Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Welcome everyone to another exciting episode on the culture profit. We’re very excited to talk about turning company culture into content and showcasing how amazing your culture is on the inside with the rest of the world. So, we’d like to give a warm welcome to Chris Leand Harwood. Thank you for joining us today.

 

Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): Nice to meet you both. Thanks for the invite. Appreciate

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Yeah, we’re excited to have you on and we want to share a little bit about Chris.

 

Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): it.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): So, Chris is an award-winning content strategist and producer who helps organizations turn their workplace culture into content that attracts talent, elevates leaders, and engages teams. Advertising sells, but content builds trust. When people are considering your organization, they want the real stories, opinions, and experiences from the people actually doing the work.
 
 
Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Sales messages can’t do that.

 

Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): Let’s

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Content can’t. look and we totally align with this message. Um a lot of this actually ties into what we do in our own company as well. Um that what happens in an organization and what they are saying about their organization is way more than what the leaders or you know the marketing could say about them. We’re going to trust that so much more. So I love what you’re doing and just tell us a little bit about yourself. Introduce us on your personal site and your past career experience. We’d love to hear

 

Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): Well, so I’m I’m Chris and I am first and foremost a

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): more.

 

Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): husband and papa. Um, we’ve got three three daughters, all under the age of 10, so they keep us busy. Um, but yeah, it’s a magical magical experience. Although you’ve got five, so I really don’t know how you manage that, but congrats to you guys. But um yeah, so I’m like I do when I’m not busy like running a business and trying to do the rest of life at the same time, I do like um marathon running and I’ve done 15 marathons.
 
  
Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Oh, cool. Whoa.

 

Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): Although I have been stuck on 15 marathons for a couple of years now. That might be three years. I’m not sure about the maths, but I’m just trying to get it back into that kind of long distance running back into my life. But running is um yeah, one of my best versions of myself when I’m doing a few steps, you know, a few trots around the park or down the road um each week.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Matt’s M that’s a big runner too.

 

Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): Um in Oh, nice. Good stuff.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): So

 

Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): Good stuff. It’s um it’s good. I think it’s um it’s a good chance just to unwind, take a bit of a step back on things, but actually let things percolate in the background and uh um you can you can you solve some conundrums, I think, when you go out for a long run. It’s uh it’s good. Um in between that when it comes to work,

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Mhm.

 

Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): I’ve been in employer branding, marketing, recruiter marketing, recruitment, advertising agency world for 23 years, maybe a bit longer.
 
 
Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): Um so I worked in integrated marketing. I worked in I picked up social media and kind of became the social media consultant in one of the agencies I was working at and then built a team around that. Um and then a few other roles, content marketing role, head of client services and content at a BC social media agency. Um and then six and a half years ago I set up my own content marketing business where I do content strategy um content coaching but also um content production and that typically manifests itself in creating podcasts whether video and audio um but also um employee documentaries as well. um that kind of conversational content that really I suppose really lets individuals be the talent they say they are in terms of sharing their stories and sharing their advice and you know sharing their their

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): That’s really cool. Yeah. You know,

 

Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): expertise

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): we were talking just a little before um clicking go on this recording and you mentioned something I think is important to say here about, you know, the employees, they’re the talent, so let’s treat them like the talent.

 
Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): um you know showcasing how the talent operates within an org. Like just tell us a little bit more about the culture documentary process and what that is and how it works.

 

Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): So it’s um yeah it is good fun. It um you know it’s what we do is an example of working with a client and they wanted to do a bit of a hero video for a conference they’re attending. um a prof professional body conference um and that was with psychiatrists. And what we did was we did we wanted to make sure that as they had quite a high profile at the at the conference that we did more than just do a promo video, you know, tap into something that when site can’t just watch it and go, “Yeah, that’s what it’s that’s what it’s about.” Um but while we did that and we got our like 90 second video hero video from that by spending three days with those psychiatrists and and patients as well we decided to do a documentary as well and I think for me that is you know it’s it’s finding finding a little little journey that we need to take for that documentary you know so we we figured out what is it that we’re trying to find out you know and it was we are trying to find about um what this pursuit of meaningful impact means to to individuals to

