In this episode of Mic Drop, Brittany Hodak shares her remarkable journey from working in the entertainment industry to becoming a leading expert on customer experience and professional speaking. She discusses the pivotal moments that led her to start her own company, the insights gained from her research on consumer behavior, and her passion for creating superfans. Brittany also reveals her five-part framework for turning customers into lifelong advocates and offers valuable advice for both emerging and established speakers.
Brittany Hodak is an award-winning entrepreneur, speaker, and author known for her expertise in creating unparalleled customer experiences. She has worked with some of the world's biggest brands and artists, including Taylor Swift, Katy Perry, and Walmart. Brittany's book, "Creating Superfans: How to Turn Customers into Lifelong Advocates," has garnered acclaim for its practical and impactful approach to customer engagement. Brittany also holds a master's degree in consumer behavior and psychology, further deepening her understanding of what drives customer loyalty and brand advocacy.
The Path to Entrepreneurship: Brittany's story highlights the importance of seizing opportunities and the impact of encouragement from mentors. She showcases the importance of recognizing pivotal moments and using them as launch pads for your own ventures. Brittany’s experience underscores the value of believing in your ideas and taking calculated risks.
Transition to Professional Speaking: Transitioning to professional speaking can be a natural extension of your expertise. Brittany's experience shows that your unique story and insights can create demand for your speaking engagements. Understand the importance of recognizing your value and not undervaluing your time and expertise.
Creating Superfans: The SUPER model provides a structured approach to building a loyal audience. This translates to understanding your audience deeply, personalizing your message, exceeding expectations, and consistently delivering value. Brittany's framework can help anyone develop a strong, engaged following that supports your career growth.
Expert Advice for Speakers: Brittany emphasizes the importance of refining your message and consistently seeking feedback. The focus should be on honing your craft and ensuring your message resonates deeply with your audience. She also reminds us all of the value of continuous improvement and staying connected with your audience's needs.
Learn more about Brittany Hodak:
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ABOUT MIC DROP:
Hear from the world’s top thought leaders and experts, sharing tipping point moments, strategies, and approaches that led to their speaking career success. Throughout each episode, host Josh Linkner, #1 Innovation keynote speaker in the world, deconstructs guests’ Mic Drop moments and provides tactical tools and takeaways that can be applied to any speaking business, no matter its starting point. You'll enjoy hearing from some of the top keynote speakers in the industry including: Ryan Estis, Alison Levine, Peter Sheahan, Seth Mattison, Cassandra Worthy, and many more. Mic Drop is sponsored by ImpactEleven.
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Josh Linkner — a New York Times bestselling author — is a rare blend of business, art, and science.
On the business front, he’s been the founder and CEO of five tech companies, which created over 10,000 jobs and sold for a combined value of over $200 million. He’s the co-founder and Managing Partner of Muditā (moo-DEE-tah) Venture Partners - an early-stage venture capital firm investing in groundbreaking technologies. Over the last 30 years, he’s helped over 100 startups launch and scale, creating over $1 billion in investor returns. He’s twice been named the EY Entrepreneur of The Year and is the recipient of the United States Presidential Champion of Change Award.
While proud of his business success, his roots are in the dangerous world of jazz music. Josh has been playing guitar in smoky jazz clubs for 40 years, studied at the prestigious Berklee College of Music, and has performed over 1000 concerts around the world. His experiences in both business and music led him to become one of the world’s foremost experts on innovation. Josh
is the co-founder and Chairman of Platypus Labs, a global research, training, and consulting firm. Today, he’s on a mission to help leaders Find A Way™ through creative problem-solving, inventive thinking, and ingenuity.
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Brittany Hodak:
I got to be a radio station mascot at a radio station in Portsmouth, Arkansas. I was sting the bee. I got to dress up in this giant bee costume and go to every, you know, car wash, sale, and rodeo and thought that was just the greatest job ever.
