Daniel: Hello and welcome to another episode of the You Should Talk to Podcast. I am [00:01:00] your host, Daniel Wiener. I'm also your sponsor until somebody gives me a pile of money so far making people laugh already. Megan, super excited to be joined today by Friend First from like 15 years ago. Megan Irwin, who is the director of Marketing at Blaze Pizza, also joined by, uh, Megan Holdup.

Holdup Jagger. 

Meghan: It's Mick Jagger, but we call him Jagger 

Daniel: for those, uh, watching the video clip here. We've got, we've got a dog on the PO today, so super exciting. Megan, we're gonna dive right in. We're gonna talk a lot today. Perfect. Uh, we're gonna talk about RFPs, we're gonna talk about all sorts of things.

Uh, first, how do we know? Are we 

Meghan: talk about our history? Yeah, 

Daniel: I was gonna say maybe a may, maybe a quick intro and some inspiration to people about, you know, let's not burn any bridges, and you never know. How the world's gonna work. Megan and I met at a club Ivy, the Ivy for those in Atlanta, maybe 

Meghan: RIP 

Daniel: 15, 16 years ago.

Megan was a bartender. I was, you know, a, a frequent, uh, going outer and bar patron [00:02:00] and yeah. Next thing we know, we're both in the marketing world and, and 15, 16 years later, here we are on this podcast. 

Meghan: Did you ever calculate how much money I actually saved you by rarely charging you for drinks? 

Daniel: Megan, that's neither here nor there.

And that's, that's, that's inappropriate for the podcast. We're, we're here to talk, we're here to talk marketing, you know, uh, let's, let's do that. What is an unpopular opinion you have in the marketing world or a, a hot take of sorts? The hotter, the better. 

Meghan: Me personally, I do not think email is dead. I actually, my ears burn.

When someone says email's dead. You aren't doing it right, or your creative really sucks, or your segmentation is off. I think it still is one of the most popular channels if you know how to do it right. 

Daniel: Do you think cold email is dead? I, 

Meghan: oh, oh. Well, you know what I do think needs to be okay. Immediately.

Dead is cold. Emailing [00:03:00] on in LinkedIn messaging. Hmm. 

Daniel: We will get to a whole fun portion of LinkedIn here. Actually. Let's just do it now. What? What's your inbox look like? Horrifying. Terrifying. 

Meghan: It's horrifying. And you know, there are a few I do answer. It's very, very rare, but the majority of LinkedIn now has just become cold calling and it's too much noise.

I don't like it anymore. 

Daniel: I agree. Is there anything somebody can do as an agency who presumably wants to do business with you to break through the noise when you're not in market, when you're not looking or you just, is there anything somebody can say to get you? I know you have an incredibly packed schedule most days.

Can somebody say something to. Stand out or it's just not a thing for you. 

Meghan: When they've done their homework on me and mentioned something personal and not the fact that I went to the University of Georgia and I'm a huge dogs fan, it's common one that's kind of table. Yeah, that's a common one now. It doesn't stand out anymore.

Daniel: One of my favorite stories it's ever been told on this podcast was [00:04:00] by Kaylin Staub, who is now CMO at Supply House, but at the time was CMO at Aaron's here in Atlanta. Mm-hmm. Uh, that she was sent. An iPad and I believe there was like a note that said like, turn me on or whatever. And when she powered it on, it was the sales person's face on video saying, hi, Caitlin, and Go Dogs.

So, uh, a very common one to point out to the, uh, to point out your alma mater, but, uh, no, that is a, a good PSA to agency out there. Um, you've had, you brought up email, which we'll talk a little bit about your career path, but you've had a journey, you've had both agency and brand side experience. You came from an email marketing agency at some point in your life.

Uh, tell us a little bit about like the career journey in general and the biggest shifts you've seen in consumer behavior along the way. 

Meghan: So I started out in the restaurant industry. After graduating college. I immediately interviewed for Waffle House and I was their social media and events manager. Um, and at the time, social was [00:05:00] not big at all.

I literally, I still think this is one of my funnest jobs. I would go in on my drive. I'd either be listening to Drake was really big at the time, or um, oh my God, soldier Boy was still really big too. I would go and listen to whatever. Speak 

Daniel: for yourself, Megan. Still, still plenty big to me 

Meghan: still. Right? But any music that inspired me that day, I would go into the office and I'd be like, okay.

I'm gonna utilize some of their lyrics, put a twist on it that includes waffles or hash browns or bacon, and that's my tweet for the day, or that's my post. It was so on the fly. But I remember the engagement we would get. And even the amount of um, like publications that would come and reach out of like, how did you think of this?

