Ep. 163 / How to Turn Your Experience into a Creative Business: Dana Hork
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In this episode, Kim welcomes Dana Hork, a transformational brand leader and co-founder of the creative micro-agency Beers with Friends. With experience at powerhouse companies like Walmart, JP Morgan, and Jet.com, Dana shares her journey from corporate life to entrepreneurship, and the lessons she's learned about branding, marketing, and building something fresh.
Dana Hork is a transformational brand leader and marketer who captivates audiences with perspective gleaned working with globally-known brands (Walmart, JPMorgan, PepsiCo), at innovative start-ups and scale-ups (Jet.com, Wonder), and as an entrepreneur.
Building a New Approach To On-Tap Creative: Hork’s experience working with agencies and leading marketing functions inspired her to found a new kind of creative microagency called Beers With Friends; activating the industry’s best creatives and subject matter experts to help marketers solve big problems. With Beers With Friends, Hork’s mission is to help brands drive their businesses forward, faster and better — without the BS.
Transformative Leader: Hork led the transformation of Walmart’s approach to social media, revamping Walmart's social media presence across its national channels and 5k+ local store pages, doubling customer engagement, generating positive press for the world’s largest company, and building new muscle and momentum internally as a social-forward brand.
Education: MBA from Harvard Business School; MPA from Columbia University; BA in economics and communication from the University of Pennsylvania (summa cum laude, Student Body President). During her time at Penn, Dana was selected by USA Today as one of the top 20 graduating college students nationally.
You will learn:
How Dana transformed Walmart’s social media strategy
Creating platform-native content that connects
The role of AI in speeding up content creation
Infusing brand identity into small but impactful moments
How to turn your “baggage” into your biggest asset
Why starting with a loyal niche audience matters
Building a culture of creativity and fun in your own way
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TRANSCRIPT:
(00:01) all right everyone We have Dana Hork with us You'll learn a little bit more about her but actually I'm going to tell you right now that Dana and I know each other from college Yes We'll jump into that in just a second But Dana is a transformational brand leader and marketer who captivates audiences with perspective gleaned working with globally known brands like Walmart JP Morgan PepsiCo and at innovative startups and scaleups like Jet.
(00:28) com Wonder And as an entrepreneur she's building a new approach to on-tap creative Her experience working with agencies and leading marketing functions have inspired her to found a new kind of creative micro agency called Beers with Friends activating the industry's best creatives and subject matter experts to help marketers solve big problems With Beers with Friends Hork's mission is to help brands drive their businesses forward faster and better without the BS And she's a transformational leader She has led the transformation of Walmart's approach to social media revamping its
(00:56) social media presence across its national channels and 5,000 local store pages doubling customer engagement generating positive press for the world's largest company and building new muscle and momentum internally as a social forward brand Um her education she got an MBA from Harvard Business School an MPA from Columbia University and a BA in economics and communication from the University of Pennsylvania Summa Cum Laude lot of degrees lot of honors there I love that student body president and during her time at Penn Dana was elected by USA Today as one of the top
(01:26) 20 graduating college students nationally Dana thank you so much This is so much fun Kim I'm so excited to be doing this with you Thank you for having me And I already sort of spoiled the excitement but Dana and I knew each other in college Not just went to college together but knew each other in college We were both on student government And Dana stuck it out You stuck it out the long haul I did it just for a few years Um but I'm really excited Dana and I reconnected in the last few years since she has left
(01:51) corporate and I'm really excited to bring bring your story in here and to learn more about it So first I just want to get into like what made you decide to work for yourself what made you decide to leave corporate so I've always been entrepreneurial whether it's been in high school starting a newsletter or in college I started a nonprofit called Change for Change I ran a speaker series when I worked at JP Morgan I've just I've always been entrepreneurial had entrepreneurial energy and come from a family of builders and makers and entrepreneurs So for me starting Beers
(02:31) with Friends uh a creative agency that I co-founded with my longtime creative partner James Wood who's a longtime agency creative leader felt like a natural next step I think finding white spaces in the world and seeing an opportunity to fill them has always brought me a lot of joy and I'm finding that's still the truth with beers with friends What did your parents do that you said you come from a family of builders and makers yeah So my dad has a software business My mom while she worked in corporate and my dad also
(03:01) worked in corporate um had a corporate gifts business My grandfather had a uh a garage tire shop my great-grandfather was a tailor Um we just you know I I've been doing some family history digging and it just it makes a lot of sense We've always been builders and entrepreneurs That's funny Actually I didn't realize that either Dana that my dad also had a software company and my grandma was a seamstress So anyway we have a lot of similarities It doesn't surprise me but I didn't know that before Yes absolutely Um talk to me about so I love I loved
(03:39) reading that you ran social marketing for Walmart What did you learn about social media or you know you're along the ride as so many of us What did you learn about social media from your experience at Walmart that you that is applicable to people now well first of all I loved that experience um in my career I came to Walmart by way of Jet.
