Converge Coffee

Learn from Experts Like They Were Right Across a Coffee Table

About the show

Converge Coffee connects you with business experts who have succeeded by constantly pivoting and staying motivated from lessons they learned. You get each speaker's actionable insights and feel their passion like you were sitting right across the coffee table.

This podcast is about building a strong customer experience (CX) community. Each episode will be packed with information at your fingertips. Think of this podcast as talking to the speaker right across the table and walk away with content to actually use. No more list posts because most people struggle with implementation. This is about proving CX through small, simple actionable ideas that make huge impacts.

We dive deeper in the 4 marketing success cores to achieve and prove customer experience: Messaging, Design, Tech, and Experience. These 4 essentials don't only apply to marketing. Guests have marketing, sales, customer service, recruiting, and product development backgrounds. Today, each business operation grows either through customers or employees converging back to those 4 success cores.

Episodes

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    Episode 37: Building out Partnerships to Serve Locals

    October 3rd, 2019  |  Season 3  |  21 mins 43 secs
    customer service, customer success, kristin van busum, local marketing, marketing messaging, project alianza

    In this episode, Sean sits down with Kristin Van Busum, Founder of Project Alianza. Kristin has an interesting background working for RAND Corporation, a global policy think tank that provides objective research to policymakers. She attended New York University, Butler University, and was a Fullbright Scholar and recipient of a Fulbright Alumni Innovation Grant for Global Education. They dive into how Kristin started Project Alianza and the unique marketing approach the company has. They dive deeper into understanding who we are marketing to and importance knowing what people need.

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    Episode 36: Break the Wheel: Focus on Making the Best Marketing Decision for Your Customers

    October 2nd, 2019  |  Season 3  |  30 mins 29 secs
    customer experience, jay acunzo, marketing best practices, marketing messaging, marketing showrunners

    In this episode, Sean sits down with Jay Acunzo, Founder of Marketing Showrunners and Unthinkable Media. Jay has an excellent career spanning from Google to HubSpot to NextView. They dive into how he saw patterns that weren't for him in marketing. So he decided to write a book and start a company focusing on making the best decision for you, regardless of best practice.

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    Episode 35: How to Learn from Marketing Failures and Grow the Company

    October 1st, 2019  |  Season 3  |  18 mins 34 secs
    customer experience, kyle lacy, lessonly, marketing messaging, marketing tech

    In this episode, Sean sits down with Kyle Lacy, CMO at Lessonly. They dive into how the Lessonly Marketing Team decided what digital metrics were essential for growth. They chatted about the launch of Lessonly's website redesign and the strategy behind the project. And they talk about growing from our marketing failures to be stronger than ever.

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    Episode 34: How the EQ Secret Improves Your Marketing Messaging

    April 12th, 2019  |  Season 2  |  25 mins 48 secs
    christine miles, emotional intelligence, eq, equipt, marketing messaging

    In this episode, Sean sits down with Christine Miles, founder and president of EQUipt, a woman owned business focusing on helping people tap into and improve their EQs (emotional intelligence). They dive into what emotional intelligence (EQ) is. What is the secret to building your EQ and why it is important. And why EQ is so important to your internal marketing messaging which faces outward to your customers.

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    Episode 33: Focus on Your Marketing Fundamentals

    December 7th, 2018  |  Season 2  |  37 mins 57 secs
    marketing research, marketing strategy, marketing tech, marketing technology, michael kelly, mike kelly, saas marketing, startup competitors, startup competitors podcast

    In this episode, Sean sits down with Michael Kelly, one of the founders of DeveloperTown, a co-founder of FullStack, the founder of Tenant Tracker, a co-founder of Startup Competitors, and he is an active investor/advisor/board member in a number of startups. They dive into why he created Startup Competitors. Mike explains how companies, especially SaaS, should do market research. That is where is company comes in. We dive deeper on what it take for good market research and what lessons Mike has learned from interviewing over 40 startups on his podcast, providing a market research for them, and building Startup Competitors.

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    Episode 32: Play the Way You Practice with Venue Marketing

    November 30th, 2018  |  Season 2  |  41 mins 52 secs
    event marketing, jim martin, product marketing, saas marketing, venue intel, venue intelligence, venue marketing

    In this episode, Sean sits down with Jim Martin, Founder and President of Venue Intelligence. They dive into why any company needs a venue playbook. Jim explains what Venue Intelligence does and how to market a SaaS product where most people still use binders. They dive deeper on why Jim's company targets security, operations, and marketing at any company.

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    Episode 31: How Referral Systems are Broken and How WarmUp will Fix That

    November 16th, 2018  |  Season 2  |  22 mins 13 secs
    marketing tech, marketing technology, mike hurley, referral marketing, sales tech, sales technology, warm up, warmup

    In this episode, Sean sits down with Mike Hurley, CEO and co-founder of Warmup. They dive into why referral systems are broken. Mike explains why he built Warmup and why marketers and sales should have consistent messaging when asking for referrals. They dive deeper into how customer and employee referrals convert higher than any lead source.