Or, I remember even like time made us or made a like time 100 tweets of the year and mine was started with a waffle. Now we're here. Like how could that not be one of the top [00:06:00] tweets of the time? 

Daniel: I can't believe I had one that time, one of time magazine's most influential, uh, social, 

Meghan: so cool 

Daniel: people on the podcast today.

Meghan: So cool. Yeah, I'll give you my autograph later. Um, and I did that for about two years and I absolutely loved it, but knew I wanted more experience and I was gonna stay social, stay in marketing, stay on the brand side. So I actually ventured off onto the agency world where I was doing social, and then got told one day, Hey, our top person left and we need someone to be an account manager for our largest client.

Do you wanna do it? And that's how I got into Account Management world. And it was SkinCeuticals at the time and it was when loyalty really just started. We were building out our own product recommendations. Um, there was no AI to do it. It was so intriguing. And then I was even the customer service rep.

When doctors would call to redeem their points, I'd be the one answering. Now I can't even imagine a company [00:07:00] doing that. So I did, I was on that agency side for I think about two years. Then I quit my job and backpacked Southeast Asia for three to four months. Um, my family did not like it, didn't approve it, but I knew if I wanted to do something like this, I needed to do it now.

Best experience ever. Um, I dyed my hair black, volunteered every country I went to, um, and got so much life experience. I will always tell everybody biggest, biggest, um, opportunity to go travel the world. When I got back, I definitely had a hard time finding a job, of course, because I took so much time off.

But this agency, digital Additives, shout out to Roxanna, Courtney and Kevin. They took me in and I was at this email agency for five years. It truly was the best experience and I owe that agency where I am today. It kind of taught me how to write an email, [00:08:00] how to do client relations, just all the little things that as you're growing up in your career, if you don't have a mentor to teach you, and on the brand side, we don't have time to do that.

It's really hard to mentor a junior AE person. This agency taught me all of it, and I truly understood like how valuable email can be when you're doing it right. And then after that I wanted to be on back on the brand side. I was itching to feel like that Waffle House marketing waffles for fun again. So I, what did I do?

Oh yeah, I totally forgot about 

Daniel: this. You waited, I was gonna say you waited for a text from me. No, 

Meghan: no. I still, there was one agency in between. Okay. Um, and it actually was, I took, I kind of took a step back in my career because my dad at the time got really sick and I needed to. Care take forum three, four days a week.

So I needed a job that would be okay for me. One working remotely nonstop and then being able to take him to doctor's [00:09:00] offices or take him out grocery shopping, whatnot. So I went to a social agency, social moderation, which is again a really cool niche, part of social. It's basically doing all the community management.

Um, I actually got to moderate for Coachella, which was awesome. Um, I saw one of the coolest things. I got to see Harry Styles and Shania Twain perform. Wow. Before they actually came out. It was really cool. And then of course, um, it actually aligned within the stars right around the time. Um, my dad passed.

I got a text from you Danny saying, Hey, I have a friend. 

Daniel: I was gonna say, should I, I feel, I feel like, I feel like I should take over this portion. Uh, yeah. You do it. Yes. While, while sitting. At a bar with our, now your boss, my friend slash colleague, I guess, and, and you should talk to supporter. It was the first time I'd ever met Casey, who is now currently the CMO at Blaze, which, we'll, we'll talk about plenty.

And he said, do you. [00:10:00] Do you know anybody for this role? And I believe I said, yeah, I think so. Let me shoot her a text. And you were like, yeah, I'd be interested. He said, great. Can she talk tomorrow? And I think you were hired like three days later or something like that, or like a 

Meghan: week officially. Yeah. And I remember, I remember this 'cause I was in St.

Simon's, my husband travels for work a lot. So we try, I try and tag along. I remember I was in St. Simon's and I took that call out on our patio and I was like, I think this is what I'm interested in. I wanna do this. 

Daniel: Chris Crystal at the time, uh, which was under, um, Casey's, Casey's purview for a bit. And you guys have Yeah.

Mm-hmm. Followed each other around for, uh, for a while now. 

Meghan: Yep. Crystal for a little bit back on the restaurant side. Even during my agency stint, I was still doing restaurants. I felt like there's something born and bred in me of I love marketing, food for a living. Did waffle or did Crystal for a little bit.

Then just similar to when I was at Waffle House, I've been taught by my dad. [00:11:00] Never say no, try new things. And I mean, he changed his career when he was 50, so I had an opportunity to go to the tech side. Didn't have tech on my resume, wanted to see what it was about, and it was also a startup. Um, and I'll just say I am glad I took it because I now know I am not a startup and a tech person.

I am born and bred to be on the brand side, which brings me to Blaze and I've been here for going on a year and a half now. 

