Daniel: Hello, and welcome to another episode of the You [00:01:00] Should Talk to podcast. I am your host, Daniel Wiener. You should talk to pairs, brands, and marketers for free with edit agencies because finding great agencies as we'll talk about today is, uh, not the easiest task on the planet. Super excited to be joined by colleague, now, friend, I'm gonna call you a friend, Ann Ann Mejia of First Light Home Care.

Ann, how we doing today? 

Anne: I'm good. I'm good. Danny, how are you? 

Daniel: I'm wonderful, minus the tech difficulties I had getting into my own podcast episode, so, uh, yeah, I'll have to have to figure that out. Riverside figure. Figure your stuff out over here. Uh, but no, super excited to chat, um, especially because we've run several agency searches together, so should be an exciting conversation.

We'll dive right in. Uh, the, the most heated question I'll ask, what's an unpopular opinion you have in the marketing world or a hot take of sorts? 

Anne: Yeah, I don't know if it's hot. Maybe it's warm. I don't know if it's controversial, but here's my take on. 

Daniel: We'll, we'll find. We'll find out. Okay. 

Anne: We'll find out.

We'll see if someone [00:02:00] has some comments on it. 

Daniel: Yeah, 

Anne: so my take is on AI and my take is enjoy the ride. So last year in the summer, every conference, every marketing meeting I went to. AI was the topic du, and it should be. It is. You know, it is everywhere. It is transforming business even today as we speak, and it's evolving.

But what my initial reaction was, oh my gosh, I'm fear of missing out. Fomo. I'm not doing this right. And then I took a deep breath and I said, look, this is an opportunity. I took 180 degree turn and I said. This is an opportunity like any other advancement that we've seen technologically. It is gonna help business, it's gonna help consumers, it's gonna help marketing, it's gonna help us understand our customers and our customer journey better.

And once I did [00:03:00] that and I took that breath and kind of had that paradigm shift, then I started playing around with ai, reading more about ai. At conferences. I enjoyed AI discussions more because I decided I'm gonna enjoy the ride. We don't have the definitive word on AI today. It's evolving and it's gonna evolve for a while.

And so once I did that, I could just relax and now you know. That's good. I'd like to hear what other people are doing with ai. In my own business, I had some cleaning up to do right. Because AI upended search in 2024. And not gonna lie, we were a little bit behind here at first light, so I had to get my SEO all straightened out and as our, as my team likes to say, good search engine optimization is also good ai.

So two takes. [00:04:00] Enjoy the ride and good. SEO is good ai. 

Daniel: Yeah, I think the thing that I find interesting about ai, I'm similar to you, everybody keeps telling me, Danny, you gotta, you know, uh, get, get on board with ai. I go, great. What should I use it for? And nobody has an answer for me. They go, you just gotta, you just gotta use ai.

I go, okay. So, uh, yeah, I'm, I'm all, I'm on board for, uh, you know, quicker and being more efficient and stuff. I haven't figured out like a great use case. I'm trying to figure it out from an invoicing standpoint. But, uh, no, I like, uh, I like your take as well. 

Anne: Yeah. Yeah. I think we're all looking, I'm looking for like, how does it help me crunch customer data?

You know, like, like how does it get me better insights? Um, I've already used it to do secondary research, like, Hey, that's great. Let's find out about this topic. Like what are the most, you know, in, in my world, we deal with home care for seniors, so what are the most pertinent facts about Parkinson's that I need to know today?[00:05:00] 

Right. 

Daniel: Yeah. Fill us in a little bit more on what first light home care is, and, uh, you know, the, the space you play in Before we get into your background. 

Anne: Yeah, so first light Home care takes care of seniors who've decided to age in place. At home, we provide non-medical care, and we're a franchise organization, so non-medical care, those are things like companion and personal care.

We take folks to their doctor's appointments. We help them with their meals, cleaning their homes. We help them with bathing. All of that, we can do everything. Accept the medical. So we can't give you your medication. We can remind you to take your medication and we help keep you safe. We help keep you out of the hospital 'cause we're making sure if you need a walker, you're using a walker.

