All About Google Day 2020 in Sundance, UT

Interviewees of this podcast were, in order of appearance:

Luke Alley

James Lawrence

R. George Banner

Nicole Jensen

Beau Graves

Maxwell Pond

Jason Passey

Heather Farmer

Christine Baird

Adam Reader

Dale & Nancy Murphy

Casey Space

James Brown

Adam Durfee

Scott Porter

Transcription

Luke A. (00:04):

“Inspired.” “Emotional.” “Next level.” These were all words used to describe the James “Iron Cowboy” Lawrence Avalaunch Google Day presentation in fall of 2018. Let’s listen into him for a minute.

James L. (00:19):

I said, “Okay, I can be perfect for one second.” Start to move. Before I knew it, I booked two seconds together. Three seconds. I had a perfect minute. Once I started to focus, I knew what my purpose was, my passion. Those last 20 iron mans of all 50 were my fastest. My final and 50th iron man was in 1132 iron man. We dipped under seven-minute miles during portions of that marathon. We shed all 3,500 people that showed up with us that day. And it was an out-of-body experience that I cannot describe.

Luke A. (00:51):

Welcome, friends, to The Launch Party: An Avalaunch Media Podcast. This is Luke Alley, and today’s episode is all about our Google conference held at Sundance, Utah, on March 12th of 2020. This was our sixth Google Day. We’ve done three in Mountain View, and we’ve done three in Utah. This year might have been our most memorable, mostly because of the timing of it in early March.

If you’re not familiar with our Google Days, it’s a two-day co-hosted event with Google where we bring in world-class speakers to talk digital marketing strategies and tactics — and a day to recreate. This year, we skied at Sundance on the first day, and on the second day, we heard from some amazing speakers like Jared Gardner from Qualtrics, Justin Ethington from Trend Candy, Adam Durfee from Y Digital, Mitch Lunceford from our own Avalaunch Media, Christine Baird, the best podcast consultant in the world (thank you, Christine), and Scott Porter, the taco whisperer.

We were keynoted by the Professor of Rock, Adam Reader, and did a live interview with Narada Michael Walden, who produced some of the music for some of the biggest names out there. Stevie Wonder, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, George Michael, Barbara Streisand, and it was absolutely an unforgettable interview. So if you are ready to hear the story and experiences from that day, keep listening, and I hope you enjoy the podcast.

[Unnamed speaker] (02:31):

What is the difference between an avalanche and an Avalaunch? Avalaunch, hopefully, has a lot more people in it than an avalanche.

[Unnamed speaker] (02:38):

Avalaunch is a company that launches people, and that’s what I love about Avalaunch. I love that name, that play on words. An avalanche, something huge that can take you out, you know, but an Avalaunch is something huge that can launch you into the hemisphere. 

[Unnamed speaker] (02:56):

One can happen naturally, and the other takes a whole group of really great people to make happen. 

[Unnamed speaker] (03:02):

Avalaunch is an extremely strategic bridled power that delivers a result you can count on.

[Unnamed speaker] (03:10):

One’s going down and one’s going up. Is this the right answer?

[Unnamed speaker] (03:14):

Avalaunchers create avalanches — boom.

Luke A. (03:25):

We are here with our own George Banner. We are talking about Google Day. A few Google Days ago, we had an event at the aquarium in which there were several great moments. You happen to be a part of one of those great moments when a dance-off occurred. Can you walk us through what happened in that moment? 

George B. (3:50)

Oh, absolutely. When George Banner gets called up from the crowd to compete against one of our clients, I think it starts off with kind of a pop, lock, and drop it, a little shimmy shake. Let’s just say the crowd went wild. So there was a second round where I needed to claim my title, and I’m pretty sure I defeated her fair and square, but we both were declared winners. So I still hold a little bit of a grudge, but I was able to get my little claim to fame there. So, feeling good. 

Did I know that I was gonna dance? I knew that there was going to be a dance-off. I did not know it was going to be me dancing off. 

