July 15, 2025 • 37 mins
Speed has become the defining challenge of modern marketing, as veteran CMO Erika Jolly Brookes reveals in this eye-opening conversation. Drawing from her 30 years of experience in technology marketing, Erika shares how artificial intelligence is dramatically compressing timelines and revolutionizing the way marketers understand their customers.
"I downloaded 10-15 customer calls, uploaded them into our AI instance, and got a complete buyer persona framework in three minutes that used to take three months," Erika explains, demonstrating how AI is transforming marketing workflows. This acceleration matches what's happening across industries, where companies like Walmart are using AI to cut months from product-to-customer timelines.
Beyond technology, Erika emphasizes the critical human element of marketing leadership. She details how building trust through vulnerability and personality understanding creates high-performing teams. "Understanding the full cycle of each individual's personality is really important because not everybody needs to be the same," she notes, explaining how differences in working styles can become strengths when properly understood.
Today's marketers face the challenge of communicating across multiple generations, both within teams and among customer segments. As Erika observes, "The workforce today is more multi-generational than it ever has been," creating fragmentation in communication styles and preferences. This diversity requires marketers to develop nuanced strategies rather than one-size-fits-all approaches.
As CMO of EnergyCap, Erika now helps organizations manage utility costs through data analysis and AI, demonstrating how technology can transform overlooked aspects of business operations. Her insights offer valuable guidance for marketers navigating an increasingly complex and rapidly evolving landscape.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Well, hello everyone and welcome to Doing Business in
Bentonville.
I'm Andy Wilson and I'm thehost today, and I'm so excited
to get started with anotherpodcast.
I'm going to introduce ourguests in just a moment.
Before I do, I want to say toall of our viewers and listeners
thank you so much for all thatyou do and thank you for sharing
.
Thank the message you send meon LinkedIn.
(00:26):
I appreciate that.
Keep sending me messages.
The thing I want tocongratulate all of our viewers
and listeners on today is thatwe have now just reached over
100 countries, so thank you.
It's amazing.
We're humbled by it and weappreciate all that our viewers
are doing and listeners aredoing.
(00:46):
Ok, my guest today is EricaJolly Brooks.
Erica, welcome.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Thank you so much for having me, andy.
This is a real pleasure.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Well, yeah, Well, it's really my pleasure.
I want to, let me tell you.
I'm going to tell you a bitabout Erica, but before this
podcast is over, you willunderstand why I admire this
person so much.
Erica is a friend number one.
Number two we serve on a greatboard together, a board and a
(01:18):
company located in Meridian,mississippi, southern Pop and
Supply a phenomenal family-ownedbusiness.
Mississippi Southern Pop andSupply a phenomenal family-owned
business.
We get to share our times toboard meetings together.
And the third thing is she is amarathon runner.
I mean, you know, listen, Imean I'm impressed.
(01:38):
So, erica, welcome and tell usabout your next marathon.
Let's just start with that.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Well, I don't know if everybody should be impressed
or question my life choices, butyes, I am running the London
Marathon, which is exactly 12days from today.
So I'm in what anybody who'sdone endurance races of any sort
biking, running or the trifectathe.
Ironman series.
This is called the taper window.
(02:05):
So I'm currently in the,fitness has been gained, hay is
in the barn, so to speak, andjust 12 days to go until I line
up with a bunch of other folksand 56,000 people in London for
the London Marathon.
I'm really excited.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Well, congratulations in advance.
I look forward to hearing allthe details about that.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
I'll bring my model to the next set of meetings.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Good, well, great Well, erica, you have a
marketing background and we'regoing to get into that marketing
background.
It's very extensive.
How many years have you been inmarketing?
Speaker 2 (02:43):
I have been in marketing my entire career.
I was lucky to find marketing,or marketing found me my first
job.
So I've been in marketing for30 years, and I've been in
technology the entire time too,which probably makes me the old
guard.
I hate to put old in front ofit, but 30 years.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Well, that's wonderful and you're going to
get to listen and hear and watchtoday, as Erica really dives in
to this whole marketing pieceand you're currently a chief
marketing officer with a greatcompany.
Tell us we're going to comeback at the end more about your
company, but give us a bit aboutyour company today.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Yeah, I'm super excited about my new company.
The team is amazing and theproblem that we're solving is
amazing.
So the company is called EnergyCap.
It's been around for 40 years,which is really impressive.
In the technology space youknow there's only a handful of
40-year-plus businessesMicrosoft is one and Oracle is
another, and so it's Energy Cap.
So that's another, and so itwas energy cap.
(03:44):
So that's exciting.
But we essentially help.
One of the most unmanagedresources actually across every
sort of facet consumer andcommercial is energy, and we
effectively help businesseshigher ed retail establishments,
federal government, localgovernment, schools, you name it
manage their energy costs andtheir utility costs, and we use
(04:07):
technology to do it.
So it's a really exciting spaceto be in.
I'm really thrilled to be partof the club.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
Well, it sounds wonderful and we're going to
make sure that people can findyou, your company, there on our
website.
But I want to come back to thatbecause I think it's
fascinating what you're doingtoday and large companies and
universities around the whole,around the country.
So we'll come back to that.
Now let's talk marketing.
Okay, this 30 years ofexperience, so let's just jump
(04:36):
into it.
And you know, currently, today,you know there's so much going
on in marketing and it'severywhere, and so, as you look
today into marketing, whatadvice do you have for our
viewers and listeners on how tostay ahead in the industry
(04:57):
trends and ensure that themarketing strategy remains
relevant today with all thechange?
Speaker 2 (05:04):
So I think the most difficult challenge facing
marketers today is speedVelocity.
Today is very different than itwas even 10 years ago, and so
marketers today have a greatchallenge in staying up to date,
really, on a combination ofthings not just who they're
targeting, who their targetcustomer is, their target buyer
(05:25):
and their current customer andhow they're feeling, thinking
and what their product and brandis resonating to them, but also
the tools by which to reachthem.
So AI has become so incrediblyprolific and it can be daunting
for marketers, particularlyexperienced marketers or just
anybody Like we learn how to doour vocation, whatever way it is
(05:49):
, in a certain sort of process,and those processes and
frameworks are being disruptedtoday.
So I think the most challengingthing for marketers today is
speed, and you know, sure, speedkills, but it also is a
competitive advantage in today'smarket.
So I think that's the biggestchallenge.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
So speed.
Well, let's listen.
I mean you mentioned AI, sincewe're there for a moment.
I mean AI has had such an ofdollars being spent on AI and
improving it, the research, sois there anything there around
(06:36):
AI?
If you would tell the marketingexperts, this is how I would
use AI.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
So in my new role, I've been finding incredibly new
ways to leverage AI.
So one of the things that'sreally cool is every company can
build their own I'm going tocall it LLM or chat sheet PT
instance, where you just feed itall this information so that it
gets more and more intelligentabout your customers, your
market, your products, yourservices and your competition.
(07:05):
So that's one of the thingsthat's been really interesting
for me is being part of acompany that has stood one up a
long time ago and able to takeadvantage of it.
So what I've done recently iswe use tools here to record
sales calls and customer callsand it creates a transcript and
these transcripts are incrediblyuseful and the particular tool
(07:27):
that we use is a tool calledGong G-O-M-G.
So recently I downloaded I'm new, I've got to understand the
customer as quickly as possible.
I've got to accelerate and rampmy understanding about this
business and our market and ourcustomers as quickly as possible
, and so it would take a long.
I mean I could go and conductmy own customer interviews.
(07:52):
I will still go do that, but Idownloaded 10, 12, 15 calls from
different types of personasfrom different industries and I
uploaded it into the energy, cap, chat, gpt instance and asked
for a number of different datapoints to be synthesized for me,
and in the span of threeminutes.
What used to take three months,andy, I got.
Here are their pain points.
(08:12):
Here are the solutions they'reseeking.
Here's the internal mechanismby which they're measured.
