IAM2508 – President Guides Company to Create Memorable Experiences for Consumers

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John Piester Teaser 00:00

An in-house strategy team that really dives deep into data and are led by insights that we gather about the consumer that that brand is trying to target.

From there, that process and developing all that and how we align the data and the insights with what the brand is trying to accomplish drives our creative process and coming up with the ways that we're going to create a memorable experience for the consumers that we touch out in the world.

Intro 00:26

Are you ready to hear business stories and learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and level up your business from awesome CEOs, entrepreneurs, and founders without listening to a long, long, long interview?

If so, you've come to the right place. Gresh values your time and is ready to share with you the valuable info you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

Gresham Harkless 00:53

Hello, hello, hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO Podcast. I have a very special guest on the show today. I have John Piester of RedPeg. John, it's awesome to have you on the show.

John Piester 01:02

Great to be here. Thanks for having me.

Gresham Harkless 01:04

No problem. Super excited to have you on. And what I wanted to do was just read a little bit more about John so you can hear about all the awesome things that he's doing.

And John brings over 20 years of management and operations experience working across multiple industries, starting in sports from his time as an intern for the National Basketball Association to eventually leading the Salt Lake Organizing Committee of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games as an operation manager.

Prior to joining RedPeg as president, John held several senior level positions focused on ensuring company productivity and operations management, fostering client relationships, and business development for agencies such as Momentum Worldwide, Ignition Incorporated, now known as Havas Sports and Entertainment.

John has worked with dozens of award-winning brands throughout his career, most notably Nike, ESPN, Harley-Davidson, Coca-Cola, AT&T, and Delta Airlines.

As RedPeg’s president, John guides the company's growth through account oversight, business development, team management, and maintaining positive relationships with clients.

In his spare time, John enjoys spending time with his wife, Kate, and chasing after their three busy teenagers.

When they're not running to lacrosse or basketball practices, you can find them boating or indulging in family game nights. John, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

John Piester 02:23

Looking forward to it, yes.

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Gresham Harkless 02:24

Awesome, let's do it. So to kick everything off, I wanted to hear a little bit more about your background and your CEO story and why don't you start your business.

John Piester 02:31

Sure. So, I've been with RedPeg,  here actually for a little over three years. The company itself is 20 going on 25 years old.

So I'm not the founder of the company, but I am the president and I'm running the day to day operations of it.

Our president, our CEO, Brad Nuremberg, founded it 25 years ago, really trying to take what he had learned out in the field, doing experiential events, and taking that learning and building a company around its employees.

So we're really led and driven by the culture here, which is one of the things that drove me to join RedPeg.

But I've always been a part of organizations that were very entrepreneurial-led, been in the experiential space, like I said, for close to 20 years.

I think even my time at the Salt Lake Organizing Committee felt Very entrepreneurial because organizing committees for Olympics, they start fresh before once the city wins a bid and then after the Olympics are over it kind of goes on to the next thing. So I feel like I've been around that space most of my career.

Gresham Harkless 03:44

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. It's funny that you mentioned that because I actually have my master's in sports management.

And one of the kind of capstone type projects we had to do was we had to take what was then the new Dallas Cowboys Stadium and we had to get it ready for a bid, an Olympic bid.

So I kind of know a little bit about what you're talking about. Granted, it was in a class setting, but I know that there was a lot of moving parts and trying to get things in order.

So I can definitely see how that's very entrepreneurial.

John Piester 04:12

Absolutely.

Gresham Harkless 04:13

Definitely. Nice. And I wanted to drill down a little bit deeper and hear a little bit more about RedPeg, what you guys are doing. Can you tell me how you serve the clients that you work with?

John Piester 04:20

Absolutely. So, we work with, or we're blessed to work with some of the best brands in the world and really it all starts with our process and it starts with our strategy team.

An in-house strategy team that really dives deep into data and are led by insights that we gather about the consumer that that brand is trying to target.

From there, that process and developing all that and how we align the data and the insights with what the brand is trying to accomplish drives our creative process and coming up with the the ways that we're going to create a memorable experience for the consumers that we touch out in the world.

And then it just flows from there. Once we have the great idea, it's how do you bring that to life?

So we have in-house production teams, operations teams that make the events happen.

