53: Shop Floor Storytelling- with Barbara Pennell Jaynes

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[00:01:21] Erin Courtenay: Oh, fun. Favorite destination. Oh, okay. I have a story.

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[00:01:29] Erin Courtenay: My favorite. I'm just like in terms of flying. So I arrived in Bangkok, and it was my first time in Asia, only time I've been there and it was so cool because we just walked out of the airport because we were actually was a layover quite a lengthy layover and went immediately into like a little shopping district that was just adjacent to the airport. You know, usually you're an airport, you're like in the middle of nowhere or there's nothing around. And it was just. Oh, it was so mind blowing, you know, it's such a vibrant place in Bangkok and I just come out of the airport, which feels generic. They're all exactly the same. And it was just an incredible feeling.

And I got some food and I saw some temples and I'll never forget that feeling. So.

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[00:02:20] Kris Harrington: Mine is India. I'll try to keep it short, but we have a partner who works in India and that also happens to be a very good friend today. And long story short, I have heard so many stories when I worked in the mining industry about India that my expectations regarding India were very different than what actually happened.

And I love the food, I love the people, I love the culture. I was there for a weekend and got to sit on an elephant, be in the water with an elephant and wash it. And it was just a really, really interesting experience. I've had the privilege to travel to a lot of different countries and even live in different countries, but that one is special for those reasons.

So awesome.

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[00:03:13] Erin Courtenay: It's a competition.

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I'm just ready to go. Cause there's like, I barely scratched the surface of cool things to see and experience. I love exploring new things. I wish that's all I could do. How do I become like a professional travel person that just tells people all the cool things that are available to do.

Someone's gotta pay for me to be able to do that.

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I don't know. Like, that would get a little.

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Barbara, welcome to the show.

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[00:04:39] Lori Highby: Do you have one to share?

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And the woman says, is there anything you should declare? Do you think? And I'm like, we have eight bottles of rum in the suitcase. Is that okay? Is there something? I said, do I have to declare that? And she says, no, you must drink that. Next!

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[00:05:25] Lori Highby: Oh, that's great. All right. So you know, let's start this conversation up. And I know we kind of connected through means of marketing, which is obviously where my background expertise is, but you're doing way more than that. So how is what you do different for what a typical marketing company is doing?

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And what are your keywords to open those doors to your customers and to develop those partnerships and those relationships that you need to support your product? And it's my job to make your marketing and sales team look like rock stars, and that's what I love to do.

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[00:06:23] Kris Harrington: I was gonna say, it sounds like a, a very interesting process that you're using as compared to what some of the other people, you know, that we've talked to who do something similar to you.

But obviously the way you're describing is a little different. What makes your process so successful?

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How do you reach your customers? How do you help them? Whether that's a manufacturer, whether that's a hospital, you know, and really diving in and giving you the best support and infrastructure to be successful.

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[00:07:30] Barbara Pannell Jaynes: Thank you for asking, Erin. I do more than just sit down and talk to people. I actually have people test your product and get their feedback.

Someone just came to me and said, I have this diagnostic tool for supply chain assessments, and I can't get anyone to even try it for free. And I said, well, send let me read it and we'll talk about it. Well, I read it. And it was in red and black, and it was very harsh.

And I was afraid someone was going to smack me with a ruler the whole time. And I was like, oh my gosh, you've scared people to death. Now what? They're not going to touch me. They're not going to do this for free. They're afraid of you. And so I got to go back and say, hey, I think that way you've got is really great.

Let's rewrite it in a way that you show that you're being helpful. And that you want to support them and to show the value to what you're doing and why it's important. And they're like, Oh, and I just took a section of it and rewrote it. And they're like, Oh, and it was this light bulb moment. You know, he's this brilliant engineer.

So Sheldon Cooper is out there trying to work.

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[00:08:46] Kris Harrington: Well, isn't that interesting though, how, when we're so close to something, sometimes it takes another person looking at it or reading it, or, you know, from a different perspective to show us something either about us or about the product that we're trying to create that does create that light bulb moment where it's like, Oh yeah, you're correct.

Nobody was going to get this or want to go through with it. So. Thank goodness they didn't do it even for free because it might not have been a successful experience, right?

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I'm going to go out and get five industrial manufacturers to beta test this. He'll have real data and real stories to tell. He's like, would someone pay me to beta test? I'm like, no, You don't have a product. You haven't proofed it out. No one's paying for anything. You have to have your story. Let's go create your story and let's go find people to talk about you.

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[00:10:11] Barbara Pannell Jaynes: There are products out there that are so useful that can just reshape manufacturing and bring back onshoring so much more quickly. But we can't do that if we can't connect with the manufacturers and the customers, and they don't see that without a story.

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Because now you truly have users using things and the stories are coming out as the tests are taking place. So I love that.

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They are so strapped. And they are dealing with all of the labor shortage and the HR issues. They just can't.

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What drew you to manufacturing?

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And I look at manufacturing the same way. It's the unsung hero and it's overlooked. And I still get to serve the underserved and to bring them up into the light and let people see them for what they really are and how important they are.

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That's the essence of what it gets us excited, really, even about this show, is that we think that manufacturing is fun and interesting and full of human stories. And as you say, that often gets overlooked to the detriment of not just the sector, but all of us. You know, we all need to be feeling that energy and that excitement about manufacturing. And somebody with your talents, they can tell that story. It's, it's really valuable.

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It's hilarious that I've landed here where I actually get to see those really cool things being made.

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[00:13:13] Kris Harrington: Hands down. My favorite. Yep.