Josh Linkner:
Hey friends, Josh Linkner here. Delighted to bring you season three of Mic Drop, the number one podcast for professional speakers and thought leaders on the show. We connect with experts at the top of the field unpacking their success to help each of us grow and thrive from elevating your artistry to booking more gigs. Mic Drop is designed to give you the tools and insights you need to reach the next level. Together we'll accelerate the path to growth, success, and most importantly, impact
ImpactEleven Sponsor:
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Josh Linkner:
Today on Mic Drop. I welcome Brittany Hodak, an entrepreneur turned professional speaker who has mastered the art of creating super fans from her early days as a radio station mascot to starting her own entertainment agency. Brittany's journey is a fascinating study in passion-driven success, and the power of niche marketing. In our conversation, Brittany will share how she turned a simple idea into a thriving business, her unexpected transition into professional speaking and the key insights from her bestselling book, creating Super Fans. Her story is a compelling reminder of the power of persistence, creativity, and understanding your audience. All right, Brittany, welcome to Mic Drop.
Brittany Hodak:
Thanks, Josh. I'm so excited to be here.
Josh Linkner:
Delighted to be chatting, uh, with you today. We've got so much stuff to cover. I wanna start out, you know, you've been speaking out full-time for five years, um, but you have had a really remarkable career leading up to taking that plunge. So I was hoping if you could share a little bit of your backstory with us for those that that don't know you as well, to kind of understand where you came from before we get into what you're doing next.
Brittany Hodak:
Sure. So I always wanted to work in the entertainment industry. That was my dream from the time I was tiny, tiny, tiny. And when I was 16 years old, I got my dream job. I got to be a radio station mascot at a radio station in Portsmouth, Arkansas. I was sting the bee. I get to dress up in this giant bee costume and go to every, you know, car wash, sale and rodeo and thought that was just the greatest job ever. About six months after working at the station, my promotions director came in one day and said, you know, I keep seeing ads on TV for this thing called Bridget Jones diary. I don't know really what the movie is about, but I just keep thinking we have a Britney Jones 'cause my maiden name was Jones and we should do something and call it Brittany Jones diary.
And I said, well, you're always talking about trying to get more people on the station website. What if I just kind of interviewed the bands that came to town and that was, you know, my diary. And she said, oh, like that other movie everybody's talking about right now, that almost famous movie. Yeah, that's really buzzy. Like, that's probably gonna win some Oscars. Let's do that. Just make a list of all the bands. So you wanna see, and we'll set it up with the record labels. And I said, wait, what? And so overnight it became my job literally to hang out with rock stars and brag about it on the internet. And we lived in a small market. This was in Forts Smith, Arkansas. And so we didn't get a lot of like top tier talent coming in, but I had an older brother who was like, if you're gonna get free tickets and meet and greets, I'll drive you anywhere you wanna go.
So all of a sudden it was, you know, we were going to Dallas and Little Rock and Tulsa and Oklahoma City and all of these places. And because this was like, I don't know, 1999, 2000, nobody said no. Getting credentials was the easiest thing when you said, oh, I've got a website and I'm gonna write about it. So as a teenager I was getting taken seriously, you know, by all of these huge musicians. And it would be, you know, like they'd be talking to Rolling Stone, then they'd be talking to me, then they'd be talking to MTV and it was just the coolest thing ever. It spoiled any chances of me ever getting a real job and set me on this, this entertainment path. So every job I had after that was, you know, like working at music magazines, working at record labels. And then when I was 26 years old, I founded my own entertainment agency, which is sort of what pushed me on the path that became what I'm doing now.
Josh Linkner:
It's so cool. I mean, I now, I love the, the story, but love your energy behind it. You can just, you can just feel the enthusiasm. So you mentioned you started this company at age 26. Um, what, what gave you the confidence to do that? I know many people say, oh, I'd love to start a company, but, but, but for whatever fear or whatever gets in their way. How, how did you get what, what let your spirit up to say, okay, I got this, I'm gonna go for it.
Brittany Hodak:
So I never wanted to start a company. I always felt like the way you did big things was to go work at a big company and work your way to the top. And you know, I think probably that's, because that's sort of what was modeled to me, right? Like it's, I I tell people now, it's, it's crazy to think about how the zeitgeist has shifted on entrepreneurship in the past like 20 years. You know, when I was growing up, it wasn't start your own company. Nobody was, you know, celebrating people taking risks. That was never part of something that I thought I would do. I had this idea for a product when I was in college. So I was a part of the college radio promo team, um, for, for Warner Brothers records. And part of it was like a semester long thing that you did.
