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 go to market (GTM) 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 experience, revops, recruiting, data, and product backgrounds. Today, each business function grows either through customers or employees converging back to those 4 success cores.
Episodes
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Episode 21: What Design Reveals about Brand Experience
September 7th, 2018 | Season 2 | 31 mins 41 secs
branding chicks, design, marketing design, marketing strategy, nakita pope
In this episode, Sean sits down with Nakita Pope, Chief Chick and primary brand strategist of Branding Chicks. They dive into how teaching at the Creative Circus parallels to real life design work. Nakita explains how good design is about what the customer needs and not what the customer wants. Design reveals companies need to improve their brand experience.
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Episode 20: Why Customer Experience Plays a Huge Role in Running a Profitable Service Firm
August 31st, 2018 | Season 2 | 33 mins 12 secs
customer experience, josh brammer
In this episode, Sean sits down with Josh Brammer. He helps business owners streamline their business, so they can deliver predictable revenue and faster growth for their service firm. They dive deeper into why customer experience plays such a big role in running a profitable service firm. They talk about the chicken and the egg and A, B, and C clients.
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Episode 19: What are the Two Rules of Marketing and How to Apply to Your Startup
August 24th, 2018 | Season 2 | 36 mins 43 secs
facebook marketing, hr tech, hr tech marketing, marketing tech, marketing technology, mike seidle, work here, workhere
In this episode, Sean sits down with Mike Seidle, co-founder and COO of WorkHere. They dive into why to stick with the two rules in marketing: Do something. Then do it better next time. Mike goes deeper how WorkHere started and the marketing lessons learned from running a startup. They talk about how customer experience is the backbone to any startup.
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Episode 18: Why Design Thinking Helps Find the Right Customers
August 17th, 2018 | Season 2 | 29 mins 27 secs
andrew curtis, b2b marketing, b2c marketing, brand marketing, branding, design, marketing strategy
In this episode, Sean sits down with Andrew Curtis, president and creative of Fuel VM. They dive into why B2C and B2B companies have problems targeting customers. Andrew goes deeper explaining companies have flaws when coming up with messaging and design. He goes onto explain what his company's process is to fix it. Surprise. Surprise. Its roots back to marketing strategy and how to connect with people.
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Episode 17: Why Marketing is a Partnership and NOT a Transaction
August 10th, 2018 | Season 2 | 19 mins 3 secs
&marketing, and marketing, marketing strategy, outsource marketing company, outsource marketing firm, raj kapur, rajat kapur, relationship marketing
In this episode, Sean sits down with Raj Kapur, managing director of &Marketing. They dive into why small to medium sized companies need help with their marketing. Raj goes deeper on his philosophy to partner with companies to help each other succeed. &Marketing's whole experience revolves around working with people they like and customers they like.
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Episode 16: How to Market Internship Programs
August 3rd, 2018 | Season 2 | 27 mins 55 secs
apprenace, customer experience, internship marketing, internship programs, paul waltz
In this episode, Sean sits down with Paul Waltz, program director at Apprenace. They dive into why companies need internship programs and how Apprenace markets their programs. Paul goes deeper into how companies can market their internship programs better. He gives some insider tips and tricks to connect with people.
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Episode 15: How to Build a Community with Design
July 27th, 2018 | Season 2 | 30 mins 20 secs
design, johnathan grzybowski, penji
In this episode, Sean sits down with Johnathan Grzybowski, co-founder of Penji. They dive into why Johnathan started Penji. He goes deeper into why connecting an underserved market with great people not able to find jobs. Johnathan goes onto explain why companies should be and market themselves as social conscious organizations.
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Episode 14: How Helping Your Current Customers Builds Your Marketing
July 20th, 2018 | Season 2 | 29 mins 9 secs
casey gauss, customer experience, viral launch
In this episode, Sean sits down with Casey Gauss, Founder and CEO of Viral Launch. They dive into how Viral Launch got started. Casey goes deeper into why customer experience is crucial for the company's marketing in the beginning. He goes onto explain the company doesn't have all the answers but still tries to figure out how to best serve their current and future customers.
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Episode 13: Going All in Blockchain Marketing
July 13th, 2018 | Season 2 | 26 mins 39 secs
blockchain, blockchain marketing, jeremy epstein, marketing tech, marketing technology, martech
In this episode, Sean sits down with Jeremy Epstein, CEO of Never Stop Marketing and co-founder of Cryto Explorers. They dive into why everyone needs marketing and never stop learning about marketing. Jeremy goes deep into blockchain. He talks about a lot of the unknowns. More importantly, he tells a story about setting yourself apart from all other marketers by going into the known like blockchain.
