#28 - Sean Smith @ Third Street

Episode Recap:

ReGen Brands Recap #28 - Helping Brands Take "The Third Street" - (RECAP LINK)

Episode Transcript:

Disclaimer: This transcript was generated with AI and is not 100% accurate.

Kyle Krull - 0:00:16
Welcome to The ReGen Brands Podcast. This is a place for consumers, operators, and investors to learn about the consumer brands supporting regenerative agriculture and how they're changing the world. This is your host, Kyle, joined by my cohost A/C.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:00:28
Is going to take us into the episode. On this episode we have Sean Smith who is a cofounder and the president at Third Street. Third Street is supporting regenerative agriculture by partnering with regenerative brands in their creative efforts like branding, marketing, advertising and so much more. In this episode we learn about why Third Street refers to itself as an attention agency, how they have partnered with various CPGs. They're epic rebrand for Sunfed Ranch and we explore tons of marketing and branding opportunities for regen brands at large. I really cannot thank Sean and the Third Street. team enough for being our first ever sponsor of the ReGen Brands platform. Because of them, we get to do more of this amazing work and support the work of our exceptional cohort of regen brands. Whether you're a consumer operator, investor, farmer or really just about anything, there are some great learnings from this episode that we're excited to share with you. Let's dive in. What's up, everybody? Welcome back to another episode of The ReGen Brands Podcast. I am flying solo today with my good friend Sean Smith of 3rd Street. So welcome, Sean.

Sean Smith - 0:01:40
Pleasure to be here. Big fan of the show.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:01:42
We appreciate you being here. First sponsor in the history of the Regen brands platform and podcast. So that's a pretty appreciate that man that's.

Sean Smith - 0:01:49
A privilege man and 1st in I will say this is it's been too long and Adam I'm sure we will not be the last. How's that?

Anthony Corsaro - 0:01:57
Yeah. Yeah. No, I appreciate you saying that and we appreciate your support. Super excited to just dig into what y'all do and how you have supported some regen brands and how you want to do more of that work. So all that's coming for the audience. So y'all stay tuned in for all of that. But really, man, just thank you so much and we're hoping this will be a real badge of honor for you as we continue to grow this thing and grow together.

Sean Smith - 0:02:19
Like I said, it's it's a privilege and what you're doing as are a lot of brands that are probably tuned in right now. Is nothing short of revolutionary or certainly part of the revolution, right? And when you're out front, right, and you're at the tip of that plow, you're gonna hit those rocks and those stumps and those roots and so props on rolling forward, man, it's very impressive.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:02:39
We appreciate that super high level before we dig into some depth. What is Third Street? Just for those who have no idea, never heard of y'all?

Sean Smith - 0:02:48
Absolutely. So 3rd Street is at its essence. If you will, the spine is marketing a marketing firm, right? But our moniker is an attention agency. We're the world's only first attention agency. What we mean by that is when we work with a brand and we first sit down, we make no preconceived notions about the type of attention that that brand needs that your brand needs. I think that's where we differ from a traditional marketing or advertising agency where candidly there's. So it's rather formulaic.

Sean Smith - 0:02:52
Not from the marketing and advertising background, but we sit down when we say attention, the formula is first. We pay attention, we pay attention to you, we pay attention to your competitors, we pay attention to your consumers. We pay attention to where there's the white space. And if we manage to shut the hell up, pay attention truly pay attention, right. The answers start to reveal themselves, is what we found.

Sean Smith - 0:03:21
And we launched 15 years ago, myself and a former college roommate of mine jumped out. He was in the advertising agency business in Chicago. I was in the media business in Chicago. And we reached the point 15 years ago. We said it's time. Here we are 15 minutes later, helping brands really throughout the country and throughout the world get the exact kind of attention that they're looking.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:04:10
For that's beautiful. That's beautiful, man. And y'all y'all come from this world, right? So I'm sure. The way that you frame this business and the way that you help folks is taking a combination of the good from the experience y'all had before you launched this and some of the bad, maybe some of the things that you wanted to do differently. So, you know, take us back 15 years ago to where this all started and some of the good and the bad that kind of inspired how y'all do the work today and how it started.

Sean Smith - 0:04:39
That's great question and A/C I I think perhaps the biggest differentiator again is that a tension? Aspect of things and what we have found over the last 15 years where there is no shortage of distractions in the marketplace, right some stat where you get hit with upwards of 2 to 300,000 different messages a day, the average.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:05:04
Wow. Wow.

Sean Smith - 0:05:06
Right. So in that context, if you're going to create the kind of attention that you're looking for, for your brand? Idea of paying attention first has become sort of an elixir, if you will. It's becoming more more a rarer commodity, if you will. So again, our job 1st to pay attention, but then we have to create programs, initiatives, ideas and execute on those ideas in a way that's going to capture the attention of who it is that you're looking to capture the attention of. Sometimes it's a consumer right, sometimes it's a decision maker at a retailer. And and what we're finding is the line between put it to you this way, ultimately B to BB to C, it's P to P person.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:05:55
I love that. I love that man.