And there were kids all across the country, I was the little rock rep, and every week they would have executives from different departments get on and talk about the music industry. So the idea was at the end of a semester or two or three semesters or however long you were in the program, you would have this 360 view of the music, uh, world, right? Because you'd heard from like the a and r guy and the lawyer and the accountants and the promo people. So every single person was like, don't get into the music industry. This industry is dying. It's terrible. Go do anything else. You're still in college. Like, go work in Hollywood, go work for a video game company week after week after week after week, because the music industry was imploding, right? This is like the days of Napster, this is pre iTunes.
And so after two or three of these calls, I had said, if you want people to buy music, why don't you just make music worth buying? Like, people don't wanna buy CDs because they suck. You have to get in your car, drive to the store, pay $20 for this thing that's like, you know, wrapped in plastic, take the shoplifting thing off at the door, like that sucks. Why don't you just make a package for fans with like pictures and patches and stickers and something that people would actually wanna own, like a fan magazine. And so I wrote this business plan to do this inside of a label. And for years, like from before I graduated until three or four years after I graduated and been working in New York, I tried to rally people behind the idea of this. And I had some really great bosses who kind of let me go out a little bit and try it on a limb and I would, I would, you know, do like a, a product at Walmart to try it and it would sell a bunch of copies and be really successful.
And I was like, wow, look, this, this proves that this works. We're gonna be able to do this, but I could never get any real momentum around anybody letting me do this. So I was about ready to quit my third real job to go work at a fourth place because at this point, the only label that I hadn't worked at who had told me no was universal. So I was like, well, I guess I'm gonna go get a job at Universal. And I was talking to the music buyer at Walmart who I'd become friends with because I'd been working at all these different record labels. And she said, why are you gonna go somewhere else? Why don't you just start a company and do this? You've been talking to me about this since like the very first day you started your job at Sony. And I said, well, what do you mean do it myself?
I can't do it myself. And she said, sure, you all you need is a vendor number. I'll give you that. Just go raise some money, call some labels, start your own company. It'd be better if you were doing it yourself anyway, because then you get to make all the rules and then I'll be able to help you out because we have, you know, support for women owned businesses and businesses that are started by young people. Like just go start your own company. And on that call, I googled how to start a business and I went home from work that day and I told my husband, okay, I think I'm gonna quit my job. Don't freak out. I'm gonna start a company. I'm gonna go raise a bunch of money and try to do this business for real.
Josh Linkner:
It's unbelievable. And, and, and so many levels. One is, you know, the creativity behind the idea in the first place and the deep connection to the, to the buyer and what they want. And also the fact, you know, the, the impact that one person's encouragement can make. Like you said, you, you walked into that meeting not thinking you were gonna start a company and, and, and her guidance and support, you know, kind of tipped the scales and, and, and things unfolded in a beautiful way ever since. Um, so that's very inspiring. Also, question for you, you, you, you have this successful career, you're an entrepreneur, you're, you're cranking it out. What, what called you to to, to switch and, and, and explore professional speaking. What was sort of calling your heart forward to be a thought leader and make an impact on others?
Brittany Hodak:
Well, I kind of never knew you could be a professional speaker. Kind of like, I never really thought about being an entrepreneur. So I launched this company. Fast forward a few years, we were, we were so incredibly fortunate. I I had so many incredible people helping me. We had a lot of success out of the gate. We, within about 18 months, I had sold almost $10 million worth of products at Walmart and had partnered with every top artist on the planet. I mean Taylor Swift, Katie Perry, Justin Bieber, you name it. Plus all the legacy artists, like every country artist on the planet, all of these legacy artists. And so I started getting asked to speak quite a bit. And at first it was a lot of, you know, entrepreneur conferences and ink con conferences and tech conferences and things like that. And then before long, people started saying, what's your fee?
And honestly, Josh, the first couple times I got the question I thought people wanted me to pay to speak. And I was like, I'm not gonna pay you
Josh Linkner:
That is so cool. I mean, I love that. What's your fee? I don't know how like you thought it was the opposite. That's really funny. Like a pay to fly passport.
Brittany Hodak:
I'll never, every time I like was actually starting to get paid. Somebody had like put me on this list of hop speakers and a client reached out and was like, I know this is probably no way this is gonna happen, but if you just buy any miracle or available in three weeks to do this event, then we'd also love to have you to do this event like six months from now. And I was like, yeah. And he asked what my fee was and I was like, uh, $5,000. And he was like, okay, great. Go ahead and invoice me for the first five today so that we can get that check to you. Uh, and then we'll get everything, like all the wheels in motion. We'll book all your travel. And I hung up the phone and I was like, he thought I meant $5,000 per speech. He's paying me $5,000 two different times to do the same keynote. Uh, that I think was the moment where I was like, wow, this could be fun.
