What is up PartnerUp!?
Just in time for the holiday season, we dive into the secret power of not just giving, but giving in a way that benefits MORE than just the giver and the recipient. What if gifts were used to create an impact far beyond the initial exchange?
What can we learn about partnerships from all this?
Packed with Purpose Founder & CEO Leeatt Rothschild joins us to dive into all of this and more. What an awesome convo. A combo of actionable tips and heartfelt stories.
3 Key Takeaways
- The ideal marketing doesn't feel like marketing.
The ideal marketing is creating value for someone, and then by experiencing that, they now have a changed mindset. And they go and take another action. - Don't sleep on qualitative data.
Some of the best feedback is qualitative. Market, customer, and internal sentiment are all examples of qualitative signals that communicate where the data is headed. - Don't make everything about you.
People may like you, but if you start highlighting other people, their stories, and their unique value-adds, you give people more to care about. Share stories, make others famous, look for opportunities to bring others into the spotlight. That makes things interesting.
Subscribe & Listen On:
- Apple | YouTube | Spotify | Amazon | Google | RSS
- Or literally, anywhere you get your podcasts. Seriously. Ask Alexa: “Alexa, play "PartnerUp the Partnerships Podcast” and magic…
Full Transcript:
Isaac Morehouse 0:00
Hey what is up, partner up? Isaac I stoled Jared's line. It's Isaac here. And I've got a co host with me today. We'll tailor Well, I guess I'm replacing Jared and you're replacing meat on this episode. So do your best Isaac impersonation.
Will Taylor 0:29
I'm not going to do that. Those are too big of shoes to fill. But I'm honored to finally co host I was a guest before, but I'm a first time co host,
Isaac Morehouse 0:37
I figured you would take a swipe at my dad jokes, or my old timey vocabulary. But you did. I'm
Will Taylor 0:42
not clever enough. I'm not clever enough. I thought we established that.
Isaac Morehouse 0:46
So I'm really excited. We're talking with liat Rothschild, today, the founder and CEO of packed with purpose and packed with purpose. Actually, for those of you who are subscribers to the partner hacker daily, over the Thanksgiving week, we had a cool little gift, which is fitting an offer for all of our subscribers, which you can probably still go if you want to go and find I can't remember it was partner hacker daily number, I don't know 200 Something you'll find it in there. But it's this little thing about giving it in a free gift courtesy of packed with purpose, which was really fun. So yeah. Thank you so much for joining us on the podcast. I'm excited to dive in with you.
Leeatt Rothschild 1:23
I'm thrilled to be here. Thank you.
Isaac Morehouse 1:26
So packed with purpose, by the way, is a great name. Really love it. I want to kind of like, I want to learn a bit about your career journey, because we'll get into, you know, gifting and give first and a lot of the things that we talked about how it's relevant to partnerships and business. But I want to kind of know, I mean, how did you end up like, did you see yourself 10 years ago, 20 years ago, starting a company that enables people to give gifts? Like, where did you tell me the journey? What led you here?
Leeatt Rothschild 1:56
Yeah, well, so I would say gifting was not the business, or the method. That was top of mind for me. But the the the thread of truth was definitely doing good. So, you know, I'll take you back in my my professional. And really, my personal journey has always been the stands between the world of social impact, and the business world and specifically marketing. In a few points along my personal journey. I was a Peace Corps volunteer in Paraguay, in South America years ago. And the takeaway from that experience was, I really wanted to create more systemic impact. So I lived in a small community, I was working with specific subsistence farmers. And it became really clear to me that helping the 144 families in the village was not a big enough impact for me. And so I knew that I wanted to take my experience there in that, in my future professional world, I wanted to do more good and to have that be more outsized. And I ended up going to business school and worked in marketing, consulting. And right before I started packed with purpose, I was actually advising Chief Sustainability officers in marketing executives, helping them invest their quote, unquote, Corporate Social Responsibility dollars to do more good. This was before the word purpose was really popular before there was this chief purpose officer. And you know, companies were really focused on that. And it was during that time, it was a cold day in December in Chicago, in our office was riddled with the ubiquitous gifts. So we had baskets of brownies, and cookies, and tins of popcorn, delicious aromas all over the office. And basically, it just dawned on me that here, I was helping companies invest hundreds of millions of dollars in doing good, but that gifts that was the form of transaction, to express gratitude and appreciation, whether it to employees or clients was totally devoid of any kind of social impact. And so that's when I had my aha moment. And I said, Well, what if I could create a better gift, a gift that organizations and businesses and individuals would give? where not only did it make a great impression, because the products are wonderful, but what really made it stand apart was that it created societal impact.
