Customer experience is everything! In today's episode of People Heroes Rising, William Tincup gains valuable insight as to the process that makes isolved Connect roadshows so top-tier. To explain this phenomena, guest Mikela Arnette, Senior Director of Marketing at isolved, is pulling back the curtain.
But what separates these roadshows from any other organizational HR event? Mikela explains that they focus on creating a fun and engaging experience for attendees, taking into account their feedback from previous years. Among other efforts, they have implemented elements like a swag room, interactive branding, and some genuine customer interaction. William mentions that every executive he asked about their favorite part of the event brought up the value of connecting and conversing with customers from all walks of life.
isolved is an outlier in the vendor space. Despite the stigma attached to the word, this organization thrives living outside the confines of expected company behaviors. Their positive and customer-centric approach creates an engaging and refreshing experience for anyone who partakes in their roadshows. If you haven't had a chance to check out one of their events, you might be missing out on some serious organizational change.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
William Tincup (00:06):
Ladies and gentlemen, this is William
Tincup, and you're listening tothe Recruiting Daily podcast.
We are broadcasting from iSolveConnect in Palm Desert, Palm
Springs, at the JW Marriott.
And we're actually going to betalking about some of the people
that are behind the scenes ofthis wonderful event.
We're going to go there.
We're just going to go there.
Mikayla, would you do us a favorand introduce
Mikela Arnette (00:26):
yourself?
My name is Mikayla Arnett, andI'm the Senior Director of
Marketing over at
William Tincup (00:30):
iSolve.
And you help out with events?
You're somewhat involved overthere?
Mikela Arnette (00:34):
All the pretty stuff comes from my team.
William Tincup (00:37):
So, I mean, first of all, these things are
really hard to put on.
Uh, they're really hard toexecute.
They're, they're really, andI've been to a lot of,
unfortunately or fortunately,depending on how you look at it,
I've been to a lot ofconferences and a lot of user
conferences in particular.
This is, this feels different.
I mean, even than Nashville.
I like Nashville a lot, but Iwas an analyst, you know, and I
(00:59):
was kind of doing analyst y typestuff.
This one just feels different.
And I don't know what, I don'tknow how to attribute it, you
know, I don't know if it's justthe, the desert, I don't know if
it's just like, I don't know.
Because it's pink, it's becausethe desert is pink.
The desert is pink.
What did you do differently?
What did the team do differentlyfrom Nashville to, uh, to, we'll
(01:19):
say Palm Springs, just to makeit simple for the people that,
geography challenged.
Good.
Mikela Arnette (01:24):
Um, so what we do every year when we plan the
events is taking into accountthe experience people have.
Every year, when they come, yearover year, and in six years,
we've learned a lot to make itmore fun.
I feel like it's not just theproduct that brings people here,
it's the interaction with otherpeople, with our team.
(01:48):
Making it fun is what keeps themengaged.
William Tincup (01:52):
Well, like the swag room, you've got a room for
swag, for people to kind of comethrough and pick up stuff,
whatever, you know, like thattype of stuff.
You've got the colors, thebrand, it's an engaging brand,
it's easy to kind of interactwith, it's easy to fall in love
with.
And, uh, and again, everyexecutive that I've asked this
same question, what's yourfavorite part of Connect, this
(02:14):
year's Connect, what's yourfavorite part?
And to a T, every singleexecutive has said, customers,
interacting with customers, justseeing them interact, which is
really fascinating, and thenjust interacting with them,
talking with them, hey, what'sgoing on, what do you see, you
know, this, that, and the other,like, that's not schtick.
Like, you can tell that they,they really believe that,
(02:35):
that's, that's really whatthey're here for.
They are heart and soul.
And, and, and again, it'sunusual.
I know I've worked with a lot ofHR tech, work tech vendors, and
uh, I'd say the lion's share,they sell a product and they
run.
from their customer.
Right?
Yeah.