Josh Linkner:
That's awesome. I love that. Love that. So today, you know, you you're, you're the offer of the breakaway bestselling book creating super fans, how to turn customers into lifelong advocates. Um, can you sort of unpack the main thrust of that? 'cause I'd love to then kind of connect, you know, you're sort of called to speak, you're speaking as an entrepreneur and now then you start developing this, this body of work. So maybe just give us a sense of what, what the book is all about.
Brittany Hodak:
Yeah, so I think from the time that I started working at the radio station, I was really fascinated by fandom. Why did some artists become viral and others went away? Why did some, you know, groups become the biggest thing in the world and others just couldn't find their foothold and never really get fans. And this was something that I studied for years first casually. And then, I mean, I went back to, to school and got a master's degree in, in consumer behavior and psychology to, to really try to understand this. And as I was working with all of these artists at Walmart, I started to work with all these CPG brands, uh, consumer packaged good brands because it was, oh, we're gonna have this huge display at Walmart store. Let's have Coke be a part of it. Let's have Johnson Johnson be a part of it.
Let's have whoever be a part of it. And as I started going to these meetings with brand managers and marketing teams, I realized that they were asking the exact same questions. Everything they were saying about how can we sell more soap was the same conversations that I had always been a part of, of how do we get more people to stream this music? How do we get more people to buy these concert tickets? And so a light bulb went off and it was, these aren't separate conversations that are happening. This is like the same core question that probably people are asking in every vertical, not just consumer packaged goods and, and entertainment. And that was sort of the impetus for, for going back to school and studying it. And kind of my aha moment was more people aren't connecting more deeply with the brands that want them to because those brands aren't giving them a reason to.
The biggest threat that every single brand has to overcome is apathy. It's not people not knowing about you, it's people not caring because you haven't differentiated yourself in any, any meaningful way. You haven't given them a reason to choose you at the exclusion of your competitors, and therefore you exist on this commodity scale. And it's, yeah, you're gonna win some of them if you're the cheapest, if you're the fastest, if you're the closest. But you don't have people who are consistently choosing you at the exclusion of everyone else and then telling their friends that they need to do that. So that was sort of the, once that light bulb went off, I thought, I have to tell everyone in the world this message, I have to teach everyone in the world that if you wanna truly create super fans, you've gotta do all of these things to make people care.
Josh Linkner:
I I love that. And and there's something about that when you have, when you have an insight that, that that is so strong and you feel it in your body and you're like, I just, I'm, I'm compelled to share this insight with the rest of the world. I mean, that, that's, that's the beginning of a beautiful speaking career. I felt that way about creativity. I just felt like, hey, for, I know as a musician and, and as an entrepreneur, I've developed some skills and ideas around creativity. And I thought that this, if people unlocked it in themselves, it it would, it would create massive waves of change around the world. And so it wasn't like I wasn't doing it. How can I sell another book? Or how can I book a speech? Like how can I, how can I make a difference? This was message was so heavy on my heart, I had to share it with everybody. And it sounds like that was the same with you.
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Josh Linkner:
And, and so these days you, you share this sort of five part framework on, on creating super fans. Can you maybe give us a kind of a quick click in into each of those, but, and, and as you unpack them, maybe talk about how we can apply those to, to professional speaking. I mean, you mentioned this notion of being the kind of this category of one being the obvious choice instead of just a commodity choice that applies to Kleenex, but it also applies to keynote speaking. So if you wouldn't mind kinda give us that five five part framework and overlay it on, on what we as speakers can learn and how we can apply that to growing our practices.
Brittany Hodak:
Absolutely. Well you are so right, uh, with everything that you said, and I love that you found that calling with creativity. I had never heard the word customer experience until probably a decade ago. Uh, like all through school had never heard anybody talking about customer experience and all. I, I read something one day and I was like, wow, this is like everything that I believe in everything that, that I talk about. And I grew up in a very customer experienced, focused household without knowing that's what it was. Uh, my dad was a customer service manager, uh, first at a fast food restaurant and then at a car dealership when I was a kid. And seeing him put customers first and demand that everyone on on his team do the same was was such a great lesson. And you know, I joke now, like there were all these places we were banned from shopping growing up because as soon as somebody didn't treat us well, dad was like, they don't want our money anymore, so they don't get our money.
