September 8, 2025 • 17 mins
What happens when rapid growth exposes cracks in your structure - and you decide to rebuild from the inside out?
In this episode of Leadership Levers, Jimi Gibson, VP of Brand Communications at Thrive Agency, shares how his team preserved culture while scaling fast - and what marketing and magic have in common.
Jimi's leadership journey spans from graphic designer to creative director to executive leader. Along the way, he’s stayed focused on what matters most: culture, communication, and connection.
At Thrive, where industry turnover can reach 50%, his team maintains a voluntary turnover rate of just 5% - a direct result of intentional culture-building and leadership decisions.
When a hierarchical structure started to crumble under the weight of growth, Jimi led the company through a major transformation, shifting to a matrix model. Their approach included an “alpha team,” a communications plan that invited team feedback, and a strong commitment to protecting trust and continuity.
Why setting clear expectations - and setting realistic expectations about the difficulty of change - was essential to success.
Jimi also breaks down his magic-to-marketing framework that taps into core human neurological responses - to drive better connection and communication.
We cover:
- How Thrive maintained stability while transforming operations
- Why matrix teams helped restore trust and clarity internally
- The neuroscience behind compelling messaging—and what magicians know that marketers forget
- How clear expectations and structured pilots kept their culture strong during change
For agency leaders, marketing executives or any team navigating growth and restructuring, this conversation is full of insight - and a reminder that the best culture strategies are the ones that stick when pressure hits.
We'd love your feedback on how we can improve - send us a Text!!
Seeking to align your culture, boost performance & impact your bottom line? Let’s chat—no sales, just real talk about your challenges. Not ready? Join our PL3 Community for free insights & connections.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
William Gladhart (00:00):
Welcome to the Leadership Levers Podcast.
I'm your host, Will Gladhart,CMO at the Culture Think Tank.
At the Culture Think Tank, weempower leaders with metrics
that strengthen culture, driveperformance and return.
We're here today to learn aboutthe actions leaders have taken
to address organizational change.
(00:21):
Today, our guest is JimmiGibson, VP of Brand
Communications at the ThriveAgency.
Thanks for taking the time tojoin us.
Jimmi Gibson (00:31):
Great to be here.
Will Thanks for having meExcellent.
William Gladhart (00:34):
Let's begin by having you share with our
audience a bit about yourself,your background and your
organization.
Jimmi Gibson (00:40):
Yeah, absolutely.
Well, I actually startedworking in ad agencies right out
of college, which led me fromgraphic designer to creative
director and then eventuallyrunning a full agency under the
Omnicom umbrella of agencieskind of gave me a on the ground,
real life example of whatleadership, operational
complexity at scale looks like,and so it was kind of cool to
(01:10):
meet with a client, figure outwhat their business problem was,
and then go back and meet withthe team.
I joined Thrive Agency aboutfive years ago.
I've actually had five titlesin five years, which is an
awesome thing with a growingcompany.
I actually came to start thestrategy department and then
moved into executive leadershipand operations, running the
(01:32):
teams that do all the work forour clients.
Vp of brand communicationbasically just means I get to go
out and tell our story of ahundred years excuse me, of 20
years.
A hundred years, that would becrazy.
Digital marketing, 20 years inbusiness and just try to help
other organizations figure outwhat to do and maybe teach some
lessons that we've learned thehard way.
(01:52):
And then a previous chapter inmy life I was actually a
professional magician and itactually turns out that magic
and marketing aren't really thatdifferent.
Um, both are aboutunderstanding people, telling
stories and creating those wowexperiences that people want to
recommend you or your company tosomebody else.
That's a brief overview.
William Gladhart (02:12):
Well, thank you for sharing that We'll be
discussing through questionstoday.
As a warm-up to ourconversation, would you share
why you believe a healthyculture is critical?
Jimmi Gibson (02:21):
Yeah, I would say in the agency world it's not
just a nice to have, it'sactually a survival strategy.
Industry turnover related toagencies is around 30 to 50%
annually, which is kind of crazy.
That's not good for other teammembers, it's not good for
continuity of projects and workthat you do for clients.