(02:56):
And, and this sounds like youjust tilted your head like you,
like this is a foreign concept.
It is a foreign concept becausey'all sell a product and then
run towards the customer.
Yeah.
Mikela Arnette (03:07):
It's about making their life easier.
Yeah.
I mean, if they're spending alltheir time at work doing all of
the tedious tasks that they haveto do day in and day out, and
some of these HR administrators,they're on their own.
Oh, yes they are.
How do you have time with yourfamily?
How do you have friends?
How do you?
How do you have a life?
(03:27):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I think they go hand in hand.
You
William Tincup (03:30):
have to.
Well, I would tell you, out ofthe 20, 000 vendors that are out
there, that doesn't happen.
Y'all are the, what's, in stats,they call it an outlier.
You're a statistical outlier,because most people, they, I
mean, every vendor hates theword vendor.
That's truism.
Like every, you go down thehallway of all your partners, if
you said vendor to them, they'relike, eh, they kind of cringe a
(03:52):
little bit.
Nobody in the vendor space lovesbeing called a vendor.
Y'all truly aren't a vendor.
You're a part, you're a partner.
You're a part of their family.
And you treat them like family.
And uh, and that is reallyunique.
And again, the uniqueness of, ofConnect, getting them together,
and getting them to talk,getting them to interact with
each other, that's, that'sunusual as well.
Mikela Arnette (04:13):
I just, there's nothing like growing, and you
can't do that as a person if youare stuck in your day to day.
Um, and meeting other people,learning from them, those best
practices, that's why the PeopleHeroes community is so unique,
and another reason we'vegamified that down there.
Um, to really get them involvedwith other users, so that they
(04:36):
can...
No, go ahead, Fisher.
No, so they can't make the bestuse of their investment, because
it is.
That's,
William Tincup (04:41):
I mean, ultimately, that's, that's what
y'all are going to be judged on.
What they, they're being judgedon by the CFO is how much of
this, uh, utility of thisproduct actually moves the
business forward.
If they're not using theproduct, okay, there's a problem
there.
So you've got to then sell it tothem, you've got, but then
they've got to be engaged,they've got to use it, they've
got to...
Give them back their time sothey can be strategic, like, all
(05:04):
these things kind of have toline up, but it all starts with
having a great product.
It doesn't have to be perfect,no, your software is perfect,
but you're having a greatproduct and caring about the
customer, like caring about theperson.
And you'll all back that up.
I mean, it's, it's woven intoyour kind of, your being that
you, I think you hire for it.
I don't know if it's this, Idon't know.
(05:26):
I I mean, Ryan and I've beentrying to figure out how you vet
employees.
'cause we're like, they allkinda, they all kind of have
this thread that goes throughthem.
It's crazy.
But y'all that core
Mikela Arnette (05:37):
piece that we care Yeah, yeah.
You care about.
You're, where you're going,where the person next to you is
going, because you can't succeedif the people next to you aren't
succeeding, and our customersare the center of everything we
do.
If they're not succeeding, we're
William Tincup (05:52):
not succeeding.
Again, unusual.
Very unusual.
Just FYI.
Terrible way to put it.
I'm just telling you, justtelling you how it is.
So swag?
Because there's, there's a swagmaster here behind the scenes.
I don't know who that person is,but I want to give them some
type of reward.
What's your favorite?
Um, I'd say the pickleball setwas for my sons, was the
(06:14):
favorite of theirs.
Uh huh.
That was the favorite of theirs.
Um, I got magnets today, which,which I love magnets, so I'm a
magnets person, so thisautomatically is a win for me.
I don't think that y'all, Ihaven't, I mean, seriously, my
whole house is, I've got isolvedstuff throughout my house.
Mikela Arnette (06:30):
Oh, that's so much fun to find different
things.
Oh yeah.
That are unique.
I love our little, uh, thatmascot action figures.
Did you see those?
So much fun.
Yeah.
And then the little
William Tincup (06:39):
poppets.