(04:04) com I was an early hire at Jet I ran different marketing teams there from the brand team which included social at Jet um and the retention team And so when we were acquired by Walmart they asked me to go uh lead social media uh for Walmart And you know the time this was 2017 to 2019 you know was very much you know Walmart was building further its social muscle and digital DNA And I saw the opportunity coming into social to help continue to build the Walmart brand Obviously it's been a strong brand for decades but build it through social And so a lot of my experience there was staffing up a team with really social
(04:44) first uh creators and experts Uh resourcing ourselves with agency partners one of whom is is now my business partner at Beers with Friends uh advocating internally for the importance of social making sure not only were we resourced but also we had a seat at the table at major campaigns and major moments Not only was it about putting great content out into the world but it was about being there for conversation and community management Everything from customer service to celebrities tweeting about us And lastly
(05:15) we had a very large local social presence on Facebook that at the time we were scaling over to Instagram and empowering our stores and the many associates that we have at store level who are creative uh passionate about Walmart and its products and enabling them to really tell their stories uh about Walmart uh at the store level So that was a lot of my experience and you know I think while apps change and algorithms change and you know where everyone is creating content and having conversation can change over the years What never changes is the importance of
(05:53) connecting with your consumers telling your brand story building with your consumers uh and making sure that you're accessible you're connected to culture uh and you're really living your values and your brand through social So those things are enduring and I would encourage you know any social media managers uh at companies or the senior marketing leaders that are managing them invest in social It's a really huge part of not just uh marketing your brand but building your brand And likewise you know I've obviously I've been in video and marketing for big companies but now
(06:31) I also help a lot of individual people with their own social and like empowering them to do it And I was really keyed into when you were saying the idea of having things be social first because I talk a lot with my clients about the idea and it's the same as companies is like a white paper exists over there right tv exists on a TV Like a photo exists on a photo It's like you have to really create content for where it's going to live You have to meet people where they are And you know similar to social it's the same as podcasts like podcasts exist because like it's a different medium than video
(07:05) It has to bring a different thing It has to it has to exist how people are existing It's on their commute or it's on a bike ride And so really understanding that So I liked how you were saying about social first and making sure the content itself is really made for that And the other thing that jumped out to me is the idea of community management So obviously a company is that looks like hiring people to literally be in there and like engaging with people but I would say you know individuals have to be doing that
(07:30) as well Um and what have you know as so this is like 2017 2019 what have you seen is staying the same and what are you seeing changing about those things you said it's all about you know connecting uh storytelling um and being accessible and staying connected with your consumers Yeah Well I think this is why you're such a great expert in this space as well because I think those are exactly the right things that are that are staying consistent I mean every medium where you can be communicating with your consumers is really just an opportunity for storytelling and thinking about the
(08:02) channel first why people are hiring it so to speak if you're a follower of Klay Christensen's jobs to be done theory like what's the job people are doing when they're on social and how do you meet them where they are maybe they're coming for entertainment maybe they're coming for education Uh and so tailoring your content to what job people are doing when they're seeing your content or spending time on social is really important I think what's changing of course not to be a buzzword user but certainly AI is changing the game significantly around content creation I
(08:33) mean just a few years ago I had a podcast and so many pieces of it were so manual I now have a web series uh through Beers with Friends called CMO Pub Quiz And the technology is just so much easier It's faster to edit It's faster to generate show notes It's just it enables content creation at scale What you can't replace is the thinking is what are the right questions to ask You know that human judgment What are people really looking for but some of the operational pieces are much more scalable now through AI and various