Isaac Morehouse 4:17
Oh, that's a great, that's a great moment. That's one of those phenomenal, epiphany moments. And one of those things where when you realize there's an activity that everyone everyone does, and it's kind of baked in to their budgets to their norms, and they're not, they're not going to change it, but they don't, no one has a real incentive to go out like it's nobody, nobody's job is dependent upon making sure that the gift that they're sourcing is accomplishing more than whatever the checklist is of, Hey, make sure our clients are gonna get for this year, right. So seeing that and saying, Well, look, I could take that and make sure they still get to check off the list, whatever their main priority is making sure their client gives a gift that makes them happy and keeps the relationship strong. But I could also do more there. That's, that's just one of those great insights where it's like, there's this thing that's been neglected. But it doesn't need to be neglected. And it doesn't need to cost anyone anything else if I can go out and source these gifts from places that are exactly the types of businesses and families and communities that you would want to support that anyone who wants to support. So that's really cool. That's really cool. That's, that's a cool moment, especially the Christmas time to hear that story.
Leeatt Rothschild 5:24
Yeah, yeah. And you know, what I always tell my team internally, but also to others. We're a gifting company through and through. And so if we don't get the right gift, with the right products in the right gift message to the right address, we don't even get to enjoy the cherry on top, which is doing good through the products that we source in all of our impact partners. And so we have to first excel at being a gifting company. And then we can sort of rejoice and, you know, marvel at all of the additional benefits of the social impact that's created through the gifts that we, you know, ship out.
Isaac Morehouse 6:00
I love that because that speaks so much to myself, I actually have, like some similar patterns in my own story of doing a lot of, you know, like, aid and going traveling overseas and doing medical clinics and things like that, and having the same realization you did, like, Hey, this is really cool. But is there a way I can do this at a higher scale can can Is there a higher leverage way to help people who are suffering and struggling, and through a long and winding journey, I kind of came to entrepreneurship as this really like when done? Well, the accountability from the market is so powerful that nonprofits can do a lot of great stuff, I worked at a lot of nonprofits, I raised funds for nonprofits, but they always struggle with the feedback mechanism, that people that are giving them money, they kind of get social strokes for giving money, and they feel good, and they don't hold you too accountable. And then the people you're trying to serve, they're getting it for free. So they're not really going to punish you if you're doing a bad job. And you kind of it's really hard people there. They mean, well, they're trying their best, but they're operating without signals. In the same way. If you can connect the profit and loss signals in some way, and do good, I love that you put it that way that like look, we have to solve the problem that our customers are paying us to solve first and foremost. And if we do that, we know that we're at least operating efficiently using our resources, well, then on top of that, we can do this additional benefit, we can help these communities, these entrepreneurs that we want to try to get their products out there into the world, like they're just a rare, there's something about that combination that really excites me and I can tell you seem to be smarter. Yes,
Leeatt Rothschild 7:34
I am. I am nodding, you know, fervently I, I 100% agree. And for us, it's really this. It's this beautiful, symbiotic relationship of our clients are really eager to send a gift and they want the gift to stand out for a particular reason, right, they want it to be a unique experience. But they're really looking to express their values or to have the benefit of their being a ripple effect. And at the same time, because of the work that I was doing previously, I was aware of all of these amazing social enterprises and purpose driven companies that were making great products, some of them might have been really good at marketing, but actually, some of them weren't. And so I was excited about the opportunity of taking these discrete products, in bundling them together in a way that make them stand out more so because they were put together with a host of other products, and telling their story and their story of impact in a way that for many of them was even better than they were doing. And that's what really made the gift stand out. So yes, I fully agree. And, you know, part of the benefit of a business is you either you know, you meet or really exceed your your customer or your clients expectations, or you cease to exist. And I was really excited about creating something that wasn't a charity driven model, but about providing a product and a service that the marketplace needed, and proving that you could do that with products that really did good. And that that would be the differentiator.
