“Jennifer Garner Waved at Me!” - INBOUND Trip: Part 3

I’d been looking forward to the Thursday programming slate at INBOUND 2019 for months. 

Why?

You see, it’s really quite simple. Jennifer Garner was on the slate talking about her farm-to-table food company Once Upon a Farm (alongside co-founder and CEO John Foraker).

Garner’s TV series “Alias” is one of my favorites (the lady could effortlessly kick ass and cry on cue as secret agent Sydney Bristow).

I was interested in hearing about her company. As luck would have it, a Once Upon a Farm smoothie was in our refrigerator when we got home (Bridget had purchased it the previous week to aid in my attempt to eat/snack healthier), and we didn’t even realize it. 

Garner and Foraker were the opening “Spotlight” speakers on Thursday, Sept. 5. They were interviewed by Katie Couric (who would appear in her own “Spotlight” session later in the day). 

The topic of the talk was “Passion and Purpose — Creating a Business With Personal Meaning.” 

In this picture, you can see Jennifer Garner waving. I can only assume she was waving at me, and not one of the other 25,000+ attendees surrounding the Main Stage. ;-)

Garner’s passion for Once Upon a Farm stems from her mom’s upbringing in Oklahoma. 

Her mom made “every bite of food they ate,” she said. Garner would beg her mom for junk food – Chips Ahoy, Triscuits, Little Debbie Snack cakes.

Foraker is the former president of Annie’s Homegrown (an organic food company in Berkeley, CA, whose parent company is General Mills). 

“I had the best job in the food industry and I went to this little startup,” said Foraker.

Both agreed they wanted to make food products for kids of all ages — not just infants.

“I’ve got kids to feed and lunch boxes that need filled every day,” said Garner, whose kids are ages 13, 10, and 7. 

It sounds like the two have a shared synergy and passion. Foraker complimented Garner on her hard work ethic with Once Upon a Farm. 

Garner suggests her passion for providing healthy and affordable food for families came from the generational poverty she experienced growing up in West Virginia. 

The presentation was thought-provoking and had a lot of energy. Garner’s personality (reminiscent of her Jenna Rink character in “13 Going on 30”) was fun and infectious. 

Once Upon a Farm is trying to build a culture that consumers will buy-in to. 

“To me, culture is everything,” said Foraker. “Have values that people will self-select into.”

After the session concluded, it was time for our first breakout session of the day.  

Bridget and I attended an interesting session titled “Retention is a Game of Inches: Use a Scalpel, Not a Sledgehammer” presented by ProfitWell co-founder and CEO Patrick Campbell. 

Campbell had a humorous demeanor from the get-go — something that helps break the monotony in a data-driven presentation. 

Subscriber retention is an important topic for Bridget and I as it regards our subscription-based website BeAResumeWriter.com for career industry professionals. 

Campbell talked about how businesses spend 63% of their sales/marketing budget acquiring customers, but only about 8% of that budget retaining customers. 

He quipped that some businesses spend more time, money, and effort picking out toilet paper than on monetizing customers. 

Gone are the days of penny-per-click ads on Google and 90% open rates on e-mail campaigns. 

Campbell had a number of suggestions for retaining subscribers, including encouraging annual subscriptions (over monthly subs), offer amazing support, and fix credit card failures (20-40% of churn is due to failed credit card payments)

He gave us a lot to think about. 

We then met up with Jason for lunch at the Lawn on D food trucks. 

Since there are 20,000+ attendees at INBOUND each year, organizers offer a number of food options that will get participants in and out and onto their next educational session. 

The Lawn on D area is an ultra-modern outdoor park with grass and astroturf areas, along with a hooded tent where patrons could eat their food truck selections. 

I had a sandwich from the Daddy’s Bonetown Burgers truck. It was called “Daddy’s Cheesesteak Sub.” It featured grilled steak, bacon, smoked onions, and cheddar cheese with house-made bourbon barbecue sauce on a wheat bun. 

It was pretty good. Honestly, it didn’t really resemble a cheesesteak in terms of look, taste, or consistency, but I was glad to try it. 

Bridget had the “Honey Truffle Goat Cheese Sandwich” from The Dining Car food truck. 

