Paula: Welcome to Let’s Talk Loyalty, an industry podcast for loyalty marketing professionals.
Paula: I’m your host, Paula Thomas, and if you work in loyalty marketing, join me every week to learn the latest ideas from loyalty specialists around the world.
Paula: Hello and welcome to today’s episode of Let’s Talk Loyalty, which is an utter joy.
Paula: We are coming to the end of 2024, and I have my friends here, Bill Hanifin and Aaron Dauphinee from The Wise Marketer Group.
Paula: To share, I suppose, a look back, first of all, in terms of some amazing work that Bill and Aaron have done throughout 2024, which I am just blown away by, and to talk through some exciting changes for 2025 when we are going to go even further in terms of what we’re doing and co-creating.
Paula: So let me first of all by saying welcome to Bill Hanifin and to Aaron Dauphinee.
Bill: It’s a real pleasure to be here, Paula.
Bill: Thanks.
Aaron: Hi, Paula.
Aaron: It’s so great to see you again.
Aaron: How are you doing?
Paula: I’m doing super well.
Paula: In fact, as we’re recording this, I’m already looking forward to getting on a plane to Dublin, which is when anybody listening to this episode will actually be hearing it.
Paula: I will literally be jetting back home.
Paula: So definitely exciting times.
Paula: The festive season is very special, I think, for so many of us.
Paula: So let me get straight into, first of all, saying a huge thank you.
Paula: You guys have co-created 46 episodes for Let’s Talk Loyalty throughout this year.
Paula: We’ve had an incredible partnership already for many years, and this was a whole new level.
Paula: I probably asked way too much in hindsight in terms of asking you to literally do a weekly episode, but it has been extraordinary.
Paula: So Bill, I’ll come to you first just to reflect maybe a little bit on why you were excited as somebody who’s already creating so much content for your own channels.
Paula: Why did you want to get involved with our show and how it’s been for this year working together?
Bill: Oh, thanks so much.
Bill: It is hard to believe 46 episodes.
Bill: Somehow or another, the year has gone by, and Aaron and I would do these progressively, and it doesn’t seem that many, but that’s fantastic.
Bill: That’s really good to know.
Bill: I’ll tell you what, it was an honor and also a challenge for us to do this.
Bill: I’ll tell you why.
Bill: We had just started on this process of content rebirth, recreation, looking at all the courses in the Loyalty Academy.
Bill: When you came up with the idea and said, why don’t we create some podcasts and address different topics throughout the year, it was perfect timing really.
Bill: What it did is it challenged both Aaron and I intellectually, and we were already looking at the courses, we were thinking about things, and we read, see here, talk to so many people, and so it all goes into the sifter.
Bill: But sometimes if you don’t have a reason to sift it and come out with some conclusions and some new ideas, then you just don’t do it.
Bill: So we were at that point where we had so many things in inventory, if you want to say, and things that were unresolved.
Bill: So we thought about, well, maybe there’s a different take on rewards, or what really is the impact of AI on loyalty, those kinds of sort of things.
Bill: We was there, but it was in the background.
Bill: And so this gave us the opportunity to kind of crystallize all of that.
Bill: And so every month it was, I mean, Aaron, I think you’ll say it was work, right?
Aaron: Yeah, it was certainly an effort, I would say for sure, but a positive, fun, enjoyable effort.
Aaron: Like there wasn’t, it didn’t feel like quote unquote work.
Aaron: It felt more like building and more inspirational, as particularly as we were going through that revisioning of the courseware that we were talking about.
Bill: Yeah, exactly.
Bill: And we challenged ourselves.
Bill: That was the other thing, is we started to look at what was in some of that material, and we said, I don’t know if that’s the case anymore, or is it really, or we have full respect for the, but we started to use the term the OGs, so the OGs of loyalty, the various people that contributed to all that content.
Bill: And we said, a lot of it applies, and some of it’s changed, let’s be honest.
Bill: So let’s just move, let’s get to the current state.
Bill: So I think what people that listen to the content throughout the year probably really got current thinking, truly.
Aaron: I think also, if I could just add, one of the things that we challenged ourselves on was the art of a short story.
Aaron: Well, because both Bill and I can tend to be somewhat a little verbose at times.
Aaron: So to have this format where you’re trying to articulate your ideas, get definitions down, for common understanding, set a baseline, then extend into application and real life examples, you know, to do that all in a fairly condensed timeframe, you know, we started at the beginning of the year, aiming for about 10 minutes to add on with the edits.
