Building Community and Driving ROI Through Experiential Marketing with Taryn Talley

Overview:

This episode of Tea Time with Tech Marketing Leaders dives into the transformative power of experiential marketing with Taryn Talley. Drawing on her extensive experience in creative and event marketing, Taryn discusses how thoughtful planning, attention to detail, and a clear focus on connection can turn events into powerful tools for building brand trust and long-term relationships. Whether it's intimate gatherings or large-scale summits, she shares practical strategies for creating memorable experiences that drive business success.

Transcript:

Taryn: When you're looking at it from revenue, like I feel like that immediate game, like you're looking and saying like, well, where is the money? We just spent this. That's not how this works.

Kerry: Hello, I'm Kerry Guard. Welcome back to Tea Time and Tech Marketing. We are so close to the end of the year, folks. Only a few more episodes left until 2025. Thanksgiving next week. I'm acknowledged that Christmas is a thing and I appreciate the decorations and the warm and fuzzy that creates.I just, I prefer Thanksgiving because it's all the glorious system of Christmas without all the presents. What we should be doing about it and how we can really build our brands on the backs of it in multiple ways. She's going to tell us all the things that's going to be great. Before I get there, a little bit about Taryn. She is a data-driven marketer with 20 plus years of experience. A marketer who can think strategically while delivering tactically with a clear bias towards action. Mastering in marketing disciplines of web marketing, email marketing, brand marketing, concept marketing, social media marketing, and event experiential marketing. She's thrived on both the agency and brand side in a variety of industries, pharma, banking and tech, in both B2C and the B2B space. While she's comfortable as a solo contributor, she's a people manager with 15 plus years of experiencing, managing diverse teams of up to 20 people. We are going to unpack her story in a minute because man, is it going to be glorious. And if you are looking for help, she might be somebody you should be looking at. And we're going to dig into all of those things. Taryn, welcome to the show. Thanks so much for having me. So excited to have you. You've been busy.

Taryn: I have been busy. There's a lot of stuff going on.

Kerry: So yeah. Are you going to be able to calm down now in the next?

Taryn: Yeah, I think I'm just going to take the next couple of weeks off. I think my next kind of meeting or event is going to be right after the holiday. So it'll be that first Monday. So I've got to meet with a CMO and like just have a little coffee talk. Exciting. About a week and a half off.

Kerry: So good. Enjoy every minute of it. Every, every minute. I do want to know your story though. Like you've had such a wonderful career. Tell us about it. Where, you know, where are you today and how did you get there? Yeah.

Taryn: So I've got probably, I don't know if it's the traditional kind of marketer in like falling into marketing role kind of, but I started off as a creative. So my first like, so my education is in design and I started out as that designer, senior designer, moved to creative director and then managing art director. So that was like the first 10 years, 12 years of my experience and, you know, I worked in pharma and banking and some petro cam and kind of like a membership-based org if you all know AAA.So the American Mobile Association. So I led the creative agency team there. And then probably during my pharma stand in design, I actually had an opportunity to do some brand marketing work and a little bit of project management and that kind of got the, like it's so the marketing bug bit me. So it was one of the best jobs I've had.It was very fun. You know, working and it's working with drugs, right? So it's not like it's glamorous or CPG.But it just like the way you think through and build strategy and then execute that strategy and then measure the results, right? It just kind of like hooked me. So starting out with at least 10 I think it was what yeah, probably like I said 10 or 12. And then the rest of it was all marketing. So once I transitioned over to marketing, you know, I rolled into brands like JP Morgan Chase and Roku and Ipsy.And then the last couple of opportunities I've had happen at agencies. So, you know, one with Publisus and with Epsilon and Publisus and then Decision Square where I am right now. Nice.

Kerry: Well, welcome to the dark side.

Taryn: I've got a lot of friends with the agency side. So the dark welcomes me.

Kerry: Oh, it's, it's, I think, I think the agency sides come a long way. I actually worked for Publisus. I'm not going to date myself. I a long time ago, pre-MKG in New York. And so it was a wonderful experience. But it was tough. It was tough. But I know that the brand side is tough too. It's marketing is a tough world that we live in. And but we love it.

Taryn: Yeah, I mean, if you all follow me on LinkedIn, you'll see me post from the marketing millennials. And there's always some kind of funny little marketing thing like the Halloween custom for a marketer is literally seven hats. So very fair.

Kerry: Very, very true. What? So you're at an agency now, you got, you've been doing all this wonderful, outwardly facing work at all these speaking engagements and all that fun jazz. What's the challenge you're currently facing? What's hard for you right now?

