Manufacturing eCommerce Success with Nicole Donnelly and Gail Robertson

Damon Pistulka  00:04

All right everyone, welcome once again it is Friday and what does that mean? My friend Curt Anderson How are you today? It is manufacturing ecommerce success time we’re ready to go

Curt Anderson  00:17

yeah and that’s what I I’m already speechless I’d like I think we’ve already had like five like moments before. Why Amen Oh my goodness gracious so guys happy Friday Happy Father’s Day weekend happy everything we’re midway through through June and then Bob feathers is in house Steve are Chrysler’s here a little a little pressure here Dave’s in the house so Dave’s OB says Happy Friday yours right yeah

Damon Pistulka  00:46

Dave was here early to I’m pushing buttons here doing this not doing a good job of it.

Curt Anderson  00:51

It looks like you might be somewhere a little bit different I’m not positive but I think you might yeah setting is that exactly

Damon Pistulka  00:57

I’m on the road and it’s it’s a weird feeling for me a I don’t leave the house often.

Curt Anderson  01:05

Same your house your spend a little quality time with the wife so thank you tell the Navy said thank you for that you’re hanging out with us. Hooligans, right, this little icon here. So man, we’ve got John McClane. Oh, we got John burl, guys happy Friday. Jefferson note let us know you’re there. Give a big shout out hello to our two esteemed guests. Let’s theme and let’s just jump right into it. So man, I’m going over the border. Yo, now is in the house. Gail. Happy Friday. How are you my friend?

Gail Robertson  01:38

I am fantabulous. It’s a great day. Yeah, I’m doing great. Yep, here in Canada actually. Compared to though Detroit, Michigan on south of Detroit. We have to remember that a lot of candidates.

Curt Anderson  01:52

So there we go. Perfect. How is the Canada thing I have to ask like the air climate, the wildfires? How’s everything going in your labs?

Gail Robertson  02:01

That’s that’s gonna be some future stories of curious minds. Because, yeah, there’s a lot more to all of these stories than what we sometimes hear. So curious, ask more questions about what we are sometimes hearing reading about and what maybe also happening, but where I’m at it’s the air is pretty clear. I sort of worried when the media was saying, Oh, my God, and then Windsors, you know, shut your windows, don’t leave your house and I went out and clean that night and yeah, okay. Well,

Curt Anderson  02:29

perfect. Alright, Gal, thank you for joining us today. And you know, the recovering journalist is in the house. So we have some stories on cover, we’re going to take a deep dive in a live streams. And boy, have we brought in an expert panel here. Yeah. Next, I’m going to slide over we’re going down to Washington, DC. So Nicole Donnelly from dmg digital, how are you my friend, happy Friday?

Nicole Donnelly  02:52

How are you? I am doing great. I am so excited because I get to see you in a couple days. Kurt. I’m gonna take on Windy City, Chicago, Chicago. And I can’t wait. We’re going to meet some of our amazing clients and people that we’ve worked with and I just I just there’s nothing like seeing people in person, you know, so I’m just can’t wait to to be there. And we get to, we’re gonna meet Chris Harrington can’t wait to meet her. That’s going to be super fun. So anyway, it’s gonna be great. I’m really excited about that. So I’m all fired up. And I’m excited to be here because this topic is like, one of my favorite, favorite favorite topics. So

Curt Anderson  03:31

this is a very juicy stuff, and it’s perfect. We’re gonna be live streaming in Chicago, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. So we’re hitting different manufacturers in a wonderful state of Illinois in Chicago land, working with iMac the Illinois MEP. So, Nicole and I are super excited look for that. But let’s go here. Damon Pustaka. Let’s, you know what, dude, I want to kick things off with you. Okay. I think you’ve done a live stream or two if I’m not mistaken. Is that like, Yes,

Damon Pistulka  04:01

this is my second.

Curt Anderson  04:02

This is your second probably half the crowd here again. Welcome to the program. We got the chat boxes already on fire. Yeah, well,

Damon Pistulka  04:11

we got kick things

Curt Anderson  04:12

off. What inspired you to start live streaming? What inspired you to start live streaming?

Damon Pistulka  04:21

I got someone told me that I should do it. And I was like, You’re crazy.

Curt Anderson  04:25

Somebody do or do right. Who was just almost there. Me? I

Damon Pistulka  04:28

said, Look, you know, I mean, I had I talked to you, Michael Connor. Like in 2019. And Jacob Warren. They said listen, you need Jacob said it even before that. He said, You need to go on video, dude, this hangout and talk with people. I was like, What do you mean? It’s just, you know, I was just totally foreign to me. But yeah, and then I started doing it and you know, and honestly got got lost. Again some respects because when COVID hit, everybody was kind of stuck inside right for a while and, and we just we started doing it and learning about it and it’s it you know, like today we’re gonna be talking about growing your brand with LinkedIn live streaming. And it’s been very beneficial to be able to meet so many incredible people. I mean, I think that’s me it just I never realized how many cool people I was going to meet by livestream and Kurt, you know, you and I, how many people have how many just fantastic people on the screen here, just on the screen in the chat. I mean, so many fantastic people that you meet, and the things that you learn that you never would have learned before. It’s just been such a gift. It’s such a gift, we’ll do it. But that’s originally someone Someone suggested I do it and I said, Are you crazy? And then they convinced me to do it.

Curt Anderson  05:55

Right. So now several 100 episodes later, you’re deep, deep deep in it. Gal. Let’s slide over to my friend. You’ve been doing gal now. We’re signing up. We’re suiting up. Man, just absolutely love that. Yeah, what’s livestream min. For you done? I know, we’re going to take a deep dive, you put out a fantastic post, and we’re going to hit some of those points through the conversation. But just kind of share with the folks like what’s live stream? You know, what? What inspired you to take the leap? What’s it done for you, your brand your business? Let’s go there for a minute.

Gail Robertson  06:27

Well, like David said, I mean, during the pandemic was there was an opportunity number one and number two, because I do talk about sign up, suit up and show up. You know, what better way to show up than using video. And then the live part. What I like about it as a recovering journalist, too, is that it really fit into my personality to my strengths. I mean, I can think quickly. I mean, I often do like moderating panels, and I can, and one of the first things that people got back to me, they’re like, Wow, you can just like think on the spot, ask questions. And that’s sort of a strength for me for for livestream. Because I don’t like to one of the things when I was a journalist that I love doing the most with the interviews, I love going out asking questions, and I would have some questions. But one of the strengths again, is being able to go down a different road if your guest is going somewhere instead of saying, Okay, on the question for now. And meanwhile. Yeah, wait a minute, I want to know more. Right? So Oh, yeah, kind of go with the flow. So for me, like and the other thing that I love about live streaming is that, you know, I often tell people ahead of time, hey, this is, you know, no dress rehearsal, we’re going, we’re not editing we’re gonna now sometimes love but most of it, we’ll get to that later how I use live streams later. But yeah, it’s really about I love living in the moment, you know, the power of in the moment, there’s a different energy when you’re talking to people live. And I found even when I do pre recorded versus live, I still I love live the best. There’s that. That excitement just before, you know, oh, my God, and I still get that my heart’s racing before I hit Live button. And then I’m like, Oh, so that’s why I love live. And it’s also helped me with clients to being able to ask questions and interview them. And they’re more comfortable than just shooting a video.