Bridget really liked her sandwich (I thought it looked good). It featured fresh goat cheese marinated with olive oil and herbs, toasted walnuts with wildflower honey and truffle oil, greens, and sherry vinaigrette on toasted ciabatta. She also got chips with her sandwich (mine didn't come with chips). 

I didn’t get a picture of Jason’s lunch (we were pressed for time between sessions). 

I should note that Porsche was one of the sponsors at this year’s INBOUND. This is a picture as we quickly walked by their area at the BCEC:

Our third program of the day was a “Spotlight” session with former “Today” host and “CBS Evening News” anchor Katie Couric. 

Most people know Couric from her stints on TV news (on high-profile offerings at NBC, CBS, and ABC) as well as her time at Yahoo! News. Recently, she has produced documentaries (“Fed Up” being one of the more talked-about projects) and she is currently writing a tell-all book about her time on NBC’s Today (set to drop in 2021). 

Couric currently has a daily e-newsletter called Wake-Up Call under her Katie Couric Media brand. 

Couric was interviewed at our session by journalist Sacha Pfeiffer. 

The two talked about the evolution of Couric’s career. 

Her first husband Jay (who died of colon cancer at 42) described her as “hardwired for happiness.” When she interviewed politicians, people used to call her “the velvet hammer.”

She says being authentic and natural sets the right tone.

Couric said she is relaunching her podcast (called “Next Question”) in October. She wants to take big issues and try to understand them more. One of the topics will be the current hot-button issue of vaping (25% of teenagers who vape go on to smoke regular cigarettes). 

One of her podcast guests includes fellow INBOUND speaker Jennifer Garner. 

“I want to keep putting good stuff out in the world,” she told attendees. 

Bridget and I split up for the 1:15 p.m. session. She attended the program titled “How to Generate Revenue With Content Marketing” and I went with Jason and Jolene to a presentation by Khan Academy CEO Sal Khan.

Khan is a pretty entertaining speaker. Most of the information he shared served as a general overview, including the origins of the Pre-K to college learning opportunities Khan Academy provides for learners online. 

I just recently listened to this interview Khan Academy held with Tesla/SpaceX CEO Elon Musk in 2013:

Once Khan’s presentation concluded, I zipped to meet Bridget at the presentation titled “3 Growth Marketing Principles for Creating Your Unicorn” with MobileMonkey CEO Larry Kim. 

MobileMonkey is a Facebook Messenger marketing platform. 

Kim spent quite a bit of time talking about his first “unicorn” product called WordStream (a platform he started in 2008 that was eventually bought by global news giant Gannett). 

Kim was a whitty and self-effacing speaker. At one point in the presentation (as he was talking about the intricacies of building WordStream) Kim quipped he didn’t just want to talk about his greatest hits from a decade ago. 

He says marketers are better off jumping on new marketing channels than tweaking existing ones. 

Bridget and I split up again for the 3:45 p.m. session. She went to “Don’t Just Create Content…Create Experiences!” and I went to “The Future of Branded Content Is Podcasting” presentation by HubSpot’s Sam Balter. 

Balter offered some interesting insights into the world of podcasting. He is the host of the “Weird Work” podcast (which focuses on “people who make a living in really, really weird ways”). 

He had a slide showing a quote from a member of Google’s podcasting team that read, “Our team’s mission is to help double the amount of podcast listening in the world over the next couple of years.”

The average podcast listener is 18-34 years of age, 30% have an advanced or graduate degree, and weekly podcast users spend an average of 5+ hours listening. 

As a result, there is a real opportunity for marketers to reach desirable demographics with their content. 

Jason and I host a UNO Hockey centric podcast called the “Mavpuckcast” (featured on my fansite MavPuck.com). The session provided a lot of actionable content to chew on as we tweak the podcast for the future. 

After the session, I had a little bit of time to snap some pictures before I met Jolene for the “Spotlight” session featuring singer/actress Janelle Monàe on the Main Stage.

At Club InBound they offered this cubicle (locked with a unique code) to charge your digital devices. 