Will Taylor 9:03
This is everything that I believe in. I believe that, you know, businesses are a forcing function for growth, and they operate on that profit loss signal. And so there's that forcing function for growth and attaching all of that to the, you know, outcomes that they actually have. And it's really interesting hearing you describe that because those are partnerships, you know, you're helping these businesses literally become better by positioning their offerings in a better way, but also giving them more opportunities and more exposure. And then also you're helping your clients win because they probably have purpose driven, you know, impact driven type goals that they can meet but also delight, you know their clients and use this good for their business that you know, your business wins, the partners business wins, and then the client business wins and then you know, the end client who receives the gifts that are just delighted at outside of the whole thing. So everything you're talking about really resonates with me, because I think that is where business should go. And that's how social impact can really happen. Because we talked about not for profit organizations, but there are some flaws with that model. And so what I'm curious about is my ultimate goal and like working in business is get every business to operate like this. And I think your business has a unique business model where it more closely aligns with that good. But do you think that all businesses can drive this kind of impact? And maybe they have to get more creative, but what are your thoughts on other businesses cultivating this impact on the community?
Leeatt Rothschild 10:43
Absolutely, I mean, I think that it's only limited by, you know, the CEO, the leadership team and all of the employees and not achieving, let's call it the higher purpose, and to be honest, companies that only have a particular product or service that they are touting, or that that is their, you know, reason to believe, but nothing higher than that, they are seeing employees leave the firm, and they are seeing that retention is, you know, decreasing compared to their peers. So not only do I think that it's possible, I actually think that businesses that do not start thinking that way, are not going to retain their employees, they're going to have a harder time retaining their clients, they're going to have a harder time in, you know, luring prospects to consider them, versus a competitor who really has a much, you know, more vibrant mission behind whatever service they provide. You know,
Isaac Morehouse 11:36
millennials, millennials catch a lot, a lot of shit. That will give you a lot of shit, you're a millennial, or maybe I don't know, I don't know the definition. The more I'm, I'm right on the borderline, I've got kind of identify more with Gen X. But here's my point. There's something really powerful that I think millennials are phenomenal at, they genuinely in general does a massive generalization. But in general, that generation cares so much about what they're doing being connected to something meaningful to them. And I was talking to a founder a couple years ago, who he was in the middle of scaling his company after he'd raised a big round. And he was like, he was like, it's so weird. I had been surprised by this, I found that my younger employees, they get way more excited if the company participates in a local food drive, or a 5k fundraiser or some kind of charitable initiative, then if I were to give them a bonus, or buy them a new laptop, now, obviously, if the bonus is big enough, they're probably gonna say, give me the bonus. But he was like, just the pride that they have, and being able to say, I work for a company that's doing some cool things that's involved locally, he was just really surprised by that. He's like, this is not the cynical Gen X workplace of the movie Office Space, right? There's something different happening and those who get it, and who harness that and work with that, I think definitely benefit in that in that landscape. Lena, I want to I want to change gears I want to ask you about because Because we'll mention, you know, this is partnering your business model, what you're doing with the suppliers of the gifts that you're giving the vendors, it's really interesting, because there's a lot of lessons to learn for our audiences, mostly partnerships, people, partner managers, at SAS companies. There's a lot of parallels there in the relationship they have with companies they partner with, whether it's tech partners, or especially like agency partners. Because I'm guessing, and I've received a gift from pact with purpose. So I've seen like the stories you tell, you don't just say, Hey, we're gonna partner with you. So now you're gonna get bigger distribution, and we're gonna get a supply of goods. There you go, right, transactional production, it's way more than that. You're going and you're helping them to your point earlier, you're gonna say we're gonna tell your story. Like maybe you're good at making really delicious cookies. And you've got a really cool story of, you know, how you're producing these cookies. And it's, we're going to help tell that story. Because you're going to making cookies, we're going to telling stories, so we're going to amplify you that's co marketing, right? We're not just going to distribute you to our customers, we're going to show you off to our customers make you famous tell your story as well. And I'm guessing and you tell him he's wrong. I'm guessing you probably even do some business consulting with some of those companies who are, they're good at making a product for a small market, but all of a sudden, they have big distribution. And they've got to change some of the things about the way that their business runs, or they've got to scale up a little bit like I'm guessing your partnership is fairly deep with them. Is that accurate?
