Todd Sanders: 00:00 Well, welcome back to the podcast. We are honored today to talk to Matt Clyde, who is the president and founder of Ideas Collide, and also our benefactor for these beautiful studios that we're in. They have been gracious enough to allow us to use this space and their team. So when we sound good and we look good, it's because of the Ideas Collide team. Thank you.
Matt Clyde: 00:21 Thank you.
Todd Sanders: 00:21 Thanks for being here with us.
Matt Clyde: 00:22 Excited to sit down with you. We've watched a lot of these from my office, so it's exciting to be in the hot seat.
Todd Sanders: 00:28 Well, it'll be a lot of fun, I promise. And we always like to start with a little bit about you, maybe kind of some background and then something about you that we wouldn't find on your bio.
Matt Clyde: 00:39 Okay, wow. Yeah, so founder of Ideas Collide. We've been doing this, I don't know if you saw it when you walked in, but today is our 18th official birthday anniversary. So 18 years ago, we kicked this thing off. We had a cake in there, so you maybe noticed it when you came in, but-
Todd Sanders: 00:59 On the way out, I'll absolutely-
Matt Clyde: 00:59 Yeah, we'll grab a slice for you. So 18 years doing this, prior to that, worked in a lot of big corporate entities, worked for America West Airlines for a while, was part of their brand and team, I did that. I have worked in New York ad agencies. I've had opportunity to work alongside some pretty famous authors and celebrity chefs I like to talk about. So I've worked with Geoffrey Zakarian, who's a top chef. And I've worked with Stephen R. Covey and did some ghostwriting for Stephen R. Covey. So some things that aren't on the bio but are fun.
01:41 And I think at the core of all of this and the journey, and also not on the bio, is I come from a construction family, so I have a big passion for the construction industry, but it also means in my veins and in my heart, I love to build things. So I love to create things and have been doing that from a very young age. And so starting this was one of those things. I was always dreaming up something that I wanted to build. And so building a company, a team, something important in the community was really important to me and what we've built here.
Todd Sanders: 02:15 Well, we're glad you're here. And I think this background of your family and construction made you a natural pick to also do all the work for us on the Build Your Future initiative.
Matt Clyde: 02:25 That's why I'm very committed and connected to that and very important for Arizona and for the trade and the industry as a whole across the United States.
Todd Sanders: 02:34 You bet, absolutely. Well, so you mentioned Geoffrey Zakarian. Are you a chef?
Matt Clyde: 02:40 I can cook a few things, not-
Todd Sanders: 02:42 What's your specialty?
Matt Clyde: 02:43 I do a lot of spaghetti, grilling, a few pastas and things like that. I make great eggs.
Todd Sanders: 02:50 Oh, is that right?
Matt Clyde: 02:51 Yeah, I make a good breakfast. So Saturdays, I try and do bacon and eggs and the whole spread for the family, the kids.
Todd Sanders: 03:00 So you're popular on Saturday?
Matt Clyde: 03:02 Yeah, that's about it. The rest of my kids got the good culinary skills. They're really good artists of that, but that didn't come my way.
Todd Sanders: 03:13 Well, Saturday's good, we'll take it. So I think it's appropriate that we're here on the 18th birthday and I think it'd be interesting to really know a little bit more about how you started Ideas Collide and the philosophy, and I want to talk about this in a minute, but in my mind, at least from an outside perspective, there's a very intentional side of this business that has to do with giving back and it seems like that permeates the organization and the culture. But tell us a little bit about that.
Matt Clyde: 03:42 Yeah. So as I mentioned, did a lot of corporate stints and one of those was with FranklinCovey. We got to go into a lot of organizations and we were in the marketing innovation team and we would observe and work with really big companies.
03:58 So worked with Starbucks and the Mayo Health Clinic and Ritz-Carlton and would work with their learning and development teams to observe what was going on in their organizations and extract the best practices and then find the gaps and identify the better solutions that could be developed and refined in better collaboration or in workforce development and talent development. So we would observe all of this and then create programs and marketing programs around on what we were observing.