Taryn: I mean, I think when you're looking at it, like from a growth marketing firm perspective, right? It just feels from what I'm seeing, even at my events, right, and hearing people talk and having conversations, it's, it's a struggle to settle, right?Right now, it's got this weird, I mean, you know, on one hand, we have like the federal government reporting just great economic numbers, right, like leading the world. But on the other side, we're seeing people just struggle trying to convert, right, trying to take that lead and get them to buy. And people are doing all different sorts of things, right, using their AI tools, but in trying to optimize the buyer journey, right, and understand intent and pick up those signals and then break it down and build strategy around that, trying those people to just not only be aware of you, but you know, hear the pitch, understand the need, understand what they need, and then connect the dots. So like on the agency side, it's difficult.But I even think it'd be to be like B2B SaaS, right? There's some, there's just challenges everywhere. I haven't talked to anybody who's just like, Hey, I'm just killing it, everything's like the money is just rolling in, right?Customers are rolling in. It's always a lot of challenge. So I think that overall, right, is, you know, and of course, in the agency side, you always have churn, right? Like you've got, if you're not converting, like you've got to manage your churn. So those are two very active agency challenges.

Kerry: Yeah, I think the other challenge with being on the agency side is you can't always see the full funnel. So I've stepped into more of a, and you know, this having worked at brands, I've had such a pleasure the last few years of actually being a fractional marketing leader. And so to get sort of like behind the scenes where I can dig into the data of a CRF has been life changing. But generally, when you work with big B2B SaaS companies who have all that internally, you don't get, you're lucky if you can beg, borrow and steal for a CSV, that you can that you can pivot and parse. But even then the data is very old, right? It's usually like we're looking at a month old data. It's, you're not always trying to figure out, try, you don't have the full picture. So to be able to map it accordingly is like, I really hope, you know, find a place and pivot tables and view lookups are all of your friends.Yeah, that's where you got to live. But yeah, it's a, the funnel period is is a challenge of figuring out what those intense signals are. And then you add the agency layer onto that of not even being able to really see the whole picture. And yeah, oh man, struggle, struggle is real. The clients definitely aren't rolling the way that we all need them to.

Taryn: I mean, I was one of those rare creatives that like every time I did some design work, right? So the first thing I'm like picking, you know, email the market and be like, how did it perform? Right?It's all about the data and having some kind of understanding or access to it. Right? So you know, like, hey, did this work? Did this not work? You know, is there something else we can, you know, ideate on? So yeah, I'm right there with you on that.

Kerry: I think that's really the beautiful thing about when you can marry the creative side in the, in the data size field. It's like one thing you can control, right? So thinking about what you can control and being able to know that that's your impact that you can make and how to get better.So yes to data and yes, creatives, you can use data to better your design. Agreed. Although I love telling this story real quick. Long time ago, not recently, but long time ago, everybody thought Disney was like the site to mimic because their metrics were so good in terms of time on site and engagement rates and so on and so forth. But it was actually, the rates were so good because people couldn't find anything, but they were so determined to find it. I mean, it's easy to look out to leadership.

Taryn: The site was too, too confusing. People were on there for like an hour.

Kerry: Yeah, so, you know, there's that too. It's all about how, you know, you gotta read the, you gotta read the data from all, from all sides, not just the data you want to read too. Oh, I could talk about data all day. Well, we want to talk about today what we've promised our listeners and because we got some events coming up, it's very exciting. How do events currently fit into your realm? When you and I talked previously, we set this conversation up over a month ago, which clearly lots changed on your side, which is amazing. But events were a big part of really how you were working with brands and helping them find those customers and create that engagement. So talk to me a little bit about your event background and how you're thinking about events today.

