YouShouldTalkTo - YouShouldTalkTo - Cristy Garcia

[00:00:00] Cristy Garcia: I think, partner, a lot of partnerships are formed for the wrong reasons,

[00:00:03] like, someone might want to get in front of another person's audience or vice versa, but there's not really an alignment there. It's not natural, organic. 

[00:00:47] Daniel Weiner: Hello and welcome to episode one of the YouShouldTalkTo Podcast. I am Daniel Weiner, the founder of YouShouldTalkTo, and this podcast is currently brought to you by YouShouldTalkTo until a sponsor ponies up the big bucks. YouShouldTalkTo pairs brands and marketers for free with vetted agencies and, or freelancers for pretty much any marketing or technology need.

[00:01:07] Why? Because finding great agencies is a really big pain in the ass. Super excited today to be joined by the CMO of impact.com, Cristy Garcia. Thank you so much for joining us. Cristy, do you want to give us a little, a background on how we got here and what you do over at Impact?

[00:01:21] Cristy Garcia: Sure, and let me first say how honored I am to be your first guest. That's so great.

[00:01:26] Daniel Weiner: I'm, I, I'm honored, mutual, mutual honor.

[00:01:28] Cristy Garcia: And, we'll try to try to help you get some sponsors here. Maybe we can, we can prop some really great content today.

[00:01:33] Daniel Weiner: I want big dollars by the end of the week.

[00:01:37] Cristy Garcia: All right. I'm Cristy Garcia. I'm the CMO of impact.com. I've been with Impact for around four years now, working my way up, and now I am the CMO of driving pipeline bookings and brand awareness for the company globally. So, impact.com and just a short, short descriptor here. We are a partnership management platform, the leading partnership management platform where we can support the full life cycle of any partnership.

[00:02:03] So, if you're a brand, you're looking for influencers to work with or other brands to work with, you can come to the platform in, in the marketplace and find those partners. We actually are able to recommend partners based on what you're looking for. Then you can contract, you can begin working together, sharing, you know, assets back and forth, driving sales, and then seeing all the reporting and paying out right there in the platform.

[00:02:28] So, that's, that's what it is, you can bring existing partners over, and we've been working with a lot of the IR 500, specifically the IR top 10, but 60% is now working on our platform. So, very excited and keep driving forward, getting, you know, partnerships, trying to help partnerships, help other businesses make additional money, a new revenue.

[00:02:47] Daniel Weiner: And, you all just had a pretty big event up in New York City that I was sad to miss and knew how.

[00:02:52] Cristy Garcia: It was a great event. So, we had what's called IPX impact.com's partnership experience. It was the first time we've been back in several years, which was very exciting. You could tell that there was an appetite for in-person events. Everyone was just glowing. I think the content was super strong, of course, saying, saying from the, the CMO of the company,

[00:03:10] but we did get a lot of really positive feedback, especially for our conversation with our special guest, Trevor Noah and I'm not gonna give anything away, but our CEO actually did some break dancing on stage. It's true with Trevor Noah, beatboxing, so you can see all of that on our website.

[00:03:25] Daniel Weiner: I was gonna say if we can somehow edit that into this episode, that would be great.

[00:03:29] Cristy Garcia: That would be great. Yeah. It's online. It's there.

[00:03:32] Daniel Weiner: Even better? No, I was, I was purposefully interested in speaking with you. Impact.com is all about partnerships. My entire business is basically a partnership model. I work with roughly 60 agencies or so to varying capacities, roughly 50 freelancers.

[00:03:47] In your opinion, what makes for an excellent partnership?

[00:03:51] Cristy Garcia: Well, I think there's a lot of ingredients for that, but the top three, I would say, probably the first is authenticity. I think partner, a lot of partnerships are formed for the wrong reasons.

[00:04:02] Like, someone might wanna get in front of another person's audience or vice versa, but there's not really an alignment there. It's not natural or organic. Shared goals, are you both pulling your weight for the partnership to be successful? Are you all working towards getting to a certain level or getting to a certain payout amount?