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    Episode 30: How to Build Customer Journeys with Actionable Tech

    November 9th, 2018  |  Season 2  |  22 mins 28 secs
    claudyne wilder, clear communication, customer experience, torch metrics, torchmetrics, wilder presentations

    In this episode, Sean sits down with Claudyne Wilder, president of Wilder Presentations and founder of TorchMetrics. They dive into why presenters need to communicate clearly. Claudyne explains - in her vast experience - there aren't any tools to give customer journeys and actionable ways to improve on weaknesses and strengths. They talk about why TorchMetrics improves the customer experience for presenters to be better, clearer communicators for their organizations and themselves.

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    Episode 29: How Indiana University Fosters Experience through Learning Spaces

    November 2nd, 2018  |  Season 2  |  23 mins 15 secs
    customer experience, event marketing, indiana university, julie johnston, learning spaces

    In this episode, Sean sits down with Julie Johnston, director of Learning Spaces for Indiana University and co-owner of Vision Loft. They dive into what IU's Learning Spaces initiative is and how its helping the state's community hubs. They talk about how customer experience is crucial for students, faculty, and outside resources to thrive. Julie dives deeper into her passion with Learning Spaces and VisionLoft on how spaces help people and bring them together.

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    Episode 28: Great Customer Experience Starts with the Employees to Market the Business

    October 26th, 2018  |  Season 2  |  16 mins 32 secs
    ben walker, customer experience, podcast transcription, transcription outsourcing

    In this episode, Sean sits down with Ben Walker, CEO of Transcription Outsourcing. They dive into why customer experience is so important in the transcription world. Ben dives deeper on what markets need transcriptions the most and how his business grew. They dive deeper in the customer experience starts with the employees. That is where great marketing happens.

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    Episode 27: How Marketing and Sales Should Communicate with Prospects, Clients, and Partners

    October 19th, 2018  |  Season 2  |  24 mins 35 secs
    brett mcgrath, go to market, marketing messaging, rics software, sales messaging

    In this episode, Sean sits down with Brett McGrath, VP for Go to Market at RICS Software. They dive into how marketing and sales should communicate. Brett explains the hurdles between marketing and sales. In the end, he mentions it comes down to what the customer resonates with... the right messaging. They go onto to talk about using the consistent messaging to partners and trade shows.

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    Episode 26: How This Marketing Tech Company Listens to Their Customers

    October 12th, 2018  |  Season 2  |  25 mins 2 secs
    ashley ward, content marketing, digital marketing tools, marketing tech, marketing technology, semrush, seo

    In this episode, Sean sits down with Ashley Ward, digital marketing strategist at SEMrush. They dive into how SEMrush is going from a search engine optimization (SEO) tool into an all in one digital marketing tool. Ashley tells her story about her strengths being in content and social media. She travels the world speaking at conferences about SEMrush and how content and search goes together. They dive deeper into how tech moves with peoples' needs.

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    Episode 25: How to You Market HR Program and Health Benefits AND Find the Right Audience

    October 5th, 2018  |  Season 2  |  20 mins 20 secs
    customer experience, dawn lively, fullstack peo, hr marketing, human resources marketing, peo

    In this episode, Sean sits down with Dawn Lively, COO of FullStack PEO. They dive into how to market Professional Employer Organizations (PEOs) and health benefits. Dawn goes onto explain how marketing in human resources (HR) is more about reactive than proactive. She found growing with companies like startups was the best way to help clients see the canopy and not be stuck in the weeds. Dawn helps varied businesses but stresses the point of PEO programs allow time back running the business if your strong suit is not HR.

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    Episode 24: How Build Your Brand through Good Messaging

    September 28th, 2018  |  Season 2  |  25 mins 14 secs
    mary shores, messaging, midstate collections, words that work

    In this episode, Sean sits down with Mary Shores, owner of Midstate Collections and author of Words That Work. They dive into how Mary became the business woman she became. Mary explains how messaging and dedication to customers were extremely important when going into the debt collection business. Building the business wasn't easy. Mary talks about how studying how people perceive messages. She also gives some insight on how to be a great podcast guest.

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    Episode 23: How to Focus on the Customer through the Sales and Delivery Process

    September 21st, 2018  |  Season 2  |  22 mins 29 secs
    customer experience, element three, joe mills, marketing agencies, request for proposal marketing, rfp process, summit strength indianapolis

    In this episode, Sean sits down with Joe Mills, business development manager at Element Three and co-owner of Summit Strength. They dive into what companies should look for in marketing agencies when doing a request for proposal (RFP). Joe explains how the bad way and the good way do a RFP. The situation comes down to customer experience. Whether you sign with a company or not, Joe sees where the client is a right for the company.

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    Episode 22: How to Build Trust to Improve Your Marketing

    September 14th, 2018  |  Season 2  |  25 mins 3 secs
    customer experience, edwin richardson, marketing strategy, richardson strategy

    In this episode, Sean sits down with Edwin Richardson, owner and president of Richardson Strategy. They dive into Edwin's extensive military background. He goes onto explain what he learned transitioning into the public side. We talk about what the most important factor in marketing is... building trust. Trust provides to build great customer experience and helps with Edwin's marketing to future clients.