of America, the
nation's largest dairy cooperative.
She leads a team focusedon blending data and.
(08:10):
I know 'cause I've sat in onour session at Digital Summit.
Storytelling's a big focus and she doesthat to build engaged online communities.
Tremendous about that.
So I'm really excited to get into this.
She is also a, as Imentioned, digital Summit.
She is also a frequent speaker andan educator in digital marketing.
(08:30):
And it took us like 19 times adigital summit to finally cross paths.
So I'm.
So, and I got very passionateabout that first time meeting
'cause I tracked her down with somedetermination and I, after we talked
to her, you're gonna understand why.
Valerie Morrow, welcome to the show.
Thank you so much.
(08:50):
Yeah.
Hey Valerie.
Welcome.
I'm so glad you joined us.
I just really just fascinating topic.
We can't wait to get into it, butmaybe we should start a bit at the
beginning and you've got nearly 15years of experience in social media.
I know that's both acrossagency and brand environments.
Could you share a little bitabout your career journey?
Like what first drew you to focusmore on social media, and were
there some pivotal moments in therethat shaped that direction a bit?
(09:12):
Yeah.
I love the idea that sometimesyou choose your career and
sometimes your career chooses you.
And in my case, it was the latter.
So I was sharing with Brent when wemet that I was doing my coursework,
a master's program at Universityof Central Missouri in Warrensburg.
And I always knew that I wanted todo something business and I knew
(09:34):
that I wanted to do something,communication, but I wasn't quite sure
where that skinny shaded area was.
And so.
My dad and mom were both executiverecruiters and always taught me
to be very solution oriented.
And so that's the approach that I tookto finding the career path that would
fulfill me, but also that would fulfilla need for a business or an organization.
(09:57):
And so started talking to.
Chief marketing officers, VPs ofmarketing, and said over the next 10
years, because at the time, 10 years feltlike a long time, said over the next 10
years, what's a marketing challenge thatyou feel like you're going to have that
today you feel wholly unprepared to solve?
And this was 2010, 2011, and that waswhen social media was really emerging.
(10:20):
And so they said, this social mediathing, it's loud, it's scary, we
don't know what to do with it, and ifyou can tell us what to do with it.
You have a job.
And so I went all in, pushed all the chipson the table and just started to learn
everything I could about social mediaand fell in love with it, both from the
(10:41):
community and storytelling aspect thatBrent referenced, but also what it could
do to build a brand and to build reallyan audience in a different way that a lot
of the tools in the current toolbox andthe landscape just couldn't quite touch.
Oh,
not great.
Wow.
I'm fascinated by the question youasked back then that you were thinking
(11:05):
ahead and thinking, these are thepeople I need to ask to get input from
that, that that shows some seriouscritical thinking and playing ahead
and ambition all things I like so.
Brent tells us that you're known forblending data and analytics, like he
said earlier, and when I hear data andanalytics and storytelling, I don't
necessarily think those two go together.
(11:27):
I mean, I've seen it done welland clearly you're doing it well.
So can you walk us through an examplewhere analytics helped refine a
narrative and where storytelling approachimproved social media performance?
Because I think that's fascinating and Ithink it's not something that we readily
associate as two things going together,data and analytics and storytelling.
Right.
A lot of people think that it feels veryoil and water, and I really think that
(11:51):
there are two magnets that are meant toattract and that when you really look
at those in each of their own spheres,but when you bring them together.
They tell that full, complete story.
And so there's oftentimes whereI think we're so focused on the
content of the page and getting thenext post up or planning for the
(12:12):
next campaign, that we often don'ttake time to really reflect on.
How things performed,why things performed.
And so I have had to learn in my careerreally blocking and protecting time
to do that by myself and also invitingothers into that place and space.
And when I started to do that with myteam and a couple of the folks within
(12:35):
our broader department who help usbring that social story to life, so
we have a creative team that has.
Editorial and creative support.
And when we started to look at that,at the time when I joined DFA in
2019, we didn't have a blog space.
And so telling long form stories was botha need to help humanize the brand, but it
(13:00):
was also a challenge in everybody sayingbite, bite, bite, bite-size things or,
you know, the thing that every marketingconference started with of everybody has.
The attention span of a goldfish, andwe really pushed back on that narrative
and said, I think that if the content isgood enough and the story is interesting
(13:20):
enough, people will continue to read.
But over time, and as the algorithmschanged, we really saw an opportunity
to take that long form story thatwe were putting in the copy and
say, how do we take that into video?
And not video that is overly produced,that has a huge production budget
(13:43):
that just allows people to see andhear and feel a different human being.
And so what we started to do waswe have 10,000 farmer owners and we
said, can we just find 10 of them?
That can use an iPhone or anAndroid, and can we give them a
topic and a little bit of an outlineand let them tell their story?
(14:06):
And so we created a group of farmerowners who do that regularly, and then
they either share content on theirown page or we share it and use the
collab feature within Instagram, andit creates a need that we can't get.
Sitting in an office in KansasCity, Kansas, but it also elevates
(14:27):
and amplifies the humanity of whatpeople are really looking for when
they're in that social environment.
And so we took the data of what wewere seeing perform in those long form
stories, and we took the innovationand the idea of storytelling and said.
Why couldn't it come from thepeople and the places that we're
really trying to steward anyway?
(14:48):
And it's been really fun both towatch them be well received, but
also to watch them grow in their ownconfidence of coming up with ideas
and meeting us in new ways and gettingmore confident in front of the camera.
And so it's just been really fun.
Okay.
I do have a
follow up question that I wasn'tplanning on asking, but I have to ask it.
Was it a challenge to convince yourleaders of this strategy, or did the
(15:12):
analytics that you had, is that whatyou were able to use to convince
your leaders, this is the strategy,this is the path we need to take?
Two parts to that.
So yes, the data of what we were seeingand what we thought was possible.
And then the other thing we did iswe found these creators knowing that
they were farmer owners to beginwith, and knowing that they had a
(15:34):
little bit of a social presence.
And so we actually dida three wave approach.
One is we pulled a couple ofexamples that already existed to say.
They have the potential,like do you see the seed?
We pulled a couple of examples ofperforming posts that had done well,
but started to identify some areaswhere we just weren't able to quite
(15:59):
grasp that next level of storytellingbecause it just felt two dimensional and
we wanted to invite them into the 3D.
And then the third wave waswe found a couple of examples
from within our own industry.
And a couple from outside tosay, this is visually what
we're really trying to achieve.
(16:20):
And we've seen other people doit, but we think we can bring
our own flare and flavor to that.
And so that kind of layering approachof this is what we know is out there.
This is where our glass ceiling is, andthis is how we've seen others do it well.
But where we think we have room to rampup in our own way was enough for them.
(16:40):
And also to just say, we just reallywanna start on a really small scale.
Dairy Farmers of America has beenincredible, and why I have been there
six and a half years is that if youhave a good idea and you're able to
articulate the element of evolution thatyou see, and the risk is one that is
a calculated risk, they're all for it.
(17:01):
And so that's really where when youare looking for a place that you wanna
be, my 92-year-old grandma asks metwo questions when we talk about work.
She said, are you learning?
Are you still having fun?
I love that.
Good questions.
And if those two questions exist inequal weight, then you know that you
(17:22):
are still where you're supposed to be.
And so six and a half years later,we're still learning and we're
still having fun full circle
data and storytelling to sell it in.
And data and data and data andstorytelling from grandma too.
That's that's great.
Yep.
He's a wise lady.
You don't get to 92 by accident.
Yeah, for sure.
A lot of wisdom there.
Yeah, that's great.
I mean, the thing that resonated me withme in terms of, you're talking about
(17:45):
that project is the authenticity piece.
You're letting your own members, yourown owners tell their story, right?
And, and so many times, gosh, I canremember even pre-social media days,
I dunno if any, any of you guys hadthis experience, but HR would say,
okay, we gotta go out and shootphotos of our employee, or we, we
need photos of our employees, right?
So they bring me stuff and itwas always the stock photo of the
cheesy people around the desk.
(18:06):
Nice.
I finally went to my CEO.
I said, can we just please hire aphotographer and we'll just send
'em around and shoot people in ourown, people in our own offices.
But it, you know, the pushbackwas, oh no, let's just do you know,
we'll just use stock photographyand Oh God, if I see another cheesy.
So anyway, long story.
I got off on a tangent.
Great job outta you guys usingyour own people to tell the story.
'cause that's whatauthenticity's all about.
So
yeah.
That's incredible.
Yeah.
(18:27):
Love that.
Hey, the social media landscapethough, shifts so rapidly.
My gosh.
I mean, all the platforms that, you know,10 years ago were here now they're gone.
And even more recently we'veseen platforms move in and out.
How do you kind of, so whether it'sthe platforms or just the, the genre
itself, how do you try to stay ahead,what practices help you kind of
separate enduring principles fromagain, those passing trends and fads
(18:48):
that we see so often in this space?