[00:04:18] And the third is, overcommunicate to build trust. I think when you're in the beginning of any relationship, being responsive is really important, it's important throughout the life cycle of the partnership, but more so in the very beginning. If there's no update, just responding by saying there's no update, letting, letting people, your partner know that you're, you,

[00:04:37] Cristy Garcia: you've received the message and, and just kind of staying on top of that. I think those three ingredients, authenticity, shared goals, and communication really can make a really solid partnership.

[00:04:46] Daniel Weiner: Yeah, I think the first ones particularly interesting. I see a lot of probably the majority of partnerships out there seem to be one-sided. Somebody wants something from someone else and hasn't really given, you know, a huge amount of thought to what the other side is getting from. So, totally, totally agree there.

[00:05:02] In the context of, you know, new vendors and agencies, I presume now that you're in the C-suite, you've had your fair share of, of vendor searches in your career. What are you looking for, you know, from an agency or a third-party vendor when you're, when you're sourcing those?

[00:05:16] So, I think the way that an agency stands out to me is, is their portfolio, making it easy to view. A lot of the, the issues I have with, with agencies, let's talk about creative agencies, for example. They might show this beautiful work, but it's like, "Can you give me some stats?

[00:05:34] Cristy Garcia: Like, what did that actually do for, for the customer that you had?" Like, I don't need to necessarily know that you can create beautiful content. For me, it's more about, you know, what did this provide for that person? Was it a brand lift in awareness, you know, was there affinity, was there some sort of, you know, direct response campaign element to it?

[00:05:54] Is there anything that you can share as far as results go except a, a pretty picture, which is nice to see, but not exactly what I'm, you know, looking for because at the end of the day, every dollar spent in B2B marketing usually has to have some form of return. And so, for me, that's very important, understanding what they can provide to me.

[00:06:14] And then, secondly, the, the same urgency in the middle of the partnership that I saw in the beginning. An example of that would be if you're working with an agency for a while, and you tell them you're unhappy because you're not getting what you want out of it, and all of a sudden, it's like, you're the star of the show.

[00:06:31] So many great ideas. Everyone's pressing the gas pedal. Everyone's ready to go, but you didn't get that until you showed how unhappy you were. I, I want an agency that's always doing that, you know, that I don't have to say, "Oh, by the way, you know, you've been slipping here and there. I don't feel like you're coming to the table with new ideas." That, that should happen with the relationship.

[00:06:51] That's what we're paying for, for, in a lot of cases, so I think that those things are really important when looking at it.

[00:06:55] Daniel Weiner: You, you want the honeymoon phase to last longer than just the honeymoon?

[00:06:59] Cristy Garcia: Yeah. If it could. Yeah. I think that's really important.

[00:07:03] Daniel Weiner: Yeah.

[00:07:04] Cristy Garcia: It's a sign of respect in my mind and being attuned to someone's needs.

[00:07:09] Daniel Weiner: Yeah. Also, probably makes it easier to ask for more budget and renewals when those things come up after the, the contract terminates and stuff like that. To that end, when you are, once you've determined that you're looking for an agency, a freelancer, some sort of vendor, where are you going typically?

[00:07:25] I find now, like, communities are a huge place that people are having these conversations, whereas, many, many years ago, you were probably, in my experience, going to Google and searching for, you know, agency with the city name after it and something like that. Where are you most finding success

[00:07:41] when you're looking for something like that, other than me, of course, now that you know what it is?

[00:07:43] Cristy Garcia: Of course. Of course, well, I think I'm doing what everyone else is doing, and it's the problem, it's hard, that's why it's hard to reach consumers nowadays, because what they're doing is they're going into these communities, and they're posting in social, right, and that's what the whole concept of dark social came from because you cannot track it back.

[00:08:02] It's a conversation happening on the platform with no links exchanged, so there's no tracking. The, the other thing is, if you would ask me a year ago, I wouldn't have had this option, but now I'm a member of Chief, which is a women-only network for VP and higher, and so I will post in the community board, "Hey guys, looking for this, can anyone help me?"