(02:42):
We've actually been able tomaintain voluntary turnover
rates of about 5%.
So that's sort of a unicorn inthe agency world.
When you look at agencyenvironment, it has the
background for relentlessdeadlines, demanding client
expectations, constant changingof campaigns and updatings.
(03:05):
It can lead to burnout,disengagement, people leave.
There is sort of this magicaltimeframe within the agency
world.
Once somebody gets about threeto five years experience,
they're highly marketableoutside the organization.
We have folks that have beenwith us five, seven, 10, 15
years.
We have folks who maybe getenticed by some of the higher
(03:27):
salaries outside theorganization and we have a
considerable number of boomerangemployees which we feel really
great about.
So I think culture is reallywhat we spend a lot of focus on.
We're intentional aboutbuilding that culture.
It protects our people fromthose spirals and things that
are going to happen at otheragencies.
I've been on an agencyinterview where they actually
(03:48):
had showers in the creativedepartment and you go huh, why
do they have showers in thecreative department?
Oh, I'll be spending weekendshere, right?
William Gladhart (03:55):
Maybe they don't want you to leave.
Jimmi Gibson (03:57):
That's right.
So I think just from thatperspective, when we have team
members that have been inenvironments that are not
healthy for themselves or theirfamily and friends, for their
mental health, we really put aflag in the ground and we say
we're not going to be thatcompany and then the residual
(04:17):
benefit is that we avoid all ofthose turnover client churn that
happens usually when teammembers churn Right, how do you
explain that?
And then we have a number ofmetrics that we measure to make
sure that we keep those on trackand maybe we'll get into some
of those as well.
But yeah, it's really at thecore of how we focus our
business is our culture.
William Gladhart (04:36):
I really love hearing that.
I always find it interestingthat we had to create a term for
both client and employee sidecalled churn simply to term for
both client and employee sidecalled churn simply to because
people came and went and nobodyreally asked why.
So I think it's reallyexceptional that, not only as an
agency, but that you and yourgroup are having boomerang
employees, having individualsthat actually come back, because
(04:59):
the grass isn't always greener.
I think that's something we'lltouch on here in a minute.
It's been our experience thatleaders tend to struggle in
three key areas people, processor profit.
In your role as a leader in theagency, could you identify
three of these areas thatpresented a cultural challenge
or something that you all had toaddress and overcome?
Jimmi Gibson (05:20):
I would say the cultural challenge started with
people, but then it reallyexposed some cracks in our
process.
Between 2016 and 2020, we grewextremely fast and the original
structure that we had set up,which was a hierarchical
structure, really couldn'tsustain how teams operated and
(05:40):
how we delivered work.
In how we delivered work, thesense of team, with that smaller
agency, began to fade.
People didn't know who to go to.
Clients didn't always feel likethey had a consistent partner
or knew who was doing the workfor them, and then internally,
silos began to form, not out ofintention, but just out of speed
, right.
So you have these deadlines.
(06:01):
You need to meet them.
If you can't figure out who'son your team, you're probably
just going to end up trying todo it yourself.
If that's not your core area ofexpertise, quality is going to
drop.
So I would say those were someindications, and then we put
some a plan in place to addressthat.
William Gladhart (06:18):
Okay, you mentioned when we had had our
prior conversation that therewere some challenges around
those people and process pieces.
I think you all did somethingthat was fairly unique to
actually overcome thosechallenges, so could you tell us
a little more about that?
Jimmi Gibson (06:44):
So you can imagine the complexity of assigning
work when we are a full serviceagency.
So we're doing everything fromSEO to PPC, to paid media, to
organic social, to creatingwebsites.
Each of those as a project oran ongoing service started to
look like a bowl of spaghettiwhen you tried to trace back who
was working on what, especiallywith the account management
(07:05):
team.
It was very frustrating In thathierarchical model really being
able to track that.
I mean, we have an internalproject management tracking
approach, but it frustrated alot of people.
It took more time to get workdelivered, so forth and so on.
As part of that, I recommendedthat we move the entire agency
to a matrix organizationalstructure, and if you're not
(07:26):
familiar with a matrixorganizational structure, you're
basically creating smallerteams and pods.