Like, we're, we're not going back there. Uh, like my mom was so upset when like Sears made the blacklist. It was like, we, we can't, we can't give any of our money to Sears anymore. But it was constantly like something would happen. Um, and so having that customer experience focus, having customer centricity as sort of the, the most important calling card is, is what I think sets businesses apart. And the framework that you referenced is something that I call the supermodel. Uh, super is an acronym and it is designed to give anyone, whether you're in a startup or whether you've been running, you know, a company for decades, these are the things that I think if you focus on these, you will not fail. It is impossible to fail. It is impossible not to create super fans if you focus on these next five things that I'm going to say and do them well.
And as you said, it applies just as much for professional speakers as it does for Kleenex. So the s in the supermodel stands for start with your story. And of course, I don't mean lead with your story. I mean why you, why should someone choose you to have the honor of speaking to their audience for 45 or 60 or 90 minutes on a stage or in a ballroom? There are endless other people out there with messages that are also on their heart that they feel comp compare compelled to share why you, because if you can't answer that in a compelling and convincing way, nobody else is ever gonna be able to do it for you. Like no amount of bureau agents or managers or you know, people that you hire to do sales on your team are gonna be able to help land you on those stages. If you cannot answer that question, why should you pick me? So that's the s start with your story ex
Josh Linkner:
Exactly right. Tracking a hundred percent.
Brittany Hodak:
So next up is you, you stance for understand your customer story. And one of the things that I say again and again is superfans are created in the intersection of your story and every customer story. If you think of it like a Venn diagram where those two circles overlap, that is where apathy dies. That is where you turn people into superfan. So you understand your customer story is all about the things that you are doing to truly understand what it is that your ideal customer needs. What are they struggling with, what's the transformation they're hoping to, to undergo? And how can you and your team meet that need in a way that is unlike everybody else?
Josh Linkner:
So keep keep track. I mean, I totally agree with that. I love the Venn diagram example. So you got the S and the U, now we're, we're crossing into P territory.
Brittany Hodak:
P territory
It takes building the systems but also training your people to pay attention in the absence of those systems to do the right things. So that's the PE is probably my favorite. It's probably also the one that's most typically what people think of when they think about customer experience. So e in my model is exceed expectations. And in the book that's where I talk all about intentional experience design. So bringing greater intentionality to every single step of your customer's journey. So for a keynote speaker, a lot of times people put a hugely disproportionate amount of their attention on what I would call the during, like from the time you get on the airplane to go do the gig to the time you get back on the airplane to fly home. Like let's call that during. But what about the before? What about the after? What did it feel like for the weeks or months leading up for not just the meeting planner but every executive on their team? How were you to work with? Were you helping build excitement? Were you helping get people ready for this event? And then also the after, you're not gonna just like piece out hopefully. Uh, so what does, what does that look like from an experience standpoint, from, uh, for your, for your customers? And are they six months after an event still thinking, wow, that was the best event I've ever had, and are you helping them with all of their needs post that event? So that's, that's the e is exceed expectations.
Josh Linkner:
It's so good. And I love this idea of like the before and after. And I think about like there, there are, um, you know, kind of key touch points. You know, the first, maybe it's a pre-booking call, the next one is maybe a kickoff call or a briefing call, maybe there's another prep call or something. And so in these key touch points, what I try to do, and obviously it's a phone call, I don't, you don't have all five senses, but, but in general, like if you overlay what is the five sense experience at each key customer touchpoint, you know, there's, there's touch not on a call, but you know, if it's in person, it's the way you shake their hand. It's, you know, what, what is, what are you hearing, what are you seeing? What are you, you know, smelling, tasting, et cetera. And, and again, they don't, they don't all apply to every touchpoint when you're on a Zoom call. But I do try to think about how can we optimize all senses at each of those key touch points. And it sounds like that's exactly what you're, you're you're suggesting I I
Brittany Hodak:
Love that. I love the idea of using the five senses. That's such a great way to do it. I talk a lot about the fact that I think there are only three types of experiences we ever have. At the end of any experience, you're gonna be better or worse or the same. That's it. Mm. And the overwhelming majority of experiences that we all have are neutral, right? Mm-Hmm
Josh Linkner:
So good. Alright, so we're bringing it on home with the r.
