December 8, 2025 • 20 mins
How do you communicate with your customers, employees, vendors? Do you have a cohesive strategy for unified communications? Our guest today is Joshua Altman, who shares with us what a chief communications officer is and why you might need one.
TODAY'S WIN-WIN:
Perception is making sure your name is out in a positive way and building trust is done through positive experiences.
LINKS FROM THE EPISODE:
- Schedule your free franchise consultation with Big Sky Franchise Team: https://bigskyfranchiseteam.com/.
- You can visit our guest's website at: https://beltway.media/
- Attend our Franchise Sales Training Workshop:
- https://bigskyfranchiseteam.com/franchisesalestraining/
- Connect with our guests on social:
ABOUT OUR GUEST:
Joshua is an experienced storyteller and strategist with more than two decades of experience shaping how people see, hear and connect with big ideas. Today, he leads beltway.media, a D.C.-based communications firm that helps brands and organizations cut through the noise. Before founding the firm, Joshua was a multimedia journalist at The Hill, diving deep into federal policy and covering high-stakes election cycles right from the front lines. Now he works with everyone from startups to federal agencies, helping them refine their message, elevate their brand and truly connect with their audience, whether that’s customers, investors or the public at large. From reimagining agency websites to crafting magnetic stories, Joshua’s work has one goal: to make communications clear, compelling, and impossible to ignore.
ABOUT BIG SKY FRANCHISE TEAM:
This episode is powered by Big Sky Franchise Team. If you are ready to talk about franchising your business you can schedule your free, no-obligation, franchise consultation online at: https://bigskyfranchiseteam.com/.
The information provided in this podcast is for informational and educational purposes only and should not be considered financial, legal, or professional advice. Always consult with a qualified professional before making any business decisions. The views and opinions expressed by guests are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the host, Big Sky Franchise Team, or our affiliates. Additionally, this podcast may feature sponsors or advertisers, but any mention of products or services does not constitute an endorsement. Please do your own research before making any purchasing or business decisions.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Tom DuFore (00:01):
Welcome to the Multiply Your Success podcast,
where each week we helpgrowth-minded entrepreneurs and
franchise leaders take the nextstep in their expansion journey.
I'm your host, Tom Dufour, CEOof Big Sky Franchise Team.
And as we open today, I'mwondering how you communicate
with your customers, employees,vendors, and those connected to
(00:21):
you and your business.
And do you have a cohesivestrategy for unified
communications?
Well, our guest today is JoshuaAltman, and he shares with us
what a chief communicationsofficer is and why you might
need one.
Now, Joshua is an experiencedstoryteller and strategist with
more than two decades ofexperience shaping how people
(00:43):
see, hear, and connect with bigideas.
Today he leads Beltway Media, aDC-based communications firm
that helps brands andorganizations cut through the
noise.
Before founding the firm,Joshua was a multimedia
journalist at The Hill, divingdeep into federal policy and
covering high-stakes electioncycles right from the front
lines.
Now he works from everyone fromstartups to federal agencies,
(01:06):
helping them refine theirmessage.
You're going to love thisinterview, so let's go ahead and
jump right into it.
Joshua, thank you so much forbeing a guest here.
And one of the things that Iwas looking forward to having
you on to talk about is thisidea of a chief communications
officer.
And so I'd love, just as astarting point, just to talk
(01:27):
about what it is and what arethings that this person might do
or the responsibilities here.
Joshua Altman (01:33):
It's not a totally new role.
It's taking on a lot moreprominence, especially in larger
companies.
And that's of course nowtrickling down into smaller
firms.
What we do is different from achief marketing officer, it's
different from a chief brandingofficer, which people are much
more familiar with.
The chief communicationsofficer has two main focuses.
You know, we are shapingperception and we build and
(01:55):
maintain trust.
Those are our two big things.
And we do that with taking anintegrated, big picture view of
how messaging it impacts yourreputation, your growth, and
your stakeholder confidence.
So we're not just looking atyour marketing.
We are not just looking atbranding or just at advertising.
We are not just looking atinvestor relations or internal
(02:16):
communications.
It's how all of those thingsare working together to impact
your reputation because they do.
And that's one of the reasonsyou're just kind of seeing this,
you know, become more prominentin larger companies and why
it's trickling down is you arebringing a lot of these
functions that might have beenseparate under one umbrella,
(02:39):
under one leadership structure.
And, you know, it's a veryhands-on role.
You know, it is consistentstorytelling across your
internal and external channels.
And we're really making surethat you do stay on your message
and also figuring out what thatmessage is.
Tom DuFore (02:58):
Very well said.