[00:08:21] And suddenly, I have 20 messages. Sometimes it's people advocating for themselves. Other times, it's people just giving their experiences, "I had a great experience working with this agency, and it's been super helpful," but yes, going to just Googling and looking for reviews is, is really the only time I'm gonna use a search engine and trying to find the authentic ones that I can tell haven't been compensated for leaving a good review.

[00:08:43] So, G2 crowd is the big one for, for me as a B2B marketer, but also just, you know, reaching out on LinkedIn and asking the question I think is, is still really important. So, there's a lot of different channels that I'm, I'm using now to find, to find the right agencies or vendors.

[00:08:59] Daniel Weiner: That's great. I've seen a big shift since COVID, and the brands that I'm talking to, particularly bigger brands, moving away from bigger agencies and moving towards smaller.

[00:09:10] Cristy Garcia: Boutique agencies. Yeah.

[00:09:11] Daniel Weiner: Yeah, independent agencies as well. Do you have an opinion of that? Do you think that, you know, big companies or big-named companies, quote, unquote, need big agencies?

[00:09:21] Cristy Garcia: No, I, I, I'll tell you some of the best work I've ever gotten has been from a small agency, like, small, like three people. 

[00:09:28] Daniel Weiner: And did that come down to the more, more, the work, more the experience process, all the above?

[00:09:32] Cristy Garcia: It was all the above, but they got it. Like, they cared. They actually, this is the, one of the best examples I can give of a, a really strong, solid working relationship I had with an agency was, before the, before we even got on the call, they had every single thing about the company memorized, like, they knew exactly who we were targeting,

[00:09:54] they understood what challenges we were facing. Some, at some point, I was kind of like, "Did I give you, did I put this in the creative brief? Like, how do you possibly know this?" But they had done all of this research, and so, when I'm talking, they're, like, they were finishing my sentences, and that really meant a lot because it wasn't fake.

[00:10:09] It didn't feel like they were putting on errors or trying to talk how great they were. They were telling me what I needed. I'm just gonna admit it. Like everybody else, like, sometimes I need someone to tell me what I want, right? Like, I'll say, "I'm looking for this," and "Okay. Let me tell you what you want."

[00:10:25] And you have to be aware as a marketer and a leader that you may not know everything, first of all, but second of all, finding an agency that has done that due diligence, it's a sign of things to come, I believe...

[00:10:37] The honeymoon phase begins before the sale.

[00:10:40] Cristy Garcia: Yeah, it did. In, in this case. 

[00:10:41] Daniel Weiner: That's great, and was that a long-lasting relationship?

[00:10:44] Cristy Garcia: Yeah. At the time I was, I'm no longer with the company, but yeah, there was, the two years I was there I, I didn't ever look elsewhere. I know two years doesn't sound like a long time, but it felt like a long time at that company.

[00:10:56] Daniel Weiner: That's, that's, that's long time in agency world. It's hard to retain clients. To, to that, to, to go to the other side of that, without bashing anybody, can you think of a bad-agency experience and what made that, you know, not as positive as what you just described?

[00:11:11] Cristy Garcia: It's the same thing. It's never a bad agency, it's never a bad experience. For me, it's more like, how much do I have to push? 'Cause if I'm paying, I'm gonna get it one way or the other until I can find someone who maybe I don't have to push so hard, but it's that same concept that we talked about earlier where I have to be unhappy in order to get something, like the, what is it?

[00:11:32] The creaky wheel gets the oil or whatever.

[00:11:34] Daniel Weiner: Squeaky wheel gets the, something, 

[00:11:36] Cristy Garcia: Not, not creaky, squeaky, and I don't wanna have to be that all the time. I don't have time for that. You know, I need someone who understands the role that they play and continue to do their best in that without me having to constantly check, and I've heard the saying, like, an agency is only as good as the person managing it.

[00:11:53] I don't believe that. I don't. I think some bad agencies that might be true, but I know there are a lot of agencies that don't need that constant reminder to do good. You know, they are out there. I have found

[00:12:04] them. 