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I love being on the shop tour and asking all the questions and tell me about this and tell me about that. What does that weigh? And how long does that take? And I love how you can interweave manufacturing, whether it's not the same product or not. You know, Monsanto just built new facilities in Georgia, where they're recycling plastic two liter bottles and melting them down and making carpet out of them.

And the color is going directly into that. So you can pour bleach on the new carpet or whatever, and the color's going to stay. With someone else that was doing a recycled, sustainable thing, and I'm like, well, why can't you just color set it like Monsanto? And I got to tell them the story of Monsanto and they're like, That is the coolest thing.

We're gonna go visit Monsanto now.

So it's

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[00:14:06] Barbara Pannell Jaynes: So two very different products, but the same, you know, the same coming together in the process.

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[00:14:27] Barbara Pannell Jaynes: And I think that that is one of the great benefits of working with someone outside of your field and outside of your silo is that, you know, I might be working on 10 projects at a time, but I take you everywhere with me.

And I can't tell you how many times I think I'm in a, at an event for Susan. I'm actually there for Jill. And I'm like, but that's okay because I'm still here.

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[00:14:57] Kris Harrington: Well, I don't know if you guys are familiar with Richard Van Der Blom's research that he does on LinkedIn and the algorithms that are used to help you increase performance and reach using LinkedIn. And LinkedIn is a really important strategy here at Gen Alpha. We use it not just on our Gen Alpha corporate page, but also my page and other leaders in the company.

We're all posting all the time. Understanding how to get the most out of LinkedIn is really important to us. And the research indicated that polls are top performers. And Lori, I guess you would know that because you do a lot of polls, which is.

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[00:15:40] Kris Harrington: Yep. And I'm always watching for yours.

But you know, they gave some advice. What I thought was interesting is that only 1. 2 percent of all posts on LinkedIn are polls. So if you are using polls, you're also going to have that advantage. So they, they perform better, but not many people are doing them. The most effective polls offer three answer choices.

Now, if you use a fourth one, like other, put it in the comments or something like that, that will typically increase the engagement in the post, but it doesn't typically lead to more reach. So just interesting stats that he had.

But the other thing that he shared is that the optimal duration for a poll is one week. So you have a several different options that you get to choose. You want to do one week. So for those of you that either are using LinkedIn as your strategy like we are, we don't do a lot of polls. So it was kind of eye opening for me like, Oh, okay. Well but I think I always think polls are a creative way to get more information out of your audience as well.

I mean, that's really what you're looking for is to get that good information. So I'm going to have to try some more of that in my own feed.

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So I just said, here's who we are. Here's what I do. Here's our area of expertise and create 52 LinkedIn polls, a question related to our service offerings and recommended up to four potential solutions and now I have a whole year's worth of polls created.

There was some minor tweaking. Thank you. Yeah, there's some minor tweaking that I did to that. But yeah, I've got, I've got a whole year's fleshed out. One of the things I really like about polls is that you can see who responded specifically, and only the person that created the poll can see that for the most part.

So if there is something that like if I ask a question about are you using email marketing and one of the answers is like no, but I'm interested... well, that is a potential lead then for me to then actually reach out to and say Hey, I noticed you said this is that something you'd be like, you know like to talk about. And three, it gives me content.

So the results of the polls convert to additional content that I then publish on LinkedIn.

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[00:18:10] Barbara Pannell Jaynes: I'm stealing it. I'm so using it. I use it like a machine, but I don't do polls.

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Well, thank you. See, I learned even more. What did you just learn?

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And that's hard to develop without being intentional about it. And so, I just thought that was really interesting. It was an article I was reading about an athlete who just has, like, really profound muscle development. And they were pointing out that he's really nailed that one. So, there you go.

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[00:19:14] Lori Highby: I have nothing to add to that one.

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[00:19:31] Kris Harrington: We'll start working that one out and give you an update later.

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[00:19:38] Lori Highby: I didn't, no. I just added on to Kris's. So what I'm going to throw you the whiplash analogy was good too. Cause I normally do something super geeky and I mean, it's kind of geeky, but. I didn't come prepared. So I went to Google and I typed in weird facts and I found something interesting.

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[00:20:02] Lori Highby: You know this is how I roll. Anyways, did you know that Australia is wider than the moon?

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[00:20:12] Kris Harrington: I did not know that.

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[00:20:16] Erin Courtenay: Like literally wider?

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[00:20:37] Kris Harrington: All right. Well, there you go.

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[00:20:41] Erin Courtenay: Mind blown. Yes. Yes.

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[00:20:48] Barbara Pannell Jaynes: I don't have these facts down the way that you ladies do. So mine is, I am a lover of shoes but not of mushrooms. There is a high end German shoe designer, like Couture, that is now making sustainable shoes out of sustainable mushrooms. And they are, they're really good looking. I saw these tennis shoes that were made out of them and the soles were made out of recycled rubber and it was repurposed cotton on the inside and just think, I'm like, okay, there's a mushroom I could do.

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[00:21:39] Kris Harrington: Yeah, I'm glad you clarified that, Erin, because I was just about to say I love mushrooms. Wow.

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[00:21:49] Kris Harrington: Oh, goodness.

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[00:21:52] Barbara Pannell Jaynes: This is a mushroom that I could buy and use.

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[00:22:07] Barbara Pannell Jaynes: My website is positively-funded. com. My email address is barbara at positively-funded. com. You can find me on LinkedIn at Barbara Pennell Jaynes, or you can always do the old fashioned phone call at 303 993 7124.

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[00:22:43] Kris Harrington: Thank you.