IAM489- Thought Leader and COO Makes Advancements in Digital Marketing

Denise Casagrande is the President and COO of PCG Digital. Her days are spent leading and growing the digital agency while making advancements in digital marketing that her team can provide for their clients. She wrote her first book ‘Can You See Me Now?' in 2017, is an international speaker, a 40 under 40 award recipient, and a thought leader in social media marketing and advertising. Denise resides at the Jersey Shore with her husband George, and can always be found at the local beach.

• CEO Hack: Focusing on what makes me happy
• CEO Nugget: (1) Don't take everything so seriously (2) Focus on your mindset (3) Self-education
• CEO Defined: Bringing out the best in the team

Website: https://pcgdigital.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/denisecasagrandecoo/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/denisecasagrande/
Instagram: http://instagram.com/denisecasagrande_

http://getseen2017.com/

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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 have a very special guest on the show today. I have Denise Casagrande of PCG Digital. Denise is awesome to have you on the show.

Denise Casagrande 0:39

Hey, I'm happy to be here.

Gresham Harkless 0:41

Super excited to have you on and what I want to do is read a little bit more about Denise so you can hear about all the awesome things that she's doing. And Denise is the president and CEO of PCG Digital. Her days are spent leading and growing the digital agency while making advancements in digital marketing that her team can provide for their clients. She wrote her first book, “Can You See Me Now' in 2017, and is an international speaker, a 40 under 40 Award recipient, and a thought leader in social media marketing and advertising. Denise resides at the Jersey Shore with her husband George and can always be found at the local beach. Denise, are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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Denise Casagrande 1:15

I am so ready.

Gresham Harkless 1:16

Awesome. Let's do it. So I thought we were definitely at sea at the beach. But I don't see you at the beach here. This episode, but I wanted to hear a little bit more about your CEO story. What led you to get started with your business?

Denise Casagrande 1:28

Yeah, sure. I started at my company PCG Digital four years ago, and I was brought in as a social media specialist. Prior to my being at PCG, I was working at a marketing agency whose main focus was e-commerce. Moving over to PCG Digital, our main clientele is the automotive industry. So we work with auto dealerships all across the United States. We have partners in Canada, we train folks in Italy, and anybody who's really looking to either utilize us for their digital services or learn more about automotive marketing. And so that was a big jump because Automotive is its own, you know, voice in itself.

So being with the automotive industry, growing and learning with them the past four years, and leading them in digital has just been so monumental to my becoming president and COO. And during this time, I was able to, you know, start speaking at events, which really helped me connect and network with some awesome people and folks in the industry. And then I wrote my first book in 2017, which is kind of like a guide and a story about how digital marketing is so important to your digital strategy. Now, this book was not just for the automotive community,, my co-author, and I used a lot of examples from automotive, but then we also used outside automotive as well, because we will work with different industries, become international speakers in 2018 went to Portugal to speak at the World chopper conference, which was fantastic.

And all of this in the advancements in just my you know, close relationship with the internal team here at PCG Digital is how I kind of moved very organically into this role of COO and president. So today, that is my role. It's been my role for the past seven months now. And we've been moving and shaking ever since. And we're growing and the team is expanding. And we're actually moving offices at the end of December, which is super exciting. And that's kind of how it all grew. And a lot of it was done through you know, self-education and always advancing myself and just, you know, being around the right people that could really help me grow my career.

Gresham Harkless 3:42

Nice that makes so much sense in making sure that you have that correct environment around you so that you can be successful in do you think like a lot of it. And I know you guys mentioned you focus on the automotive industry and you focused on digital social. I mean, do you feel like that is such a big aspect of digital marketing? That's also why you kind of organically were able to get to that spot as well too?

Denise Casagrande 4:05

Oh, 100% You know, when I first started in social media marketing, the capabilities for ads manager were just starting to get going right. It's been great that I started early on when it was growing and now I've been able to help lead and grow. I work with a great team at Facebook, on the automotive team at Facebook and we make advancements together constantly. So being able to dive in and grow the social media department here and grow social media for the automotive industry in general was instrumental to everything.

Gresham Harkless 4:42

Yeah, absolutely. It's that that kind of first mover's advantage and you're you're able to get there you're you're comfortable by the time everybody else is trying to sometimes just get on the computer. So I absolutely love it. So I wanted to hear a little bit more about how you know clients work with you and if can you talk to us and take us through exactly how that works as well.