Aaron: And now by the end, we were getting into 15 to 18, which makes it about a 20 minutes segment for us, of Bill and I going back and forth.
Aaron: And we were nervous about that, Paula.
Aaron: You know, about mid-year, we were really getting stressed of saying we need to get this tidbit down.
Aaron: But fortunately, some of your listeners from Let’s Talk Loyalty, at that point, we’d been at a number of conferences, and we were getting people coming up to us saying, hey, Let’s Talk Loyalty is something that we listen to all the time.
Aaron: And your particular segment, you’re doing really well.
Aaron: We’re really enjoying the sessions that you’re talking about, the topics that you’re covering.
Aaron: And so for us to get that positive feedback, we were a little more comfortable stretching out the conversation.
Aaron: But, you know, in a podcast format, we’re still kind of feel very good about keeping to that kind of no more than 20 minute mark for us.
Aaron: And for next, that will be a similar goal for us, I think, in terms of even the new format that we go forward with.
Paula: Amazing.
Paula: Yeah.
Paula: And thanks for that, because, yes, I mean, you know, asking you guys to have the banter, as you said, of the amazing working relationship you guys have.
Paula: You have a lot to cover off.
Paula: And there’s so many case studies and examples.
Paula: So I got amazing feedback throughout the year from people who would probably instantly spot a headline and know that it was you guys, because the copy is so clever.
Paula: It’s like way above my pay grade.
Paula: So that’s your writing expertise.
Paula: So people can spot your work for sure.
Paula: And yeah, for me, it’s honestly an honor to have access to your brain power.
Paula: And there was one particular stat that I just found in preparation for today, which I thought I’d surprise you with because I just think it’s incredible.
Paula: And it’s something I haven’t done enough work on in terms of understanding, you know, how different episodes perform and what, you know, what does a good episode look like?
Paula: But there was a particular one you guys did.
Paula: And it was on October 22nd, episode number 604.
Paula: And you gave it the title Top Line on Analytical Approaches.
Paula: And would you believe the completion rate, which is a very kind of podcast techie term, was 97% on that episode.
Paula: So I’ve never seen a 97% completion rate because people usually tune out towards the end.
Paula: So I just want to say, wow, and well done.
Paula: And you kept people hooked to the very end.
Paula: It was amazing.
Aaron: Well, that that certainly sets the bar high for us in terms of for next year.
Aaron: But thank you for sharing that stat.
Aaron: I mean, we are fairly analytically minded.
Aaron: And so maybe that’s something that lends into it.
Aaron: If we come from a, you know, facts based decision making is our kind of mantra.
Aaron: And the reason why we’re in the industry that we’re in, quite frankly, I’ve I’ve always said that I know I’m having worked with Bill over the last 20 years now.
Aaron: We both have a similar mindset of coming from the numbers to make the insights and then go forward with that.
Aaron: So, yeah, context for us on the successes.
Paula: Amazing, amazing.
Paula: So I think the most important thing then for everyone listening around the world is things are changing.
Paula: And I might just give a bit of context around that.
Paula: And all changing for the better.
Paula: I guess our role as hosts is to make sure that everything we continue to publish is of maximum value, as we’ve just proven with that particular statistic.
Paula: And I guess something that I have been finally getting around to doing, and my bad, I should have been doing it a long time ago, but we’re starting to do more surveys and more listening to the audience.
Paula: And that’s something I really want to continue on a much more frequent basis throughout 2025 to kind of really get a sense of what people like about what we do.
Paula: And if they don’t like it, of course, then we need to know about it.
Paula: And amazingly, the first thing that we realized is we are actually, we’ve been producing so much content, all for good reason, because of all the amazing hosts that we have and we wanted to share so much.
Paula: But it’s actually gotten to the point, actually, where I think we’re publishing so much that most people, including me, don’t get to listen to every single episode.
Paula: So we decided to ask people what they would prefer as our actual release frequency in 2025.
Paula: So, hard to off the presses, this is the first time we’re announcing this, but instead of three episodes per week, as we have been doing in 2024, we’re reducing to two episodes per week in 2025.
Paula: So from a Let’s Talk Loyalty perspective, we will be much more able to catch our breath and make sure that we can promote all of the content that we’re doing with you guys, because literally there’ll be more space in between each episode.