And our stated admission is to help people have their best day every day, wherever they call home. So it might be the home they've lived in [00:06:00] for 50 years, or it might be that they want extra companionship in this. Assisted living, so 

Daniel: it's a hell of a hell of a mission. I like it. 

Anne: Yes, yes, yes, yes. 

Daniel: You've had, you've had a ton of, uh, I would say wild, uh, experience in terms of career journey and just brands that people have heard of.

Uh, multi-unit and franchise kind of being your thing. I would say you've been a Jack in the Box, CKE Service, master Fish's, mellow Mushroom, and now Cornerstone Brands, which owns First Light Home Care. I'm particularly interested just a little about your career journey in general and what, uh, you know, have you seen in terms of like consumer behavior evolve over that time period?

Anne: Yeah, great question and, and I, I have been many places and I, I've learned something everywhere I've gone. I started out in restaurants. In the quick service space. Um, I love the pacing of the promotional calendar. Every eight to 12 [00:07:00] weeks there was a new promotion coming out. Sales grew with that, have getting that marketing calendar right.

Was really critical, really understanding how to roll over really high numbers. At the prior year, there was success, so really hitting same store sales figures and driving traffic into the restaurants. That's what franchisees want to hear that we're better this year than last year, that the marketing calendar is really working for them.

You know, and so I also really like quick service because that target audience of men, 18 to 34, they were, they were easy to market to, easy to pull, you know, great ways to get creative and, and really have, have some fun. And the other part I loved about it was that those brands like CKE and Jack in the Box, they come to life on the front line.

With the people in the restaurants that are serving the clients. Like you would have the greatest television [00:08:00] commercials ever, right. That are fun and engaging, but if you don't deliver the experience at the drive-through in under three and a half minutes, probably you're, the guests aren't gonna come back.

So 

Daniel: I think that, I think that's the, I think that's the scary part about. That, uh, that world is no marketing can out do, uh, bad operations. So 

Anne: Exactly. You were tied together as a marketer with operations. Well, I was enjoying my best fast food lights there. Um, and around 2008, 2009, it was pretty apparent that.

Customers and the world had gone digital. Everybody was online. We had iPhones, we were, we had YouTube, like where were we? And I was still. Mailing out coupons producing high production value television commercials for broadcast television. And at that time, broadcast television was still the [00:09:00] prime. You know, there was cable, but it was still a thing.

But I, I saw the future and I was like, wow, I have franchising experience. I took my franchising experience. And translated that into working with a large real estate conglomerate. Uh, real estate at that time had already fully transitioned into digital. So, you know, search engine optimization websites, microsite for franchisees, lead generation C, automated CRM systems, social real estate agents.

Like, you know, hallelujah. For them, they, they embraced Facebook and Twitter like as quickly as possible. Um, and so I really was able to hone my digital chops and really start to understand the customer journey, uh, from, from that experience and, and picking myself up and taking myself outta my comfort zone in [00:10:00] restaurants and putting myself in the service industry and learning.

How to generate leads, how to nurture leads, how to, to convert leads. You know, really understanding all of that at a really deep and meaningful level and able to impact the franchisees outcomes as well. And so that was probably the, the pivotal part of my career. And from there then I could, you know, the restaurant industry caught up and I could pivot back and forth that as.

Opportunities came my way. Um, and, and really, really enjoyed both of it, both, both sides of it. The, the service side of it where you really have to pull on a lot of strategy, um, of how are you gonna find your, your clients, how are you gonna convert them, how are you going to keep them? And then on the, on the, the more transactional part of, uh.[00:11:00] 

Restaurants, it became really online shopping. Like, I'll order online and have it delivered and, you know, Uber Eats and, and GrubHub and how do you marry a brick and mortar restaurant with online service? So I, I think from a career standpoint, I had such an opportunity in this, in this span of time to see trans transformative marketing and transformation in these industries.

So I feel. I'm totally fortunate to do that. And then I have to give a little plug to franchising. I was, 

Daniel: that's, I, 

Anne: that's 

Daniel: what, that's what I was gonna ask. Can, I think you're about to, but can you talk a little just about that, that nuance of, uh, you know, be, I would say in the middle sometimes of, you know, stewarding the brand, but also being beholden to some degree, to franchisees, franchisors, and all that sort of stuff.