Yeah, you're right.
Social media is shifting constantlyand I found that the best way
to keep up is really to focus onthe people and not the platforms.
And what I mean by that is byfocusing on both your audience.
First and what they want and why they'rethere, and how you can show them more
(19:12):
of what you already know works andthe people that you are trying to
influence within your organization,whether that is bringing others into.
The social realm of what it is that you'retrying to create or your leadership.
There's work to be done in both spaces.
And when you're really focused onwhat is it that our goal is and, and
(19:36):
knowing those goals and believingthose goals and trusting those goals,
it makes it so much easier to letwhat is not meant for you fall away.
And it brings into clarity andalignment what is meant for you.
And so.
If something pops up, we'll test itin a small way if we feel like it's
one that's going to actually work.
(19:58):
A great example of thatis the Taylor Swift album.
When it came out.
You will not see anythingorange on our page.
There was a moment where youlook at it and you kind of say.
I, I want it to be for us, but it's justnot, you're so tempted, weren't you?
Yes.
Right.
I mean, being from Kansas Cityand, you know, all the things,
(20:21):
and we thought about, you know,do we have a product for this?
Or what if we made a cow orange orwhere, where's the orange thread?
And you know what?
It just wasn't, it wasn't for us.
And so.
You, you just let it fall andthen the analytics close the loop.
'cause we're always looking at whatworked and what didn't and why.
And that's what helps separate a passingfad from something that really changes
(20:45):
how people interact with the content.
So it really is a mix.
It's staying curious.
That's something that I reallyencourage my team to do.
I really say like, I want you to becurious, but I also layer in, I want
you to be consciously curious and thatlayer is specifically for, I want you
(21:06):
to keep the strategic bifocal lensover whatever it is that you're viewing
and not just saying, that's cool.
That's funny.
That's neat, but does it fit reallywhat our audience and what our
leadership sees as something thatwe're driving and that we're building?
Yeah.
As a quick follow up, how do youdetermine, or how do you research
(21:28):
kind of the platforms that yourprimary stakeholders are on?
Do you, do you do that research actively?
Is it just sort of observational?
How does that come about?
I think it's both.
I think, you know, that's a place where.
Again, I use the phrase block and protectoften because there is so much ground that
we can cover as social media professionalsthat you have to decide what's important,
(21:50):
but you also have to remind yourselfthat there is something really good
and right about doing that research.
And sometimes it can feel mindless.
And so I usually try to create or name.
The goal that I'm trying to accomplish inthat time, and I say I'm going to scroll
with the mindset that I'm looking for.
(22:12):
X, Y, Z. So I'll block time andI'll sit in a room with the trending
audio and I'll actually justlisten to it with my eyes closed.
And the reason that I'm doing that isI'm trying to see the video that is not
yet created, or when I close my mind,where does my imagination take me?
(22:33):
Using that conscious curiosityof the overlay of our strategy.
So I'm thinking about our audience.
I'm thinking about maybe the footagethat we have or a piece of the business.
And when you close your eyes, you cankind of start to see something thread
together and it's kind of fuzzy, butthen it comes into to view and then also.
(22:54):
Going to conferencesand talking to people.
I think so often, and the very firstpart of my career, I thought that
the most important thing was totalautonomy was to not have anybody
look at my strategy or read my copy.
Like I just thought if no one hadthe keys to the kingdom and it was
just me posting, I had made it.
(23:16):
Then I realized that there'sactually something really good and
right about synergy in that too.
And so it wasn't justautonomy, it was who?
Who else can I bring into what I'mcreating so that they can see it
and get excited about it as well?
Who can I galvanize to join me?
Because it's much more fun to go ona road trip with friends than it is
(23:38):
to drive 24 hours all by yourself
on that whole notion ofroad trips with friends.
Let's go
on one.
Brent, let's go
on.
Let's, let's, let's.
Unless
you eat corn nuts and thenwe are not in the same car.
Sounds like my wife.
I don't, I don't think I've toucheda corn nut since canoe trip,
probably in, in southern Missouri.
(24:00):
So it's been probably a couple.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's where you eat.
Yeah.
It's probably been a couple decades.
Soggy bag
in front.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Soggy bag in the, it was last, andif you get dumped in the canoe,
it was the last item you saved.
You, you saved your O first and thenyour canoe partner second I think was
the, was the order we had for that.
But in this whole notion ofroad trips with friends, right.
(24:23):
You mentioned one of these, so there'sa lot of, a lot of my clients that I'm
working with, there's a lot of renewedinterest in SEO and a lot of that has to
do with, with artificial intelligence.
Mm-hmm.
The chat bots getting, you, andI saw this at Digital Summit,
it was standing room only.
To get into the AI searchconversations, to hear some of
(24:46):
the speakers talk about them.
Some of gold for that were someof the long form storytelling.
You mentioned the blogs video, butmore recently, and I actually was
sharing this with a client now, there'salways been a bit of a symbiotic
relationship that that road trip.
Kind of galvanization withsocial media and SEO, but
(25:07):
we're even seeing more of that.
Just in the last couple weeks,Google announced that it was
gonna start indexing Instagram.
Right.
So beyond what you're thinking aboutwhen you do this visualization exercise,
how much are you now considering?
What's going into visibility?
Like I've had more PR practitioners in thelast couple weeks start inquiring about
(25:31):
SEO surfaces and what can be done there.
How much, how much of that is goinginto your thinking now about not just.
Trying to connect with humans froman organic or paid standpoint,
but you're feeding visibility ina different way, whether it be
traditional search or AI search.
The update for Instagram is hugebecause for the first time it blurs
(25:52):
the line between social and search,and so it's really changed and evolved
the way that we produce content.
And so I think the way thatwe produce content now is
that every post has two lives.
It has one on the Instagram feedwhere it needs to spark some sort of.
Interaction and engagement, andthen one on Google where it needs
(26:16):
to answer the kinds of questionsthat people are searching for.
And so if you design with both in mindthe conversation for your audience,
but also the intentional search.
You get content that performstoday and keeps working tomorrow.
Yeah, that's be beautiful.
I was wondering if you were gonnago back to the North Star of all,
(26:36):
this is still audience first, right?
Mm-hmm.
It's just a matter of being maybe abit more intentional about asking a
question and answering a question.
Yeah.
And so that's one where I thinkyou have to, for the longest time.
While we all serve different functions ona team and in a marketing organization,
I'm so passionate that social deservesthe right to be at the table in
(27:01):
planning and in process and in follow-upmeetings and those types of things.
But oftentimes, and especiallyif we have distanced ourselves
from it for such a long time tosay, I'm social, I'm not search.
I don't do SEO.
We actually have to be honestand vulnerable and say the last
(27:23):
time that we touched search isprobably the same time that a lot
of people last touched social media.
And so you find that a lot of peoplestill approach social media from 2015.
And I think if we as social mediamarketers were honest with ourselves,
we would probably still approach search.
(27:44):
A 2015 mindset.
And so I think we have to be vulnerableand honest with ourselves and say, do
I really know what is different sincethe last time that I intentionally was
involved in SEO and that for me as both.
People leader and a strategicmind within our organization.
(28:05):
Those are questionsthat I'm asking myself.
So I can say, I understand and I willplan differently, but I need to go all
the way back to 10 years ago when thosethings were a little bit closer together
and really say, what do I not know?
And so those are the type of questionsreintroducing ourselves to our
(28:25):
marketing team and saying, you know.
What tools are we using and can youhelp me connect these two thoughts?
Because I think we all have that kindof gut of where we would like to go.
But again, knowing the data pointsthat we're really looking at to,
to weave those things together.
And so I think we're looking at theinside the app, is that focusing
(28:47):
on interaction, meaning that theposts that invite comments or
direct messages or the captionsthat really ask a genuine question.
We're also in the caption,starting to seed some of
those layers of searchability.
So I like to think about how someonemight google a topic and make sure
that language or caption, or even thealt text, I feel like we as marketers
(29:10):
sometimes get really lazy with altext, but that is a place where those
clear natural keywords in the captions.
The descriptive copy on the graphichelps posts live beyond Instagram
and who wouldn't for as much love andinspiration as we put into a social post
that sometimes you know, us and howevermany else other people see it like.
(29:34):
How much better would it be ifwe're actually able to Google what
we hoped that post accomplishedto see it in, in the results?
So it's really about creating contentthat's conversational enough to invite
interaction, but intentional enough tocarry SEO weight once it leaves the app.
Yeah, once it leaves the app, and eventhen you had me, and again, this may be
(29:58):
a conversation you and I have to haveon the side, as somebody that spent more
time in the SEO, again, having that 2015view of social media, once you started
talking about the collaboration featuresof Instagram, I was thinking about, oh.
I hadn't even thought about thatfrom a standpoint of implications
for SEO that how interesting.
I'm gonna have to unpack that oncethe conversation's over today.
