Animalhaus

Pethub is the first of our Million Dollar Dog Brands to appear in the Animalhaus Podcast. We’re interviewing Marketing Manager, Lorien Clemens and she is totally dishing it – sharing all the secrets and letting us behind the scenes of her fab marketing strategy at Pethub.

What is a Million Dollar Dog Brand?

In This Episode

1. ONE thing that should rule your marketing decisions
2. How do you pick the right channel for your product
3. The ‘Watch for the Lightbulb’ Strategy
4. The role personality should play in marketing
5. How to leverage your customers for brand success
6. How to get out of the ‘copy-cat assumption’ game
7. The secret to avoiding shiny object syndrome
8. What is the point of ‘brand pillars’
9. The critical role an advisor can play in creating results
10. Three common pet business marketing mistakes to AVOID
11. The smart way to pay to leverage TV opportunities
12. The surprising value of a big annual sale
13. Why ‘pet’ might not ACTUALLY be the primary space you want to play in
14. One bit of advice Lorien would give a new pet startup founder

Follow Pet Hub

Women in the Pet Industry

Side Note: in Lorien is a former ‘Women in the Pet Industry’ Woman of the Year – not too shabby, eh? Recently I flew to Portland to speak at the Women in the Pet Industry Conference where I got to hang out with Lorien and experience this wonderful group in person for the first time.

I spoke on the topic of ‘Finding your Creative Genius’ and outlined how you can find and wield your own Creative Genius. Click the image below if you want to see the presentation and get your own blueprint to finding and wielding your own creative genius...

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In This Episode

1. Why does ‘storytelling’ matter when conveying information?
2. What is the process to go from ‘brain dump’ to clear, inspired idea?
3. What is the core element of storytelling?
4. Top tips for editing your content or story down to ‘what matters most’?
5. What is an ENFJ & why do you need one?
6. Who should you seek feedback from & who should you avoid?
7. What makes vulnerability the secret storytelling sauce?
8. How to know what’s ‘compelling’ and what’s ‘oversharing’
9. How + why ‘Urban Legends’ spread like wildfire
10. How do you choose stories that are both compelling + good for making money
11. Why ‘narrowing your audience’ is really about more, not less
12. How to get over the fear of speaking to a very specific ‘niche’ audience
13. Why connecting with clients through ‘core values’ makes EVERYTHING better
14. How can you break into the Tedx community?

Episode Links

Notes from Nic:

The Animalhaus philosophy and most of the courses I teach start with one essential topic: ‘discovering your why’. If you’ve not seen Simon Sinek’s “How Great Leaders Inspire Action” Ted talk about ‘starting with why’ then click the link above and go watch it right now [It will be 18 minutes very well-spent!]

My book “Million Dollar Dog Brand”, one-on-one mentorship program start with this concept as well, because when you’re building a personal brand, or you’re an entrepreneur seeking alignment between your business and life – you simply MUST start by understanding what drives you, BEFORE you move on to ‘who do you sell to’ and ‘what do you sell’. This simply doesn’t occur to most of us, we instinctively start with ‘the thing’ and then think of ways to ‘sell the thing’ without ever really addressing why the thing is life-changing [which is what obviously matters to someone interested in buying the thing!] This is storytelling. This is clarity. This ‘starting with why’ and moving out from there – it is the opposite of our natural instinct as sellers, but core to our decision-making as buyers.

Of course, unearthing your ‘why’, when you’ve been trained, taught and coerced into fitting YOU into whatever little ‘business box’ you’ve decided on [I am a dog trainer and that means, x, y, z or I sell dog products so I must do x, y, z] can be a difficult, drawn-out process. For mentors like myself and Tara, this is our great skill, so it can be a wonderful stage of your journey to hire a mentor or coach, to help lead you down the journey of self-discovery. Regardless of where you are in your business, I wanted to share some exercises that I use with my clients, to help you get you started digging around in your Why. Set aside a few hours this week to dig around in these documents and give them a go! It all starts with this complex question... “Who am I and What is my story?”

P.S. For a limited time you can also apply for a FREE ‘Why’ consultation with Nic: #pimpmywhy

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Episode 3: Humane Society Silicon Valley

I don’t know about you, but when I saw this video making its way around the internet, I was levelled. [beware: you will NEED tissues]

I laughed, I got all weepy... and then the marketer in me stepped up and said ‘I have to talk to whomever is behind this – it’s absolutely genius’. After a string of emails through the creative team at Advocate Creative in Chicago, I was direct to Carol – the President of Humane Society Silicon Valley.