[00:12:05] Daniel Weiner: Yeah, I get such a wide swath of feedback from brand marketers being a free service to them. The only real ask I have is for feedback after the process, and I get some that say that, the, the biggest takeaway I have or that I think now, which some say is controversial is, I don't think the work matters,

[00:12:23] and what I mean by that is, if your pre-sale activity, like you talk, being ready on a call, you don't even get to do the work, you know? And also, if the process and all those things, and you're, you're pushing, if the work isn't a home run out of the gate, there's usually more tolerance for, you know, correcting it and stuff like that.

[00:12:39] Do you agree with that, or is the work, at the end of the day, the work is, you know, what matters to you?

[00:12:44] Cristy Garcia: No. I think it's exactly how you said. 

[00:12:46] It's 

[00:12:46] important to have a relationship and to have that communication going and have shared goals like we talked about and, and the work is important, but what's more important is, you know, how you get to work, right? How do you get to that? Is it because you're screaming and punching and stomping, you know, or is it because they actually understand your business and your needs?

[00:13:09] And the great work comes from that. I think it would be hard to have a good relationship with an agency and not get great work from

[00:13:16] them. 

[00:13:17] Daniel Weiner: That's why I am a firm believer that whether it's good or bad, it is a little bit of a popularity contest 'cause if you do not like who you're working with, and you don't vibe well and mesh well, it's really hard to get good work out of people that you don't look forward to having calls and meetings with, 

[00:13:29] meshing with,

[00:13:30] Daniel Weiner: so it's good to be, good to be likable in those scenarios.

[00:13:33] One of the questions we got from LinkedIn earlier today actually was, somebody asked your perspective on what's the biggest challenge marketing departments are facing right now. Take, take your pick. I can think of 20 off the top of my head.

[00:13:45] Cristy Garcia: I would say the cost of, of everything. I think advertising has gotten out of control, trying to reach a consumer without being intrusive. Very difficult. There's a lot of problems marketers are facing right now with consumers, just being very distracted and not believing the ads and the messaging.

[00:14:04] And so, that's where partnerships come in handy because if you are partnering with, like, an affiliate marketing or through the partnership channel, let's say you have a third party that's telling the world how good you are. You know, they're promoting you, you're borrowing their brand, you know, recognition and leveraging

[00:14:23] to sell more of your product and services. You need to have that validation. Like, they, there is going to need to be somebody who's saying, "Hey, it works. This is good." In order for people to buy nowadays, you can't do it any other way. I, I don't know anybody who doesn't do research before buying. So, I think that having third-party, you know, validation is, is really important, whether that's through customer advocacy

[00:14:49] or through ambassadors or through influencers or affiliates or, or other brands, or however you wanna do it, you're not gonna get through to a customer by yourself with no reviews or no, you know, just through advertising alone, it's just not gonna work anymore. So, I think that's a challenge for people.

[00:15:06] Daniel Weiner: Marketing is really hard. These days, these days, especially you're competing for so much an astronomical amount of attention. None of it's cheap, and yeah, it's just really hard. It's, it's funny when I talk to agencies about onboarding them, one of the questions I ask, which sometimes I get a laugh,

[00:15:23] sometimes I don't, I'm like, "Do you agree business development is really hard? So they're like, "What do you mean?" "Do you think business development's really, it's hard to get in front of people?" It's hard for people to say yes. You know, and I, I want to hear their response. If they say it's easy, I say, "You probably don't need me then

[00:15:36] 'cause I think it's really hard."

[00:15:38] Cristy Garcia: It is hard. It is hard. We, I, like, there are certain businesses that do better than others in times of economic downturn, and I would say that the partnership channel and what impact outcome does, has actually become more important in times of, like, recession or economic downturn because these partnerships

[00:15:57] are based on action, it's CPA, so you're not paying for impressions, you're only paying if there was a sale. I mean, that's the best type of payment model marketer can ask for. I, I, we actually see pickup in times, like, like these, we're not one of the channels that typically gets cut off, like, you know, let's say, display or paid search because those prices are astronomical now and probably not as effective as they used to be,

[00:16:19] but I, I think that, you know, there are certain channels that do well, and so, maybe align yourself with one of those channels.

[00:16:26] Daniel Weiner: No. That's great advice. Do you see any major differences? And if so, like, what's the biggest one in your role now as CMO from when you were a VP of marketing, once you entered the C-suite?

