Darin Dawson is the Co-Founder and President of BombBomb, a Human-Centered Communication Platform that enables users to use simple, personal video messages to leverage their best asset – themselves!
Darren leads all sales, marketing, customer success and product development at BombBomb, a fast-growing, Colorado-based software company. He’s on a mission to re-humanize the planet and he wants to start with your business communication. He believes that human beings have intrinsic value and that every person deserves to be seen, heard and understood. That’s why he co-founded BombBomb.
Questions
- Could you share with us a little bit about your journey in your own words and how you got to where you are today, could you share that with us?
- Could you share with our audience for those who may not have listened to Ethan’s episode last year or never heard of BombBomb, what is it that BombBomb does and how can that help a business?
- Why video, why should we use video to connect and communicate daily with people?
- What is customer experience and why do you think it matters?
- Could you share with us maybe some of the values that BombBomb is built on that has helped BombBomb to really be able to realize fulfilling those needs for your customers? And why do you think an internal culture needs to be very impactful in order to execute a strong external culture?
- Could you explain to us in very layman terms, what does it mean to re humanize people? What are we lacking that we need re humanization? Could you share with us what does that really mean?
- Could you also share with us what’s the one online resource, tool, website or app that you absolutely can’t live without in your business?
- Could you also share with us maybe one or two books that have had the biggest impact on you, it could be a book that you read a very long time ago, or even one that you’ve read recently, but it still has had a great impact on you.
- Could you also share with us what’s the one thing that’s going on in your life right now that you’re really excited about? It could be something you’re working on to develop yourself or your people.
- Where can listeners find you online?
- Do you have a quote or saying that you use in times of adversity or challenge? This quote kind of helps to get you back on track and get you refocused if for any chance you got derailed.
Highlights
Darin’s Journey
When asked about his journey, Darin shared that he feels like it may be a little bit non typical, so for instance, he never graduated the university, so he didn’t go to college, he did but he didn’t graduated as his father said very good advice to him at that age, “Maybe college isn’t for you.”
He was always entrepreneurial, he saw that in him and thought that he should pursue that and kind of get after doing his own thing. He grew up on a farm, hard working all his life, got given a good what they call there a Midwestern work ethic and ended up moving to Colorado in 1995 when he was 21 years old and have been there ever since.
So, then graduated school but then started this kind of painting business out in Colorado when he was young, he grew that business, it was actually successful. But then in the late 90s, early 2000s he started being interested in all things to do with internet marketing, Pay Per Click strategies, On Demand strategies, things like that and he got involved in the marketing business, was lucky enough to get ownership in that business, to sell that business and then do that again with another marketing company and then ended up working at a TV station actually running online, marketing the website salespeople for that, also content creators for that and he learned a lot about mass media marketing and really led him to think about what he didn’t like about that led him to create BombBomb which he does today.
What BombBomb Does and How Can That Help a Business
Me: Now, we had the awesome pleasure of interviewing one of your employees, Ethan Beaute last year, we had him on our podcast as well as on a Facebook Live and I was supremely blown away by how he responded to my messages through video, I thought it was just brilliant. And so, of course when you reached out to me and I was like, “Oh my goodness, another person from BombBomb but even the person who created it, this is amazing.” So, could you share with our audience for those who may not have listened to Ethan’s episode last year or never heard of BombBomb, what is it that BombBomb does and how can that help a business?
Darin shared that first of all, he loves that guy (Ethan). And actually Ethan is a dear friend and he convinced him to leave that TV station where they worked together and come to BombBomb with him.
And so, he’s been there over 10 years, he couldn’t have done it without him, he’s fantastic, he’s their Chief Evangelist, he’s a good friend and a valued, valued person to him. He believes and we at BombBomb believe that all human beings has an intrinsic value, that we are special, that we are unique, how we communicate with each other is unique.
And the software that they enable you to use is sending video messages to the people who matter in your life, which could be the people in your life, personal life, it could be colleagues that you work with, it could be your prospects, it could be your existing customers.