Taryn: Yeah, sure. So this is gonna be an eye-opener for some people. But so when I heard it, and it was right after the pandemic, so it was early 2022. And part of the job description, right, was event marketing or experiential. And then there was also like some social connections, you know, like social media, content marketing, thought leadership. So I actually have multiple disciplines.So I have to pivot constantly. It's like, I call the lazy Susan a marketing and just spend the wheel. And, you know, so coming in and doing so I had no practical event marketing experience, like I've done and worked on teams that had put together during the pandemic, some Instagram lives, right? So part of the job is when you're meeting somebody and you're looking for that next opportunity you're talking, you have to sell yourself and your capability. So for me, I have a lot of personal experience and a lot of history of doing things, of going to events, of knowing what works and what doesn't work, of actually working on the back end. So when I was in college, like working my way through college, I actually worked in food service.So I was part of events from the operational kind of like, putting an opponent of like, I don't know, hospitality, right? So understanding that. So like, I was able to talk through and pivot that and be like, well, this is what I've done.This is what I understand, stud, you know, and sold that into it and just was like, yeah, I can do this. And then three months later, my first event happened. So it's like, so the event. Yeah, so like, I mean, listen, we're marketers, right?At the core, this is what we have to do. Like, all of my super big career successes happen in things that I didn't know or do before I did them. So being a lifelong learner, I crank down, I study, I understand, I break it down.And then I start planning, I start working on the strategy, working on the tactics and get it done. So for us, they wanted more events. So post COVID, the company had, like at least the CEO had a walking group.And, you know, it was other people in the Bay Area. And every Thursday during the pandemic, they would get together, and they do a little walk in the evening and then have like an event for two or three hours. So they wanted to get back into those events, right, those networking events, those opportunities, right, to, to just connect with folks, right, and talk about what they're doing and what you're doing and, you know, learning more about their business and how you might help. And so that's the first event. And we have done about six of the major networking groups, networking events in partnership with the Good Market Leaders Society. So we've partnered with them and other, like smaller firms to pull our resources and throw these huge events in Hillsborough.And it's a no cell event. It's just connecting senior leaders, having those conversations, right, and just building this community. And it's been working really, really well for us. And I think in the three years I've been here, I've thrown almost 30 events of all different strikes in shape.

Kerry: That's so fun. I love that we're defining events in a way that's really malleable. I mean, I've heard this over, you know, I've done my podcast now for, for since 2019. So I've heard it this way before, but I just want to double down on it in the sense of like, it doesn't have to be this big sales force, dream force kind of mentality. It can be these moments that you create in a specific place at a very small scale. That's just ultimately all about connection. And I just want to make sure we're sitting with that for a second, because I feel like when we say events, it feels very big and very scary. And it sounds like it doesn't have to be.

Taryn: Yeah, I mean, I've, so some of the events that I've thrown just the last couple of years have been, so I've got about a total of the eight large scale, 100 plus people networking events. Two of them I did on my own, the winery in the area, you know, just had like a catered and just a great experience. And I think it was like one of those events fell on a huge San Francisco 49er game with my team. So we actually got a television in there.Like over here. No, so we like did the whole thing, right? So we had the game over there, there were couches and chairs, and then the event was over here.So people could mingle and kind of like do what they wanted to do. So I've done about eight of those. I've done, I think maybe a dozen walking group dinners at the CEO's house. One of my best one that people really love, this was a FOMO generator, but we prepared an Argentinian grill. So we had an Argentinian grill, hardwood, charcoal, like we had it right on site.All the food was out. And then I went and met with a distillery that was based in the Bay Area. And they used high, like it's a high tech distillery where they can make a billion flavors of like any kind of like bourbon or whiskey, they can influence it. And they use these staves to like flavor the whiskey so they can, they can do like a production in days, what would take weeks or months.So they very fast. So we had them into the office and we did a tasting. So I asked them for all their tasting cards and I studied everything.So once again, as a marketer, we have to learn, we have to study, you have to prepare. And what I did was I pulled about 10 of these guys, CMO, CEOs around the fire pit. And I led them through a tasting of the bourbon and the whiskey.I had a bartender there who's making specialty cocktails based on those drinks. And I see you was like, you have taken this to like a level that we have not seen. Like you're like, I guess, you know, somebody's throwing a bomb. That was a nuke. So it was just, FOMO generating. But we had recently done a couple months ago, a tequila tasting in street tacos.

Kerry: Perfect combo.

Taryn: But you know, it's about like you said, creating the experience, right? Creating that memorable experience. Some people are still talking about that, like Argentinean food and bourbon tasting, right? It's an epic event. I also work on growth marketing summits. So it's like, I'm planning right now the third one for an early next year in Park City. But we pull together senior leaders, we do a couple days of presentations, and it's only four hours a day.So people can do the work, ski, do whatever they want to do. And then we get together, we got like three or four hours of sessions a day. And then I bring in a private chef. So it's just this a huge chalet in Park City. So like that's the kind of bespoke experience. And I mean, I picking them up from the airport, I'm creating something that's so memorable, right? That when something comes up again, like people are clamoring to get to it, right?Like they want to be part of this. And then in those events, we meet people, we talk to them, we find out like as a marketer, when I go to events, I talk to people about what their challenges are. Not that I'm selling them anything, right? Because I'm just like, listen, I'm just a simple marketer. But I talk to people about what their challenges are. And then I use that in content marketing. So I write thought leadership to those challenges. Like that's how I fuel the kind of like, you know, like I guess on all ends of marketing, right? I kind of base it on there. But that's kind of, that's where I'm at. And it's been a really three years, right?