Luke A. (4:27)

George, You have a reputation in the office of vocalizing your feelings. If you were to share that moment but do it vocally, the moment that you danced, what would it sound like? Maybe in a riff.

George B. (4:43)

Oh, it’s like a little riff, huh? We’ll go with just like a [singing].

Luke A. (5:00)

The R. George Banner.

Luke A. (04:52):

I’m here with the Nicole Jensen. You may know her from Nikki J. Fitness. And what are you doing today for the conference?

Nicole J. (05:13):

So today I am the MC, which basically just means I’m getting up on stage, introducing the speakers. Basically, with Google not being able to be here, the speakers kind of switched up. We did have some extra time, which we filled with the owner. So we kind of settled everything like right before the conference, but it was a little bit stressful last night, trying to figure out what we were trying to do.

Luke A. (05:36):

What has your experience at Sundance been so far?

Nicole J. (05:39):

Sundance is awesome. It’s fun to be up here in the forest. It’s way different than when we have it out in Mountain View at Google, so it’s a nice change of scenery. And I mean, it’s snowing at this moment, so I’m kind of upset about that, but it’s just a really nice atmosphere. 

Luke A. 

And what was the weather like yesterday?

Nicole J. (05:58):

It was bright and sunny — like 60.

Luke A. (06:06):

We’re here with the Beau Graves. How long until you speak?

Beau G.

10 minutes. 

Luke A. 

How are you feeling?

Beau G.

Great. 

Luke A. 

How long have you had to prepare for this? 

Beau G. 

How long have I actually prepared or how long have I had to prepare? Because those are two different things. I’ve had like 36 hours and I’ve prepared for about two and a half hours. 

Luke A.

Why did you only have 36 hours?

Beau G. 

Cause last minute, unfortunately, with everything going on with coronavirus, Google had to halt any travel and was put on a travel ban, so I stepped in. 

Luke A.

Who is to blame for you speaking?

Beau G.

Myself. I guess I shouldn’t have suggested this idea for Google to speak on because now I’ve got to speak on it. 

Luke A.

So what’s your topic? 

Beau G. 

Insights and actions from analytics.

Luke A. (07:00):

I’m here with Maxwell Pond at Google Avalaunch Day at Sundance. Max, what has your experience been like so far? 

Max P.

It’s been fantastic. The skiing was amazing. The food has been delicious. The company has been great in spite of everything that’s going on with the coronavirus. We’re still excited to be together and still excited to tackle what tomorrow holds for the marketing world. 

Luke A.

Did you get any sun yesterday on the slopes? 

Max P.

For those of you who can’t see me, I look a little bit like a beached whale. I don’t know what to say — not a beached whale. 

Luke A. 

What happened yesterday?

Max P.

I didn’t eat a bunch of food. And now I was going to say a red beet, potentially a red beet, much better than a beached whale. We’ll go with the red beet, except for my eyes. My sunglasses did what they were supposed to do, which I think I’d prefer that they didn’t honestly. I’d rather my whole face be sunburned.

Luke A. (07:55):

We are here with Jason Passey, who has been at several Avalaunch Google Days and had a special experience with one of our keynote speakers, Chad Heim. Jason, tell us your experience from that day with Chad. 

Jason P.

I wonder if he had spoken to either one of my superiors or Luke himself and asked them, “Hey, does anyone at your company like, match this description?” because he could not have picked a better person for this little thing he did. I don’t know, he just asked a question, like, “Who has a wife and kids?” or something like that. And it’s all of us, right? We raise our hands and he selected me, which was a great selection on his part. As we pull out my phone, he directed me to not only pull out the phone but actually pull up the thread between me and my wife.

