Big Things Podcast

Today’s guest is Alicia Johnston, Senior Manager of Content and Communications at Sprout Social, an exciting social media software company that enables brands and marketers to understand and reach their audience, engage their community, and measure performance. Alicia is the driving force behind all of the content on the Sprout Insights blog, covering the latest trends and guiding their data repor...

This episode is something a little different, in that your hosts, Mitzi and Mike Payne, are actually today’s guests. Linda Hoang on the Don’t Call Me a Guru Podcast, where they talked about the social media management they did for the global brand, Some Good News (SGN), a 2020 web series created as a way to spread positivity during the pandemic, hosted by American actor and filmmaker, John Krasins...

In the wake of George Floyd’s death at the hands of police in May 2020, protests against police brutality and racial injustice broke out across the US. In response, many of the world’s biggest brands issued statements of solidarity with the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and, while the sentiment was all good and well, many people have called these companies out for making generic statements tha...

Your brand is a whole lot more than the products or services you sell. Your brand is what you stand for, and establishing your core beliefs can help you stand apart from the rest, attract like-minded clients, and better serve your community. Today’s guest is Ryan Mack, Chief Commercial Officer at Made In Network. As CCO, his job is a mix of marketing, entertainment, business development, and corpo...

Creativity doesn’t only exist in the form of design, photography, or tangible art-making, but also in the form of creative problem solving, which is equally as important. Today’s guest is Alyssa Yuhas, an award-winning designer, multidisciplinary art director, and co-founder of the Designer VACA. She is also the mother of two beautiful young boys and is currently pursuing her Masters’s Degree. Ove...

Karen Rosalie is the Founder and Creative-in-Charge at Rosalie Agency in Los Angeles. Rosalie Agency is an LA-based creative team that produces and shoots campaigns and ads for beauty brands, specifically Sephora brands such as KKW Beauty, Dr. Dennis Gross, Summer Fridays, Kate Somerville, Kylie Skin, and many more. On top of all of the branded content and projects that she has produced for Instag...

Throughout the global pandemic and the escalating Black Lives Matter movement, we have heard from hundreds of companies expressing empathy across every known medium. For the most part, though, organizations are reacting rather than acting on their word in a phenomenon that today’s guest calls “kindwashing.” Eric Solomon, Ph. D, has held leadership positions for some of the top technology brands in...

As a serial entrepreneur, Sarah McAllister has been swinging for the fences since she was 20-years-old. Now a proud mother of one, a partner, a wife, and an inspiring business leader, Sarah has worked her butt off for the last 15 years to build several successful, forward-thinking, and female-led businesses. She is committed to building brands that empower women in their homes, lives, and business...

Much like content, there is no shortage of data. While marketers rely on it to make decisions, this information usually comes from an internal source, which provides limited insights. In our Season 2 finale, Charlie Grinnell, CEO of RightMetric, talks to us about how to change this. As a digital marketing research firm, RightMetric provides audience and competitor insights to marketing strategists...

Today you’re in for an enjoyable and timely episode in which we talk to James Nord, the founder of the first-ever influencer marketing platform Fohr and the host of the Drink With James podcast. Fohr is a self-serve platform that allows you to run engaging influencer marketing campaigns by helping you discover influencers and verify the authenticity of their following. In this interview, James mak...

On this bonus episode, your Waves Social Podcast co-hosts, Mike and Mitzi Payne, join Morgan Berna on The Small Business Mastermind to discuss the ins and outs of social media and content marketing for small businesses. Consumers have higher standards than ever when it comes to who, and what they allow to pull their attention. Providing valuable content is one of the best ways a company can build...

There is no better time to tell compelling stories driven by empathy and heart. As people around the globe continue to practice social distancing, there is an increased desire to connect with one another. We hope to offer this episode both as a way to pull you out of the noise and to show the importance of connecting to emotion and stories during difficult times. Our guest today, Mark Bone, is a m...