Kerry: Three years, done a lot in three years. Yeah.

Taryn: And that's only one discipline. But that's the thing, right? We, I actually, my one humble brag was my best showing on Google on the search return was number three for growth marketing summit. So after this past years, we were doing trailers, we had links to the site, so people could see who attended, we did like little snippets of video.So like video storytelling and social. And I think it was about a month or two after I started working on that and just developing those campaigns. And I went into Google and typed up growth marketing summit, and it was like number three. And I was like, here it is.

Kerry: That's what it's about. Yes. Yes. I have so many questions. I don't know where to start. I think my first question is, what do you see? I mean, you gave us a plethora of different types of events from a very simple walking event to a very complex skiing event. What, what are some the price points of these things in terms of what people can expect to spend?

Taryn: Well, I mean, I think on a GTM event, we were throwing the GTM networking event and it was a Payae party. So we have like two five foot Payae pants, caterer comes in. Because things are like pretty epic. But like, you know, working with AJ Gandhi from the good market leader society and just making it a friction with the event and working on that.With the partners that have contributed to that, we are seeing these events for about, I'd say for 100 people to 150, somewhere between eight and 10,000 total. Okay. That's fair. Right. And then I think on something like the CEO's walking group, I can like even with the liquor and the tequila and the bourbon and everything, like getting all of that together in the food, we're looking at about 1200, right? It's a small event. I think some of it, we rent this huge outlet, right? So the cost for that is about somewhere between 60 and 80,000 because it depends on perhaps other vendors. Like I brought in this year.So you're going to laugh and some people roll their eyes, but I'm creating this experience that I want people just to be immersed in. So we pick them up to the airport side, cars scheduled for everyone's flight arrivals and transport back. I had two masseuses, two massage therapists come on. So right before the session for two hours, if you were done skiing, you can go grab a chair massage, right? And then of course the private chefs, we had two trips, some like snowmobiling in the valley and then we did a snowshoe hike. So like just one activities, right? Yes. But creating these super memorable events. I might go over this book, but that's what we're trying to do, right?

Kerry: Yeah, I just love how it doesn't, again, just coming back to like how doable this is. So let's talk about how, so you have a plan, you have the event, you have a budget. How do you get people to the event?What are sort of your marketing tactics there of getting the word out? Is it by invite only? Is it more of a spray and then let people sort of raise and opt in? What's sort of your approach?

Taryn: It's a mix of things, right? Because I mean, you can set up this amazing event, right? But it's really who you're bringing in there. So if we first start off with requirements, like who are we looking to bring in, right? So when you're not the sound elitist, but we're looking for people that influence the buying decision. And that can be a director, senior director, senior managers even participate on buying teams. But we look for those directors and above in marketing and retail and operations and customer experience and get those senior leaders to come.So that's the first requirement, right? And then it's a partnership between, so we have multiple companies plus ours looking and sponsoring this, then we all invite people within our network. We also have a community from that Thursday night group that we tap into to bring in, right? So we have some of the same people coming in and offering that value or just enhancing the event. But then we also recruit personally from our client list.So people that are in the area or wherever we are with this. So bringing in clients, the leadership team here also invites people. So it's like a multiple, we do, we probably start with the invites because the event schedule is the schedule. So we've talked about somewhere optimally for us. It's about two, two and a half months before the event. We like to get things done. There's been, sometimes we've been a little behind.It's like a week, like a month and a half. And just getting people there. So we know what, how many people we're looking for. We're looking for certain, like type of role, certain type of seniority.And then we work those multiple angles. And then sometimes what, so since I'm a premium LinkedIn person, I do my DMs to people in second levels. So that's how I've also been able to increase the community by 20%.So I do these messages and like, listen, no sales event, but I'd love to have you here. I read your paper, I read your article on this. And I'm, you know, I love your perspective on this.I think you would be a lot of value here. And I get people to come. So like, I start building up and finding so like, I'll be stalking your LinkedIn profile. So if you see me pop up, I'm good. I'm about to invite you to an event.

Kerry: Are the events, you know, with, with the big events, like a dream force, you as the person who's going has to pony up, you know, right? Your company will pay for you to go to these sort of events. Is that the same case here? Is that also how you make some of that? It sounds like there's a couple ways you sort of make that money back. Is that one way or do you rely on sponsors? How do you sort of offset some of those costs?