Anne: Yeah, I have a little twist to that as well. [00:12:00] So I was introduced to franchise Annette Jack in the Box, and I loved it. And I'll tell you why. Franchisees are savvy business people and they are really close to their customers and their local markets. So, and in most franchise organizations, you always have the opportunity to speak with franchisees and they have opinions.

All of them haven't met one without one. But you also, we usually have a franchise advisory council and sometimes even a marketing committee. And that is the secret weapon as a marketer, because they can really give me market level nuances that I might not get from research. I might not get from client reviews.

I might not even get it from from company operations, but franchisees. They really, they, they, they tell you the way it is and then they can help me to fail fast and they can help me to find winning, winning outcomes much quicker as [00:13:00] well. So I kind of consider franchising my marketing secret weapon. Now you do have to.

They all have an opinion, but everybody has an opinion on marketing. You hear that from all of you. You have lots of marketing. 

Daniel: That's fair. That's a, that's a very, that's a very rosy, uh, outlook on that. I like that. That's very optimistic. 

Anne: Yeah. But I really, I really do love franchising because I love to understand the nuances of the marketplace, and, and I listen quite a bit, so I under, you know, they wanna be heard.

They're, these are their businesses, these are their livelihood. And, and they are closer as close to the customer as, as you can get. 

Daniel: Yeah, I think they knew. I'll, I'll give a a more, um, I won't name names, but, uh, since I do work a ton in franchise, I think the biggest kind of like butting of heads I see is a lot of brands have, you know, marketing committees that are comprised of various, you know, franchisees or groups of franchisees.

And I think the most common. You know, negative [00:14:00] I'll say, or I guess just conflict is that I'll just be more blunt. You know, the CMO will say, I don't tell you how to run your restaurants, you know, or I don't tell you how to run your individual location. Why are you telling us how to run marketing? You know, when you don't have that background and stuff.

So I think the best relationships I see on that front are the groups who have like. A, a huge amount of respect for each other's craft. You know, where the, the franchisee says, I trust that you're doing what you should be from a marketing standpoint, and that's gonna help us. And the marketing leader says, I trust that you are gonna give a world class experience once I drive all these leads to you.

And they work in tandem. But I, I think often there's that, uh, you know, butting, butting of heads around. Everybody knows better than the other person. Do you, do you see that or feel that? 

Anne: I, I have experienced that. Um, I think that it comes down to any relationship. There has to be open communication and a lot of [00:15:00] about communication is the ability to listen to the other side and to hear like, why do you think that we are not doing enough?

 I think sometimes just hearing people out and saying, you know what, is there some validity there?

I think you can really, you can get so much out of it because you need each other. We're here to drive the leads. They're there. To, to execute and really service the clients, whether it's serving a pizzaor getting help for somebody's mom or their dad in their home. So we have to find a way to meet in the middle.

And I think that as a CMO, as an officer in a company, we have to find a way to communicate with those franchisees. 'cause it's a long-term relationship, you know. 

Daniel: I agree. I was gonna make the joke both high stakes, but it kind of is like, of course there's different levels of trust in, uh, you know, taking care of an aging parent and stuff like that.

But also like you get one shot to deliver the [00:16:00] pizza well and give the good experience or you lose 'em forever. So, you know, di different varying levels of high stakes, but both high stakes. Yeah. Nonetheless. 

What's your best piece of advice to other marketing leaders out there about how to survive and thrive, you know, the rest of 20, 26 and beyond?

Anne: Yeah. I, I have, I have two actually. The first is stay true to your brand. We put a lot into building these brands and customers love brands. Like we live in a world where brands mean so much and they come with this inherent trust. Uh, and and we've seen in the past few years that when you as a brand do something to to that trust, your most loyal customers are gonna go somewhere else.

And I'm talking about like Bud Light did it. And then we saw also that just most recently, cracker Barrel as well, things that get covered in the [00:17:00] press, which is an unintended consequence. And so I think when you think about the brand and what your brand stands for as leaning into what you built, brands can evolve.