 
Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): psychiatrists. So what we did was we joined a psychiatrist for meetings with service users to then answer that question. Um so it was great. It’s um you have to have a plan in place, but I think you should also make sure that you’ve got that flexibility to capture something when something happens because that’s life, isn’t it? And I think that for me there is a difference between I say a thing about advertising and content, one sells and one builds trust. That’s not saying it’s a one or the other situation. I just think this thing about with a documentary, you go, we we’re not we’re not really selling something here. We’re just really trying to represent the experience and the stories of individuals that we’re spending time with. And if something happens where there’s um clashing doors, banging doors because the doors have to close properly in a psychiatry unit, in a mental health hospital. Well, that’s we can’t tell them to stop that for one thing, but also that is life. So, I think let stuff happen to you as well as trying to not not try and craft this sales message you’re getting in. There’s a message you want to get across, of course, but if it becomes just a sales piece.
 
 
Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): I said a few weeks back on LinkedIn, if you try to cooperate with authenticity, it doesn’t become authentic. So, yeah, it’s very involved. Um, but it is good. Um it requires a smaller team than maybe one would expect. Um and I think there’s that thing about ultimately curiosity of going thank you for you know spending the time with us. We’re curious to find out more about what you do and the impact you have. Um so yeah that would be kind that would be the process we typically

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): I I kind of can I can kind of picture this this

 

Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): take.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): uh psychiatry video that you put out as something that really illustrates the why of someone or why someone would want to work at a place like that. Cuz you know, from my perspective, that sounds like a difficult working environment and maybe, you know, just challenging in a lot of different ways. But there are people whose reason is to help other people in that situation or maybe they’ve had experiences that drove them to be in this industry.
 
 
Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): And I think that can be true probably for all your videos where it’s showing the why behind and

 

Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): Yeah.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): the meaning, the purpose behind why individuals work at these organizations and then that’s attracting people who feel that same sentiment within themselves. Like I oh that ring that rings for me. That’s my purpose.

 

Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): Absolutely.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): That’s my meaning and I really align with this. And so I think, you know, yes, it’s just a story and stuff, but what better marketing is there than to really find and really showcase what people are going to get into the parts that mean the most? Because, you know, money is great, perks are great, but what we’ve seen of what keeps people in a place um in the long term is if they feel that meaning and purpose behind what they’re

 

Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): doing.

 

Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): I think it’s, you know, it’s going back to thinking about things that are not planned. You know, the classic thing is, oh, if people don’t realize the record buttons are on, that’s when we get our best content.
 

 
Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): So I think I ‘ll try and recreate that again. Have a structure to it, a kind of a story art that we wanted to have. But it’s a thing where you know you got a psychiatrist and a patient talking with a patient who’s now a kind of an expert by experience lead who’s had that lived experience and that person going, “Oh yeah, I’m now doing this. This is my job.” And they’re like, “Oh, brilliant. High five.” You know, if you try to recreate that, it wouldn’t work. And so just those little moments and even with the psychiatrist at the end of the day, they had so many messages around like thank you cards from family and I said, “Look, I tell you what, last thing we do, it seems quite right to do it. If you got an email that you could read out, you don’t have to say who it’s from.” So he got his phone out.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): All

 

Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): I was sitting on the floor.
 
 
Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): He was looking down the camera lens.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): right.

 

Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): I was like to the left hand side of the camera and I said, “Just, you know, read it out.” Okay. He read it out and then he just said, “So, what does it mean to hear that?” He paused. He paused a bit more. He looked up and looked up like this. I had a bit of a thought and said, “It’s the reason I do what I do.” You know, it gives me goosebumps when I read that. I think that was roughly. It might have been in the wrong order, but that was what he said. And it’s like, “Oh, brilliant. You can’t manufacture that stuff.” So I think that thing about flexibility is important. That does require trust I think between you and the client.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Yeah.

 

Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): But I think if we’re saying that look ultimately we want to through a structure capture the experience of people and really get them at their most natural um then then let’s do it this way.
 
  
Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): It’s great.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Yeah.