(09:06) platforms and technologies Yes It's so true It is It's one of the things that I remember the most When we were at US Weekly we had one of those fun things where you could like see someone age in a photo quickly It would be like take somebody at age you know 10 right 14 16 18 20 whatever And my video editors it would take them forever Is so manual And now it takes literally minutes Like you just drop in a bunch of photos and even if they're not like perfectly framed like every apps can do it for you it
(09:36) like I still remember that being such a major thing because that sort of thing used to be so manual and now everything's so fast Um and so for you with that series have you you're now doing this pub quiz so you're just recording it on video and then you're using an app and it's basically cutting it up for you and creating all the show notes and everything Yeah I mean there's still a lot of human judgment And I mean you know I and largely James we go in we make sure the questions that we're that we're keeping in the final edit are the best ones and have our guests you know in the best light or offering the
(10:07) most insight Um you know but the we actually designed the show to be easy operationally We ask a lot of pub quiz you know hit level questions like what's a marketing hill you know you're willing to die on you know what's a cringeworthy buzzword what is you know a trend that no one's paying attention to and so it lends itself to really quick answers um you know fresh perspectives and so the operation side of it is quite easy and our guests are fabulous so they do a great job of saying salient resonant things in the first place
(10:40) though Yeah No it is um it is funny because well I always laugh Clients come to me they're like what tech should I get I'm like step back like who are you what's your strategy what but I do think that you're right once you get to the point where you're like I know I want to do an interview type of thing I know I wanted to live in this sort of place and then you kind of backwards engineer what app should I use okay now you're talking about what app should I use what app do you use that you love what are some apps that you're using that you're loving oh I am an app user I love
(11:10) to test everything So uh I mean obviously we're Google based so we use Google and the Google suite of products I use Notion I'm trying a new CRM called Addio I have used before PipeDrive and Copper and also use Notion Uh I use Granola for notetaking Uh I've been using a tool called TextExpander to pre-write emails that will help me have templates all ready to go Uh so many tools And lastly another tool that I love actually is called Butter and we use that It's a video conferencing tool So instead of Zoom or Google Meet and I
(11:54) have to tell you know going back to brand and ways to build your brand sometimes those experiences that are often overlooked in in the operations of a brand or in the life cycle of a consumer are the ones where you have the ability to make the biggest brand impact by choosing a different tool or customizing the experience So for example Butter has the ability to have waiting room music when someone's waiting for a meeting We can brand the room If we do if we have a client project we'll create a special butter room just for the client project and put their logos and have a branded
(12:31) experience in our conference call And it's really memorable Every time we have a prospect call they always say "Wow I've never seen this tool butter." And that waiting room was really incredible And that's our very first touch point with potential clients And so I always encourage people to think about whether it's your legal docs whether it's your 404 page on your website whether it's your video conference tool find those moments where you can infuse your brand and people will remember it and you'll stand out I like that um idea of like I think it
(13:02) really speaks to a lot of people can't necessarily put the words to it but they'll show somebody's website or they'll show their social and they just say "I like what that person is doing." And it's my job to say "Okay what does that mean what do you like about it do you like the look do you like the color do you like the audio is it the music they're choosing is it the way that like it's my job to analyze what that means but I think it's that um when people say you're getting people to tell you exactly what it is that they like but it is important where you exist and how you
(13:35) exist And I think also I do so much training with people media training on camera coaching communications coaching the first few seconds are really important And so if you can set that into both the visual mood but also like an energetic mood like you're giving them some nice music that's like maybe upbeat or relaxing or cool or whatever and then you're reminding them And also I feel like it just reminds somebody you thought to do this like you cared enough to do this because so many people are just like "All right I'm the same way." I'm like "Okay Zoom meeting whatever."
