DRY RUN: Ethical Marketing for Next Gen MSPs Take 1 Million (approx)

Hi, this is another dry run of my presentation on Harnessing the Power of Diversity: Ethical Marketing for Next Generation MSPs. I'm Megan Killian. Why am I qualified to talk on this topic? I'm autistic, ADHD, bisexual. I'm a female leader and the owner of a successful marketing agency. Why should you actually listen to me? I've done $500 million in B2B tech revenue in the last 10 years. So, um, I know a little bit about what makes B2B tech companies money. So what's ethical marketing? Ethical marketing is an honest and transparent approach to promotion of goods and services. It seems really obvious, but I think ethics is a forever debated topic, and we'll get into that further. Impact awareness is being conscious of the effect of the words, designs, and campaigns and how they influence people. I think we've all been the victims of the algorithm. And so we almost have to consciously choose not to use some behavioral psychology tactics that can make people buy from us. At Consumer Trust, we build customer relationships based on authenticity and shared values. In the kind of like ethical marketing circle, we talk a lot about how the money will follow your values. Having social responsibility and considering the broader societal well-being. This is why we do dry runs. We consider the broader societal well-being and how we contribute positively to the community. That's a weird way to say that. I'm gonna have to figure that one out. Anyways, long-term success. We prioritize sustainability and ethical practices for lasting business and growth. I think this is especially relevant to MSPs when it comes to cybersecurity. If you're selling snake oil, please stop. Diversity in marketing. I'm so big on diversity and why it matters in marketing. First and foremost, it enriches creativity. It expands your audience reach. It reflects the market. It drives business growth. It increases trust and authenticity, and it gives you better ideas. When you have a diverse group of people working for you, they're not going to instantly agree on everything, and that means the best ideas are going to have to find their way to the top. When you are buying, part of buyer psychology is that we, we tend to mirror, and we like to buy from people who Look like us, act like us. If you don't have any diversity in your org, you're cutting out a whole piece of the overall— What does diversity and ethics look like at MKC? We actually don't have 100% female full-time staff anymore. We added— we now have 1 full-time guy. So, And that probably makes it like 98%. We're cross-cultural. Both our part-time and freelance staff members represent a diverse range of cultures and backgrounds. Neurodiversity, we actually have 100% neurodivergence on our team. No one is neurotypical. That's— I don't know that neurotypical people could keep up with the way my brain works and be happy working here. 80% of our team identifies as LGBTQIA. So safe to say we're a pretty diverse company. We embrace remote work. That's really important because when you stick to the old paradigm of how people work and how they can contribute, You lose a whole portion of the population, especially younger generations. Um, but anybody who has a disability, it's a lot easier to work at home typically if you're disabled. Um, it's a lot easier to work from home if you're a mom. Um, encouraging time off. We have unlimited, uh, PTO here at MKC. Um, big fan. But it's really important to have a minimum standard that you encourage people to take. So we say, uh, you have unlimited, you have to take at least 2 weeks a year. If by December you haven't taken 2 weeks, you're taking the month of December off. Um, we prioritize autonomy, work where and how you want. Um, there are specific aspects of what we do that can't be done from just anywhere. Um, so like if someone's doing SDR work, they're being a fractional SDR in the moment, they're cold calling for a client, they obviously need Someplace that's quiet and access to a phone system and be able to log things in the CRM. But essentially, I trust people to know what they need to do a good job. And if they don't, it's, it's their job to come to me and advocate for what they need. So, you know, I don't care if your butt is in a seat, if you're working from the beach, it doesn't matter. What matters is that you get the work done in the appropriate timeline and the client's happy with the deliverables. We offer flexible office spending. So everybody has a budget every year for what they want to add to their stack in terms of technology and tools. We respect boundaries. Everyone has unique limitations. Just because I work a 60-hour workweek doesn't mean all my employees should. And just because one person's working 20 hours, that doesn't mean everybody else needs to be working that little. So we kind of, we work with what everybody needs. We support burnout prevention, we proactively address and mitigate burnout, we promote mental health and well-being. So here's the thing, right? I'm constantly talking about authenticity and transparency In sales and in business. So what happens when you tell the truth to your employees? In the best case, you improve productivity, retention, employee happiness, you have increased alignment and understanding. It leads to more success for both individuals and the company as a whole. Worst case scenario, employees that aren't a good fit for the company's culture or values may decide to leave. This can be challenging initially. If any of you have done EOS, You may have done right person, right seat. And it sucks when you're doing that and you realize that you have a whole bunch of not right people on your team and they're like, I'm out of here. Especially if it's a large portion of your org. The worst I've ever seen was a 25% decrease in the company. And that was really extreme. And that can be tough to navigate. But in the end, You're freeing up resources for hiring people who are a better fit. You want everyone on the team to be rowing in the same direction. And if you're not honest with people, they can't know if they're in the right place. And I used to have a really hard time with firing people, letting people go. It killed me. And now, a couple years ago, my CEO at the time told me it was a gift to to fire somebody because it meant that they could go find a job that they aligned with more. And I really believe that now. I mean, in today's economy, like, you don't want to just fire somebody randomly on a Friday and Monday they don't have a job. But giving people notice and telling them, you know, this isn't working and I'd encourage you to go find another job, like, you should feel like that's a gift to someone. What happens when you tell the truth to your customers? Best case scenario, increase customer trust, loyalty, engagement. When customers feel that a company is honest and transparent with them, they're more likely to remain loyal and become advocates for the brand. Get referral partners. Worst case, some customers may not agree with every aspect of your operations or principles. You might lose some, but those who remain are more aligned with your company's values, leading to more sustainable relationships. Again, we're freeing up resources for the good customers and client acquisition. I have personally lived this. I have lived what it is like To have clients that aren't aligned with you and it be a drain on your resources and you let them go and the financial hurt is there in the beginning, but in the end you end up with more clients who are aligned with you and it feels good going to work when you're getting up every day, you're doing something you're passionate about with people who agree with you on why you're doing it. What happens when you tell the truth to your prospects? Best case, clear, honest messaging attracts prospects that's aligned with your company values, improving the quality of your leads and increasing the likelihood of conversion. Worst case, your company's transparent approach may not appeal to everyone. Not everybody is for you, okay? The same way that in life not everyone is meant to be your friend, in business not everyone is meant to be your client. And this is especially important for those of us that are in service industries. When you are doing— when you are allowing someone to outsource a portion of their business to you, it is much more like an employee-employer relationship than it is like a customer relationship where someone just buys a product and they use it and that's it. These are people you are going to have to have a long-term relationship with. If they're assholes, your job sucks. And all roads lead to the CEO, so slim it down. Man, figure out who your niche is and what this alignment looks like. I have a great template for those of you that want it. DM me after this event for building like a lead scorecard that's value-based because that's— you should be aligning with people who align with your values when you're in a service-based industry because they're going to treat your people well and it's going to allow every part of the company to move better. Power of diversity. It's the research. Companies with a higher level of diversity have 2.3 times higher cash flow. They have 35% better performance. They make 87% better decisions, and they have 19% higher revenue. These are statistics. You can find them on the internet. They are not made up by me. The real power of diversity, real-life impact on our team. Having a team that represents a range of backgrounds, experience, and perspectives have led to an impressive. This is not like the actual case studies, which is that like on the next slide? Somewhere I have stories. All right, whatever I'm doing for now.