Daniel: Love 

Meghan: it. Started off contracting and then, um, fully came on board being head of brand and media for Blaze. 

Daniel: I love it. What do you think, uh, in your opinion, biggest factors? I always like for, for food folks in a post COVID world and, uh, or a pre COVID versus post COVID, just like consumer behavior around food and ordering and you have more stuff to, to worry about and, and challenges, third party delivery, all that stuff.

What do you think the biggest shift in a post COVID world is in your, in your purview? [00:12:00] 

Meghan: Because I'm in it. I would say third party has completely done a 180. Um, both my neighbors, I have sta, I stalk them across the street. They are always getting, I mean, probably not, I don't stack stalk them guys. But We'll cut.

We'll cut. We'll cut this, 

Daniel: we'll cut this part out. You know, 

Meghan: the amount of times I see them order food. Is astonishing. I'm like, do you guys ever go out? You guys are always, it's either Uber Eats, DoorDash, or even Amazon delivery for their groceries. It has just become a nature of habit now and not table and it's table stakes for brands.

I mean, for me. I don't order. I try not to order only because I know the markup of what we have to do on our end. And it's ridiculous. A 

Daniel: person what a, what a good, what a good marketer you are. Megan. Contributing back to the industry I had on, I, I agree with you. I had, uh, it hasn't come out yet, but spoke to Anna Malist, uh, tough [00:13:00] name to pronounce.

Malist. Mm-hmm. Uh, former CMO of melting pot. We just ran a RFP together that, uh, just came to fruition. We were talking about this in particular about how it is just, you know, different worlds dine-in versus you guys, um, being a little more casual, but it's just so hard to get people outta the house.

Meghan: People have gotten lazy, 

Daniel: everybody, myself included, we became hermits during, you know, COVID and stuff and I still enjoy going out and, but you know, we talked about a big shift in restaurant being people eating earlier. You know, one of the most sought after reservation times. I think Yelp just came out with it now.

It was like five 30 or 5 45. Some of the later reservation times, um, you know, like 10:00 PM which used to be like the hot time in places like New York City. Mm-hmm. Restaurants aren't even staying open to accommodate for that 'cause nobody comes. So, yeah. Kinda wild 

Meghan: out there. Do you think, do you think that's also a factor from like the health perspective of eating earlier, starting the fast or starting your metabolism?

Daniel: Megan, I'll be the one, I'll be the one answer asking questions. No, I'm just kidding. Sorry. Yeah, I do. I mean, [00:14:00] no, I've become, you know, significantly more into health and wellness and stuff like that and yeah, I definitely eat earlier and, you know, try to eat healthier and stuff like that, but I just can't stay.

I mean, I value sleep so much more and I'm so much more of a monster the older I get if I don't get good sleep. So, yeah, I mean, if I had like, you know, I occasionally have like an 8:00 PM dinner for like work and stuff, and I have to have dinner first. That's second dinner. That's, that's dessert. Oh yeah.

You know, that's like, that's like a whole other. A hundred percent. Yeah. No, I mean, I think people also just have like leaned into more of who they are and a lot of people are homebodies, so it's easier to mm-hmm. Especially people with kids, you know, my shout out to my brother and sister-in-law, you know, taking their two kids out, I think they enjoy, but.

It's a pain in the ass, you know, packing the kids up, bringing a million things, the kids freaking out, or maybe not liking the food and stuff. It's just easier, you know, for a lot of people to do that. Uh, to that end, I'm cur, I'm curious, what's your best piece of advice to other marketing leaders about how to survive, uh, and thrive in 2026 and beyond?

Meghan: Well, [00:15:00] first one, you hit on it, sleep. Sleep is the most, I'm not even gonna lie, I'm sleep is the most important thing I hear people brag about. I got four hours of sleep. I was up all night working. I got three hours of sleep. Dude, I'm sorry. Sleep is the most important thing. It's good for your health. It's gonna make you sharper.

Take advantage of it. 

Daniel: I'm with you, Megan. We're gonna get a lot of, we're gonna get some shit here as people, without people, without kids. Everyone's gonna go, well, you guys don't have kids. 

Meghan: Well, 

Daniel: we've, 

Meghan: that's our decision. That's our choice we wanted, so don't hate us for it. 

Daniel: That's the spirit, Megan. I love it.

Um, well, 

Meghan: we'll, I have one more piece of advice too. 

Daniel: Good, good. I 

Meghan: bad. As a female too, I would say own it. We are taught to just go along with things. Nod your head, say yes. No, don't really disagree. If you have something to say, stand by it. Just own it. Same with like the clothes that you wear if you think this [00:16:00] is how you wanna be portrayed.

I wear loud things at work and I just own it and people remember me for it. 