(14:06) You know so I think that it it's a really good reminder that people are impacted by little decisions as well Yeah And I think they need to be guided by what your brand wants to stand for We have a framework at Beers with Friends called brand in a can And it walks people through the three ways to build your brand The first is your internal ingredients So who you are on the inside The second is how you is what's on the can how you manifest that to the outside world It could be your assets It's definitely your actions right and the
(14:36) third is the impression that you want to leave What does it taste like so and the beer metaphor you know it's taking a sip of the can and tasting what your brand tastes like And it's important because you know we've had people say back to us "Wow your agency brand is so refreshing.
(14:52) " And all these decisions that we've made along the way a different conference call experience the way we price our offerings you know how responsive we are how quickly we work We work in five day sprints and we build bespoke teams of the right experts for each project and brief that we take on Those are really refreshing Those are different Those are not how traditional agency of record relationships work nor are they how you'd work with your internal team And so it's not just about picking differences or doing things that are off -the-wall It's about what is
(15:23) the impression that I want my brand to leave with people and then what are steps that I can take to do that And you know I I think it does come back to really asking yourself you know if a brand is what people say about me when I'm not in the room what do I want people to say about me and how do I engineer a brand experience so that they say what I hope they'll say yeah I love that I love that phrase about you know what your reputation or your brand is what people say about you when you leave the room One thing I find is very interesting for corporate but also for individuals is like when individuals
(15:55) think about it actually becomes this um sort of negative echo chamber It's like I don't know what people think about me What should they think about me and instead it's just like you said earlier like live by your values and you already have a brand whether it's the tone the colors whatever But um I think for a corporate it's easier like I in company it's like an objective third person thing It's not your own personality and it doesn't feel as personal Yeah I mean I think two things given we've known each other both in our 20s and in our 40s I can say this quote
(16:24) that someone said to me which is in your 20s you're so worried about what other people think about you In your 40s you stop worrying what other people think about you And in your 60s you realize nobody was thinking about you all along And I it always gives me good perspective you know if I'm ever thinking "Oh I wonder what so and so will think.
(16:49) " Actually they're really probably not thinking about it that much But I but I think um it is important that you leave you give the impression that you that you want to leave and certainly don't leave the wrong impression And I think what's so special about the services that you offer and how you help clients is sometimes you like you said you think you know the answer but you're not able to articulate it and getting it out and having someone ask you those really sharp questions to help get out the why behind what you're saying is really important Yeah I always do a mini like a mini brand inspiration board with clients It's like even in a group coaching thing I have
(17:19) every single person like identify things that they like talk about what they are what they stand for because it's really hard I mean I think I basically help people individuals create their brand and people who are not marketers And so I think it's really all about communication It's like well what are you into what are you like what's your personality like what would people say about you so it's the same kind of when I was in Netflix or Pop Sugar or US Weekly and we would be building like um you know the deck the pre-deck the brief those questions we are this we're not that we love this we don't love that we
(17:50) love this look we hate this look you know and so helping people on a smaller scale do that has been fun and it's also like you're teaching people to think in a way that we've been taught for decades these are the questions you ask this is the next question to ask this is the person you tap in for this it's like knowing okay you like this you like that Great Let's call him the graphic designer Oh you're not the graphic designer No I'm not the graphic designer You know so just the idea of understanding who does what how do we how do we speak for ourselves what do we what do we stand for and really