And when I think of a chiefcommunications officer and some
of these chief fill-in-the-blankpositions that might exist,
oftentimes I think of mid tolarge size organizations, lots
of staff and so on.
Oftentimes, and most of ouraudience that will tune in, they
are still founder-ledorganizations, maybe a small
(03:19):
franchise system or a growingsmall business.
So I'd love for you to talkabout how you see small to
mid-size businesses integratingwith this type of role or
position, or how you've seenmaybe in your own line of work,
companies successfully implementthis type of position.
Joshua Altman (03:37):
We work with a lot of those founder-led
businesses, or, you know, theyhave, you know, two to three,
you know, core employees, youknow, maybe at a headquarters,
and then distributed teams,which is very common these days.
But it's still very muchfounder-led.
And what we're going to do withthem is work with those
founders or, you know, thatemployee two, employee three,
(04:00):
who's kind of taken on that, youknow, marketing communications
role and been leading it becausethey're just the person there.
But it's taking 10 to 15 hoursa week for them.
But they're actually, you know,the VP of technology.
They are, you know, a chiefrevenue officer, but they just
sort of got it because they werethere.
And now they have this coreteam, but a lot more staff
(04:24):
somewhere else, you know,distributed.
You know, if they're homeservices, they might be, you
know, the people in the truckswho are doing the work, you
know, of that business.
You know, if they're foodservice, they might be, you
know, that front of house, youknow, serving the customers
every day.
And now, what do we do?
These aren't people who havetime for this, obviously.
They're out there doing ourwork, our you know, serving our
(04:45):
customers.
So we're gonna come in and belike, what part of this don't
you want to be doing personally?
That you see taking, you know,those 15 hours away from
focusing on revenue or focusingon finance.
And then we start doing thatfor them because they might not
have that need, especially ifthey're in that growth stage,
like you talked about, for a40-hour week W-2 full-time with
(05:09):
benefits communications leaderrole.
That's why they never broughtsomeone in.
Tom DuFore (05:15):
And thinking about this role and some of the
various duties, you startedgoing down some of these
different tasks that might be,it sounds like the chief
communications officercentralizes these tasks into one
position or one, it sounds likein your case, organization.
But what are some of the commontasks that maybe a person's
(05:37):
doing a handful here, someoneelse is doing some there, et
cetera?
What are some of these tasksyou generally see?
Joshua Altman (05:43):
Sometimes they have their email newsletters,
especially, you know, thingslike food service, home service,
things like that, you know,that are sending out, you know,
reminder, you know, we'regetting cold here in the winter
season in the northeast, atmid-central states, you know,
check your wallet, you know, iftheir plumbing business, it's
things like, you know, checkyour pipes for the winter, and
they're sending out thesenewsletters, maybe with
(06:03):
discounts and coupons.
One person's doing that.
Another person, totallyseparate, is managing their
social media.
Another person might behandling investor relations if
they have external investors.
You might have another personwho's, you know, just handling,
you know, branding and makingsure that you know things look
the same.
And they're not reporting to orpart of the organization that's
(06:26):
handling the email or thesocial media, but they're using
all their assets.
You know, those assets arecrossing between.
So you find a lot of that kindof across a company, especially
when they might say, you know,at their stage where they're
kind of hitting that you know,seven-figure, mid-seven figure
mark.
Well, now we need to startorganizing.
Now we need to start gettingthis stuff together.
(06:47):
Well, the time to do that iswhen you're first getting going,
when you're first, you know,getting your business up and
running.
And you will not need a 40-houra week, you know,
communications expert in yourleadership structure when you're
at that stage, which is why wedo things fractionally, which is
why we come in and we're easy,we could be five hours a month,
(07:08):
which is you know, roughly onehour a week, a little more, or
you know, 20 hours a week ifyou're at a much later stage and
we can grow with you in thatrole.
So we know where you are, weknow your business just like if
you had brought on, you know,someone fully in-house.
We know you and we were withyou long term.
Tom DuFore (07:28):
You talked about two important components that the
chief communications officerdoes.
They focus on shapingperception and building trust as
two key items here.
I'd love for you to talk alittle bit about how you help
shape that perception.
And you, meaning this role orthis position, you know, what
are things that this role isdoing to make that happen?
Joshua Altman (07:48):
So when it comes to shaping perception, it's
going to be, you know, thingslike just making sure your name
is out there in a positive way,you know, that people know what
you you you are and what you do,and they have positive
associations with it as best aspossible.
If you are, you know, anexterminator company, people
generally call you when theyhave a, you know, a problem they
(08:11):
are very, very angry about.
So the positive associationwith you is going to be pests,
but it's going to be cleaning,it's going to be prevention,
it's going to be, you know,helping mitigate that situation.