Here's where you haven't.
I mean it just gave me anentire buyer persona framework
in a span of three minutes.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Well, so speed and same thing.
You said at the very beginningof our podcast.
You talked about speed, and sonow you're using AI as a speed.
And you know, I was readingthis morning that the CEO of
Walmart, doug McMillan, wastalking, and he was talking
about AI and how AI, they'reusing AI into the retail sector
(08:48):
and and he said we can cutmonths off the time from product
to customer months.
That's huge.
That's that is huge.
So I think the word would beembrace it, learn from it how to
apply it into your business.
Because of speed, because, likeyou said at the very beginning,
(09:09):
speed.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
I think the organizations that encourage
their team to engage and utilizeAI tools and find new use cases
are going to have a truecompetitive advantage.
Actually, something I wastalking to our CEO, sean Rayton,
about last night, that issomething that we're doing a
pulse survey right now.
What's our employeesatisfaction?
What's engagement like?
Every time I could see it'seasily, and we've added in some
(09:34):
how comfortable are you usingtools and what tools do you use?
That's a starting point formaking people feel like it's
okay to use these things thatwork to do my job, but then also
providing learning andcapabilities In addition to
tools.
The companies that think abouthow to utilize AI to deliver to
their customers faster and moreefficiently and cleaner and
(09:56):
better are going to be reallythe ones who are going to win.
This whole AI business isreally going to disintermediate
companies.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Right, okay, as you stepped into your new company
now and I know you're excitedabout it Again, we're going to
talk more about it as you stepinto it, share with us, you know
, what's your overall vision ofthe marketing department.
How can you align that quicklyto a company's broader goals,
(10:26):
things like that.
So, if someone is new andyou've been in multiple
marketing jobs in your careerover 30 years so you can use
other examples, of course butwhat advice would you give
someone stepping into a neworganization and a new role
today, and how then would you,you know, create the overall
(10:48):
strategy and vision for thatorganization?
Speaker 2 (10:50):
So the first thing that I would say is I'm a.
My philosophy of marketing isand it's interesting because my,
you know, I've talked to peoplewho've had different
experiences in their career andmarketing of I'm gonna call it,
you know, 1990, and marketingtoday are I'm going to call it,
you know, 1990 and marketingtoday are very different,
particularly in the softwareworld.
So you know, I do software as aservice.
(11:11):
They call it SaaS today.
But my belief is that marketingis a significant contributor to
the growth of a company.
That means everything from howdo we help build what we call
pipeline, which is prospectivecustomers who will buy from us.
How do we build brand andwhat's its role in building
pipeline.
And then how do we deliver newproducts and services to the
(11:33):
market to be successful for ourcustomers.
That's a much broader remit fora marketer than probably the
marketer of 1990.
Than probably the marketer of1990.
The marketer of 1990 reallythought about how do they build
top of funnel awareness anddidn't think as much about how
do I help activate thoseprospects and customers all the
(11:53):
way through the cycle.
And then, once they are acustomer, how do we ensure that
they're happy?
We want really happy customersbecause advocates are a really
big part of driving your overallbrand message back to the
market.
So that's my general view andphilosophy about marketing, and
so it's a broader remit.
It's not just hey, marketingcontributed X to the company.
(12:16):
It's what are we doing togetherwith sales, with product, with
customer success, in order to besuccessful against our market
opportunity.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Great advice, great advice.
Let's stay with that just amoment, because you know
customer success in order to besuccessful against our market
opportunity.
Great advice, great advice.
Let's stay with that just amoment, because you know, what
brought come to my mind was, asyou started into this new
organization, how do you takeand really look at what I would
call structure and collaborationas you enter a new team like
(12:46):
this?
How did you do that in the pastand how are you currently doing
it?
Speaker 2 (12:50):
It's a really great question.
So I think I just came from anoffsite the team had in New
Orleans.
We activated quickly around acustomer slash prospect event
like let's get together.
So one of the things that Ithink is fundamental is know
thyself and then to know others.
And so we spent some time usingsome personality diagnostic
(13:11):
tools and and basically saidthis is an open dialogue.
If you're comfortable sharing.
This is not forced, buteverybody was interested in
engaging around.
Here's my profile and there's alot of different tools out
there today.
You can use DISC, you can useEmotionetics there's a whole
bunch.
You can use Gallup StrengthFinder.
But understanding the full cycleof each individual's
(13:34):
personality is a really big deal, because a not everybody needs
to be the same.
In fact, it's better if there'sdifferentiation on the team.
Someone who's really good atconcept and somebody's really
good at details.
They can be a great team ifthey understand that that's
where their strengths andopportunities come from.
So we as a team went throughand shared our personality
(13:56):
frameworks and we had a reallyopen discussion about it, and
what's important about that isthere's no right answer.
There's no wrong answer.
You are what you are.
You can work on your weaknesses, but we can also maximize our
strengths and leverage otherpeople's augmented strengths to
your weaknesses.
And then the last piece of it isunderstanding where points of
(14:18):
friction come.
Points of friction come on team, when you have differences.
And once you understand whatyour differences are, you can
increase trust and decreasemistrust.
And so we spent half of aday-ish, two or three hours,
just talking through that andeven identifying areas.
Where do you remember when wehad a conflict over blah?
(14:38):
Now it makes sense to me.
You were talking concept, I waslooking for details, or you're
massively extroverted and I'm anambivert or introverted, and so
I you know you were ready tocheck out and I was still, you
know, like let's, let's talk.
Those things really matter, andI do think it is a fundamental
(14:59):
step in building trust.
And ultimately, with buildingculture and teams, you have to
have be vulnerable, you have totrust and you have to seek to
understand.
And if you do those threethings, you can really start to
build a framework of beliefsthat we, we as a group, can do
anything together.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Well, I think that's excellent advice and you know,
I'm so glad you mentioned trust,because trust is the
foundational, as you mentioned,it's a foundational principle
and you know everything,everything, everything sets on
that trust.
You know, there it is and sowonderful.
So, as we, as you think about,continues to think about a new
(15:37):
team, what KPIs would yourecommend people to measure at
the very beginning, you know, toget them on track?
What are some advice there?
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Yeah, it's a great question.
So we certainly track brandawareness.
You know how aware, and there'ssort of a couple categories of
brand awareness.
There's awareness that there isa solution that exists to solve
my problem, so we call thatsolution aware.
Then there's actual brandawareness how aware are people
of Energy Cap?
And there's two categoriesinside of brand awareness.
(16:09):
There's what we call aided,which is if I say the words did
you know Energy Cap does X, yand Z, oh, yeah, yeah, I've
heard of them.
And then there's unaided, whichis without recall.
If I said describe for me autility management platform, I
would say, oh, I know one.
It's called Energy Cap.
So brand awareness is a reallycritical measure.
(16:31):
You can't sell something tosomebody if they don't know the
solution exists and they don'tknow you exist.
So that's a pretty big one.
These are problems thatcompanies like Walmart do not
have, but they are challengesfor growth-based companies,
which is thinking about you knowwhat do people know about us?
So that's the first one.
The second one and this is abit of a differentiation, I
(16:52):
think, for marketers acrossdifferent market segments is
pipeline.
Pipeline Are we building newand prospective customers and do
we close those customers andhow are we contributing to that
revenue?
So I'm a big believer thatmarketers can be directly tied
to revenue.
So those are the two biggestthings, which is building a
(17:16):
framework for one and thenbuilding the analytical support
to be able to have aconversation with your
counterpart in sales or growth,which is how are we, as a team,
building new revenue for thecompany?
Speaker 1 (17:29):
Well, ok, wonderful.
You mentioned customers.
Let's talk about that for amoment.
So what approach do you takecustomer feedback and market
research?
You know what are your thoughtsthere and advice.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
So I'm customers are your first and fastest path to
find a new customer.
Yeah, and today, with socialand e-commerce, that's never
been more true.