When I finally got on the phone with Carol I was so impressed with her clarity of vision. Her story is a wonderful example of Creative Genius in full effect!

Grab a notebook and pen and take a few moments to listen to how the Mutual Rescue campaign was born. Listen for parallels you might be able to draw between these ideas and your own business or goals – there is always a compelling, creative solution waiting just beyond the obvious one.

Your Creative Genius Blueprint

Recently I flew to Portland to speak at the Women in the Pet Industry Conference. There I spoke on the topic of ‘Finding your Creative Genius’ and I used Carol as an example and outlined how you can find and wield your own Creative Genius. Click the image below if you want to see the presentation and get your own blueprint to finding and wielding your own creative genius...

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Planet Dog is an absolute pioneer in the pet industry. This Million Dollar Dog Brand has been going strong since 1997 – nearly 20 years! We’re chatting with Planet Dog co-founder Stephanie Volo and she is taking us behind the scenes in how Planet Dog got it’s start – as a brand, as collection of exceptional planet-friendly, Made in America products and as a serious philanthropic force. You won’t want to miss her advice for starting out in the pet industry, multi-channel sales and what we can all do to reduce our carbon paw prints.

What is a Million Dollar Dog Brand?

In This Episode

1. How Planet Dog began
2. How this 20 yr. old co. stays true to its honorable old-school values in a new-school world
3. How does the ‘bigger branding picture’ add to multi-channel success
4. How do you keep your brand strong over the years
5. Why is a marketing & communications strategy so critical?
6. How to keep the communication channels open between company & customers
7. Why Planet Dog launched their own brand store & what powerful insights it provides
8. How to avoid ‘copycatting’ & why ensure you protect yourself from copycats
9. Why collaboration is a critical path to real change
10. What the Pet Industry Sustainability Coalition

We are not just a seller of product, we a brand with a story. We’re selling a story because we have several products that translate to the lifestyle we’re trying to support.

Episode Links

Patagonia

L.L. Bean

Planet Dog Foundation

Pet Industry Sustainability Coalition [PISC]

Follow Planet Dog

Women in the Pet Industry

Side Note: Stephanie is one of thousands of inspring ladies doing remarkable things in the pet space. Recently I flew to Portland to speak to a couple hundred of these women at the Women in the Pet Industry Conference.

I spoke on the topic of ‘Finding your Creative Genius’ and outlined how you can find and wield your own Creative Genius much like Steph and the Planet Dog team has managed to do. Click the image below if you want to see the presentation and get your own blueprint to finding and wielding your own creative genius...

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Who here has faced the monotony and frustration of trying to share our brand message through social media but feeling like we’re spending tons of time and getting nowhere? Seriously, who has the time to pay attention, post and measure insights from like 20 different platforms all at once? Not I. Luckily, I have Chris. Chris Huewetter is our resident web expert on Working with Dog and today on the Animalhaus podcast he’s sharing all his secrets – grab a notebook and listen up!

In This Episode

1. What is Social Media Growth Hacking?
2. What does Social Media have to do with PR?
3. Why should dog brands use Social Media as part of their marketing plan?
4. What is the low hanging fruit' in social
5. What are the two most important social platforms to be active on?
6. How do we keep up with everything that needs to be done when we have so little time?
7. Where is it easy to grow for free and where do you need to pay to play?
8. Why do likes' on Facebook actually matter? Spoiler Alert: it's not for popularity!
9. Top growth tips for Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Youtube, Linked In and Twitter!
10. Why it's not just the keywords that you type in your YouTube videos?
11. Why Instagram a platform you NEED to be growing right now?
12. Where entrepreneurs should start with their social strategy
13. How would Chris spend a marketing budget of $200 a month?

Episode Links

* * I have used the Instagram and Pinterest hacks.

Connect with Chris:

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This interview originally appeared within the ‘social media’ month over in the Working with Dog membership community. This is the kind of value we’re dishing out weekly [oh, plus live Q+A with Chris and other experts like him so you can get YOUR questions answered]. Think this is something you could do with having more of in your life and business? Join us!

Learn About #WWD Membership

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