So you're good, we're going totake that and make sure people
have a good association.
Yes, people associate you withbugs and rodents, but it's going
to be associated with that in agood way that makes people
(08:32):
happy.
When the other is, you know,the building and maintaining
trust, especially for like ahome services business, they're
coming into your home.
We're going to make sure thatthey know you or, you know, in a
way that they are comfortabledoing that.
And that could be things like,you know, videos, you know,
showing your professionalism,showing how you do this and that
(08:53):
you are someone who they shouldfeel, you know, very
comfortable letting into theirhome with if you are an
exterminator company,pesticides, poisons, traps,
things like that around theirkids and pets.
So that you know, can be veryimportant.
And it also just means doing itconsistently over a long term.
Just because you put out, youknow, one video doesn't mean
(09:15):
it's done.
It takes seven to 14 touchpoints, is the often quoted
statistic of how long it takespeople to, you know, take an
action based off of seeing, youknow, marketing materials.
To take trust, it usually takesmore than that.
It takes positive experiences.
And that's really, you know,building on positive experiences
(09:35):
people have is crucial.
Tom DuFore (09:38):
That's really, really good.
And so, as I think of some ofthe things you just mentioned,
the seven to 14 or more touchpoints, plus not to mention all
of the marketing trends, socialmedia trends, technology things
that come along the way, youknow, how do you see this
(09:58):
position helping kind of bringall that together?
And, you know, maybe even justkind of forward thinking this, I
guess, part two of thequestion.
Where do you see some of thesetrends heading?
Joshua Altman (10:10):
A lot of people think, you know, you can beat
the algorithm with technologythat, you know, or you are just
totally opposed to it and itdoesn't help, you know, work for
your business.
Neither of those are true.
You cannot beat it because itconstantly changes.
Even if you, even if youfigured out what works today,
that might not be what workstomorrow, because those
algorithms can change.
Just because you've masteredTikTok doesn't mean it will
(10:32):
translate to whatever platformcomes next.
And there will be somethingafter TikTok.
There will be something thatcomes next because we all
remember, or some of usremember, friendster and
MySpace.
When was the last time youchecked your friendster?
Tom DuFore (10:47):
Never.
And my MySpace has not beenchecked in probably decades at
this point.
Yeah.
Joshua Altman (10:53):
So something will come next.
And that's important.
Remember that you know, justbecause you figured out this one
doesn't mean you're gonna getthe next one.
And also it means certain corethings will matter more than
mastering TikTok or masteringInstagram, because that won't be
(11:15):
the thing forever.
So if you have, you know, thebasics of the storytelling, you
know, the basics of how you usethe technology, you know, the
recording, the video, the audio,those sorts of things,
lighting, you know, that makesit look good and that people can
watch.
If you understand what connectswith people, that's much more
critical long term than justunderstanding a particular
(11:39):
platform.
With that said, understand theparticular platforms.
They are what is live now, andyou need to use them in a way
that benefits your business.
But also that not everyplatform will be great for every
business.
You know, Pinterest is great inhome decorating and some home
services.
It has its you know, area andpeople, it dominates.
(12:02):
But outside of that, it's notgonna be the best for you.
So don't necessarily rely onit.
You know, Instagram might begreat for you, but not, you
know, TikTok.
You just kind of gotta knowwhere you are.
Tom DuFore (12:16):
Joshua, I'd be remiss if I didn't at least ask
this question.
Uh, someone who tunes into thismaybe has thought this
throughout the interview andsaid, Well, Joshua, can't I just
use uh Chat GPT or Grok or oneof these AI tools out there to
be my chief communicationsofficer?
Joshua Altman (12:34):
I get that all the time.
And you know what?
We come in with people who aredoing this themselves, and it
takes hours a week from them.
Guess what?
If you're using Grok or ChatGPTor Claude or whatever that is
for you, guess what?
You're still the one doing it.
And maybe you've cut down from,you know, 10 hours a week to
five hours a week doing ityourself, but you're still doing
(12:54):
it yourself, which is what youdon't want to be doing.
We use AI, we love AI, it'sgreat.
AI does not replace a humanbecause you've read AI stuff.
I'm sure your listeners haveseen AI stuff.
We can tell when it's AI stuff.
When you have seven differentbullet points that are all
emojis, that was written by AI.
(13:15):
A human does not do that.
You know, we all know what itthat you know looks like.
And we fix that, you know.
We don't, you know, we come inand yes, we'll use AI.
It makes a great outline.
It can do a reasonable firstdraft for some things.
It's great for research.
You know, if we want to knowwhat's trending today, but it
(13:36):
doesn't post live and it alsodoesn't just solve it.
It's a tool.