Brittany Hodak:
The RR is repeat. So good and bad news. Uh, the good news is it's four things to remember, not five. The bad news is you have to do them again and again and again and again forever, because of course, customer experience is, you know, a day in, day out dedication to truly setting yourself apart. So in the repeat pillar in my book, that's where I talk about some of the systems and processes, some of the things that you can do to, um, really, really automate things. Um, and, and also I, I, I talk a little bit about in the book about ai and that's one of the things, I have a new keynote that's all about the intersection of CX and ai. Um, so I'm really fascinated, uh, by, by some of the things that are already becoming available and will be con continue to become available in the next couple of years, uh, using AI to help repeat some of these things.
But, but that's it, that's the supermodel. And I do not care what field that you work in. If you do those five things, if you say, I'm gonna figure out why I'm the best, I'm gonna understand my customers in a way that nobody else is, I'm going to make this feel awesome for them. I'm gonna exceed their expectations every chance I get and I'm gonna keep doing it. You will be successful, you'll make so much money, you will have customers come back to you again and again and again and demand that their friends bring you their money too. Because that's ultimately what we're all looking for, right? Is people who will take great care of us, who will do a good job, who we matter to them as much as they matter to us.
Josh Linkner:
It's so good. It's like, it's so good because it works and powerful. It's also so good in the simplicity of it, you know, it's if you're like, Hey, here's this model, just create a multi quadrant analysis and interview 7,000 people and upload it into this algorithm, like nobody's gonna do it. But, but the, the clarity of your message, I think is, is, is equally cool in addition to the, to the substance of it. So, so now that we have this body of work, which you, you've mastered, and I think it's just, just terrific now it gets into bringing that body of work, uh, to people. And I, I love this definition of you, I guess you've been described as the, um, as the mix between a really funny startup, a standup comedian and really smart professor, which I just love description. Um, how do you think about that balance between sort of fun and substance, you know, energizing and actionable and, and what have you done to kind of cultivate both, both ends of that barbell?
Brittany Hodak:
Well, it's a great question. I think the way I always go into it is what is this audience need? Like that always has to be the ultimate litmus test, right? Is you can only be as funny or, you know, quirky or whatever is, is that particular audience calls for what they need. One way that I try to walk that balance is using minty meter. I don't know if you've presented with Minty Meter before, but I very rarely present without minty because it is a really great way to get real time feedback from the room. And for somebody like me, like I, I've never written a keynote. I mean, I give, I give 60 keynotes in person. Last year, all 60 of them were, were a little bit different, obviously I've got the, I've got the outline, but I love to be able to, you know, weave in something that I saw on TV that morning or something that's happening in the news, or in my case, something that people are saying in minty meter.
So I love to ask questions. I love to do polls. I love to have the audience give examples and then if I can spin a story or share an experience about that thing. Because since I talk about customer experience and we are all customers, one of the things that I like to do is have people think about their life as a customer and then at the end show them how they're acting on that in their life professionally. Because a lot of times we forget that we all know what it feels like to be a customer, and yet we act like when we're, we're dealing with somebody, whether it's B2B or B2C, it's like there's this wall between us, right? Like we're, we're not thinking about the way those people experience buying from us akin to the way we experience buying from people. There's like this weird disconnect that people have. Um, so because it's talking about customer experience, I find mentee is a really great way to have people talk about brands, talk about experiences, and then bring it back to what it is that they're doing in their job or their practice based on the audience in the room.
Josh Linkner:
So good for anyone who's not familiar with Minty, it's, it's an online polling system that you can use during a keynote and you can ask a question, the audience can respond, they can vote on things, they can provide realtime feedback. And I love how you're making it sort of this choose your own adventure where you get to actually, um, let let you take the audience where they want to go, which is, which is super cool. Um, also her learn and there's so many cool, fascinating things about you, but, uh, you were on Shark Tank and, uh, what, what was that experience like? Uh, and and what did you take away from it? What'd you learn?
Brittany Hodak:
So it's so funny how many parallels there are between going on Shark Tank and speaking professionally. It's crazy. It's been almost 10 years since I filmed that episode. I was thinking about that the other day. I, when my cousin texted me 'cause her daughter was trying to find it on YouTube, and she like had all these questions and I was like, I can't believe that's been almost 10 years ago. That was something that came up just completely by happenstance. A producer had read something that I had written in Forbes and called and invited me to be on the show. And I thought, yeah, that sounds like fun. I'd love to go on Shark Tank. And at the time we were doing so much with direct to consumer sales with my, my company, the Super van company. So it made a lot of sense to go on the show.