The floral artist (mentioned in my first blog post about INBOUND) was just about done with the day’s INBOUND sculpture:

Club InBound also featured this “Take a Message/Leave a Message” wall:

Bridget attended a session with Roberto Blake titled “YouTube Video Marketing: Content Strategy for Discovery and Conversion.” (I decided to attend an encore of his session on Friday after Bridget raved about it.) I did meet up with her afterward and we took this selfie with the YouTube influencer:

Jason attended the session titled “How to Craft a Winning Social Video Strategy.”

The “Spotlight” session with Monàe — “Leading With Authenticity” was informative and enlightening. The entertainer has a mellow demeanor and velvety smooth voice. 

She talked about how she uses Slack to keep all her professional projects organized (offering some suggestions for feature changes she’d like to see in the app).

One of the more interesting anecdotes she mentioned was that a recent pescatarian diet (a plant-based diet with protein supplied by seafood) left her with high levels of mercury in her system (that she is being treated for).  

After Monàe’s talk, I met up with Bridget at her session (which ran late) and we headed back to the hotel. 

I know this is a running theme, but we were tired after the day’s programming.

By th way, Bridget and Jolene both won these INBOUND shirts via Twitter:

Jason and Jolene tried to get into a nearby Mexican restaurant (the wait times were too long) and Bridget and I were going to check out a place called Larry J’s BBQ Cafe (which closed at 7 p.m., just as we arrived). 

I posed for a picture by this sign for Larry J’s, and a man perched nearby said, “If your name’s not Larry, don’t pose by the sign.”

When Bridget asked, “Are you Larry?” the man replied, “Not today I’m not.”

After that weirdness, Bridget and I made our way to Tony C’s Sports Bar & Grill — a restaurant along the waterfront featuring some nice pub grub. 

Fun fact: Tony C’s is named in honor of Boston Red Sox legend Tony Conigliaro. 

We had an appetizer of the Fresh Potato Chips (with Remy’s secret sauce). The chips were terrific. 

I had the Bacon Cheddar Burger, which featured applewood bacon and aged Vermont cheddar cheese on a toasted sesame brioche.

Bridget had a side of the Mac & Cheese. (It was delicious, she said.)

We walked back to the hotel afterward. It was a really nice evening. The hearty meal and crisp air made me sleepy. 

I nodded off watching “The LEGO Movie” in our room, and had my best night of sleep on the trip. 

>> Read Part 4 of my “INBOUND Conference Trip” series!  

Previous post: “A ‘Shark,’ Pizza, and a Movie — INBOUND Trip: Part 2”

A “Shark,” Pizza, and a Movie - INBOUND Trip: Part 2

For some reason, Bridget and I mainly take trips to the eastern part of the United States. 

Part of that comes from being avid University of Nebraska at Omaha Hockey fans, since that sport is primarily oriented in the northeast portion of the country. 

I’ve never been to California, but I’ve been to Massachusetts three times now. The 2019 trip to INBOUND has the distinction of being our first business-related trip to the state. 

We set our alarm for 7:30 a.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 4 so we’d have time to shower, dress, and grab a bite to eat at a Dunkin Donuts located a couple blocks from our hotel before heading to the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center (BCEC). 

Each day at INBOUND featured a mix of “Spotlight” speakers (who provided motivational and inspirational talks to the mass attendees) and “Breakout” sessions (more directed and specific educational programming).

Jason, Bridget and I had “All-Access” passes that gave access to the “Spotlights,” “Breakouts,” and after hours events (the passes also included lunch each day). 

Since Jolene doesn’t work in marketing communications, she opted for the “Community” pass, which allowed her to attend the “Spotlight” sessions and after hours events. 

Bridget and I had a full agenda on Wednesday (so did Jason). 

The first “Spotlight” speaker on Sept. 4 was Alexis Ohanian. He spoke on the topic “Building a Business That People Live.”

Ohanian co-founded Reddit and the venture capital firm Initialized Capital. He is also married to tennis star Serena Williams.

Ohanian’s talk focused on striking a better family/work balance in the business world.  

For me, the highlight of the session was when “Shark Tank’s” Daymond John came out to interview Ohanian for a Q&A at the end. At times, it felt like Ohanian was interviewing John. 