But do it in a mindful way. I was recently at the International Franchise Association Conference. I saw Kat Cole, who used to be the CEO of Focus brands, now called Go to Foods, and Heather Lee, who is now at Taco John's, and both of them spoke about when they became CEOs taking the time to go and talk to the franchisees that were long term franchise.

To customers that were long-term customers, to the frontline employees because the, that's where the brand lives. And I think so often as marketers, we are looking for the next shiny object for what is AI gonna do for me? I'm gonna talk about AI [00:18:00] all day long. Well, unless you have something to deliver that's gonna make the brand experience better, maybe not do it the brand.

Stands for a lot for your customers. And so they're coming to the brand. So that's my first piece of advice. My second piece of advice is, comes after a little bit of experience is that, um, at as marketers inside of an organization, we need to build bridges. Oftentimes people will say to me. Oh, you know, marketing did that, you know, before you got here, marketing did that.

I have yet to find the person whose name was marketing, right? But I think that marketers, as marketers, we can build bridges like talk CFO, language to CFOs, talk ops, language to operations, talk to sales, build that consensus so that the marketing initiatives get green-lighted. [00:19:00] And I know that we as marketers can deliver.

Fabulous results in building revenue and profitable revenue, but sometimes within the organizations I think we get a little held up talking our marketing language and sort of being sidelined away from the main business. So those are my two takes. 

Daniel: I like it on the cat coal front, very timely. Uh, you were talking about how like brands should lean in and like be themselves and all that sort of stuff.

I won't say which coffee shop, uh, 'cause I don't wanna blow up Cat Cole's spot, but Cat Cole lives, you know, in my neighborhood. Uh, and I see her at, uh, the same coffee shop all the time. She was, this was, I don't know, a month or two ago, getting up from a table that I wanted and I said, are you getting up and leaving?

She said, yes. And I told her, oh, I. Uh, enjoy AG one and was, you know, telling her about that. And I told her I needed to try the sleep product and she pulled out two, uh, samples of the sleep product and handed it to me and, you know, for free of course, and told me about it and, you know, a bunch of other stuff.

And I just [00:20:00] thought, wow, this is like the most authentic experience around a brand and stuff like that. And somebody like, you know, eat, breathing and sleeping their actual product. So, uh, yes, it's, uh, interesting to hear you talk about her as well. 

Anne: Right, right. Well, it's just interesting that her career, she spent decades like, or a decade and a half like promoting Cinon and it's probably the most unhealthy product, and now she's in the health space with 

Daniel: everybody can change, you know?

Yeah. It's, it's, it's called a brand evolution, you know, for her personally. 

Anne: Right. Exactly. 

Daniel: We'll get, we'll get, yeah. We'll get into the agency portion of our, of our conversation. Uh, before we talk about working together and, you know, the, the new frontier of your, uh, your agency life. Can you think of a really great agency experience you've had in the past and what made it so great?

Anne: Yes, yes. Uh, a few years ago, um, I needed, uh, I, we had decided let's go with CTV. Let's tell our brand story on CTV. I was working back in [00:21:00] the pizza space. Um, and we needed a creative agency. The one we were working with wasn't quite right for this. And so I got referred to an agency, um, that came with really good credentials for creative, and as we went through the process.

They just kind of made it so easy. The first thing was, I love for an agency to lead, right? I want them to take me and show me what can, what can you do with this brand to make it come to life? To tell our story and what they did so well that I really appreciate from any agency is instead of saying, well, this is the way to tell the story, they said, well, we're gonna give you three options and.

Here's one way you could tell it. Here's another way or this way. So putting their creative lens on our brand and being able to say, there's different ways you can tell the story. Well, that was check one. [00:22:00] Then anytime you're gonna go into production, video production, even photography, production, there are lots of little details and my experience is that.

Really great agencies make it seamless so that, you know, they take care of casting and, and wardrobe and makeup and hair and location and, and craft services. And they make sure that like when the client comes on site, so if my boss comes on site, that person's taken care of, these guys did that in spade, so check two now we're two for two.