Sean Smith - 0:05:58
And tell me if you agree or disagree. Ultimately just about every business is B to B because even if you're a consumer facing brand at some point and we've experienced this, the most effective. Output of our putting together a program is that it gets the attention of the right decision maker, whether that investor, whether that's a retailer, a buyer, sometimes it can be for internal purposes morale, get the sales team fired up, right. So ultimately every brand to a certain extent is B2B, if that makes sense.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:06:32
Yeah, especially in our world, I mean that that couldn't be more vital to what all the regen brands are doing. And I think you nailed the three personas, the three most key personas, right, investors, retail customers and then end customers. And that's where regen brands have a real distinct advantage in the story they can tell. And I think individually and collectively, we have to raise our level of execution. Right. And there's a lot of, there's a lot of reasons or things we can improve on to make it higher. There's a, there's a collective action kind of piece, there's a resource piece, there's there's so many pieces there. But us as a movement and us as individual operators within that movement, you know, we we need great attention generating things which there can be many forms of that.

Sean Smith - 0:07:18
Well, there, as you well know, at least in our experience, there is no shortage of challenges. That face that uniquely face the regen CPG sector, starting with consumer awareness, right? Stop 10 people on the street and you say, have you ever heard of regenerative agriculture? How many say yes?

Anthony Corsaro - 0:07:42
I think the research says the last like decent size study was 19% were aware of the term.

Sean Smith - 0:07:48
So one out of every five, we'll say, right.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:07:51
Have wrote it.

Sean Smith - 0:07:52
Then you take those one of every five. What percentage could actually explain what it means? And.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:07:58
Explain what it means on that product type or that geography or that. No, it's it's significantly less, let's say 5 or less percent, which is which is very small.

Sean Smith - 0:08:08
So first I have to have heard of it, then I have to understand what it is. Then ultimately, and this is the challenge that all brands face is why should I give a shit there it from a consumer perspective? Right. Like ultimately, if we say, well, because it's better for you, better for the planet, often better for the farmer, often better for the animals, we still haven't gotten to the essence of what's in it for me.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:08:39
Tell me more there.

Sean Smith - 0:08:40
We're still in the feature instead of benefit zone and I think universally that's a challenge that. All brands face, but perhaps uniquely regenerative agriculture brands face in particular when as you know, oftentimes there is, I hesitate to say a premium, but it certainly is not a value quote, UN quote proposition from a price perspective. There's going to be typically you're going to pay just a little bit more as you should. For the quality that comes with regenerative agriculture, how do you close that gap and how do you, how do you effectively express to the consumer This is why you should pay just this much more to get this much more benefit?

Anthony Corsaro - 0:09:27
Right. And how do you do it in a way that's efficient and in a way that on some of these items is on an extremely small pack size, right? And you know, we've talked about this a lot on the show and I think it's something we're gonna continue to talk about ad nausea for a long time. And it's really we have to lead with those core value props for the consumer. You know, you call them benefits and then we have to back that up with the lagging value prop of regen ag, which in this case would be the features, right and then. Through a deeper process of brand and consumer relationship, we have to educate on why does it smell so good, why does it taste so good, why does it look so good. Some of those leading things, the lagging is the regen ag and it's causing that. So I just love that people like yourself are helping brands work through that.

Sean Smith - 0:10:14
That's. I mean, we love it as well, obviously, especially because it's rare when you can get up in the morning and feel like, you know what, I'm actually doing something for the greater good. I mean, yeah, I'm like. Well, I, I, I recycle, you know, but these brands we're working with are truly, truly on the vanguard of affecting positive change. I think the trick sometimes though is not breathing your own air, if that makes sense. And and what I mean by that is always keeping the consumer in mind and what is in it for them and ultimately. Try to use a brand as an example as in a positive way, say Newman zone. And I'm not suggesting that Newman Zone is a regenerative agriculture or regenerative brand per se. Yeah.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:11:04
Ever but household name.

Sean Smith - 0:11:05
Household name? Yeah, 100% of profits go to charity, right? Here's the thing, if it tastes like shit, it doesn't matter.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:11:15
Right. People, yeah, I've never. I've never bought one of their products because of that, and I feel like I'm a pretty altruistic person.

Sean Smith - 0:11:22
Bingo, right. Is it a tiebreaker? I think absolutely. If all things being equal, I can choose between two products, one that's doing something for the greater good and ultimately hopefully something better for me, right. And the closer we can connect those dots, the better we're going to do. That will win out. Over a commodity or a a brand perhaps that is is is not regen and not doing things.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:11:47
That are good.

Sean Smith - 0:11:49
I think sometimes, perhaps those who are doing things great things like regen brands and altruistic brands can get a little bit of that navel gazing zone where you forget ultimately at the point of purchase of that moment of truth, it's going to come down to what's in it for me. And oftentimes as you know what what leads the parade on that is taste. I'm talking now about CPG brands that are consumables.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:12:15
Yep.