Leeatt Rothschild 14:31
Very accurate. And I'll just say, just to like, you know, frame the conversation. We don't call our suppliers, product suppliers. We refer to them as impact partners. And you know, I think sometimes we forget the importance of the words that we use, but it's very intentional that we call our quote unquote suppliers impact partners because we view them as our partners in creating impact. Without them, we would not be able to do the good that We strive to achieve, right? It's really through all of the amazing programs and initiatives and the types of organizations that they're supporting, that we can create the impact that we want to have. And to your point, yes. So, you know, at a first level, we purchase products from our impact partners and put them in our gifts. And just by virtue of the fact that we're buying, let's say, granola from a social enterprise, outside of Washington, DC, that provides women who were survivors of abuse, or may have been homeless or have been from, you know, historically, under resourced communities, we're providing them with a path towards financial stability, right in the opportunity to get the job and to, you know, pursue the life that they want to have. That's just by purchasing that type of product. But beyond that, to your point, we are really partnering with them elevating their story, bringing their product in their brand to a broader audience. But then it's much deeper, where, for example, we would have worked with some of our impact partners, where we just realized that their packaging needed to get improved, because they didn't talk about their mission, or any type of you know, how they're improving the world, on the actual box or on the bag. And now there's a lot of cookie options, a lot of brownie options, or journals or what have you. And so we worked with them to actually improve the packaging, or in other instances, the package might have been too large. And so having a better sense of what our clients wanted, and what the market wanted, we worked with our impact partner to create a two pack item, because we knew that that would actually be something that our clients wanted more, the price was going to be more agreeable for the kind of gift that it was going to go into. And of course, you know, we're, we're partners, we're not telling them they have to only sell this to pack with purpose. So the benefit of let's call it like the this advisory service that we're providing them, not only is beneficial for packed with purpose and for their sales to us, but it's beneficial to, you know, whatever other channels that they might be selling their products in.
Isaac Morehouse 17:00
I love that. And you know, Jared, we talk a lot about how I think Jay McBain have this stat originally, he's like the originator of every step on partnerships, but 76% of world trade is indirect something to that effect. And you think about indirect, the people who are you know, the entrepreneurs, the small business owners, people running most of these enterprises, their primary thought is not about distribution, their primary thought is about their product, their innovation, the thing that they love making, whether it's a soap or a cookie, or whatever. And for them, they're thinking about the end user, right? Okay, who's going to enjoy this, who's going to eat it who's going to, you know, want to buy it. And for you to be able to come in and say, hey, look, I can plug you into a distribution network, right like that, like most people, if you're a small business owner, and you're making, let's say, a food item, you're not thinking of, you've probably never even had the idea as a customer of a corporation, doing it as part of a gifting program. Like that's like many people don't even know that that's a thing that exists, right? Until you've worked somewhere where you start to receive gifts, and you're like, oh, my gosh, this is this massive economy, these companies are doling out all of this stuff everywhere. But just to like, awaken some of those small businesses to the possibility of what indirect distribution and partnerships can do. That's so exciting. To me, that's so exciting, because it allows them to focus on what they do best. And then you get to elevate connects them to the network that you already have in place, bring that you know, bring that assistance alongside them. Yeah, this, this is getting me all fired up.
Leeatt Rothschild 18:36
I would say you know, this is where like, it feels like there's a never ending ripple effect. Right. So just working in the gifting space. Like, it's amazing, because gifts are a form of showcasing gratitude and appreciation. So gifts are generally a place of happiness. But then it's the intersection of gifting with social impact, right. So that's sort of like up c&d on let's call it the positive quotient that both the sender feels as the person that's choosing that gift, but then the receiver is, you know, what we've heard with our pact with purpose gifts is that individuals that receive a gift feel like they have participated in creating the impact, whether it's helping that woman gain, you know, financial stability, whether it is you know, reforesting the planets through a wood bound journal, or whatever the type of social impact is. And then beyond that, it's this ripple effect that we know we're having partnering with our impact partners, not just through buying their products, but they're really helping elevate their brand and their products for us, but also through all of their channels. So that is the ripple effect that definitely fires me up but also our entire team because you know, there's enough to be excited about just in terms of gifts, gifts, plus social impact, but then the recipient feedback, but then on top of that, you know, the impact partners, real gratitude for what we have to offer them feels pretty great working impact with purpose.