And then at the end of the day. For me, an agency is a relationship, right? We're going to have a relationship. There's people just like you and I have a friendship. We have a relationship. There's communication. We need to work together. But with an agency, you have to be able to give them feedback. It's right.

It's never gonna be a [00:23:00] hundred percent, they got it right out of the gate. Well, this agency was amazing. Every piece of feedback would be met with, oh, that's a good idea, or, that makes sense. Or even, well, I hear you, but would you consider this? So, I felt so heard and validated as the client that it made the experience great.

We were on budget on time with a terrific, uh. Set of, of videos that they produced that I was like, wow, I would love to do this all over again. It just made it so easy. 

Daniel: It's amazing. Can you, on the, on on, I hate to make you go negative now, uh, without naming names, can you think of a negative agency experience you've had in the past and what made it so negative or not as good as that one?

Anne: Right. Well, yeah. So not every relationship works out. Not every relationship is what you would want it to be. Um, so again, it was a creative [00:24:00] agency. Like not everything works out with media agencies either, but this was a creative agency and you know, trust and communication is sort of the foundation of any agency client relationship, and.

Got some concepts back and gave some feedback and heard words like, well, you're wrong, or You and your team, you just don't get it. And, and it was like, well, wait a minute. Like, you know, bizarre. I'm would've left that into how I'm gonna give feedback because I want people to stay engaged in the business and I wanna be able to, maybe I misunderstood your intent but wrong and don't get it, and sort of not open to, to that dialogue.

You can imagine that relationship ended 

Daniel: deteriorated. 

Anne: Yes. Yeah. It's hard to come back from that. Yes, 

Daniel: I would agree. Um, we'll talk about our relationship now. We've worked together for over a year now. Um, we've done [00:25:00] several agency searches together. We've done, uh, we started with media. We went into PR and social.

We've recently wrapped up SEO. Um, separate searches, different agencies for each. I'm curious, just before we even get into like the meat of it, when we got introduced and you said, Hey, like maybe I need an agency. Did you have any assumptions or, I don't know, any preconceived notions about working together or what it would be or anything like that?

Anne: Um, I thought it would be really formal. Like you would come with PowerPoint. 

Daniel: You're in the wrong, you're in the wrong, you're in the wrong place, Anne. 

Anne: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I thought we would have multiple calls. So the number one thing is like if anyone listening is wants to work with you, you are fast. Like I hang up the phone and by 10 o'clock the next morning, and usually it's by the end of the same day.

[00:26:00] I have three to four agencies and it, it's just it. So be ready if you're gonna, my advice is you're gonna work with Danny. Be ready. 

Daniel: I'm trying to, I'm trying to slow down a little Anne, you know, don't, I'll have to cut this part out to be a little, to be a little slower if you give good inputs. I love, it's, it's, it's easy to be fast if the input is good.

It's not always, but yeah, like you're pretty, um, you're on the more buttoned up side of this is what I'm looking for, this is what I wanna spend, here's the, the three or four other things that I need. And then, you know, figure it out from there. You know, it makes what I do, uh, easier if I'm being honest.

Anne: Well, I, no, I love it because the reason I come to someone like you, and I only come to you, so I don't know who. I maybe competitors out there. 

Daniel: That's that. That's, that's good, Anne. Let's keep that up. You know, that's it. 

Anne: So that's loyalty for you, but is because you're gonna make it so that the process is faster.

And also so that I'm not wandering in the wilderness. Of agencies trying to [00:27:00] like, well, I kind of like this. I kind of like that. Which is kind of the second part. I call it the chemistry piece. I don't know how you do this, but you and I have maybe a half hour, 20 minute to 30 minute conversation about what I'm looking for, what my budget is.

So we gotta make sure you're not giving me like Cadillacs when I need, you know, compact cars. 

Daniel: That Toyota Camry that I grew up driving, you know. 

Anne: Yeah, exactly. I have one of those too. And, and so it's the chemistry piece. So you find these agencies that not only can they do the work, do they have the experience?