And if you read a lot about amatrix structure, the criticism
is you end up having two bosses.
And so there was a functionalboss that, like if we had an SEO
manager, we need to control thequality of the SEO, but then,
from a team lead process and howthat team does their daily work
(07:51):
, there's also a boss.
We understood thosecomplexities.
We decided to actuallyrestructure the entire company
into four matrix teams, which isnot a good idea.
After you've been in businessfor 20 years.
The best time is when you startRight.
So we knew there were going tobe problems and challenges and
we basically met with all theteams and said this is what
(08:12):
we're going to do.
This is why we're going to doit, and we expect they're going
to be hiccups, but we're notgoing to change everything all
at once.
We're actually going to have analpha team, that is, our test
case team, and we're going towork out all the kinks and gaps
and opportunities for failureduring that time and we're going
to run that team for fourmonths and we're going to learn
where the breaks in the systemare.
(08:34):
Well, what actually happened was, as we started to move into
this because we had leteverybody know that it was going
to be messy Everybody expectedthat.
We had two goals we didn't wantto lose any people.
We didn't want to lose anyclients through that process.
The people who were on thatteam became evangelist quickly
because they were like, oh mygosh, this is so much better.
You're going to love it.
(08:54):
We actually did a little PRtour and we had people from that
group.
Myself went around to all theother team members and
departments and started to talkabout what life was going to
look like when they moved intothe structure.
And we actually moved into thefull rollout a month early.
Obviously, we continued torefine, but the feedback that we
(09:14):
got was why didn't we do this10 years ago?
This is awesome.
I finally know who's on my team.
You know, when you have adecentralized workforce and
you're not able to huddle aroundthe table like we were in the
beginning stages of the company,you lose that rubbing elbows
with somebody, and this broughtthat back.
So, not only from a processoriented, but also culturally,
(09:37):
you felt like you knew yourteammates.
You got introduced to newpeople that you hadn't worked
with before.
We consider that a win all theway around.
We didn't lose any clients, wedidn't lose any employees and we
now took that step backwards sothat we could solidify the
structure to now set us up foranother layer of growth within
(09:57):
the company.
So again, that would lead.
We took a people problem.
It turned into a processsituation.
William Gladhart (10:05):
Now we're able to bring on more profit because
we would have crumbled if wetried to layer on more client
load in the previous structureof the organization tension when
we first talked was thatintentionality, but also the
communication plan, the factthat you had a beta team and you
(10:29):
were going to run that out andlet people know exactly what was
going to happen in theorganization.
We see that as one of thehugest pitfalls in private
equity and M&A is nobody tellsanybody anything and then it's
surprise but you forget aboutall the people that built the
business and all the people thatbuilt your customer portfolio
and your client base and then ifthey leave, who else leaves?
So I think that was a reallyinteresting intentional approach
(10:50):
.
So you mentioned at the startof our conversation that
marketing and agency work is alittle like magic.
So I think that makes aninteresting kind of wrap up to
our conversation.
But would you share a littlemore about that?
Jimmi Gibson (11:04):
Yeah, so you know my background.
I got a magic kit when I wassix years old and just kind of
kept going with it and I wasactually doing birthday parties
for my friends in middle schooland their parents were paying me
to do these shows for myfriends and I was like, hey, wow
, there's something to this.
And then in high school I wasintroduced to a gentleman that
worked at an ad agency and hehad an account for a global
(11:26):
brand that we've all heard ofand they wanted a promotional
entertainer to help them withsome promotions they were doing.
Well, that relationship lasted16 years.
So while everybody else wasworking retail and cutting lawns
, I was doing these shows and Isort of took that as far as I
could.
I had a theater in Myrtle Beach, south Carolina, performed a
corporate show at the MGM in LasVegas.
(11:48):
I've been on TV with BuddyBalestro, the cake boss, when
they were doing a special onBuddy's vacation, nice.
So I've done quite a few thingsand was lucky enough to be part
of a training with some othermagicians, with a Broadway
director who was in the originalcast of Annie.