Taryn: Sponsorship. That's what we've been doing more and more of getting sponsors in there who sponsor with us, right, to offset some of the cost. But we also we also realized that events are one, two or three touches in that nine to eleven to convert somebody. So we have actually seen a couple million dollars of revenue where event marketing in the last three years has been at least one or two touches, right? Because at these events, so like if I my total event expense is about three hundred and sixty thousand, I have me probably five x that maybe actually probably more. It's maybe six x that investment and I'm not including salaries or anything right, but just you know just the event in general. So it's a six x return for us.So we have our team here. So like we'll have a solution architect, the CEO, right, our VP of client, VP of digital transformation. They're the ones meeting with people like the head of revenue when you know we were in fully staffed.And those are the people meeting with the attendees and talking and making that connection and then having that lunch, right, the maybe two weeks from now, right? And that's so we're that's what we're doing. But we're also working on we started doing our first sponsorships. I think it was last November, December, was one of our first sponsorships where it helped offset cost. So I mean, I'm a believer in sponsorships because I mean, you can if you find the right people, you have the right packages to incentivize, you can offset cost up to 30s. I mean, I've heard of one event that happened in Austin, about six weeks ago, was fully paid for by sponsors. And it was a huge thing.

Kerry: So it can be done. For me, I'm happy if I can just offset cost by 30%.

Kerry: What are some of the packages you put together for sponsors? Like, how do you make that? You know, how do you bring them in in a way that makes it valuable to them?

Taryn: So what I'd like to do with sponsors is I give them a chunk of the invite list, right? So I'm like, Listen, this is for you to influence people within your sphere and bring them in. We, it depends on the kind of event. So if it's like a networking event, it's signage, it's support, you know, it's promotion, cross promotion for us as an agency. We also allow for we have a podcast for the CEO called the spark of ages, the logo is right behind me. But it's like, we also offer that too, is like a kind of a placement, right?An opportunity to have a platform like this to share and to talk about and something that you can market yourself or your brand or your company. So like, that's kind of what we do. I did one event on my own for, well, with a partner, but for live podcasts in San Francisco, and we got those sponsors up there, right, where they were able to commit dollars to it, getting their logos up there, they were able to go to the after party, which was a boat cruise around San Francisco at night.So, you know, there were like things like that. So it depends on your event depends on what media channels and what things you have to offer. Like I went to an event that had somebody, you know, really pay for the food, but they had their logo was everywhere, right?Like, I wasn't sure even what Inflation AI did, but their logo was everywhere. They had tables in the room, like, you know, networking with people, really just depends on what you're looking to do.

Kerry: So there's two ways to come about this that I feel like is really helpful. One is as the person who's throwing the event and the cost associated with that, what's the, let's talk about the return for folks on this, because the sounds all lovely and glorious. And then they're going to go throw an event and it's going to be the highlight of the season. And then leadership is going to turn around and go, great. Where's our revenue? Right? Like that's sort of the, so what is, what kind of, what kind of return can they expect? Is that, I mean, I know that it depends. Yeah.

Taryn: So I think like for the first G team event we did, we partnered with saleshood, right? So they're a revenue platform. So, you know, after that event, you know, I had them shifting like, holy crap, that was amazing. Like the points of contact that they had. So for them, it was actually identifying leads that were maybe unknown to them. So like people that we brought in, we had a big chunk of the list that did that, but they actually had actionable stuff, right?And like you said, the devils and the details. So it's always about your follow up and how, like, how good your conversations are. Like for us, it was, I think a total of five or six clients got signed through a series of events, right? So like, and so for us, these events, it's not just a one and done, right?And where it's like magic, you're like, Hey, put down a thousand money, come in, you have to work everything consistently. Like I'm telling you the first day of work after an event weekend, we are going through the contact list. We're looking at, okay, we're going to have lunch with this person. We're going to talk to this person. We're going to send a case study over to this person. We're going through that list and identifying the targets, right?For us to reach out to follow up. And that's how the revenue came in. In terms of like for sponsorships, when you're a smaller brand, right, you can actually get some visibility.So for us with the growth marketing, some of this year, we want to bring in sponsors. So what that means is podcast episode, right? That also means speaking engagement, right? That within the theme that we have for that. So we go with the gentek AI, you know, speak within the theme and show that value to the people because this community that we build, like that WhatsApp group from this year is still active right now after 11 months of people, the people who came and invited other attendees to sit on the board of their companies. Like there is this back and forth flow of just good things happening for the group that's there, right?And it's kept a WhatsApp group alive for 11 months of like people know each other before this event. So doing things and I love what the CEO says, which is we don't ask first, right? We like what can we do for you and how we can do this and then that will be returned to us. So having that active community and then bringing back and tapping into them because one of the people that attended one of my favorite people and I've been to about four or five of his events. But David Dukovic, he actually like so he and I talked at his last summit and it was an AI summit in San Francisco. I asked him, I said, listen, we're doing the growth marketing summit again, but I'm going to need some help finding the right sponsors.So he's willing to help me. So using these events, I'm building connections, like I find all kinds of unique venues. I find good caterers.I also find people that I can connect with to help me identify sponsors or even invite the right people. So like that's the kind of thing. So when you're looking at it from revenue, like I feel like that immediate game, like you're looking and saying like, well, where is the money? We just spent this. That's not how this works, right? You know, and I feel like