And for me, they have to have franchising experience. They have to understand that dynamic of my world. They might not ever meet a franchisee, but they have to understand the dynamic of it. But. It's that the agencies just work with my management style, with my team, with my organization. And it's not just like I have a choice of, in almost every search that we've done, it's a choice of [00:28:00] three or four that like, uh, wow, they're good.

Like these are good, solid agencies. So I think that is really for anyone that's struggled to find agencies and spent a lot of time doing it, you just. You, you surpassed my every expectation in timing and chemistry, and it just, it just has worked out really well, so 

Daniel: thank you. Yeah. The d the, the doing the work part is the easy part.

That's the, that's the price of admission for agencies. There are a trillion agencies out there who can hypothetically push the buttons and do the actual work. It's, yeah. The, uh, the, the not so secret part that makes it harder is, yeah, finding. The right people who will also get along and pull the good work out of each other.

Um, has there been any, like what's the biggest learning, uh, you've taken from it? I, I will, uh, preface after you answer this, I'll tell the, uh, the SEO story. 'cause I think that's such a, you know, a 

Anne: That's such a 

Daniel: good story. Yeah. What's [00:29:00] your biggest takeaway? Don't, don't steal mine. I'll, I'll frame that up for 

Anne: us.

I want, I want, I think. I think the hidden part, uh, of you, Danny, is that in addition to getting an agency, you are a CMO whisperer. You are there to coach. I'll take 

it. 

Anne: Yeah. You are there to coach. You. Are there like little things like, you must have said this to me at least six times over the last like 15 months.

You know what I would do? I would call them up in the middle of the day or at the middle of the weekend. Just have a conversation. Because, and, and you're right, because that's how the relationship is gonna work moving forward. It's not gonna be this formal RFP respond to this. We're gonna have a formal meeting.

You prepare for two weeks to give me your best PowerPoint presentation. It's gonna be, let's have a conversation. And how does that feel? So I think it, it's, it's that, that piece of it of like always [00:30:00] reminding like, Hey, this is a relationship you're building. Is this, are these the people you want to do business with?

And I think that's the part of it that has been the most surprising part that I didn't expect that, that for you or for me working with you, it, this isn't just transactional. This is really, this is about us building a relationship and you helping me to build these relationships. So it's been wonderful.

So that's, that's my, that's my Danny take. 

Daniel: Thank you very much. No, very flattering. Um, I'll tell the SEO story, you know, I'll, I'll make it quick, but I'm curious, you know, just, it's a good segue from what you just said. You know, we, we did SEO, the, the, the agency, you, uh, throughout the process kept telling me was, you know, number one on the list and you were like, pretty sure they were your agency, right?

You called me after their pitch, their final presentation, and you, you know. Said Danny, [00:31:00] like, I don't know what happened, but it was not good. Missed the mark. Did you know a lot of, you know, negative stuff? They didn't listen and I, if I remember correctly, you were ready to go in a different direction. And while I will never tell a market leader No, no.

Like you, you have to hire a specific agency. All I said was were they, I believe I asked you were they, you know, your number one throughout the entire process up until the pitch and you said yes. And to your point of picking up the phone call, I said, well, give him a call. Ask him what happened, you know, and one of two things will occur.

You'll either say, they're not my agency even more, and I still don't wanna hire them. Or you'll go, there was some sort of, you know, miscommunication on some side or something or other. And you'll feel better about it and it will make the relationship stronger. You know, you ended up. Giving them another shot.

And, uh, you know, blissful, uh, SEO uh, you know, relationship has begun. Uh, I'm just curious if you can talk a little bit about what you [00:32:00] think happened and, you know, that sort of stuff. 

Anne: Yeah. So, um, you tell that story very well, by the way, so thank you. You're 

Daniel: welcome. 

Anne: Um, so I. So I think they got a little bit out over their skis maybe, and they thought, you know what, we'll bring this person in and that person in and, and we'll razzle dazzle.

And, and really what we wanted was to hear what we asked for in, in our, in our. RFP and you know, they had met with me and our, my, the digital director that works with me, but they were meeting with the rest of the team during the RFP pitch and we had pumped them up and then this, it, it just kind of fell flat and the, the topics on the RFP weren't covered, but when they came back after I had the call that you suggested.