He's directed 22 Broadwayproductions, also a magician,
(12:08):
and so we all went to Montrealto do this training.
We were supposed to bring twoand a half minutes of our act
and then each night during thatsession, after we learn our
lessons for the day, you wouldperform your two and a half
minutes, and they would.
He and this other coach wouldcritique those two and a half
minutes for two and a half hours.
And so we talked about thestructure of what it takes to
(12:33):
fool somebody, because, you know, unfortunately magic is not
real.
We're doing something andtrying to get the audience to
believe that we've defied thelaws of physics to make this
thing real.
And the structure of how youcommunicate you make a
connection with the audience,you pique their curiosity and
then you bring that trick to aconclusion pretty much mirrors
(12:54):
how you need to approach yourmarketing message right.
Especially if you're onLinkedIn these days, you'll get
a connection request and it'sinteresting it's called a
connection request because itshould be a connection right, it
shouldn't be.
I'm going to send you this, you, you owe me the fact that
you're going to accept my invite, and then immediately you're
going to get hit with a closeright.
(13:16):
Here's what I'm selling you.
And then you're sitting thereas the recipient going.
I don't even know who you are.
William Gladhart (13:21):
What is right.
Well, and to your point, Idon't know who you are, I know
nothing about you, my messagingis completely wrong, et cetera,
like we've all had it and causewe're all frustrated by it.
So sorry to interrupt, continue.
Oh no, no, no, no.
Jimmi Gibson (13:34):
And so I actually sort of reverse engineered a
framework that activates partsof the brain that is important
to make sure you have all ofthese processes.
It's a typical storytellingstructure, but when you meet
somebody, there is this releaseof oxytocin.
If it's a good connection, youhave good feelings.
Hey, I'd like for this tocontinue, whether it's in a
(13:55):
personal relationship or abusiness relationship.
There's some rapport there.
The neurotransmitters in yourbrain are like oh, wow, okay,
let's see where this is going togo.
Now you really need to activatethe curiosity component.
What is it about thisrelationship that, selfishly,
could benefit me, right?
And so that's a release ofdopamine.
(14:17):
And we've heard about dopamineaddiction with social media.
It's actually not addicted todopamine.
It's actually.
Dopamine is theneurotransmitter that you have
an expectation of, a reward.
You want somebody to like orshare or comment on your post,
and so that is what's released.
But in a communicationstandpoint, you have to say
something that piques thatperson's interest enough for
(14:38):
them to lean in.
We've all heard the theatricalterm on the edge of your seat,
right?
Why is that?
Because you're curious.
There's something in it for you.
So you have to put your brainin the mind of the audience and
go what's going to interest themenough that they're not going
to tune out?
They're going to delete myemail, they're going to check
their phone, you know.
Whatever the case may be.
But you can't drag that out toolong because you need to move
(15:01):
to that conclusion.
And through that process ofconnection, you've been given
permission to now move them intothis state of curiosity and now
the conversion can happen in anatural way.
And then that's the release ofserotonin, which is basically
everything's right with theworld.
This is great.
If you just follow that simpleframework, you're going to be
better than 99% of the peopleout there related to messaging.
(15:23):
And again, it just layers righton top from a magic trick to a
marketing or businessconversation.
William Gladhart (15:32):
Yeah, I think that's.
I think that's really valuablefor others to hear as we wrap up
our conversation today.
Is there anything else you'dlike to share with fellow
leaders?
Jimmi Gibson (15:40):
Yeah, I think one of the things that we've really
been intentional about isthinking about our core values.
A lot of people go through theprocess.
They may have an offsite, theyslap it up on the website, but
they never really live throughThursday, and so everybody in
the company has gratitude forsomebody on their team that did
a good job.
We also ask folks to give aKiva loan or participate in the
(16:14):
giving a Kiva loan to all everyclient that comes in the door,
and so we just want to instillthis appreciation for the world,
appreciation for the work thatyou do, and we bake that into
everything that we do, and webake that in to everything that
we do.
Every person knows our corevalues.
It's how we operate and itbecomes a language within the
organization.
So I would say, if you're justslapping it on the website, it's
(16:36):
not really going to do much.