Kerry: when you do that,

Taryn: I mean, if you just look at it like where's my stuff right now, that might not happen. Like my stuff was one touch on that way to a couple million in revenue. So like I did my thing, we did our follow ups, right?And a client would have popped up here. I also do events that are hero moments for people, right? So doing panels where I can have people speak, giving them the visibility and audience, right?To influence like creating. So, you know, when I before I joined Pubosus, I was one of their clients with Epsilon before it joined Pubosus or was acquired by Pubosus. So as a JP Morgan VP and having managing Epsilon, they used to create hero moments for me. So they involved, I was the only chase person who ever went to their summit in Florida. You know, so they consistently uplifted me. So that's what I also brought to my practice.So for some of these things, I want to uplift the right people, give them that platform, give them the voice, right, and help build that brand. And then once again, it kind of like pays off as it rolls forward, right?

Kerry: It's a circle of influence motion. So I think there's lots of different ways to create, to be a circle of influence. And I never thought of serial events as such a beautiful way to do that and to build community and then to feed each other in a really wonderful positive way that then it circles back on you. You know, the pay it forward motion is real. And when your service business like we are, the best way to build is to first help and then figure out who else you could help. One of my favorite things to do in terms of circle of influence is finding people who I get to give work to.It's my favorite. If I get to bring a piece of work to somebody, like, and it's a good piece of work that they can really like enjoy and think their teeth into and like have a wonderful experience. And that is like, like such a joy for me.And I'm happy to do that all day, right, for folks. And and I wasn't even expecting it to come back. It's just something I really love to do. And it has, like, it's, I'm like this client will show up. I'm like, Oh, how'd you hear about this? Oh, from this person.And I'd be like, I'll ask them like, they're like, Yeah, we're so grateful for you, like helping me find work. I didn't even think that that was a thing. Right.So finding those moments that really give you joy of how you can pay it forward, you never know. Trying to figure the ROI and everything. I got to ask the questions because I know marketers are listening and I know, you know, I know their leadership's going to turn around and ask them the questions, right. So I got to ask, but I do know in my heart of heart of like, it's not really what it's about. The ROI for what it's about is building those connections, building those relationships, being that circle of influence and helping others.

Taryn: And it's, it's really community building, right? Like you're building a sustainable community, right? That you can, this all things come through and from that. So like, now, I mean, you know how you and I got connected, right?

Kerry: Yes. Probably Trevor Van Warden. Thanks to Trevor.

Taryn: I called you Trevor out of Pavilion Dinner, right? Because I also made events. So I met him and I had connected with him. I didn't realize what I connected with him months before because I wanted to connect with Pavilion members on LinkedIn. So I was talking to him and he had a little pitch there at dinner and he's like, I know, I need to connect with him.And I'm like, awesome, you know, but that's right. Like, that's how like networking and events work, right? Like, I've got a friend of mine who, as I'm building also a fractional practice, I met him in an event in June and we become friends. We've attended a couple of events and we're working like I went up on Monday afternoon and him and I were helping each other and building the debts for our fractional practice. And just like, but you know, and then that community and what's up, somebody was like, I need a PMM stat. Somebody in CyberSec, if you work fractional, so pick up the horn and say, I'm like, Chris, any PMMs you know that are available and work fractional, right?Just connecting people and serve the community. I mean, so yeah, if you want that quick ROI, it might not happen with everything. But if you want that deeper relationship that you're willing to nurture and to grow and to help put together, then I think that pays off in the long run, significantly.

Kerry: There's a couple things that we touched on that I just want to like come back to to make sure people really hear us and love these lovely stories you've told Tara. And one is that it's not just about having one event. It's how you layer them on and build them.The other thing I heard you say in terms of who you invite to these events, it sounds like a wonderful mix of people, not just leading into net new clients, but bringing along existing clients and then you got sponsors and partners in there. Is that did I pick up all that correctly? That's the mix. Yeah. You gotta have a mix.You gotta have a mix. I love that. I think that's so key. And then the ultimate goal being about connection and networking, I think is just really key.And what I loved about this and all of your examples is that there were so many wonderful, the diversity was really wonderful and to think about it not as like you have to make this big splash all the time.