Daniel: Love it. Good advice. Uh, we'll dive into the fun portion of this podcast in particular. We just finished. I'm, are 

Meghan: you having a blast? Can we get a vodka kill kit, please? 

Daniel: I was gonna say, yeah, we can, we can do whatever we want on this podcast.

Megan, as, as host and sponsor, um, we just wrapped up your first RFP that you've, uh, I would say ran virtually by yourself. How do you, how do you feel? Yeah. Accomplished, I hope. 

Meghan: I felt really accomplished. It was awesome. It actually, for me as your friend, it was awesome seeing you thrive in it and seeing thank you everything, because I know we've done, we did a little RFP, um, when I was at Crystal for a web agency, but it was nothing like this.

So it was, honestly, it made me really happy to call you a friend and like wow. All those free drinks meant something. 

Daniel: Thank you. Um, yeah, it was, [00:17:00] you got, you got the full shebang on, uh, on this process. I did. This was a, a soup to nuts, I would say. Um, you know, we, we did the whole, the whole thing, whereas some of the stuff we did at Crystal was a little more, uh, you know, quick and dirty, I would say.

But yeah. I'll, I'll set. 

Meghan: I still feel like this is really fast. Like we were talking in June and July was, Hey, we gotta go and it has to be done before I leave for a month. And all this stuff. 

Daniel: It, it was efficient. I'll give it that, uh, I can, I can move mountains to a certain degree, but I, I don't think it felt rushed.

I would say that I would've pushed if I felt the timeline was too absurd. I think all the agencies mm-hmm. Uh, would, would agree. But I'll, uh, I'll, I'll set the scene a little. You know, Casey, we all talked, the three of us. Casey said, I want to empower Megan to like do this. He still had eyes on everything.

He, you know, saw the RFP that we wrote together before it went out, but this was. This was your, your child, you know, the, the success and failure fell on you, and Of course, uh, myself. But I'm, I'm [00:18:00] curious. You know, we, we started with a chemistry round, which to me, incredibly important. So many brands skip it.

I think it's, you know, a, a time for you to, you know, inject some life into a sometimes boring process. But I'm curious, you know, that round we introduced you to five, the goal is to pick three. You ultimately picked four. What did you think of that round in general, which was more just getting to like know some people 

Meghan: it was needed.

If I didn't have that to begin with, I probably would've gone with the wrong agency to be completely honest. You really got to see, okay, do I like this person as a person? Do they get along with me? Do they even have the right experience from a restaurant? And then a franchisee side. You have to make sure whatever agency, what partner you wanna bring in, they can do both and they have a track record for it.

That was one thing from our [00:19:00] old agency, don't feel like they really had, or they said they did, and I never saw it. So I do feel like had, working so closely with our old agency made this process easier because I knew exactly what I did not want. 

Daniel: You articulated it Well, I would say it made it easier to introduce you to, you know, I'm never worried about the relevant, the relevance, but yeah, like you have to make it work.

And that's why chemistry is so important. So we, we moved from that round into, you know, there was some work to be done in between, we put together mm-hmm. Shitload of resource documents and reference documents for the agencies past creative, past media stuff, um, you know, reports all of that. Uh, which moved into, I think another integral part of a media, uh, RFP, which is often only associated with creative from my experience of, you can call it a tissue session, you can call it a working session, you can call it whatever you want, but it's a chance for agencies to, um, [00:20:00] show a little of their thinking and not get too far along.

Mm-hmm. And for you to see some of it, I'm just curious, was that helpful, uh, for you or do you think that was more helpful for the agencies? I know it was helpful for the agencies, I guess to rephrase it, was it helpful for you or that that could have been, you know, kept out in your opinion? I'm curious. 

Meghan: No, I think it was helpful 'cause I got to see sooner, sooner rather than later how they process things and how they actually work.

Um, and I think I texted you after each of, wow, that was so different than I what I was expecting. We had one agency, he honestly did a pitch, a mini pitch, um. I was a little kind of taken off 'cause they didn't really talk a lot of like, where, where are you guys trying to go? Or is this aligned? It was really just a pitch.

And then I had another agency who truly went down deep into segmentation. 'cause that was one of our pain points of we weren't utilizing our segments, right? We now have a CDP. We [00:21:00] need to start targeting the right audiences. So it was really cool, specifically those two, the complete opposite. And it got me, it honestly got me more chemistry time with them too.

Um, there were definitely a few folks. I was like, I don't know if I could actually work with them. I like the company, but do I actually like that person? And I hate to say this, I love everybody. I'd never wanna be, Hey, you suck or whatnot. But when it's a company's money and you, your asses on the line and you have goals to meet, you kind of have to be a little cutthroat.