Curt Anderson  08:18

Yeah. All right. Yeah, absolutely. Love that. Nicole, let’s slide over to you. What has live done for you meant to you that’s that’s what your livestream journey looked like?

Nicole Donnelly  08:29

Oh, my gosh, that is such a man. That’s a lot to unpack. Yeah. I will say, live stream has changed just catapulted my business. I can honestly say today that my business grew 80% last year, and this year, I would Yeah, I mean, and I will say that over 50% of our business, I can attribute to a live stream where the client saw me on a live stream or, you know, and, you know, directly comes from from live stream and as a small business. That’s huge, right. And the great thing about it is that live stream is so affordable, you know, it costs me nothing, literally nothing but my time to go on a live stream event. So, you know, for one, it’s just been great from a business development perspective. But to to Damon’s point, just even more important than that is just the relationships that I’ve developed because of live stream and just the relationship I’ve had with you, Kurt. And you, Damon, and you, Gail, and all of the people that I’ve met through this show and all of the the episodes and shows that I’ve been on has just been to me the most valuable part of this platform is just what I’ve been able to learn from so many people. And I think I’ve just had the first livestream event I did with you and Damon was a year and a half ago. My gosh, and I think Kurt and I were watching it back the other day and I was like, Oh my gosh, it feels like he just felt like a Just to go so much has changed. But I think that when you go on a livestream event, I can’t tell you how many people we’ve had on the show that were terrified to come on. And just utterly terrified, fierce introverts. You know, they come on and afterwards they’ve just gained this whole new sense of confidence. And, and just, they just love it. I mean, just last week, we had the show with my colleague, Amy, who came on to talk about indigenous pets. And she is one of the fiercest introverts that I know. Wonderful, amazing, you know, lady, but she is such a fierce introvert and she just blossomed right on screen. And afterwards, he was just raving about what a great experience it was. So I guess can’t say enough about, you know, how great it’s been for me personally, professionally. And, yeah, my deep gratitude to this wonderful medium.

Damon Pistulka  10:52

Well, I think from your guys’s perspective, Gail and Nicole, do you think that the live streaming allows you to meet people that you wouldn’t normally get to meet?

Gail Robertson  11:04

Yeah, I know, I’ve connected with people as well going to other people’s live streaming events. So that’s important, too. It’s not only it’s like that engagement. So I’ve met people. Well, a good example, Jim, but Oskie, who I heard on your show, and I just You remind me that Kurt because I was like, Oh, I met him through LinkedIn. But it was through your show. He was and it and it was I since had him on my show. He’s, I’m going on his show we’re actually talking about he might even be tuning in today. And so I’ve met Harry Moser who does, you know, a lot of the, from a resort. And that was all because I saw him on a live event. And I commented I followed up and then so when I went to go invited him as a guest. Now this again, goes back to my journalism roots is that I mean, I’ve asked a lot of people, and sometimes they say yes, sometimes I’m surprised, but sometimes I don’t hear back. But that’s okay. I’m I don’t give up. I’ll just circle back later. And so yeah, it’s Mitch Jackson has been another guest of mine, who, who I also met previously on another networking. So anybody that knows me knows that networking is a foundation of everything I do, because it is like it fans out like that web like, and so yeah.

Curt Anderson  12:25

You know what, Gil? And let’s just sit that for a second. Because you are the networking Queen course, like we got them bigger in the audience here. So if you’re the networking queen, but just like, can you talk about like how important that’s been for your business, on networking just as a whole, and then just tying it in with live streams?

Gail Robertson  12:45

Yeah, networking for me is by far the best way to build your business. And it’s not networking, only to get business. So I will say one of the things that I do, and it’s I guess it’s to me, it’s natural, because I love even travel alone. And some of the reasons I like to travel alone is because that’s I know, I’m going to meet more people that when I travel with friends, no, it is about, you know, starting those conversations. And there’s been so many times that I don’t think it’s work related and it comes work later. So here’s one quick story yesterday I had I lost you in an interview with a former high school teacher. He’s the reason I got into journalism because he started this journalism class. He’s now 93. And I just found out he had a manufacturing background. So we talked about that. And I just posted a clip because he talks about things coming full circle. He’s he was one of the early you know, started on co ops and he told these great stories about students that were in Co Op so yeah, you never know where conversations will go as well. So yeah, it’s keep on talking to people and it opens up amazing doors. Yeah, and

Curt Anderson  13:58

I hate getting shot out to everybody here so we’ve got Aaron Victor angers here today. Happy Sarah Victor Dan, bigger galleries here. Guys, again, thank you drop us. You’re here. If you’re not already connected with folks on stage boy, please do connect with Nicole Donnelly, connect with Gail Robertson. Connect with Damon Pustaka to connect with you as well. Nicole, let’s go here. You’ve started a podcast with your guys. I so for this panel. I start with Nicole. But okay, we could do you know, Daymond we’ve done tons of webinars, right? We can get into live streams. Nicole, you started a podcast. So all these are different mediums of like how to get that message out there. Build your brand, once you talk about like, you know, podcasting compared to live streaming and then we’ll dig a little bit into like webinars start with Yes,

Nicole Donnelly  14:48

yes. I think it’s really important for folks to know the differences between them. They’re all very great, you know, mediums in their own specific way. But you know, understanding some of those new losses, I think can help you decide what’s going to be the right plot, you know, medium for you to use for your business or personally, and just understanding going into it. But you know, podcasting, I think one of the great things about it is, is it’s a lot more produced, if you will. And in some ways, it can be a little bit more intimate. So you don’t have an audience watching you, you’re having like this one to one conversation. And but you know, some of the disadvantages of podcasting, I think, is you miss out on that engagement that you get from having a live audience, and you miss out on the ability to like, really hype it up beforehand, you know, you can really promote the live stream. And the advantage of the live stream too, is you can repurpose that into a podcast, right? So after the fact you can repackage it as a podcast. So not only is it a live event that you can promote, and you get optics on, but you can also like repurpose it into a podcast later down the line. And you know, something I think that’s really interesting is authenticity is becoming so much more important for buyers today. 90% of buyers today have shoppers, they want to buy from a brand who’s authentic, right? 90% want authenticity in their brand. What does that mean? They’re not looking for somebody who’s like super polished and perfect. They’re looking for that organic, you know, experience, they’re looking to see Kurt’s gaffes on screen. They’re, you know, they want to have that like organic experience and live streaming. You know, as much as I love podcasting, I, you know, I think it’s a great vibe, obviously chosen to use that for my, you know, to for communicating. But live streaming is really the most authentic platform that you could use as a brand. And I think, you know, with AI and everything that’s happening with AI. Yeah, it’s just so important right now for brands to find opportunities to show up authentically. And live streaming, in my opinion is the is the ultimate, you know, most affordable way to do that. It’s much cheaper. So there’s another point it’s much cheaper to live stream than it is to podcast. So anyway, yeah, that’s what I you know,

Curt Anderson  17:04

be authentic. And then somebody’s a Peterson here today, Peter says, Hey, we’re to 90% come from and then the question is about the 10%. That don’t want to be.