04:28 So I did a lot of observation and consulting at the beginning of my career and I think that, in my back of my mind, I kept started to build this list of what best companies look like and what great cultures look like. And you learn a lot from those that maybe aren't so great.
04:47 And so in the corporate world, I think we've all had moments where it hasn't been the best experience. I did some time in and worked in advertising in New York and on Madison Avenue-
Todd Sanders: 04:58 Some Mad Men?
Matt Clyde: 04:59 Yes, very Mad... Not the Mad Men of the '60s, but this was the Mad Men of the early 2000s, so it was the .com era.
Todd Sanders: 05:07 Sure.
Matt Clyde: 05:07 So a lot of hype, maybe not a lot of foundation to the hype, but learned how to be very, very scrappy and adaptive and agile in that time. But learned too that, "Okay, these are things I want to do differently if I ever get the opportunity." And so that kept mounting and building this list, until finally, I was at this Fast Company Conference, early 2000, in San Diego and saw this clipping, this thing that was said, "You can't love your life if you don't love your work." And I started to carry that around with me.
05:46 This is kind of how I want to operate in my life and in my workplace. And so that started to wear on me and I'm like, "I think I can do this better. And I think I wanted to find a way to do it better." So I decided to take this leap and go and build this business based on that whole philosophy. And tied to that was to have true intent in giving like you talked about.
06:08 So in our first blueprint of this company, one of the things we wrote down first was authentic giving. So every company can write a check and that's important and needed, but how do you really get involved? How do you get really invested? How do you roll up your sleeves and listen and go, "Okay, what can we really do to make impact?"
06:26 Sometimes it's not in what you write in terms of money, but more in listening or recruiting or giving volunteer time. And so that was all part of what you call our charter at the beginning. It was like, "We're going to be very giving in intent." And so the purpose of the organization from day one was, "Let's give what we can to our clients and give them great work and innovative work. Let's give to our team that sense of purpose and giving back and building a career and opportunities here. And if this really works well together, we can then give back to the community and influence the community in a meaningful way."
07:05 So we call it our trifecta of giving. If each one of those things are operating well, they kind of feed each other. And so that's the whole purpose, intent of the organization and how we operate.
Todd Sanders: 07:17 Well, and speaking for the Chamber, now, four or five years ago, you all did a very deep dive with us on our brand and everything associated with that. And today, we're still living that and it's still having an impact. You look at our stuff now and it looks so good and so clean and it reflects who we are. So I think the idea that it is intentional and certainly dollars are important, but that work, it just really hasn't impact, it resonates today.
Matt Clyde: 07:49 It's one of our favorite projects that we've done. I mean, it was a great to work alongside your team, listen to fellow board members, listen to the business community like, "What do we want this organization to look and feel like going forward? And how do we take, not just the organization, the people and the talent, but how do we take the vision of this organization, the values of this organization and turn that into a visual identity?" And I think we did that really in a compelling way when you look at the logo and what it means now.
Todd Sanders: 08:21 It's true. I mean, the teal phoenix felt like something we borrowed from the '80s and it wasn't us. And now, it feels like us, so thank you.
Matt Clyde: 08:29 Yeah.
Todd Sanders: 08:31 So thinking about brand, brand is so important and you talk about that a lot, but it almost seems like it's overused. I hear teenagers talking about their brand now. Tell us a little bit about brand and how it should be applied and why it's important.
Matt Clyde: 08:44 Well, anybody can create a brand today. I mean, we own that power in our hand. There's not a lot of barriers to creating brand and telling your story. And so that's why I think it is so important is to really know and hone in on that because everybody can create that personal brand. Or in a larger entity or in a nonprofit, it's really what you're known for. It's what you are associated with and it's what you hope and are achieving to be. So it's all of that is encompassing in your brand.