I mean, when you look back atwhat happened with social, it
really put customers in thedriver's seat of driving,
purchase, consideration andintent, and so to me, that
(18:08):
relationship with the customer,it should have always been
important.
We shouldn't have needed arelationship with our customers
through, you know, the varioussocial media platforms are out
there, but that really was areckoning for many of us.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
Right yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
And so to me, the key there is our.
Once they have purchased yourproduct, do they have an amazing
or average or better thanaverage experience using the
product average or better thanaverage experience using the
product?
And then, where and when dothey get their surprise moments,
delight that they weren'tanticipating, and how do you
(18:44):
talk to them about that and howdo you maximize that for future
customer growth?
And then, where were thereplaces where maybe there wasn't
a delight factor that you canrefine and do better for the
next time?
So that customer experience isparamount to me in understanding
how to actually find additionalcustomers, but also convey the
right message to prospectivecustomers and also deliver on
(19:07):
the customer experience that youpromised.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Are there specific touch points around positive
customer, positive or negativecustomer experience?
You know anything there thatyou would call out to really
focus on?
Speaker 2 (19:23):
One of the things that we measure specifically in
the world of software is thetime to value.
It's actually specific.
We talk about TTV or time tovalue.
If you buy a product in retail,you know, and it's Easter so I
go buy some great chocolateproducts.
At the end cap I eat it.
I've had.
You know, the Sarah Cohen boostis complete.
The time value is pretty quickIn the world of software.
(19:45):
Often, particularly if there'sdata involved in the success of
the product, the time to valuecan take longer.
So if I sign a contract with acustomer or or even as a buyer,
when I've signed contracts, andit takes me greater than 90 days
or greater than six months toactually see the value of the
product, that's not great.
So, one of the key metrics thatwe talk about a lot is what was
(20:07):
the time to value for thecustomer?
They're spending a lot of moneyfor these products.
You know how are we ensuringthat they feel very quickly they
got the value for what theypurchased.
And it needs to be.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
It can't be immediate if it needs to be good but it
needs to be progressivelyshowing value along the way.
You know one of the things thatin my previous role at Walmart,
we traveled, we stay, wetraveled all the time to, uh,
you know, listen to the customer, the talk to the customer, to
ask questions.
(20:42):
We're all.
We're in the stores, the clubs,uh, listening, listening and
talking, asking questions.
Uh, today, you know, technologycan help with that so much, and
especially with all thee-commerce online we talked
about earlier in ourconversation, before the podcast
.
So is there anything there?
(21:05):
You know a couple of touchpoints there that you would say
this is critical.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
So there's a couple of things I'm a big believer in
community and I'm both believerin community and niche
communities for driving a realunderstanding of customer and
customer pain points.
We actually spun one up a whileago at Energy Cap and it's
called you know, it's called ourEnergy Cap Heroes, you know,
(21:32):
and they it's a community of ourcustomers where they can engage
online with one another butalso engage with us, and so what
I like about that is you getyour product organization, your
customer success organization,your marketers, you get
everybody more closely alignedwith our customers and you can
hear them really quickly.
So I'm going to call it nichecommunities.
(21:53):
Another way for me to explainthis is I'm part of a CMO
community.
That CMO community, which isrun by a technology vendor that
I have certainly used but Idon't have to use.
They bring me together to findpeer-to-peer sharing and we're
very quickly saying that worked,this doesn't work, try this,
talk to that person.
(22:14):
So companies that actuallyharness their own communities,
their own niche communities,very quickly and there's
technology to facilitate thathave a real quick touch point
that can be acceleratedthroughout the organization.
Again, it's about speed and howquickly does the understanding
get throughout the entireworkflow of the organization.
So I think that's a reallycritical path.
You can do CSAT surveys andtracking studies and all that
(22:37):
kind of stuff, but those arereally point in time and when
you put a community in place,you get to hear those voices
just like you went to stores ina way that you didn't before.
So I'm a big believer inleveraging technology, community
platforms and bringing youraudiences together.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
Now let's talk future for a moment.
Okay is so good.
You're doing a great job.
Thank you, I.
I knew you would, erica.
This is good.
I'm learning a lot.
I am learning a lot, um, and Iknow our guests are.
So, as we think about, uh, thiswhole, this whole industry, um,
as we think about it, let'slook forward to three years.
(23:18):
That's a long time.
I should say one to three years, right, because it's changed so
rapidly.
But let's just talk to thefuture for a moment.
What do you see the biggestchallenges in the future of
marketing?
Speaker 2 (23:33):
So I have some macro themes and then I have some
specific so let's go macrothings okay one of the things
that you and I've talked about,and we've talked about as part
of our our shared collaborationand board work, is today the
what.
The workforce today is moremulti-generational than it ever
has been and that means thatcommon understanding and context
(23:57):
is really fragmented across allthe different sort of functions
that bring up an organizationand adeptness or skill set and
communication styles andpreferences.
So I think that's aninteresting challenge for us
over the next one to three yearshow quickly do we as an entire
(24:17):
multi-generational workforceadapt together in this changing
ecosystem that's around us?
So I think that's a pretty bigdeal.
I always joke around myhusband's like I'm just going to
call them, I'm going to go tothe store.
I was like I'm definitely notdoing that, I'm going to go to
the store.
I was like I'm definitely notdoing that, I'm going to send a
(24:38):
chat message.
So I mean you know there is a,there is a communication
preference, there's technologyenablement for it.
So when you think about thatand you think about how you
deliver customer experiences andproducts and make people really
happy, that's an adaptation forevery business has to think
about, about.
I think you've gotmulti-generational workers and
(24:58):
you have a multi-generationalbuyer audience.
I think that's a pretty bigchallenge for us over the next
one to three years.
So things are getting reallysophisticated.
You know, you see an instagramstory, you can buy straight from
instagram now and you use yourapple pay and the next thing you
know it's sitting on your frontdoor.
The ability to return somethingtoday is as easy as I print the
(25:19):
label at home and there isDropboxes at Whole Foods for
Amazon delivery.
So this whole sequence ofchange is a pretty big deal.
I would be well maybe not thelast person to ask, but I'm not
the best person to ask how muchthat's going to change.
(25:39):
I think there are.
Some of the cognitive abilitiesof AI is going to be a real
game changer for us in thattimeframe that you talked about,
and how that plays out will bereally fascinating.
How tools are enabled, whatthat means for the type of work
we do, what that means for speedof delivery is going to be
(26:00):
really interesting.
But the AI tools are onlygetting smarter.
I also believe the AI tools aregoing to get more expensive.
So right now it's a realadoption, adoption, adoption
model.
It's going to get a lot moreexpensive to deliver AI tools
within our organization in thenext one to three years.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
I think that's great advice.
And back to yourmulti-generational discussion.
You know, I see that in my work, where you know we're
(26:39):
cross-communicating to multiplegenerations, one size does not
fit all you know, and that's.
I think that's where you can'tpackage it and push it down
everyone's throat.
It does not work.
It's got to bemulti-generational.
I think that's critical.
And if I had to call out thenumber one Opscar, the number
one for the future in my work asdoing business in Bentonville
(27:00):
or as a consultant, it'smulti-generational.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
It is, and people are working longer than they used
to yes, definitely.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
I'm an example of that.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Right.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
You know, yes, I'm an example of that.
So many of us, and I think it'syou know, thank, thank goodness
.
The health issue is, you know,and all of that, but absolutely,
people are really workinglonger because they're enjoying
it Many in many that you're juststill healthy enough to enjoy
and they embrace the learning.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
Yes, and I think some folks myself included, and I
think you too, like I look atthe change that's happening now
and I've always enjoyed it Like,oh great, Internet's the thing,
let's go do that.
Cloud's the thing, let's go dothat.
So I don't want to miss this.
So for me it's an exciting timeto be part of what is a
(27:53):
significant change in how wework, how we?
Engage how we connect how wefind so.
To me it's exciting and I thinkthere's a lot of other people
who feel that way, and it's more.