 

Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): I loved it.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): So,

 

Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): Love doing that kind of stuff.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): So I’m curious, what is your approach when you come to these organizations? Is it like do we have any volunteers who would like to come be in front of the camera or is it like you know let’s find individuals that maybe represent certain parts of the business and so we can get a collective I don’t know what’s your process I’m

 

Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): I think it’s, you know, it’s probably not much different.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): curious

 

Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): So what happens, you know, across lots of organizations is that they’ll try and find, you know, people that are happy to be involved in these kinds of things. Um, so they they do the recruitment,

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Yeah.

 

Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): but I think there’s this thing about, you know, treating really treating like like you would as a media company, you have this producer role, which is which is something I do and it’s having a conversation then beforehand, getting to know them and saying, “Look, this is what we’re trying to trying to achieve from this.” So then actually on shoot day I
 

 

Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): was doing something with a cancer charity yesterday actually um and they’re not used to being in front of camera mainly you know and feel a bit nervous about it you know um but often time I think so often that often enough to say it’s a thing it’s because we’re doing something right is that they say it just felt thank you for making it so relaxing for us to feel confident to talk cuz I say it’s just a chat. It’s just a chat, you know. Um and that might be no, that is it is just a chat. It’s a guided conversation and that thing about curiosity is really important. So yeah, there will be people in an organization that they know would be good for this kind of thing, but often those people are maybe a bit like I’ve volunteered for this, I’m not sure. So then it’s the job of the producer, you know, the team that’s involved in this, the crew to pre-production and also during the shoot and then post-price during the shoot to to put them at ease and say really it’s great to be able to give you the opportunity to share your opinion and and your expertise because really we want to give them a platform to raise their profile in the organization but in turn raise their profile in their industry outside of the organization.
 
 
Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): So that thing about beautiful thing about personal branding has really obviously become a much bigger

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Yeah.

 

Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): thing since employee generated content I mean has been around for a long time to be honest but when it takes things like co to really force that and accelerate that I think um the rise of personal branding is fantastic but not the kind of personal branding which is just someone posting about how great they are it’s we had a conversation about this or this is my point of view about this rather than just relying on selfies and going you know insert difficult message here you know so yeah I think it’s great a world of

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Yeah.

 

Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): employer branding and like workplace communications I think does give the opportunity for organizations to treat their talent like talent when it comes to this kind of thing it’s like god forbid what you say

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Heat.

 

Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): actually helps recruits not only talent into the business but to actually also raise their profile to their bosses and to you know even investors perhaps you know or to other organizations so they become so I don’t like the term thought leadership because that just suggests it’s just for senior bod it’s not it’s opinion and often the byprod byproduct of opinion is selling a service or providing a service to to somebody so that’s what I try

 
Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): and try and focus

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): I like that. You know, this process that you go through with companies to document the company culture and create this finished product. It has me thinking back to a project that Christa and I did when we were um in our last year of college. We actually did a mural, a large scale mural. It was over 20 feet wide, like 12 feet tall on the side of a restaurant on Main Street in our town, the busiest road in town. And it was a community mural where lots of different people from the community had the chance to enter their art and have it voted on to decide who would get to contribute to this community mural as a reflection of, you know, the culture here of our community. And this restaurant,

 

Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): It’s

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): the tagline is where the locals eat.

 

Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): nice.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Um Angie’s restaurant for anybody who’s listening who knows it. And they have a lot of local art on the inside. Um, but the point that I wanted to bring out with that is through the process of creating that mural, it was like this discovery process of almost seeing the culture of the community and of the business more clearly.
 
 
Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Um, because that exploration kind of forced clarity around what the culture was and then the finished product kind of helped solidify that. And I think u for companies who haven’t done surveys, who haven’t done who don’t have any feedback mechanisms to their people, who haven’t done employee interviews or focus groups, they’re not only lacking that visibility to what their culture is, but they’re they haven’t gone through an exercise that helps them and their people um create it and define it. I feel like that the process of creation helps um cement that understanding more clearly. Um I don’t know what your thoughts are there,

 

Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): Yeah, nice.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): but um that’s kind of where my mind went as you were talking about this

 

Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): That’s I think it’s lovely, isn’t it?