09:14 And so also in a world and media universe where there's so much competition and noise, everything's down to seconds of material and content that you quickly fly through on our screens. You have to have what I think is the authentic brand and that's really where we try to hone in on. I think what we try to do with the Chamber is that authenticity, what is truly at the heart of your organization and how do you live that and how do you operate in that realm to be authentic, real, and connected?
09:54 And that's really where some of the best brands and brands that are growing and excelling really have that at the heart and the core, is that authenticity, knowing who they are, their purpose, and then actively living it and emulating it so it doesn't feel contrived, doesn't feel staged, and it can really endure long term and the test of disruption and change and everything. It's still the foundational to what your organization is about.
Todd Sanders: 10:25 Well, and I think when I hear you say authentic, we've all seen these brands that it seems like it's sort of being forced and it's kind of cringeworthy sometimes.
Matt Clyde: 10:33 Yes.
Todd Sanders: 10:34 Thinking about that, would it be fair to say that if we are not proactive and thoughtful and authentic with our brand, someone else will create our brand for us or at least establish what that is?
Matt Clyde: 10:46 Yeah. I mean, everybody's going to be out there. Everybody can have a platform now, like we talked about, everybody's going to have an opinion and there's many voices out there.
10:54 So we often like to say that someone's always going to be talking about your brand. You can be part of the conversation or influencing the conversation or making sure your story is being told authentically or you can let someone else tell it for you. And so we can't control a lot around there outside, a lot of those third-party channels and forums that may come up about our brands. But you can influence the conversation of what you say is this is our story, this is our message and this is true to who we are.
11:27 And then often on our work, we did this with you and we call them proof points. What are the proof points? Even if you're truly saying, "We're about innovation," or, "We're about connection," whatever it is that you're defining, that is the essence of your brand, what really backs that up? What really establishes that?
11:44 And what are the proof points, whether it's from your customers, your guests, whether it's from your members or through your actions, what are you doing actively to prove that? And that's why that ongoing effort is why it's so important to tie that back to the core. It's showing, "Okay, this is how we activated our brand right now, this is how we're putting this forward. Here are the proof points to back that up."
Todd Sanders: 12:07 Yeah, it is true. It's not a one-and-done. And I guess that brings me to the next point. This morning at our executive committee meeting, there was a discussion about the economy. And certainly with COVID, we saw an economy that we couldn't imagine, correct? I mean, everything's sort of stopped and a bunch of money got pushed into the economy. We now have inflation, but business is good, but we hear there might be a recession.
12:27 And the point that was made today is that there's nobody that's leading a company today that had to lead through inflation. I mean, that was the Jimmy Carter years. So you have business leaders that are trying to figure this out and they might be thinking, "Well, do we really need to be thinking about brand or what we're spending on brand and how we do brand right now because things are so uncertain I need to sort of retrench?" What do you say to a business leader that brings that concern to you?
Matt Clyde: 12:54 I think having a brand presence is really important because that's the time to get your message out there. That's the time where you might have to work a little bit harder to get that customer or to get your business case out there. So even if it's a small investment, even if it's like, "Hey, we're going to have to tighten our belts, but we're going to do this internally, we're going to put forward this effort."
13:13 I think more than ever in the moments of when things might be a little bit more scarce, prices might be a little bit higher, I think you got to put your message, your story, your aspect of why you should come and service and be part of a brand or track customers more than ever. So I think it's not a time to retreat, it's actually a time to prepare and advocate.
Todd Sanders: 13:40 You're right. When these things happen, the natural reaction is batten down the hatches, pull everything back. And it's antithetical to say spend money. But I also would imagine if you're able to do that and retain, that once we come out and this looks like it's going to be very short, hopefully, that you're going to be in a much better position also on an expansion mode.
Matt Clyde: 14:05 We often refer to it as pivoting with intention, pivot with purpose. And there's no business entity out there in today's marketplace where you're not constantly have to rethink your plan. You map out a plan, you map out a strategy, you build that five-year vision and then there's the everyday aspect. And in that everyday aspect, what are you intentionally doing to grow through brand, through marketing, through attraction, all of those things have to come into play and you have to pivot with that purpose and attention on an ongoing basis.