Paula: And I think you both realized or alluded to the fact that there is so much work involved and such a huge responsibility as well.
Paula: I think, Bill, you made the point before we came on air that it is a big responsibility.
Paula: We can’t just show up on the microphone and wing it.
Paula: We do have to do a lot of preparation.
Paula: So that’s a Let’s Talk Loyalty announcement, which is amazing from my perspective.
Paula: I’ve said to a lot of people, I want to be able to work on the business and listen to loyalty professionals in order to serve them, of course.
Paula: But there’s lots of ways to serve them rather than just publishing more and more podcasts.
Paula: So that’s good news.
Paula: The second piece is you guys have covered, as you said, the entire Loyalty Academy, the modules, you’ve re-looked at them, re-digested them, re-presented them.
Paula: So we’ve come to the end of the Loyalty Academy focus in terms of the content that you’re producing every Tuesday.
Paula: So now I think the best way to explain going forward is that you guys are going to start doing interview-type content as well.
Paula: Exactly as we love on this show and why I called it Let’s Talk Loyalty, is we can talk to cool people about what they do.
Paula: And again, just from an audience perspective, you know, quite simply, for example, Aaron will do one show every month interviewing certain people.
Paula: And I’ll come to you, Aaron, just to talk about the type of people you’re hoping to talk to and similarly Bill will do one episode every month.
Paula: So we’ll get more access to your brain power and less work for you both.
Paula: Because again, the workload, you won’t need to be doing one a week.
Paula: Now you’ll be doing one a month.
Paula: So, Aaron, I’ll just come to you.
Paula: First of all, you’ve got an amazing network.
Paula: And again, over 20 years in the industry, I think we probably shouldn’t be counting.
Paula: But just, yeah, in terms of what you’re hoping, you know, on the interview side now as we move into 2025, what are you thinking about in terms of the type of interviews you want to be conducting?
Aaron: Yeah, thanks, Paula.
Aaron: You know, we’re excited to try our kick at the can at the format that you’ve had traditionally with your other hosts as well, too.
Aaron: But at the same time, still hold on to a bit of heritage of that nice banter conversation back and forth.
Aaron: So, you know, whether it’s Bill or I that are hosting in the two sessions a month that we’ll be working on, Let’s Talk Loyalty with The Wiser Loyalty Series, what we’ll be looking to do is to extend those conversations in a way that flow around a topic, like we’ll anchor it still in something, and it will probably draw back in most instances to something that is from the curriculum in some form, but not so pedantic that it’s theoretical.
Aaron: What we’re really trying to get to is the actionability and the application with the individual that we’re interviewing to say, hey, here’s a loyalty truth or an OG point of view.
Aaron: What’s your take on that and how do you apply it in terms of your real world experience in the past or in currently in the role that you’re in?
Aaron: I think what you’ll see from us is a invitation to a number of individuals that have that practitioner side of view, but also are steeped in terms of executive understanding, so all of which is to say that you’ll probably hear from a number of CLMPs that have that heritage from us.
Aaron: That makes sense and is a tie back to that curriculum that they would have come and taken and then now are utilizing in their careers.
Aaron: But then also we want to bring forth a higher order level conversation with executives at the C-suite.
Aaron: To do that, maybe I’ll turn it over to Bill because he’s spent a good legacy of time bringing together a brand new partnership that we just announced that will give us access to senior marketers, particularly those at the CMO level.
Bill: Yeah, thanks, Aaron.
Bill: Yeah, things do seem to come together over time.
Bill: And you never know when they’re going to make that intersection.
Bill: But we started to have conversations with the Chief Marketing Officer, the CMO Council is the formal name.
Bill: And it was almost two years ago, believe it or not.
Bill: And so we had some light discussions and ultimately bring it fast forward.
Bill: We have a partnership with them now that’s content related.
Bill: That’s also Loyalty Academy related.
Bill: And the beauty of the CMO Council is all the 16,000 plus members in there, and I think 65,000 people totally in their group.
Bill: And throughout North America, and I think all the Americas goes beyond that, it’s international.
Bill: It’s a really good group of people.
Bill: So we were working on that and it took time for it to all come together.
Bill: But at the same time, it seemed like every place that Aaron and I went during 2024, people said, hey, we like this content in the Loyalty Academy.
Bill: But you know what?
Bill: We’re really interested in more of a C level, C-suite level content.