There's actually a woman on myteam.
She loves to make fun of me andthis other gentleman because we
put two spaces after a period.
It's more significant than theOxford approach to grammar to
(28:15):
your point about you can'tpackage it and think about
delivery and distribution ofinformation enough right now how
, when, where and best will thisbe received?
It's a pretty significant issue.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
OK, I have a couple more questions, as I want to, I
want us to, I do want us to talka bit about your new company
and that you're a part of it,because it's fascinating.
But before we get to that, ok,maybe, maybe another, another
question for sure, but as youlook across the board, let's
just talk general marketing fora moment.
(28:49):
And what, what would be if youcan do this, and I didn't ask
you earlier, so here we go.
If you can do this and I didn'task you earlier, so here we go.
But what, what?
What marketing campaign you seetoday?
This absolutely great that youwould call out, you know, just
over, the broad, broad view, andmaybe one that needs some
(29:11):
assistance, yeah, oh, one thatneeds assistance, oh, hater yeah
, right funny though my we'll.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
We'll be watching some program which I may or may
not be paying attention to, andthen an ad will come on yeah and
my husband wants to speed threeof those and I said, can you do
?
Can I want to watch that?
yeah, he's like you're like Isaid I'm not the only person who
likes to watch ads.
There's a lot of marketers outthere who want to see what other
people are doing and what itlooks like.
So you know, I'm a runner and Ithink some of the very targeted
(29:48):
runner persona campaigns thatare out there today are really,
really good and what theirmessage is on point and their
use of influencers and socialmedia is on point.
But then even in an environmentlike I was in New York last
year for the marathon runningthe marathon, they, they did an
entire because we're thefinishers for New York city
(30:08):
marathon, these brands and I'mtelling their new balance Hoka,
nike, puma, they all do thisamazing job of just doing an
entire takeover in New York City.
It felt like runners wererunning New York for three or
four days Everything from theturnstiles and the subway to the
(30:29):
billboards to the bus stuff alltargeted to runners.
What I think that is a goodexample of is understanding,
very persona focused, and it's alarge, adjustable market.
It's not a tiny market Right.
Understanding that addressablemarket and being clever and
(30:49):
creative specifically to thatexperiential opportunity.
Sure, there's 60,000 peoplerunning, but there was probably
of those 60,000 people, let'ssay, everybody brought two
people to watch them.
That's another, you know,120,000 to 200,000 people plus
all the city people in New YorkCity and all the people who are
home who wanted to get in, whocouldn't get in because 800,000
(31:12):
people applied to that race andcouldn't get in, and so then
they see that content.
So it really was a massconsumer execution and I would
say all of those brands did anexceptional job doing it and as
a marketer, I can't wait to seewhat happens in London.
I'm guessing it's this.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
Yeah, I can't wait.
I can't wait to hear aboutLondon from you.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
One of the billboards I saw was you've run hundreds
of miles.
You only have 26.2 left to go.
And you know you run three or400 miles as part of a training
cycle.
So like you're like from amarketer's perspective, but also
runners, I'm like, yeah, 26.2.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
Where do you?
Speaker 2 (31:49):
go, let's get that done.
Speaker 1 (31:50):
Right.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
Really cool right.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
Yeah Well, I think also, you've given us great
advice, Erica.
Thank you for that.
I mean you've given us reallybroad advice.
What comes to my mind is you'retalking about some of the best
campaigns and some of the adviceyou've given us to know their
customer, and so many otherthings you shared with us today.
So wonderful.
Now let's talk about your newcompany.
Let's talk about Energy Cap.
(32:12):
What do you do there?
And tell us about the company.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
Yeah.
So I'll tell you what what'sreally cool about what we do.
Okay, we've been around forfour years, but you know energy
and maybe we'll just roll uputilities inside of energy.
So this is power, electricity,water, sewage.
But really, if you just startedwith energy as your primary
utility, it's one of the mostoverlooked data sets and really,
(32:36):
if you think about it from a,we think about a lot of from a
consumer perspective, because weget those bills which, if you
live in the South in thesummertime, if you live in the
North, those bills in thewintertime, we're like wow, like
all of a sudden, my so and sopower bill is really out of
control.
The reality is that's true inbusinesses, every building,
every department, every dollarof operations is basically
(32:58):
overlooking this massive expense, this utility expense, which is
largely driven by energy, andso in most organizations can't
answer very basic questionsabout this cost, and part of it
is we get these bills after thefact.
You consume something in pointA, you get the bill in point B
or sometimes C as it relates towater.
(33:20):
So it's really hard.
So utility costs make up 10% ofthe operating expense of most
businesses, and sometimes largerif they have a huge footprint
in a lot of buildings and ratesare really volatile.
Rates are volatile for a wholebunch of reasons, including
consumption and the cost ofproducing the energy.
It becomes a really, andthere's decarbonization mandates
(33:42):
still in existence.
The reality is it's no longerpredictable expense and most
businesses really need to getand it's not optional to manage
anymore.
You have to get it.
So we talk about how do you getthe chaos of your utility costs
under control and, specifically, how do you move, move out of
spreadsheets.
So today, most energy managersif there is one, or a building
(34:04):
facilities manager they'retrying to track these expenses
in a spreadsheet.
And think about that.
You have University of Georgiathat's why I'm wearing red today
has hundreds of buildings andthose buildings are various
different ages and so their HVACsystems are various different
ages, and so now I'm trying totrack a data set.
(34:24):
And you know, if I'm a buildingmanager, I have a lot of great
skills.
I probably started as boots onthe ground, doing squish tests
where there were water problems,and my way up to being now the
VP of operations or VP ofbuilding management.
I'm not necessarily an Excelspreadsheet jockey, and so my
ability to actually analyze thisdata.
It's really challenging.
(34:45):
I might be able to look at onemonth prior or two months prior
or three months prior, butfinding the anomalies is really
challenging.
So what we did was we basicallycapture all that data for you.
We literally ingest years worthof Excel data called we call it
bill capture into our platformand then very quickly, using AI
and machine learning, help youidentify, first of all,
(35:07):
anomalies.
Where do you have a problem,like we call it the oopsies,
something that is broken, awaterline that is broken, an
HVAC system that is operating atovercapacity?
So fix that, first and foremost.
Second thing we do is we helpyou start to evaluate rates, and
rates is the most volatileoutside of errors, building
(35:29):
maintenance, things that youjust can't know, by managing 100
plus buildings.
And after we fix that, we helpyou understand.
Wow, my rate here is reallydifferent than it used to be two
months ago or two years ago,and now it's a conversation for
me to have with my utilityprovider about why.
So we univide all these bills,meters, operational data into a
(35:51):
single source of truth and itreally puts building managers,
controllers, ap managers, intothe driver's seat on managing
what is basically, you know,like I said, 10% of their
overall operating costs.
It's really cool.
Speaker 1 (36:04):
It is Now what's the website?
So people can go to itwwwenergycapcapcom.
Okay, we'll put that on ourwebsite for sure, and all that.
Erica Brooks, it's been such apleasure having you on Doing
Business in Bentonville.
I can't tell you how wonderfulit has been.
(36:25):
And one other thing I have tosay about you before we let you
go is that, to all of ourviewers and listeners, one of
the people behind helping memake this decision around doing
business in Bentonville podcastwas this lady right here.
I went to her for advice and Iasked her advice.
I said I'm thinking about apodcast and she gave me great
(36:49):
advice and we had multipleconversations and, erica, I will
never forget and I appreciateyou so much for your wonderful
advice.
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (36:58):
That's really gracious of you.
As I said, you will neverforget and I appreciate you so
much for your wonderful advice.
Thank you, that's reallygracious of you, as I said,
you're the talent.
No, you're the idea, you're theoperation.
I was just facilitating use fordistribution, yeah you did it.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
You did it Well, erica.
Wonderful job today.
Again, thank you so much.