Gail Robertson  17:15

Yeah, so I

Nicole Donnelly  17:15

will tell you that 90% comes from a study by stack law. I knew someone’s going to ask that nice sta ce que la. So I promise I didn’t make that one up.

Curt Anderson  17:25

So thank you to both Jim. Thank you for being here today. Yeah. I’m sorry, Peter. And then Jim dropped a note here. Turn your live stream into a podcast by using the script. So as great back, Jim, thank you, brother. Appreciate you. Happy Friday. Great question. Damon, you’ve done so you, you do faces a business on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Many folks here have been guests on your show, or have caught your show. So you’re doing live stream, you’ve done tons of webinars, we’ve done like we were doing live workshops together a couple of weeks ago. So you’ve kind of done the whole gamut. you’re converting your faces of business into a podcast? What are your What are your take on like the different opportunities for delivering these messages?

Damon Pistulka  18:05

Well, I think that I, okay, I’ll back up. My mind got racing. Because I think I think I like live streams because I want to be authentic. I think it’s so much more fun for us, the guests and everyone else, right? I’ve never been the person and then you’ve seen enough, I’m not going to, we’re not going to make the camera, right, we’re not going to because I think real life is real life. And we need to work in real life. I can appreciate the podcasts that are highly produced and the videos that are highly produced. But at the end of the day, I think people want authentic. And we’ve said it many times here today and you hear it every time and I don’t think there’s a better way to do that than be with a live stream and turning my my the faces of business into a a podcast is pretty simple. I mean, we add a little bit audio at the beginning. And that’s it. There’s no fancy I mean, we’re not cutting out you know, oohs and ahhs and whatever spaces there’s none of that stuff because we just want to be authentic. And you know, and that’s and it’s yeah, it’s not going to be the top 10 podcast because it’s not doesn’t have all the fanfare and things but you connect with the right people because I I get people when people talk to you after doing live streaming and podcasting for a while it’s scary almost because the people that you really want to talk with are going to going to have listened and talk to you a long time and understand you so Right.

Curt Anderson  19:37

Absolutely. All right, perfect gal Let’s go here. So you dropped a great post this morning. You gave some three three tips or strategies of why and how to use live stream you know for your business. First one was foster Business Growth Okay, so say there’s folks out there to like hey, you know, man, I’m you know, we came to this because I want to learn about let you know, we’re live streaming about Live Streaming. How about that? Is that? Like bizarro, but anyway, so we’re live streaming about live streaming. But you talked about fostering business growth here. Let’s let’s hit that first one right there that first point for folks that are considering this. What advice tips? Let’s go there.

Gail Robertson  20:17

Number one, I always say is why do you want to do anything? Why do you want to be? Why do you want to be on Twitter? Because a lot of times, like, I love Twitter, but that’s my reason that I use it. I use tick tock, but I use tick tock in a very special way. That’s just like fun. I don’t invest a lot of time, but I, I know people watch it. But because of the work I do, I’m in a lot of different platforms. But when I’m working with a client, I they also say, oh, we need to be on tick tock because they read some article they need to be on tick tock so anybody listening, you know, maybe live streaming is for you. But maybe it’s not because there’s there’s a finite number of hours in the day. And a great line I once heard someone said, it’s about priority management, not even time management. So you have to prioritize where’s your time? What are you going to? I said a great one. I use that a lot now because everybody says time management. But so what is your priority, and if so for your business growth, it really has to do with now Nicole does a great job has stats, and she’s able to correlate like driving business. For me, it’s really more of a brand, developing, like getting my name out there for whether it’s speaking or in manufacturing, it gives some credibility to what I’m doing. And, and it also opens doors for me to talk to people. But I would say for anybody listening today, like really look at why you want to do live streaming, and, you know, one size fits all, there’s no such thing. There’s no such thing as that. So live streaming may not be for everyone. And I often spend time with people first digging into the why and asking those questions and deciding Is this where you want to like maybe they just need to start first on getting their LinkedIn together and getting out there. So yeah, sometimes if you start to do too much, and then on the other hand, I’m going to say this unless you do have to just start so and that’s where a strategist can come in and help decide. Or help you decide.

Damon Pistulka  22:18

You do have to just start I like that.

Curt Anderson  22:24

Multiple mic drops right there on gang. Yeah. They’re like, we might just take a moment to just like see her a little bit of that. Priority management. Apparently, maybe you were hanging out with Dave Chrysler Mr. Man, yeah, we’ve been like Rick, Dave rings in my head every day, being efficient with my time. But I want to Damon, let’s grab a few comments here. So hey, thank you for joining us. I love this app to Zoomer signs demand authenticity, they are suspicious of Polish in high production, man, they’ll resonate.

Damon Pistulka  22:53

And then the one from Peter Smith after Jim does this. Yeah, you can do this. I will disagree with Peter on this one. Because if you put enough live streaming, your self comes out. I don’t think you can hide it. Right. Maybe you can maybe you’re really good at it. But

Curt Anderson  23:11

even I hate that term. So I agree with Peter, you can be inauthentic. I have a confession. I’m making a confession right here in front of everybody. All my friends right here. I’m not really bald. I’m like, I’m not really bald. I’ve been. I’ve just been I just wanted to make a confession right here. Everybody. Nicole, I just wanted, I just, I’m just letting people know. So anyway, so I’m talking about being an author. I’m just teasing. So our priorities are huge. So guys, keep the comments coming in. We are here to have that authentic conversation. We don’t have to agree on

Damon Pistulka  23:47

anger. Anger has a good one here, too. This is another thing. We haven’t said it yet. But consistency in live streaming is is just like anything with podcasting. Right? Yeah, if you’re not doing it, there needs to be a cadence. People need to know if you’re going to do it once a month on the second Tuesday, do it. It just like anything. You got to do it consistently. And that’s I think that’s where I see people over time dropping off, right is they’ll they’ll do a live stream or they’ll podcast for three months, six months, whatever. And then they’re done because they don’t get the results they want. And none of this stuff. The thing none of this stuff is is going to come quickly. I mean, Kurt, we’ve got a few comments here today. And how many times did you and I go on we have for comments. General comments how many years it was it was a long time to come on. She

Curt Anderson  24:42

dropped some Yeah, yeah, I pay my kids for my

Damon Pistulka  24:46

profile or whatever, you know, but it was it was just like it was it just takes the consistency is so important.

Curt Anderson  24:53

It does it takes a consistency so let’s go Nicola, let’s go here. So I don’t know if everybody caught it. So again, guys, thank you for Join us today Happy Friday. We’ve got gal Robertson here, we’ve got Nicole Donnelly, and Gail just a fantastic post. Totally, man, encourage you guys invite you guys connect with these two amazing, incredible wonderful ladies. Thank us later, Gail dropped a great post this morning. So I’m going to post one of her comments, building a strong brand presence. Nicole, you’re great on branding, you’re working with your clients and branding. You did a whole rebrand with your company, which I think is just phenomenal. So we’ll talk about like, what live streaming, what that can do for folks that are like, hey, you know what I’m considering going this livestream route. Let’s go there talk about what can the brand name do for someone that’s considering going this route?