Todd Sanders: 14:38 I'd like to pivot a little bit. Speaking of pivots to culture, you talk a lot about culture and I think one of the best examples that I've seen is we actually did a delegation trip to Southwest Airlines. And we all know what it's like to fly their airline, right? It's just that great culture. And I wondered, what's it going to be in a corporate headquarters? Will it be the same? Probably not. But you get there and it actually is.
15:02 Same thing here, when you come to these offices, you're out there, you talk a lot about culture and you kind of wonder, "Well, how's it going to be at Ideas Collide?" Well, that culture is here, but obviously, that is not something you can just say or wish for. You actually have to make it happen. How do you go about that? How do you get to that culture where people walk in and say, "I want to have that."?
Matt Clyde: 15:23 They think it comes down to any great company has a great culture. I think the core of it is the time. It takes an investment of time. It's not something you can put on the shelf. It's not like, "Okay, this is our culture," and you put it there and then you just, "Okay, that that's it." It's active and happening. So it's a living, breathing entity every day and something you have to give extra time to.
15:49 I mean, of all different types of leaders, packed calendars, agendas, but sometimes it's just the simple of taking a minute and going, "Hey, how are things going?" And that's hard to do, especially in a curtain pace environment right now. Someone, the other day, pulled me aside because I was running from meeting-to-meeting and we're about to run out to my car and someone was like, "Hey, I haven't talked to you in two weeks." And it was a good moment to be like, "Thank you for stopping and saying something. I haven't had a chance, so let's find time to catch up when we can do that."
16:22 But your people call you out on it too, if you're not living it. And I think that's part of how we operate here is sometimes when people feel like, "Hey, I'm not filling that culture," and it's because we all get busy or we get sidetracked. It's that living, breathing thing that you always have to invest to. So that's something that we've really made intentional, purposeful is the time investment.
16:44 And the other side of it is, what we often tell our team, the culture does not reside with one person. It's not just with me as the founder of the company or our executive team. It happens by everybody being invested. And that means everybody has to show up with what culture means to them and creates an abundance of conversations around that. And everybody working towards the same goal and the same plan as a business, but people also bringing their personality to work and what they're interested in so that everybody has to contribute to it.
17:21 It just can't come from one entity, it has to come from everybody actively participating and being connected with intention. And that's been another key part of how we've built that over the years. And that doesn't stop, it's always going.
Todd Sanders: 17:36 It is. And I think you've established it here and I think you talked about is how to make sure you keep that. What about the business owner that they had a pretty good sense that the culture's not great at their shop and they want to do something about it, but they don't know where to start? What would you suggest? What are two or three things that they could start doing today that would have an impact on culture?
Matt Clyde: 17:54 Talk to your team, sit down, open forum. We've done it where we do these one-on-ones or we do bring in groups of teams and they can just get feedback and ideas and start to build consensus of what do people care about, "How does it tie the business and what do we care about and what are we going to do?" And take one of those things. You can't take everything.
18:18 You're going to hear, "We're a 85-plus organization," that's a lot of voices at the table. So we try and give everybody a voice and opportunity and then you have to elect and choose, "Okay, what is the one that's going to have the most impact?" And so that would probably be the next step is listening, doing surveys, things like that. And then picking one thing that you feel like will really take and make a turn or make a measure change and putting that into action and then living it.
18:51 You can't say, "We're going to do this," and then it starts to slide and then people don't get... The trust erodes or they feel like, "Hey, they're not really committed to this, this is just talk." And so you got to really go, "If I'm going to do this, I mean to do..."
19:08 And it might just be that one thing, just do that one thing and do it really well because that can slowly turn and then that starts to create what I call the culture halo. Because then you're going to inspire a few more people and then they're going to get more bought into whatever it is that you're doing and then you can take on that next thing. And then slowly, it creates a halo across the team. And so focus on that one thing and build from there.