Jason P. (08:46):

And then he just takes the phone and looks through my messages between me and my wife, and he is disappointed. To the whole crowd, he just says, “There are no emojis in any of these texts, and there are no words of love or appreciation. It’s just all direct, no feeling at all.” After he embarrassed me in front of everyone and said I’m just so emotionless with my texts, he handed me the phone back and said to type up this message to my wife. Essentially, it just said to my wife that I appreciate her for taking care of the kids and how she’s an awesome wife and a loving mother, and just a lot of stuff like that, which I typically don’t say.

Jason P. (09:35):

And then, of course, he had me sign off with some emojis after I wrote that out and I sent it, and then we waited. Then after about three minutes, I got texts back from my wife saying, you know, “Thank you, thank you for that text. I don’t believe this is my husband because Jason would not typically say these things like this.” And so that was read out loud to everyone. And, everyone of course laughed. Anyone that knows me is not surprised by that. And after the event, me and Kyle and Beau and a bunch of us did the Jason Passey challenge where I copied that message that Chad had me type so that they could send through that message to their significant other. The response was very unique between newlyweds. Jordan got, “Oh, thanks, honey.” Like, you know, that kind of thing. And then I think Beau’s wife said, “Oh, whatever.” So it was very interesting to see the diverse responses from the wives. Obviously, mine said, “Um, this isn’t Jason, but thanks.”

Luke A. (10:47):

Has your relationship with your wife improved since then?

Jason P. (10:49):

No, I would say probably not. I mean, maybe a little bit. I’m just not that kind of person, but had I incorporated what Chad was trying to relate to everyone into my week, at least monthly in texts, then I think it would have improved. 

Luke A. 

Jason, thank you very much. All right. We are here with Heather Farmer. Be honest, how are you doing?

Heather F. (11:20):

I’m hanging in there.

Luke A.

Heather, you played a significant role in planning and executing and delivering the Google Day at Sundance, and what made it more complicated as we’ve grown the event? 

Heather F.

I think we’ve added new elements to it to enhance what’s going on, and maybe we add interviews or additional activities or more interaction with the speakers, or new tie-ins. So every time we add something like that, there is a lot of organizing that has gone on behind the scenes and it definitely enhances the conference experience. So it’s really cool that we’re running these things, but they do come with a certain amount of administrative baggage.

Luke A. (12:03):

What was the biggest administrative baggage this year?

Heather F. (12:06):

Sundance is an incredible venue. I think part of what makes it so incredible is that it is a little bit remote, but the remoteness can also be a challenge just because with everything we do, we have to find a way to get it up to the venue and to work with the venue’s restrictions. So we had some challenges this time, but I think it was well worth it in the end just because it was a beautiful, secluded place to be able to go to.

Luke A. (12:36):

What was the biggest surprise this year with all the planning and execution you had to do?

Heather F. (12:41):

A lot of the cool things we did at this year’s event were kind of last-minute ideas. Our swag station was something that was thrown into the mix very last-minute. Some of that stuff was really cool, but also it was challenging to pull those pieces together. It was right at the finish line, but I think everything we do that’s new each year just adds to what we’re going to do the next year. We learned that it makes next year go even smoother and even better.

Luke A. (13:08):

Last question. What was the most fun part of the planning and execution?

Heather F. (13:13):

My favorite part is always eating the food, to be honest. I love to see the things you’ve ordered off the catering menu laid out and presented and everybody enjoying it. We had Scott Porter who brought his business, San Diablo Churros, and they were beyond delicious and super fantastic. So that was a really cool, really fun, something that we didn’t know really going in what it was going to be like, and then it just ended up being a real highlight.

Luke A. (13:43):

You’re a busy woman and you keep the grease going at Avalaunch and with our Google Day. So thank you for your time. 

We are here with Christine Baird. You may know her from producing Lewis Howe’s School of Greatness, christinebaird.com, and many other podcasts that she is the brains behind. Christine just spoke here at our Avalaunch Google Day. And Christine, how was it?

Christine B. (14:09):

There’s been so much fun. I had the privilege of opening the event today, so I was the first speaker. I had the best questions the second I finished. We did Q&A. It was my favorite, the questions that were being asked. That’s when I knew it was an awesome group of people who are really focused.