Yep.
And, and, and again, you gotcoloring books.
You got all kinds, but see,that's, again, making it fun,
making it engaging.
You got an engaging brand.
It's a fun brand.
It's easy to kind of identifywith.
And then you've given themgreat, cool things, because
like, the key at Swag is notgiving them things that they can
just go buy themselves.
No,
Mikela Arnette (06:59):
it's the things that they wouldn't necessarily
use every day.
And they're affiliated to theirpets, their kids, their life
outside of work.
I mean, don't get me wrong, westill do some stuff that's
within their
William Tincup (07:12):
work.
That's okay.
That's okay.
Sometimes you need that.
Sometimes they need magnetpaperclips.
You know, they need thosethings, like, okay, well, I
mean, my refrigerator's got aton of those on them.
Um, two things.
One is, uh, the process to getfeedback and understand both
from customers, executives,everybody, on what you're going
(07:33):
to do next.
You probably already have thelocation spotted or identified
it.
I'm not going to ask you aboutthat.
But...
How do you go through theprocess of getting that
feedback, coalescing it, andthen going, okay, this is how
we're going to make the eventbetter?
Mikela Arnette (07:47):
We leverage our surveys, and I know not
everybody submits surveys, so wetry and do our best to gamify
it, to try and incentivize that.
I'm then talking with themthroughout the conference, I
think getting each touchpointthrough their registration
process, asking them how happythey are right now, how happy
(08:08):
they are when they arrive, howhappy they are when they leave,
um, those basic questions attouchpoints that aren't an
inconvenience to them.
Right.
William Tincup (08:17):
A week later, what resonated?
What was the thing that theyremember?
And I guarantee if we, if youask that question, I guarantee
they're going to say interactingwith other customers.
Oh, always.
100%.
Always.
All right.
Last question.
It's, I think, uh, as a recoverymarketer, I think marketing is
about experimentation.
So I've told a lot of CEOs thisbit, I'm like, go to a medical
supply company, buy a bunch oflab codes, get their names and
(08:40):
border on them, send them toyour marketing team and let them
just throw stuff against thewall.
Some of it will work, some of itwon't work, but let them
experiment.
If I'm right about that, whatwould you like to experiment
with?
Oh, that's so hard.
No, it isn't.
Come on.
You want to go to differentevents?
You want to...
(09:01):
Build a Speakers Bureau for yourcustomers.
You want to like put vinyl on abus and do a bus
Mikela Arnette (09:08):
tour?
Like...
We're already sampling that fornext year.
No, I'm already like throwingdarts.
William Tincup (09:16):
But you know like I think that's the fun
stuff because you've got such anengaging brand and engaged
customer base.
It's like I wouldn't doanything.
What do you want
Mikela Arnette (09:24):
to do?
The speakers, I'd love toincorporate more customer
speakers into our content here,especially Amberleigh did that a
little bit with our In Real Lifesessions.
I love those.
Oh, we do so many differentkinds of events,
William Tincup (09:38):
though.
See, I know you as a marketer,you have a list somewhere.
I don't know where it is, itmight be digital, but you have a
list somewhere of the thingsthat you want to do.
The
Mikela Arnette (09:47):
interactive, immersive things are really fun
to do, um, and we did some ofthat at HR Tech, that we did.
And I really love this wall thatwe're actually sitting behind.
This was the one we had wherethey put their HR...
Ideas on the back side, and thatwas such a cool thought, the
motion walls, playing withthings that incorporate them is
(10:11):
really fun.
Oh, you're putting me on cameranow.
No,
William Tincup (10:14):
no, no, I can't, I'm just gonna get pictures of
you, that's all.
I'm teasing, I'm teasing.
I'm just gonna get pictures ofyou.
Now, you've got a friendshipbracelet, what does it
Mikela Arnette (10:23):
say?
Oh, for my daughter, she made itfor me, it says I love, I love
you mom.