[00:16:35] Cristy Garcia: Yeah. I think you kind of carry your responsibilities along with you all the way up. I'm getting better at delegating. I'm getting better at, you know, being promotional for the business instead of just kind of behind the scenes and talking to customers. So, those are things that I'm doing now more than I did when I was a VP,

[00:16:54] but it's also great to be part of a leadership team, like the one that I'm on, like, we sit around, and we talk, and we make decisions together, and that's something that I've wanted at this company for a long time because I feel like I do have opinions and I have some ideas that can create change. And so, being part,

[00:17:11] Cristy Garcia: you know, of that, having a seat at the table has been really important for me personally and professionally. It's kind of an obvious statement, but I really enjoy it. Like, I actually, I enjoyed being at the level that I am and, and the work that it took to get here and I wanna keep working, but the question of, of what has changed, honestly is just sort of being, being able to delegate more and not doing as much of the work yourself to a certain extent, being more strategic unless

[00:17:35] hands-on and then building a strong team around you. Like, it's so important and I'm very, very lucky that I have that strong marketing team because I can't be there and I'm not in the waits anymore.

[00:17:47] Daniel Weiner: That's great. That's a good leeway into the, the fun questions I have for you now. You mentioned that you're not as hands-on as you used to, and you're delegating stuff. What was your very, very, very first job growing up?

[00:18:01] And did that prepare you for your CMO role in any capacity? You're, you're maybe saving lives now, I don't know.

[00:18:06] It's...

[00:18:06] Cristy Garcia: Yeah, I, I don't know. Saving, saving lives through partnerships, saving businesses, maybe. I don't know.

[00:18:11] Daniel Weiner: That's true. 

[00:18:12] Cristy Garcia: It was fun. 

[00:18:13] I got a good tan.

[00:18:15] Daniel Weiner: Yeah. Your last meal if you were on death row?

[00:18:18] Cristy Garcia: I'm a huge Thai food fan. So, I, I'm not gonna pretend to pronounce it in Thai for you. Let's not do that, but it is, like, a, like, a lemongrass chicken that has, like, a papaya salad with it, and then for dessert, I would, I would get 16 Handles. I don't know if that's a nationwide brand, but you can go, and they, they literally have,

[00:18:40] yeah, they literally have 16 handles that you can pull for your ice cream, all 16 different types, and then you can put toppings on it.

[00:18:46] So, for me, that's, that's, that's my meal.

[00:18:49] Daniel Weiner: I have very few addictions and coffee and ice creamer.

[00:18:52] Cristy Garcia: Oh my gosh. Me too. I, I don't go a day without eating ice cream. 

[00:18:56] Daniel Weiner: Me too, every meal, regardless of how it stops me.

[00:18:59] Cristy Garcia: You always have room for ice cream. Yes, you always have room.

[00:19:03] Daniel Weiner: Maybe we'll get an ice cream sponsor after this. The final question, maybe the most important, who's someone who inspires you?

[00:19:10] Personally, professionally, it could be anybody.

[00:19:13] Cristy Garcia: I'm a big fan of, of writing content, and so I could probably name a couple authors, but I also really love art, and I would say my favorite living, living artist right now, his name is Eric White and he paints and he, he does these really beautiful, like, surreal images, very abstract in some ways, but it's, it

[00:19:34] inspires me. Every time I see it, I actually went to his gallery in New York and he was there, and he signed a book for me, but just, just looking at his work, I just get really inspired.

[00:19:44] Daniel Weiner: That's awesome. Well, thank you so much for joining us, Cristy. I appreciate you spending some time with me today. I presume the best spot to find anything about Impact is impact.com unless you tell me otherwise, and I presume the best way to get in touch with you, whether you want people to or not, would be LinkedIn. I won't even dream of sharing an email of a CMO,

[00:20:03] so I'll, I'll save your inbox, but thank you so much for joining us. This was awesome, and I appreciate the insight.

[00:20:09] Cristy Garcia: Thank you. Thanks for having me. What an honor to be on the show. Thank you so much.

[00:20:14] Daniel Weiner:  Thank you very much. I'll talk to you soon.