You have to live it, breathe itand make sure everybody on the
team understand what it's about,and I can see that it makes a
difference and I'm all for it.
So that would be the one thingI would leave folks with.
William Gladhart (16:48):
Excellent.
Well, thank you for sharingthat, Jimmy.
I've enjoyed having you as aguest on our Leadership Levers
podcast.
Thank you again for your timeand your insights.
Great Thank you.
Thank you for joining us on theLeadership Levers podcast.
Joining us on the LeadershipLovers podcast.
Find all our Leadership Loversepisodes on the Culture Think
(17:11):
Tank website at www.
theculturethinktank.
com or listen on your favoritestreaming platform.
We'd love to hear from youabout the challenges you have
faced as a leader.
Tune in weekly as we inviteleaders to share their
experiences in strengtheningculture and performance, one
action at a time.
Welcome to the Leadership Levers Podcast.
I'm your host, Will Gladhart,CMO at the Culture Think Tank.
At the Culture Think Tank, weempower leaders with metrics
that strengthen culture, driveperformance and return.
We're here today to learn aboutthe actions leaders have taken
to address organizational change.
(00:21):
Today, our guest is JimmiGibson, VP of Brand
Communications at the ThriveAgency.
Thanks for taking the time tojoin us.
Jimmi Gibson (00:31):
Great to be here.
Will Thanks for having meExcellent.
William Gladhart (00:34):
Let's begin by having you share with our
audience a bit about yourself,your background and your
organization.
Jimmi Gibson (00:40):
Yeah, absolutely.
Well, I actually startedworking in ad agencies right out
of college, which led me fromgraphic designer to creative
director and then eventuallyrunning a full agency under the
Omnicom umbrella of agencieskind of gave me a on the ground,
real life example of whatleadership, operational
complexity at scale looks like,and so it was kind of cool to
(01:10):
meet with a client, figure outwhat their business problem was,
and then go back and meet withthe team.
I joined Thrive Agency aboutfive years ago.
I've actually had five titlesin five years, which is an
awesome thing with a growingcompany.
I actually came to start thestrategy department and then
moved into executive leadershipand operations, running the
(01:32):
teams that do all the work forour clients.
Vp of brand communicationbasically just means I get to go
out and tell our story of ahundred years excuse me, of 20
years.
A hundred years, that would becrazy.
Digital marketing, 20 years inbusiness and just try to help
other organizations figure outwhat to do and maybe teach some
lessons that we've learned thehard way.
(01:52):
And then a previous chapter inmy life I was actually a
professional magician and itactually turns out that magic
and marketing aren't really thatdifferent.
Um, both are aboutunderstanding people, telling
stories and creating those wowexperiences that people want to
recommend you or your company tosomebody else.
That's a brief overview.
William Gladhart (02:12):
Well, thank you for sharing that We'll be
discussing through questionstoday.
As a warm-up to ourconversation, would you share
why you believe a healthyculture is critical?
Jimmi Gibson (02:21):
Yeah, I would say in the agency world it's not
just a nice to have, it'sactually a survival strategy.
Industry turnover related toagencies is around 30 to 50%
annually, which is kind of crazy.
That's not good for other teammembers, it's not good for
continuity of projects and workthat you do for clients.
(02:42):
We've actually been able tomaintain voluntary turnover
rates of about 5%.
So that's sort of a unicorn inthe agency world.
When you look at agencyenvironment, it has the
background for relentlessdeadlines, demanding client
expectations, constant changingof campaigns and updatings.
(03:05):
It can lead to burnout,disengagement, people leave.
There is sort of this magicaltimeframe within the agency
world.
Once somebody gets about threeto five years experience,
they're highly marketableoutside the organization.
We have folks that have beenwith us five, seven, 10, 15
years.
We have folks who maybe getenticed by some of the higher
(03:27):
salaries outside theorganization and we have a
considerable number of boomerangemployees which we feel really
great about.
So I think culture is reallywhat we spend a lot of focus on.
We're intentional aboutbuilding that culture.
It protects our people fromthose spirals and things that
are going to happen at otheragencies.