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): process.

 

Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): I think as we talk about community there are different various communities or tribes however you want to say it but you know social networks where they are based on location and based on that community or they’re based on who you work for and I think that’s fantastic where people are contributing and adding to the flavor and fabric of that community and um yeah that’s really nice must been must been good fun doing it because there’s that massive amount of participation as well and everyone’s contributing to which is really

 
Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Yeah, I do.

 

Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): nice.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): So, we’re a little off track like our questions. we thought. But I just can’t help but ask this. I know there’s some people listening who they’re like, “Okay, Chris, this sounds very, you know, it’s like romanticizing the element of company culture, but I need to fill some jobs.” Like they’re looking at this transactionally and they’re more on the advertising side. They just want to, to your point, just like to sell and persuade. I just need someone to fill this spot. What do you say to those people who are just, you know, they’re in that and they maybe feel behind the ball a little bit? Like how do they shift things to where they can be more of the magnet instead of going out and hunting for their

 

Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): I think I mean on its I suppose Yeah,

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): talent?

 

Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): I’d say what if you only had one thing to help you hire a great person into your organization and that was a job and a job description.
 
 
Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): you know that for me that’s not enough and I think you know you can actually connect this very much to the transaction of applying for a job and actually got a recent experience I can’t say who the company is but um they they have a these job landing pages um and these are job listings but with them comes other content which is videos and we shot videos over a few days talking to uh graduate graduates and leaders in this organization and they were like, you know, they were 5 minutes long, 7 minutes long, maybe 8 minutes long. And I mean, the number’s crazy. It’s like something like over 200,000 people. No, sorry, there’s over 200,000 views and those views are counted as watching at least 30% of the video. So, you think about it, there’s that kind of point of purchase, a well-known brand. You could just put a job description on there, but there’s this video as well. So, actually, people are going through that and really considering whether or not they should be applying. It’s particularly important now when AI is making it easier to apply.
 
 
Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): Actually giving people that extra extra utility to help them make a decision. So I think you can you can it can feel kind of maybe a little bit fluffy sometimes but actually think about at least the very least think about the point of purchase here the point of application and what could you do that’s different to your competitors and adding this kind of content I’m talking about is something that adds that value and the fact you’ve got you know 30% minimum view through rate on those videos is like is fantastic. Um there’s also the intention as the effort that’s put into putting videos in that space shows that there is what’s the word a duty of care. They’re doing their company’s doing their due diligence in terms of going this is an important decision for somebody to make. Let’s give them the help and the content to help them make the right decision. And guess what? you get more informed people when they apply, which maybe means you don’t have to screen as many applications. You know, the bad ones are clear, obvious, and the good ones are obvious as well.
 
 

Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): So you know there’s one thing about getting an application but you know for sure and I know this over the years if somebody applies and a thousand other people apply that is such a big resource out outlay for an organization to screen even though AI helps that thing about volume of applications is is not the answer it’s about the quality of applications so that’s where content has a role to play definitely

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): I can definitely see the vision of this. And I I think as you know, if I were in the hiring space and I was trying to get a good employee that aligns with our culture and our values, um having that video there could even be something that I reference in the interview, you know,

 

Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): Exactly.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): where I’m gauging on how much they really want this job by did they even watch the video, like, oh,

 

Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): Exactly.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): did you have a chance to watch the video that was posted with the job description and oh, you did awesome. What did you think of it?
 
  
Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): And that’s like none of you know when you ask AI what kind of interview questions might I get for this job that’s not going to be one that AI is going to tell you to prepare for. And so I feel like you’re going to get that raw real uh those raw real answers that you’re looking for and to really root out if there’s someone that’s aligned with the company with the values with the purpose meaning all those things. And when you do land the right employee, saves you so much money, prevents, you know, that turnover is so expensive, and really helps you find someone that can potentially be a long-term employee that contributes a lot to your

 

Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): You know,

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): organization.