Like everything else is a tool.
Tom DuFore (13:44):
What's the best way to get in touch with you, learn
more about what you're doing,and connect with you?
Joshua Altman (13:48):
Yeah, the best way to reach me is by email, J
Altman at Bel Oi.media no.com.
Uh, you can also find me onLinkedIn, you know, LinkedIn.com
slash in slash Joshua.
I alt.
I check my email.
I love email.
It's probably the best way toreach me.
We love hearing from people.
Yeah, even if you just want youknow a consultation, see where
(14:11):
you are, reach out.
Tom DuFore (14:13):
Perfect.
Well, this is a great time inthe show, Joshua.
We make a transition.
We ask every guest the samefour questions before they go.
And the first question we askis have you had a miss or two on
your journey and something youlearned from it?
Joshua Altman (14:25):
Two, three, four, more than that.
Sometimes it feels like, youknow, we didn't get a client.
A project didn't work out,people weren't happy.
You know, I could go down andlist things that, you know,
didn't meet the metrics that wewanted to.
I won't disclose those clientsbecause it didn't meet the
metrics that we wanted to.
But, you know, you got to getup.
You know, at the beginning, Igot really hung up on when
(14:46):
things just didn't work.
And I would, you know, reallyjust focus on, you know, how to
fix it.
And sometimes you can't.
Some things just it's live.
It happened, it's published.
You could fix some things, youknow, send out a corrected link,
email a correction, dowhatever.
But sometimes you got to getup, take those lessons, and
apply it to the next thing.
(15:07):
And that's the best you can do.
And knowing when that is reallyjust made a big difference.
Tom DuFore (15:14):
Well, let's talk about a make or a highlight.
Let's look at the other end ofthe spectrum there.
Joshua Altman (15:20):
Like there's a lot more.
Every time we put ourselves outof a job because the company
grew enough that it needs thatfull-time in-out W-2 person.
And if you want us to, youknow, get you to that point and,
you know, help you find thatperson and transition to that
person, we're here for that.
We will put ourselves out of aclient.
(15:41):
And that means success for us.
Tom DuFore (15:44):
Have you used a multiplier to multiply yourself
professionally, personally, orany organizations you've run?
Joshua Altman (15:52):
Diverse experiences.
Yeah, we were talking beforethe show.
My background was in videoproduction, going back a long
time.
I was a tech, I was a newsproducer, you know, doing the
shooting, doing the editing,running the wires, setting the
microphones, knowing the contentand knowing content principles,
knowing tech, but moreimportantly, knowing the tech
(16:12):
principles and how things canwork.
And or alternatively, don'twork.
And sometimes, you know, that'simportant.
And also account management,applying those, those things are
great separately.
But with you know, us knowingthem together, they are a lot
more powerful when you can usethem together to amplify each
other.
Tom DuFore (16:32):
The final question we ask every guest is what does
success mean to you?
Doing good work.
As we bring this to a close, isthere anything you were hoping
to share or get across that youhaven't had a chance to yet?
Joshua Altman (16:45):
Yeah, you know, when it comes to communications,
a lot of people think you'vegot to respond to everything.
And I, you know, for some ofthe businesses, I'm sure the
owners listening to this, theyreally rely on Yelp reviews and
Google reviews.
Responding to bad reviews,they're very important because
that does affect how you rank.
But you do not have to respondto everything on everything.
(17:06):
You know, we say all the time,you want to communicate
strategically, not voluminously.
Tom DuFore (17:13):
Joshua, thank you so much for a fantastic interview.
And let's go ahead and jumpinto today's three key
takeaways.
So, takeaway number one is whenhe talked about what a chief
communications officer is andhow it's different from a chief
marketing officer or a chiefbranding officer.
And he said the chiefcommunications officer has two
(17:33):
main purposes.
Purpose one is shapingperception, and purpose two is
building and maintaining trust.
I thought those were great.
Takeaway number two is when hetalked about mastering
technology and to avoid fallinginto that trap is essentially
what he was saying.
Technology is always changing,there's always something new on
(17:53):
the way, it's always evolving,and we just never know exactly
how it's going to work.
So do our best, but don't everthink that you know all of there
is to know on that.
Takeaway number three is whenhe said right at the tail end of
the episode, I really liked howhe summarizes, and he said,
when it comes to communication,some people think they need to
respond to everything, but youdon't need to do that.
(18:17):
And he said it's better for youto communicate strategically,
not voluminously.
So I thought that was a nicelittle nugget.
And now it's time for today'swin-win.
So today's win-win comes fromdefining and describing
perception and trust.
(18:38):
And I really liked how hetalked about that.