Best to you in London and I'llprobably see you at a board
meeting prior to that, hopefully.
But, erica, great job today.
It's such a pleasure, and bestto you and your family, thank
you.
Speaker 2 (37:25):
Thank you for having me, andy, I really appreciate it
.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
Okay, thank you.
Well, hello everyone and welcome to Doing Business in
Bentonville.
I'm Andy Wilson and I'm thehost today, and I'm so excited
to get started with anotherpodcast.
I'm going to introduce ourguests in just a moment.
Before I do, I want to say toall of our viewers and listeners
thank you so much for all thatyou do and thank you for sharing
.
Thank the message you send meon LinkedIn.
(00:26):
I appreciate that.
Keep sending me messages.
The thing I want tocongratulate all of our viewers
and listeners on today is thatwe have now just reached over
100 countries, so thank you.
It's amazing.
We're humbled by it and weappreciate all that our viewers
are doing and listeners aredoing.
(00:46):
Ok, my guest today is EricaJolly Brooks.
Erica, welcome.
Speaker 2 (00:53):
Thank you so much for having me, andy.
This is a real pleasure.
Speaker 1 (00:56):
Well, yeah, Well, it's really my pleasure.
I want to, let me tell you.
I'm going to tell you a bitabout Erica, but before this
podcast is over, you willunderstand why I admire this
person so much.
Erica is a friend number one.
Number two we serve on a greatboard together, a board and a
(01:18):
company located in Meridian,mississippi, southern Pop and
Supply a phenomenal family-ownedbusiness.
Mississippi Southern Pop andSupply a phenomenal family-owned
business.
We get to share our times toboard meetings together.
And the third thing is she is amarathon runner.
I mean, you know, listen, Imean I'm impressed.
(01:38):
So, erica, welcome and tell usabout your next marathon.
Let's just start with that.
Speaker 2 (01:45):
Well, I don't know if everybody should be impressed
or question my life choices, butyes, I am running the London
Marathon, which is exactly 12days from today.
So I'm in what anybody who'sdone endurance races of any sort
biking, running or the trifectathe.
Ironman series.
This is called the taper window.
(02:05):
So I'm currently in the,fitness has been gained, hay is
in the barn, so to speak, andjust 12 days to go until I line
up with a bunch of other folksand 56,000 people in London for
the London Marathon.
I'm really excited.
Speaker 1 (02:20):
Well, congratulations in advance.
I look forward to hearing allthe details about that.
Speaker 2 (02:27):
I'll bring my model to the next set of meetings.
Speaker 1 (02:31):
Good, well, great Well, erica, you have a
marketing background and we'regoing to get into that marketing
background.
It's very extensive.
How many years have you been inmarketing?
Speaker 2 (02:43):
I have been in marketing my entire career.
I was lucky to find marketing,or marketing found me my first
job.
So I've been in marketing for30 years, and I've been in
technology the entire time too,which probably makes me the old
guard.
I hate to put old in front ofit, but 30 years.
Speaker 1 (03:00):
Well, that's wonderful and you're going to
get to listen and hear and watchtoday, as Erica really dives in
to this whole marketing pieceand you're currently a chief
marketing officer with a greatcompany.
Tell us we're going to comeback at the end more about your
company, but give us a bit aboutyour company today.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Yeah, I'm super excited about my new company.
The team is amazing and theproblem that we're solving is
amazing.
So the company is called EnergyCap.
It's been around for 40 years,which is really impressive.
In the technology space youknow there's only a handful of
40-year-plus businessesMicrosoft is one and Oracle is
another, and so it's Energy Cap.
So that's another, and so itwas energy cap.
(03:44):
So that's exciting.
But we essentially help.
One of the most unmanagedresources actually across every
sort of facet consumer andcommercial is energy, and we
effectively help businesseshigher ed retail establishments,
federal government, localgovernment, schools, you name it
manage their energy costs andtheir utility costs, and we use
(04:07):
technology to do it.
So it's a really exciting spaceto be in.
I'm really thrilled to be partof the club.
Speaker 1 (04:13):
Well, it sounds wonderful and we're going to
make sure that people can findyou, your company, there on our
website.
But I want to come back to thatbecause I think it's
fascinating what you're doingtoday and large companies and
universities around the whole,around the country.
So we'll come back to that.
Now let's talk marketing.
Okay, this 30 years ofexperience, so let's just jump
(04:36):
into it.
And you know, currently, today,you know there's so much going
on in marketing and it'severywhere, and so, as you look
today into marketing, whatadvice do you have for our
viewers and listeners on how tostay ahead in the industry
(04:57):
trends and ensure that themarketing strategy remains
relevant today with all thechange?
Speaker 2 (05:04):
So I think the most difficult challenge facing
marketers today is speedVelocity.
Today is very different than itwas even 10 years ago, and so
marketers today have a greatchallenge in staying up to date,
really, on a combination ofthings not just who they're
targeting, who their targetcustomer is, their target buyer
(05:25):
and their current customer andhow they're feeling, thinking
and what their product and brandis resonating to them, but also
the tools by which to reachthem.
So AI has become so incrediblyprolific and it can be daunting
for marketers, particularlyexperienced marketers or just
anybody Like we learn how to doour vocation, whatever way it is
(05:49):
, in a certain sort of process,and those processes and
frameworks are being disruptedtoday.
So I think the most challengingthing for marketers today is
speed, and you know, sure, speedkills, but it also is a
competitive advantage in today'smarket.
So I think that's the biggestchallenge.
Speaker 1 (06:07):
So speed.
Well, let's listen.
I mean you mentioned AI, sincewe're there for a moment.
I mean AI has had such an ofdollars being spent on AI and
improving it, the research, sois there anything there around
(06:36):
AI?
If you would tell the marketingexperts, this is how I would
use AI.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
So in my new role, I've been finding incredibly new
ways to leverage AI.
So one of the things that'sreally cool is every company can
build their own I'm going tocall it LLM or chat sheet PT
instance, where you just feed itall this information so that it
gets more and more intelligentabout your customers, your
market, your products, yourservices and your competition.
(07:05):
So that's one of the thingsthat's been really interesting
for me is being part of acompany that has stood one up a
long time ago and able to takeadvantage of it.
So what I've done recently iswe use tools here to record
sales calls and customer callsand it creates a transcript and
these transcripts are incrediblyuseful and the particular tool
(07:27):
that we use is a tool calledGong G-O-M-G.
So recently I downloaded I'm new, I've got to understand the
customer as quickly as possible.
I've got to accelerate and rampmy understanding about this
business and our market and ourcustomers as quickly as possible
, and so it would take a long.
I mean I could go and conductmy own customer interviews.
(07:52):
I will still go do that, but Idownloaded 10, 12, 15 calls from
different types of personasfrom different industries and I
uploaded it into the energy, cap, chat, gpt instance and asked
for a number of different datapoints to be synthesized for me,
and in the span of threeminutes.
What used to take three months,andy, I got.
Here are their pain points.
(08:12):
Here are the solutions they'reseeking.
Here's the internal mechanismby which they're measured.
Here's where you haven't.
I mean it just gave me anentire buyer persona framework
in a span of three minutes.
Speaker 1 (08:28):
Well, so speed and same thing.
You said at the very beginningof our podcast.
You talked about speed, and sonow you're using AI as a speed.
And you know, I was readingthis morning that the CEO of
Walmart, doug McMillan, wastalking, and he was talking
about AI and how AI, they'reusing AI into the retail sector
(08:48):
and and he said we can cutmonths off the time from product
to customer months.
That's huge.
That's that is huge.
So I think the word would beembrace it, learn from it how to
apply it into your business.
Because of speed, because, likeyou said at the very beginning,
(09:09):
speed.
Speaker 2 (09:10):
I think the organizations that encourage
their team to engage and utilizeAI tools and find new use cases
are going to have a truecompetitive advantage.
Actually, something I wastalking to our CEO, sean Rayton,
about last night, that issomething that we're doing a
pulse survey right now.