Sean Smith - 0:12:16
But it extends to all categories, right? That's great that your deodorant doesn't have aluminum and other yeah stuff. Does it work?

Anthony Corsaro - 0:12:29
Am I gonna smell? Yeah.

Sean Smith - 0:12:33
So if that there again. At the risk of repeating, if there's if we can lead with what's in it for you and make that as tangible as possible, that I think is going to be part of the formula for the success of perhaps many of the brands that are watching right now.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:12:51
Yeah, I couldn't agree more and I'm curious and all y'all's work just in general CPG overall, you know, unless. Unless people are trying the product right then and there and there's a demo going on, we can't have them taste it. Some products they can smell it, but if it's in a package, I mean they're really not kind of any exposure to that leading value prop. So what are the key levers, right, packaging is 1, but what are some other ones? And then what are some strategies in those key levers that are of hyper importance as y'all work with brands?

Sean Smith - 0:13:22
Another that's another great question and I'll and I'll see your packaging and raise you. How many folks now are shopping on so you don't even have the opportunity unless they tap on it and zoom in? And do you know every keystroke you're losing about half your audience? I think that makes the hill potentially even more difficult flying. Fewer people are going into the stores than were before, I will say as an aside. Within that, there's also opportunity. I'm not sure. Are are you familiar with? It's a it's a brand called Grocery shoppy. I'll spell it's grocery as in grocery shoppy with two eyes at the end. It is a womenowned business doing unbelievable stuff. I'll just drop you a quick 32nd explanation of what.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:14:15
It is.

Sean Smith - 0:14:18
Instead of shopping by. Individual item, right. Let's say that you want to make a meatloaf. Do, for example, right. So you go to the, you take a look at your refrigerator. What do I need? You've got to go online. You got to click. OK, I need this, I need this, this. I got to remember that. Oh shit, I got to go do this. Grocery Shopping is an app within the grocery stores environment. OK, so I'm on one because whatever. I won't name a specific retailer, but you're on the retailer's.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:14:47
But it integrates it so it it's native to. Yeah, it's in their native retail.

Sean Smith - 0:14:52
Got it. There they have with a few clicks, you're you've got a series of suggested recipes. What it is? What are you into? Here's the recipe, here's the ingredients that you need, and you deselect stuff that you already have at home. I bring that up to illustrate a bigger point, which is OK, so you're not able to communicate your messaging there in store. I'm packaged because you have a small package, right? It's those that think nontraditionally that stand, I think to win, right? Not to sound cliche, but has anybody knocked on grocery shoppy's door? And I hope grocery shop doesn't mind me saying this and said, hey, is there some way that we can integrate our brands into this ecosphere? Is there some way that we can say this recipe is regen friendly, right? So as a as a consumer, I have the opportunity to plug into that and feel good about myself in so doing, use it as one out there example of how there's opportunities. Opportunities are bound for brands.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:15:56
Yeah. And and there's so many amazing product attributes that can get tied to regen products. Like I can see that getting taken further with hey, here's the climate footprint, here's the sustainability score, here's this certification that you can toggle on and off. And there's all kinds of ways to personalize that further with great attributes of regen brands.

Sean Smith - 0:16:14
About it I don't mean make promises on grocery shopping's behalf like she was. It simple as.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:16:18
Example. Yeah, because they. I mean they could be brand agnostic. Maybe they just want to partner with retailers and they want to let the retailers do that curation exactly. I feel like Instacart started there and then they started doing ads with, with, with brands. So we'll see.

Sean Smith - 0:16:33
Exactly. We we did a program, perhaps the poster child for non region. We did a program for KFC.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:16:43
Oh, really?

Sean Smith - 0:16:45
There's a couple years ago, but they were launching their fiery grilled hot wings.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:16:51
I remember that.

Sean Smith - 0:16:52
The city of Indianapolis as a city, like an entity, the mayor's office, they needed fire extinguishers in their Parks Department buildings. So we put together the partnership where KFC brands the fire extinguishers that go into the Parks Department's buildings now. We can talk about whether or not that's appropriate. You know that that's the subject for different podcasts.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:17:18
That's brilliant. It's brilliant. Honestly, I.

Sean Smith - 0:17:20
Appreciate that and it solved a problem for the city. It's a critical problem for the city. KFC they got 60 million earned media impressions. The cost of those fire extinguishers was 5 grand. And the reason I bring that is.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:17:39
Hold on, hold on, Sean. Repeat. Repeat that. That is that's insane. Repeat. That's that that you just said.