And he said, perception is whenyou're making sure your name is
out there in a positive way andpositive associations with your
brand.
And he said that can take sevento fourteen or more touch
points.
And then to build trust takespositive experiences.
Building trust takes positiveexperiences with your brand.
(19:01):
I thought that was just afantastic, fantastic nugget.
And it's a great way to close ashow with a win-win because if
you are creating these touchpoints with your customers and
creating these positiveexperiences with your customers,
I'm certain that they are goingto have a better experience and
likely become a referrer or areferral person or promote
(19:26):
quality word of mouth, which asa business, we're always looking
to do that.
Ultimately, this is helpingcreate goodwill.
And so that's the episodetoday, folks.
Please make sure you subscribeto the podcast and give us a
review.
And remember, if you or anyoneyou know might be ready to
franchise their business or taketheir franchise company to the
next level, please connect withus at BigSkyFranchise Team.com
(19:47):
where you can schedule yourfree, no obligation consultation
with myself or someone on ourteam.
Thanks for tuning in, and welook forward to having you back
next week.
Welcome to the Multiply Your Success podcast,
where each week we helpgrowth-minded entrepreneurs and
franchise leaders take the nextstep in their expansion journey.
I'm your host, Tom Dufour, CEOof Big Sky Franchise Team.
And as we open today, I'mwondering how you communicate
with your customers, employees,vendors, and those connected to
(00:21):
you and your business.
And do you have a cohesivestrategy for unified
communications?
Well, our guest today is JoshuaAltman, and he shares with us
what a chief communicationsofficer is and why you might
need one.
Now, Joshua is an experiencedstoryteller and strategist with
more than two decades ofexperience shaping how people
(00:43):
see, hear, and connect with bigideas.
Today he leads Beltway Media, aDC-based communications firm
that helps brands andorganizations cut through the
noise.
Before founding the firm,Joshua was a multimedia
journalist at The Hill, divingdeep into federal policy and
covering high-stakes electioncycles right from the front
lines.
Now he works from everyone fromstartups to federal agencies,
(01:06):
helping them refine theirmessage.
You're going to love thisinterview, so let's go ahead and
jump right into it.
Joshua, thank you so much forbeing a guest here.
And one of the things that Iwas looking forward to having
you on to talk about is thisidea of a chief communications
officer.
And so I'd love, just as astarting point, just to talk
(01:27):
about what it is and what arethings that this person might do
or the responsibilities here.
Joshua Altman (01:33):
It's not a totally new role.
It's taking on a lot moreprominence, especially in larger
companies.
And that's of course nowtrickling down into smaller
firms.
What we do is different from achief marketing officer, it's
different from a chief brandingofficer, which people are much
more familiar with.
The chief communicationsofficer has two main focuses.
You know, we are shapingperception and we build and
(01:55):
maintain trust.
Those are our two big things.
And we do that with taking anintegrated, big picture view of
how messaging it impacts yourreputation, your growth, and
your stakeholder confidence.
So we're not just looking atyour marketing.
We are not just looking atbranding or just at advertising.
We are not just looking atinvestor relations or internal
(02:16):
communications.
It's how all of those thingsare working together to impact
your reputation because they do.
And that's one of the reasonsyou're just kind of seeing this,
you know, become more prominentin larger companies and why
it's trickling down is you arebringing a lot of these
functions that might have beenseparate under one umbrella,
(02:39):
under one leadership structure.
And, you know, it's a veryhands-on role.
You know, it is consistentstorytelling across your
internal and external channels.
And we're really making surethat you do stay on your message
and also figuring out what thatmessage is.
Tom DuFore (02:58):
Very well said.
And when I think of a chiefcommunications officer and some
of these chief fill-in-the-blankpositions that might exist,
oftentimes I think of mid tolarge size organizations, lots
of staff and so on.
Oftentimes, and most of ouraudience that will tune in, they
are still founder-ledorganizations, maybe a small
(03:19):
franchise system or a growingsmall business.
So I'd love for you to talkabout how you see small to
mid-size businesses integratingwith this type of role or
position, or how you've seenmaybe in your own line of work,
companies successfully implementthis type of position.
Joshua Altman (03:37):
We work with a lot of those founder-led
businesses, or, you know, theyhave, you know, two to three,
you know, core employees, youknow, maybe at a headquarters,
and then distributed teams,which is very common these days.
But it's still very muchfounder-led.
And what we're going to do withthem is work with those
founders or, you know, thatemployee two, employee three,
(04:00):
who's kind of taken on that, youknow, marketing communications
role and been leading it becausethey're just the person there.
But it's taking 10 to 15 hoursa week for them.
But they're actually, you know,the VP of technology.