One of the biggest takeaways I had was preparing for the bigger opportunity. So I knew it wasn't just about those five people in the room, it was about the, you know, 7 million that we're gonna be watching when it aired in prime time. So one of the, one of the things that my co-founder and I did that could have probably spectacularly backfired, but luckily for us did not was, so I knew everybody would film for about an hour and then they cut it down to eight or nine minutes for tv. And I also knew that there were a lot of like manufactured dramatic moments, right? Like you could watch this show and see that they would go to the super closeup of the entrepreneur and then, you know, show all of the, you know, sort of angsty stuff for, you know, stuff that was happening in the room.
Um, and I was like, I wonder how much of this is like manufactured to make it look like they're arguing more than they are. So I had this idea that if I never stopped smiling, maybe they wouldn't be able to do a bad cut because they wouldn't have that extreme closeup to go to of like, here's Britney with a frown on her face or looking confused or whatever. So for weeks before we filmed, I practiced in meetings talking and smiling at the same time, which you kind of feel like a crazy person and it's like harder to do than you would think. So for the entire hour, no matter what we were talking about, we had smiles on our faces. And anytime there was something that we didn't want to like, make the edit, we would try to never go more than a few words without talking about something from backstage or offstage. So for instance, when somebody would ask about profit margins, I would, you know, I said, you know, I was just telling Clay the executive producer that or, um, you know, the team was saying they thought it was crazy that, and things like that to, to try to make it more difficult to include some of those things. And it was a gamble. I had no idea if it would work or not. But we ended up airing and we ended up airing with a very favorable cut of the episode. So
Josh Linkner:
That's amazing. I love how you gamed it, like, I mean, you really thought it through. So speaking of gaming things, you have some odd interests. One is, I understand you're a pinball wizard. You set a Guinness World record for sewing, you have this master's degree in consumer behavior. So my question to you is around this wide range of experiences and how they shaped you into the thought leader you are today. In other words, do you find utility in having a broad set of ex of skills and experiences?
Brittany Hodak:
I find utility in following passions and doing things that are interesting because I think that one of the things that plagues so many industries is we think that people have to be bored to do their job correctly. Especially when we look at customer service. When we look at customer support, oftentimes leaders aren't encouraging creativity, they're not encouraging innovation. It's like, just read the scripts that we gave you, you know, follow the prompts, do the things. And that's not good for anybody. It's not good for those employees, it's not good for customers, it's not good for the, the organization. And I think encouraging creativity is, is so key because people are gonna surprise you. They're gonna outperform your expectations, they're gonna make all of these connections that you couldn't. And I think something that I've always found to be true in my life is I think everything that's connected.
Um, I've like gone down the, the the functional medicine rabbit hole recently. I don't know how much you've like, looked into functional medicine, but essentially it's the, the, uh, theory that everything in your body is connected. It's all part of one interconnected system. And, um, where many people believe there's been like a misstep in medical, uh, practice over, over the past a hundred years is being super specialized of like, I just look at the heart, I just look at the lungs, I just look at the blood, I just look at the bones because they're all obviously part of the same system. And I find so many parallels between that and customer experience and also just the human experience of how someone does a better job at their job because everything is connected. Everything is related. And I think that if you encourage your employees to pursue their passions, talk about their passions, they're gonna find all of these unique and innovative ways.
Like if you have somebody who's a ballet dancer who's gonna find parallels between how they do their job and something about how they do ballet dance, like what a beautiful testament to the creativity and ingenuity of that person and what can they teach everybody on your team and what can the person who's like a, you know, balloon artist that can twist things into like cool shapes, teach everybody on your team. So I'm a huge proponent of not just customer experience, but honestly like the human experience. Who are we? What do we do? You know, life for many of us are privileged to be in a position to where it doesn't have to be that serious all the time. Most of us are not dealing with life or death within our jobs on a day-to-day basis. So why do we act like it? Why not make things fun? Why not share our interests? Why not look for new and novel ways to make our customers smile or make our employees smile or laugh? And then everyone has a lot more fun, everyone's a lot more productive and most of the time everyone makes a lot more money.