Sean Smith - 0:17:44
For $5000 they were able to create 60 million worldwide media impressions because this partnership was a breakthrough partnership and Parks Department got these much needed fire extinguishers and the tie was fiery grilled hot wings. I bring it up only because it doesn't always take a lot of money to get a lot of attention. In this would come back the attention agency theme. In this case, that's the attention that KFC was looking for. We are debuting our fiery girl hot wings. How can we create something that's going to be unique breakthrough and Needless to say, it's not like they have any shortage of money, it just happened to not cost them a lot to do this.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:18:24
Wow. So fun fact for the audience. There's nothing to do with this, but it's related to KFC. I recently went to Jamaica and. I was in Montego Bay and I don't know if it's just that part of Jamaica or the whole country. KFC is like chickfila here, like the lines inside and outside of every single KFC location. We went by middle of the day, end of night, you know, evening. Threw out the door and wrapped around two or three times the drive through. So I don't know what is different about Jamaican KFC, but it is like it is the spot in Jamaica. Like I was like what?

Sean Smith - 0:19:03
So I was gonna ask, did you pop your head and see if there's any like different menu items like, you know, Royale?

Anthony Corsaro - 0:19:10
I did it. If it wasn't so busy, I probably would have like tried to explore what was different about it. I mean, we talked to a couple locals and they're just like, it's it's phenomenal. Like they just love the food. SI don't, I don't know what to do is I was like, I mean Kfc's not that good here, definitely. It's definitely not good for you. So they must just be doing something different down there.

Sean Smith - 0:19:29
Investigate further. Yeah. Yeah. That's funny. Well, you know, yeah, I'll say this too. In terms of garnering attention, you talk about it. One of my package is this big. You know, how do I, how do I get the kind of attention that I'm looking for? You got to bait the hook, if you will. So there's a grass fed beef brand based on the West Coast. Their name is Sun Fed Ranch and they were in three markets on the West Coast as little as three years ago.

Sean Smith - 0:19:36
In this marketplace, this grass 100% grass Fed beef brand right and regenerative. Go ahead.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:20:13
And and regenerative.

Sean Smith - 0:20:14
Oh, absolutely. And they had a hard time breaking out of those three markets. We partnered with them to create a rebrand of Sunfed Ranch 360.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:20:30
And I don't even I don't even know if rebrand does the thing justice and and we'll put some links in the show notes, but I mean y'all this was a total reconstruction across various entities, various channels, various communication mechanisms, I mean phenomenal work. But you know this is this is definitely what we wanted to talk about on this episode. So I'll hand it back over to you. I.

Sean Smith - 0:20:52
Appreciate your safe and and yeah. Within that 360 right, let's call wheel right and you've got your different communication touch points are the spokes. And in the middle of that wheel was a phrase, a consumer facing phrase that captured the brand essence of Sunfed Ranch and it is this. Can you read that?

Anthony Corsaro - 0:21:22
All beef, no. Bull, yeah.

Sean Smith - 0:21:28
That those 4 words, right? Absolutely. Crafted with intent, right? When you talk about a tagline, if you want to be a rally cry, it's it's got to be memorable right? So alliteration is always your friend. There's a direction between all and no all. Be no bull. Is it ownable? Can anybody else? Say it can, can they look in the eye and say it and mean it well, the deeper you dig with this brand the better it gets and that's if I may probably very it's probably very attuned to many of the brands that are watching right now is the deeper you dig on your brand story the better it gets and every brand can say that candidly very few can. So you have a catch phrase. I know it's just a catch phrase, but check it out. That catch phrase, it it being memorable, it being ownable, attitudinal, right? Like when I wear this out to the grocery store or whatever people like, they'll start pointing and laughing. I think they're pointing at me and laughing because I forget that I have it on.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:22:46
Yeah.

Sean Smith - 0:22:48
Is it relatable, right? Is it extendable? And that's where we get back to the core, right? All beef or bull, as long as it's backed up with substance, then all of a sudden boom, it shoots out different spokes, all kinds of different ways that that message can be expressed. And as we talked about before, every brand being a B to B brand, consumers lit to this, but who really got excited about the entire rebrand and this was by design, we're buyers.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:23:20
Retailers for those for, for to clarify.

Sean Smith - 0:23:23
Thank you. And with that, according to their CFO that was the one reason they've been talking to the same buyers, the same retailers for 10 years. But when they this all beef, no bull program, when they saw the the website refresh, when they saw the the new content that the brand was creating caught fire and they became the 1st. Grass fed beef brand 100% grass fed beef bread to go national and again this is the CFO reporting this to us so this is the last one. This was by design, it got their attention and it worked. So I think A/C sometimes being small can be a self fulfilling prophecy where if you strut in. All beef nobles? Not that tone of voice won't be appropriate for every brand. Every brand is its own voice, right?

Anthony Corsaro - 0:24:17
Right.