Luke A. (14:25):

Can we hear what some of the questions were that you were asked?

Christine B. (14:28):

Yeah. Everything from technical questions, so what kind of equipment, to bigger strategy format. “This is my idea. Do you think it’s a good one?” “I’m thinking about having a co-hosted show, should we do a pilot series and some podcasts or already have shows?” And I had a really specific question at lunchtime. “We’re in the middle of a campaign right now. How do we increase our conversions? How do we get more eyeballs? How do we get more downloads?” So it’s the whole gamut, which is so fun.

Luke A. (14:54):

We had you in the office to consult on this very podcast. And in that meeting, Dave turned to you about five minutes in and said, Christine, you should speak. What went through your head in that moment?

Christine B. (15:09):

I was so excited. It was such an immediate yes. I don’t think I let him finish telling me what day it was. I was so thrilled because, truly, speaking in front of people at live events is my favorite way to teach and interact. So to have the opportunity to speak at Google Day with Avalaunch on podcasting even — the best part is it’s on my birthday. I’m one of those weird people who loves public speaking enough, I wanted to speak on my birthday.

Luke A. (15:37):

And are you celebrating your birthday?

Christine B. (15:39):

I truly am. I’ve already had the warmest welcome at the top of the morning. I had cake flowers, a light-up birthday sign. It’s been such a fun day. We’re going to go out tonight and then hit a hike tomorrow up in the mountains.

Luke A. (15:54):

We’re here with Adam Reader, the Professor of Rock. Second time here with Avalaunch at our Avalaunch Google Day. Adam, tell us about what you’re speaking on. 

Adam R.

Well, I am actually interviewing a three-time Grammy winner, a guy that has been named one of the top 10 producers of all time by Billboard magazine. This guy has produced Whitney Houston, Aretha Franklin, George Michael, Mariah Carey, Elton John — so many names. We’re going to talk about evergreen content. What makes things timeless? So evergreen is the big buzzword, but he and I were talking about the old-school word was timeless, you know, making something timeless that lasts forever. And you’ll get some insight from him about when he sat down with Whitney Houston and Aretha Franklin writing and producing these songs. That was very much in his mind — 300 years from now, people are going to be listening to their songs.

Adam R. (16:45):

How do I create something timeless? Some of the things I’ve talked about earlier about the why of evergreen content, how to do it, and all these things, you’ll really see a demonstration of it live as I do that. So that’s awesome. 

Luke A. 

And so when you say timeless content, can you describe that a little more? I know it was your presentation yesterday, the workshop that you did, but yeah. What are the main factors for good, timeless content? 

Adam R. 

Well, to me, evergreen content never gets old — it’s something that, 50 years from now, people can listen to. I think a lot of the words that different people use, genealogies, one of them, family history, you know, for the regular guy, I think it’s important to capture our history as it’s happening. Can you imagine what it would have been like if we would have had this kind of technology when Abraham Lincoln was our president or back at the time when our founding fathers or Gandhi, sitting down and having a really deep conversation about life, love, the pursuit of happiness, but what makes them tick? What motivates them, inspires them, their passion? I mean, this is life-changing stuff. And so that’s what really gets me revved up, why I get up in the morning every day, why blood flows through my veins — because I want to know these great songs. They’ve saved my life, and I know they’ve saved a lot of people’s lives, and music is that universal connector. It seems to be like the hallmarks of our history and like a time machine where we can go back in time to a specific moment.

Adam R. (18:22):

I think it’s interesting to find out from them what inspired it. Why did you write this song and what impact did it have? And it’s not just music; this fits for anything. Why do we do what we do? Why do we run our business? Why do we go every day to work and put in an eight to five or, for a lot of us, an eight to 10? Why do we do that? What motivates us to continue doing that and put in the blood, sweat, and tears all those things? And I think those are interesting answers for us to contemplate and ponder. It gets me jazzed every time. What’s interesting is this guy, Narda Michael Walden who I’m interviewing.