Nicole Donnelly  25:40

Oh, that’s a great, great question. So I think that we have, we are in the middle of a massive disruption right now with generative AI massive that we fully don’t realize how this is going to impact us. But one thing’s for sure is we’re already seeing just an incredible proliferation of AI generated content. And the nature of AI, these these large learning models that have been built is it’s intended to basically be derivative content. That’s the whole it’s, it’s pulling, parsing, taking from whatever information that already exists. And using this algorithm to predict what the next word in a sentence is going to be. So by design, these are based on creating something new from something that already exists. And so we’re, that’s only going to increase over time, we know that trust buyers have have just lacked so much trust, today, more than ever before. In companies, it’s it’s gone down significantly ever since you know, social media came into play. And now with AI and generative AI, that that is only going to increase, it’s going to become harder and harder for brands to build trust with buyers because of that authenticity, and the more more people are looking for it, and trust goes down. And so I think from a branding perspective, the opportunity for companies of all sizes, is to get on mediums like this, where you put your leadership in front of a microphone, and you just let them share what they know their experience, you know, the highs and the lows, the goods and the bads, the ugly, all of it, like let them open up the kimono and share. And that is what people want. That’s what they’re craving. That’s what makes that’s what’s gonna build trust with buyers is when they can see the real people behind the brand. And those people really are going to show show up in that way. So and I think there’s a lot of ways that companies can do this, you know, we talked about, you know, you don’t even have to produce your own livestream show. You know, like, for example, in my case, what did I do, I first knew I wanted to very intentionally meet and connect with people in the manufacturing industry, because I wanted to build relationships and build my business there. That was my why. So what did I do, I started engaging with those people on LinkedIn, started commenting, liking, you know, sharing my experience, and immediately started connecting one on one with people offline. That’s how I got introduced to Curt. And then what happens next, I get invited to come on his show. He’s a micro influencer in this industry, right? So you want to find the micro influencer, that’s in your industry, who already has a platform, and then you go be a guest on that show. And that’s how you start, you don’t have to start by producing your own show, you can start small by just being a guest on someone else’s show, and start to get the optics that way, start to gain the confidence, you know, start to really get increase your exposure to you know, people within that network. And that’s really, I think, a really affordable, I mean, it’s just time really affordable way for for brands who are just getting started to try to get an increase their, their brand awareness, and there’s lots of things that you can talk about in a live stream, you know, product launches, you know, you know, new you’ve just did it, you’ve got a new digital transformation and E commerce build, right? Or, you know, maybe there’s an acquisition that’s happened or,

Damon Pistulka  29:11

you know, new employees.

Curt Anderson  29:14

Customers, right.

Nicole Donnelly  29:17

Yeah, customer testimonials, right, you know, all of that so, there’s just a touch so much opportunity and live streaming has just increased so much like we’re seeing 2% year over year more and more people are what wanting to see and be part of live stream so it’s only going to increase I think, yeah.

Curt Anderson  29:35

Okay, that was a that was just that was what was was a grandma or was, oh, Bart you’re so close and park Sunday. You’re

Nicole Donnelly  29:46

gonna get it. It was rhubarb pie

Curt Anderson  29:49

that was I am garb strawberry rhubarb pie right there, Nicole. That was just so good. But hey, guys, we’re coming over the top of the hour. We’ve got Jan, thank you for joining us today. Everything takes time. I like this comment here. People also need to realize consistency makes it easier practice, practice, practice right and taking less time per episode. Yes, this makes sense. I think they’ve Christ or jumped to another bombshell people always and my people buy from people, right? Like, you know, Hey, it’s b2c b2b, you know that it uh, and you know, Damon, we hear it all the time. It’s HDH. It’s human to human. And if there’s any other Hey, Whitney Houston is here today. So we’re so happy Friday, guys get dropped these comments in the chat box, we’d love to keep this conversation going. If you have any questions for these guys, please. Great time to ask these questions. Gal, I want to come back at you. You had again, wonderful post you put build strong brand presence. I’m noticing question that you?

Gail Robertson  30:46

Well, again, it’s all everything we do is about our brand, which is about what they said. It’s about who we are. Right. So what’s interesting, I would usually recommend to people they go with, you know, like on a lot of platforms with their name. And the reason I’ve gone with gale now is that’s become my brand. So when I walk into events now people introduce they go Oh, Gail now is here. So friends, that so I like my name Gail now and my son likes to say they tease me call me Gail now one because Instagram. Anyway. So it’s this joke that the kids have, right. But I did want to address something because I think when we’re talking about I agree about consistency. And sometimes I think for me right now I am being more inconsistently consistent or consistently it gets because I’m doing some testing as well. So instead of locking in, I didn’t show my show up with Gail now with every Wednesday, right? Well, now what I’m doing is I’m more doing some of my interviews, according to my guests schedules. And this had to do with some other things that were on my plate. So instead of kind of saying, Oh, well, I can’t do it every week, I now do it. I adjusted it. And I’m also using YouTube to a greater degree. So I’m doing it live. And I while I don’t have the same engagement in the comments, I’m still getting great content that I then use those video clips. So for people out there, like kind of find your way and I do want to say another mic drop moment because this is from someone said this today on another call was restaurant said experiments become experience.

Nicole Donnelly  32:27

Oh. Good.

Gail Robertson  32:32

Okay. And the other day I was doing a live stream. And we don’t know if we want to talk about products because I use stream yard. And there’s different things you can use. I’m going to be testing out e cam next because I read about that so much for that. But I was using stream yard and I wanted to live stream to Facebook, which I’ve never done before. So I thought well try it so I tried it. Well that got me down a rabbit hole and i i On Facebook, I’m not a big it was my personal profile because I was interviewing a former high school teacher, right so I thought, Okay, I’m gonna do it on Facebook. Anyways, I asked Jim fuse who was in I think he was here who is also I learned so much from him. He was one of the first people that really helped with show I was doing and I found out finally I just deleted it because I it was such a mess. And Facebook and live streaming from stream yard just seemed it was getting messy. So that was now I know, I don’t want to do that because of the new some of the changes in Facebook. And so just for people, but no one, you know, try some things. I’ve tried many things in work. And I’m so glad of those things that I did because you learn and and that’s why I always say with livestream Hey, no dress rehearsal. Let’s just go and where are you? I did my show yesterday, I thought I was talking about these photos I was putting up except I wasn’t changing the photo screen. But I went back and said Okay, oops, that’s oops. But yeah, now I know to make sure I share the right photo screen so you wouldn’t know the photo I shared. No, I’m kidding. It wasn’t.

