IAM632- Founder Helps Luxury Brands to Engage Potential Customers

Andre' is the Founder of High Level Thinkers a digital marketing agency dedicated to serving jewelry & upscale brands. Andre' is a writer by trade and focuses on helping luxury brands reach as many potential customers as possible, engage them with interesting content, and nurture them down the path to buy when they're ready. He's been self-employed for 14 years now and his agency ranks in the top 15 within a global network of digital marketing agencies.

• CEO Hack: Developing my intuition
• CEO Nugget: Put yourself first, trust yourself more
• CEO Defined: Freedom to do what I want to do

Website: https://highlevelthinkers.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/highlevelthinkers/

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Transcription

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Intro 0:02

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 0:29

Hello. Hello. Hello, this is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast, and I have a very special guest on the show today Andre Savoie of high-level thinkers. Andre, it's awesome to have you on the show.

Andre Savoie 0:39

Awesome. Thank you, Gresh. Super excited to be here.

Gresham Harkless 0:42

Yeah, super excited to have you on. And before we jump in, I want to introduce you to Andre so you can hear about more of the awesome things that he's doing. Andre is the founder of high-level thinkers and a digital marketing agency dedicated to serving jewelry and upscale brands. Andre is a writer by trade and focuses on helping luxury band brands reach as many potential customers as possible, engage with them, engage with them through interesting content, and nurture them down the path to buy when they're ready. He's been self-employed for 14 years now. And his agency ranks in the top 15 within a global network of digital marketing agencies. Andre, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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Andre Savoie 1:18

I am far away.

Gresham Harkless 1:20

Awesome. Let's do it. So I wanted to kick everything off and just hear a little bit more about what I call your CEO story. What led you to get started with the business?

Andre Savoie 1:28

Sure. So like you, I grew up kind of wanting to be a writer. As a kid, I subscribed to Sports Illustrated and just couldn't wait to rip the pages apart and get to the Rick Reilly column and was just fascinated by people who could tell a story and just make you stop what you were doing. And at the time, it was sports. And I thought that was where I wanted to go sports journalism. However when I got into college actually let a professor steal my dream professor told me that I couldn't make any money as a writer and that I needed to put my writing skills to good use, and talk me into getting into business. So I actually wound up in the mortgage industry for 16-17 years and became really good at putting round things in square holes and just didn't enjoy it.

It just really didn't, never did speak to my creative side. So in 2007, the housing industry kind of came into a bubble, and I had the opportunity to get out and start something new. And you know, I found that myself in digital marketing, where I had unlimited ability to do all the writing we wanted, and actually get paid for being good at that part of it, you know, and, and that was the key part that really drew me into the digital side was that business owners had good ideas, and especially the ones that had good businesses, they had an interesting story, but they just weren't good at telling it. And so that's kind of where that really got my attention and kind of took me down the rabbit hole. So it's been 14 years. So digital marketing, and we love it.

Gresham Harkless 3:01

Awesome. And I appreciate you for telling me that story. And I think so many times I myself had had, you know, a lot of dreams. I also ripped open Sports Illustrated to read the articles and ESPN when that magazine came out and all those things because I thought it was awesome. And I wanted to be a you know, a sports writer, and I've looked up to like the Michael whale bonds of the world. And, yeah, it just was something that was, you know, resonated a lot with me.

And, you know, I think so many times that we forget, sometimes those things that happen in our lives, and sometimes at a very young age, that kind of redirect our entire lives. And we kind of lose sight of like, what kind of was our passion and our gift probably to a large degree. And I was glad to hear, you know, obviously, that you talked about that just now, but also that you came back to that and are able to develop and cultivate that.

Andre Savoie 3:51

Yeah, well, I can tell you, I'm a much happier person than I, you know, it's just a total change when you get to kind of get to walk in your own shoes every day and just enjoy who you are. So, you know, Jason, what you'd like to do?

Gresham Harkless 4:05

Yeah, absolutely. And when you're able to kind of speak to that and walk in that path, some really phenomenal things can happen. And so I know you kind of touched on it a little bit, I want to hear a little bit more about high-level thinkers. Can you take us through what exactly you do for your clients and how exactly that process works?

Andre Savoie 4:21

Yeah, we're a digital marketing agency. And, you know, in the beginning, we worked with everybody. But as as things went, we found that certain clients that we could melt, matched with better and we found that a lot of times those were jewelry clients, people who were in the jewelry retailers, and also we had a pretty good stable of what I call high end or luxury retailers. And the common thing was just that, you know, these people needed help and doing their digital marketing with more of a nuance than just like getting the technical stuff, right? And I think that's where we kind of learned that like, you know, it's a technical side of the business which has to be done. But the art side of the business is where we excel and so people who, you know, the jewelry business, you're selling love, you know, you sell love, you sell relationships.