Or the experiences we have social digital capabilities that amplify what those experiences are to a much wider audience and then one of the I think critical things that we do is the hiring of all of our people that represent the brands out in the field, right?

So we're RedPeg, but when we're out in the world and we're not red bag, we're all the brands that we represent.

So it's critical that our people that we hire understand the brands inside and out, understand the message that they're trying to reach, and really understand how they're gonna represent them.

Gresham Harkless 05:48

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. And probably right in line, with your experience and everything that you've done, it sounds like there's a lot of moving parts.

And a lot of times you have to first of all, understand the brand and everything that the company that you're working with, so that when you go out in the world, as you mentioned, you are representing them as an extension of exactly who they are.

And for the people that are around probably exactly who they are, because they wouldn't know any difference.

John Piester 06:10

Absolutely. Yes. I think that's a, it's a critical part. Cause if, if you don't understand where you're at, it's really tough to get there.

Gresham Harkless 06:16

Yes, exactly. Or when you get there, you realize you don't want to be there. So it's important to kind of have that North Star kind of guiding you.

John Piester 06:24

Definitely.

Gresham Harkless 06:25

Yeah. And, would you consider that to be like your secret sauce, what you feel kind of distinguishes you or your organization?

John Piester 06:30

I think some of that's our secret sauce. I don't think I can say that there's one thing that I would say is a secret sauce.

I think your secret sauce has to constantly evolve as your business evolves, as the world around you evolves.

And if it doesn't, that secret sauce isn't going to be so secret after very long. I think what we try to do is figure out how do we differentiate ourselves from the competition?

How do we do things a little bit different and how do we figure out what's next in our space?

I think that's one of the things I've learned over the years from all the different people that I've had, the fortune fortunate enough to work with.

Is that, how do we get out ahead of things? I think one of the things we've done here at RedPeg, was we got into the gaming and eSports space six years ago.

And, that doesn't sound like that long, but in that space, that wasn't a lot happening in this space that long ago, and now it's booming.

So I think one of my jobs as CEO is to constantly find that roadmap for us that's three, four, five, seven years out to position us in the right way so that as that secret sauce has evolved, it makes us successful for the future.

Gresham Harkless 07:40

Yeah, I absolutely love that. I love that perspective, too. Because like you said, if you have your secret sauce, and then you have your secret sauce for 10 years, it's not secret anymore.

Because next thing you know, everybody's doing it. So you have to have that vision and that foresight to look and see what that new sauce is and test out sounds like you putting words in your mouth.

But sounds like you guys are probably always always testing out different ideas to make sure that you are on the wrong right path.

John Piester 08:04

Yeah, I think that's important. It's testing, because not every sauce tastes good, right?

You've got to find that one that's going to really resonate, not just with who you are as an agency and your culture, but what's going to work for the brands in the future.

What are those challenges that brands are going to face down the road? And how do we align ourselves, not just with our vision, but our skill sets, and getting the right people in the right positions to be able to meet those demands for those brands?

Gresham Harkless 08:34

Absolutely. Absolutely. That makes sense. And what I wanted to do was switch gears a little bit.

And I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. And this might be an app, a book or a habit that you have, but it's something that makes you more effective and efficient.

John Piester 08:46

Yeah, I think for me, it's, I think it's It's trying to make sure you you get some a lot of face time with whether that's your clients but probably more importantly your employees.

I think it's easy these days to get locked behind a computer and emails or texting versus getting up walking the office, having conversations with people, where we are here at RedPeg, we have four different floors.

So if there's days that I just find myself locked behind a computer screen, I'm not even getting to certain floors and checking in with my, with my people.

Our culture is such a critical part and it's, it's how we've built our agency that I feel like if you're not in touch with that culture, if you're not out there experiencing that culture every day, if you lose touch with it as the leader of the organization, then you're not going to be able to service it the way you should be.

Gresham Harkless 09:40

Yeah, absolutely. And that's definitely a great reminder because it's coming exactly from the foundation, that you guys have and continue to grow and to build.

And do you find that, potentially that also plays a part in your services as well too, because of what you're doing for your clients is also to be out and about in the community and wherever they need you to be, I should say.

But do you find like also doing that within your organization kind of manifests itself when you you're out in the, in the community, I guess you could say.

John Piester 10:06

Yeah, certainly. I think it's important for us to understand the audiences that we're trying to connect with, for sure.