Adam R. (19:05):

He’s an LA guy in New York. He comes out here and you see his eyes get big as saucers. Like, “This is beautiful. This is amazing. I need to bring my wife and my kids.” And that’s the energy of Utah. You know, I think when people come here and really see what it is, I think they’re blown away. And so I’m really excited. I love speaking at these events. It has been a tremendous opportunity for me. When you guys have invited me, I love the energy up there, the energy of the people here, and it’s just fun to break bread and to talk about what makes us tick and what makes us happy. 

Luke A. 

Would you say Sundance is timeless? 

Adam R. 

Oh yeah, no question.

Luke A. (19:44):

We’ve got great guests on today that I would consider friends and we’ve had a chance to work with them. We’ve had a chance to have Dale and Nancy come to our Google event last November and speak, and we asked them to come on the podcast today. So welcome Nancy. I first want to ask you this question because I remember in the auditorium that we were at, you were up at the top while Dale was speaking and you were watching him pretty intently. You weren’t on your phone. And I mean like, “Oh, this is the thousandth time I’ve heard him speak in front of a business.” What was your experience like at Google hearing him speak and what goes through your mind while you listened to him?

Nancy M. (20:24):

Well, first of all, just being at Google was an amazing experience for us. We’ve had the chance to be in some incredible places. But, you know, nothing is better than the name Google and Avalaunch together for us. It was the big leagues. Yes, it was. And, you know, watching him speak is a lot like watching him play ball. You’re just hoping he gets the science right and doesn’t strike out. I am always feeling for him because he gets a little nervous. No, but he always has so many good things to say. And yeah, the whole feeling and vibe of being there was a lot of fun.

Luke A. (21:20):

I remember leading up to it. You were talking to some of our other speakers, Adam Reader, Professor of Rock. What was your experience being there mingling with some of the teams, some of our speakers? 

Dale M. 

You’ve mentioned Adam Reader, Professor of Rock. You know, I love music and all that stuff. And then here someone, who’s truly a professor and knows so much. It was interesting to me. I didn’t really know what to expect. I’m a ballplayer and I’m thinking “computers” … and it was just fun to see everybody’s different take on the lessons that they’ve learned and how it would apply there to all those attending. So that was fun. I thought Adam’s presentation was fascinating, but it was fun. Sometimes with people our age, it’s kind of a mystery, the internet. 

Luke A.

We are here with the Casey Space of Woodland Manufacturing and Craft Cuts. And Casey has been to many of our Google Days. Casey, how many have you been to?

Casey S.

I think I’ve been to five Google Days.

Luke A. (22:40):

What has been your most memorable experience at Avalaunch Google Day?

Casey S. (22:46):

I think my most memorable experiences has been being able to go to Google and get through all the doors with passes and see the inner workings of the behemoth.

Luke A. (23:01):

What’s been your experience up here at Sundance so far? 

Casey S. (23:05):

This has been amazing. It’s beautiful here. It’s an amazing experience and I’m really appreciative of Avalaunch for inviting me and paying for my ski day and my food. It’s great.

Luke A. (23:19):

I’m here with Jim Brown of PCV Solutions. He has been to many of our Google events. James, tell us about your experience at Sundance so far. 

James B.

Well, you know, I love the Sundance Resort. It’s an amazing place. It just feels like nature. And there’s something kind of spiritual about this place where it’s just unique, it’s kinda unmolested by man and reminds me of Alaska. The resort is small and quaint. I heard from a guy who lives close to here who rents out a lot of outdoor recreation equipment that Robert Redford does not want high-speed quads. He does not want the place fast-paced. So you really don’t incur a lot of lines and you don’t incur a lot of jerky people. There’s not a lot of Jerrys here. If you know what a Jerry is on a ski resort, Jerry is somebody who’s going to ski right out in front of you while you’re trying to cruise down the hill. You know, you’re kind of going nice and fast and here comes a Jerry in the middle. And last night, I told my son that I hit a certain speed on this one large downhill slope on the backside. And he’s like, “Easy, Dad. You’re gonna run over a Jerry.” And I said, “Look, there are no Jerrys at Sundance.”