Taryn: You're absolutely right. It's like you got here at like, so when my CEO is like, I want to do the walking group at my house, like we need to think about what we're going to do.I'm like, okay. And don't go overboard. Go nuts. Like, you know, these like lecture me, I'm like, when do I ever do that? I'm like, I'm just creating, I'm creating a bespoke experience, right? Because I don't think it's nuts to do things. Like I feel like I want to do something and just like at that last event, I did the tequila tasting.So when he was like, how do you know this? And I'm like leaving through this tequila tasting. I'm a tequila I've never had. And I was like, I go and find somebody who specializes it and, you know, total wine and more. And I talk to them, I look at the bottles, I tell them what I'm looking for.I go to the site, I research notes, I said, if you just think my events happen through happenstance, then you would be wrong, right? There's preparation, there's education and studying. And there's so much that goes into it. It's like the event is is only a, I don't know, it could be like sometimes for me it's a weekend, right? So the events on a weekend, but there is three weeks of just hardcore focus on everything, of pulling it together.

Kerry: I love that you mentioned it, the devils and the details of it and those memorable moments come from just that, that one thing, whether it was the FOMO of the bourbon tasting or the, the, you know, having a must be able to sit down and have a massage for five seconds. So it, how do you, how do you not eat the elephant? How do you not get overwhelmed? Like, where do you start? And what are some of the high level, like, give us a little bit of a framework here for us to start working within?

Taryn: Well, I mean, it really starts with what I'm trying to accomplish, right? So, like, if I identify the level of the event, so for me, let's say it's, it's either the GTM networking, it's the dinners, or like, you know, the walking group thing, or we're doing an AI and marketing session, right? So like maybe speaking and education.So finding that event and then every defining that defining the audience, and then you work down from there, right? So like for me, if I did the AI and marketing session, I need a facility in the area that people can easily commute to, right? Because in the Bay Area, the traffic is insane. So like even getting somebody from like, you know, the peninsula, which Palo Alto and stuff, down to Santa Clara is impossible, right? So going to Palo Alto, I was able to rent an event space.That was an old theater, right? So like, but it starts with what kind of event, what kind of venue do I need? And what, and who are the people that are coming and where are they? And then I go from there, I find that spot in Palo Alto, I connect with the right caterers, right? And then pull that all together, get the speakers locked down, you know, invite that class of people that I want to hit from in the new community and the existing community.And then it all comes together by start with the basics, right? What are you trying to accomplish? You know, what's your audience?Where are your audience, right? Because like in Patent Park City, everybody's got to fly in. And something like this, because West Coast, right? I think this one that we're planning, we might have two people from the UK, right?Coming. So it's like, logistically, there's a lot to handle. So but start with your basics of what you want to accomplish. What are you setting out to do? What is the core of it? What's that experience you're building? And then who's coming and where are they? Right? And just go from there and then everything else clicks into it.

Kerry: It sounds like you never go at this alone. You definitely have the vision. What you don't go at it alone, who are sort of your go to, is it like the partners you use over and over again?Do you find new partners every time? And then who within your team do you like, you know, buddy up with to say, isn't an executive, is it an assistant? Is it office manager? Is it other teams within, you know, if you're, if you're doing this from marketing perspective, do you bring sales into it? Do you bring product into it? Like, who are you? Yeah. How do you, how do you, you know, rally? How do I make it happen?

Taryn: So basically, depending on the size of the event, so I have a marketing specialist and a marketing off sales off specialist, right? So they're like my core team. So we're working together logistically planning this out, like who's coming when, okay, when are the cleaners coming for the space, you know, and just planning this all out.So that's the core team are EA. So she's been with me for two years and been on almost every one of our events. She's done the walking groups with me. And then she's like her and I working together and setting an example and showing her like, this is what we got to do.This is what you got to handle. I was able to travel during two or three walking groups and have her manage and set up this event perfectly. Right. So like helping her and she would do it also with the team, but getting her in the right mindset. So I'm like, I'm trying to get her to become that event marketing specialist, right? Because I want her to expand her capability because she's very capable and has a new like that never ending drive. So I'm like, let's get you involved and get you in here and activate, you know, the leadership side, it's usually like the VP of digital transformation, the CEO, the VP of ops, the VP of client and the head of revenue pulling them together and planning some stuff, talking about the logistics, talking about the invites, working with them and driving them. And sometimes like her and cats, let's be honest, driving them to pick a theme for the growth marketing summit.Right. I think a genetic AI is something we should be talking about because it's, it's coming very robustly, very quickly. And it'll be here before you know, it's here now, but I mean, in five years from now, I don't think we will recognize where, you know, kind of where we thought we would be with this.