(30:21):
You know, it's thinking, yeah, it'shaving all this grows and evolves so
that, that's very curious how we'regonna see how we're collaborate.
Been a little distant cousinsin a marketing, but seeing how
this is coming, coming togetheris really gonna be fascinating.
Yeah.
Distant cousins who are frequentlymore at the same table at the
family reunion it sounds like.
(30:42):
So yeah, coming together.
I love this.
Yeah, I love this deep dive.
Elli is great on this topic, but maybejust shifting to slightly, 'cause I
know it's, I think it's just so coolthat you're, you're doing so much
now in the area of speaking and,and educating a digital marketing.
We talked about how you're on the circuitfor the terrific digital marketing
summits that are around the country.
We need to get that back in Kansas City.
I don't know, I dunnowho we need to talk to.
(31:03):
Right.
But, oh, we, I, I just, I miss it inso many ways when we have good events
here too, but that was such a good one.
But anyway.
In those roles, what are the most commonchallenges or misconceptions that you
encounter when you're at the front of theclass, let's say teaching social strategy?
Do those exist, those kinds ofmisconceptions or challenges?
Yeah, they absolutely do.
I think we've hit on a coupleof them already, but the, one of
(31:24):
the biggest misconceptions I see.
Is that social strategy is morethan just posting or chasing trends.
So people are often surprised when Itell them that success usually comes
from focus and it's actually doingless, but doing it with more purpose.
And so choosing to be just becauseI tell people all the time from
(31:47):
stage or when they ask questions,just because a platform exists does
not mean that you have to be on it.
Again, it all goes back to that audience.
And are they there?
And do you have something to say and doyou have the the right way to to say it?
I think, you know, again, in that 2015we did have a little bit of leniency
of rinse and repeat and taking.
(32:10):
Content from one platform andputting it on the other, but
that doesn't work anymore.
And so I think, again, I use the wordhonor really intentionally honoring
the capacity that you have as amarketer, knowing your resources and
knowing what you can do Excellently.
Is much better than trying to putall of the little icons at the
(32:33):
bottom of your email signature.
I think that's such an importantpoint and I'm so glad that you
focus on the purpose piece of that.
'cause I think so manytimes we hear about.
Great social media case studies frombrands and it, it almost seems like they
all sort of like lucked into it, right?
Like I was talking with students todayin my class about the VML managed
the Wendy's account a few yearsago, and they got the most retweeted
(32:53):
tweet in history when the kid said,Hey, how many retweets do I need?
In fact, I. A graduateof our RAMC program.
Pat was on the agencyteam at VML that did that.
But when he came in, and a lotof it was just luck, right?
They were cruising and they found thislittle, you know, this again, innocuous
12-year-old who said, Hey, how manyretweets do I need to get free nuggets?
And then it ended up beingwhatever, 38 million and et cetera.
Record nugs for Carter.
(33:13):
Yeah, nugs for Carter, right?
But, but again, the students kindalook at me like, oh yeah, they
just sort of lucked into that.
Somebody was cruising and saw it.
So your point is, we may havesome luck in there, but we
should be purposeful as well.
I think that's huge.
Yeah, and that, you know, it reallycomes, I think the difference between
a good marketer and a great marketer isoftentimes leaving space for the things
(33:35):
that seem really mundane, but thatoften move the mundane to the magical.
That is creating space and holdingspace to do things, like researching
and looking at data and listening andgoing after something, and it's so much
not to, I think oftentimes we just get.
(33:57):
In that hamster wheel of creating content,creating content, creating content, and
we're so focused on looking down thatwe forget to look up and out and we miss
if we're on a road trip, we miss allthe cool things on the side of the road.
'cause we're just focused on wherewe think we're supposed to go.
And I don't know if there's a lotof Type A marketers out there like
(34:20):
me, but I have had to learn thatthere is beauty in the detours.
That's good.
Beauty in the detours is so good.
I feel like becoming a momreally helped with that.
Yes, that'll do it for sure.
You know, when I'm workingwith nonprofit clients.
Almost to a T. Every singleone of them will see social
(34:42):
media as this silver bullet.
Yeah.
And they wanna be on all theplatforms and they think they
should be on all the platforms.
So I really love that you said youdon't need to be doing everything
you see your competitors doing.
I mean, you didn't say that, butthat's essentially what you're
saying and reminding our audienceof, so I think that's really helpful.
So.
When you think about what's comingnext with social media strategy,
(35:04):
what do you think is coming?
Do you think the next big shiftis gonna be AI power tools,
community focused social platforms,or something else entirely?
I know you're doing a lot withcommunity building, but, and I
know you cannot predict the future.
I, I understand that, but youseem really sharp, so you.
You maybe have an in on something.
So tell us the dates Mark.
(35:24):
The take.
The take,
man.
If I had a crystal ball, I think I'dstill be working in social media.
I'd just be doing it more pro bono.
I think that the next big shift is notgoing to be a shiny new platform or tool.
I really think it's going to be how AIcommunity and trust all come together.
(35:46):
Ooh, I like that.
So AI is definitely changingthe way that we work.
It is helping us create content faster.
It's helping to analyze what resonates,but I don't think that AI replaces
the human side of storytelling.
And if anything, it makes thehuman piece more important because
(36:07):
audiences are going to be cravingwhat feels real and personal.
At the same time, you cansee that pendulum swing back
toward community, right?
People are tired of shouting in thevoid and they want a space where
they can actually connect and belong.
And it's why you're seeing thingslike private group chat, close
friends list, and these nicheplatforms really gaining traction.
(36:30):
I know just think about the explosionthat we've seen in the Reddit communities
and the threads of, not threads theplatform from meta, but threads within.
Reddit where people are really lookingfor like-minded, they're looking at all of
the different subreddits, and so I thinkthat the big shift is going to be this
(36:50):
blend and who can do that well in a spacewhere things are moving so quickly, but.
The untrained eye is becoming verytrained and it's saying if a business or
a brand is going to rely on ai, that'snot who I am and and what I'm about.
And so AI is helping us to be smarterand more efficient, but with a renewed on
(37:14):
building authentic human connection andthat brand that can marry those two are
really gonna be the ones that stand out.
Julie had you look forward.
I'm gonna have you look back a little bit.
Ooh.
So at the Open, we were chattingabout your master's experience and
you had the, the benefit of applyinggrandma's learning theory here, right?
(37:36):
So you had the benefit of being ableto, to speak to multiple chief marketing
officers through this kind of tour, almosttour informational interview experience.
Could you.
Tell us a little bit more about that,and that clearly got you into your
social media role in the, the, the,so social media side of the industry.
(37:56):
But what were some of the otherkey takeaways or insights that
you took from that experience?
Yeah, so we talked a little bitabout my parents at the beginning.
They are by far one of thegreatest influences in my life.
My dad gave me the two mostimportant books in my life.
Number one was the Bible, and numbertwo was How To Win Friends and Influence
(38:17):
People by Dale Carnegie and that book.
Along with so many others that I read,just got me thinking about, again, being
very solution oriented or as my dadliked to say, from when I was about nine
years old without vision, we perish andit feels heavy, but it also feels really
(38:38):
exciting about what do I wanna build?
Where do I wanna go and who knows morethan me who can help me get there?
I am a huge believer, and everybodyknows between 10 or 12 people that
they could think of in their own lifethat somebody else should also know.
(38:59):
There is no greater joy in my life thantaking someone that I know who doesn't
know somebody over here and saying,I think you two should meet, because
I think you would have a lot of fun.
And then I like to jump in the mixand then we've got our little, you
know, three friend cohort to go onroad trip, all sorts of little road
(39:19):
trips and funny trails with trip.
But I think really,really being brave, right?
To say, here's what I know.
Here's what I also, what I don't know,and I think that there's so much we
can learn by really honoring and, andlearning from other people's experience.
And so we talked about peoplethat we mutually knew by not
(39:43):
even knowing each other, right?
And just seeing who we knew from thetime that we knew, but also saying.
Now that you know me and a little bitof where I'd like to go and my heart
and what you know that I'm good at, isthere anybody in your circle who you
feel like I should meet and connect with?
And you have to earn the right toask that question, but being really
(40:05):
intentional about about asking that.
And then also one of thethings that I loved at.
University of Central Missouri was,they were first starting in like
20 11, 20 12, of recognizing thatnot everybody wanted to go down the
terminal PhD thesis type route, and sothey added the practical professional
(40:27):
option within the master's program.
So I think if you're looking at highereducation, making sure that it's
something that fits for you, that if youare going to continue a degree, that it
offers enough freedom and flexibilitywhere you're not so tied into what they
think, but what you see as somethingthat you want to continue to build.
(40:48):
I just got to interview somebody fora job posting that we had, and they
did their master's in 2025 and just.
The list of coursework was milesdifferent than when I was in school.
I was like, these courseswould be so very helpful.
Right.
But just taking that, that approach andthat posture of, of being a lifelong
learner and knowing that there's always.