They are, you know, a chiefrevenue officer, but they just
sort of got it because they werethere.
And now they have this coreteam, but a lot more staff
(04:24):
somewhere else, you know,distributed.
You know, if they're homeservices, they might be, you
know, the people in the truckswho are doing the work, you
know, of that business.
You know, if they're foodservice, they might be, you
know, that front of house, youknow, serving the customers
every day.
And now, what do we do?
These aren't people who havetime for this, obviously.
They're out there doing ourwork, our you know, serving our
(04:45):
customers.
So we're gonna come in and belike, what part of this don't
you want to be doing personally?
That you see taking, you know,those 15 hours away from
focusing on revenue or focusingon finance.
And then we start doing thatfor them because they might not
have that need, especially ifthey're in that growth stage,
like you talked about, for a40-hour week W-2 full-time with
(05:09):
benefits communications leaderrole.
That's why they never broughtsomeone in.
Tom DuFore (05:15):
And thinking about this role and some of the
various duties, you startedgoing down some of these
different tasks that might be,it sounds like the chief
communications officercentralizes these tasks into one
position or one, it sounds likein your case, organization.
But what are some of the commontasks that maybe a person's
(05:37):
doing a handful here, someoneelse is doing some there, et
cetera?
What are some of these tasksyou generally see?
Joshua Altman (05:43):
Sometimes they have their email newsletters,
especially, you know, thingslike food service, home service,
things like that, you know,that are sending out, you know,
reminder, you know, we'regetting cold here in the winter
season in the northeast, atmid-central states, you know,
check your wallet, you know, iftheir plumbing business, it's
things like, you know, checkyour pipes for the winter, and
they're sending out thesenewsletters, maybe with
(06:03):
discounts and coupons.
One person's doing that.
Another person, totallyseparate, is managing their
social media.
Another person might behandling investor relations if
they have external investors.
You might have another personwho's, you know, just handling,
you know, branding and makingsure that you know things look
the same.
And they're not reporting to orpart of the organization that's
(06:26):
handling the email or thesocial media, but they're using
all their assets.
You know, those assets arecrossing between.
So you find a lot of that kindof across a company, especially
when they might say, you know,at their stage where they're
kind of hitting that you know,seven-figure, mid-seven figure
mark.
Well, now we need to startorganizing.
Now we need to start gettingthis stuff together.
(06:47):
Well, the time to do that iswhen you're first getting going,
when you're first, you know,getting your business up and
running.
And you will not need a 40-houra week, you know,
communications expert in yourleadership structure when you're
at that stage, which is why wedo things fractionally, which is
why we come in and we're easy,we could be five hours a month,
(07:08):
which is you know, roughly onehour a week, a little more, or
you know, 20 hours a week ifyou're at a much later stage and
we can grow with you in thatrole.
So we know where you are, weknow your business just like if
you had brought on, you know,someone fully in-house.
We know you and we were withyou long term.
Tom DuFore (07:28):
You talked about two important components that the
chief communications officerdoes.
They focus on shapingperception and building trust as
two key items here.
I'd love for you to talk alittle bit about how you help
shape that perception.
And you, meaning this role orthis position, you know, what
are things that this role isdoing to make that happen?
Joshua Altman (07:48):
So when it comes to shaping perception, it's
going to be, you know, thingslike just making sure your name
is out there in a positive way,you know, that people know what
you you you are and what you do,and they have positive
associations with it as best aspossible.
If you are, you know, anexterminator company, people
generally call you when theyhave a, you know, a problem they
(08:11):
are very, very angry about.
So the positive associationwith you is going to be pests,
but it's going to be cleaning,it's going to be prevention,
it's going to be, you know,helping mitigate that situation.
So you're good, we're going totake that and make sure people
have a good association.
Yes, people associate you withbugs and rodents, but it's going
to be associated with that in agood way that makes people
(08:32):
happy.
When the other is, you know,the building and maintaining
trust, especially for like ahome services business, they're
coming into your home.
We're going to make sure thatthey know you or, you know, in a
way that they are comfortabledoing that.
And that could be things like,you know, videos, you know,
showing your professionalism,showing how you do this and that
(08:53):
you are someone who they shouldfeel, you know, very
comfortable letting into theirhome with if you are an
exterminator company,pesticides, poisons, traps,
things like that around theirkids and pets.
So that you know, can be veryimportant.
And it also just means doing itconsistently over a long term.
Just because you put out, youknow, one video doesn't mean
(09:15):
it's done.
It takes seven to 14 touchpoints, is the often quoted
statistic of how long it takespeople to, you know, take an
action based off of seeing, youknow, marketing materials.
To take trust, it usually takesmore than that.
It takes positive experiences.