So what's important and you know, these upscale luxury retailers are doing the same thing, you know, if it's furniture for your home, you want to find the right piece of furniture that expresses your style. You know, it takes more than just posting posting stuff to do that. And that's where, you know, we've just kind of found a niche with companies that want to tell their story, they want to engage people over the long haul, and they need help working with their in-house team to kind of make that happen. And that's where we kind of step in and do, you know, their help with their content development or social media advertising their Google stuff. So all that stuff, we come in and fill in and help with.

Gresham Harkless 5:47

Nice, and I definitely appreciate you for breaking that down. And I know, you know, as you kind of talked about, you know, earlier, like a lot of times, these entrepreneurs and business owners are really great at what they do, or they have really phenomenal products. But there's sometimes a gap, it sounds like between what they do and how it is expressed and communicated and shown to the world and, you know, getting to that end user or that person that might buy or will buy, you know, it's products and services and be able to kind of bridge that gap of sound, it sounds like you guys are doing.

Andre Savoie 6:17

Yeah, you know, one of my mentors taught me early on that most people have what, what, you know, the curse of knowledge, he calls it and, you know, if a business owner does whatever they do all day, they think that's normal, and they lose the perspective of the customer who is dealing with that once or twice in a year or a lifetime, you know, depending on if you're selling jewelry, how many times you buy an engagement ring. So, you know, they lose the perspective of what it's like to be new and wandering around and shopping. And that perspective is what I think, you know, our job is to help maintain because the owner thinks this will be good. And they have all their technical knowledge and their jargon, but the customer doesn't live in that world. And so we're trying to help bridge that.

Gresham Harkless 7:00

I love that. And I appreciate you for breaking that down. And I think you know, as we evolve, as you know, entrepreneurs, business owners, as leaders, we become experts at our craft, it becomes sometimes we have to do more work to understand or take ourselves out of, you know who we are, and use that kind of, I guess, empathy, to look from somebody else's perspective and their outlook to really understand like, this is a value, sometimes we minimize some of the gifts and things that we're able to bring to the world and bring to our clients and make sure that we understand that and also how to express and show showcase that.

Andre Savoie 7:30

Yeah, and you know, your podcast was all about CEOs and how to develop it, I really think that for me, that's been the happy place is that that gap that you just talked about, that that's my business has evolved around built, filling that gap and filling that gap makes me happy. So you know, found that you know, doing what I like to do, and then found a need for it and then go fill that need. And that doesn't feel like work, you know, and then it feels like, you know, you're doing what you really were made to do. So that's, that, to me has been the happy part.

Gresham Harkless 7:59

Yeah, absolutely. It's definitely you know, exciting that you've been able to do that and step into that. And we're definitely reminds us to be able to make sure that we're doing that as much as possible in our lives as well, too. So, and I don't know, do you feel like that, you know, that ability and to be able to do that for your clients is what I would call like your secret sauce. So the thing you feel kind of sets you or your organization apart.

Andre Savoie 8:21

You know, it is to an extent, I think that for us in the digital world, that the digital world is unfortunately very heavily nerd oriented. And when I say nerd-oriented, I'm talking about people who come from a tech background, that no coding, and understand the specifics, and that stuff's important. But really, I think, you know, going back to my childhood, I really think that on the digital side, what's made us unique is just the ability to tell a story. And to translate that, using what we were talking about earlier, putting in the eyes of the customer, what the customer can appreciate. Because when I think about how Rick Reilly would tell a story about, you know, some star wide receiver, you know, he wasn't giving me the details of the route running and the training he had done, he's telling you the story of like his struggle and how he got to where he was and why this achievement was awesome.

And so for me, as somebody that never played much football, you know, I can fall in love with a football player in a story about a football player, you know, and so that's kind of how I look at that same idea that men tell the story and get somebody interested who may never design a dual diamond ring or need to know about the details, but they want to, they want the story, you know, and that's what matters. And so I think that's for us as being storytellers and kind of a nerd-driven environment is kind of been the secret sauce.

Gresham Harkless 9:36

Yeah, absolutely. And I love that just because as you said, you know, so many times we have you know, or people that we admire have a certain level of expertise or do certain things like you know, be able to shoot a basketball or catch a football whatever that might be and we may not be able to, to execute to that degree or be able to catch a football like a person or run like the person I'm We may not even be able to understand the nuances of coding like another person.