(41:10):
More to learn and that the, youknow, I talk about it, Brent, in, in
Digital Summit, Albert Einstein hada great quote and he said, if I had
an hour to figure out the questionof the world, I would spend 55
minutes asking the right questions.
Because if you ask the right questions,you can find the right solutions.
And so it's really asking good questionsof people who are smarter than you if
(41:35):
you're the smartest one in the room.
It's not a great room to stay in.
Yeah.
And what I love about what you saidtoo, is finding the right people
to ask those questions of that's sobeautiful in this connected world
where we need more connectedness now.
I I absolutely appreciateyou sharing that.
Okay, Valerie, before we go, is thereanything else you wanna share with us?
(41:55):
Also, where can we connect with you?
I just found you on LinkedIn beforethis episode, and if there's any
public links of where you've spoken,I for one, would love to say that.
Oh goodness.
So, yeah, let us know how we can connectwith you and just anything else you
would like to share with our listeners.
LinkedIn is the best spot to connect.
A lot of my speaking is with DigitalSummit and through other, unfortunately
(42:18):
pay walled because they're eitherpart of a conference package,
but love doing things like this.
Am going to be on another podcast withUniversity of Central Missouri in a
couple of weeks, so that'll be fun.
So maybe it's the startof a new road trip.
You know, I think one thing that wedidn't talk about and that I think is
really important, especially if you.
(42:38):
Are leading a team or you're anindividual contributor who's been asked
to present and map your own goals.
One thing that I am really passionateabout is managing up and also not
feeling like you need to revampyour social goals year over year.
And so what I mean by that is Iinvite my team to think about.
(43:01):
How do we take what we know is workingand where are places where we would
like accountability in evolving?
Into something new or whatis on the other side of that.
And so it doesn't mean that we'recreating new goals every year.
It's that we are taking what'sworking and we're layering and
(43:23):
we're learning and we're innovating.
And that oftentimes gets us into someof those conversations where it says,
and in order for that to happen,here's what we need to get from.
This to this and, and those are reallyimportant conversations because sometimes
you get into positions where leaders.
(43:44):
Can't quite articulate a goal forsocial media because they don't
fully understand what it can achieve.
And so it's our job in the absence ofthat or to kind of come alongside and
say, here's what I think I can accomplish.
Here's how I see it connectingto our department or our division
(44:06):
goals, and here's how it ladders upinto our mission, vision, value of
the organization that we work for.
And again, when you're able to providethat kind of layering or Russian
nesting doll type approach, it reallygives leadership the confidence to
be able to say yes to helping you.
(44:27):
Where you are to get where you thinkthat you can be and always start
small to prove that you can do a lotwith a little, and then more will
be added and more will be added.
But they'll actually thank you so muchto say thank you for helping us put
goals and measurable things in place.
(44:47):
And we don't do that for a whole year.
We do that by what we think we canaffect, by what we can control.
So very rarely are they fully rooted in,you know, things like, again, some of
those vanity metrics or different things.
But we just say, here are some, someways that we think we can evolve.
And we usually do thataround a goal of content.
(45:07):
So what's a place in, in ourcontent world that we can evolve?
Where can we do that in collaboration?
Another team or department withinthe cooperative and what is something
we think we can drive community.
So that's both community for our farmerowners, but also communities that
we're stewarding in the social space.
And those three at least get you.
(45:29):
I say usually, you know, if you do.
30, 30 and 30, it atleast gets you 90% there.
And then you should have one professionalgoal where you say, I'm gonna spend
time in Reddit because even though Idon't understand it, I see something
good and right and evolutionarythere where I know that I should be.
So that's my, it's a gold mine.
(45:49):
I will tell you.
It's a gold mine.
Come on.
Well, we need to have a littleside convo because it's a weird
gold mine, but it's a gold mine.
It's a gold
mine.
Yeah.
I'm crawling in there and I'mwallowing and I see the goodness
and I know that it's there.
And so I'm, I'm excited to become a full,a full fledged Reddit with some legs on
top sided source and AI search is Reddit.
(46:12):
Yeah.
Yep.
Yep.
Wow.
More than more than 40% of AI searchesare coming from the sourcing's, coming
from Reddit, because the most authenticconversations are happening there.
That's where I go when Ineed actual, like how to.
I will go to Reddit.
Yeah, you can get somegreat, great, great searches.
The grassiness of grassroots.
Yes.
(46:32):
There
you go.
That's right.
Well, I'm excited toget some grass stains.
Yeah.
I, as, as am I. And Val, I couldn'ttell you how I couldn't be more happy.
That we as a show ultimatelyabout professional development.
You finish this off with goalsetting for both individual and team
(46:52):
and then being able to communicatethose to stakeholders who may not
understand exactly what you do.
So I couldn't think of a better way forus, for us to cap off, cap off the show.
We, we, I can't tell youalso how much we've truly.
Enjoyed this conversation.
Yes.
We really appreciate you takingthe time, joining us today and, and
(47:14):
speaking a little about, a bit aboutyour career journey, social media,
and ending it off with some continuedlearning and professional development.
Really appreciate the time today.
My pleasure.
Thank you so much.
Thanks, Valerie.
This is great.
Yeah.
Thank you, Val.
If you found value in today'sepisode, check us out on our
website, cultivated marketer.com.
(47:35):
You'll also be able to subscribe to us.
Rate us, and leave us a comment onyour favorite podcast platform such as
Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Stitcher.
Remember, a garden of opportunitygrows with cultivated marketer.
Cultivated marketer, episode 36,social media, and being conscientiously
(00:06):
Curious with Valerie Morrow In thisepisode of Cultivated Marketer, you're
gonna want to tune in as we talk withthe director of Social Media at Dairy
Farmers of America, Valerie Morrow.
In it, we talk not just thecreative side of things, we talk.
The science of social media as well,and being conscientiously curious
(00:30):
how to develop good KPIs, how to sellsocial media programs within your
organization, how to develop your goals.
It's an amazing conversation thatmarries both the art and the science
of social media and how you want to.
Think through that and work withinyour organization to become a better
(00:53):
communicator or a better marketer.
So you'll definitely want to checkthis episode out with Valerie Morrow.
(01:15):
Okay, Julie, Matt.
We're having this conversation.
Some of this conversation was a littlebit, I'm gonna be honest with you because
I had the chance to, to visit withVal a lot, Valerie, a lot at Digital
Summit, Minneapolis, about a monthback, and so there were some things I
already nuggets from that conversation.
(01:36):
I said, we're, when we gettogether to talk on the podcast,
we're discussing these things.
So some of this was not a surprise, butsome of the elements that she brought
forward, even just her close aroundprofessional development and some of
the, the ways we should be thinkingabout professional development and goal
setting really were highlights for mein that, in that conversation we just,
(02:00):
you know, we're, we're gonna have withVal here and share with everybody.
Yeah, you know, sometimes we, we lookfor a little eclipse that I know that
your great production team there will puttogether for us on social with a little,
you know, just a bit of a soundbite.
I'm sitting, I've got like seven thingswritten down, so whoever does that will
have, you know, without vision, we perish.
And just so many great factoids.
And again, her focus on strategy.
(02:21):
And I know Julie, you're alwaysreminding us on LinkedIn, guys, we
gotta thank strategy, not tactics.
Boy, talk about somebody whopersonifies that so well, I just
thought it was a great conversation.
What a super smart marketer, uh,you know, really glad we had her on.
Yeah, I really like how she talkedabout what she encourages her team to
do, and, and I'm probably not gonna saythis right, so you can get it directly
(02:42):
quoted from the podcast, but she talkedabout how she encourages her team to
be curious, but through the lens ofbasically their strategic plan, what
are they actually trying to accomplish?
So.
You can have all the ideas you wantor think about all the trends you,
you've seen out there, but let'sput that lens on that idea, put that
lens on that thought of what are weactually trying to accomplish here?
(03:06):
What's our strategy?
And I thought that was areally good way to say that.
So she's, she's sharp.
Yeah.
Was that the, that was the point inthe conversation where we were talking
a little bit about the, the mo, theTaylor Swift Orange moment, right?
Yeah, that's right.
Right?
That's right.
And so, and, and I think it wasconscious, was it consciously curious?
We'll get it direct from her,but I think I might was, yeah.
(03:29):
Was it consciously curious?
Consciously
curious.
Yeah.
Be consciously curious and Ithink I need to write that down
and another good sound bite.
Put it
on my computer.
Yeah.
The other soundbite I tookfrom her is Block and Protect.
Having, yes.
Having LED and started some socialmedia teams or large brands, it's not
just about going viral and sometimes,sometimes it's about protecting the brain.
(03:50):
It gets almost.
To that Amy Whitfield conversation.
It's about monitoring and listening forthe things that are being said, and then
even blocking and protecting the brand.
She talked about it, I think more inrelationship to blocking and protecting
your own space, which is mm-hmm.
I just think is a, is a goodprofessional development lesson.