I've been on an agencyinterview where they actually
(03:48):
had showers in the creativedepartment and you go huh, why
do they have showers in thecreative department?
Oh, I'll be spending weekendshere, right?
William Gladhart (03:55):
Maybe they don't want you to leave.
Jimmi Gibson (03:57):
That's right.
So I think just from thatperspective, when we have team
members that have been inenvironments that are not
healthy for themselves or theirfamily and friends, for their
mental health, we really put aflag in the ground and we say
we're not going to be thatcompany and then the residual
(04:17):
benefit is that we avoid all ofthose turnover client churn that
happens usually when teammembers churn Right, how do you
explain that?
And then we have a number ofmetrics that we measure to make
sure that we keep those on trackand maybe we'll get into some
of those as well.
But yeah, it's really at thecore of how we focus our
business is our culture.
William Gladhart (04:36):
I really love hearing that.
I always find it interestingthat we had to create a term for
both client and employee sidecalled churn simply to term for
both client and employee sidecalled churn simply to because
people came and went and nobodyreally asked why.
So I think it's reallyexceptional that, not only as an
agency, but that you and yourgroup are having boomerang
employees, having individualsthat actually come back, because
(04:59):
the grass isn't always greener.
I think that's something we'lltouch on here in a minute.
It's been our experience thatleaders tend to struggle in
three key areas people, processor profit.
In your role as a leader in theagency, could you identify
three of these areas thatpresented a cultural challenge
or something that you all had toaddress and overcome?
Jimmi Gibson (05:20):
I would say the cultural challenge started with
people, but then it reallyexposed some cracks in our
process.
Between 2016 and 2020, we grewextremely fast and the original
structure that we had set up,which was a hierarchical
structure, really couldn'tsustain how teams operated and
(05:40):
how we delivered work.
In how we delivered work, thesense of team, with that smaller
agency, began to fade.
People didn't know who to go to.
Clients didn't always feel likethey had a consistent partner
or knew who was doing the workfor them, and then internally,
silos began to form, not out ofintention, but just out of speed
, right.
So you have these deadlines.
(06:01):
You need to meet them.
If you can't figure out who'son your team, you're probably
just going to end up trying todo it yourself.
If that's not your core area ofexpertise, quality is going to
drop.
So I would say those were someindications, and then we put
some a plan in place to addressthat.
William Gladhart (06:18):
Okay, you mentioned when we had had our
prior conversation that therewere some challenges around
those people and process pieces.
I think you all did somethingthat was fairly unique to
actually overcome thosechallenges, so could you tell us
a little more about that?
Jimmi Gibson (06:44):
So you can imagine the complexity of assigning
work when we are a full serviceagency.
So we're doing everything fromSEO to PPC, to paid media, to
organic social, to creatingwebsites.
Each of those as a project oran ongoing service started to
look like a bowl of spaghettiwhen you tried to trace back who
was working on what, especiallywith the account management
(07:05):
team.
It was very frustrating In thathierarchical model really being
able to track that.
I mean, we have an internalproject management tracking
approach, but it frustrated alot of people.
It took more time to get workdelivered, so forth and so on.
As part of that, I recommendedthat we move the entire agency
to a matrix organizationalstructure, and if you're not
(07:26):
familiar with a matrixorganizational structure, you're
basically creating smallerteams and pods.
And if you read a lot about amatrix structure, the criticism
is you end up having two bosses.
And so there was a functionalboss that, like if we had an SEO
manager, we need to control thequality of the SEO, but then,
from a team lead process and howthat team does their daily work
(07:51):
, there's also a boss.
We understood thosecomplexities.
We decided to actuallyrestructure the entire company
into four matrix teams, which isnot a good idea.
After you've been in businessfor 20 years.
The best time is when you startRight.
So we knew there were going tobe problems and challenges and
we basically met with all theteams and said this is what
(08:12):
we're going to do.
This is why we're going to doit, and we expect they're going
to be hiccups, but we're notgoing to change everything all
at once.
We're actually going to have analpha team, that is, our test
case team, and we're going towork out all the kinks and gaps
and opportunities for failureduring that time and we're going
to run that team for fourmonths and we're going to learn
where the breaks in the systemare.