What's our employeesatisfaction?
What's engagement like?
Every time I could see it'seasily, and we've added in some
(09:34):
how comfortable are you usingtools and what tools do you use?
That's a starting point formaking people feel like it's
okay to use these things thatwork to do my job, but then also
providing learning andcapabilities In addition to
tools.
The companies that think abouthow to utilize AI to deliver to
their customers faster and moreefficiently and cleaner and
(09:56):
better are going to be reallythe ones who are going to win.
This whole AI business isreally going to disintermediate
companies.
Speaker 1 (10:05):
Right, okay, as you stepped into your new company
now and I know you're excitedabout it Again, we're going to
talk more about it as you stepinto it, share with us, you know
, what's your overall vision ofthe marketing department.
How can you align that quicklyto a company's broader goals,
(10:26):
things like that.
So, if someone is new andyou've been in multiple
marketing jobs in your careerover 30 years so you can use
other examples, of course butwhat advice would you give
someone stepping into a neworganization and a new role
today, and how then would you,you know, create the overall
(10:48):
strategy and vision for thatorganization?
Speaker 2 (10:50):
So the first thing that I would say is I'm a.
My philosophy of marketing isand it's interesting because my,
you know, I've talked to peoplewho've had different
experiences in their career andmarketing of I'm gonna call it,
you know, 1990, and marketingtoday are I'm going to call it,
you know, 1990 and marketingtoday are very different,
particularly in the softwareworld.
So you know, I do software as aservice.
(11:11):
They call it SaaS today.
But my belief is that marketingis a significant contributor to
the growth of a company.
That means everything from howdo we help build what we call
pipeline, which is prospectivecustomers who will buy from us.
How do we build brand andwhat's its role in building
pipeline.
And then how do we deliver newproducts and services to the
(11:33):
market to be successful for ourcustomers.
That's a much broader remit fora marketer than probably the
marketer of 1990.
Than probably the marketer of1990.
The marketer of 1990 reallythought about how do they build
top of funnel awareness anddidn't think as much about how
do I help activate thoseprospects and customers all the
(11:53):
way through the cycle.
And then, once they are acustomer, how do we ensure that
they're happy?
We want really happy customersbecause advocates are a really
big part of driving your overallbrand message back to the
market.
So that's my general view andphilosophy about marketing, and
so it's a broader remit.
It's not just hey, marketingcontributed X to the company.
(12:16):
It's what are we doing togetherwith sales, with product, with
customer success, in order to besuccessful against our market
opportunity.
Speaker 1 (12:25):
Great advice, great advice.
Let's stay with that just amoment, because you know
customer success in order to besuccessful against our market
opportunity.
Great advice, great advice.
Let's stay with that just amoment, because you know, what
brought come to my mind was, asyou started into this new
organization, how do you takeand really look at what I would
call structure and collaborationas you enter a new team like
(12:46):
this?
How did you do that in the pastand how are you currently doing
it?
Speaker 2 (12:50):
It's a really great question.
So I think I just came from anoffsite the team had in New
Orleans.
We activated quickly around acustomer slash prospect event
like let's get together.
So one of the things that Ithink is fundamental is know
thyself and then to know others.
And so we spent some time usingsome personality diagnostic
(13:11):
tools and and basically saidthis is an open dialogue.
If you're comfortable sharing.
This is not forced, buteverybody was interested in
engaging around.
Here's my profile and there's alot of different tools out
there today.
You can use DISC, you can useEmotionetics there's a whole
bunch.
You can use Gallup StrengthFinder.
But understanding the full cycleof each individual's
(13:34):
personality is a really big deal, because a not everybody needs
to be the same.
In fact, it's better if there'sdifferentiation on the team.
Someone who's really good atconcept and somebody's really
good at details.
They can be a great team ifthey understand that that's
where their strengths andopportunities come from.
So we as a team went throughand shared our personality
(13:56):
frameworks and we had a reallyopen discussion about it, and
what's important about that isthere's no right answer.
There's no wrong answer.
You are what you are.
You can work on your weaknesses, but we can also maximize our
strengths and leverage otherpeople's augmented strengths to
your weaknesses.
And then the last piece of it isunderstanding where points of
(14:18):
friction come.
Points of friction come on team, when you have differences.
And once you understand whatyour differences are, you can
increase trust and decreasemistrust.
And so we spent half of aday-ish, two or three hours,
just talking through that andeven identifying areas.
Where do you remember when wehad a conflict over blah?
(14:38):
Now it makes sense to me.
You were talking concept, I waslooking for details, or you're
massively extroverted and I'm anambivert or introverted, and so
I you know you were ready tocheck out and I was still, you
know, like let's, let's talk.
Those things really matter, andI do think it is a fundamental
(14:59):
step in building trust.
And ultimately, with buildingculture and teams, you have to
have be vulnerable, you have totrust and you have to seek to
understand.
And if you do those threethings, you can really start to
build a framework of beliefsthat we, we as a group, can do
anything together.
Speaker 1 (15:17):
Well, I think that's excellent advice and you know,
I'm so glad you mentioned trust,because trust is the
foundational, as you mentioned,it's a foundational principle
and you know everything,everything, everything sets on
that trust.
You know, there it is and sowonderful.
So, as we, as you think about,continues to think about a new
(15:37):
team, what KPIs would yourecommend people to measure at
the very beginning, you know, toget them on track?
What are some advice there?
Speaker 2 (15:47):
Yeah, it's a great question.
So we certainly track brandawareness.
You know how aware, and there'ssort of a couple categories of
brand awareness.
There's awareness that there isa solution that exists to solve
my problem, so we call thatsolution aware.
Then there's actual brandawareness how aware are people
of Energy Cap?
And there's two categoriesinside of brand awareness.
(16:09):
There's what we call aided,which is if I say the words did
you know Energy Cap does X, yand Z, oh, yeah, yeah, I've
heard of them.
And then there's unaided, whichis without recall.
If I said describe for me autility management platform, I
would say, oh, I know one.
It's called Energy Cap.
So brand awareness is a reallycritical measure.
(16:31):
You can't sell something tosomebody if they don't know the
solution exists and they don'tknow you exist.
So that's a pretty big one.
These are problems thatcompanies like Walmart do not
have, but they are challengesfor growth-based companies,
which is thinking about you knowwhat do people know about us?
So that's the first one.
The second one and this is abit of a differentiation, I
(16:52):
think, for marketers acrossdifferent market segments is
pipeline.
Pipeline Are we building newand prospective customers and do
we close those customers andhow are we contributing to that
revenue?
So I'm a big believer thatmarketers can be directly tied
to revenue.
So those are the two biggestthings, which is building a
(17:16):
framework for one and thenbuilding the analytical support
to be able to have aconversation with your
counterpart in sales or growth,which is how are we, as a team,
building new revenue for thecompany?
Speaker 1 (17:29):
Well, ok, wonderful.
You mentioned customers.
Let's talk about that for amoment.
So what approach do you takecustomer feedback and market
research?
You know what are your thoughtsthere and advice.
Speaker 2 (17:46):
So I'm customers are your first and fastest path to
find a new customer.
Yeah, and today, with socialand e-commerce, that's never
been more true.
I mean, when you look back atwhat happened with social, it
really put customers in thedriver's seat of driving,
purchase, consideration andintent, and so to me, that
(18:08):
relationship with the customer,it should have always been
important.
We shouldn't have needed arelationship with our customers
through, you know, the varioussocial media platforms are out
there, but that really was areckoning for many of us.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
Right yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:22):
And so to me, the key there is our.
Once they have purchased yourproduct, do they have an amazing
or average or better thanaverage experience using the
product average or better thanaverage experience using the
product?
And then, where and when dothey get their surprise moments,
delight that they weren'tanticipating, and how do you
(18:44):
talk to them about that and howdo you maximize that for future
customer growth?