(04:11):
But I think even in the world ofsocial media, I'm even watching some
of the things that have just happenedwithin the last week where certain
brands, certain people are coming out.
Speaking one way or another, and itbecomes almost a crisis calm situation.
And ultimately, social'sa fulcrum for that, right?
Yep.
So hearing her use that termblock, I need to put the block
(04:32):
and protect sign up above,
she said focus.
She says you're gonna, I don'tremember how she said it, but she.
Said, success comes from being focused.
And I thought I needed to hear that today.
So
I'm just so glad thatshe emphasized just that.
Just like all of our othermarketing channels that have
been around for decades, right?
We have to put the same level ofstrategic focus on social media.
(04:55):
I think so many, and we talkabout this a bit in the show, but.
So many of the social media successstories that we see from much
earlier maybe in the platform'sdevelopment were frankly things
that brands sort of lucked into.
Mm-hmm.
And I think the admonition from,from Valerie and the experts
in this field are No, no, no.
You have to, you know,luck's great, but I'll take
preparation and strategy any day.
(05:15):
And, and yeah, she spent a lot oftime on that, which I'm glad she did.
And I, and I appreciate the twoof you allowing me to do a little
bit of a deep dive with her.
With respect to AI because,oh no, that was fascinating.
That was good.
I think that whole notion of, toextend that further, Matt, that whole
conversation around social media beinga strategic platform is even gonna take
(05:38):
on greater weight now as we're seeingthe LLMs start to use it as the primary.
Citation sources, and so mm-hmm.
We got into that conversation a little bitabout Reddit, but the other one is Wiki,
or you know, Instagram's being pulled intothe indexing now Pinterest is the top,
(06:00):
so there's gonna be more strategic intentthat needs to go into, and she, she hit
on it about being audience first, right.
And answering the audience's questions.
Yeah.
The way social media is gonna be used isgonna be vastly different five years from
now than the way it was five years ago.
That's right.
That's right.
So any other final thoughts?
Just so much to unpack inthe conversation with her.
(06:22):
Yeah.
Really, I,
I actually think I'm gonna have myintro to marketing students listen
to this and write a paper forextra credit because it's not good.
It won't be the first time a class hasheard a cultivated marketer episode.
I will tell you that dailybecause I've got a whole catalog
eclipse that, that my crew hears.
They probably get tiredof it, but that's how I
got listening to this podcast.
Yeah.
Back when I was, was at ku.
Yep.
And, and what our listeners can'tsee is me smiling like the chat.
(06:45):
Shower cat at that stadium of theTill Prince brand plan steeping my
fingers together tomorrow, the world.
Oh, all right.
On that note, we've just evolvedinto silliness so it with you two.
I've always appreciate the time.
I appreciate the partnership.
You bet.
(07:05):
We'll jump into this conversationwith Valerie Marrow talking about
social media and so much more.
Hope you enjoyed theconversation as much as we did.
Welcome to Cultivated Marketer, where wetalk marketing professional developments.
(07:27):
Your garden of opportunity grows.
This is Brent Bowen.
I'm Matt Tidwell.
And I'm Julie Maan.
And our guest this time is a seasonedsocial media leader with nearly 15
years of experience driving engagementfor both brands and agencies.
She holds a master of arts and masscommunications from the University of
(07:50):
Central Missouri, where she largelyfocused her coursework on corporate
and organizational communication.
But now she's the director of socialmedia at Dairy Farmers of America, the
nation's largest dairy cooperative.
She leads a team focusedon blending data and.
(08:10):
I know 'cause I've sat in onour session at Digital Summit.
Storytelling's a big focus and she doesthat to build engaged online communities.
Tremendous about that.
So I'm really excited to get into this.
She is also a, as Imentioned, digital Summit.
She is also a frequent speaker andan educator in digital marketing.
(08:30):
And it took us like 19 times adigital summit to finally cross paths.
So I'm.
So, and I got very passionateabout that first time meeting
'cause I tracked her down with somedetermination and I, after we talked
to her, you're gonna understand why.
Valerie Morrow, welcome to the show.
Thank you so much.
(08:50):
Yeah.
Hey Valerie.
Welcome.
I'm so glad you joined us.
I just really just fascinating topic.
We can't wait to get into it, butmaybe we should start a bit at the
beginning and you've got nearly 15years of experience in social media.
I know that's both acrossagency and brand environments.
Could you share a little bitabout your career journey?
Like what first drew you to focusmore on social media, and were
there some pivotal moments in therethat shaped that direction a bit?
(09:12):
Yeah.
I love the idea that sometimesyou choose your career and
sometimes your career chooses you.
And in my case, it was the latter.
So I was sharing with Brent when wemet that I was doing my coursework,
a master's program at Universityof Central Missouri in Warrensburg.
And I always knew that I wanted todo something business and I knew
(09:34):
that I wanted to do something,communication, but I wasn't quite sure
where that skinny shaded area was.
And so.
My dad and mom were both executiverecruiters and always taught me
to be very solution oriented.
And so that's the approach that I tookto finding the career path that would
fulfill me, but also that would fulfilla need for a business or an organization.
(09:57):
And so started talking to.
Chief marketing officers, VPs ofmarketing, and said over the next 10
years, because at the time, 10 years feltlike a long time, said over the next 10
years, what's a marketing challenge thatyou feel like you're going to have that
today you feel wholly unprepared to solve?
And this was 2010, 2011, and that waswhen social media was really emerging.
(10:20):
And so they said, this social mediathing, it's loud, it's scary, we
don't know what to do with it, and ifyou can tell us what to do with it.
You have a job.
And so I went all in, pushed all the chipson the table and just started to learn
everything I could about social mediaand fell in love with it, both from the
(10:41):
community and storytelling aspect thatBrent referenced, but also what it could
do to build a brand and to build reallyan audience in a different way that a lot
of the tools in the current toolbox andthe landscape just couldn't quite touch.
Oh,
not great.
Wow.
I'm fascinated by the question youasked back then that you were thinking
(11:05):
ahead and thinking, these are thepeople I need to ask to get input from
that, that that shows some seriouscritical thinking and playing ahead
and ambition all things I like so.
Brent tells us that you're known forblending data and analytics, like he
said earlier, and when I hear data andanalytics and storytelling, I don't
necessarily think those two go together.
(11:27):
I mean, I've seen it done welland clearly you're doing it well.
So can you walk us through an examplewhere analytics helped refine a
narrative and where storytelling approachimproved social media performance?
Because I think that's fascinating and Ithink it's not something that we readily
associate as two things going together,data and analytics and storytelling.
Right.
A lot of people think that it feels veryoil and water, and I really think that
(11:51):
there are two magnets that are meant toattract and that when you really look
at those in each of their own spheres,but when you bring them together.
They tell that full, complete story.
And so there's oftentimes whereI think we're so focused on the
content of the page and getting thenext post up or planning for the
(12:12):
next campaign, that we often don'ttake time to really reflect on.
How things performed,why things performed.
And so I have had to learn in my careerreally blocking and protecting time
to do that by myself and also invitingothers into that place and space.
And when I started to do that with myteam and a couple of the folks within
(12:35):
our broader department who help usbring that social story to life, so
we have a creative team that has.
Editorial and creative support.
And when we started to look at that,at the time when I joined DFA in
2019, we didn't have a blog space.
And so telling long form stories was botha need to help humanize the brand, but it
(13:00):
was also a challenge in everybody sayingbite, bite, bite, bite-size things or,
you know, the thing that every marketingconference started with of everybody has.
The attention span of a goldfish, andwe really pushed back on that narrative
and said, I think that if the content isgood enough and the story is interesting
(13:20):
enough, people will continue to read.
But over time, and as the algorithmschanged, we really saw an opportunity
to take that long form story thatwe were putting in the copy and
say, how do we take that into video?
And not video that is overly produced,that has a huge production budget
(13:43):
that just allows people to see andhear and feel a different human being.
And so what we started to do waswe have 10,000 farmer owners and we
said, can we just find 10 of them?
That can use an iPhone or anAndroid, and can we give them a
topic and a little bit of an outlineand let them tell their story?
(14:06):
And so we created a group of farmerowners who do that regularly, and then
they either share content on theirown page or we share it and use the
collab feature within Instagram, andit creates a need that we can't get.
Sitting in an office in KansasCity, Kansas, but it also elevates
(14:27):
and amplifies the humanity of whatpeople are really looking for when
they're in that social environment.
And so we took the data of what wewere seeing perform in those long form
stories, and we took the innovationand the idea of storytelling and said.
Why couldn't it come from thepeople and the places that we're
really trying to steward anyway?
(14:48):
And it's been really fun both towatch them be well received, but
also to watch them grow in their ownconfidence of coming up with ideas
and meeting us in new ways and gettingmore confident in front of the camera.
And so it's just been really fun.
Okay.
I do have a
follow up question that I wasn'tplanning on asking, but I have to ask it.