(18:20) tapping into that Um okay there was something that you had written in our I'm pulling back the curtain guys Uh I always ask guests uh that are coming in to answer a couple questions so that the conversation is even better So you're not getting the 101 questions you're getting the 301 questions Um talk to me about what type of clients do you take on is there a commonality between industry between sector what type of clients do you take yeah I mean the way we articulate it is ambitious marketers at challenger brands
(18:50) and most brands are challenging something So whether they're challenging their status quo as the number one or they're trying to build a new category that doesn't exist or they're a challenger brand in a challenger category We work with entrepreneurial CMOs and entrepreneurial brands who are looking for ways to break through who want to try a new model and do it differently and share our belief and values that great ideas can come from anywhere and sometimes outside perspective and focus is exactly what
(19:25) you need to get unstuck and move quickly towards your goals So our clients include brands like Dig, GrubHub, Violife, Manitoba, Harvest, Curio, Good Wipes, Kizik ,Virgin Galactic Gorgie Don't Ban Equality and I'm sure I'm missing some but those are some that come to mind and they all share a lot of them are seasoned marketing exacts that took a job somewhere to really make a big impact and build a brand that's going to break through and they need to punch above their weight And so tapping into
(20:02) Beers with Friends where you get myself and my co-founder two seasoned you know marketer and creative brains three to five handpicked experts that are the right people for your brief and we sprint for five days you know jamming on your problem and coming out with what we call a blueprint uh to crack your brief is refreshing It we move with speed we move with focus and we bring firepower to the table that you don't normally have access to All right Dana are you ready to give me your exit in five words or less yes So I wrote two
(20:35) I don't know which one is the better one Let's try them out Let's audition them for the audience Okay Well people if this makes the cut in social you can leave you can leave comments which one is better So uh my first exit from brand side to agency side Uh and my second exit is from marketing exec to agency-preneur All right So yeah see if I was the copywriter I would have written one clear concise one but because I'm the marketer brain I'm like here's all the ones that it could be so people
(21:02) can let me know what they prefer Um but I do think I mean I know I know the show is called Exit Interview You know I think it was certainly an exit from corporate life but it felt like a step forward right not a step out the side door And I say that because you know I think when people are thinking about transitioning and leaving something behind you know there's always so much more to look forward to and more ahead of you And so um you know your exit interview is also your
(21:37) entrance step And I very much feel that way about starting Beers with Friends It feels like a step forward an evolution And it feels like all of the feedback I've gotten over the years about my superpowers and my Achilles heel you know figuring out where I'm happiest uh what my gifts to the world could be I feel like this was very much a step forward in the right direction and I'm having a blast What's been the hardest part about going out on your own like I said I come I've been entrepreneurial my whole life and so there wasn't really anything that was a
(22:13) surprise or particularly hard I just think any entrepreneur has to have a real vision I think there's always it's like a video game There's always roadblocks and weapons coming your way and bumps and things trying to throw you off course and you just got to come in with a really strong vision and you'll be great And I would love to hear the lessons that you've learned from being an entrepreneur And one of the first ones I know that you had recommended that I was really intrigued about was that your baggage is your superpower So I'd love
(22:45) to hear that because I know that so many of us get reviews and feedback and I think at this point hopefully in your life you are aware of some of your strengths and some of your weaknesses So what does it mean to you that a lesson that you had learned as an entrepreneur you saying your baggage is your superpower what does that mean yeah So I think it's really easy to get advice and have people tell you why you can't So in the case of Beers with Friends I've never worked agency side in my entire career I've always worked brand side And
(23:19) so there's a lot of people that look at that as baggage and say "Oh you know you've never been agency side you don't really know how to build an agency You you've never lived this But actually my superpower is that I've been brandside and I know what clients want and I know what the agency experience feels like from a client perspective and that quote unquote baggage has become my superpower And clients really trust us to understand their challenges We speak their language We built an entire offering that moves at the pace of modern marketing organizations And my
