This content was created by Pete Alexander. This content was uploaded by Pete Alexander. This is a podcast episode titled "Episode 190: Winning at Business and Life with Mike Golden" (PODCAST) recorded on 2020-12-10. Host Professor Pete Alexander conducts a short-form "6 questions in 7 minutes" interview with Mike Golden, president of Brandigo China. The conversation (in English) covers Mike's background, memorable marketing campaigns in China (e.g., Beats with Yao Ming, Costco launch), practical advice for business leaders (understand your customer; give without expecting immediate return), a referral for Manoj Mehta (Naked Group), and Mike's first job selling software in Japan.
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This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast, where business leaders share their insights. It is 6 questions in 7 minutes because successful business leaders are busy and rarely have more time to spare. So let's get to it. Question number 1: In a few sentences, please tell me who you are and what you do.
Thanks, Professor. My name is Mike Golden. I'm the president of Brandigo China. We have offices here in Shanghai as well as an office in Boston, Massachusetts. I've been in China for 18 years, previously in Japan for 5 years, and here in China we help companies do successful marketing, whether it's doing social media, getting sales leads, creating demand, or building brand awareness. We help them through their complicated journeys here in China.
Well, Mike, it's absolutely a pleasure to have you on the show. Question number 2: What's the best thing about working in your industry?
Being here for 18 years and running the company for 15 years, we've seen a lot. And some of the stuff you go back and tell your friends at home and they can't believe it. And some of the customers we've had as well. So, for example, we brought Beats headphones to China and we had the big basketball superstar Yao Ming And we had a 60, 70-person press conference, and they started just to surge towards Yao Ming, kind of like zombies. And we had to make a human kind of shield to protect him. And then last year we launched Costco here in China, which was amazing, such a great brand and such a good client. And we actually had to close the store down at around 1 PM because there was a 3-hour wait to get into the parking lot. And the entire district got jammed up of cars. And I had calls from moms who said, I can't pick up my child at school because of Costco. So sometimes when marketing works, it really works. And that's the great thing about being here in China is that you really have a chance to do some amazing, impactful marketing. So that's what I love.
Yeah, and that's a great story there, when marketing can be too successful. So that's a great example of it with the Costco brand, which I think so many of us can relate to that we've been in Costco. So, and, and, you know, we think that the, the lines would be bad in the first place, but I mean, something like that where it's 3 hours just to get into the parking lot, I can't imagine.
It was a different scale. That's right.
Great story. Question number 3: I have a fictitious book with all the answers for business. What chapter would you think most companies should read?
Um, from my point of view, they should read the chapter called Understand your customer. It sounds really simple, but I find that a lot of businesses really don't have very insightful understanding of their customer, what they're about, why they want to purchase something, what their touchpoints are, where they're going to find you and buy their goods. So I really think that doing some type of research, even if it's not on a massive scale, really trying to spend effort to understand your customer is a very valuable tool to start off any campaign or any kind of marketing.
Mm-hmm. That's very insightful, and I appreciate you sharing that. Question number 4: other than the generic work harder, have a great attitude, and care for customers, what advice would you give to other business leaders?
I give this a lot of thought. I think one of the things that I try to do is just to give. Some people say give to get, but I actually don't believe that. That sounds too transactional to me. I really think if you just give whether it's information, time, like you and your podcast, for example, you're sharing all of these interesting people and spending your time to make that happen without any expectation of something coming immediately back. So I think when you get to that level of just being able to share, then people really start to come to you and say, hey, can you introduce me to someone? Or can you help me with a project? And I'm happy to. And even to the extent where I'm not interested in like referral fees or commissions, let's just do something good. And eventually it might not come back from you, but it'll come back from something. It'll be karma. And it's a nice way to live in the world, I think.
Oh, I love that. And I appreciate you mentioning what I do because it's true. I really believe like you do that putting out that positive energy without having that expectation coming back that I'll get something from that, it will come back. That karma, as you say, it's positive energy that you attract back in some way. And I've really seen that over the years. And this is why it motivates me to help others. So I I really, really appreciate that advice that you have. It's refreshing. Question number 5: What other business leader like yourself would you like to acknowledge and invite to be on my podcast?
Great question. There are tons of people I admire. Someone who's here in Shanghai who I greatly admire is a gentleman named Manoj Mehta. He's the CEO of Naked Group. And Naked Group is a lifestyle and retreat company. He was in my EO forum, my Entrepreneur Organization forum as well. Very insightful, super smart and successful guy, and I totally recommend him.
Great. I'll reach out to him. Thank you for that referral. And our final question, question number 6, please tell me about your first job.
Like everyone else, I had many jobs, dishwashing and such, but I think the most interesting one is actually right post-college. I had a degree in Asian studies and there's not much you can do with that except for go to Asia. So I did, and I went to Japan and I found a job as a salesperson in a large or medium-sized Japanese company. And I ended up selling software around Japan for this company. So I would walk into software stores with this software and be like, do you want to buy my software? And it was very funny. And then at night I tried to find like an onsen or retreat to to stay the night, be in the middle of nowhere, but it worked pretty well because when you show up and you're a foreigner, obviously foreign, non-Japanese, speaking Japanese, it went pretty well. And that was also a great way to learn how to do some sales and speak with people as well as a first type of job.
I like that a lot. And you're right. I mean, I'm assuming that because you spoke Japanese and stuff, they had more appreciation for you than somebody, you know, like the typical American who will go in there and say, "Do you speak English?" Is that, am I reading you right?
Yeah, they called me the strange foreigner because they're like, "Whoa, this guy, where's he coming from speaking Japanese?" So.
That's a great story.
It was a lot of fun though.
It sounds like it. So Mike, thank you so much for being on the show. How can people find you?
Of course, through my LinkedIn. And if I can also plug our new blog, which is just a newbie thing, but it's our CMO's Guide to China Marketing. You can check that out where you, find your podcast. So perfect.
This is Professor Pete Alexander with the Winning at Business and Life podcast. Thanks for listening.