Bill: We want to view on what’s really, what do they need to know and what do they need to be thinking about?
Bill: So the two of those things come together.
Bill: So the guests that we’re going to have, I know that we’re both thinking about this, but the guests will be C level people in just about every instance.
Bill: And with your permission, we might have a couple of CEOs as well as the CMOs.
Bill: You know, I love the founder story.
Bill: I love to hear about people that have really accomplished something because there are inevitably these stories of struggle, accomplishment, challenge, all those things that we sometimes all we see is the success at the end.
Bill: And it’s fascinating to hear the whole story of how they went from A to Z.
Bill: So anyway, this will be, I think, very high level content.
Bill: It will be an opportunity to listen to people that you truly would like to be able to meet in real life.
Bill: So we’re excited about that.
Paula: Yeah.
Paula: And huge congratulations on that partnership with the CMO Council.
Paula: I did realize it was 16,000 CMOs.
Paula: That is mind blowing.
Paula: So an extraordinary partnership.
Paula: And I just love the fact, I mean, again, you know, we talk very regularly as friends and in the industry.
Paula: And we were thinking along similar lines, but at the same time, not quite.
Paula: It hadn’t come to fruition until recently.
Paula: Again, I didn’t know you were doing anything in that space.
Paula: But again, I was hearing the same feedback.
Paula: And you certainly don’t need my permission to talk to a CEO, Bill.
Paula: And even CFOs, like to me, there is an extremely important stakeholder group that we’re all accountable to.
Paula: So whatever CXOs are relevant and have a perspective.
Paula: We’d love to have them on the show.
Paula: The way I’ve been reflecting on it myself.
Paula: And again, hopefully all of our hosts will be able to do this in their own different markets.
Paula: But I was beginning to feel, and it’s probably because I’ve been doing this show now for over five years.
Paula: But I just felt like we’re getting to become a little bit of an echo chamber.
Paula: I am having similar conversations with people.
Paula: And maybe the audience haven’t heard it before.
Paula: But I know that I’m starting to feel like this is a little bit repetitive.
Paula: Doesn’t make it any less valid.
Paula: But I know that everybody’s accountable to somebody at that boardroom table.
Paula: So for me, it’s definitely a case of C-suite is the way we want to go.
Paula: And then you came in with this incredible solution.
Paula: So CMOs, we are dying to hear from you, anybody listening.
Paula: And I definitely think that there is a lot to learn both from them and obviously for them as well, from my own perspective.
Paula: And I’ll talk maybe a little bit about my own hosting plans for 2025.
Paula: But I’ve already got two CEOs.
Paula: One is a publicly listed company in Australia, which is building and launching a loyalty program for the very first time.
Paula: And to know that the CEO is listening to our show and making all of his team listen as they build the program is extraordinarily exciting for me.
Paula: And then one of the huge conglomerates here in the UAE has a new CEO who’s a big believer in loyalty and he’s agreed to come on the show as well.
Paula: So I’m slowly working behind the scenes, of course, as well, to bring those people to the fore.
Paula: So great minds think alike.
Paula: So let me just briefly then touch on, I suppose, just what I’ll be doing in 2025 and then maybe just come to you guys to talk a bit about loyalty TV, because that’s the other big news, of course, in terms of what you’ll be producing.
Paula: So again, just for everybody listening, what I love doing, I realized, of course, is talking about loyalty, but also this idea of building our content, building our business, making sure this content gets in front of as many people as possible.
Paula: So I just want more time and opportunity to go and see how I can build Let’s Talk Loyalty and Loyalty TV in new and exciting ways that I haven’t even thought about yet.
Paula: But yes, for me, I want to do less hosting and more business management.
Paula: So that’s the way that I am framing my own work in 2025.
Paula: So given that we’ve talked about, we’ll be doing two a week.
Paula: So basically eight a month.
Paula: So we’ll have yourselves, of course, as we said, The Wiser Loyalty Series.
Paula: So this will remain, that branding will remain.
Paula: So that’s super cool.
Paula: We love that.
Paula: We’ll still have Amanda Cromhout down in South Africa, Carly Neubauer in Australia, Charlie Hilton in the UK and Alejandro Sall in Mexico.
Paula: So six hosts plus me.
Paula: So I’ll be doing only two episodes a month.
Paula: So yay for me.
Paula: And I don’t know what I’m going to do with all of this time.
Paula: But yes, I’m certainly excited and it feels like a big step forward.