And that's really, you know,building on positive experiences
(09:35):
people have is crucial.
Tom DuFore (09:38):
That's really, really good.
And so, as I think of some ofthe things you just mentioned,
the seven to 14 or more touchpoints, plus not to mention all
of the marketing trends, socialmedia trends, technology things
that come along the way, youknow, how do you see this
(09:58):
position helping kind of bringall that together?
And, you know, maybe even justkind of forward thinking this, I
guess, part two of thequestion.
Where do you see some of thesetrends heading?
Joshua Altman (10:10):
A lot of people think, you know, you can beat
the algorithm with technologythat, you know, or you are just
totally opposed to it and itdoesn't help, you know, work for
your business.
Neither of those are true.
You cannot beat it because itconstantly changes.
Even if you, even if youfigured out what works today,
that might not be what workstomorrow, because those
algorithms can change.
Just because you've masteredTikTok doesn't mean it will
(10:32):
translate to whatever platformcomes next.
And there will be somethingafter TikTok.
There will be something thatcomes next because we all
remember, or some of usremember, friendster and
MySpace.
When was the last time youchecked your friendster?
Tom DuFore (10:47):
Never.
And my MySpace has not beenchecked in probably decades at
this point.
Yeah.
Joshua Altman (10:53):
So something will come next.
And that's important.
Remember that you know, justbecause you figured out this one
doesn't mean you're gonna getthe next one.
And also it means certain corethings will matter more than
mastering TikTok or masteringInstagram, because that won't be
(11:15):
the thing forever.
So if you have, you know, thebasics of the storytelling, you
know, the basics of how you usethe technology, you know, the
recording, the video, the audio,those sorts of things,
lighting, you know, that makesit look good and that people can
watch.
If you understand what connectswith people, that's much more
critical long term than justunderstanding a particular
(11:39):
platform.
With that said, understand theparticular platforms.
They are what is live now, andyou need to use them in a way
that benefits your business.
But also that not everyplatform will be great for every
business.
You know, Pinterest is great inhome decorating and some home
services.
It has its you know, area andpeople, it dominates.
(12:02):
But outside of that, it's notgonna be the best for you.
So don't necessarily rely onit.
You know, Instagram might begreat for you, but not, you
know, TikTok.
You just kind of gotta knowwhere you are.
Tom DuFore (12:16):
Joshua, I'd be remiss if I didn't at least ask
this question.
Uh, someone who tunes into thismaybe has thought this
throughout the interview andsaid, Well, Joshua, can't I just
use uh Chat GPT or Grok or oneof these AI tools out there to
be my chief communicationsofficer?
Joshua Altman (12:34):
I get that all the time.
And you know what?
We come in with people who aredoing this themselves, and it
takes hours a week from them.
Guess what?
If you're using Grok or ChatGPTor Claude or whatever that is
for you, guess what?
You're still the one doing it.
And maybe you've cut down from,you know, 10 hours a week to
five hours a week doing ityourself, but you're still doing
(12:54):
it yourself, which is what youdon't want to be doing.
We use AI, we love AI, it'sgreat.
AI does not replace a humanbecause you've read AI stuff.
I'm sure your listeners haveseen AI stuff.
We can tell when it's AI stuff.
When you have seven differentbullet points that are all
emojis, that was written by AI.
(13:15):
A human does not do that.
You know, we all know what itthat you know looks like.
And we fix that, you know.
We don't, you know, we come inand yes, we'll use AI.
It makes a great outline.
It can do a reasonable firstdraft for some things.
It's great for research.
You know, if we want to knowwhat's trending today, but it
(13:36):
doesn't post live and it alsodoesn't just solve it.
It's a tool.
Like everything else is a tool.
Tom DuFore (13:44):
What's the best way to get in touch with you, learn
more about what you're doing,and connect with you?
Joshua Altman (13:48):
Yeah, the best way to reach me is by email, J
Altman at Bel Oi.media no.com.
Uh, you can also find me onLinkedIn, you know, LinkedIn.com
slash in slash Joshua.
I alt.
I check my email.
I love email.
It's probably the best way toreach me.
We love hearing from people.
Yeah, even if you just want youknow a consultation, see where
(14:11):
you are, reach out.
Tom DuFore (14:13):
Perfect.
Well, this is a great time inthe show, Joshua.
We make a transition.
We ask every guest the samefour questions before they go.
And the first question we askis have you had a miss or two on
your journey and something youlearned from it?
Joshua Altman (14:25):
Two, three, four, more than that.
Sometimes it feels like, youknow, we didn't get a client.
A project didn't work out,people weren't happy.
You know, I could go down andlist things that, you know,
didn't meet the metrics that wewanted to.