But the ability to be able to tell a story is something that I believe is kind of not boxed into a certain part of life or a certain level of expertise. Everybody can get behind stories, they can feel the emotions, they can see the progression of a person the downfalls, and reaching back up. So I think those things are in the ability to do that is something that kind of resonates and connects with literally everybody, you know, throughout the world.

Andre Savoie 10:31

Yep. Amen.

Gresham Harkless 10:33

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Well, I definitely, you know, appreciate that. And I wanted to switch gears a little bit. And I want to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So that could be like an app or book or habit that you have. But what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

Andre Savoie 10:46

I find that working on developing your intuition is really the best skill you can have. It's the CEO hack.

Gresham Harkless 10:57

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. So that could be a word of wisdom, or a piece of advice could be something around digital marketing, or just kind of business in general, General, but it might be something you might tell your younger business self, or maybe even a client as well. ,

Andre Savoie 11:12

Yeah, that one's easy. And that is put yourself put, excuse me, put yourself first. You know, now that I've learned my in my life to wake up early to, you know, do yoga, or to, you know, like, I blocked my calendars off on Fridays. Now for things like this things that I want to do that or not necessarily work or client related or doing for somebody else, or, you know, taking a take an afternoon off every once in a while. Now, I have learned to put myself first. And by putting myself first I prioritize myself. And now it's not like a walk around doing this all day. But but learning how to do this on occasion, you value yourself more, and you trust yourself more.

And it's part of the process for developing intuition and all that kind of stuff. But to me, just learning to put yourself first and not always take because as a business owner, it's so easy to just take a backseat of everything, oh, the client can't pay, let's work for free. You know, a client can't do this. Okay, a client wants a meeting at six. Okay, well, let's meet at six. You know, there's just all these demands of business owners to do for everyone else in order to make things go, and you have to balance that. So by putting yourself first, when you can, you can start learning to say no to a six o'clock meeting, and you know what the meeting will probably happen next week instead.

And that creates a sense of grounding and fulfillment, so that it's not all work, you know, because I see, I'm in a lot of groups with other CEOs. And I see people that are running themselves into the ground, and they just, they don't take any time for themselves, they don't nurture themselves, they don't take care of themselves, and they're going to burn out, you know, or they're going to just be miserable the whole time, one of the two, and I'm not interested in either of those, you know, my trips around the sun. So, you know, learning to put yourself first to me is like the biggest shift you can do when you're starting a business. Because it's, it's hard to business, we'll try and take it out of you. So, yeah.

Gresham Harkless 13:02

I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're holding our different, quote-unquote, CEOs on this show. So Andre, what does being a CEO mean to you?

Andre Savoie 13:12

Yeah, you know, for me, the CEO, being to us the freedom to kind of chase to do what I want to do, and, you know, do the stuff I like to do. So in all the years that I had a job, it was always built in somebody else's vision or dream, and frankly, doing work that didn't necessarily feed my soul. So, you know, for me, CEO just means that if, you know, we want to spend extra time working on projects, or do other extra things, or, or whatnot, that we can and, and that's the kind of stuff that allows me to be happy and put my head on the pillow at night feel good. So that's what it means to me. And it's it's about freedom.

Gresham Harkless 13:48

Absolutely, and Irish Times, we forget that we have that freedom. And you know, by taking that decision and taking those steps on a day-to-day basis, we're blessed enough to be able to say that we can, you know, create or create a you know, a post or whatever that might be or write or work with a certain client or do all those things we kind of are the artists and get an opportunity to to kind of paint the picture of our life as best as we can. So truly appreciate that perspective and appreciate your time even more. What I wanted to do is pass you the mic so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you can let our readers and listeners know and then of course, how best they can get a hold of you to subscribe to your podcast and hear about all the awesome things you're working on.

Andre Savoie 14:26

Awesome. Yeah, you know, our websites are probably the easiest way to find us. It's easy to remember high-level thinkers and it's actually my wife's idea to name the company because she said you know, everybody that everybody that you deal with seems to be a high-level thinker. That's a pretty cool domain name. So we went looked at it and sure enough, the take-up thing was available. So we jumped on it anyway, but yeah, highlevelthinkers.com We got a ton of content on there. We do host our own podcast. So what's the best way to catch us?

Gresham Harkless 14:56

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. We will definitely have the links and information in the show notes Thank you again for the reminder as well; the best thing that sometimes we can do is to be around really, really smart people as well, too, as your wife has shown is coming out with a really great idea and being able to surround ourselves with really phenomenal people can also make sure that we're able to be as successful as we can.

Andre Savoie 15:14

Yeah, that's awesome, Gresh, thank you, man. I appreciate you having me today.

Gresham Harkless 15:17

You're welcome. Have a great rest of the day.

Outro 15:18

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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