(08:34):
Well, what actually happened was, as we started to move into
this because we had leteverybody know that it was going
to be messy Everybody expectedthat.
We had two goals we didn't wantto lose any people.
We didn't want to lose anyclients through that process.
The people who were on thatteam became evangelist quickly
because they were like, oh mygosh, this is so much better.
You're going to love it.
(08:54):
We actually did a little PRtour and we had people from that
group.
Myself went around to all theother team members and
departments and started to talkabout what life was going to
look like when they moved intothe structure.
And we actually moved into thefull rollout a month early.
Obviously, we continued torefine, but the feedback that we
(09:14):
got was why didn't we do this10 years ago?
This is awesome.
I finally know who's on my team.
You know, when you have adecentralized workforce and
you're not able to huddle aroundthe table like we were in the
beginning stages of the company,you lose that rubbing elbows
with somebody, and this broughtthat back.
So, not only from a processoriented, but also culturally,
(09:37):
you felt like you knew yourteammates.
You got introduced to newpeople that you hadn't worked
with before.
We consider that a win all theway around.
We didn't lose any clients, wedidn't lose any employees and we
now took that step backwards sothat we could solidify the
structure to now set us up foranother layer of growth within
(09:57):
the company.
So again, that would lead.
We took a people problem.
It turned into a processsituation.
William Gladhart (10:05):
Now we're able to bring on more profit because
we would have crumbled if wetried to layer on more client
load in the previous structureof the organization tension when
we first talked was thatintentionality, but also the
communication plan, the factthat you had a beta team and you
(10:29):
were going to run that out andlet people know exactly what was
going to happen in theorganization.
We see that as one of thehugest pitfalls in private
equity and M&A is nobody tellsanybody anything and then it's
surprise but you forget aboutall the people that built the
business and all the people thatbuilt your customer portfolio
and your client base and then ifthey leave, who else leaves?
So I think that was a reallyinteresting intentional approach
(10:50):
.
So you mentioned at the startof our conversation that
marketing and agency work is alittle like magic.
So I think that makes aninteresting kind of wrap up to
our conversation.
But would you share a littlemore about that?
Jimmi Gibson (11:04):
Yeah, so you know my background.
I got a magic kit when I wassix years old and just kind of
kept going with it and I wasactually doing birthday parties
for my friends in middle schooland their parents were paying me
to do these shows for myfriends and I was like, hey, wow
, there's something to this.
And then in high school I wasintroduced to a gentleman that
worked at an ad agency and hehad an account for a global
(11:26):
brand that we've all heard ofand they wanted a promotional
entertainer to help them withsome promotions they were doing.
Well, that relationship lasted16 years.
So while everybody else wasworking retail and cutting lawns
, I was doing these shows and Isort of took that as far as I
could.
I had a theater in Myrtle Beach, south Carolina, performed a
corporate show at the MGM in LasVegas.
(11:48):
I've been on TV with BuddyBalestro, the cake boss, when
they were doing a special onBuddy's vacation, nice.
So I've done quite a few thingsand was lucky enough to be part
of a training with some othermagicians, with a Broadway
director who was in the originalcast of Annie.
He's directed 22 Broadwayproductions, also a magician,
(12:08):
and so we all went to Montrealto do this training.
We were supposed to bring twoand a half minutes of our act
and then each night during thatsession, after we learn our
lessons for the day, you wouldperform your two and a half
minutes, and they would.
He and this other coach wouldcritique those two and a half
minutes for two and a half hours.
And so we talked about thestructure of what it takes to
(12:33):
fool somebody, because, you know, unfortunately magic is not
real.
We're doing something andtrying to get the audience to
believe that we've defied thelaws of physics to make this
thing real.
And the structure of how youcommunicate you make a
connection with the audience,you pique their curiosity and
then you bring that trick to aconclusion pretty much mirrors
(12:54):
how you need to approach yourmarketing message right.
Especially if you're onLinkedIn these days, you'll get
a connection request and it'sinteresting it's called a
connection request because itshould be a connection right, it
shouldn't be.