 

Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): it’s the hiring managers involved in that content piece. That’s great because they’re being more engaged in it and actually maybe there’s less surprises for somebody who does or even dare I say it less questions to ask to answer because someone has had that content up front. Um and also and this is why you know I love what you guys talk about in terms of culture and profit is actually this thing that well this kind of content whether it’s written or it’s audio whether it’s documentary or whether it’s you know remote recorded it’s is about giving your so there’s a is it is it Dan Pink’s drive book which is the surprising truth about what motivates people I think that’s the that’s the subheading for that.
 
 
Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): But he talks about mastery, autonomy, and purpose. And giving people that sense of mastery over their domain, realize they really know their stuff. It’s not only good from someone listening to what they’re saying going, I could work with someone like that or I could work in an organization that has someone like that in it. It’s a chance for that individual or those individuals to to show to business they do know what you know they know a lot and they have a lot to contribute which is very different I think to just wheeling somebody out and saying we’re going to do some talking heads videos can you we’ve got a script here can you say these please you know or can you just tell us why it’s so great to work here or what three I’m not saying there’s a place there isn’t a place for this but the classic thing about what three what word do you think best describes this organization. So that’s a lot to expect in one word, you know. So you know, let’s do it.
 
 

Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): Let’s treat it like someone is even, you know, being interviewed for a media piece. Someone’s there being asked, you’re the expert. You have these experiences. Tell us. And uh that means it’s not just about attracting talent into a business. It’s so much more. It’s an internal engagement. And also if your clients or future clients see that, they’re going to be happy. Yeah. because Because they know, oh, we’re working with great people. Fantastic.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): That’s what we’ve seen as well with you know we work a lot with glass door indeed comparably in her site all these sites that kind of share the real experiences of of people working at the organization to anyone that’s looking into their organization is that it infect it affects yes people who are looking to work at your company but it also affects the people working there right now and it affects customers or clients, affects investors and and so it’s it’s something that stems much more than just

 

Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): M

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): hiring the right person even though that’s a big piece.
 

Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): yeah 100%. You have to just go on to chat GBT and someone could be saying, “Well,

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Oh,

 

Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): tell me about this company.” Chances are things like glass door reviews or there’s more than just glass door reviews. Of course, that kind of content will be found by an LLM.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): yeah.

 

Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): So,

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Definitely 100%.

 

Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): it’s even more important.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Yeah. Yeah, that’s a really good point. Yeah. And I love I love your idea or just your thought of how we don’t need to corral people into a certain answer that we’re looking for. Like that really doesn’t help anyone. We don’t want to have this kind of disconnect from the way our company actually is the way employees actually feel at our company versus what we want them to fill or you know pressure them to fill or something. So um I was curious about basically the people that we have viewing this or listening to this podcast are HR leaders, marketing leaders.
 

 
Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Um so what advice would you give them? They’re listening to this. They see the value of creating this kind of content. What advice would you give them to get started and to maybe do this on their own if they don’t have the budget to outsource?

 

Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): I think they should do it themselves to start with. I think you know it’s so you know when you start your own podcast you keep it simple to start with otherwise you won’t continue to do it you know.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): That’s

 

Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): So, so it’s I think it’s I mean I was with so I was with um

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): right.

 

Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): with a a business a leadership consultancy um for the day up in Manchester and um then we kept it simple as much as I’d love to get into a studio not you know nice Chesterfield sofas library books in the background it’s like right we’re going to talk about leadership and what is leadership and you know in the current state of what the you know Is leadership about giving or is it about getting from individuals?
 

 
Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): Is it about power or is it about enabling all that stuff? Now, even though that’s something they should be doing, I know that it is important for them to take baby steps. So, there’s literally pressing a record on your iPhone with a voice memo note and having a conversation. I think you need to get to creating content as quickly as possible. I’ve seen it over the years where research projects are done to develop and I’ve been involved with them as well. Research projects to develop campaign propositions and employee value propositions, talent value propositions. Often that research just gets left in the deck of that research presentation and there’s gold in those interviews. So, why not just open up Zoom, open up, open up Google Meets, open up your phone, and just hit record. Have an idea about what you want to get. But it could be, well, we’re hiring for this role. Let’s talk to the hiring manager and lean on AI, you know, record something, even just record conversation and go, “Look, hiring manager,

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Yeah.
 