Todd Sanders: 19:33 Well, and I think what you said is interesting. It's not enough just to listen. It's important, but if you just listen and then that's it, you're going to have a problem.
19:42 And I do think it's hard to maintain. You might say, "Okay, we're going to do something," and then six months down the line, it's not happening anymore. And I think it probably would be detrimental at that point.
Matt Clyde: 19:51 And that's when you'd be authentic and real too and be like, "Hey, this wasn't working," or, "Maybe I wasn't committed to it, so now we got to rethink what that is and what we're going to do next."
Todd Sanders: 20:01 So as basically the president here, the founder, it sounds like you have to be a little vulnerable.
Matt Clyde: 20:07 Oh, absolutely.
Todd Sanders: 20:07 These are people. That's tough to do.
Matt Clyde: 20:09 That's hard, but I think it's very true to what I think our... Our workforce now expects more and more of that if you're going to be authentic. I mean, sometimes you're going to be vulnerable and sometimes like, "Hey, we were wrong here," or, "Hey, I missed that mark, but let's work it out and figure it out together."
20:29 Yeah, it's not always easy to do that when you're in the leadership seat and sometimes you have to swallow that pride, but I think people respect and value and commit even harder when they see that. At least, I've seen that-
Todd Sanders: 20:41 Do it authentic.
Matt Clyde: 20:42 Yeah.
Todd Sanders: 20:43 Well, I agree and it is a daily conversation I have with myself about how we continue that journey. So you mentioned us that we're one of your favorite projects and I really appreciate that. And I'll tell you, in our house, our favorite project of yours is Danzeisen Dairy. And I think probably, hopefully, everybody knows them. We are one of their biggest chocolate milk customers. But yeah, that's not a large business necessarily. That is a small, mid-sized business that now, all of a sudden, has probably a much bigger footprint. Tell us about that story. To me, it's just fascinating.
Matt Clyde: 21:22 Yeah. Kevin Danzeisen, a good friend, great client, came to our offices. Actually, we went to him. He called us up and said, "I see the long term of what we need to do and I've got to change, got to diversify my business in new ways." And so it's like, "I'm thinking about doing glass bottle, thinking about just getting it faster to the grocery shelf and I want to do it right. So I want to research this and I want to build the right brand."
21:50 And at the core of what they really want to do too is just get back to great tasting milk and they were so committed to that from the beginning. So we met with them on the farm.
Todd Sanders: 22:02 Is that right?
Matt Clyde: 22:03 Yeah, on the farm.
Todd Sanders: 22:04 Laveen?
Matt Clyde: 22:05 Laveen. And just saw the whole operation and talk to them and they're like, "Look, we're about running this farm, but we want to get our product out there more and bring back that old-fashioned glass bottle milk." And it's a family business and everybody in that team is just so committed to great product and making a great product that it makes the marketing so much easier and fun.
22:32 So every chance we get to launch a new milk product, as they've expanded, they've got everything if you need to buy chocolate, but they have almost a lot of flavors. They have their Arizona Orange as a little knot to the citrus world of Arizona, but they have orange juice too, they have lemonades.
22:54 We've helped them launch now into Texas. So there's now a new brand that they launched in Texas that's local to Texas called 1836 Farms. And it really came and go back to that word "authentic" again. Came back to just caring about the product. They talk about, "We care about the cows and the cows take care of us." And that peruse is the great product of Danzeisen.
23:17 And yeah, so it's been multiple years now and ongoing expansion and growth and it's a great love story of the love of a product and love of a family wanting to give back to the community and do something different in how they were delivering their pride and joy.
Todd Sanders: 23:37 Well, interesting that they're not a multi-billion dollar business. They're a small Arizona business that said, "We think there's opportunity and we'd like your help to help us grow that market." And all of a sudden, they're in Texas.