They came back stronger than ever. And quite honestly, inside my organization, first of all, [00:33:00] my team now believes what I preach, which is an agency is only as good as we are at working with them. So now they're like, wow, we saw it with our own eyes that that's what it is. And then even. Even my executive team who sits in on the final presentation, they talk about it all the time.

They're like, yes agencies. You really have to work with them. That's so great. When you actually, they think it was like. Almost that I manufactured it. Like, they're like, how bad was that presentation? Was it even bad? Did like, so, but it was such good advice from you. And then this agency, they came back and we're just finishing the onboarding process right now, and I couldn't be happier.

So yeah. 

Daniel: Good. We love, we love a success story and yeah, I think again, like just to preach for, uh, agencies listening. Yeah. I, I never want to, uh, like. Skew the process. [00:34:00] But I do think often I very appreciate you calling me a CMO whisperer. I, I feel I'm a CMO reminder, or, you know, I have to remind folks like nothing is really final.

Like, you know, if after a pitch you have questions, like, I think some people just take it as final. It's like, oh, well that was the pitch, and if that was in the pitch, then that's it. You know, like you can ask questions, you can have follow ups and yeah, generally one of two things occurs. Dislike a group more 'cause they've reacted poorly to the feedback.

But any agency who gets a call to ask more questions should be appreciative of the opportunity to, you know, continue along and, and defend themselves. So, no, that's a, a wonderful case study and an excellent success story. So happy, happy to hear. Um, I'm curious, marketing space in general, we already talked to ai.

What are you most excited about in general? Uh, for me it's getting back in person. I feel like, uh. Moving away from digital stuff and getting in front of people, in person again, but what are you most pumped about? 

Anne: I, so I'm [00:35:00] most pumped about this year and delivering results. So as, as you know, you've helped me put together what I consider my dream team of agencies.

I added a digital director here at First Light, and I'm so pumped about like early successes we've had last year we added a, a social media agency. They just. Killed it. Their numbers were fantastic this year. Love it. Um, we, we transitioned them onto our PR business as well. We're already hitting it out of the ballpark there, so I'm so excited that I'm gonna be able to.

Um, at the end of the year and quarter by quarter deliver positive results to our franchisees, to our board of directors, to the executive team here, because I've been able to do the job I was asked to do, which was build out the marketing function at First Lite. So that's what that is. What I'm most excited about is I just felt so well [00:36:00] equipped and I feel like we have such a strong plan for the year.

So 

Daniel: love it. What, uh, on the other side, what keeps you up or, uh, at night or stresses you out from a, a business and marketing standpoint? 

Anne: Yeah, I have to say that, um, that the one thing that that can keep me up at night or it doesn't really keep me up at night, but it, it, it is always a, at the, 

Daniel: you can take some ag, you can take the, the sleep stuff from AG one if you need it from Cat Cole.

If you need a better night's sleep, I should get them to. They should sponsor this episode if nothing else. 

Anne: That's right. Thank you Kat Cole for sponsoring this episode. Um, is I wanna make sure we're delivering value to franchisees. So marketing is an area of franchising where franchisees wanna have turnkey tools, systems, they want it to work as much as they like to say, I know how to do your job better than you.

Right? What they really want is they wanna ensure that they're getting. What their franchise agreements does. And so I always want to [00:37:00] make sure that, are we delivering what we said we would deliver? Are we making their daily life easier? Because we have a better system, we've built a better program. We have a campaign that delivers more leads, more clients, more customers.

So that that is really that part of me that if there's some little voice that's like. In, in my head saying, did you do it? Did you do it? Are you sure you didn't? Did you do enough? Could you do more? That that is the little voice. 

Daniel: It's an annoying little voice. I have the same one that always asks if I could be doing more or should I do more?

Should I be, do something else? So I, I feel your pain there. 

Anne: Yeah. Yeah. 

it helps us move forward a little bit to make sure, you know, like we can't get too complacent. We have to keep moving forward. So it's not so well, is 

Daniel: that, is that a po Yeah, the positive framing of anxiety, I think.