Isaac Morehouse 19:57
Oh, it's amazing when you're when you're at the source Have the layer in the stack, so to speak, where you can see these like reciprocal positive feedback loops that just keep compounding as a, as a marketer and somebody who loves, you know, writing and storytelling and content, I always feel like, right, the ideal marketing doesn't feel like marketing, the ideal marketing is creating value for someone, you know, telling a story that's valuable or helpful in some way, benefiting them in some way. And then by experiencing that, they now have a changed mindset. And they go and take another action. And so when you think about the layers of what you're doing here, when the the people you know, so the company who, let's say, is working with PAC with purpose, and now they're sending out these gifts to have a phenomenal story, they're impacting the businesses involved, the recipient, gets them and says, Wow, this is cool, this gift is more meaningful. But it's also putting it in the hands of that recipient. And now if you know, if you're the company producing the wood bound journal, you suddenly have free samples, so to speak, in the hands of 1000s of business executives, who might say, Oh, this is great, I'm gonna go to their website directly, and maybe utilize this in my company, or maybe get one for my kid on their birthday or mate, right like that. That's marketing, that's good marketing. And it's not nobody's running an ad, right? They're giving them a gift. And they get to experience and taste that. And if it's a fit, and they're like, I know someone who would love this, I mean, I had this experience, when we got our thing from packed with purpose, I can't remember which item it was, but I immediately was like, Oh, I've got a buddy who would love this. And immediately contacted them. So I just I love all these layers, like that's when you're doing it, right? Things are additive, right? And you're not always going out there and like begging and annoying people, but you're kind of letting these things, you know, have compound on top of each other.
Will Taylor 21:44
Yeah, that's the one plus one equals three. And in this case, it's you know, 3333, we always talk about that in partnerships where there's this net positive, it isn't transactional, you don't lose something for another to gain something. It's literally this wave that creates that good. I would love to hear a story about a customer and how they felt, you know, met when their customer received the gift, do you have like something that was really impactful for you and maybe sticks out to you for something that you were just like, wow, this is the this is the impact that we're having with our company? What comes to mind?
Leeatt Rothschild 22:20
Yeah, so there's so many, but I guess one that I would point to is, it probably was last year during the holiday season. One of our it was actually a b2b SaaS company client. They started forwarding the responses that they were getting from their, you know, their clients, right. So they were the vendor to their client. And they were sending them a thank you gift. And, you know, the individual was said to me, we've never receipt Right? Like, maybe we would get a random Thank you. But generally we don't even get thank yous, but now we're getting so many thank yous I feel compelled to send them to you. And so internally impact with purpose we've got we use Slack, we've got a Slack channel called PW P love. And so it's really nice. Because right, going back to like, having a real focus on purpose and mission. It's really nice, right? Sometimes you're just working on inventory management or on forecasting, or on, you know, a sales playbook, whatever it might be in even impact with purpose, you want to get grounded back into the mission of know why we're doing the things that we do. And so it was great seeing just this flurry of all of this love for our gifts that our client was sending to us because they were, you know, in Pleasant shock with the abundance of thank yous that they were getting. And they were like, I can't keep this to myself, I need to share this with you so that you and your team can really see the the gratitude that we're receiving. So, you know, it was wonderful to hear. But then even better to sort of see that reverberation for the whole team it packed with purpose, no matter what seat you sit in, to feel that pride.
Isaac Morehouse 23:59
I love that we have we have a Slack channel called hacker law, where we do the same thing. And it's Jared and I talk about that a lot. How you know, you the quantifiable KPIs are a necessary part of any business. But there's things that you know, you can't measure the intensity, for example, a lot of things are not easily right. So somebody could say, Yes, I whatever. I clicked on this, or I enjoyed this, I can even tell you yes or no, that something is good. But the difference in a in a purely quantitative way between someone who is like, Yeah, like that, and someone who is like that was life changing. It brought me to tears, it doesn't really show up. And that's where that qualitative having that kind of stream of that qualitative feedback, because you know, as well as I do a dozen people who say, yeah, that was great. And don't hold a candle to one person who's like that made my entire day. Thank you so much, right, the meaning of that. So like, being able to tie that in, I don't know, that's really I think that's something that is maybe kind of kind of overlooked or poopoo like if Ron would agree with that statement I made, but then it's like, okay, well, now we got to get back to business. And we got to focus on the stuff that can be measured. And I'm not, I'm not disagreeing with that. But I think focusing and giving real attention to the stuff that can't easily be measured, creating that slack channel, if nothing else for internal morale, and letting those moments of impact right of purpose. Sure, that's just so important, because like, we're people to, we want to get up in the morning and feel excited, you know?