I won't disclose those clientsbecause it didn't meet the
metrics that we wanted to.
But, you know, you got to getup.
You know, at the beginning, Igot really hung up on when
(14:46):
things just didn't work.
And I would, you know, reallyjust focus on, you know, how to
fix it.
And sometimes you can't.
Some things just it's live.
It happened, it's published.
You could fix some things, youknow, send out a corrected link,
email a correction, dowhatever.
But sometimes you got to getup, take those lessons, and
apply it to the next thing.
(15:07):
And that's the best you can do.
And knowing when that is reallyjust made a big difference.
Tom DuFore (15:14):
Well, let's talk about a make or a highlight.
Let's look at the other end ofthe spectrum there.
Joshua Altman (15:20):
Like there's a lot more.
Every time we put ourselves outof a job because the company
grew enough that it needs thatfull-time in-out W-2 person.
And if you want us to, youknow, get you to that point and,
you know, help you find thatperson and transition to that
person, we're here for that.
We will put ourselves out of aclient.
(15:41):
And that means success for us.
Tom DuFore (15:44):
Have you used a multiplier to multiply yourself
professionally, personally, orany organizations you've run?
Joshua Altman (15:52):
Diverse experiences.
Yeah, we were talking beforethe show.
My background was in videoproduction, going back a long
time.
I was a tech, I was a newsproducer, you know, doing the
shooting, doing the editing,running the wires, setting the
microphones, knowing the contentand knowing content principles,
knowing tech, but moreimportantly, knowing the tech
(16:12):
principles and how things canwork.
And or alternatively, don'twork.
And sometimes, you know, that'simportant.
And also account management,applying those, those things are
great separately.
But with you know, us knowingthem together, they are a lot
more powerful when you can usethem together to amplify each
other.
Tom DuFore (16:32):
The final question we ask every guest is what does
success mean to you?
Doing good work.
As we bring this to a close, isthere anything you were hoping
to share or get across that youhaven't had a chance to yet?
Joshua Altman (16:45):
Yeah, you know, when it comes to communications,
a lot of people think you'vegot to respond to everything.
And I, you know, for some ofthe businesses, I'm sure the
owners listening to this, theyreally rely on Yelp reviews and
Google reviews.
Responding to bad reviews,they're very important because
that does affect how you rank.
But you do not have to respondto everything on everything.
(17:06):
You know, we say all the time,you want to communicate
strategically, not voluminously.
Tom DuFore (17:13):
Joshua, thank you so much for a fantastic interview.
And let's go ahead and jumpinto today's three key
takeaways.
So, takeaway number one is whenhe talked about what a chief
communications officer is andhow it's different from a chief
marketing officer or a chiefbranding officer.
And he said the chiefcommunications officer has two
(17:33):
main purposes.
Purpose one is shapingperception, and purpose two is
building and maintaining trust.
I thought those were great.
Takeaway number two is when hetalked about mastering
technology and to avoid fallinginto that trap is essentially
what he was saying.
Technology is always changing,there's always something new on
(17:53):
the way, it's always evolving,and we just never know exactly
how it's going to work.
So do our best, but don't everthink that you know all of there
is to know on that.
Takeaway number three is whenhe said right at the tail end of
the episode, I really liked howhe summarizes, and he said,
when it comes to communication,some people think they need to
respond to everything, but youdon't need to do that.
(18:17):
And he said it's better for youto communicate strategically,
not voluminously.
So I thought that was a nicelittle nugget.
And now it's time for today'swin-win.
So today's win-win comes fromdefining and describing
perception and trust.
(18:38):
And I really liked how hetalked about that.
And he said, perception is whenyou're making sure your name is
out there in a positive way andpositive associations with your
brand.
And he said that can take sevento fourteen or more touch
points.
And then to build trust takespositive experiences.
Building trust takes positiveexperiences with your brand.
(19:01):
I thought that was just afantastic, fantastic nugget.
And it's a great way to close ashow with a win-win because if
you are creating these touchpoints with your customers and
creating these positiveexperiences with your customers,
I'm certain that they are goingto have a better experience and
likely become a referrer or areferral person or promote
(19:26):
quality word of mouth, which asa business, we're always looking
to do that.
Ultimately, this is helpingcreate goodwill.
And so that's the episodetoday, folks.
Please make sure you subscribeto the podcast and give us a
review.
And remember, if you or anyoneyou know might be ready to
franchise their business or taketheir franchise company to the
next level, please connect withus at BigSkyFranchise Team.com
(19:47):
where you can schedule yourfree, no obligation consultation
with myself or someone on ourteam.
Thanks for tuning in, and welook forward to having you back
next week.
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