Denise Casagrande 5:01

Yeah, I would love to. So at PCG, when a client signs on with us for full digital, they get a team of five people here at PCG. They get an account manager, an SEO specialist, a paid specialist, a social specialist, and a content writer, also mixed in there as graphic designers as well. And, you know, the team is very involved with the whole client structure. You know, we're very customized here at PCG. We are a smaller company, but each client gets their own custom strategy that what's going to work best for their business and their market.

So you know, no two dealerships are the same, you know, they're in different areas, and they have different clientele and their teams are involved in different things. One of the things that we really focus on a lot is growing the individual dealership brand, so almost separating them from that big name. So one of the things we'll always say to dealerships, when we start with them on a start-up call is okay, you're a Key dealership. But what differentiates your Key dealership from the one five miles down the road?

Is your staff involved in what charities do you belong to? What is your vision, what is your mission, and what's what we use to market them? So that consumers want to buy from them and not the competitor. So that's how it goes. And when somebody signs on with us, it's very much strategy involved. And then, you know, of course, in the internal department we're analyzing, and we're reviewing everything so that each month we're coming through with the strategy that's going to help them gain more success. Now, obviously, it was my day-to-day I started, you know, being on those internal teams working social media for the clients. But currently, today, when a client signs on, they get a beautiful welcome email from me, I stay in touch with all the clients, and I love to hear when my team is doing well. And I also offer a lot of support to the clients currently also.

Gresham Harkless 6:55

Nice, I definitely appreciate that, and especially the aspect of really, you know, taking that time to get to know who they are what makes them unique, what like, as you mentioned, charities or organizations they're involved in because I think a lot of times and the beauty to me, of you know, platforms like social media, obviously, is you're able to kind of express and showcase who you are what makes you unique have those stories have that opportunity to kind of be a little bit more, I guess human, even if it's a brand is really, you know, a great thing to take advantage of,

Denise Casagrande 7:22

Oh, 100% And when I first started doing social for the auto industry, my tagline was to humanize the auto buying process, and started speaking, it was all about that, because you know, buying a car, is a big purchase, it can make people extremely uncomfortable. There are a lot of acronyms that you know, most of the consumers just don't understand or know what it is. So all of our marketing is geared towards making that consumer more comfortable to make that purchase.

Gresham Harkless 7:52

Right? That makes so much sense. Because I think a lot of times when we use platforms, whether it be social media, podcast, whatever it is, you know, from a digital aspect, we're always thinking about how can I express myself and showcase myself but I love that kind of spin where you're like, Okay, this is the person that you want to come through the door or listen to your pride, whatever that might be. How can I humanize it? How can I make it so that they're having a phenomenal experience?

Denise Casagrande 8:14

Yeah, I'm 100%.

Gresham Harkless 8:16

Awesome. So would you consider that to be kind of like, I was gonna ask you for what I call your secret sauce? And it can be for you personally, or for your organization in your company do you feel like that's what sets you apart and makes you unique?

Denise Casagrande 8:26

100%. And just our customizable strategies for each client that works with us are totally the secret sauce. You know, nothing's cookie cutter about us, we know that every time a client signs on they're going to have a unique message and a unique brand and we have to have a unique approach to how we're marketing for them as well. Of course, we have best practices that we've fine-tuned along the way.

But you know, what works for one dealership or one client is not going to work for the next and you know, our whole understanding of branding individual businesses as a total secret sauce of ours as well, we've actually just changed our tagline to digital strategies that grow brands, because branding is so important. And it's just gotten so much bigger and better for businesses to understand that, you know, the consumers hit so daily with so many different products and so many different ways to purchase. And you know, the brand is what's going to make those consumers connect with you. So that's currently what we're really focusing on is, you know, digital strategies that grow brands.

Gresham Harkless 9:35

Nice. I definitely, you know, again, appreciate that. And as you know, we've been talking, you know, it's evidence and everything that you're doing this strategic process that you have, the humanizing brands and the humanizing the auto industry as you kind of spoke to as well. So that makes so much sense. That would be your secret sauce. So I wanted to switch gears a little bit and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be an app or book or a habit that you have, but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

Denise Casagrande 10:02

So something that has recently, you know, that I've been practicing that has made me more efficient is focusing also on myself as well. So I am very geared towards the team and their success and the individual people I meet with everybody once a month in the company for 15 minutes. And unfortunately for me, what was starting to happen was I was starting to forget about, you know, my wants and needs and other things that I was interested in, besides my career. So I've started to really focus on what makes me happy also. And that's just led me to become more efficient.