Sean Smith - 0:24:18
But you got to own it. It's got to be unique and memorable and attitudinal and relatable and extendable. And once you've got that, once you've unlocked that.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:24:29
Now you're and I think. You and so, so much to pull out there and I think you forgot about maybe the most important one, which is it's got to be authentic and it's extremely authentic to sunfed and what they do, what they're trying to do, what they're trying to communicate to the marketplace and. Yeah, y'all. Y'all put together a really cool recap video with some amazing statistics of some of the quantifiable accomplishments that have been had since the rebrand, about 5X in door count, increasing social engagement by 20,000%. And I'm forgetting a couple of the other ones. So just truly a testament to a great partnership and then great results. And they're an amazing brand. And you know, I think it's going to be table stakes of us.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:24:47
Scaling region and scaling regen brands to have amazing branding like that. And so that's why you know we have to spotlight the work of partners like yourself and and service providers like yourself because there has to be an ecosystem approach to propelling these businesses forward. But I want you to to share, I know you don't have a list in front of you, but just some of the deliverables from that program and take us through kind of. Behind the curtain of how y'all partner with them and how, you know, we've talked about this amazing outcome, right? But like, tell us a little bit how the sausage gets made.

Sean Smith - 0:25:46
Absolutely. And the good news is the sausage making is actually part of the fun. Oftentimes it's like the holy nose muscle through it. But now you're talking about brand strategy, right? Right. Brand essence. We have a process we call the Ascend process. It's a brand building process that's all behind a curtain and a keel. Of that brand building process is what's called a brand wheel. And this brand wheel, literally, we work together to fill in this brand wheel. We fill it in with what would the brand's voice be? What is the, what are the unique and ownable attributes of this brand? What is it the center of this? What's the essence of this brand? One all leading to the next. And it's a wheel, not by accident because that to be too literal, but this wheel actually drives the brand.

Sean Smith - 0:26:08
Forward, you've got that nailed down. You've got that strategic aspect nailed down. The answers start to reveal themselves in terms of, OK, so how do we go from this brand wheel to something called all beef, no bull. It's going to excite folks, right. And we're using Sunford branch an example, but there's, there's many others that have followed this process that we've been fortunate enough to work with.

Sean Smith - 0:26:36
To to yield those kind of strong results, it all starts with with the strategy.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:27:11
And I know, I know one brand that y'all have worked with is very close to home. Your wife, Beth, who is a absolute rock star, Dynamo human being, love her to death. You know, she's. Yeah, I mean, I can see, I can see why you married that woman. She's an absolute powerhouse. I've, I've sold her products before. We're back at Indy fruit. I've had her products. They're phenomenal, so avid consumer as well. And you know, maybe give us a maybe give us another just example through your work with simplicity juice, how that process comes to life and you know, working with another food and beverage brand.

Sean Smith - 0:27:45
Absolutely. So that is the name. Simplicity is the name of this of this company and brand. Their URL is simplicityhh.com. It's a it's a collection of cold pressed juices, and not to overshare, but more in an effort to break the stigma. It was actually born. Forgive the pun of fertility issues and turning to a holistic approach, I I would say that she's like, she's holistic and Prada, if that makes sense. Like.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:28:27
I know, I know, the raw material costs of a lot of those juices and it's tough to not be premium price in that world.

Sean Smith - 0:28:33
Yeah. And in terms of her herself, like.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:28:36
Yeah.

Sean Smith - 0:28:38
I think sometimes some of the some of the brands can have a bit of a due respect granola feel right, which is legit, it's all good. Her approach is a little bit more I guess Godiva if you will in terms of juices. Always cold pressed, never heated. Insists on the finest ingredients, and we helped capture the essence of her brand. Help her capture the essence of her brand, which goes back to what we were talking about earlier. What is the benefit? Well, the the juices are never heated, right? So that means you're you're, you are holding on to more of the things in the juice that are good for you, right?

Sean Smith - 0:28:54
Cold pressing is a process where that gets it, gets juiced and bottled. Same day goes into a VAT of water, high pressure is used non refrigerated. You're good for at least 120 days on it, whereas typically would have to be heated. OK, so it's it's cold pressed, more vitamins, more minerals, more stuff that's good for you, tastes better, tastes like you just juiced it in your kitchen. But we still aren't at the core benefit.

Sean Smith - 0:29:23
What about strategy? You see in all of her communications and you see within her, to your point, in terms of legitimacy and authenticity, joy jewel is at the key, is at the core of simplicity, and we were fortunate enough to help her find that, if you will. Right. So all beef, no bull for Sunfed ranch. Simplicity. Joy.

Sean Smith - 0:29:53
Other brands, they're different essences and consumer facing language and then it explodes out from there. The key is finding what's at that hub. Once you do that, things can catch fire quickly and in a good way.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:30:33
Yeah, and and both just authenticity and off the charts for both of those entities because I know both of them. I'm curious to ask you a question for you know. Not everyone has the resources to work with somebody like a third St. It's not like you guys are the most expensive thing in the whole world. But you know, it does cost money, right? And so I think our number one piece of advice for people as they're trying to figure this stuff out is work with a specialized partner that can really help them and dig in if they have the resources. If they don't and they're kind of flying solo or they're more kind of in startup mode, what are some things that you recommend to do or some strategies or some things to check out on there?