Daniel: I don't disagree. Um, and anybody who reacts poorly about that from the agency side mm-hmm. It's probably, probably not your agency to begin with. Yep. Or an agency I would choose 

Meghan: to. Probably shouldn't be an agency. 

Daniel: I would probably not wanna work with an agent. I po so, so serendipitous. I posted about that this morning, uh, on LinkedIn actually, about how like, brands that give agencies truly, truly honest feedback, even if it's brutal, uh, is helpful.

It's the, the best thing a brand can do, rather [00:22:00] than, you know, a lot of times they're like, oh, you know, it was a really close decision and if it's not, you're better served. You know, you're, you're more helpful to that agency giving scathing feedback. Even if they disagree with it, they don't have to agree mm-hmm.

With everything or even take it and then change with it. But it's better to give, you know, extremely negative if it's the truth in your opinion, than neutral just for the sake of mm-hmm. You know, coming off and they don't learn 

Meghan: anything from it. 

Daniel: I agree. Um, we moved into the final round. We had one agency in Atlanta who didn't have to travel, and then we had, uh mm-hmm.

Three agencies who flew in for pitches. Yes, we did over two days. I believe we had two on each day. I brought, there were pastries, there was food there. So past there schmoozing, there was so much schmoozing going off awesome. Of myself as well as the agencies you had, you and Casey and the rest of your team in the room.

What are you about to say? 

Meghan: Can we even we're you are like totally bypassing one of the most important things that happened during, what was all of this? I got married. 

Daniel: Oh yes. And 

Meghan: I was [00:23:00] out, I was gone for a month basically 

Daniel: because it was, 'cause it was so non-traditional that I'm like, yes, Megan left for a month to go to Europe.

So the RFP was, uh, you know, not paused, but that was a time for agency. It kept going, going, that's it. Kept going. Yeah. We did the tissue sessions right before that. Um, agencies then went, you know, kind of a, it went quiet and there was like a, an option for a, a re-engagement meeting right after just to like, you know.

Get everybody's heads on straight. Then we moved 

Meghan: into, uh, 

Daniel: the pitches 

Meghan: and I will say I think that was beneficial for the agencies 'cause they truly got a week of no one's bothering you. Put your head down. Work. And then you actually had another week if you needed, Hey, one last got checked before you guys flew in, so you're welcome guys.

I did that on purpose. 

Daniel: Uh, we moved into the pitches. Uh, we're not gonna talk about any of the agencies who lost. Mm-hmm. We will eventually [00:24:00] speak about Bloom. Who won. Um, since there was a press release, it was the time of this recording that came out announcing it. Bloom went first. If, you know, there's so much, uh, chatter about going first, going last.

So since this is public now we can talk the agency that went first one. And I know that there are some agencies that want to go first. Some that wanna go last, just depends. But I'm curious like going into the pitches. What was going through your head and talk me through that first pitch since they ended up winning, but you hadn't seen the body of work of everybody else.

Like what did you think after the pitch? I thought it was great, but again, you were gonna get three more so, you know, hard to, hard to say. 

Meghan: They blew everyone out of the water. So, honest, 

Daniel: honest, honest feedback 

Meghan: here. Honest feedback. They, yeah. Blew 

Daniel: everybody outta the wa. Blew everybody outta the water. High praise.

Meghan: Blew everybody away. Just so I will say leading up. It was myself and Casey in these calls. And then for the pitches, we brought the broader marketing team [00:25:00] and then our COO to join as well. And Bloom came in one, they brought pastries. You gotta bring something that is just an agency, 1 0 1, lunch, lunch, breakfast, lunch, or after afternoon time, bring something to your brain.

Daniel: Haven't I haven't shown. Haven't shown up. Empty handed in a decade. 

Meghan: That's why you're still in business. Mm-hmm. Um, so, but they, they were so professionally put together, I will say, and Bloom knows this. I dunno how I, they were towards the bottom tier, honestly, leading up to the pitch. Um, I'm so happy we picked them.

They were, they were someone like you guys hadn't even really worked with before. They were, um, they team 

Daniel: just, just. Just to be clear, when you say bottom two, you mean, uh, you didn't feel as much chemistry, if I remember correctly. Yeah. You were never concerned about relevance, didn't chemistry [00:26:00] or, you know, their ability to do the work.

It was just, I don't know if I'm vibing with them as much as everybody else. 

Meghan: Yes. That truly what it was. Um, and we kept them because they had worked with our PE before and we thought, hey, this would be a really big one for us, um, if we did keep them. So we did, and I'm. Thank you, Danny, for letting us have four, because obviously they won, but when they came in, I mean, even to what they wore, it was all, it was coordinated.