Was it a challenge to convince yourleaders of this strategy, or did the
(15:12):
analytics that you had, is that whatyou were able to use to convince
your leaders, this is the strategy,this is the path we need to take?
Two parts to that.
So yes, the data of what we were seeingand what we thought was possible.
And then the other thing we did iswe found these creators knowing that
they were farmer owners to beginwith, and knowing that they had a
(15:34):
little bit of a social presence.
And so we actually dida three wave approach.
One is we pulled a couple ofexamples that already existed to say.
They have the potential,like do you see the seed?
We pulled a couple of examples ofperforming posts that had done well,
but started to identify some areaswhere we just weren't able to quite
(15:59):
grasp that next level of storytellingbecause it just felt two dimensional and
we wanted to invite them into the 3D.
And then the third wave waswe found a couple of examples
from within our own industry.
And a couple from outside tosay, this is visually what
we're really trying to achieve.
(16:20):
And we've seen other people doit, but we think we can bring
our own flare and flavor to that.
And so that kind of layering approachof this is what we know is out there.
This is where our glass ceiling is, andthis is how we've seen others do it well.
But where we think we have room to rampup in our own way was enough for them.
(16:40):
And also to just say, we just reallywanna start on a really small scale.
Dairy Farmers of America has beenincredible, and why I have been there
six and a half years is that if youhave a good idea and you're able to
articulate the element of evolution thatyou see, and the risk is one that is
a calculated risk, they're all for it.
(17:01):
And so that's really where when youare looking for a place that you wanna
be, my 92-year-old grandma asks metwo questions when we talk about work.
She said, are you learning?
Are you still having fun?
I love that.
Good questions.
And if those two questions exist inequal weight, then you know that you
(17:22):
are still where you're supposed to be.
And so six and a half years later,we're still learning and we're
still having fun full circle
data and storytelling to sell it in.
And data and data and data andstorytelling from grandma too.
That's that's great.
Yep.
He's a wise lady.
You don't get to 92 by accident.
Yeah, for sure.
A lot of wisdom there.
Yeah, that's great.
I mean, the thing that resonated me withme in terms of, you're talking about
(17:45):
that project is the authenticity piece.
You're letting your own members, yourown owners tell their story, right?
And, and so many times, gosh, I canremember even pre-social media days,
I dunno if any, any of you guys hadthis experience, but HR would say,
okay, we gotta go out and shootphotos of our employee, or we, we
need photos of our employees, right?
So they bring me stuff and itwas always the stock photo of the
cheesy people around the desk.
(18:06):
Nice.
I finally went to my CEO.
I said, can we just please hire aphotographer and we'll just send
'em around and shoot people in ourown, people in our own offices.
But it, you know, the pushbackwas, oh no, let's just do you know,
we'll just use stock photographyand Oh God, if I see another cheesy.
So anyway, long story.
I got off on a tangent.
Great job outta you guys usingyour own people to tell the story.
'cause that's whatauthenticity's all about.
So
yeah.
That's incredible.
Yeah.
(18:27):
Love that.
Hey, the social media landscapethough, shifts so rapidly.
My gosh.
I mean, all the platforms that, you know,10 years ago were here now they're gone.
And even more recently we'veseen platforms move in and out.
How do you kind of, so whether it'sthe platforms or just the, the genre
itself, how do you try to stay ahead,what practices help you kind of
separate enduring principles fromagain, those passing trends and fads
(18:48):
that we see so often in this space?
Yeah, you're right.
Social media is shifting constantlyand I found that the best way
to keep up is really to focus onthe people and not the platforms.
And what I mean by that is byfocusing on both your audience.
First and what they want and why they'rethere, and how you can show them more
(19:12):
of what you already know works andthe people that you are trying to
influence within your organization,whether that is bringing others into.
The social realm of what it is that you'retrying to create or your leadership.
There's work to be done in both spaces.
And when you're really focused onwhat is it that our goal is and, and
(19:36):
knowing those goals and believingthose goals and trusting those goals,
it makes it so much easier to letwhat is not meant for you fall away.
And it brings into clarity andalignment what is meant for you.
And so.
If something pops up, we'll test itin a small way if we feel like it's
one that's going to actually work.
(19:58):
A great example of thatis the Taylor Swift album.
When it came out.
You will not see anythingorange on our page.
There was a moment where youlook at it and you kind of say.
I, I want it to be for us, but it's justnot, you're so tempted, weren't you?
Yes.
Right.
I mean, being from Kansas Cityand, you know, all the things,
(20:21):
and we thought about, you know,do we have a product for this?
Or what if we made a cow orange orwhere, where's the orange thread?
And you know what?
It just wasn't, it wasn't for us.
And so.
You, you just let it fall andthen the analytics close the loop.
'cause we're always looking at whatworked and what didn't and why.
And that's what helps separate a passingfad from something that really changes
(20:45):
how people interact with the content.
So it really is a mix.
It's staying curious.
That's something that I reallyencourage my team to do.
I really say like, I want you to becurious, but I also layer in, I want
you to be consciously curious and thatlayer is specifically for, I want you
(21:06):
to keep the strategic bifocal lensover whatever it is that you're viewing
and not just saying, that's cool.
That's funny.
That's neat, but does it fit reallywhat our audience and what our
leadership sees as something thatwe're driving and that we're building?
Yeah.
As a quick follow up, how do youdetermine, or how do you research
(21:28):
kind of the platforms that yourprimary stakeholders are on?
Do you, do you do that research actively?
Is it just sort of observational?
How does that come about?
I think it's both.
I think, you know, that's a place where.
Again, I use the phrase block and protectoften because there is so much ground that
we can cover as social media professionalsthat you have to decide what's important,
(21:50):
but you also have to remind yourselfthat there is something really good
and right about doing that research.
And sometimes it can feel mindless.
And so I usually try to create or name.
The goal that I'm trying to accomplish inthat time, and I say I'm going to scroll
with the mindset that I'm looking for.
(22:12):
X, Y, Z. So I'll block time andI'll sit in a room with the trending
audio and I'll actually justlisten to it with my eyes closed.
And the reason that I'm doing that isI'm trying to see the video that is not
yet created, or when I close my mind,where does my imagination take me?
(22:33):
Using that conscious curiosityof the overlay of our strategy.
So I'm thinking about our audience.
I'm thinking about maybe the footagethat we have or a piece of the business.
And when you close your eyes, you cankind of start to see something thread
together and it's kind of fuzzy, butthen it comes into to view and then also.
(22:54):
Going to conferencesand talking to people.
I think so often, and the very firstpart of my career, I thought that
the most important thing was totalautonomy was to not have anybody
look at my strategy or read my copy.
Like I just thought if no one hadthe keys to the kingdom and it was
just me posting, I had made it.
(23:16):
Then I realized that there'sactually something really good and
right about synergy in that too.
And so it wasn't justautonomy, it was who?
Who else can I bring into what I'mcreating so that they can see it
and get excited about it as well?
Who can I galvanize to join me?
Because it's much more fun to go ona road trip with friends than it is
(23:38):
to drive 24 hours all by yourself
on that whole notion ofroad trips with friends.
Let's go
on one.
Brent, let's go
on.
Let's, let's, let's.
Unless
you eat corn nuts and thenwe are not in the same car.
Sounds like my wife.
I don't, I don't think I've toucheda corn nut since canoe trip,
probably in, in southern Missouri.
(24:00):
So it's been probably a couple.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's where you eat.
Yeah.
It's probably been a couple decades.
Soggy bag
in front.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Soggy bag in the, it was last, andif you get dumped in the canoe,
it was the last item you saved.
You, you saved your O first and thenyour canoe partner second I think was
the, was the order we had for that.
But in this whole notion ofroad trips with friends, right.
(24:23):
You mentioned one of these, so there'sa lot of, a lot of my clients that I'm
working with, there's a lot of renewedinterest in SEO and a lot of that has to
do with, with artificial intelligence.
Mm-hmm.
The chat bots getting, you, andI saw this at Digital Summit,
it was standing room only.
To get into the AI searchconversations, to hear some of
(24:46):
the speakers talk about them.
Some of gold for that were someof the long form storytelling.
You mentioned the blogs video, butmore recently, and I actually was
sharing this with a client now, there'salways been a bit of a symbiotic
relationship that that road trip.
Kind of galvanization withsocial media and SEO, but
(25:07):
we're even seeing more of that.
Just in the last couple weeks,Google announced that it was
gonna start indexing Instagram.
Right.
So beyond what you're thinking aboutwhen you do this visualization exercise,
how much are you now considering?
What's going into visibility?
Like I've had more PR practitioners in thelast couple weeks start inquiring about
(25:31):
SEO surfaces and what can be done there.
How much, how much of that is goinginto your thinking now about not just.
Trying to connect with humans froman organic or paid standpoint,
but you're feeding visibility ina different way, whether it be
traditional search or AI search.