Sean Smith - 0:31:11
Totally. Full disclosure, great, great question #1 #2 do you hesitate to give advice? I I can shares my experience if that makes sense. But the advice I leave to like I said, first we want to pay attention to see what the unique challenges are.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:31:31
I love that man, because most people would just answer that question, and I. And I know when you say that that like you really mean it and it's not just like BS lip service, so.

Sean Smith - 0:31:40
Otherwise, just.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:31:41
Good on you.

Sean Smith - 0:31:42
We're just throwing fucking darts and that's not work. Yeah. Again, it doesn't have to take very long and hopefully hopefully Third Street. I appreciate you saying that, man. And hopefully 30 has gotten good at asking the right questions to get to the answers as quickly as possible in terms of what we've experienced in terms of brands that are looking to make some noise in a positive way in in the. Marketplace, there's a couple ways. I'll get tactical with you for a moment. One is social. Now, the challenging part of that is increasingly brands have to pay to play right. A potential solve to that is oftentimes regenerative brands, especially startups. There's a person, so.

Sean Smith - 0:32:05
And and and often times the person in the brand are somewhat one of the same or at least they're they're heavily overlapping, circles are pretty, etc. So as an individual you you have the opportunity to potentially get a lot more reach. Posting as you versus posting as an entity where you have to pay to reach the audience that you're looking for is more a lot. Another very granular thought is a service called help a reporter out. Calm Harrow HARO.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:33:08
Help a reporter out calm.

Sean Smith - 0:33:10
To at its most, you know, essential. It is a service that reporters from a variety of platforms across the country, and I think across the world used to seek subject matter experts in their chosen field.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:33:24
Wow, it's like free kind of a PR tool then bingo.

Sean Smith - 0:33:28
There are some wow. I think there's some you can subscribe and get different levels of things like no, you can put in. I only want to answer reporters queries about this topic, this topic, this topic, and then they'll, you know, serve that up to you. But my belief there's no cost to it whatsoever. You just have to do a little bit of elbow grease to go in there and keep an eye on Wow questions reporters are asking. And here, you know, to connect the dots, it's not just answering the reporter's questions, but then what you can do with the fact that you're being positioned as the subject matter expert in your own social, in your own sales materials. It's an instant credibility booster for the brand. Outside of that, man, I would take it to 30,000 feet and stuff that everybody's heard already. Hang in, you're doing good stuff. Hopefully that tailwind.

Sean Smith - 0:33:50
You know, yeah, not the beats elbow grease, but yeah, there's there's a couple of ways that I think brands can start to make some noise all on their own at little to no cost.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:34:32
I think your point about being marketed to from a person versus a brand is a really key thing that we haven't talked a lot about that I'd like to spend a little more time on. I don't know if this is accurate and I'll look for the stats to add to the show notes, but someone shared with me recently at an event that. Millennials are used to being marketed to by brands and they like real clean, crisp aesthetics and a very like cohesive like crisp offering and Gen. Z's and Gen. X or excuse me, just Gen. Z, they really want to be marketed to by humans and other people and they want things to be humanized. And I really do think that is the future. You know, we'll see if I can find the stats to kind of back that up. But that checks out to me like just just hearing that information. And that is going to be your future largest, largest consumer category and it's going to be your future most sustainability minded category. And so I think it's imperative for somebody at the brand to invest in their personal brand and it probably is going to move from a nice to have to a musthave.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:35:17
As we enter into this world of continued growth in e-commerce and social and tick tock and all the things, so curious what you think on that?

Sean Smith - 0:35:44
First of all, I think it very well said completely. Again, I think the point of commonality between do I like to be marketed to by a brand or by a person? Is what I don't like is bullshit. I don't care who it's. And I think that folks, they may not be able to identify, but they can smell it. They know. They know. You know, they know what a humble brag looks like. You know when you're trying to split something in and and to your point, they know authenticity. And I think to to circle back to your original point, you can set the bait with some kind of compelling message. Don't try to say everything. Try to say the one thing that is likely to grab someone's attention and bring them into your world.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:36:36
That's a nugget right there though, because I think that's a challenge for Regen brands is that there's so many great things to say. It's hard to find out what that one thing is, but it should be unique, right, to your brand and your product and maybe even that type of transaction and that's important.

Sean Smith - 0:36:54
Doctor Bronner already laid claim to putting everything on the label, so the rest of us are left with need to have a singular message. One thing that you can say, it's not your only thing. So one thing that's going to bring them in and dig deeper, right? And like we said, if you're in Regent, odds are the story's going to get better the more you get it. So just get them in, right, have that first date. Then let's talk more, because it goes back to the the very original thing, which is a tension. The spans are shorter, the amount of noise is louder. Gotta have that special something, right? And ideally that special something either makes him laugh or makes him cry, makes him feel some type of emotion. That's where the magic.

Sean Smith - 0:37:24
Happens. If you can make that emotional connection, they're going to have a lot more patience and time for you when you start telling them more about your reasons to believe and more of the the, if you will, boring aspects that make you different than everybody else.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:38:11
People make decisions on emotion and back it up with logic. I think that's psycho, psychologically proven and so. You know, I, I'm gonna, I'm, I'm going to say in a LinkedIn post later this week, you know, we have to change hearts to change minds. And sometimes I think that's a counterintuitive approach. But how can we do that person to person? How can we do that as brands? How can we do that? How can we help each other do that? You know, that's, I think, how we win at this thing in the long run.