Not in a cheesy way, but they all looked professional. They all looked like they wanted our business and they knew it. Um, no one was crying. No one was pick me, pick me, some Meredith Gray stuff. Um, they just, they knew. They knew their shit. They've been in the industry. They've been in multiple, um, franchise brands and it was just really awesome to hear their ideas and have that be the first thing.

Um, even after they left, everyone was blown away of just, wow. That was one of the best pitches I've [00:27:00] actually ever witnessed. 

Daniel: I would, uh, I would agree. Media media's an interesting one 'cause media, media agencies who are listening may think I'm a dick for saying this media's a little boring, you know, like creative, you get to see big ideas and tangible things.

Media's a lot of like math and like targeting and data driven and mm-hmm. You know, it's hard to inject, um, a ton of personality often into media stuff. Mm-hmm. And I thought they did a, uh, a good job. Uh, I don't, I'm I'm gonna push back. I don't believe that you knew that they were gonna win after the first one.

'cause I remember you. It wasn't, yeah. 

Oh, 

Meghan: they were di so 

Daniel: you thought I, you were like, oh, Danny, you did a really good job. They did great. I'm like, oh my God. I hope everybody does good. This is great. 

Meghan: I will say in the RFP, there are maybe like three or four things that had to be included and I. I was the stickler because at the end of the day, it was my job on the line if I brought in the wrong agency.

So I definitely, [00:28:00] everyone. The rest of the team was able to be like, oh, they're wonderful, they're wonderful. And I Well, did you actually do the RFP? Did you include the items that I needed you to? Um, and there were a few pieces that they skimmed over really quickly, but I was able to have a call and as we were just talking about honest feedback, I was able to have that with them.

Like, Hey, we really like you, but there's one area I didn't see you do as strongly in the pitch. Can we talk about that? Can I have more examples? And they were really receptive to it. 

Daniel: Yeah, I'd also say you did a good job, which not everybody does, and I'm, I can go either way. On a, you took copious notes throughout the entire process after every single round about every single agency for you to review, which, um.

Uh, you know, some folks I work with want formal scorecards. Some do not. Some are more, you know, vibey. Some find it difficult to take copious notes while also like simultaneously paying attention, which I know is difficult. Mm-hmm. Which, of course, like recording meetings and AI transcriptions can help [00:29:00] there, but I'm curious, did you go back after all pitches and like really dive into those notes?

Meghan: Oh, I think after every call I had, I. I reviewed and before I had a call with him again, I reviewed and I will say I take copious notes because of my time at an agency. When you're forced to learn these things, I see people who just don't take notes and rely on ai. That's great. But what happens if you don't have internet or what, what just happens if that file gets deleted?

Still taking notes you're in ingrained you. Like, I feel like even that's how I used to learn in college of taking tests. I would write repetition over and over again. 

Daniel: I love it. 

Meghan: So yeah, my note taking definitely helped me, I will say. 'cause I think, um, we had two, two final, like contestants if you wanna say.

That's good. Go back and before 

Daniel: even be, before you even do that with the two finalists. I'm just curious, without naming or shitting on any agencies, um, does anything like negative stand out about anything [00:30:00] that like, turns you off or that you liked even from the other, you know, positive or negative, just that stands out to you?

Any other moments from the pitches? I can, uh, I can say personally for me, something that I think is cool and it's, it's hit or miss a little bit of, you know, pitch theater. You know, one of the agencies brought like a, a, a prop, I would say, to, to show. Mm-hmm. It was a, a large pizza. Didnt think 

Meghan: inactive. 

Daniel: Yeah.

I didn't think it was, uh, cheesy pun intended for a pizza thing here. Mm-hmm. I didn't, I thought it, I thought that was done really well. I've seen stuff like that done poorly on the other side. I'm just curious, does anything stand out to you? 

Meghan: That stood out. It was done very, very well of like the pieces of the pie.

Um, loved that. I will say in the pitch of how they actually talk and present, there were times where it felt like Meredith Gray pick me, pick me, pick me. It was, it came off a little bit too needy as opposed to, [00:31:00] you know, what? The decisions in your hands. This is who our agency is. If you like us, great. You know, we'll get the work done.

We'll know, we know we will make you successful. Don't beg for the decision. Um, and then I had another one, which I actually, and this is complete opposite of what Bloom did. Bloom was extremely professional but very conversational throughout. I had one agency who flat out was so conversational, they didn't even stand up and present.

They talked to us like they had been our partner forever. And I appreciated that because that was, to me a huge chemistry check. We've already met this bond. They don't have to present and show off and have all their top people come. And I actually will say this one agency. Granted, they had a few people sick at the time, but they had two people, and then one person called in and they owned that room.