Anne: Yeah, 

Daniel: that's, 

Anne: you gotta do something with it if you don't turn it positive. 

Daniel: [00:38:00] That's, that's, that's why I've taken up running, you know, so that's my, uh, my vice these days. Oh, 

Anne: okay. That's not a bad advice. Yeah. 

Daniel: No. But we will finish with a couple fun ones here. Uh, what was your very first job? 

Anne: My very first job was working at Bumblebee Nursery School after, okay.

This is my sophomore year of high school. I, I. Like was a glorified babysitter at Bumblebee Nursery School. And uh, uh, I, you can see, I didn't go into education, so I appreciated the afterschool hours and I loved it because I had an afterschool job that was only Monday through Friday, so I always had my weekends straight.

Daniel: So that's, that's the best advice from this thing. Find a job where you don't have to work weekends, kids. 

Anne: Yeah, exactly. There you go. 

Daniel: What would your final meal be? 

Anne: Well, I love food. I'm kind of a foodie. Me too. However, when you say final meal, I kind of lean [00:39:00] into comfort food. I think I have to go with a grilled cheese, with really good bread, really good cheese.

Okay. Like three or four slices of cheese, maybe a little cup of tomato soup. And then, 'cause it's my final meal, maybe a tone for all that beer and wine I've drank, I'd probably have a cold glass of milk. So, 

Daniel: okay. I like that. Very what a what? A what an honest, you know, hardworking Midwest meal that is, I feel like 

Anne: that's right.

I live in the Midwest, and that's 

Daniel: what I'm saying. 

Anne: Dairy, the dairy farmers could also sponsor this episode. 

Daniel: I just got sent, I actually have a friend who works in marketing at the Dairy Farmers of America, and she just sent me three. I posted on about it on LinkedIn. She sent me three containers of cheese from, uh, Borden, uh, who just came out with like microwave queso and stuff like that.

So, uh, yeah, I'm, I'm pro pro Cheese in any, any form. I can get it in. There you 

Anne: go. There you go. 

Daniel: We'll, my fi my final question for you, who is somebody who inspires you personally, professionally, or [00:40:00] both? 

Anne: Yeah, so it's Women's History Month, as you know. March is Women's. I do history month. I do, I'm gonna go with my mom.

So my mom was a children's librarian, but she kind of did it all. She was, she was the head children's librarian at a library. She supervised others. She participated in all the library organizations and went to library conferences. She mothered her children, my brother and I, and she had a happy marriage.

And she put it all together. And I honestly think, like the older I get, the more I'm like, you know what, I kind of learned this somewhere. And I, I kind of never, I kind of never thought I couldn't do it, but I kind of was, when I saw that question, I'm like, you know, I think I need to give some props to my mom.

Daniel: I, she, she deserves it. Shout out to all the moms and the women out there for, uh, women's History Month. So, uh, a good, a good answer. Uh, always not, not the first person who's shouted out their mom on [00:41:00] this podcast. So it's, uh oh, okay. It's, it's good. It's, it's good. It's good. E no, it's not to diminish it. It's good each time it's, uh, endearing to hear.

'cause I would shout out my parents if I'd answer that question too. So, and this was wonderful. 

Anne: Yeah. Thank you Danny. It's always good to see you. I appreciate the invitation to join you today. 

Daniel: Absolutely, yes. We will chat with you very soon. Before we go, is there anything you want, uh, you know, the millions of people who potentially listen to this podcast episode to know about First Lite or any, you know, always here to develop some more leads if we can.

Who's a, who's the ideal, uh, you know, person who should check you out? 

Anne: Yeah. So if you have a mom, a dad, or an Aunt Sally or an uncle or Uncle Bell that, that are getting older and you're not really quite sure how you can help them, give a shout out to, to your local first light office or give me a shout out.

It is, uh, a very thorny road to figure out how to help our loved [00:42:00] ones age and age in place. Uh, and we are here to help guide you. That's why we're called First Life, and we're here to help you have your best day every day. 

Daniel: Love it. Thank you for joining, Anne. 

Anne: Okay. Thanks so much, Danny.