Sean Smith - 0:38:37
Can I tell you a goofy little story? Yeah, please.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:38:40
Then.

Sean Smith - 0:38:40
Prior to starting Third Street. Uh worked for a radio station in Chicago called Wxrt. So were.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:38:48
You were you a what's it called when you're on the air?

Sean Smith - 0:38:52
Like a DJ.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:38:53
A DJ were you DJ, you got a good radio voice on oh.

Sean Smith - 0:38:55
Really thank you.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:38:56
Yeah.

Sean Smith - 0:38:58
When I first started, right out of school, I was on the radio.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:39:02
Oh, that's awesome. I need some of the. I need some of those tapes set to be ASAP.

Sean Smith - 0:39:10
I think they've been destroyed. Appropriate. But so this station in Chicago, WXRT, if there's folks that are watching, they're familiar. You, you know, it was a legendary station before I ever got there, right? But I was working on the marketing side of things and one of the phenomenons that we discovered and I carry with me to this day is. We would sell tshirts for the radio station at events and it would have the station's logo on it, right? They did OK. People like to represent, you know, they like to see the XRT fan to do it. Then we started putting rock'n'roll phrases on the back of the tshirt and one comes to mind and said, only my momma loves me and and even she isn't sure. Boom.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:40:05
Yeah.

Sean Smith - 0:40:05
Tenfold. And I bring that up as a micro example. Little silly tshirt. But when you start to make that emotional connection again, make them laugh or make them cry. Give them something to latch onto emotionally that is truly for special. Things happen, right? And we see it every day. We see it. People don't want to be educated, by the way. And I think that's perhaps a, a, A that happens a lot potentially in this point or candidly. Don't like to be preached to you shove something down someone's throat. What's the natural inclination? Gag, right. Don't preach. I don't want to. I don't want to learn more. I want to be educated, right? I want to be enlightened.

Sean Smith - 0:40:31
I want to feel a connection. I want to be able to either click or reach for something of instantly and instinctively feel good about that. And again, the path there, at least in our experience, all starts with some central message, some central theme essence that you build from.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:41:24
I think that's especially true at point of purchase, right. Maybe it's not true all the time on social or all the time on the website. And like those are the opportunities to educate and we're going to have to do that. But it's about, you know, if the masters, we're just coming off Masters weekend for all the golfers out there. It's like we don't use the sand wedge on the tee box and we don't use the driver around the green. I mean, maybe some people do, but there's a reason for that, right? It's different tools for different shots or different objectives and you know. We're just, we're all I think having such a close proximity to so many of the brands. So I'm doing that really well. So I'm not doing it so well, but all trying to do it really well and we collectively and individually are going to figure out how to do it much, much better and that's going to make a huge difference hopefully.

Sean Smith - 0:42:09
Amen. Amen. Yeah, it's there to be had. And I I think the good news is, and there are many who know much more than I do, but sure seems like the tailwind. Is at the backs of regen brands, right? Think people are going to stop caring about the things that regen brings to the table now it's just a bit of a little bit of a gold rush, right? Wild West, still no real standardized certification, if I'm not mistaken, on Regen brands?

Anthony Corsaro - 0:42:42
There's many. There's none that have that have won. There's definitely. I would say in my opinion there's a hierarchy to the certifications, but we support all of them and it is. There's a lot there's like 6-7 or eight at this point.

Sean Smith - 0:42:55
Well, there's no shortage of hurdles, but there's also no shortage of tailwind if you, if, if I think if you know which way to point your back and for every brand that's going to be, that's going to be a little bit different. But that's where the special is as well.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:43:14
And that's the magic of third sheet, right? It's taking that energy and the tailwind and then turning it into things that are actually concrete that drive results, which is, you know, I, I've worked with enough agencies myself to know that 99.9% never follow up to see what the quantifiable results are of their, their engagement and the fact that y'all had those four stats and I'm sure even more was like. Not only was the campaign was unfed just so impressive, but that piece was so impressive. And that, I mean, I'm going to give the Midwest a little bit of a shout out here because we're both, you know, from, from, from the Midwest. But to me that just showed like a real commitment to collective success and a real commitment to, hey, let's get something done here in a way that moves the needle, not just in a way that makes sure we get paid the invoice.

Sean Smith - 0:44:10
Hey, man, I appreciate your saying, hey, we love winning awards and we've won awards, but a dumbing shit if the results aren't there, ideally you're doing both. You got to have those results. And to get there, very candidly, is a partnership. I know that sounds trite. But it's the absolute truth. Are you pulling is, is brand, brand, team, agency all pulling the rope the same direction when that happens, those are partnerships you just don't bet against.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:45:00
That's where the magic happens, man. It is. It's all about it. Is that? I mean, I I forget the three. There's three things in agency work. There's like, fun fame. Pass it. Yeah.