They didn't bring any [00:32:00] higher leadership. Again, the Pickney Meredith side of it, it was, this is what you get. We are just, we're part of your team. We're an extension of your team. That's what I like to say. And I truly felt that through their pitch. 

Daniel: I agree. I was nervous, uh, when only two people walked in and last minute, and, uh, with people sick and dialing in, but yeah, I would agree.

You survived. You survived your first RFP, just overall. Um, any, any grand. Takeaways or, or tips for others that are about to, uh, embark on an RFP? I would say without, without me, truthfully, what, what are your tips for folks doing it themselves? 

Meghan: I wouldn't do it without you. I wouldn't 

Daniel: do it without You're, well, well, you're, you're not, you're not allowed, of course.

But truthfully, if somebody was about to do this and they're doing it internally as a brand, like, what's your biggest piece of advice?

Meghan: I think one thing, what made it easier too? Is you were an out granted. I know if they don't have you, they were. You [00:33:00] were an outside source who weren't so close to our media, to our goals. All the chaos that happened with our past agency. If I had to do it again, I honestly would ask somebody outside who's not in the day-to-day of media to actually kind of run it.

Project management, if you wanna say that. So the person who's having to make the decision or the team can truly just focus on that as opposed to, oh, I need an email to schedule all these meetings. Oh, I need to make sure I get them all the notes from prior meetings. Like that aspect in itself, having you execute on, was probably one of the most helpful things throughout the whole thing.

Daniel: Thank you. What, uh, what are you most excited about in the marketing space at the moment? 

Meghan: Uh, what am I excited about? Okay. Well, I'm just gonna talk about Blaze and what I'm excited about. Um, totally. We have a new, we are heading in a new direction and for the first time in a while. [00:34:00] Everyone is really excited about where the brand can go.

Um, it's not like I have a huge marketing fund like other competitors do, but it's really cool culturally seeing everybody jump on board and say, yes, I wanna be a part of this new Blaze experience. Like right now we're, we're outlining or implementing a bunch of processes and everyone's like, we're working on four promotions at the same time.

It's chaos. We are building a car and driving it. And truly we are, but it is, the community and energy around it is making it exciting and worth it. So I'm just really excited where Blaze will be at the end of the year. Um, I'm sick of ai. I'm just gonna say it. AI is used so much. I feel like any surveys that you do, any new vendors that come in, it's all about ai.

Unless it's actually going to either make my life, make my day-to-day life easier, or [00:35:00] save money for me or the franchisees, I don't wanna hear it. 

Daniel: I love it. What did, what keeps you, it might be the, maybe the same answer, the chaos, but I'm curious what keeps you up at night or stresses you out from a business standpoint?

Meghan: Oh, that I dropped the ball on something all the time because we're working on So you're allowed, allowed to. 

Daniel: You're allowed to drop the ball sometimes, Megan, everybody 

Meghan: drops the ball ball. We're working on so much, it's just like the nitty gritty things of like, we have a photo shoot coming up into February and.

And it's a coming up quicker than it should be, but is it, oh, did I get them the right stuff? Or, oh, did I miss an ingredient that has to be made during that day? Um, it's little think as you're moving so fast that at night I'm able to sit through and be like, okay, what did I actually send? Oh, did I do that?

Oh crap. Did I do it okay, no, I did. Or I have such a good team. Um, I will say I have one. [00:36:00] And um, coworker that we literally tag team if she's like, oh, I forgot. I'm like, I got that for you. I already did it. And vice versa. So it is nice having kind of a work wife, um, or a work husband. She is my work wife. Um.

To help balance that out. 

Daniel: Such a sick 

Meghan: feeling. 

Daniel: Feeling what 

Meghan: keeps me up? 

Daniel: I was gonna say, it's such a sick feeling. We all have, I'll randomly wake up at like 2:00 AM and be like, oh, email. Like, did I send that thing? Or like, yeah, I need to go make a note of this. I forgot to do this or something. It's a terrible feeling.

I know. Everybody, uh, for the most part feels 

Meghan: Oh yeah. Another thing too. So, um, late or early last year, I took over our marketing budget, managing that. I don't manage my personal budget nearly as good, nearly as good as managing. That's good ad fund. 

Daniel: That's the right answer. I was about to say, Megan, do not say this is going on the end.

You're like, I don't know what I'm doing with this. 

Meghan: Oh, that has definitely gotten me more wrinkles. I [00:37:00] stress about money where our money's going, making sure it's driving conversion, driving sales, and I've never. Ever been that way. So that shift in me has been really interesting to like witness or experience.