John had a terrific quote regarding race and gender issues impacting the business world — “Entrepreneurship is the ultimate freedom.”

Ohanian followed up by saying, “The free market does not care (about race or gender). There is something beautiful about that.”

Ohanian asked John about his entrepreneur-centered TV series “Shark Tank.” John told the audience that the shortest pitch was 14 minutes; the longest was 2-1/2 hours. He said most pitches average an hour (you only see 8 minutes on the show). It takes up to 9 months to close a deal (and they close about 80% of the deals). “We really invest in people,” says John.

As we were sitting in the session, I thought to myself how much I’d like to see Daymond John have his own session at a future INBOUND conference. Bridget and I love “Shark Tank” and he offered a lot of really good insights. 

The talk ran from 9:20 a.m. to 10:15 a.m. 

From there, we were on to our first “Breakout” session of the conference. The Boston Convention and Exhibition Center is a massive space. Sessions were held in rooms all over the complex’s three level as well as at adjacent hotels. 

As a result, it was sometimes a long hike to sessions. It was a feeling I hadn’t had since my years tooling around the UNO Campus in the early 1990s. 

David Meerman Scott was the first “Breakout” speaker Bridget and I chose. He talked on the topic “Turning Fans into Customers and Customers into Fans.”

Scott is a marketing strategist for Freshspot Marketing and has spoken at every INBOUND. He talked about the power of fandom and how businesses needed to work to understand the intricacies of fans, and learn how to cultivate them. 

He is publishing a new book in January (co-authored with his neuroscientist daughter Reiko) called “Fanocracy: Turning Fans into Customers and Customers into Fans.” (Watch for a review on this blog).

The concept of fanocracy focuses on something a person is incredibly passionate about. 

“Fanocracy is not about products and services,” Scott says. “It comes from relationships with people.” 

He suggests that the “pendulum has swung too far towards automation” in our social media-driven world, impeding the ability for businesses and organizations to make a true connection with fans. 

Scott’s daughter was in attendance, and they took this selfie with the audience (only half of the room since some of the breakouts at an interesting “runway” setup for presenters):

Scott went out in the audience with a microphone to ask participants about their “Fanocracy.” Naturally, Bridget’s hand shot up and she got to talk about our obsession with UNO Hockey.

Our next session was titled “Magical Content: 7 Secrets to Content that Generates the Greatest Results, ROI, and Lasting Impact.” 

The presenter was Marcus Sheridan, owner/partner with IMPACT and a motivational speaker under the Marcus Sheridan International brand. 

Sheridan was the most lively and energetic speaker we heard during INBOUND. His session also has the distinction of being the one that yielded my best speaker pictures at the conference, since we were sitting so close. 

One of Sheridan’s best tips was for marketers who are trying to get a marketing strategy implemented by an employer or client. He suggests that if you want to get one of your programs approved, call it “a sales initiative” (he says, if you want it rejected, call it marketing). He goes on to say that marketers need to stop seeing content as a marketing tool — they need to see it as a sales tool. 

Once Sheridan’s talk concluded, Bridget and I headed over to grab something to eat at the “Wicked Good Market.”

There were multiple dining options at INBOUND, including quick grab-and-go options, drink carts, and food trucks outside the venue. 

The reasons we chose the “Wicked Good Market” is that it was 1.) handy, and 2.) quick. 

Bridget and I both got a slice of the pepperoni pizza (it was delicious). We happened to hit the “Sauce [Pizza + Pasta]” stand when there was a small line and a fresh pizza was rolling out of the oven. 

Remember those lovely paper straws I talked about during my “Disney Trip” blog series last April? Well, those things are all over Boston and were the straw of choice at INBOUND. (I might need to invest in a collapsible metal straw in the future.) 

After our meal, we had a session titled “Become an Audio Influencer for Better Inbound Marketing” with Andy Wang, Managing Partner with Runnymede Capital Management. 

He offered advice and tips on the world of podcasting, and gave insight into how he uses audio in his family’s financial services business. 

Bridget stopped by to listen to the mini-presentation taking place at the “LinkedIn Lounge” after the session with Wang. 

As I mentioned in the first part of this blog series, our business does work within the career services industry, and any changes to LinkedIn impact the B2B and B2C clientele we work with. 