Leeatt Rothschild 25:26
Yeah, and I think people that are focused on partnerships, right, like, you really have that mentality of one plus one is three in so sometimes that intangible right, like, everyone's always trying to quantify whatever the effort or the partnership or the investment is. But sometimes those, you know, those efforts to quantify can be elusive. And I think that for folks in partnerships, that can sometimes be the case. And so especially for those individuals, I think it's especially rewarding. And one other thought that I had an idea of partnerships, we talked about our impact partners, and how we really double down on, you know, sort of standing on a mountaintop, and holding our megaphone to proclaim how amazing they are their products and their impact. We've also seen so much success in the partnerships that we've had, with organizations and associations and conference organizers, where they're going to send gifts to their speakers, or to certain VIP clients, or to individuals that have maybe organized an event. And you know, if they have a focus on, let's say, ESG, or purpose, or corporate social responsibility, or they just are an organization or an association, that is interested in showcasing their let's call it corporate values, it makes sense to send a gift that also has that message. And so we found that to be a really nice, let's call it partnership angle, where we work with a lot of let's call it executive clubs, or associations, where we partner with them in a way where we provide our gifts to their either VIP members or to their speakers. And that's been a great way also for pet with purpose to be introduced to individuals that might be interested in our guests. And it's a great partnership, because the actual association or club was going to send gifts anyhow. And now that's something that, you know, has been created through a partnership mentality.
Isaac Morehouse 27:17
I love that. Yeah, so we talked about the first giver advantage, and you know, one of these principles of partnerships, like, hey, just take the lead and be generous and give something that's the quickest way to open up a reciprocal relationship. And, but one of the things we don't talk a lot about is the reality, the ways that that can can be done badly, the ways that giving gone wrong, so to speak. And there's and there are several different ways this can happen. And some of them are counterintuitive. And that's why I'm like, I'm learning out loud here. This is what we do on this podcast. So I'm really thinking through as you're talking about what you do at Packard purpose, and why it's really unique and different. It's sort of like a low risk way that the odds of of giving gone wrong are very low. If you use something like Pac repurpose, for this reason, because I have experienced gifts that are too lavish or like, too soon, right? It's like It's like weird, right? If someone you barely know, all of a sudden shows up and gives you like a really lavish gift, you feel embarrassed, you feel sheepish, it's like, okay, that's too much.
Leeatt Rothschild 28:15
You gotta be careful obligated in a way that you don't want to feel obligated.
Isaac Morehouse 28:18
Exactly, yep. And then you can also have gifts that are either too much about you the giver. So hey, I'm just gonna send you a whole bunch of company swag about how cool our company is. And it's like, well, that's about your company. I mean, it's cool. Swag can be fun. I love a free T shirt. But it can be and then it can also even be like, too much about the recipient again, if it's like, okay, this is too personal. You don't know me that well yet? Why did you go and look up my family and get me something for each of my children. I didn't even tell you I had children, right? Or like, whatever or like already made me feel selfish. If it's like, Hey, I'm gonna give you a gift. It's like, you know, whatever, something that's all about you pampering yourself. Again, sometimes that can be good, but you can go wrong. That's what's really cool with what you're doing, because it involves this third party that everyone can write about. It's not about the company saying how great we are. And it's not even saying how great you are. It's, we appreciate you, and we want you to participate with us in helping support this really cool business. And then like every that's so low risk, everyone's gonna feel good about that. So like if you're, if you're new in a relationship, and you kind of don't know, like, am I given too much? Is it too much about me too? This is like such a cool way to kind of like, you know, give a gift that's really like who's gonna be mad, right? Who's gonna be mad about that?
Leeatt Rothschild 29:31
Yeah, I totally agree. And I would say a few things that what you just said made me think of, we had a client tell us they were so thrilled. Well, this was a recipient they were so thrilled that they got a pack with purpose gift and they said my client had been sending me wine for years and I never had the heart to tell them that I don't drink wine. But finally I told them because I was so thrilled that they had switched and they sent me a packed with purpose gift. So you know, it was just a nice way and I'm sure that client was thrilled. And yes, they probably felt embarrassed. But really, you know, going back to like the partnership and why you sending a gift, right? Like some companies, your gifting budget is large. And so no matter what you want to be thinking in a smart strategic way, like what is the outcome you're trying to generate by sending a gift? Is it a touch point? Is it an opportunity for the salesperson or the account executive to talk about next year's, you know, contract, or if there's an opportunity for increased services, or just to say, thank you for the referral, right. So there should be intention behind it, so that you can maximize the value of whatever your budget is. And so with that example, it just made me happy because the client of though they probably felt embarrassed, it actually worked to their benefit, because their recipient, their client felt closer to them to sort of tell them like, Hey, by the way, this really was the kind of gift that I wanted. And it brought them into a conversation that they might not have otherwise had. And really, at the end of the day, everything is about relationships. And so having individuals Connect for us. And that is the feedback we get right? Like above the impact and all of that, it's the fact that when you get a pack with purpose gift, it's all about the storytelling. And because you're getting the stories, you know, of impact behind the products, it's an experience for the recipient. And so the recipient is like, Whoa, this is amazing. I need to tell my partner, my child, my client, whoever it is, because you're you're excited about this, you know, the discovery and all of these new stories that have been shared with you. And so that experience is really I think, what, what makes the the art of gifting an exciting new area, especially with, you know, more work from home and just us being glued to our computers or to our phones, and really craving more of that connection with people.