Kerry: It'll be in everything.

Taryn: It'll just be part of everything. I mean, I saw one guy say that there could be an agent talking to another agent, then they both realized they need a human and then they go to another agent to hire a human to fulfill something. So like that's the future. I think we should talk about that as the theme, but I got to get the leadership team around that. Right. And then we got to find the speakers, then we got to find the sponsors, right, who maybe aren't competing with us. They do something that maybe what might be similar, but they add value. That's kind of how we do it. But that's like the team.

Kerry: Yeah. My executive assistant is my saving everything when we do our annual summit every year. It like it is all about Queen Cathy because she pulls it at she at like a rabbit out of a hat every time. And I had her on site with me for the first time last year. And I will never go back to not having her on site. It was a game changer just from like getting everybody in the room on time and promising them that I would order them coffee if they did it. Like, if you're in the room, Cathy will order you coffee and we'll have it delivered.

It'll be glorious. Right. Yeah. And then when things would go sideways, like to have her there knowing all the logistics of executive assistants are just unsung heroes of that planning of everything, but especially about planning.

Taryn: Becker is marketing summit this year. Her and I were like, we're so we split a room. So we're like in there, we're planning gift bags, we're loading up gift bags, we're over here, we're shopping, right, because we want to get the materials for the concierge to come for people. You know, and we're just like, we're all together. Her and I spent seven days together for 80 hours, put this whole thing together. And like on the flight, like it was her and I were the last two to leave, of course, first there, last that last leave.

So it was her birthday weekend. So I was like, I'm like, let's go get patties. So good. Just went in the airport and just did it. I was like, yeah, thanks for everything. That is, oh, that's so good.

Kerry: I, I'm so grateful for this conversation, Teran. You have definitely sparked so many ideas for me. And I'm sure for so many others of how we can bring event planning into our marketing strategy, not as a one off. That was my big aha moment with this and I am grateful for it.

So thank you so much. Before we go, two things. One is, is there any last piece of advice for people who are who are now you've sparked interest in their thinking about how to get going at 2025? Any last words of wisdom in embracing events and leaning into it?

Taryn: Just figure out what you're trying to accomplish, right? And know that, you know, it doesn't have to be grandiose, right? It can be small, small things are targeted, but just figure, like figure out what you're trying to accomplish. Like if your thing is about brand activation, like how are you going to do it?

Right. And just like, just go really high level. Look at what you're trying to accomplish and what you want to do and just focus that on there.

I love that. Because it can be overwhelming, right? If you've got this calendar, this 30 events, I mean, like for me, last year was insane, you know, and it was like, just a ton of stuff and can be overwhelming. So just start small, start with one or two. Where could people find you? They can find me on LinkedIn, Tarentally1 and Instagram, Tarentally1 and Blue Sky, Tarentally.

Kerry: Look at you getting the, you know, not even the one on Blue Sky. Look at you go. That is everybody's headed there. I'm headed there myself. I'm excited for it. I'm loving it.

Oh, okay. We could do a whole show on that. Before we go, Tarent, because you are more than a marketer. You're more than a marketer. You live in the Bay Area, a near and dear place to me. What are you both looking forward to as you're closing out 2025 here? Anything personally going on that's like exciting and you're like,

Taryn: I'm just, you know, for me, just wrapping up strong, right? Like I start the year with a huge strategy and plan and, you know, December is all about me just looking at the tactics and seeing what we have accomplished and being able to report back on that and start planning, you know, right now, you know, I need to be planning for next year, you know. So like for me, it's like that December is just kind of like focused on the data.

We're in spreadsheets the month of December. So like that's my jam. And just, yeah.

And then just trying to like enjoy some time and, you know, just kick back once in a while. D-press. Good. Gear up. Yeah. Then we walk, then rearm, resupply and get back in it.

Kerry: Yeah, that's amazing. Thank you to all of our listeners. If you like this episode, please like, subscribe and share. This episode was brought to you by MKG Marketing, the digital marketing agency that helps complex brands get found via SEO and digital ads.This podcast is hosted by me, Kerry Gard, CEO and co-founder of MKG Marketing. And if you want to be a guest, DM me. I'd love to have you on. I'd love to have a conversation just like this one. Thank you all so much. Thank you, Tara.