(23:52) co-founder James always has this this phrase which is the problem contains the solution It's another way to say the same thing which is if you're feeling like something is a is a roadblock or a barrier or baggage flip it on its head and figure out how to make it an advantage And that's what gives you the competitive edge that everyone else in the marketplace doesn't have Another lesson you had mentioned talk to me about customers Like how are we thinking about customers wrong that you don't need every customer to like you which I really like this I think that it speaks to so much of what
(24:29) now people finally understand about social media and I see this a lot Um talk to me about the customers that we're really going for Yeah So I think in the early days of any business it's easy to say when someone asks you "Who is this for?" The most important thing is not to get everyone to like you The most important thing is to get a fanatical group to love you And that's the best place to start any business And you can always build and scale from there But getting a group to love you to feel like they can't live without your
(25:01) product is really key to building that stickiness that repeat behavior and that loyalty that brands really need to succeed today And that strength and that strength and that fire can then catch on in other areas once you have a strength of the initial group Yeah I think people are attracted to the idea that that they can love something like you see in someone else While they're really passionate about that I want that passion right maybe it's not in the same thing but to see someone happy engaged passionate finding
(25:37) use out of something I think we all want that in life And so to build a group of super fans who genuinely love your product that's going to pay dividends in terms of those customers coming back but also referral business of others around you saying "Wow if they love it this much you know maybe I will too I'll give it a try.
(26:02) " Awesome And then before we wrap up I would love to know a funny or embarrassing work moment Oh my gosh Well there's probably too many I have a I have a given we're beers with friends I have a fake beer here So maybe this is a good time to take a fake chug and dish out an embarrassing moment I don't know if it's an embarrassing moment but I'll give you a fun one When I was at Walmart running social we had an incredible moment where this young man Mason Ramsay went into a Walmart and yodeled And the moment went viral and we decided what an incredible opportunity How do we make the most out of this and within a week we uh threw a
(26:46) concert for Mason Ramsay at his hometown Walmart We all flew out to the middle of the country Um he even went on the Ellen show and Ellen mentioned the concert and it was it was an example of just people coming together being scrappy and making something happen So fun That is so fun I'm going to share my a work moment that's not as cute as that is Liza Minnelli came in as a guest at a TV show I was working on and um I'm like greeting her around I was like in my 20s I'm like greeting her around the room whatever
(27:18) She's like "Where can I smoke in here?" And I'm like "Oh I'm sorry Miss Minnelli You can't smoke anywhere here." By the way this is like way into the 2000s This is not like in the 90s or 80s where maybe you can smoke inside somewhere I was like "Oh I'm really sorry you can't smoke inside here." Nowhere I'm like "Yeah I'm sorry I'll have to go outside.
(27:42) " And it was still such a weird moment I was like "This is just so bizarro." Like who thinks you could just like go inside and smoke in a bathroom in a building right at this era and um so anyway that was that just popped into my head when you Yeah Anyway I was like this is so weird No lies I'm in LA I'm sorry You cannot smoke inside this bathroom because I will get fired not you Well I think I you know as it relates to Mason Ramsay sometimes you don't realize the lessons in an experience until many years later And you know I think about
(28:11) throwing a concert in a week in the middle of the country for this amazing artist And now all these years later when I think about what I'm doing at Beers with Friends it's very much the same mindset of what happened that week It was people coming together with a shared vision all working towards a common goal and just making it happen no egos you know finding agency partners flying across getting internal approval and it just I don't know I think I I don't think I appreciated it until many years later but that's the kind of magic that I
(28:48) think a lot of marketers live for And it's hard to find You're in budget meetings and you're doing the annual plan and so often we hear from our clients "This is my most fun meeting of the week This week has been the most fun thing I've done this quarter." And just bringing some of that joy back into the job is really fulfilling It's really fulfilling And to be someone's you know best meeting of the day to be someone's highlight of the quarter like that means a lot You can see how teams get energized The you know it's not just a