So, you can send yourself video messages so they can see you, know you, and understand you in that way, so it’s very simple to do, takes no time at all and they allow you to do in every message platform that you may be using.
So that could be your email, that could be in social media messenger systems, it could be in LinkedIn for example, so anywhere you’re saying a message, they allow you to use a video as well.
Why We Should Use Video to Connect and Communicate Daily with People
Darin stated that if you believe, like he just mentioned that we are unique human beings, the way we talk is unique, then you should be considering video. And here’s a very good example, if he was to ask 10 business owners:
“What is your most valuable asset in your business?”
He believes at least 9 out of 10, maybe 10 out of 10 would tell him that their people are their most valuable asset. But more often, what we’re doing is we’re hiding these best assets, the ones that we spent a long time interviewing, if you’re interviewing a salesperson, you’re trying to say, “Are they good with people? Are they good at presenting passion and enthusiasm for your product?” You’re trying to assess all these things about people, and then we hire them and then we make them look like and feel like everyone else with text email, texting, phones, all that stuff, phone’s better.
But behind these technologies that we have chat, we’re just like everyone else. He thinks we’re removing the most uniqueness that we can bring in our people, our diversity, how they interact, and all the things that we want in our culture, in our business, we’re withholding from our customers in a lot of ways when we don’t put people in front of people more often.
What is Customer Experience and Why it Matters
Me: Now, as we talk about video, and connecting with people daily, and really seeing the intrinsic value in a human being, in your view, Darin, what is customer experience and why do you think it matters?
Darin shared that he believes the customer experience is every touch point that you have with either potential customers or existing customers, anything that could be an in person event, it could be a podcast, it could be a webinar, it could be when he calls your business, and what’s the experience he gets when that phone is picked up by someone who works there, that’s it.
So, let him frame it this way. If there were two businesses that did the exact same thing, they sell the exact same service, for the exact same price, how do you decide which one to choose if they’re very much the same?
He believes you choose the one you like and that could be for a lot of different reasons. But the experience that you bring ultimately becomes your unique selling proposition that is what makes us unique in a business.
He has a software business, he competes against people who do similar things to what he does, he has some features they don’t have, they have some features that he doesn’t have, but they are basically the same and at the end of the day, people are going to choose who they know, like and trust, he still believes that that’s what they do.
So, in that case, his customer experience has to be better, he wants to deliver on that more over than anything else. It matters in the product, it matters in all these motions that we look at in a business, but to him, again, customer experience is your unique identifier.
Values that BombBomb is Built On
Me: I totally support everything that you just said. And I think a lot of businesses lose focus of that. Now, in trying to deliver that customer experience as you mentioned, is your unique proposition. I think it’s important; the organization has to have a really good culture, because customer experience starts from within, how you deal with your employees, how responsive you are to them, how you support them in whatever initiatives they’re trying to accomplish. And of course, all businesses came into existence because we’re all trying to solve some problem for customers that have a need. And so, could you share with us maybe some of the values that BombBomb is built on that has helped BombBomb to really be able to realize fulfilling those needs for your customers? And why do you think an internal culture needs to be very impactful in order to execute a strong external culture?
Darin shared that they have five core values at BombBomb, they are Relationships, Humility, Flexibility, Service, and Fun.
So, those are five core values and he thinks that really, businesses need to give the people that work there a reason to work there, that’s beyond money, that’s beyond the work necessarily. Because you can go answer the phone anywhere, you can go do customer success service anywhere, you can do sales anywhere, you can run these teams anywhere now and from anywhere for that matter.
He believes that we want to give people a purpose behind why they do what they do at BombBomb. So, they do that in a few different ways. First of all, their book is called Re humanize Your Business and that’s what they want to do with their product but their mission at BombBomb is to humanize the planet.
And this is what he means by it has to matter more than the word. And locally, they support a few organizations, one is called Dream Centers in Colorado Springs, it actually provides free health care for women and also it provides homeless families off of the streets of their city and into a safe place where they can thrive, where they can go to school, where the mothers can get an education.