Well, I gotta keep it.
It's my good luck charm.
William Tincup (10:30):
You don't, you don't need anything else.
That's all you need right there.
You're done.
That's great.
Thank you so much for coming.
I know you're behind the scenes.
I know you're kind of, I knowthat's your bit.
I get it.
Mikela Arnette (10:39):
It's great.
Thank you for inviting me andchatting with me.
I really appreciate it.
No
William Tincup (10:43):
worries, and thanks for everyone listening.
Until next time.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is William
Tincup, and you're listening tothe Recruiting Daily podcast.
We are broadcasting from iSolveConnect in Palm Desert, Palm
Springs, at the JW Marriott.
And we're actually going to betalking about some of the people
that are behind the scenes ofthis wonderful event.
We're going to go there.
We're just going to go there.
Mikayla, would you do us a favorand introduce
Mikela Arnette (00:26):
yourself?
My name is Mikayla Arnett, andI'm the Senior Director of
Marketing over at
William Tincup (00:30):
iSolve.
And you help out with events?
You're somewhat involved overthere?
Mikela Arnette (00:34):
All the pretty stuff comes from my team.
William Tincup (00:37):
So, I mean, first of all, these things are
really hard to put on.
Uh, they're really hard toexecute.
They're, they're really, andI've been to a lot of,
unfortunately or fortunately,depending on how you look at it,
I've been to a lot ofconferences and a lot of user
conferences in particular.
This is, this feels different.
I mean, even than Nashville.
I like Nashville a lot, but Iwas an analyst, you know, and I
(00:59):
was kind of doing analyst y typestuff.
This one just feels different.
And I don't know what, I don'tknow how to attribute it, you
know, I don't know if it's justthe, the desert, I don't know if
it's just like, I don't know.
Because it's pink, it's becausethe desert is pink.
The desert is pink.
What did you do differently?
What did the team do differentlyfrom Nashville to, uh, to, we'll
(01:19):
say Palm Springs, just to makeit simple for the people that,
geography challenged.
Good.
Mikela Arnette (01:24):
Um, so what we do every year when we plan the
events is taking into accountthe experience people have.
Every year, when they come, yearover year, and in six years,
we've learned a lot to make itmore fun.
I feel like it's not just theproduct that brings people here,
it's the interaction with otherpeople, with our team.
(01:48):
Making it fun is what keeps themengaged.
William Tincup (01:52):
Well, like the swag room, you've got a room for
swag, for people to kind of comethrough and pick up stuff,
whatever, you know, like thattype of stuff.
You've got the colors, thebrand, it's an engaging brand,
it's easy to kind of interactwith, it's easy to fall in love
with.
And, uh, and again, everyexecutive that I've asked this
same question, what's yourfavorite part of Connect, this
(02:14):
year's Connect, what's yourfavorite part?
And to a T, every singleexecutive has said, customers,
interacting with customers, justseeing them interact, which is
really fascinating, and thenjust interacting with them,
talking with them, hey, what'sgoing on, what do you see, you
know, this, that, and the other,like, that's not schtick.
Like, you can tell that they,they really believe that,
(02:35):
that's, that's really whatthey're here for.
They are heart and soul.
And, and, and again, it'sunusual.
I know I've worked with a lot ofHR tech, work tech vendors, and
uh, I'd say the lion's share,they sell a product and they
run.
from their customer.
Right?
Yeah.
(02:56):
And, and this sounds like youjust tilted your head like you,
like this is a foreign concept.
It is a foreign concept becausey'all sell a product and then
run towards the customer.
Yeah.
Mikela Arnette (03:07):
It's about making their life easier.
Yeah.
I mean, if they're spending alltheir time at work doing all of
the tedious tasks that they haveto do day in and day out, and
some of these HR administrators,they're on their own.
Oh, yes they are.
How do you have time with yourfamily?
How do you have friends?
How do you?
How do you have a life?