But I definitely, I stress a lot about our marketing fund. Um, 

Daniel: it's a big response. It's a big responsibility, yeah. Of, of all the things to stress about, I would argue That's fair. And you should be stressing about that slightly. 

Meghan: Mm-hmm. I know, 

Daniel: uh, we will finish with some fun questions I ask everybody. What was your very first job like ever?

Meghan: Ooh, my, okay, so I was actually talking to my husband about this. He's like, did you have a job in high school? I didn't have a job in high school. My first job wasn't until I graduated because I danced like five, six nights a week. I was a dancer. I didn't have time for a job. So my first job was actually being a hostess at Chop House in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

Daniel: Love 

Meghan: it. But Danny, that's be real. The question should be, what was your funnest job? And it was bartending at the Ivy. [00:38:00] 

Daniel: What a what a what a place that establishment was. So many, so many dreams were, uh, made and shattered in that, in that building. Uh, I'm curious, what would your final meal be? You love food.

Meghan: Oh, this is, uh, this is not at all what people are gonna expect, but I feel like that 

Daniel: don't say, if you say, if you say, blaze, I'm cutting the air, or, 

Meghan: no, no, no, no, no. 'cause I, final meal and I like to think of like, if I'm stuck on an island, what would I like to eat off of? Or what would I like to eat? Most random things, rice and teriyaki sauce or yum, yum.

Sauce. 

Daniel: Okay. 

Meghan: And then a tub of icing. Like so random. I love a sweet tooth and I love my sauces. Like I remember telling you back in the Ivy days, like I just, I can diet, I can eat healthy. Sauces are one thing. I just, Nope, not, I can't give up. 

Daniel: We've got a lot, you've got a lot of locale sauces. Now, Megan, you don't want to throw a protein in or anything?

Just the, 

Meghan: Nope, just those. 

Daniel: All right. That's, that's the, [00:39:00] maybe that's the new most different out there answer we've had on this. Uh, and then my final question, which I think I know the answer to. Who is somebody who inspires you personally, professionally, or both? 

Meghan: I have two. Um, and one I've actually have never said it out loud before, but, 

Daniel: well, I probably don't know that one then 

Meghan: I will say so though.

That's actually. Obviously my dad thought one who has inspired me. Um, for those who don't know, he was 25 years older than my mom, so he was like 50 when he had me. He ended up passing when he was 93 and he worked up until the day he passed. Like his whole life was about his career. He changed careers when he was 50, so I.

Professionally, I do look up to him or did look up to him and still like, okay, what, what would my dad do in this case? Um, just because he had such an impressive career. Um, and then somebody else who I will say personally is my husband. I [00:40:00] know that's cheesy, but Tom has 

Daniel: not cheesy. Shout out. Shout out to.

Meghan: Shout out to Tom. He has just our life together has changed so much and seeing him change for the better and change into the man that I always knew he was. I mean, shout out to him. He graduated from college last year. And not a master's guy, a bachelor. He went back to school because he wanted to be the first in his family.

That alone, seeing him do two years of schoolwork while holding a job, while being a dad, and then all the time trying to plan a elopement honeymoon with me, it was really impressive to see, and I'm just so proud of the choices he's made to get there. 

Daniel: Love it. 

Meghan: So if I wanna bitch about something or complain, I really have to look at him and be like, you did all this at the same time.

You like, I had shit together. 

Daniel: Just send him this podcast once it comes out and be like, look what I look at all the nice things I said about you. 

Meghan: I know, right? The only other, the only times I [00:41:00] do, I'm just kidding. 

Daniel: There you go. Thank you so much for joining, uh, and filling us in more on the RFP process.

Thank you Jagger, for the guest appearance. 

Meghan: Yes. I'm sad this is already over. He's been sleeping. Are you good? 

Daniel: We'll do, we'll do a follow up when we do, when we do our next RFP together. Okay. But, uh, okay. 

Meghan: Perfect. 

Daniel: Real quick, before we, we, uh, we end anything new from Blaze Pizza that people should go check out or try any new menu items.

Meghan: Yes. Right now we have a protein za. It's a high protein pizza with double chicken on our cauliflower crust. And I will say this till the day I die, our cauliflower crust good is one of the best I've ever had. Um, I love trying everybody's different types of keto crust, cauliflower crust. Ours is exceptionally really, really good.

Daniel: I would agree. It gets, we have and it gets crunchy what you need. 

Meghan: Yes. And then I will say, I don't wanna, I don't wanna, um. Speak too soon, but we do have a new promotion coming out in March that's a partnership with, um, a series [00:42:00] that'll be coming out. So I'm really excited that new pizza is probably my new favorite.

It is. So delicious. 

Daniel: Love it. Well, thank you for joining and um, you Thank you. Be excited for that in March.