James B. (24:23):

Sundance is awesome. So I love this place in the sense that it’s just smaller paced. You don’t get a bunch of yuppies except for when it’s during the Sundance Film Festival and they descend on the place and then they go home. But for now, it’s a lot of the locals and a lot of cool people. 

Luke A.

What are you most looking forward to today? 

James B.

Well, two things I’ve already gotten knocked out. I mean, the first thing was the podcasting thing, which makes me really think that our organization should be doing a podcast like Avalaunch is, and as I’m being interviewed here, the second thing is I really loved the omnichannel talk by Mitch. He just reminds me that like, look, customers are not a single-channel buyer anymore. It’s like a flywheel. It’s not top of the funnel. It doesn’t go down the funnel. You just gotta be hitting them from every different angle with good content, developing yourself as somebody who’s an authority in the space, knowing that you have good quality and price. And it’s kinda like some of the topics from our area. I’ve got to realize I’ve got to expand our channel in order to build confidence with our customers. I’m looking forward to the Professor of Rock. I love that guy. I binge-watch his videos all the time, sitting in my bed, just kinda watching Journey and the Goo Goo Dolls and all these interviews that are just amazing. I love hearing about that. Super excited to hear you guys had him again.

Luke A. (25:41):

We’re here with Adam Durfee, managing director, president CEO of Y Digital and founder. Adam, you spoke today. Can you tell us your topic and what were the top takeaways from your presentation? 

Adam D.

So I spoke on social listening and more importantly, how social listening can help us in content strategy, branding strategy, and brand positioning to be able to create something that means more to our audience than maybe we think of it for just in-house. The main takeaway is thinking about who is our audience? What is our audience talking about in our side of our space and how can we help move a brand to think about that same thing? There’s always a big focus on doing original research and talking to people and surveying and doing focus groups. And we had this idea sometimes that maybe we could treat the internet as if it were a focus group whereas if it were a survey, social listening helps us to pull that information and make assumptions. 

Luke A.

Fair enough. Tell us about Y Digital. 

Adam D.

So Y Digital Agency is the only student-run full-service digital marketing agency at an R-1 university in the country. It was kind of my brainchild from a few years ago to be able to bring digital marketing education to a university space. So inside of this space, we have students who apply to work for us. They spend at least one year working on real client projects in order to boost their own digital marketing education and in that process also push the envelope of what can be done in digital marketing. We’ve received those state national awards by the bundle recently just by having the opportunity to sit around with a group of people and start talking about, “Wouldn’t this be cooler? Wouldn’t that be cool?” And putting these things together has really, I think, started to shape where digital marketing is going to go, and having an opportunity to do that from a space like our wide digital space is a pretty cool opportunity.

Luke A. (27:26):

What’s the most innovative project you and your student team has worked on?

Adam D. (27:34):

It depends on what sphere we’re in. Some of my very favorite projects are under NDA and they’d probably kill me if they heard, but I can tell you that one of the most powerful ones he worked on is during wildfire season, we were working with people who had been displaced and we decided to use social media chatbots typically used for sales and turn those into crisis communication mechanisms for the Red Cross, for the city governments, for the Sheriff’s office, et cetera. And we built these out and then programmed them with natural language processing. So you could ask any question you wanted, and these bots could find the answers they were looking for less than 24 hours after the project launched. The governor of the state tweeted out a link and said, “Hey guys, this is now the official resource for information.” And it started handling thousands of conversations per hour. As marketers, we are supposed to sell things to people and they probably don’t need these things, but it might make their life better. That’s kind of our goal. And I think every once in a while, it’s fun as a marketer to use that skill we have of promoting a product that will quite literally make someone’s life better. And that’s a very fun project and very innovative, very fun to be part of.