Matt Clyde: 23:48 Yeah. And a lot of that came to small steps. It was just small strategic steps along the way and doing the right things at the right time to get a little bit more distribution to get the story out there, to turn on the PR levers when it needed to be on there.
24:04 They partnered with a lot of the sports teams and had some sports marketing tie-ins and then that established their footprint. So just slow, steady, smart, strategic and tribute that largely to Jeff and Kevin and the whole team over there that are just wonderful to work with and great business partners, great collaborators.
Todd Sanders: 24:27 Well, it's great to see them growing and even out of state. Now, I've heard a rumor and you tell me if it's true or not, that they actually do delivery now?
Matt Clyde: 24:35 Oh, yeah. I got my delivery this morning. So yeah, so talk about pivot with intention. Pandemic hit and Kevin called me, he is like, "This is going to transform everything again. We're going to have to rethink everything. And so I think we need to bring this product direct to home." So you can get it delivered. I get once a week and I get my chocolate milk, I get my lemonade, I get my orange juice all home delivered. So it's a great service.
Todd Sanders: 25:03 So you use it and put it out, they pick it up and you're getting stuff.
Matt Clyde: 25:06 Yeah. And then the bottles just recycle back in and they credit you. So my kids used to be motivated to go turn in the bottles to get that $2 deposit back and that was their motivator to get a little extra allowance. But they're all teenagers now, so they're not doing as much as they used to, even though it's gas money. So it's a nice little convenience thing too that just recycles back in.
Todd Sanders: 25:34 Oh, funny. My son was the same way and it's gas money and I have a ton in my garage.
Matt Clyde: 25:39 They start piling up.
Todd Sanders: 25:40 Yeah. And I took him and got the money and he couldn't believe it.
Matt Clyde: 25:44 He's like, "Wait, that's my gas."
Todd Sanders: 25:44 "Where's my money?" But no, it's not.
Matt Clyde: 25:47 You got to do your part to earn it.
Todd Sanders: 25:49 Absolutely. So the other part of our relationship obviously is you were a member of the board for six years and you've been incredibly involved in the Chamber, beyond the board, but certainly that is a lot of service and a lot of commitment. Talk to us about why that service to you generally is important.
Matt Clyde: 26:09 It goes back to that purpose of giving, but in the case of the Chamber, we were very fortunate, very early in our business, we were I think in our fifth year of business. We got nominated for the Impact Award and we did the phrase of just an honor to be in the room and an honor to be considered. And then we ended up taking one of the top awards that day.
26:31 And honestly, sincerely, we're shocked that we would even be considered. And we went and celebrated with our team that day and I was like, "We're going to give back to this organization," because this is a great opportunity for us. And so what are we going to do to give back to this community for being recognized? And so that was where it started from and just slowly have always maintained that.
26:56 So I think if you want to really impact change or you want to be part of change in a community, you have to be part of the conversation. You have to sit down and hear what's going on, know where to put your voice forward. And the Chamber is all about being a catalyst for change and a contributor to growth.
27:19 If you sit back, you're missing opportunity. And I've got great business connections, but even more importantly, great relationships, friendships. Just when I get to see you walking down the hallway of the Chamber or in a restaurant, it's like you feel you're part of a community and you get that over and over again because of that connection.
27:44 Not just by being on the board, but going to your events, being at the Impact Awards, seeing who's being celebrated, the ATHENA Awards, and the incredible women leaders that we have in this state and celebrating them and then seeing them go on and making an impact. I love all of that. And I think that's opportunity that is there for everybody in our business community.
28:03 That's the great thing about Phoenix is there aren't barriers to participation or everybody is welcome. It's open for everybody and it's all about what you put in and you get so much more out of it. So I'm very honored to be part of that.
Todd Sanders: 28:20 Well, I appreciate that. And the observation in Phoenix I think is a good one. People talk about this as a good place to be new because people are willing to bring you in and have you participate.