Isaac Morehouse 31:50
I love that well, I'm gonna I'm gonna call out call you out in a good way, call you out. Because I remember what company was. Duly shout out to Dooley. You got like a gift. It was like Dooley hot sauce or something, which is like fun. It's interesting. It's unique. It's okay, that's cool. And you made you made like a little video about drinking your dually hot sauce and whatever. And basically, it's free marketing for them, you got the gift, you thought it was fun, you made this video, which was like, it was a really great example of kind of this reciprocal effect. But as I'm thinking through I'm thinking, now maybe they already did this, I don't know. But there's like a whole added layer. So they send you a unique fun gifts, which was great. If if there had been a story on there about not dually, but about who made the dually sauce? Where did it come from? What's the cool story behind that by making another person famous, right, it like adds an additional? Wow, that's really cool, right? And it doesn't diminish the value of the of what duly gained with you and trust and in a good relationship I give me in fact, it enhances it right? Because they're helping make someone else famous. And that just always, so you just start to think of like the different layers. It's like partnering, you know, packed with purpose is partnering with one of your customers. And both of you together are making yet another business who's your impact partner look famous, right? Which helps anyway, it's just cool. I'm getting I'm getting
Will Taylor 33:12
that made me think about even the audience members when they receive, you know, something like that video. It's no longer only about dually and the one company, it's about two companies. And I believe that for every company that you bring into an event or a marketing asset, the less likely it's going to be promotional, and the more well received, it's going to be so that's very cool. And, and layout when you were talking about you know, showing your your family members I was thinking about when I received mine. One of my parents visited, they were like, oh, did you get a gift? And I'm like, Yeah, I did. And look how cool it is like, look at this store, I opened the book, I see, you know, the different businesses in the actual box. And I've received gifts in the past and they've asked, Oh, you got a gift. Oh, yeah, here's the you know, very short story of, you know why I received this gift. And that's it. Oh, cool. You know, you got some candies or whatever, or, you know, short coutries stuff. But for this, it's like they sat down. They were like reading the book. And I think that impact is it's so immeasurable, but so impactful. So I wanted to share that because when you're talking through I was like, that definitely happened to me. I found why
Isaac Morehouse 34:27
I had to I had to literally i You just reminded me so you know, occasionally I'll get gifts over the years. And my kids always say stuff like, Why do strangers always send you weird? Right? Because it's often something weird. Because they're like, whatever dad does some business stuff and he gets weird stuff in the mail from whoever. And sometimes I'll give them stuff. I'll come back from an event and be like here, here's a straw or some rat, you know, here's a Frisbee, and they're kind of like I remember the pack with purpose gift was sitting there and again, my kids started looking through the thing and immediately they were We're like, interested in the businesses that are your impact partners. Wow, isn't this cool that this, this company was put together by people who were, you know, in a recovery program or whatever, I can't remember the specific stories, but like, they were instantly in like their imagination was opened up about that was just such a cool experience, instead of just Dad's getting a weird random business gift that's gonna end up in the trash. Not all gifts are I'm not throwing them under the bus. But this just has something special.
Leeatt Rothschild 35:25
You know, obviously, that that was the motivation, that's what we strive for. And it really, that's what motivates us, right to consistently make sure that the gift stands out because of those stories and the experience that you get where you feel like you are part of helping individuals or communities, investing in diverse own companies or, you know, providing clean water access to communities in need, whatever the type of impact it is. And I guess, you know, one of the things that we've learned is, you know, this is sort of a no brainer, but sometimes it becomes even more apparent, everyone is passionate about different things, whether it has to do with animal rights, whether it has to do with, you know, advancement of youth or women's empowerment, there are so many different quote unquote, causes, or you know, areas of impact that people are interested in. And so for us to continue to find new impact partners, and tell their stories is really exciting, because we know that it continues to touch both our you know, gift buyers, but also the recipients in the multitude of ways that they are really, you know, energized by life.