The 2:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. programming was a “Spotlight” session with HubSpot co-founders Brian Halligan (CEO) and Dharmesh Shah (CTO) talking about the company. 

HubSpot, which provides content management and social media management tools, started INBOUND to provide cutting-edge content focused on inbound marketing and related concepts.

I’m not terribly familiar with HubSpot’s products, but both men seemed like sharp entrepreneurs. 

I just liked the fact that Dharmesh talked about Steve Jobs in his presentation and included this graphic of the simple product lineup put in place when Jobs returned to Apple in the late 1990s:

At 4:30 p.m. we hoofed it over to the Westin Hotel to hear Margo Aaron (founder of That Seems Important) talk about “How to Write Newsletters People Actually Want to Read.” 

By this point I had developed a massive headache. I hadn’t slept particularly well the night before, and was suffering from sensory overload. I took a couple of painkillers Bridget had on hand and tried to think soothing thoughts. 

The session with Aaron concluded the day’s biz-ed programming. I was happy to head back to the hotel, change into a pair of shorts, down a handful of Mike & Ike’s, and get ready for the screening of “Crazy Rich Asians” later in the evening at Rockland Trust Bank Pavilion.

Our gang decided to head down and find a place to eat close to where the movie screening was taking place. The director of “Crazy Rich Asians” — Jon M. Chu — was going to participate in an in-person interview before the movie, so we didn’t want to be late. 

The weather was looking stormy, but we were in good spirits. 

We decided to eat at the Legal Test Kitchen Seaport. The restaurant is an offshoot of the popular Legal Sea Foods restaurant and features an eclectic lineup of dishes. 

The greeter asked us if it’d be okay to eat outside. The seating was under a covered patio (with sides that could be rolled down and zipped close in case of rain), so we decided to risk it. 

We started with a “small plate” of Buffalo Popcorn Shrimp (with blue cheese and celery).

For my entree, I had the Crispy Buttermilk Chicken Sandwich with fries. 

I liked the sandwich overall. The chicken was sizable and the fries were hot and crispy. Pretty solid, but it could have been better. 

Jason had the fish and chips and a bowl of clam chowder (that he shared with Jolene). Is it just me, or does the top piece of fish on his plate look like a fried hand?? ;-)

Jolene had the Creamy Crab Macaroni with snow crab, pepperoni, peppadew peppers, cavatappi, and mozzarella. (Since the noodles were listed as being cavatappi, I’m not sure why it’s called “macaroni,” but I digress...).

Bridget had the Lobster Roll (which reminded us of a funny story about items on the menu being listed as “market price” that Marcus Sheridan had told us earlier in the day). When I saw it, I thought the lobster rolls Jason and Jolene had had the day before at Yankee Lobster looked better. (Bridget agreed.)

It did end up raining during our meal. The staff (and Jason) secured the plastic curtains as the drops poured down.

Even though the amphitheater where the movie screening was being held was covered, organizers delayed the screening by 15 minutes. That gave us a little more time to eat and walk over to the venue. We arrived just a few minutes late.

Jon M. Chu discussed “Crazy Rich Asians” and told the audience he hid little moments of “joy” in the film (which you might be able to spot if you look carefully). He also mentioned that a sequel is in the works, but didn’t offer any details. 

Bridget and I love “Crazy Rich Asians” and you can read my Aug. 2018 review of the movie on this blog. Jason and Jolene hadn’t seen the movie — they enjoyed the screening.  

Event organizers provided attendees with free gift boxes filled with Hershey Kisses, tubs of popcorn, and soft drinks. 

It was nice to get some fresh air and enjoy a movie with fellow INBOUND attendees. 

When we got back to the hotel after the movie, we took time to play a little of the wall-based Scrabble game. 

In this picture, Bridget and Jolene are seeing what they can spell with the letters available:

It was another fun and informative day at INBOUND. All four of us were still tired from the early flight out the day before and the hour difference between time zones. 

Despite our fatigue were having a good time... with more fun to come!

>> Read Part 3 of my “INBOUND Conference Trip” series!

Previous post: "This is Like a Hipster Carnival" - INBOUND Trip: Part 1