Paula: So again, thank you guys for stepping in because I wouldn’t be able to look at that focus and build our audience.
Paula: If you guys weren’t part of that journey.
Paula: So yeah, so the other big topic then, as I said, is loyalty TV.
Paula: Again, to go back to our survey, we asked people, you know, what format they prefer.
Paula: So we are still very much an audio-led business.
Paula: Everybody knows us as Let’s Talk Loyalty.
Paula: But loyalty TV is beginning to take on a life of its own.
Paula: And again, as I get more time for marketing, please got to learn how to optimize for YouTube, which bizarrely I have discovered is a much more powerful platform than even LinkedIn for business content.
Paula: So that’s something that I need to leverage again, to build all of our profiles.
Paula: So you guys are going to be on camera, looking pretty and all of your guests as well.
Paula: So that was just something I wanted to make sure that everybody listening today, even though today we’re not on camera, of course, we’re only on audio.
Paula: But what I really want to suppose is everyone to understand that sometimes there is value, I think, in sitting down and watching an episode.
Paula: And what I’ve noticed about my own content behavior is sometimes I will watch something on YouTube, but I’ll put it on the TV.
Paula: So I will enjoy the video format on my sofa, whereas my audio consumption typically happens maybe when I go out for a walk, or I’m in the car, for example.
Paula: So Bill, I’ll just come to you maybe first of all, in terms of loyalty TV.
Paula: I know you’ve done loads of content on video, but how do you think it’s going to work for The Wiser Loyalty Series to come on loyalty TV from 2025?
Bill: It’s remarkable to think my behavior is very much like yours.
Bill: These days, if I’m not finding some interesting movie or some sporting event or something like that, more times than not, I don’t find anything that interesting on the streaming channels.
Bill: And so I go to YouTube.
Bill: I’m opening up YouTube all the time, and I’m finding interesting content.
Bill: And sometimes some of the podcasts I’ve mentioned, a couple others that are more like lifestyle things or something to you.
Bill: But I’ll watch those in video.
Bill: And it’s engaging in a way.
Bill: You can watch it like a show.
Bill: If I happen to be in that phase where I’m driving for two hours, sure, I’m going to plug it in and listen to it that way.
Bill: But I think it’s a really delightful way.
Bill: It brings you closer to people.
Bill: I think it gives you a feeling of who the people are.
Bill: You get to see a little bit of interaction.
Bill: And so I love the Loyalty TV format.
Bill: And like you, you have more hard statistics, probably at the tip of your fingers.
Bill: But the podcast format, I mean, we know that all customers are different.
Bill: I think of it that way, like a Loyalty program.
Bill: But your listeners are different.
Bill: Sometimes they want to watch, sometimes they want to listen.
Bill: But the podcast medium is so powerful.
Bill: And I’ve been reading more and more about how it’s, and this is not to make a patronizing comment, but just to say factually that this is how people are consuming content.
Bill: And then people are educating themselves, quote unquote, by doing exactly what you said, sitting down on the couch, just enjoying a little video on YouTube.
Bill: So I’m really looking forward to it.
Bill: It’ll be a lot of fun.
Paula: Yeah, absolutely.
Paula: And thanks for making that point, Bill.
Paula: And one of my favorite marketers, I’m sure a lot of the audience are familiar with Professor Scott Galloway.
Paula: And he is a professor of marketing at NYU Stern.
Paula: I hope I’ve got his title correct there, but he obviously is a prolific content producer.
Paula: And again, I know everybody listening to this show consumes different formats, as you said, but he literally described how people interact with him and he will know how they consume his content, which has been exactly my experience.
Paula: He said if they’re high-fiving him and really behaving in a very fun and casual way, they’re probably watching him on YouTube.
Paula: They’re consuming video content.
Paula: He said if they behave like a long lost friend that he hasn’t seen in a couple of years, it means they’re listening to him audio because that emotional loyalty is so much more powerful when you have this intimate form of communication.
Paula: I genuinely use that word very intentionally.
Paula: So you’re absolutely right.
Paula: Video has a role to play and most people say you explode once you go on video.
Paula: But I still feel more connected when I listen to somebody’s voice.
Paula: I think there’s a lot of nuance there.
Paula: So I think it is incredibly powerful.
Paula: For me, of course, it doesn’t really matter whether people listen or watch.
Paula: But certainly the feedback was that some people do want that video format.