Nicole Donnelly  34:10

I don’t picture that people were watching that. Just love that thought that oops, honestly. Yeah, probably because it’s so relatable. You know, like,

Gail Robertson  34:17

I know, I have got the most I mean, sometimes when you drop the ball or mango say it can become funny if you embrace it. And I learned that from doing keynotes. Or something happens. Don’t pretend it didn’t happen. Just like no, I had a bit of a wardrobe fail during a speech. And I just taught growth it was energy not that kind of work. Oh, I

Nicole Donnelly  34:43

hope it wasn’t like Janet Jackson. We can’t go

34:51

to the gaff about that.

Damon Pistulka  34:55

That’s part of it, though. I think that’s the part of it that people enjoy and just think about This how many people watch reality TV?

Nicole Donnelly  35:02

Right? It’s I mean, my daughter’s watched people play Minecraft and I’m like what I do you know? Yeah,

Gail Robertson  35:09

exactly.

Curt Anderson  35:12

comments here real quick. So Jan I’m doing I’m doing the on podcasts and in my message recovery from a stroke. If we just did an episode just a few weeks ago with Katie McDermott and Nicole you episode eight Yep. Gary, my buddy in Rochester. My mother used to make strawberry rhubarb pie. Turtle Great to see you. Angered says hard to hire you know. So anyway, great comments here. Yeah. Okay, so let’s, man we got to we’ve got a lot more to come. I don’t know. How are we doing on time? We’re doing good. All right. Yeah, we’re doing okay, let’s keep it going. Nicole. We had great comments here from gal gal. I’m kinda I’m like, I’m just I’m totally just blatantly plagiarizing stealing your posts. And we’re gonna go to awesome. Because I you shared earlier like, you know, Boy, you’ve been very blessed, very fortunate businesses in growth mode. And I’ve watched it firsthand where like, you come on a live stream. And then we’ve taken these live streams, we share them with new prospects with new clients. We’ve invited them on the live streams, just talking about like, how it’s worked for you for business growth, or building those relationships on your end.

Nicole Donnelly  36:15

I’ll give you an example. I think this is a cool example. So I have a partner who is a great he’s been he’s he’s just awesome. I’ve loved working with him. And he he said, Hey, Nicole, I’ve got this person I want to talk to you about I think this would be a really great business opportunity for you. So I meet with this woman, amazing woman, amazing, amazing woman. And we had a great conversation. And I said, Okay, well, let’s follow up. Let’s have a follow up call. Let’s go into more detail. It was it was a discovery call. Let’s have a follow up call. And I want to introduce you to my business partner, Kurt, Curt Anderson. And she says, Okay, sounds great. So we scheduled this follow up call. And we get on the call. And no joke. She said, Oh, I watched you both on your LinkedIn live show

Curt Anderson  37:01

that like in real quick. So what we do in this what we did our SEO made simple for manufacturers. And I’m sorry, and we’ll talk about this in a minute. Like we were putting like, we’re using SEO strategies in our headlines with our lives. We’ll see. We’ll talk about that in a little bit. But Damon, we you so the three of us geeked out about SEO, we had Nicole on Monday, this call was on Thursday, three days later, Nicole told them and yeah,

Nicole Donnelly  37:25

so first of all, we never told her about the show. We didn’t say anything to her. I never said to her Oh, check us out. We’re gonna be on the show. Nothing. All I did was say, I’d love to introduce you to my business partner, Curt Anderson, and schedule the meeting, will she on her own volition. And this is a This just confirms how much buyers today are doing their homework online and researching you and you don’t even know it. Because we got on that call on Friday. And she’s like, Oh, I saw you on the show. And you were talking about spirit animals. And I’m a turtle, you know, too. And she had seen the show. And it’s like, she already knew us. She already knew Kurt. And then not only that, she had chat GPT and Kurt and said, and I was trying to find out what an E commerce evangelist is. And so I typed into chat GPT what is an E commerce evangelist and Boo hoo comes up Curt Anderson and it was like blurt like everything is wet. You know? So anyway, so that is just like a perfect example. You just don’t know who’s lurking, who’s watching who’s seeing you and it’s just a great opportunity to again get your authentic voice out there your brand voice in a great way and she is a wonderful customer we love working with her she she at the end of that call she had she said I’ve decided I want to work with you tell me which package I should use like she literally had so much trust that she told us you know she so anyway, so they think it just to me the proof is in the pudding. Like everything I’ve experienced just shows that this can be a really powerful way to build trust with people and all of it so that was one example I don’t know.

Curt Anderson  39:06

Instead of moments of silence we might have moments of holy cows or you just give me a new

Gail Robertson  39:13

poll that is such a great I’m gonna pull that clip I think because I say this all the time. People are searching you people are finding it like we okay I said people do go search they and I don’t know do they think they’re the only people like the dude I go some pretty people think that they’re in this like no one is searching about me but I’m searching what everybody else is you go search my friends often when it comes to even if they’re meeting someone or dating someone new they’re always like, hey, they call me first say hey, what can you find? The deep dogs that’s that’s a little side service. I do anybody. One thing that I I got connected in and I want to do a shout out to the manufacturing champions group because I was tapped by Jake Hall. And I remember the time I looked around, it was like me, like, they invited me. And it’s been really life changing to meet amazing people and be and I think I’m only one of those couple of Canadians. It’s, you know, it’s a very us focus group. But it was because I was showing up on LinkedIn, and I was commenting and participating in the conversation. So that’s another thing just like engaging in a you don’t have to have your own livestream. You can go in game, look at the some of the people commenting here, and I’ve found people to bring on my show through comments, and you know, people that get my attention, so, yeah. Y’all just

Nicole Donnelly  40:59

savor the flavors.

Curt Anderson  41:01

The what was the line? They think that people aren’t Googling them? Yeah. That’s like, that was like Chris Harrington. Right, David, remember? Remember that one? Like, people don’t want to call you about the O ring.

Nicole Donnelly  41:17

Yeah, by

Curt Anderson  41:19

all time, great quote, right there, man. They’re thinking that they’re not Googling them. So I That’s alright, so let’s go here. So amplify. So all right, your three points today, were build a strong brand presence, foster business growth, amplify your networking opportunities. You know, you integrate, you just mentioned I love to go there for a minute. Like you guys had a mastermind group, our mutual friend, Jeff Long is Chris Lukey. J. Cole. Megan was there. I mean, like, it was a powerhouse group of folks. Talk about, like, how that all came to life through LinkedIn, and like live streaming, just let’s go there talking to share that with everybody, please. Well,

Gail Robertson  41:56

it was from, you know, like I said, showing up. I mean, you have to show up, even if you think you’re not ready, even if you think you’re not, you know, looking right, you don’t have the right background. I mean, I’ve had a few different backgrounds. But I mean, this is I use this was a pop up board that I use at a trade show. And then I decided, hey, I’m gonna use it in my background now, right? So it really is, you have to step out. And I often hear people go, Well, I don’t like it. I don’t want to do it, you know, and I’ve heard everything but it’s like, in everything in life, like do you want to move forward? So I often say to people they don’t want to do so shall I go? So do you have more business than you can handle? And it’s not answer isn’t no in like in 2023 and beyond, I don’t know how you can unless you have a very niche maybe boutique tight local business that you’re handing out flyers. And I mean, there are places like that right? If you want to actually open more doors, and have more business come your way. And just learn new things. It’s there’s so many opportunities. So yeah, the manufacturing champions has been like I still some days go, how did I ever get in this group? You did yourself?