28:31 And I think that's a good segue because you also were very involved in our diversity, equity, and inclusion work as part of a toolkit that we offer at the Chamber. Just broadly, DEI, why is it important? Why should we be thinking about it?
Matt Clyde: 28:47 I think it goes back to culture. Part of the reason I started participating is I think some of the events that happened in 2020 and the ongoing conversations around being authentic and truly championing others and being inclusive of others was something that was brought to my attention as like, "Hey, we need to do more in our organization around this, Matt. What are you going to do about it?" And so I'm like, "Hey, I'm going to go step out. I'm going to actually get out of my comfort zone and go and listen and participate in these conversations so I can just learn and grow from it."
29:22 So I'm part of that group, but I'm there mostly to observe and learn and then champion and find opportunity to further the voices of those that are really trying to make a difference. And the toolkit is a phenomenal piece of content that you can just really dive into and choose, "Okay, this is where we're at and this is how I want to move it forward."
29:48 If you're starting from ground zero or if you're like, "Hey, I've been doing this for a while, but I want to be more intentional about it," there's so many different ways to use those materials. And so that's why it goes back to culture authenticity again of why we've been participating. It's the right thing to do. And it's also what others are expecting us to do in today's environment with employee relations and advocating for those that need that voice or need those opportunities.
30:16 We can't say we're truly about inclusiveness and being abundant for everyone unless you really, really are listening and bringing everybody to the table in that way.
Todd Sanders: 30:27 You bet, absolutely. And I think what I like about that particular project is usually at the Chamber, the staff have a lot of work and a big part of the work and are very involved. In this case, it was six months of board leadership that put this together. And I think it really speaks to the importance to the community. And now, not only do we use it here, but we've actually given this away to Chambers around the country and they're using it and giving it away. That's my only stipulation. You can't sell it and you have to give it away.
Matt Clyde: 31:01 It's an open source code.
Todd Sanders: 31:02 Absolutely. And so that lives on, and so I really appreciate that. Let's bring it back to Ideas Collide as we wrap. Talk to us three big wins for 2022 for Ideas Collide, and what can we expect now in '23?
Matt Clyde: 31:16 Well, three big wins, we talked a lot about our local work, we truly are a national and global agencies. So we did some incredible work nationally and globally for some really big brands. I'm really proud of that. We added WeightWatchers to our rosters, so we're doing work with WeightWatchers now. Some e-commerce campaigns for them digitally, which are a lot of fun and engaging. Did some national TV work for Best Western Hotels & Resorts.
Todd Sanders: 31:42 Homegrown company, they're Arizona-based.
Matt Clyde: 31:44 Yeah. They're also based here, but do it at a national North America level and work with them globally as well. So really I'm really proud of that. I'm expanding a local company like Danzeisen to Texas, a lot of fun. Did some great things with them. And the 1836 Farm brand.
32:02 Last year, we called it our rebound year, post-COVID. I think our team really exceeded all expectations. So I think despite a rebound year, now, we're going into 2023 and I think like you just said, people are just trying to see what does this year look like and how does it shape up?
32:25 And so I'm using the word confident a lot, I think we got to be going forward confident. We've been living in inflation and we've seen our clients impacted by inflation. I've got a lot of food clients that are impacted on and hospitality brands are impacted and we're being resilient, adapting, and agile with them.
32:45 So we're going forward with confidence. We may be in a recession right now, so how are we going to be proactive, smart, and resilient in this time? Because I think we're going to be in, no matter what it is, the current market is going to be always dynamic and changing. And great businesses thrive when they can adapt and be agile to the market conditions.
33:09 And so that's what we're really poising ourselves for is moving forward with confidence and strong in our belief that brand matters and doing the right thing and investing in the right things, at the right time matter, and bring the growth and success you need even in hard times.
Todd Sanders: 33:25 Well, I love the idea of moving forward with confidence. It makes sense. And especially your thoughts about the market, there is no static market, it just doesn't live that way.