And then, where were thereplaces where maybe there wasn't
a delight factor that you canrefine and do better for the
next time?
So that customer experience isparamount to me in understanding
how to actually find additionalcustomers, but also convey the
right message to prospectivecustomers and also deliver on
(19:07):
the customer experience that youpromised.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Are there specific touch points around positive
customer, positive or negativecustomer experience?
You know anything there thatyou would call out to really
focus on?
Speaker 2 (19:23):
One of the things that we measure specifically in
the world of software is thetime to value.
It's actually specific.
We talk about TTV or time tovalue.
If you buy a product in retail,you know, and it's Easter so I
go buy some great chocolateproducts.
At the end cap I eat it.
I've had.
You know, the Sarah Cohen boostis complete.
The time value is pretty quickIn the world of software.
(19:45):
Often, particularly if there'sdata involved in the success of
the product, the time to valuecan take longer.
So if I sign a contract with acustomer or or even as a buyer,
when I've signed contracts, andit takes me greater than 90 days
or greater than six months toactually see the value of the
product, that's not great.
So, one of the key metrics thatwe talk about a lot is what was
(20:07):
the time to value for thecustomer?
They're spending a lot of moneyfor these products.
You know how are we ensuringthat they feel very quickly they
got the value for what theypurchased.
And it needs to be.
Speaker 1 (20:21):
It can't be immediate if it needs to be good but it
needs to be progressivelyshowing value along the way.
You know one of the things thatin my previous role at Walmart,
we traveled, we stay, wetraveled all the time to, uh,
you know, listen to the customer, the talk to the customer, to
ask questions.
(20:42):
We're all.
We're in the stores, the clubs,uh, listening, listening and
talking, asking questions.
Uh, today, you know, technologycan help with that so much, and
especially with all thee-commerce online we talked
about earlier in ourconversation, before the podcast
.
So is there anything there?
(21:05):
You know a couple of touchpoints there that you would say
this is critical.
Speaker 2 (21:11):
So there's a couple of things I'm a big believer in
community and I'm both believerin community and niche
communities for driving a realunderstanding of customer and
customer pain points.
We actually spun one up a whileago at Energy Cap and it's
called you know, it's called ourEnergy Cap Heroes, you know,
(21:32):
and they it's a community of ourcustomers where they can engage
online with one another butalso engage with us, and so what
I like about that is you getyour product organization, your
customer success organization,your marketers, you get
everybody more closely alignedwith our customers and you can
hear them really quickly.
So I'm going to call it nichecommunities.
(21:53):
Another way for me to explainthis is I'm part of a CMO
community.
That CMO community, which isrun by a technology vendor that
I have certainly used but Idon't have to use.
They bring me together to findpeer-to-peer sharing and we're
very quickly saying that worked,this doesn't work, try this,
talk to that person.
(22:14):
So companies that actuallyharness their own communities,
their own niche communities,very quickly and there's
technology to facilitate thathave a real quick touch point
that can be acceleratedthroughout the organization.
Again, it's about speed and howquickly does the understanding
get throughout the entireworkflow of the organization.
So I think that's a reallycritical path.
You can do CSAT surveys andtracking studies and all that
(22:37):
kind of stuff, but those arereally point in time and when
you put a community in place,you get to hear those voices
just like you went to stores ina way that you didn't before.
So I'm a big believer inleveraging technology, community
platforms and bringing youraudiences together.
Speaker 1 (22:53):
Now let's talk future for a moment.
Okay is so good.
You're doing a great job.
Thank you, I.
I knew you would, erica.
This is good.
I'm learning a lot.
I am learning a lot, um, and Iknow our guests are.
So, as we think about, uh, thiswhole, this whole industry, um,
as we think about it, let'slook forward to three years.
(23:18):
That's a long time.
I should say one to three years, right, because it's changed so
rapidly.
But let's just talk to thefuture for a moment.
What do you see the biggestchallenges in the future of
marketing?
Speaker 2 (23:33):
So I have some macro themes and then I have some
specific so let's go macrothings okay one of the things
that you and I've talked about,and we've talked about as part
of our our shared collaborationand board work, is today the
what.
The workforce today is moremulti-generational than it ever
has been and that means thatcommon understanding and context
(23:57):
is really fragmented across allthe different sort of functions
that bring up an organizationand adeptness or skill set and
communication styles andpreferences.
So I think that's aninteresting challenge for us
over the next one to three yearshow quickly do we as an entire
(24:17):
multi-generational workforceadapt together in this changing
ecosystem that's around us?
So I think that's a pretty bigdeal.
I always joke around myhusband's like I'm just going to
call them, I'm going to go tothe store.
I was like I'm definitely notdoing that, I'm going to go to
the store.
I was like I'm definitely notdoing that, I'm going to send a
(24:38):
chat message.
So I mean you know there is a,there is a communication
preference, there's technologyenablement for it.
So when you think about thatand you think about how you
deliver customer experiences andproducts and make people really
happy, that's an adaptation forevery business has to think
about, about.
I think you've gotmulti-generational workers and
(24:58):
you have a multi-generationalbuyer audience.
I think that's a pretty bigchallenge for us over the next
one to three years.
So things are getting reallysophisticated.
You know, you see an instagramstory, you can buy straight from
instagram now and you use yourapple pay and the next thing you
know it's sitting on your frontdoor.
The ability to return somethingtoday is as easy as I print the
(25:19):
label at home and there isDropboxes at Whole Foods for
Amazon delivery.
So this whole sequence ofchange is a pretty big deal.
I would be well maybe not thelast person to ask, but I'm not
the best person to ask how muchthat's going to change.
(25:39):
I think there are.
Some of the cognitive abilitiesof AI is going to be a real
game changer for us in thattimeframe that you talked about,
and how that plays out will bereally fascinating.
How tools are enabled, whatthat means for the type of work
we do, what that means for speedof delivery is going to be
(26:00):
really interesting.
But the AI tools are onlygetting smarter.
I also believe the AI tools aregoing to get more expensive.
So right now it's a realadoption, adoption, adoption
model.
It's going to get a lot moreexpensive to deliver AI tools
within our organization in thenext one to three years.
Speaker 1 (26:18):
I think that's great advice.
And back to yourmulti-generational discussion.
You know, I see that in my work, where you know we're
(26:39):
cross-communicating to multiplegenerations, one size does not
fit all you know, and that's.
I think that's where you can'tpackage it and push it down
everyone's throat.
It does not work.
It's got to bemulti-generational.
I think that's critical.
And if I had to call out thenumber one Opscar, the number
one for the future in my work asdoing business in Bentonville
(27:00):
or as a consultant, it'smulti-generational.
Speaker 2 (27:03):
It is, and people are working longer than they used
to yes, definitely.
Speaker 1 (27:10):
I'm an example of that.
Speaker 2 (27:11):
Right.
Speaker 1 (27:11):
You know, yes, I'm an example of that.
So many of us, and I think it'syou know, thank, thank goodness
.
The health issue is, you know,and all of that, but absolutely,
people are really workinglonger because they're enjoying
it Many in many that you're juststill healthy enough to enjoy
and they embrace the learning.
Speaker 2 (27:31):
Yes, and I think some folks myself included, and I
think you too, like I look atthe change that's happening now
and I've always enjoyed it Like,oh great, Internet's the thing,
let's go do that.
Cloud's the thing, let's go dothat.
So I don't want to miss this.
So for me it's an exciting timeto be part of what is a
(27:53):
significant change in how wework, how we?
Engage how we connect how wefind so.
To me it's exciting and I thinkthere's a lot of other people
who feel that way, and it's more.
There's actually a woman on myteam.
She loves to make fun of me andthis other gentleman because we
put two spaces after a period.
It's more significant than theOxford approach to grammar to
(28:15):
your point about you can'tpackage it and think about
delivery and distribution ofinformation enough right now how
, when, where and best will thisbe received?
It's a pretty significant issue.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
OK, I have a couple more questions, as I want to, I
want us to, I do want us to talka bit about your new company
and that you're a part of it,because it's fascinating.