Sean Smith - 0:45:10
Fame, fortune. Fun. Yeah. Ideally all three. You have two. Gotta have one.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:45:18
Yeah. Yeah. And but I feel like that's talking to yourself and other service providers that have worked with Regen brands, it's like. It's such a powerful intersection of all three of those or it can be right and that's like the symbiotic relationships we need more of right and like that's exciting to me because I think this category has the has the the great opportunity to produce them.

Sean Smith - 0:45:45
The It's 3rd Street right? Or an attention agency we described. Attention agency means the name 3rd Street is derived from the from the notion that. Large brands often move slowly and have sort of predictable results. The brands are nimble but make limited impact. And our philosophy is you can be small and still make an impact. You can be big and still be special. That's the Third Street. that we try to bring to the to, to every partnership that we engage in and we've been very, very fortunate.

Sean Smith - 0:45:55
To have some outstanding partners currently and throughout our 15 years.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:46:30
Yeah. And we're looking forward to you adding some Regent brands to that list, some more Regent brands to that list. And that was the perfect segue into our closing question, which is you know we ask everyone that's on the podcast this, you're our first non brand answer of the question. And it's how do we scale regenerative, how do we get regen brands to have 50% market share by 2050. And I think part of the answer is definitely what you just said, small brands having a big impact and big brands being special and committing to to doing this with integrity. But what would you add to that?

Sean Smith - 0:47:05
A. Yes, you you you answered the question and be not afraid, I think. Perhaps there's a hesitation when I described that KFC partnership. It takes a brand with gusto to say we're going to do this, we're going to make some noise and I use that as an example. Doesn't have to be specifically that, but are are are you confident, you know what I'm saying? Are you, are you, are you leaning forward? Are you ready, if you will? Psychologically, as a person, as a brand, to say I don't have to be small and even if I choose to be small, I can still make impact #1 and #2. I think the more and you are at the vanguard of this A/C, the more that regen brands can support one another partnerships.

Sean Smith - 0:47:44
From as little as cheering you on to as big as these three brands are going to work together to do this special thing and make this noise in a positive way and garner this kind of attention. The more it supports itself, the larger it's going to become, and more quickly.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:48:33
Yeah. And I love that Kyle's working so hard on that with the region coalition, and that is how we reduce retailer and consumer confusion. Is the retailers will not align themselves around regenerative until the brands do it first and we can have the silos of the different certifications or the different products and the different methodologies and that's great and they're all amazingly, you know, contextualized and important for their different you know attributes. But until we give people a simple overarching framework that everything can tuck underneath, it's going to be really hard to to move the needle on this thing.

Sean Smith - 0:49:11
Very well said, right physician heal thyself. You've it starts from within within this industry and it's tough sometimes that's you know that that can be very aspirational you know almost rhetoric like language if you will. But I've seen it first hand. Where are you truly willing to proactively help another brand that is not your own in the name of this you know. The rising.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:49:40
Tide and I'm happy you said both of those things because one, I think the vast majority if not all the brands that we work with are willing to do that, really willing to do that, which I appreciate and it's part of why I love working with them and working on this topic so much. And two, I forget what my second one was. Oh, it's not, it's not impossible task. I mean I, I I kind of framed it as a big task that's that's absolutely essential but. We are much closer than it probably appears and you know some updates from the coalition that I'm sure Kyle will share on the show at some point show that we're very close and and this is a, this is something that is very capable of us to to coalesce and get done together. And so let's go do it. I'm excited for it.

Sean Smith - 0:50:24
Love it, love it. Props to what you're doing A/C and props to the brands that are watching this right now. That again, or that tip that plow doing something special. You're you. You are in the process of leaving it better than you found it, and at least from where I said, that's what it's all about.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:50:41
Yeah, trying to, they're doing the hard work. So all we're trying to do is evangelize and support their work and you know you through support in this podcast are doing that. And so can't thank you enough for stepping up to the plate being sponsored #1 and just excited to share this and and more on what y'all do with everybody and just thank you Brother. I appreciate you.

Sean Smith - 0:50:58
It's our privilege. It's our privilege.

Anthony Corsaro - 0:51:04
For show notes, episode transcripts, and more information on our guests and what we discussed on the show, check out our website regenbrands.com that is regenbrands.com. You can also find our regen recaps on the website. Regen recaps take less than 5 minutes to read and cover all the key points of the full hour long conversations. You can check out our YouTube channel, Regen Brands Podcast for all of our episodes with both video and audio. The best way to support our work is to give us a five star rating on your favorite podcast platform, subscribe to future episodes, and share the show with your friends. Thanks for tuning into The ReGen Brands Podcast, brought to you by the Regen Coalition and Outlaw Ventures. We hope you learned something new in this episode and it empowers you to use your voice, your time, and your dollars to help us build a better and more regenerative food system. Love you guys.