(03:27):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So I think they go hand in hand.
You
William Tincup (03:30):
have to.
Well, I would tell you, out ofthe 20, 000 vendors that are out
there, that doesn't happen.
Y'all are the, what's, in stats,they call it an outlier.
You're a statistical outlier,because most people, they, I
mean, every vendor hates theword vendor.
That's truism.
Like every, you go down thehallway of all your partners, if
you said vendor to them, they'relike, eh, they kind of cringe a
(03:52):
little bit.
Nobody in the vendor space lovesbeing called a vendor.
Y'all truly aren't a vendor.
You're a part, you're a partner.
You're a part of their family.
And you treat them like family.
And uh, and that is reallyunique.
And again, the uniqueness of, ofConnect, getting them together,
and getting them to talk,getting them to interact with
each other, that's, that'sunusual as well.
Mikela Arnette (04:13):
I just, there's nothing like growing, and you
can't do that as a person if youare stuck in your day to day.
Um, and meeting other people,learning from them, those best
practices, that's why the PeopleHeroes community is so unique,
and another reason we'vegamified that down there.
Um, to really get them involvedwith other users, so that they
(04:36):
can...
No, go ahead, Fisher.
No, so they can't make the bestuse of their investment, because
it is.
That's,
William Tincup (04:41):
I mean, ultimately, that's, that's what
y'all are going to be judged on.
What they, they're being judgedon by the CFO is how much of
this, uh, utility of thisproduct actually moves the
business forward.
If they're not using theproduct, okay, there's a problem
there.
So you've got to then sell it tothem, you've got, but then
they've got to be engaged,they've got to use it, they've
got to...
Give them back their time sothey can be strategic, like, all
(05:04):
these things kind of have toline up, but it all starts with
having a great product.
It doesn't have to be perfect,no, your software is perfect,
but you're having a greatproduct and caring about the
customer, like caring about theperson.
And you'll all back that up.
I mean, it's, it's woven intoyour kind of, your being that
you, I think you hire for it.
I don't know if it's this, Idon't know.
(05:26):
I I mean, Ryan and I've beentrying to figure out how you vet
employees.
'cause we're like, they allkinda, they all kind of have
this thread that goes throughthem.
It's crazy.
But y'all that core
Mikela Arnette (05:37):
piece that we care Yeah, yeah.
You care about.
You're, where you're going,where the person next to you is
going, because you can't succeedif the people next to you aren't
succeeding, and our customersare the center of everything we
do.
If they're not succeeding, we're
William Tincup (05:52):
not succeeding.
Again, unusual.
Very unusual.
Just FYI.
Terrible way to put it.
I'm just telling you, justtelling you how it is.
So swag?
Because there's, there's a swagmaster here behind the scenes.
I don't know who that person is,but I want to give them some
type of reward.
What's your favorite?
Um, I'd say the pickleball setwas for my sons, was the
(06:14):
favorite of theirs.
Uh huh.
That was the favorite of theirs.
Um, I got magnets today, which,which I love magnets, so I'm a
magnets person, so thisautomatically is a win for me.
I don't think that y'all, Ihaven't, I mean, seriously, my
whole house is, I've got isolvedstuff throughout my house.
Mikela Arnette (06:30):
Oh, that's so much fun to find different
things.
Oh yeah.
That are unique.
I love our little, uh, thatmascot action figures.
Did you see those?
So much fun.
Yeah.
And then the little
William Tincup (06:39):
poppets.
Yep.
And, and, and again, you gotcoloring books.
You got all kinds, but see,that's, again, making it fun,
making it engaging.
You got an engaging brand.
It's a fun brand.
It's easy to kind of identifywith.
And then you've given themgreat, cool things, because
like, the key at Swag is notgiving them things that they can
just go buy themselves.
No,
Mikela Arnette (06:59):
it's the things that they wouldn't necessarily
use every day.
And they're affiliated to theirpets, their kids, their life
outside of work.