But before we get to that, ok,maybe, maybe another, another
question for sure, but as youlook across the board, let's
just talk general marketing fora moment.
(28:49):
And what, what would be if youcan do this, and I didn't ask
you earlier, so here we go.
If you can do this and I didn'task you earlier, so here we go.
But what, what?
What marketing campaign you seetoday?
This absolutely great that youwould call out, you know, just
over, the broad, broad view, andmaybe one that needs some
(29:11):
assistance, yeah, oh, one thatneeds assistance, oh, hater yeah
, right funny though my we'll.
Speaker 2 (29:22):
We'll be watching some program which I may or may
not be paying attention to, andthen an ad will come on yeah and
my husband wants to speed threeof those and I said, can you do
?
Can I want to watch that?
yeah, he's like you're like Isaid I'm not the only person who
likes to watch ads.
There's a lot of marketers outthere who want to see what other
people are doing and what itlooks like.
So you know, I'm a runner and Ithink some of the very targeted
(29:48):
runner persona campaigns thatare out there today are really,
really good and what theirmessage is on point and their
use of influencers and socialmedia is on point.
But then even in an environmentlike I was in New York last
year for the marathon runningthe marathon, they, they did an
entire because we're thefinishers for New York city
(30:08):
marathon, these brands and I'mtelling their new balance Hoka,
nike, puma, they all do thisamazing job of just doing an
entire takeover in New York City.
It felt like runners wererunning New York for three or
four days Everything from theturnstiles and the subway to the
(30:29):
billboards to the bus stuff alltargeted to runners.
What I think that is a goodexample of is understanding,
very persona focused, and it's alarge, adjustable market.
It's not a tiny market Right.
Understanding that addressablemarket and being clever and
(30:49):
creative specifically to thatexperiential opportunity.
Sure, there's 60,000 peoplerunning, but there was probably
of those 60,000 people, let'ssay, everybody brought two
people to watch them.
That's another, you know,120,000 to 200,000 people plus
all the city people in New YorkCity and all the people who are
home who wanted to get in, whocouldn't get in because 800,000
(31:12):
people applied to that race andcouldn't get in, and so then
they see that content.
So it really was a massconsumer execution and I would
say all of those brands did anexceptional job doing it and as
a marketer, I can't wait to seewhat happens in London.
I'm guessing it's this.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
Yeah, I can't wait.
I can't wait to hear aboutLondon from you.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
One of the billboards I saw was you've run hundreds
of miles.
You only have 26.2 left to go.
And you know you run three or400 miles as part of a training
cycle.
So like you're like from amarketer's perspective, but also
runners, I'm like, yeah, 26.2.
Speaker 1 (31:48):
Where do you?
Speaker 2 (31:49):
go, let's get that done.
Speaker 1 (31:50):
Right.
Speaker 2 (31:51):
Really cool right.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
Yeah Well, I think also, you've given us great
advice, Erica.
Thank you for that.
I mean you've given us reallybroad advice.
What comes to my mind is you'retalking about some of the best
campaigns and some of the adviceyou've given us to know their
customer, and so many otherthings you shared with us today.
So wonderful.
Now let's talk about your newcompany.
Let's talk about Energy Cap.
(32:12):
What do you do there?
And tell us about the company.
Speaker 2 (32:15):
Yeah.
So I'll tell you what what'sreally cool about what we do.
Okay, we've been around forfour years, but you know energy
and maybe we'll just roll uputilities inside of energy.
So this is power, electricity,water, sewage.
But really, if you just startedwith energy as your primary
utility, it's one of the mostoverlooked data sets and really,
(32:36):
if you think about it from a,we think about a lot of from a
consumer perspective, because weget those bills which, if you
live in the South in thesummertime, if you live in the
North, those bills in thewintertime, we're like wow, like
all of a sudden, my so and sopower bill is really out of
control.
The reality is that's true inbusinesses, every building,
every department, every dollarof operations is basically
(32:58):
overlooking this massive expense, this utility expense, which is
largely driven by energy, andso in most organizations can't
answer very basic questionsabout this cost, and part of it
is we get these bills after thefact.
You consume something in pointA, you get the bill in point B
or sometimes C as it relates towater.
(33:20):
So it's really hard.
So utility costs make up 10% ofthe operating expense of most
businesses, and sometimes largerif they have a huge footprint
in a lot of buildings and ratesare really volatile.
Rates are volatile for a wholebunch of reasons, including
consumption and the cost ofproducing the energy.
It becomes a really, andthere's decarbonization mandates
(33:42):
still in existence.
The reality is it's no longerpredictable expense and most
businesses really need to getand it's not optional to manage
anymore.
You have to get it.
So we talk about how do you getthe chaos of your utility costs
under control and, specifically, how do you move, move out of
spreadsheets.
So today, most energy managersif there is one, or a building
(34:04):
facilities manager they'retrying to track these expenses
in a spreadsheet.
And think about that.
You have University of Georgiathat's why I'm wearing red today
has hundreds of buildings andthose buildings are various
different ages and so their HVACsystems are various different
ages, and so now I'm trying totrack a data set.
(34:24):
And you know, if I'm a buildingmanager, I have a lot of great
skills.
I probably started as boots onthe ground, doing squish tests
where there were water problems,and my way up to being now the
VP of operations or VP ofbuilding management.
I'm not necessarily an Excelspreadsheet jockey, and so my
ability to actually analyze thisdata.
It's really challenging.
(34:45):
I might be able to look at onemonth prior or two months prior
or three months prior, butfinding the anomalies is really
challenging.
So what we did was we basicallycapture all that data for you.
We literally ingest years worthof Excel data called we call it
bill capture into our platformand then very quickly, using AI
and machine learning, help youidentify, first of all,
(35:07):
anomalies.
Where do you have a problem,like we call it the oopsies,
something that is broken, awaterline that is broken, an
HVAC system that is operating atovercapacity?
So fix that, first and foremost.
Second thing we do is we helpyou start to evaluate rates, and
rates is the most volatileoutside of errors, building
(35:29):
maintenance, things that youjust can't know, by managing 100
plus buildings.
And after we fix that, we helpyou understand.
Wow, my rate here is reallydifferent than it used to be two
months ago or two years ago,and now it's a conversation for
me to have with my utilityprovider about why.
So we univide all these bills,meters, operational data into a
(35:51):
single source of truth and itreally puts building managers,
controllers, ap managers, intothe driver's seat on managing
what is basically, you know,like I said, 10% of their
overall operating costs.
It's really cool.
Speaker 1 (36:04):
It is Now what's the website?
So people can go to itwwwenergycapcapcom.
Okay, we'll put that on ourwebsite for sure, and all that.
Erica Brooks, it's been such apleasure having you on Doing
Business in Bentonville.
I can't tell you how wonderfulit has been.
(36:25):
And one other thing I have tosay about you before we let you
go is that, to all of ourviewers and listeners, one of
the people behind helping memake this decision around doing
business in Bentonville podcastwas this lady right here.
I went to her for advice and Iasked her advice.
I said I'm thinking about apodcast and she gave me great
(36:49):
advice and we had multipleconversations and, erica, I will
never forget and I appreciateyou so much for your wonderful
advice.
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (36:58):
That's really gracious of you.
As I said, you will neverforget and I appreciate you so
much for your wonderful advice.
Thank you, that's reallygracious of you, as I said,
you're the talent.
No, you're the idea, you're theoperation.
I was just facilitating use fordistribution, yeah you did it.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
You did it Well, erica.
Wonderful job today.
Again, thank you so much.
Best to you in London and I'llprobably see you at a board
meeting prior to that, hopefully.
But, erica, great job today.
It's such a pleasure, and bestto you and your family, thank
you.
Speaker 2 (37:25):
Thank you for having me, andy, I really appreciate it
.
Speaker 1 (37:27):
Okay, thank you.
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