But I think it's also, as we've built this culture here at Red Peg, it's how does that culture influence the brands that we're working with, the people that we hire out in the field.

We hire thousands of brand ambassadors a year, and it's critical that they understand our culture and how we operate so that we're representing ourselves the right way.

And hopefully that culture is coming from a very positive place and that's being carried through to the consumer that we're talking with every day.

Gresham Harkless 10:42

Yeah, that makes perfect sense. And now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget.

And this is a word of wisdom or piece of advice, or if you can hop into a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self?

John Piester 10:54

So I think one of the most important things the CEO can do is listen. I think it's dangerous for the CEO to be the biggest voice in the room.

So I think my nugget has always been, when you go into meetings, you put the right team in place.

You've hired these people for a reason. It's important that you're listening and taking what they're saying as advice before any final decisions are made.

I think as a CEO, sometimes you can go into a meeting, you have your opinion. If you share that opinion first, it's going to either dilute or change that advice that you might've gotten otherwise.

So for me, I'm kind of honored that the team, we have Uber titles here at RedPeg, so I'm not just the president, our team has given me the Uber title of voice of reason.

So I hope that's a good thing and that when I'm in meetings that I'm hearing everything that the team is having to say and then bringing that voice of reason into play.

Gresham Harkless 11:58

Yeah, I absolutely love that. Because, a lot of times, if you are sometimes the president's CEO, founder, whatever that might be.

Sometimes you have to create that culture to allow people to be open to giving their ideas and understanding that they're being heard and they're listening, just like you said.

But that marches right along with the culture that's kind of set. So it's great to hear that you guys are doing that.

And also, you have those Uber titles as well, which kind of like manifest and further cement that.

Yeah, and then it's a lot of fun too. I think we try to, we work really hard, but we want to have a lot of fun around here too. So I think those Uber titles play into that culture.

Gresham Harkless 12:35

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. And now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question.

And I know we touched on this a little bit offline, and then a little bit online, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And I'm super excited to hear from you.

Because I know that when a lot of people start businesses, you have your founders and entrepreneurs.

And then as the business evolves, just as you talked about with the sauces, you have to be able to evolve with the business.

So you being, brought on as a president, so I would love to hear from you. What exactly does being a CEO mean to you?

John Piester 13:04 – 13:33

To me, being a CEO is all about serving the employees that work with you. It's hopefully leading them in that right direction, but it's really understanding what are the needs of the employee as well as the needs of the agency for us to be successful.

So, trying to stay out of the weeds, but have a broader picture and really just figure out where can you affect the most positive change or support within the organization.

Gresham Harkless 13:32

That makes perfect sense. And I think a lot of times, you can easily lose sight of that as a founder, as a CEO, as a president, whatever that title might be.

But it's great to hear that you guys have, stayed true to that culture, as you have evolved, because, 20 years is not a short period of time.

So being able to do that and continue to evolve and change and provide to your end users exactly what they need is phenomenal.

John Piester 13:54

Yeah, I think what you just said, staying true to your culture of where you started and the roots that made the organization what it is.

But being willing to accept change and have that culture evolve, as long as it's still based in those roots where it started.

We opened our first international office this year in Dubai. So obviously, our culture is going to change.

But that's great. It's bringing different perspectives And hopefully, we're gonna be bringing things to that office and sharing how we got to where we are.

Gresham Harkless 14:32

Absolutely, absolutely. Well, John, I truly appreciate your time. 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 how best they can get a hold of you.

John Piester 14:43

Sure, so RedPeg, we're based here in Alexandria, Virginia, just outside of Washington, DC.

Like I said, we also have offices in Dubai. And probably the best way to reach us is either going to our website, which is www.redpeg.com, or through our email, which you can find on the website. But mine is jpiester@redpeg.com.

Gresham Harkless 15:13

Awesome, awesome, awesome. Well, thank you so much again, John, and we'll have those links in the show notes as well.

But I appreciate your time, appreciate all the awesome things that you're doing, and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

John Piester 15:22

You too, I really enjoyed speaking with you.

Outro 15:24

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast, powered by CB Nation and 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.

Don't forget to schedule your complimentary digital marketing consultation at Blue16Media.com. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless Jr. Thank you for listening.

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