Luke A. (28:46):

Here we have Scott Porter from San Diego Churros. Scott, how’s your experience here at Avalaunch Media Google Day been? 

Scott P.

We’re ending on just this incredible energy. The whole day has been phenomenal. Lots of really terrific thoughts, ideas, everything from like really great tactical advice on executing on your evergreen content to pulling out the big picture. What is it that’s driving that content? How are you creating something that’s really special for people? So the whole broad spectrum and super robust presentation information, it’s been fantastic. 

Luke A.

Can you tell us about your presentation that you gave and what you spoke on? 

Scott P.

Sure. Well, I always loved to speak on how to create a breakthrough humanized brand experience at every touchpoint. So all of the digital touches, but all the virtual ones the physical experience that we’re creating, how do we create something that’s consistent and memorable and remarkable and something that really is evergreen? What can be our biggest competitive advantage that really helps differentiate us from everyone else, stand out, and create lasting memories and meaning in people’s lives?

Scott P. (30:20):

And that’s the type of economy that we’re in. It’s a relationship-based experience economy. Gone are the days of a transaction of “I give you money, you give me something and we’re done.” We expect more from the people that are giving our time, money, and attention, and we want them to care. We want them to care about the things that we care about. We want them to be making a difference in the world and making the world a better place. And, we want them to recognize the human in us. We want to connect on a human to human level. I’m not missing days sort of thing. You know, it’s like the divine in me recognizes the divine in you. And we want to feel that from the brands that we give our attention to.

Luke A. (31:05):

You shared a stat on the decision for people to buy was based on, you said, 70% of what?

Scott P. (31:12):

Yeah, of course, 70% of us buy based on how we feel about a brand. So, I mean, that just becomes for, for any of us that have any sort of stewardship over our brand or the success of a company or organization, or even our family or personal brand. People are making decisions based on how they feel. So what are we doing to actively influence those positive feelings? What are we doing to create raving fans?

Luke A. (31:45):

So to wrap up this conversation, I wanted to end talking about the value of the Google Premier Partnership for Avalaunch. And even for myself, it means a lot to me because I was our first pay-per-click director. I got the first Premier Partnership with Google and I’ve worked with a few dozen Googlers actually from when we first became premier partners. It was a struggle initially to build the PPC team. It was just myself when we first started and now we’re up to several full-time employees. And I remember at that time having one client that actually made up about half of the revenue for the PPC team, and I worried a lot about losing them and what would happen to the team if we did lose them. Since that time we’ve been able to diversify and we don’t have all our eggs in one basket, but we’ve come a long way from there.

Luke A. (32:43):

And the premier partnership has been valuable along the way, and we’ve got great support from their team and it’s recognition really that we’re one of the best agencies out there. So it’s really validating actually for the work that I’ve done and the work that the team is currently doing that we’re actually doing something right. They say it’s for the top 2% of agencies in the world, so it’s really nice to be a part of it. And in the end, just to talk to our goals for these events, really our goal is to give back to the community. There’s a saying, I’ve been hearing it a lot lately, and that saying is, “Serve. Don’t sell.” We try to do that here. We’ve tried to put on these events as give back to the community and to our clients and as a thank you for supporting Avalaunch.

Luke A. (33:30):

They’re not cheap to put on by any means. There’s a lot of expenses. Some are obvious expenses and others aren’t so obvious, but we invite pretty much anyone to come to this. I’ve had neighbors come, clients. Of course, people looking to work with Avalaunch, people who we’re not working with anymore who we had in the past. We invite pretty much anyone, and we do it to be able to give back to the community. So if you’re listening to this and you want to join our next one, reach out to myself or someone at Avalaunch, and we’ll invite you. Our next one, as of recording this podcast in April, is going to be in fall, and we’ll be doing that over in Mountain View. So thanks again for listening and have a great day. 

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