We’re switching it up today and Mike Payne, co-host of Waves Social Podcast and Partner at Arcade Studios, is in the hot seat and fielding questions from Mitzi. Mike has been a leader in branding and marketing for over 10 years now, and has held client-facing agency roles for 8 of those. In this episode, Mike sheds some light onto his sales and client management experiences, and how he’s curated t...

The role of PR, much like any role related to marketing or branding, is a continually evolving one. Talya Macedo, our guest today, has been there through its countless evolutions. As a creative strategist and PR practitioner in the global arts, fashion and entertainment industries, Talya’s work focuses on positioning brands as modern, forward-thinking, emotionally intelligent entities. With over a...

Podcast advertising is growing at tremendous speed so much so that it has surpassed TV advertising in its effectiveness. While this is an exciting side of marketing to enter into, it is different from digital in many ways because it is considered an offline media. In this episode, Lindsay Piper Shaw shares her insights on the world of podcast advertising. As a senior marketing consultant at Right...

With the landscape of retail in a constant state of flux, both physical and online retailers are perpetually needing to keep up with the latest trends. Ben Crudo joins us today to talk about his experiences in e-commerce as CEO of diff Agency and why he places so much importance on the values of a company. Diff builds custom e-commerce websites for some of the world’s biggest online retailers. Ben...

The marketing space is growing increasingly saturated with hollow, one-dimensional, and even culturally exploitative marketing campaigns, and peoples’ ability to see through these shallow plays is sharper than ever. Brands and marketers know they have to tell stories and be discoverable, but their approach can either make them feel dated, lazy or out of touch or the complete opposite. Today’s gues...

Some brands build a client base through the sheer force of capital, while others build relationships through more intuitive and engaging methods. The former group push their own visibility and earn purchases by being the loudest, but the people who buy their products never see themselves as more than customers. The latter group, the Nikes and Apples of the world, focus on making impressions rather...

Welcome to the finale of season one and the first time we feature two guests on the show at the same time! Our topic for today’s conversation is influencer marketing, and we are fortunate to have Jay McDonald and Kayley Reed share their thoughts on the subject. Kayley is an influencer marketing strategist, founder of Hermana agency, and host of the Self Care Sunday podcast. Big Things with Mitzi (...

It’s a big claim to say that you built the first social media agency, but it’s one Mike Germano can safely make having founded Carrot Creative out of his basement in 2005. Being a self-proclaimed nerd, Mike had always been into building community websites and when he saw Facebook pop up at some nearby Ivy League schools, he was certain of one thing: social media was the future. Through a forged co...

In the age of social media and instant gratification, working in a creative field can sometimes get frustrating when our success is not immediate. It’s easy to forget that building a craft and skill takes time, and there’s no way of getting around that. Putting in the hours will always pay dividends and our guest today, Viktor Radics is a shining example of this. As a self-taught photographer, Vik...

Instagram is by far our favourite online platform for a variety of reasons and our guest today, Taylor Loren of Later, may love it even more than we do. Taylor is a strategic marketer with over 10 years of industry experience and is the Head of Content Marketing at Later, the number one marketing platform for Instagram (over 2 million users globally). Taylor is a thought leader in the content mark...

Our guest for today is Owen Reader, author of The Pot Apocalypse and founder of cannabis-focused non-traditional marketing consultancy Indelible . Owen talks to us about what drew him to the world of marketing, and how he stayed true to his devotion to brand-as-experience despite chiding teachers and the eye-rolls of his competitors, and how he translated it into the strategies he now deploys thro...

Today we’re joined by Rebekah Ho, former senior social media executive at Hypebae, as she shares about managing a community of over one million followers, operating on a 24-hour news cycle, and launching the HYPEBAE Beauty social media channels from scratch. As the female offshoot of HYPEBEAST, HYPEBAE had to carve out its own niche as a new addition to the brand and find a way to reach women desp...

ATTN: Black Friday is the biggest shopping day of the year! That’s right, Black Friday and Cyber Monday are what we call “the most wonderful time of the year” for ecommerce brands because customers are ready and willing to exchange their hard-earned dollars for the products you’re selling. The only downside: attention and conversions during the BFCM weekend come at a premium. Everyone who’s anyone...