Paula: And as you’re sitting down with the microphone and with the guest, and you’ve done all the work, why would you not just click on the big green button?
Paula: So Aaron, I don’t know how you’re feeling about your Loyalty TV debut.
Paula: I know you’re well able.
Paula: But how are you feeling?
Aaron: Yeah, I mean, I don’t know if it’s a debut, because if you recall back one of your first Loyalty TV episodes was me, I think.
Paula: That’s true.
Paula: As a guest, of course.
Paula: Yes.
Aaron: I would say a year or some later, much learned skills in terms of how we would conduct interviews and even in the industry.
Aaron: I would say the merging of the mediums is the way I’d describe it for, it’s just become a natural way of consumption of interesting facts and thoughts and perspectives, which is very much more near to how we do it in person and in real world.
Aaron: So to have that flexibility with, as they say, 80-some on, I’m getting the number wrong, but I’m Santa Cordo.
Aaron: Then communication is non-verbal, right?
Aaron: So in your example of Dr.
Aaron: Galloway, you’ve got this idea where people who consume it one way are then responding in the same mannerisms as he would and understanding that flow.
Aaron: But at the same time, to your point about intimacy, I love that by the way, if you remove one sense, then you over index on the other sense.
Aaron: And so by virtue of that, you’re really focused on the intonation, the intent, the articulation of the words and what the individual is actually saying in the podcast medium.
Aaron: So it does get much more intimate.
Aaron: And that’s probably why many folks, you know, at the end of the evening put on a podcast or listen to something to calm themselves, to put them to sleep.
Aaron: I know there’s the old adage about Matthew McConaughey putting you to sleep, right?
Aaron: I’ve done it actually a couple of times.
Aaron: I’ve listened to him.
Aaron: He has a soothing, eloquent, articulate voice.
Aaron: And he’s made some very good commentary, even if he’s just reading from a story line.
Aaron: So I’m excited about the visual aspect coming in as well, too.
Aaron: As I said, it’s, or I think you said, pardon me, both Bill and I are familiar to this format, so we’re comfortable with it.
Aaron: And we’re excited to be able to still keep that level of intimacy to some degree.
Aaron: Maybe that’s to call the action for us, is to try to keep that level of intimacy and bring it forward into loyalty TV.
Paula: Yeah, yeah.
Paula: Very well said, Aaron.
Paula: And absolutely again, I suppose my role is to make sure that we maximize how many people we can reach.
Paula: And I suppose with our shared objective, particularly around the CMO community, the other kind of amazing thing I learned again, just as a small business owner, and I’m sure you guys will recognize this as well, LinkedIn is a platform we all use, but it’s very short form content.
Paula: You publish something and it’s gone within the hour.
Paula: But in YouTube, in fact, that doesn’t happen.
Paula: And so I have learned because it is a search engine owned by Google, the content is there forever.
Paula: So I think we can build up, dare I say it, much more loyalty.
Paula: Once people start discovering us and subscribing to Loyalty TV on YouTube, then we will all, I think, get much more attention from people who maybe would never attend a loyalty conference, never have heard of any of us, and maybe discover our content for the first time.
Paula: So please God, by you guys showing up, as I said, on video as well as in audio, we’ll be reaching new people and taking everything to amazing new heights in 2025.
Aaron: Yeah, we’re looking forward to it.
Aaron: It’s going to be fun.
Paula: It’s going to be super fun.
Paula: So I think that’s all the big news from my perspective.
Paula: As I said, we’re now winding down and certainly we’ll be sending out an email to everybody at the end of this week just to first of all say we’ll be taking a Christmas break for the first time in 2024.
Paula: We’re going to catch our breath and we’re going to all take just a brief respite as we reflect on all of the incredible work that we’ve talked about and prepare for 2025.
Paula: So from my perspective, as I said, I just want to say a huge thank you to both of you for being great partners and great friends and continuing to do extraordinary work.
Paula: Our audience definitely loves you and maybe just give you both an opportunity if there’s anything else you want to say.
Paula: Before we wrap up, Aaron, I might come to you first of all, just to see if you have any closing words of wisdom.
Aaron: Yeah, I don’t know if they’re words of wisdom, but they are certainly words of thanks to echo what you just said.
Aaron: It’s been wonderful, our partnership since 2020 and particularly over the last year, getting much more frequency in terms of that connection on that partnership through The Wiser Loyalty Series on Let’s Talk Loyalty.