Curt Anderson  43:17

You’re definitely the cool kids there. Right.

Gail Robertson  43:20

One last thing that’s also I was I’m involved with PT Expo plastic technology expo because I worked in moldmaking work in the world of plastics. And the same thing they invited me a couple of years ago to be part of the circle of champions to help them promote the show and it was a really brilliant idea what they did because they wanted people that were active on social to come out and and I first I thought they meant like, because I was doing work with a client I think Oh, do you mean as the marketing for this client, they go no, no, no, Gail now we want you and that also is something that I tell other people you know, you can become a mark manufacturing champion in manufacturing whatever by showing up.

Curt Anderson  44:01

So hey, Jan says I google myself to see what’s out there Jen? Great advice. Yeah, how are you? Are you sitting down gal you ready for this comment? Yeah,

Damon Pistulka  44:10

there you go. There he is.

Curt Anderson  44:16

If you wait till you’re completely ready, you’ll never start and I’ve used this many times on the on the program demon. I think it was Reed Hoffman from LinkedIn. says if you’re not embarrassed by your first go around, you’ve waited too long. And trust me David, like I make like what’s the word you just use? Nicole? Get my gaffes right so my gasps my goose my mess ups I make the are very endearing. Were my MO right there my MO game and we were just up in Alaska doing live streams and probably every day we can something a little awkward.

Damon Pistulka  44:49

But it was fun. I mean, that’s a perfect example though. There are horrible I mean, there’s like this and you know like So we were talking about real people about real stuff. And that’s the thing that’s fun about live streaming. I mean, you can talk about people that are passionate about what their real life stuff, man, it’s so cool,

Curt Anderson  45:12

you know, and the thing is like entrepreneurship is lonely man, and it’s a lonely. Yes. And so the thing is, came in, we were doing workshops at the Alaska MEP, we had a roomful of entrepreneurs. And just like, Mike, we’re going to do a live stream guys, we’re going to be over here, we’re not going to face anybody, we’re going to totally respect your privacy. If you guys want to come up, I would love for you guys to come up and do an interview with us. Almost every person like as mere fact that what like, you know, Nicole, we’re talking like painful introverts. This one client candy, like total pain for an introvert. I’m like, Man, I don’t want to bears candy. And she was like knocking people over, you know, to get up there on stage. And people just love to just have a moment to talk about themselves. They want recognition. So if nothing else, man shine a bright light. I’m like your, your clients, your customers. Clap, you know, collaborate like Dave and I aren’t the two smartest guys in the room. But boy, we’ve certainly feel smart when we’re hanging out with just amazing brilliance. And just soaking it in with everybody. Nikolas I know like we need to probably certainly about winding down at some point in time. Oh, man,

Nicole Donnelly  46:16

I just want to keep going.

Curt Anderson  46:20

Cool. What do you let’s let’s go clients. We’ve been bringing clients from IMEC Miko we were on site. We’re gonna be on site in Chicago next week. Talk about like what you’ve seen, like how white on Monday, what’s interviewed Mike on Monday, talking about what you’ve seen with like clients coming on? And how like, they’ve just really just, they’re glowing talking about their businesses. We had Alan, the hot sauce manufacturer last week. What are some experiences that you’ve seen?

Nicole Donnelly  46:47

Yeah, I mean, it’s been really great. So you know, our company, we have what’s called a content engine. And so we help we help these small businesses just create their marketing foundation and just start to create ongoing regular content that answers their buyers questions so that it can build trust. And so we do that through blogging through video clips. And we do a lot of what’s called subject matter expert interviews. And those are typically privately recorded, we private record those interviews, and then we waterfall the content from there, we splice it up, get it out on social media, turn it into blog posts, and what I realized probably maybe like, sheesh, I don’t know, several months ago, happy I don’t remember is the magic of the subject matter expert interviews is in the full interview itself, not in these like little clips that we’re in turning it into a blog post, you know, there’s all value in that. But the true magic is the conversation that we’re having, where we get these, like experts on who knows. So like they’ve been in this what their industry for, sometimes decades. And they know so much. And like I get on the subject matter expert interviews, and I’m like, Oh my gosh, is mind blowing what these people know. And now we’ve got to turn it into a blog post and cut it up into these little clips. I’m like, I just want to share the whole stinking thing with the world. It’s so powerful. And so we started to just like, ask them, hey, what if we were to turn your make these private subject matter expert interviews live, we just do a live event? And you can, you know, we already know like, we have a content calendar all planned out strategy for like six months a year, what we’re going to say what if we just take that topic, and we’re going to broadcast it on a live show? And it’s, you know, they’re responding, you know, they’re like, Yeah, let’s, let’s do it, let’s talk about it live. And it’s been a really great opportunity for them to for, you know, for us to experiment with this as an option. And we’re seeing like, they’re, they love it, it’s, it’s been great, they build confidence they get to share their product and you know, their their their thought leadership and you know, all the great stuff, all the great stuff, all the great things. So it’s I think it’s just been a it’s a really another great way for them to, you know, brand them to get their personal brand out there and their brand or their company and, and I’m starting to ramble, so I’m gonna stop.

Curt Anderson  49:01

No, that was fantastic. Hey, Damon, we got our buddy Mark hills. They are two men, dude, Mark. Happy Father’s Day to you my friend. Great Father, amazing guy. He’s out in Chicagoland. So Mark, Happy, Happy Friday. Happy Father’s Day to you. But Dave Alright, let’s start winding down. And so I have my last question that I want to add. Probably I probably have like five more. But last question. I want to ask you guys, as we go around. I won’t say like, who’s the top guests? Because like, we you know that, you know, I won’t ask that. Right. But Damon, we were you and I you Nicole and I were talking earlier this week of like, not necessarily the best guests because every single one of them is the best guests. Yeah. But talk about like, what how have these guests changed you? How have they changed your lives? Whether, you know, it was like maybe you know, we landed a big guest all the way down to like, you know, you know, cheese, you know, didn’t expect a ton and just, you’re just blown away by anybody that comes on the stage, but just share a little bit of that. Like, what it’s done, how it’s changed your life, just interviewing these hundreds of people that you’ve had the good fortune of interviewing.

Damon Pistulka  50:07

I don’t even know how to describe it. I mean, because it’s just like, it’s like this, this. It when when people talk about gratitude and some of these things, I’m just so grateful to be able to, to be able to talk to people and learn from them, and then build relationships with them. I mean, I never knew this was possible like this. And once you start meeting these awesome people, there’s so many awesome people to meet, all you want to do is meet more of them. And the people around you are going to think you’re absolutely freaking insane. Because you do it and you do it so much, if I could. And you know this for me, I would do this five days a week, I would do it from my box on the corner if I had to, because there’s so many cool people to meet and learn from and just Galle curious, right? How does it feed your curiosity? To talk to somebody that good at something you know nothing about and learn about it? Oh, my goodness. Right. It’s such a blessing it.