The update for Instagram is hugebecause for the first time it blurs
(25:52):
the line between social and search,and so it's really changed and evolved
the way that we produce content.
And so I think the way thatwe produce content now is
that every post has two lives.
It has one on the Instagram feedwhere it needs to spark some sort of.
Interaction and engagement, andthen one on Google where it needs
(26:16):
to answer the kinds of questionsthat people are searching for.
And so if you design with both in mindthe conversation for your audience,
but also the intentional search.
You get content that performstoday and keeps working tomorrow.
Yeah, that's be beautiful.
I was wondering if you were gonnago back to the North Star of all,
(26:36):
this is still audience first, right?
Mm-hmm.
It's just a matter of being maybe abit more intentional about asking a
question and answering a question.
Yeah.
And so that's one where I thinkyou have to, for the longest time.
While we all serve different functions ona team and in a marketing organization,
I'm so passionate that social deservesthe right to be at the table in
(27:01):
planning and in process and in follow-upmeetings and those types of things.
But oftentimes, and especiallyif we have distanced ourselves
from it for such a long time tosay, I'm social, I'm not search.
I don't do SEO.
We actually have to be honestand vulnerable and say the last
(27:23):
time that we touched search isprobably the same time that a lot
of people last touched social media.
And so you find that a lot of peoplestill approach social media from 2015.
And I think if we as social mediamarketers were honest with ourselves,
we would probably still approach search.
(27:44):
A 2015 mindset.
And so I think we have to be vulnerableand honest with ourselves and say, do
I really know what is different sincethe last time that I intentionally was
involved in SEO and that for me as both.
People leader and a strategicmind within our organization.
(28:05):
Those are questionsthat I'm asking myself.
So I can say, I understand and I willplan differently, but I need to go all
the way back to 10 years ago when thosethings were a little bit closer together
and really say, what do I not know?
And so those are the type of questionsreintroducing ourselves to our
(28:25):
marketing team and saying, you know.
What tools are we using and can youhelp me connect these two thoughts?
Because I think we all have that kindof gut of where we would like to go.
But again, knowing the data pointsthat we're really looking at to,
to weave those things together.
And so I think we're looking at theinside the app, is that focusing
(28:47):
on interaction, meaning that theposts that invite comments or
direct messages or the captionsthat really ask a genuine question.
We're also in the caption,starting to seed some of
those layers of searchability.
So I like to think about how someonemight google a topic and make sure
that language or caption, or even thealt text, I feel like we as marketers
(29:10):
sometimes get really lazy with altext, but that is a place where those
clear natural keywords in the captions.
The descriptive copy on the graphichelps posts live beyond Instagram
and who wouldn't for as much love andinspiration as we put into a social post
that sometimes you know, us and howevermany else other people see it like.
(29:34):
How much better would it be ifwe're actually able to Google what
we hoped that post accomplishedto see it in, in the results?
So it's really about creating contentthat's conversational enough to invite
interaction, but intentional enough tocarry SEO weight once it leaves the app.
Yeah, once it leaves the app, and eventhen you had me, and again, this may be
(29:58):
a conversation you and I have to haveon the side, as somebody that spent more
time in the SEO, again, having that 2015view of social media, once you started
talking about the collaboration featuresof Instagram, I was thinking about, oh.
I hadn't even thought about thatfrom a standpoint of implications
for SEO that how interesting.
I'm gonna have to unpack that oncethe conversation's over today.
(30:21):
You know, it's thinking, yeah, it'shaving all this grows and evolves so
that, that's very curious how we'regonna see how we're collaborate.
Been a little distant cousinsin a marketing, but seeing how
this is coming, coming togetheris really gonna be fascinating.
Yeah.
Distant cousins who are frequentlymore at the same table at the
family reunion it sounds like.
(30:42):
So yeah, coming together.
I love this.
Yeah, I love this deep dive.
Elli is great on this topic, but maybejust shifting to slightly, 'cause I
know it's, I think it's just so coolthat you're, you're doing so much
now in the area of speaking and,and educating a digital marketing.
We talked about how you're on the circuitfor the terrific digital marketing
summits that are around the country.
We need to get that back in Kansas City.
I don't know, I dunnowho we need to talk to.
(31:03):
Right.
But, oh, we, I, I just, I miss it inso many ways when we have good events
here too, but that was such a good one.
But anyway.
In those roles, what are the most commonchallenges or misconceptions that you
encounter when you're at the front of theclass, let's say teaching social strategy?
Do those exist, those kinds ofmisconceptions or challenges?
Yeah, they absolutely do.
I think we've hit on a coupleof them already, but the, one of
(31:24):
the biggest misconceptions I see.
Is that social strategy is morethan just posting or chasing trends.
So people are often surprised when Itell them that success usually comes
from focus and it's actually doingless, but doing it with more purpose.
And so choosing to be just becauseI tell people all the time from
(31:47):
stage or when they ask questions,just because a platform exists does
not mean that you have to be on it.
Again, it all goes back to that audience.
And are they there?
And do you have something to say and doyou have the the right way to to say it?
I think, you know, again, in that 2015we did have a little bit of leniency
of rinse and repeat and taking.
(32:10):
Content from one platform andputting it on the other, but
that doesn't work anymore.
And so I think, again, I use the wordhonor really intentionally honoring
the capacity that you have as amarketer, knowing your resources and
knowing what you can do Excellently.
Is much better than trying to putall of the little icons at the
(32:33):
bottom of your email signature.
I think that's such an importantpoint and I'm so glad that you
focus on the purpose piece of that.
'cause I think so manytimes we hear about.
Great social media case studies frombrands and it, it almost seems like they
all sort of like lucked into it, right?
Like I was talking with students todayin my class about the VML managed
the Wendy's account a few yearsago, and they got the most retweeted
(32:53):
tweet in history when the kid said,Hey, how many retweets do I need?
In fact, I. A graduateof our RAMC program.
Pat was on the agencyteam at VML that did that.
But when he came in, and a lotof it was just luck, right?
They were cruising and they found thislittle, you know, this again, innocuous
12-year-old who said, Hey, how manyretweets do I need to get free nuggets?
And then it ended up beingwhatever, 38 million and et cetera.
Record nugs for Carter.
(33:13):
Yeah, nugs for Carter, right?
But, but again, the students kindalook at me like, oh yeah, they
just sort of lucked into that.
Somebody was cruising and saw it.
So your point is, we may havesome luck in there, but we
should be purposeful as well.
I think that's huge.
Yeah, and that, you know, it reallycomes, I think the difference between
a good marketer and a great marketer isoftentimes leaving space for the things
(33:35):
that seem really mundane, but thatoften move the mundane to the magical.
That is creating space and holdingspace to do things, like researching
and looking at data and listening andgoing after something, and it's so much
not to, I think oftentimes we just get.
(33:57):
In that hamster wheel of creating content,creating content, creating content, and
we're so focused on looking down thatwe forget to look up and out and we miss
if we're on a road trip, we miss allthe cool things on the side of the road.
'cause we're just focused on wherewe think we're supposed to go.
And I don't know if there's a lotof Type A marketers out there like
(34:20):
me, but I have had to learn thatthere is beauty in the detours.
That's good.
Beauty in the detours is so good.
I feel like becoming a momreally helped with that.
Yes, that'll do it for sure.
You know, when I'm workingwith nonprofit clients.
Almost to a T. Every singleone of them will see social
(34:42):
media as this silver bullet.
Yeah.
And they wanna be on all theplatforms and they think they
should be on all the platforms.
So I really love that you said youdon't need to be doing everything
you see your competitors doing.
I mean, you didn't say that, butthat's essentially what you're
saying and reminding our audienceof, so I think that's really helpful.
So.
When you think about what's comingnext with social media strategy,
(35:04):
what do you think is coming?
Do you think the next big shiftis gonna be AI power tools,
community focused social platforms,or something else entirely?
I know you're doing a lot withcommunity building, but, and I
know you cannot predict the future.
I, I understand that, but youseem really sharp, so you.
You maybe have an in on something.
So tell us the dates Mark.
(35:24):
The take.
The take,
man.
If I had a crystal ball, I think I'dstill be working in social media.
I'd just be doing it more pro bono.
I think that the next big shift is notgoing to be a shiny new platform or tool.
I really think it's going to be how AIcommunity and trust all come together.
(35:46):
Ooh, I like that.
So AI is definitely changingthe way that we work.
It is helping us create content faster.
It's helping to analyze what resonates,but I don't think that AI replaces
the human side of storytelling.
And if anything, it makes thehuman piece more important because
(36:07):
audiences are going to be cravingwhat feels real and personal.
At the same time, you cansee that pendulum swing back
toward community, right?
People are tired of shouting in thevoid and they want a space where
they can actually connect and belong.
And it's why you're seeing thingslike private group chat, close
friends list, and these nicheplatforms really gaining traction.
(36:30):
I know just think about the explosionthat we've seen in the Reddit communities
and the threads of, not threads theplatform from meta, but threads within.