I'm going to send you this, you, you owe me the fact that
you're going to accept my invite, and then immediately you're
going to get hit with a closeright.
(13:16):
Here's what I'm selling you.
And then you're sitting thereas the recipient going.
I don't even know who you are.
William Gladhart (13:21):
What is right.
Well, and to your point, Idon't know who you are, I know
nothing about you, my messagingis completely wrong, et cetera,
like we've all had it and causewe're all frustrated by it.
So sorry to interrupt, continue.
Oh no, no, no, no.
Jimmi Gibson (13:34):
And so I actually sort of reverse engineered a
framework that activates partsof the brain that is important
to make sure you have all ofthese processes.
It's a typical storytellingstructure, but when you meet
somebody, there is this releaseof oxytocin.
If it's a good connection, youhave good feelings.
Hey, I'd like for this tocontinue, whether it's in a
(13:55):
personal relationship or abusiness relationship.
There's some rapport there.
The neurotransmitters in yourbrain are like oh, wow, okay,
let's see where this is going togo.
Now you really need to activatethe curiosity component.
What is it about thisrelationship that, selfishly,
could benefit me, right?
And so that's a release ofdopamine.
(14:17):
And we've heard about dopamineaddiction with social media.
It's actually not addicted todopamine.
It's actually.
Dopamine is theneurotransmitter that you have
an expectation of, a reward.
You want somebody to like orshare or comment on your post,
and so that is what's released.
But in a communicationstandpoint, you have to say
something that piques thatperson's interest enough for
(14:38):
them to lean in.
We've all heard the theatricalterm on the edge of your seat,
right?
Why is that?
Because you're curious.
There's something in it for you.
So you have to put your brainin the mind of the audience and
go what's going to interest themenough that they're not going
to tune out?
They're going to delete myemail, they're going to check
their phone, you know.
Whatever the case may be.
But you can't drag that out toolong because you need to move
(15:01):
to that conclusion.
And through that process ofconnection, you've been given
permission to now move them intothis state of curiosity and now
the conversion can happen in anatural way.
And then that's the release ofserotonin, which is basically
everything's right with theworld.
This is great.
If you just follow that simpleframework, you're going to be
better than 99% of the peopleout there related to messaging.
(15:23):
And again, it just layers righton top from a magic trick to a
marketing or businessconversation.
William Gladhart (15:32):
Yeah, I think that's.
I think that's really valuablefor others to hear as we wrap up
our conversation today.
Is there anything else you'dlike to share with fellow
leaders?
Jimmi Gibson (15:40):
Yeah, I think one of the things that we've really
been intentional about isthinking about our core values.
A lot of people go through theprocess.
They may have an offsite, theyslap it up on the website, but
they never really live throughThursday, and so everybody in
the company has gratitude forsomebody on their team that did
a good job.
We also ask folks to give aKiva loan or participate in the
(16:14):
giving a Kiva loan to all everyclient that comes in the door,
and so we just want to instillthis appreciation for the world,
appreciation for the work thatyou do, and we bake that into
everything that we do, and webake that in to everything that
we do.
Every person knows our corevalues.
It's how we operate and itbecomes a language within the
organization.
So I would say, if you're justslapping it on the website, it's
(16:36):
not really going to do much.
You have to live it, breathe itand make sure everybody on the
team understand what it's about,and I can see that it makes a
difference and I'm all for it.
So that would be the one thingI would leave folks with.
William Gladhart (16:48):
Excellent.
Well, thank you for sharingthat, Jimmy.
I've enjoyed having you as aguest on our Leadership Levers
podcast.
Thank you again for your timeand your insights.
Great Thank you.
Thank you for joining us on theLeadership Levers podcast.
Joining us on the LeadershipLovers podcast.
Find all our Leadership Loversepisodes on the Culture Think
(17:11):
Tank website at www.
theculturethinktank.
com or listen on your favoritestreaming platform.
We'd love to hear from youabout the challenges you have
faced as a leader.
Tune in weekly as we inviteleaders to share their
experiences in strengtheningculture and performance, one
action at a time.
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