(29:23) key stakeholder that's participating in these beer runs with us Sometimes we had one client bring nine stakeholders and participate and everyone had their fingerprints on what we were creating And there's just there's benefits beyond the work It also has a lot of benefits for morale and team building and energizing uh and energizing the internal team So it it's a lot of fun and I think about that week uh working on Mason Ramsey uh quite frequently and how a lot of that energy is what we're trying to replicate now of Beers with Friends Well I think also you know as you build your own
(29:53) company you can say just because something has been done that way doesn't mean we need to do it And I think that that's something I noticed from corporate I was like as I was kind of on my way out like why are there so many meetings like everyone's just sitting in meetings but on typing on their computer while they're in the meeting like there needs to be fewer meetings so at the meetings we're in are like exciting and innovative and brainstorms and communication based I just felt like and then also you know the beginning of meetings it's like always really awkward
(30:21) and once I started building my own business I saw from other people who had meetings to your point earlier they would set music at the beginning and it would be fun and it would be upbeat from the from the first second that you're coming into the meeting and I think it just reminded me oh we don't have to keep doing meetings and you don't have to keep doing content you don't have to keep doing communication everything doesn't have to be done the same way that you used to do it you could actually just do it how you want to do it You can decide this way is more effective like this And I think for me
(30:51) something I've learned is to your point earlier about the superpower It's like I am high energy and a little bit loose and not super buttoned up but professional I can actually bring that and that actually becomes my superpower It actually becomes people want to work with me because I make it fun I'm still good at my job I still have 20 years of experience But you don't have to shy away from that Like I call it pants suit Kim you know pants suit Kim felt like she had to wear some sort of like corporate pants suit to meetings and in corporate and now real Kim wears a magenta jumpsuit instead of a pants suit
(31:22) because that's more real and that's how I want to show up as the actual me And I think it takes a while because when you're young you learn how to exist in this corporate world and it's an amazing experience and it's so valuable But once you're working on your own you say "Oh I get to make the rules I get to keep all the experience and all the value that I bring to clients but I actually get to I get to pick I get to choose the box that we all sit in I get to decide if it's wrapped with a ribbon with you know black and white paper or newspaper or whatever And so I think the idea is that
(31:51) once you're in charge you do get to set the tone You do make, get to decide the meeting is going to be so fun It's going to be the client's best meeting of the week And Dana as we as we wrap up I want to make sure everybody knows how they can reach you I know that Dana's main point of contact is LinkedIn I know this because she has a very fun LinkedIn where it shows showcases all of her recent speaking engagements which I've been sharing you on and her pub quiz Um so Dana if you want to let people know how they can find you Yeah you can find me on LinkedIn I'm just Dana Hork H O R K
(32:24) and you can find Beers with Friends at bwfagency.com Awesome Thank you so much Dana Thank you Kim
Timestamps & Highlights:
00:00 – Intro: Meet Dana Hork
00:28 – Launching Beers with Friends creative agency
01:51 – Why Dana left corporate to become an entrepreneur
03:39 – Running social media at Walmart: key strategies
05:53 – Timeless lessons in brand storytelling on social
08:02 – Using AI to scale content, but keeping human judgment
11:54 – Infusing brand into small but powerful touchpoints
14:36 – What your brand "tastes" like: building impressions
16:24 – Personal growth from 20s to 60s: shifting perspectives
18:50 – How Beers with Friends helps challenger brands
22:13 – Turning “baggage” into your business superpower
25:01 – You don’t need everyone to like you—build loyal fans
27:18 – Viral Walmart moment: Mason Ramsey yodeling story
29:23 – Creative sprints that boost morale & team energy
31:51 – Leading with fun: setting the tone in your business
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🎙️Subscribe to The Exit Interview with Kim Rittberg https://link.chtbl.com/8M8_nMAF
Connect with Dan Hork
LinkedIn: Dana Hork
Website: https://www.bwfagency.com/