Reddit where people are really lookingfor like-minded, they're looking at all of
the different subreddits, and so I thinkthat the big shift is going to be this
(36:50):
blend and who can do that well in a spacewhere things are moving so quickly, but.
The untrained eye is becoming verytrained and it's saying if a business or
a brand is going to rely on ai, that'snot who I am and and what I'm about.
And so AI is helping us to be smarterand more efficient, but with a renewed on
(37:14):
building authentic human connection andthat brand that can marry those two are
really gonna be the ones that stand out.
Julie had you look forward.
I'm gonna have you look back a little bit.
Ooh.
So at the Open, we were chattingabout your master's experience and
you had the, the benefit of applyinggrandma's learning theory here, right?
(37:36):
So you had the benefit of being ableto, to speak to multiple chief marketing
officers through this kind of tour, almosttour informational interview experience.
Could you.
Tell us a little bit more about that,and that clearly got you into your
social media role in the, the, the,so social media side of the industry.
(37:56):
But what were some of the otherkey takeaways or insights that
you took from that experience?
Yeah, so we talked a little bitabout my parents at the beginning.
They are by far one of thegreatest influences in my life.
My dad gave me the two mostimportant books in my life.
Number one was the Bible, and numbertwo was How To Win Friends and Influence
(38:17):
People by Dale Carnegie and that book.
Along with so many others that I read,just got me thinking about, again, being
very solution oriented or as my dadliked to say, from when I was about nine
years old without vision, we perish andit feels heavy, but it also feels really
(38:38):
exciting about what do I wanna build?
Where do I wanna go and who knows morethan me who can help me get there?
I am a huge believer, and everybodyknows between 10 or 12 people that
they could think of in their own lifethat somebody else should also know.
(38:59):
There is no greater joy in my life thantaking someone that I know who doesn't
know somebody over here and saying,I think you two should meet, because
I think you would have a lot of fun.
And then I like to jump in the mixand then we've got our little, you
know, three friend cohort to go onroad trip, all sorts of little road
(39:19):
trips and funny trails with trip.
But I think really,really being brave, right?
To say, here's what I know.
Here's what I also, what I don't know,and I think that there's so much we
can learn by really honoring and, andlearning from other people's experience.
And so we talked about peoplethat we mutually knew by not
(39:43):
even knowing each other, right?
And just seeing who we knew from thetime that we knew, but also saying.
Now that you know me and a little bitof where I'd like to go and my heart
and what you know that I'm good at, isthere anybody in your circle who you
feel like I should meet and connect with?
And you have to earn the right toask that question, but being really
(40:05):
intentional about about asking that.
And then also one of thethings that I loved at.
University of Central Missouri was,they were first starting in like
20 11, 20 12, of recognizing thatnot everybody wanted to go down the
terminal PhD thesis type route, and sothey added the practical professional
(40:27):
option within the master's program.
So I think if you're looking at highereducation, making sure that it's
something that fits for you, that if youare going to continue a degree, that it
offers enough freedom and flexibilitywhere you're not so tied into what they
think, but what you see as somethingthat you want to continue to build.
(40:48):
I just got to interview somebody fora job posting that we had, and they
did their master's in 2025 and just.
The list of coursework was milesdifferent than when I was in school.
I was like, these courseswould be so very helpful.
Right.
But just taking that, that approach andthat posture of, of being a lifelong
learner and knowing that there's always.
(41:10):
More to learn and that the, youknow, I talk about it, Brent, in, in
Digital Summit, Albert Einstein hada great quote and he said, if I had
an hour to figure out the questionof the world, I would spend 55
minutes asking the right questions.
Because if you ask the right questions,you can find the right solutions.
And so it's really asking good questionsof people who are smarter than you if
(41:35):
you're the smartest one in the room.
It's not a great room to stay in.
Yeah.
And what I love about what you saidtoo, is finding the right people
to ask those questions of that's sobeautiful in this connected world
where we need more connectedness now.
I I absolutely appreciateyou sharing that.
Okay, Valerie, before we go, is thereanything else you wanna share with us?
(41:55):
Also, where can we connect with you?
I just found you on LinkedIn beforethis episode, and if there's any
public links of where you've spoken,I for one, would love to say that.
Oh goodness.
So, yeah, let us know how we can connectwith you and just anything else you
would like to share with our listeners.
LinkedIn is the best spot to connect.
A lot of my speaking is with DigitalSummit and through other, unfortunately
(42:18):
pay walled because they're eitherpart of a conference package,
but love doing things like this.
Am going to be on another podcast withUniversity of Central Missouri in a
couple of weeks, so that'll be fun.
So maybe it's the startof a new road trip.
You know, I think one thing that wedidn't talk about and that I think is
really important, especially if you.
(42:38):
Are leading a team or you're anindividual contributor who's been asked
to present and map your own goals.
One thing that I am really passionateabout is managing up and also not
feeling like you need to revampyour social goals year over year.
And so what I mean by that is Iinvite my team to think about.
(43:01):
How do we take what we know is workingand where are places where we would
like accountability in evolving?
Into something new or whatis on the other side of that.
And so it doesn't mean that we'recreating new goals every year.
It's that we are taking what'sworking and we're layering and
(43:23):
we're learning and we're innovating.
And that oftentimes gets us into someof those conversations where it says,
and in order for that to happen,here's what we need to get from.
This to this and, and those are reallyimportant conversations because sometimes
you get into positions where leaders.
(43:44):
Can't quite articulate a goal forsocial media because they don't
fully understand what it can achieve.
And so it's our job in the absence ofthat or to kind of come alongside and
say, here's what I think I can accomplish.
Here's how I see it connectingto our department or our division
(44:06):
goals, and here's how it ladders upinto our mission, vision, value of
the organization that we work for.
And again, when you're able to providethat kind of layering or Russian
nesting doll type approach, it reallygives leadership the confidence to
be able to say yes to helping you.
(44:27):
Where you are to get where you thinkthat you can be and always start
small to prove that you can do a lotwith a little, and then more will
be added and more will be added.
But they'll actually thank you so muchto say thank you for helping us put
goals and measurable things in place.
(44:47):
And we don't do that for a whole year.
We do that by what we think we canaffect, by what we can control.
So very rarely are they fully rooted in,you know, things like, again, some of
those vanity metrics or different things.
But we just say, here are some, someways that we think we can evolve.
And we usually do thataround a goal of content.
(45:07):
So what's a place in, in ourcontent world that we can evolve?
Where can we do that in collaboration?
Another team or department withinthe cooperative and what is something
we think we can drive community.
So that's both community for our farmerowners, but also communities that
we're stewarding in the social space.
And those three at least get you.
(45:29):
I say usually, you know, if you do.
30, 30 and 30, it atleast gets you 90% there.
And then you should have one professionalgoal where you say, I'm gonna spend
time in Reddit because even though Idon't understand it, I see something
good and right and evolutionarythere where I know that I should be.
So that's my, it's a gold mine.
(45:49):
I will tell you.
It's a gold mine.
Come on.
Well, we need to have a littleside convo because it's a weird
gold mine, but it's a gold mine.
It's a gold
mine.
Yeah.
I'm crawling in there and I'mwallowing and I see the goodness
and I know that it's there.
And so I'm, I'm excited to become a full,a full fledged Reddit with some legs on
top sided source and AI search is Reddit.
(46:12):
Yeah.
Yep.
Yep.
Wow.
More than more than 40% of AI searchesare coming from the sourcing's, coming
from Reddit, because the most authenticconversations are happening there.
That's where I go when Ineed actual, like how to.
I will go to Reddit.
Yeah, you can get somegreat, great, great searches.
The grassiness of grassroots.
Yes.
(46:32):
There
you go.
That's right.
Well, I'm excited toget some grass stains.
Yeah.
I, as, as am I. And Val, I couldn'ttell you how I couldn't be more happy.
That we as a show ultimatelyabout professional development.
You finish this off with goalsetting for both individual and team
(46:52):
and then being able to communicatethose to stakeholders who may not
understand exactly what you do.
So I couldn't think of a better way forus, for us to cap off, cap off the show.
We, we, I can't tell youalso how much we've truly.
Enjoyed this conversation.
Yes.
We really appreciate you takingthe time, joining us today and, and
(47:14):
speaking a little about, a bit aboutyour career journey, social media,
and ending it off with some continuedlearning and professional development.
Really appreciate the time today.
My pleasure.
Thank you so much.
Thanks, Valerie.
This is great.
Yeah.
Thank you, Val.
If you found value in today'sepisode, check us out on our
website, cultivated marketer.com.
(47:35):
You'll also be able to subscribe to us.
Rate us, and leave us a comment onyour favorite podcast platform such as
Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Stitcher.
Remember, a garden of opportunitygrows with cultivated marketer.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Breakfast Club
The World's Most Dangerous Morning Show, The Breakfast Club, With DJ Envy, Jess Hilarious, And Charlamagne Tha God!