Isaac Morehouse 36:31
I love this. This is so awesome. And especially great timing with the holiday season and everything. Give me all the feels great. Yeah, give us for partnerships, people in particular who are listening who maybe, I don't know, maybe they've associated gifting is like, that's something that AES do on the sales team. And they haven't thought too much about it. Or maybe they've done it and just kind of a check the boxes sort of way. And it gives us like a final I don't know exhortation or takeaway, or anything that you would that you would say to, to our listeners about how to really leverage this.
Leeatt Rothschild 37:03
Yeah, I mean, I would say to partnerships, just as I would say to anyone else, it's really, what are you? What are you striving to achieve. And if you crystallize what you're striving to achieve, a gift is just, you know, a tangible way to express gratitude. And oftentimes is just the, you know, a mechanism or a tactic, which sounds cold, but it's really just a way to open up a conversation. And so whatever you're striving to achieve, whether it is to, you know, partner with a potential competitor, or partner with an organization or a company that is like, you know, 10 times your size, and you feel small to them, you can use a gift to start that conversation, to think someone for an introduction to really put out you know, what you're trying to, to create in the coming year. And we have just found that it's been such a wonderful tool, because there's lots of ways to make that happen. But a gift sort of breaks through the to D world. And that's where the magic comes in. Obviously, on top of that, the aspect of, it's going to be hard to disappoint someone with a gift that creates an outsize social impact. And that's really where you like you said, you can't go wrong.
Isaac Morehouse 38:16
I love it. I love you. So the magic word. Well, did you hear that conversation? I've been obsessed with this lately that like it's all about, you know, marketing building community is all about creating conversations, creating an encouraging them, and you strip that down so much like, what is your goal? The ultimate goal is, oh, I want to land a new partnership, or I want to close a new deal. But if you strip it down to like, what are the steps to get there, I used to work in the career space. Now I always tell people look, when you send something to an employer, I would encourage them to send like a video pitch instead of a resume, I would always tell them, they're gonna people spend on average seven seconds looking at whatever you send them first, whether it's a resume or a website, or whatever. Your goal in that seven seconds is not to get the job, your goal in that second seven seconds is just to make them curious enough to want a conversation with you. And when you strip it down, it takes all this pressure off, because people feel like they gotta like, accomplish so much with that, that that interaction or that exchange. So I love that you said create a conversation. And when you put it that way, it's such a great way to create a conversation sending a unique, interesting gift as a story involved, that's got some kind of impact with something that person cares about. It's very hard for them to not initiate a conversation off of that. So just just stripping down the big time goal of like, let's get a new partnership inked. How about let's get a conversation started. And how can I leverage gifting for that?
Leeatt Rothschild 39:37
Totally. And I would say especially from a partnership point of view, when you have two organizations coming together a successful partnership, it's really hard for one side to envision all of the obstacles are the outcomes of the goals that the other potential company organization has. So the only way for that, you know, partnership to materialize is to be open to having that conversation, to say look, you Here's what we're trying to achieve. I think these are some of the, you know, reasons why it might make sense to partner or some of the things you bring to the table and what we bring to the table. But what are your challenges? What are some of your goals for the upcoming year? And if you come to the table thinking you've got all the answers and you basically have like the agreement set, I'm going to assume that most often than not, that is not going to be a successful partnership. Half of the battle is coming in with an open mind knowing what you're trying to achieve maybe your own limitations but really being open to hearing what the other side of the table is looking for.
Isaac Morehouse 40:32
That is the quotable right there. That is the highlight clip from this episode. I love it. Well, Taylor, I'm gonna let you take Jarrods closing line. Do you remember what Jared is closing lines for the podcast? What does he always say?
Will Taylor 40:44
I don't remember and I'm ashamed.
Isaac Morehouse 40:47
Oh my gosh. I just thought you're so busted. It's it's real simple. It's just peace out. That's it. Peace out. Partner up. Leon, thank you so much for joining us. This was absolutely awesome. And we'll, we'll give you more chance you're gonna say it.
Will Taylor 41:03
Peace out!