Gresham Harkless 10:40

Makes so much sense. And so now I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO nugget. So this is a word of wisdom or piece of advice. Or if you could hop into a time machine, what would you tell your younger business self

Denise Casagrande 10:53

Don't take everything so seriously. I think now that I'm, you know, have been in the game for a while, and I'm, growing and learning, I work just as hard. But I'm also more relaxed, and things are still getting accomplished. When you're growing and you'd want things so bad, it's every little mishap is the end of the world. And I'm starting to, you know, really explore, you know, especially this past year, I adapt to situations so much, you know, easier than I would have been, that's a whole mindset thing.

So that's my nugget of knowledge is really focus on your mindset, if you do want to, you know, lead and grow. Because, you know, definitely mindset is everything. Also, something that I always you know, practiced and I would have told my younger self more of two that you were doing the right thing is self-education. Very, you know, self-taught when it came to social media marketing, I saw a need for businesses and I wasn't afraid to dive in and you know, really play around with what Facebook's suite of business managers had to offer.

Same thing with Twitter and Instagram and all of that, you really have to dive in, you know, we have, we're very blessed, right, or generation in this time that we have these cell phones, we're, we're connected to everything and anything. So the eight-hour workday is just, you know, you don't have to just give eight hours if you want to take more time and learn and grow. I mean, you you have your cell phone, you could you could be anybody you want to be. so that's that's definitely a huge nugget of knowledge to I want to pass along.

Gresham Harkless 12:31

Yeah, absolutely. No, I definitely appreciate you for sharing that. And I think too, and I don't know, if you feel the exact same way, especially around digital marketing, I always say, usually everything either is so new, that there's that opportunity to kind of experiment, or it's a lot older and more mature. And maybe it's in need of disruption. But a lot of times in order for us to kind of approach that just like you know, whether it be Facebook, or you know, Instagram, whatever these platforms are, I find and I hear and even from you, as you said, a lot of the innovators are people that didn't necessarily not to say it's not okay to take courses, right, but read books and things like that.

But they basically just opened things up, and they started to do things. And that's how those innovators were able to, to kind of understand these, these platforms, and then become the experts that everybody is now listening to.

Denise Casagrande 13:17

Right 100%. It's just, you know, there's a lot to learn out there and a lot to be done. So, you know, just don't be afraid to you know, keep growing and learning every day for sure.

Gresham Harkless 13:29

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

Denise Casagrande 13:40

Oh, it means to me bringing out the best in the team, I am very much involved in each person's individual growth, and self because if they individually are learning and growing and wanting to be better, it's going to make the whole overall structure of the company better as well. That's what it means to be a President COO to me, just making sure that each individual person knows that their work is appreciated, that they are doing a good job, and helping them grow and explore other ways to do that is very important.

Gresham Harkless 14:20

Absolutely. I think the quote is, that people don't care how much you know, they know how much you care or something along those lines. So just as you talked about with your team, you know, you want to make sure that you care about them, you show them that they have their potential. There are specific goals that they want to reach as well. And when you're able to do that, it helps out you yourself as a leader, but also the organization as a whole reach those goals because those people feel like they are valued and they are cared about.

Denise Casagrande 14:45

100%

Gresham Harkless 14:46

Awesome, awesome, awesome. Well, Denise, thank you so much for your time and all the awesome things that you're doing. What I want to do is pass you the mic so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you want to let our readers and listeners know and then of course, how best they can get ahold of you and find out about all the awesome things you guys are working on.

Denise Casagrande 14:59

Awesome. So you know if anybody out there needs any resources or you know, advice on how to grow your businesses through digital marketing, please take a look at PCG digital.com. The team here is blogging every month about advancements, we have a lot of resources that you can download as well. To find me, I'm on LinkedIn, Denise Casagrande. I'm on Instagram @DeniseCasagrande_ and you can also find me on Facebook, I have a Facebook page Denise Casagrande, as well. And if you need any advice or mentorship of any sort, please don't hesitate to reach out I'm more than happy to help.

Gresham Harkless 15:36

Awesome, awesome, awesome. Well, thank you so much. And we will have those links and that information in the show notes as well so that everybody can follow up with you. But again, appreciate you appreciate your time and I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

Outro 15:46

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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