 
Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): “Let’s just try this because if you’re uneasy about doing it, should we just do it?” And if it stays on on the phone, then fine, but let’s do something. So, I say get to creating content as quickly as possible. Have a strategic starting point going, well, why are we doing this? And what value can it bring to the people we’re going to give this to? That’s why content marketing is such a thing I’m so passionate about. Give value to somebody before you get value in terms of them applying or purchasing something. Um and then by doing that there’s an element of experimentation which is not a bad word in the corporate world. actually it’s a very good word to use experiment build up your confidence to then go right now let’s look at about how we can take this up a notch or continue doing more of the same thing and that’s where I think you get people in house that have a better understanding about how how to capture content and when they do work with partners the briefs are great um and they know how to story tell you so yeah Hit

 
Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Yeah, I love that.

 

Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): record.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): That is very actionable for everyone. And I think it’s a great point to end on or just go out there and just start just recording and see where it goes. Do you have your kind of strategic starting point? But I think that’s amazing. Get those authentic stories. Yep. Yeah. We’re actually pretty soon, so at Mobim, we’re about to launch another podcast called Mobim Studios and it’s the same thing.

 

Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): Nice.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): We’re just going to be talking about current events and things that are happening and shaping the you know the online space, search, employer branding and um it’s going to be very casual just to explore those types of things. So, I’m taking inspiration from you with this as well. So, I appreciate that, Chris. And as we kind of wrap up today, any any final words before we close it

 

Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): I suppose it goes back to that thing.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): out?
 

 
Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): One thing I really appreciate is being always like to chat, having my own podcast as you know is that chatting about things is obviously a motivation for that. But I think you know it goes back to that thing about if you’re going to be creating content it’s it can you can have a low entry point to that content creation. But also first and foremost, it’s all about what value can we give to the audience. Yes, we’re trying to sell something here. Yeah. But it’s not about going well, we need to think about the audience. We need to think about what we offer. And the intersection is the sales message. It’s not and uses AI for this as well to help. What makes them tick? Those psychographic type elements. What makes them tick? What are their motivations? What are the things that our people can talk about that’s going to help them in the next day or next week or next month in their life?
 
 
Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): Do that over time. And someone might decide to apply straight away after seeing a piece of content or they may decide to apply later on. But I think that’s important. What is my content going to stand out? Not because of how good it looks, but what value it can bring? Is it an employee story about how this organization is so innovative or is it an interview of somebody going about what is the biggest struggle when it comes to innovation? You get things wrong all the time.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): move.

 

Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): But that’s not a bad thing. That’s experimentation. No. So I think that’s the thing.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Yeah.

 

Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): Think about really is this content actually going to help somebody rather than just is this kind of content going to position us as a you know and the message be a sales tool. look at the principles of content marketing and I think then then you’ll you know the audience

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Yeah.

 

Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): will understand that content marketing is really about providing value to get value and that’s important when AI is only increasing the amount of generic optimized content that doesn’t truly communicate the culture of your organization.
 
 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Totally. Yeah. I think first and foremost authentic authenticity is what you would want to strive for. Um if you put out this amazing video and it doesn’t actually reflect the values and mission and culture of an organization, you’re going to have people who are disappointed when they get in and or their expectations aren’t met. And so that authenticity piece is so important. and everything you shared today was very helpful and useful. And for those listening, um, go ahead and connect with Chris on LinkedIn. Uh, I messaged him there and he answered me, so he’s likely to answer you, too. But, um, he’s a great guy and has so much to offer. Um, and so, and please check out our next episode and leave us a review and an honest, authentic review. And thank you so much, Chris. appreciate your time today. Yeah,

 

Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): Thanks very Thank you. I really enjoyed it.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): thank you.

 

Chris Le’cand-Harwood (Guest): So, appreciate the invite.

 

Matt & Crista Vance (Hosts): Yeah, thanks everyone. We’ll see you next time. Okay, I’ll end the recording here.