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Episode 12: How the HE-Doublle Hockey Sticks Do You Brand Yourself
June 22nd, 2018 | Season 2 | 35 mins 3 secs
buyer experience, customer experience, erik deckers, messaging, personal branding, speaking, writing
In this episode, Sean sits down with Erik Deckers, president of Pro Blog Service and co-author of Branding Yourself, and its never too early to start your brand. They dive deeper into the importance of personal branding and why the HE-Doublle Hockey Sticks make money being yourself. Oh, they talk about Erik's whit in the book and how he made money writing about personal branding that built his personal brand.
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Episode 11: Marketing an International Design Tech Product
June 15th, 2018 | Season 2 | 25 mins 16 secs
branding, branding agency, branding language, brands, design, design language, design tech product, marketing tech, marketing technology, martech, tailor brands, yali saar
In this episode, Sean sits down with Yali Saar, CEO and Co-Founder of Algorithmic Branding Agency Tailor Brands, and talk about how to market a design tech/SaaS product and how to teach computers how to design products making it easier for the end customer with a great design. Yali and Sean dive deeper on how to combine computer learning with human interaction to build a community, Small Biz Nation.
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Episode 10: Paid Acquisition and Media Buying Strategic Steps
June 8th, 2018 | Season 2 | 30 mins 57 secs
customer acquisition, customer experience, design, facebook advertising, google adwords, jack paxton, messaging, online media buying, paid acquisition, paid advertising, paxton projects, pay per click, pinterest advertising, ppc, reddit advertising
In this episode, Sean sits down with Jack Paxton, owner of Paxton Project and co-founder of Vyper, and talk about the steps to be an effective paid marketer today. The dive deeper on Jack's experience spending more than $100 to $150 million in advertising. Jack goes more in depth on these steps in the episode. 1) Use data to make decisions 2) Always be testing, never assume results 3) Use pixels to be more accurate in your testing 3) Segment your traffic in cold, warm, and hot and use different types of messaging to move them down the funnel 4) Use attribution on your advertising. Know how long and how much to get customers.
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Episode 9: How Should Product, Customer Success, and Marketing Work Well Together
May 18th, 2018 | Season 2 | 32 mins 58 secs
customer experience, customer success, design, eric prugh, inbound marketing, market fit, marketing tactics, marketing teams, marketing tech, marketing technology, martech, messaging, outbound marketing, pactsafe, product fit, product marketing
In this episode, Sean sits down with Eric Prugh, COO, at PactSafe, and talk why product, customer success, and marketing should openly talk to help the customer. They dive deeper on how PactSafe helps companies make legal transactions quicker and more effective. Eric talks about the challenges and successes of working in a SaaS startup and offers advice staying true to your customers, finding the right product fit, and how each team should communicate with one another.
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Episode 8: Why Marketing Should Focus on Agile and Employee Engagement
May 4th, 2018 | Season 2 | 30 mins 30 secs
agile marketing, agile marketing indy, customer experience, emplify, employee engagement, employee experience, eva jackson
In this episode, Sean sits down with Eva Jackson, Director of Marketing Operations, at Emplify, and talk why companies need agile marketing and employee engagement. They dive deeper on how Emplify builds a framework for companies to understand their company health. Eva and Sean talk about her co-founding Agile Marketing Indy and how that plays into her job at Emplify.
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Episode 7: How Startups and VCs Market Themselves
April 27th, 2018 | Season 2 | 37 mins 26 secs
buyer experience, customer experience, design, high alpha, marketing tech, marketing technology, martech, messaging, srikar kalvakolanu, startup marketing, vc marketing, venture capital marketing
In this episode, Sean sits down with Srikar Kalvakolanu, Strategy & Innovation Specialist, at High Alpha, and talk how startups and venture capital (VC) firms market themselves. They dive deeper on how High Alpha markets themselves and the startups they create. Srikar touches on how important marketing is at the beginning of creating a business.
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Episode 6: Grow Your Event Marketing Through Community Based Relationships
March 28th, 2018 | Season 2 | 27 mins 55 secs
centric indiana, centric indy, customer experience, day of innovation, event marketing, innovation, jason williams
In this episode, Sean sit down with Jason Williams, Executive Director, at Centric Indy, and talk about how to put on a great event. They dive deeper on how to draw the right crowd and get sponsors by building strong relationships. Jason and Sean go on to talk about Centric's community based focus. Learn how Centric cultivated innovation in Indiana.