33:35 And so I guess for us, the good news is that while it's a little uncertain today, it's not going to be forever. And we're going to move out and we're going to need to pivot. So thank you for spending so much time with us, really appreciate it. We're going to finish up with a quick lightning round.
Matt Clyde: 33:49 Oh, I love these. You're good at these, Todd.
Todd Sanders: 33:51 Well, we'll see. All right, first job? The paid job?
Matt Clyde: 33:55 Paid job?
Todd Sanders: 33:56 Yes.
Matt Clyde: 33:58 Okay. Bagger in a grocery store.
Todd Sanders: 33:58 All right, what did you learn?
Matt Clyde: 34:00 Learned how to run really fast.
Todd Sanders: 34:02 Really?
Matt Clyde: 34:02 Yeah. It was also in the era of MC Hammer. I don't know if I've told you this story before. And so they called me MC Bagger, it was really bad. But they would page me on the thing and I'd have to run fast and be like, "Hey, we need you over here, MC Bagger."
Todd Sanders: 34:17 That's awesome. I like it. Wait-
Matt Clyde: 34:19 Speedy and responsibility.
Todd Sanders: 34:20 So what was the unpaid job then? Go ahead.
Matt Clyde: 34:22 Oh, so my entrepreneurial spirit was like, "I came up with a lot of things." So I told you at the beginning, I like to build things. So I was known in my household to find ways to create my own income. So I would often did this thing where I took all the materials in my parents' garage and I tried to create a neighbor swap of garage tools and they would pay me a small fee for it. So I was trying to innovate in a way-
Todd Sanders: 34:51 With your dad's tools?
Matt Clyde: 34:52 With my dad's tools, but I don't think the neighbors or my dad appreciated it. I thought I was being really smart, innovative, trying to increase my allowance. So I did a lot of that as a kid, always trying to find, "Okay, I need more materials, I need this, I need to go do this. I want to go to this movie." And they all had said, "Cut it." So I had to create some storytelling and some entrepreneurial spirit to make it happen.
Todd Sanders: 35:13 So the sharing economy before the sharing economy.
Matt Clyde: 35:15 Yeah, exactly.
Todd Sanders: 35:15 I like it. And obviously, this is a phenomenal job. The dream job?
Matt Clyde: 35:21 Dream job?
Todd Sanders: 35:22 Yes.
Matt Clyde: 35:24 I mean, for me, it goes back to storytelling. So my dream job and I do this day in, day out, it's creating great stories. If my dream job would be just to be able to go up to a cabin and write and write things that could be produced, whether it's a TV series or a book, that would be the dream job, without pressure.
Todd Sanders: 35:49 Do you think you have a book in you?
Matt Clyde: 35:50 Oh, yeah.
Todd Sanders: 35:51 Okay, so TBD. And final question, Twitter, LinkedIn, or TikTok?
Matt Clyde: 35:58 Well, I love all of them, but I'm a LinkedIn person because I think it's most relevant to our world and business. But I have gotten sucked into many hours with my kids on TikTok. I hate to admit it, but there's reason it's an addictive little tool there. It's very entertaining.
Todd Sanders: 36:20 Absolutely.
Matt Clyde: 36:21 But from a pragmatic standpoint, LinkedIn.
Todd Sanders: 36:23 And from a bonus content here, is Twitter going to make it?
Matt Clyde: 36:27 I'm very skeptical of that. I would love to. I think it's a very utilitarian, important tool, so it remains to be seen. I think an entity of it will, but I think in a current state, I think it's poised for too much disruption and there's not enough trust in it in the industry, especially from a media and advertising standpoint. There's not a lot of trust right now out there, so I think they've got a big climb ahead.
Todd Sanders: 36:55 Okay. Well, on that bombshell, we'll leave it there. Thank you, Matt, for spending so much time with us. But also thank you for everything you're doing with, not only the Chamber, but our community.
Matt Clyde: 37:04 Thank you, Todd. It's been great talking.
Todd Sanders: 37:06 All right.