Josh Linkner:
Yeah, I couldn't agree more. I love the note, the example of functional medicine 'cause that's exactly right. Instead of specializing in only one thing, you know, your range informs your body of work and it, and, and informs how you're able to apply that body of work to solve problems and, and seize opportunities. So I just, I just love that, uh, you know, you, so you've been speaking out for five years and you know, professionally, you know, full-time. You've been obviously speaking longer than that. And, um, I, I'm curious today what's different than when you started, but not so much about the external factors. I mean, obviously that was before Covid and we can all, we all know that was before AI was a big thing. But I'm more curious about what's different within you. How are you showing up differently today than you did five years ago?
Brittany Hodak:
What a great question. I think
I, when I first started was very much like I would over prepare. Like I would just spend, you know, hours and hours and hours and hours for, for weeks leading up to every event being so over-prepared. And now in part because I know my material so well. Um, but in part because I trust my intuition while I do prepare, the time I spend preparing now is less about, you know, let me make 14 different versions of this slide that
Like, it's not about me, it's about them. It's about the message. It's about how we can all be better together on the other side because of the conversation that we're having and because of what we're experiencing together in real time.
Josh Linkner:
Hmm. Just love that. Well, I, I would like to, if, if you're cool with it, bring our, our conversation, uh, home with, um, with, with the thing I would call two wishes. So imagine you have two wishes, not wishes for yourself, but wishes for others. What, what's one wish? And this is of course, informed by your, your body of work and your experience as an entrepreneur and a pinball wizard and you know, all the amazing things that you've done. What is your one wish for emerging keynote speakers, people that are new to, to the craft and the profession? And secondly, what's your one wish for experienced, uh, professionals?
Brittany Hodak:
I think my wish for emerging keynote speakers is that you focus on getting so good at your message that people wanna pay you to hear it. Don't worry about everything else. Like, like there's so much noise. There's so many people trying to give you advice who have never actually done what you're trying to do. Rather than let yourself go down the rabbit hole of I've gotta do these 9,000 things before I can earn the right to get up on stage and share my message. Just focus on being so good at what you know that people are asking you to please come share your message and share it with anybody who will let you talk. Four people in the room, 4,000 people in the room, I don't care. It doesn't matter. Get on stage, clarify your thoughts, clarify what you know, and make sure that you always ask right after the event, a month after the event, six months after the event, like all of my clients become my friends. I want to know like, are you doing better? Is this working? Are you making more money? Have people changed? Not just their thoughts but their behaviors. So make sure you're checking in to see if your mess message is resonating and if not, then like, do the work you need to so that it will. So that's my, I think my wish for aspiring is that rather than focusing on like the 10,000 things that don't matter, focus on getting so good at your message that people are begging you to show up and share it.
Josh Linkner:
So, so good. So good. Well, what, what a nice place to leave our conversation and, uh, you know, I think that you've shared so much wisdom with us. I mean, you said earlier that there are three types of ways to leave an experience, uh, neutral, good or or bad. And, and there's no question that you've left us all better than we started. So I thank you deeply. And and I'll also add that, you know, you are an expert in creating super fans and you've certainly created a, a super fan here. I I'm a super fan of yours and I know that, that everyone listening is as, as well. So, um, thank you for your thought leadership, your insight, your wisdom, your enthusiasm, that incredible giant smile of yours. And, uh, thanks for giving us a lot of tools that can make us all better.
Brittany Hodak:
Oh, thanks so much, Josh. I really appreciate it. The super fandom is mutual and I can't wait to catch up with you soon.
Josh Linkner:
As we conclude today's episode with Brittany, we're reminded of the transformative power of understanding and connecting with your audience to build lasting relationships and turn customers into super fans. Brittany's journey from entertainment enthusiast to thought leader in customer engagement. It's really an inspiring example for all of us speakers and entrepreneurs. Thanks for joining me on Mic Drop. To explore the art and science of audience engagement. Brittany's strategies for creating super fans are not just effective but necessary in today's competitive market. Here's to making every interaction count and transforming your audience into powerful advocates. Thanks so much for joining me on another episode of Mic Drop. Don't forget to subscribe on Apple, Spotify, Google podcasts, or wherever you get your favorite shows. If you love the show, please share it with your friends and don't forget to give us a five star review. For show transcripts and show notes, visit mic drop podcast.com. I'm your host, Josh Linkner. Thanks so much for listening. And here's to your next mic drop moment.