Curt Anderson  51:14

Alright, let’s take them strawberry rhubarb pie. I was just that was fantastic. And that’s, that’s the thing is like just the amount of the opportunity to learn the opportunity to network the opportunity to just grow as a person talk about topics that maybe you didn’t know anything about. Talk about people that don’t look like you talk to people that you know, had a different upbringing, different walks of life, you know, whatever it might be gal, let’s go there for you. What have you know, some of the conversations, the mind blowing conversations, these relationships, the you know, we always talked about, like the emotional side, your curiosity, your journey like this ties in perfectly with your journalism hat. What’s it meant in done for you on that side of things?

Gail Robertson  51:52

Well, I am all about transferable skills and curiosity and showing up those are like three things I really strongly believe in. And because of the work I’ve been doing with my show, and when I had show up with Gail now I interviewed people that were showing up and sometimes in manufacturing, but sometimes outside manufacturing, and how could that help people in manufacturing? Right now my current show is curious minds with Gail now and it’s a bit of a shift but it’s still talking about the power of curiosity and I am I’m it’s also a kind of a combination part of a passion project. Because I really believe there’s a lot of stories that and perspectives that aren’t being told in our world right now. So I’m a big fan, too. I started listening to Joe Rogan. And not that I’m saying lines like Joe but there’s a lot of judgment about him. And I tell people have you listened to some podcasts like setting aside wherever your political view go? Listen, because his podcast really is about curiosity. He has people on not everybody here agrees with but he there’s a discussion. It’s not an attack and and so my show curious minds now in the same thing, what manufacturer we have to get more of these discussions, whether it’s about getting. So it but it also ties into decisions being made, whether we’re talking about climate change, whether we’re talking about Evie whether we’re talking about, you know, political perspectives, it does impact manufacturing. So, yeah, for me, I’m now taking a bit of a different path. And my show is to to get more people to kind of say, hmm, I hadn’t thought of the world that way. This in that way. So I’m kind of this belief, too, that we need, we have too many extremes. And we need to kind of bring back some balance in our world because we’re when I’m also a big fan of yoga, right? And yoga balance you have kind of because you can just do like I do a lot of cycling, I can only cycle so I cycle I drink training, I do yoga, because and anyway, so that’s my little preaching point about the power of using video and live streaming to also change the world. And that’s sort of my my ideal back in journalism school. We had shirts made out to change the world on deadline. I felt that I wasn’t able to do that in mainstream media. So now I’m doing it with curious minds what

Curt Anderson  54:24

you know, just one person at a time

Damon Pistulka  54:26

and so much in there

Curt Anderson  54:29

so much in there. And so I so I our comments are coming through on on here, but I’m so Jim says Bravo, Gauss, we’ve got some great yeah. Through on LinkedIn. So okay.

Damon Pistulka  54:43

My gosh, no.

Curt Anderson  54:45

Question. You, Nicole. I think you interviewed was somebody important this week? I can’t remember. Did you interview? Yeah.

Nicole Donnelly  54:53

I interviewed probably my biggest marketing idol. And he came on my podcast. fast. And it was, it was literally a dream come true for me to be able to interview him. His name is Marcus Sheridan and he his strategies that he experimented with at his own business, I was able to take to the company that I was working for many years ago and just completely anyway, I know I’m rambling because it was just such an incredible experience. Whereas I was looking for it. It’s called they ask you answer. Everyone should read this book, The man hasn’t

Curt Anderson  55:29

read on his home. Right? And

Nicole Donnelly  55:33

anyway, so I had a chance to he came on the podcast, and I immediately it was just incredible experience. He was so generous with his time and just, oh, my I’m, I’m speechless about it. And after the podcast, I got off. And I had a meeting with Damon and Kurt and I was just filled with immense gratitude. Because there’s no way there’s no way in my mind, I would have ever had him as a guest on my show, had I not been on your live stream show a year and a half, there’s just no way I know it. So like, to me, I’m just so incredibly grateful for the chance that I’ve had to get to know you guys, and for the opportunities that you’ve given to me, that you, you know, allowed me to come on your platform. And I just think about, like all the other people out there who have been on your show, that we don’t even know about that have been so positively impacted because of what you guys are doing or what you’re bringing to this community. Like, I don’t think you could fully realize that I’m sure that they’re, you know, I mean, I know you hear some of it, Kurt, and people come and tell you, Oh my gosh, that was so amazing. But like the longterm downstream effect of what you guys have created here, is just really, really special. It’s really special. And I think that there’s opportunity for other people out there who are listening to us Damon and Curt and scale as a great example of what you can create to for your business, wherever you’re at as a leader, wherever you’re at, if the when you get your voice out there, and you really, you know, try to help people the way that Damon Kurt Gail, you guys have done, the impact that you can have is just so remarkable. And so I’m just so filled with gratitude that, you know, there’s just, it’s just been, it’s just kind of like come full circle. So thank you so much from the bottom of my heart, for what you give him what you do, it really makes such a difference. And I know, you may not see it now, but it does.

Curt Anderson  57:23

Back at you my friend. So I know. Like we could go all day, like we’re just flying right over over time. So why don’t let’s start winding down. And so I can say so first off for everybody in the audience. Thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart. I know Damon, I’m speaking for you. That’s a such an honor such a blessing and like you, you know, like, whether it’s five people, you know, two people on my mom and somebody else, you know, and 100 other people, whatever, it just like, you know, having that impact, you know and gal, you hit it on the head, you know, the curiosity to call we use the line, how do we teach? Yep. Competition? How do you teach the competition? And so like, our goal is like, man, we want to have a lot of fun. We call it edutainment a little bit. But you know, but bottom line, like we’re just trying to learn and like if we can get other smart people to come on the program, because again, I’m gonna speak for Daymond I’m not the sharpest tool in the shed. But when we bring on smart people like Nicole and Gail, we can just, you know, just man. And I think Jan dropped a comment. So when you said I want to change the world, and said like, I’m just changing my little corner. So like, you know, if we can corner and I’d say one thing that we always love to end the program and we’re not ending yet. So don’t go anywhere. Is you know, be somebody’s inspiration. Yeah. How can you just need some reason inspiration, man was just so inspiring. I guys, let’s wind down. Damon, I’m gonna come to you, my friend. Father’s Day weekend. I know, you know, you Your father was a total hero. We lost dad during COVID. Father’s Day, what the best, best father’s memory to you. Wow.

Damon Pistulka  58:59

I don’t know. I just I don’t know, I’ve been trying to think of it. But, you know, I think that just the, you know, the lessons, the lessons. You know, even later in life, too. That was a thing for me later in life too.

Curt Anderson  59:14

And you know, it was it Mark Twain that said, he left his home at 18. He came back at 21. He was like, I can’t believe how smart my dad got and those three, don’t right. Remember that story. So, Gail, I’m going to come to you my friend Father’s Day weekend. Best father’s best, best memory of dad, anything that you want to share?