I mean, don't get me wrong, westill do some stuff that's
within their
William Tincup (07:12):
work.
That's okay.
That's okay.
Sometimes you need that.
Sometimes they need magnetpaperclips.
You know, they need thosethings, like, okay, well, I
mean, my refrigerator's got aton of those on them.
Um, two things.
One is, uh, the process to getfeedback and understand both
from customers, executives,everybody, on what you're going
(07:33):
to do next.
You probably already have thelocation spotted or identified
it.
I'm not going to ask you aboutthat.
But...
How do you go through theprocess of getting that
feedback, coalescing it, andthen going, okay, this is how
we're going to make the eventbetter?
Mikela Arnette (07:47):
We leverage our surveys, and I know not
everybody submits surveys, so wetry and do our best to gamify
it, to try and incentivize that.
I'm then talking with themthroughout the conference, I
think getting each touchpointthrough their registration
process, asking them how happythey are right now, how happy
(08:08):
they are when they arrive, howhappy they are when they leave,
um, those basic questions attouchpoints that aren't an
inconvenience to them.
Right.
William Tincup (08:17):
A week later, what resonated?
What was the thing that theyremember?
And I guarantee if we, if youask that question, I guarantee
they're going to say interactingwith other customers.
Oh, always.
100%.
Always.
All right.
Last question.
It's, I think, uh, as a recoverymarketer, I think marketing is
about experimentation.
So I've told a lot of CEOs thisbit, I'm like, go to a medical
supply company, buy a bunch oflab codes, get their names and
(08:40):
border on them, send them toyour marketing team and let them
just throw stuff against thewall.
Some of it will work, some of itwon't work, but let them
experiment.
If I'm right about that, whatwould you like to experiment
with?
Oh, that's so hard.
No, it isn't.
Come on.
You want to go to differentevents?
You want to...
(09:01):
Build a Speakers Bureau for yourcustomers.
You want to like put vinyl on abus and do a bus
Mikela Arnette (09:08):
tour?
Like...
We're already sampling that fornext year.
No, I'm already like throwingdarts.
William Tincup (09:16):
But you know like I think that's the fun
stuff because you've got such anengaging brand and engaged
customer base.
It's like I wouldn't doanything.
What do you want
Mikela Arnette (09:24):
to do?
The speakers, I'd love toincorporate more customer
speakers into our content here,especially Amberleigh did that a
little bit with our In Real Lifesessions.
I love those.
Oh, we do so many differentkinds of events,
William Tincup (09:38):
though.
See, I know you as a marketer,you have a list somewhere.
I don't know where it is, itmight be digital, but you have a
list somewhere of the thingsthat you want to do.
The
Mikela Arnette (09:47):
interactive, immersive things are really fun
to do, um, and we did some ofthat at HR Tech, that we did.
And I really love this wall thatwe're actually sitting behind.
This was the one we had wherethey put their HR...
Ideas on the back side, and thatwas such a cool thought, the
motion walls, playing withthings that incorporate them is
(10:11):
really fun.
Oh, you're putting me on cameranow.
No,
William Tincup (10:14):
no, no, I can't, I'm just gonna get pictures of
you, that's all.
I'm teasing, I'm teasing.
I'm just gonna get pictures ofyou.
Now, you've got a friendshipbracelet, what does it
Mikela Arnette (10:23):
say?
Oh, for my daughter, she made itfor me, it says I love, I love
you mom.
Well, I gotta keep it.
It's my good luck charm.
William Tincup (10:30):
You don't, you don't need anything else.
That's all you need right there.
You're done.
That's great.
Thank you so much for coming.
I know you're behind the scenes.
I know you're kind of, I knowthat's your bit.
I get it.
Mikela Arnette (10:39):
It's great.
Thank you for inviting me andchatting with me.
I really appreciate it.
No
William Tincup (10:43):
worries, and thanks for everyone listening.
Until next time.
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Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.