Aaron: I just want to say that we’ve had a lot of fun and you’ve done an excellent job of bringing together a great minds in terms of this network.
Aaron: Doing a podcast is, as we alluded to earlier in this conversation, it’s just not easy.
Aaron: It takes some time and some dedication and some effort to be able to pull it together in a smart consistent way over time.
Aaron: It’s not to say that there’s a lot of people out there say, hey, I’m going to start a podcast and they go and they do, but to really have it consistently and have it be the success and recognized in an industry that doesn’t give a lot of accolades out just fairly easily.
Aaron: You have created a network that is strongly recognized as the number one podcast network, and that’s why we chose to partner with you because we wanted to align on working with the best of the best in the industry.
Aaron: Thank you for that opportunity.
Aaron: It’s what I’ll do as a closing, and then maybe I’ll turn it to Bill because he’s much wiser than I am and he can offer the words of wisdom.
Bill: I can feel that patronizing remark, but thank you very much anyway.
Bill: Everything that you said 100 percent agree with, and I’ll just end this with a short story because one of the most riveting moments in the last 18 months that I’ll always remember this.
Bill: But Paula and I were both speaking at a corporate event, and to my knowledge, we were the only two outside speakers that were invited to be at this event.
Bill: It was quite large, it was very large.
Bill: And we were at a break at some point in a big group of people.
Bill: And I remember meeting people and they were saying, oh, and Bill, it’s great to meet you and everything else.
Bill: And Paula was standing next to me.
Bill: And it was as if this rush of people just went past me.
Bill: And they went, oh, my gosh, it’s Paula Thomas.
Bill: And then I heard people saying, I’ve never met you, but I recognize your voice.
Bill: And it was so amazing.
Bill: So it said something to me about one, what you built, two, your comment about the medium and listening to somebody, and three, it was kind of humbling.
Bill: I went, yeah, okay.
Bill: So she…
Bill: So anyway, that just tells it, just echoes why we are grateful to be part of this.
Bill: And we really appreciate, we enjoy it.
Bill: And thanks for the opportunities to be able to share with the audience.
Bill: And we’ve been glad to get some great feedback.
Paula: Oh, thank you for that, Bill, that I do remember that moment.
Paula: Honestly, I was equally blown away because it’s one thing for people to recognize maybe a face or a photo from LinkedIn, but people were coming from behind going, you must be Paula Thomas.
Paula: And I’m like, holy God.
Bill: I know, 2025 will be a good year.
Paula: It totally will.
Paula: And some of the audience will know that my husband nicknamed me the the Oprah of loyalty.
Paula: And that’s my new favorite tagline.
Paula: So I am absolutely positioning myself there.
Paula: But as I said, it’s an honor and a privilege.
Paula: Again, we were the very first dedicated loyalty podcast.
Paula: And of course, our ambition is to remain the best.
Paula: I actually did a quick search today.
Paula: There’s a new tool available for podcasters.
Paula: And when you type in the keyword loyalty on Apple podcasts, we are the number one on a very long list of, I think there was about a hundred on the list, of course, for the dictionary term loyalty as well as the industry.
Paula: But we are number one on Apple podcasts for the search terms.
Paula: So well done, everyone.
Paula: And I’m looking forward to an incredible 2025.
Paula: So on that note, Bill Hanifin and Aaron Dauphinee from The Wise Marketer Group and The Wiser Loyalty Series.
Paula: Thank you so much from Let’s Talk Loyalty.
Aaron: Thank you very much.
Bill: Thanks, Paula.
Paula: Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Let’s Talk Loyalty.
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Paula: And don’t forget that you can follow Let’s Talk Loyalty on any of your favorite podcast platforms.
Paula: And of course, we’d love for you to share your feedback and reviews.
Paula: Thanks again for supporting the show.
Paula: This show is sponsored by Wise Marketer Group, publisher of The Wise Marketer, the premier digital customer loyalty marketing resource for industry relevant news, insights and research.
Paula: Wise Marketer Group also offers loyalty education and training globally through its Loyalty Academy, which has certified nearly 900 marketeers and executives in 49 countries as certified loyalty marketing professionals.
Paula: For global coverage of customer engagement and loyalty, check out thewisemarketer.com and become a Wiser Marketer or Subscriber.
Paula: Learn more about global loyalty education for individuals or corporate training programs at loyaltyacademy.org.