Gail Robertson  59:32

Well, mine is a bit of an interesting story. I’ll keep it quick because I’m in writing as part of why don’t hide. I also do work, excuse me in the area of mental health from a marketing perspective, and growing up my son, I grew up in an alcoholic home. So here’s the thing that I learned from my father is that, you know, he did the best he could and it was you know, I think there’s no I accidents in life. So, because of the work I’m doing and I’ve done in mental health, I’ve now learned that his drinking was really related very likely, that was his way to medicate for mental health issues because in the end, he did take his life. But I don’t want to end this on a negative. What I want to say though, is that this is why I believe curiosity is so important because as I’ve got older, I now take that page from Ted last so be curious, not judgmental. So I have I learned a lot my father instilled in me the love of reading, there was many positive things. I did a talk on my YouTube show where I talked about Rob during a Robbie Burns talk. And so I I wanted to bring up this story because, you know, not everybody grew up with a wonderful way or wonderful that their father was amazing. But maybe if you can step back and say what take the best leave the rest. And that’s what how I live my life right now. I focus on what is the best memories of my father and so I will raise a glass of cheer to him. Now on Sunday, so Wow, awesome

Curt Anderson  1:01:12

guy. You know, just when I don’t think you get like, you can’t see my expectations. You just go and smash them once again. Thank you for being vulnerable. Thank you for sharing what a wonderful beautiful heartfelt story God you just totally move me

Gail Robertson  1:01:30

to that’s the only thing that’s the other message too is that wherever you are, make sure because mental health encompasses addictions and grief and eating disorders. There’s so many support your local mental health association.

Damon Pistulka  1:01:43

Definitely.

Curt Anderson  1:01:46

Gail, thank you more. More strawberry rhubarb pie right there. So send so much love for Gail Nicole. Can we can we do this? I know. You lost dad. Fierce fierce entrepreneur. Manufacturer built amazing, incredible company. You know, really sad lost dad during COVID Your favorite memory of your father?

Nicole Donnelly  1:02:15

Yeah. Well, first of all, Gail, I love everything you just said I think a lot of us have really complicated relationships with our parents. You know, I think that that’s, you know, and I definitely did with my dad, he was a force he was larger than life. And incredible person in a lot of ways. You know? And I would say like, probably but he was also very type a person, you know, very much. So really like when you mentioned some be curious, not judgmental. I love that so much. One of my favorite memories of my dad was when he came to visit, and I have many, many, many. But he came to visit me. She must have been like five years ago. And he was not a man who ever gave like words of affirmation. He wasn’t like someone who would give a lot of praise. Like you did a great job. Awesome. He didn’t do say Wowzers and cows was like holy cow. There’s like Kurt does. So but he just he came to visit. And he went to the store one day. And he went to the grocery store just wanted to go the grocery store. He came back from the store. And he’s like, Nicole, I got something for you. I was like, Oh, this is little, okay. And he had gotten me this mug from the grocery store. And it said on the mug, you are the best. I think you’re amazing. And I remember it was just like this very small, like little thing he had picked it up and he had this big smile on his face. And I just it just melted my little I just gave him a big hug. And it was that really small little moment that I will always cherish that he and he just was over the moon about this little mug and he’s like, I just want you to know how much I love you. And that’s a memory that will always just stick with me of him. Small not not anything bigger fancy but mental.

Gail Robertson  1:04:00

Actually, he was

Curt Anderson  1:04:01

huge and I know read over your shoulder if you kind of go like this Nicole is and I think your father Jim used to play lead and music and he was a very theatrical, very gifted music was your music and so Oh, thank you guys for sharing my father. My he’s still my best friend. And when I was a demon, he would you know, you know the old you know, 12 hour days six days a week that it but man when he came home at night we were in the side yard playing catch in AR 10 years old just like pitching the confidence that he built in me. I’m thrown as absolute as hard as I can in every night be like, Man, I’ve got to get a sponge for this glove because you are throwing so hard you’re hurting my hand. I’ve got to get you had me so convinced that I’m like I’m throwing heat. You know, like I’m an everyday man. We were out there didn’t matter what the weather was how tired he was. He was in a sigh yard we’re in. I’m a baseball fanatic to this day. So, man, we’re all blessed with just greats. Thank you for sharing those stories to each of the men. So my guys, I’m we’re gonna close it down. Yep. Thank you, Gail. Thank you. You’re such a blessing in your second year friend. I’m embarrassed that we have not met in person. Can we please make that an absolute top?

Gail Robertson  1:05:21

I’m thinking they of course or maybe when is when are you in Chicago? What’s the date said?

Damon Pistulka  1:05:26

Monday? Monday.

Gail Robertson  1:05:29

We could have, we could have rideshare down there. But I don’t think well, we’ll make it happen. Go down.

Curt Anderson  1:05:36

You’ve been a dear friend. You’ve been a huge advocate for art. From day one. Like, you’ve been a huge advocate for our show. I cannot express my thanks my gratitude by making you you fill in as a guest, a host. It’s perfect. Gail, when you and I were hosting together. I just got an email this morning from Haley saying, Hey, can you send me that download because I’m going to pull out a bunch of clips from that. And that was you and I on stage together. Nicole, thank you. Thank you. Thank you for joining us today. I deeply appreciate you. She Nicole used to there.

Nicole Donnelly  1:06:09

I’m here. Yeah.

Curt Anderson  1:06:10

Thank you to do. Damon. Was this like, what was this? How was this for an episode?

Damon Pistulka  1:06:17

Is it good? Is it a good one live

Gail Robertson  1:06:19

streaming is? It’s powerful. But yeah.

Curt Anderson  1:06:26

But I know we could go all day. So thank you. Thank you. Happy Father’s Day weekend to everybody. Thank you for joining us. Thank you for listening. Thank you for hanging out. Damon, why don’t you close this out like you always do, dude.

Damon Pistulka  1:06:40

All right. Wow. Thanks so much, everyone for being here today. Thank you, Gail. It’s always a pleasure to have you on and CO hosting and just appreciate the curiosity and you know, signing up to not suiting up and showing up is such a great example for us all. Your journalism background. Learn from it every time I get to be with you listen to you. Just thanks so much. And Nicole, the having you here. having you on the live streams with us is so much fun because you bring such a great great vibe and emotion and just energy I should say that that emotion but energy and it’s so much fun to have you around because you just you know really know what you’re doing as well too, which is fun. And in Curt, it’s just if people are wondering about live streaming, they should just try it because if you know if Statler and Waldorf can do it if we can do it, we can do it. Anybody can do it. But I just want to say thanks everyone, once again for showing up for us. We’ve had a couple technical difficulties. We haven’t been able to see the comments for some reason and it’s been telling me but this is live streaming. Right. You’re gonna have problems. We just kept going with it. The conversation for Great. Thanks so much for everyone that was listening today. Thanks so much for the people that were commenting, and back again, and just we will be back again next week with another guest more shows next week is a big week. It’s like how many how many shows are going on? It’s like four or five shows next week we got going on? Yeah, it’s gonna be so much fun. Thanks, everyone. We’ll be back. Have a great Father’s Day weekend.

Nicole Donnelly  1:08:43

Happy Father’s Day,

Gail Robertson  1:08:45

Father’s Day, everybody. You bet