They have the women’s clinic and they have a thing called Mary’s Home and they’re fantastic. And those are two organizations they support and they support them financially, but they also support them with their time. So, every year they do a trunk or treat for the children at Mary’s Home.
And another organization they support is called the Springs Rescue Mission and it’s in Colorado Springs, and they support the homeless population, helping them to get out of homelessness, a cycle of homelessness, help them to get food to eat. Just last week, he took about 30 BombBomb folks down there and they did a barbecue where they cooked burgers, he smelled like Burger King when he got back.
They grilled like 300 burgers and hotdogs and they serve those people. So, it’s beyond money, why do they do what they do?
Because they’re humanizing your business but they’re also trying to humanize the planet and that planet starts right their own backyard in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
What it Means to Re-Humanize People
Me: You spoke a little bit just now about rehumanizing your business. And when we read your bio, a big part of BombBomb’s mission is to re humanize the planet. And so, could you explain to us in very layman terms, what does it mean to re humanize people? What are we lacking that we need re humanization? Could you share with us what does that really mean?
Darin shared that he thinks its two things in your business it may exist that he thinks participating right now in this insanely, it’s like nuclear proliferation but it’s different, it’s this digital pollution.
So, after he gets off of this call, he will have no less than 30 unsolicited emails in his inbox, LinkedIn will have a few and people are just being bombarded. And so, we need to get back to building know, like and trust with the people that we want to work with.
We need to communicate in a way that solves problems for people we know that we can solve problems for. He thinks the problem right now in marketing and sales is that we’re just holistically blasting everyone to kingdom come with unwanted, unsolicited messaging. And frankly, he doesn’t even believe it’s from real people anymore. So, all we’re doing is we’re desensitizing people, nobody believes that you actually wrote the email anymore, actually wrote the LinkedIn messenge, they thing it was written for you, sent by some sort of system and what that does is it takes away the idea of reciprocity on his part.
Five years ago, even three years ago, if you sent him an email even if he wasn’t interested, the reciprocity effect says, “I’m going to respond to you even if I’m not interested.”
Now, we’ve made it so very easy to ignore everyone, everyone is complicit in this digital pollution that we’re all participating in, we send too much of stuff that doesn’t matter.
Therefore, the stuff that does goes by the wayside. So, he believes using personal video, personal messaging to people succinctly for them, to them, from human to human, to solve the problem that you very well solved for this type of business. So, you have to have that figured out. What’s the problem I solve?
How do we succinctly solve it in 20 seconds, deliver a video for that person? Or in the customer experience, side, if it’s retention. Don’t make him feel like just another number of your business. How many customers do you have? Don’t make him feel like number 569, make him feel like the only one.
And so, how do you do that, you do that by taking time and sending personalized communications whenever possible, doesn’t have to be every time but he calls them “Moments That Matter.”
What are the very important moments that matter when he knows? Easy way to do this is to say to yourself, “Would this be better said face to face? If so, send a video.”
So, that’s re humanizing your business. We’re re humanizing the planet or humanizing these things, he believes people have intrinsic value, he believes all over the world people are being dehumanized right now probably more than they ever have been, ever.
We have more slavery, we have more sex trafficking, we have more abuse, we need to get in front of that. And to him, we need to do our part here and so that’s why, as he mentioned, they support these local organizations.
They actually even support a community in Africa, where some kids in Africa got to adopt BombBombers, it was amazing. So, the kids got to look at pictures of people who work here, choose them to be someone they want to communicate with and then, of course, they help the organization but they help with food and medical care and things like that. But he’s got to tell you, some of the best joy happens from these kids sending letters to people who work here. And that’s a connection that they build.
So, they’re now we’re re humanizing the people of BombBomb by doing that, just as much as they are those kids in Africa. So, that’s a big part of their mission. He just believes that the world we live in, if we just want to turn a blind eye to it, that’s not responsible as a business owner.
App, Website or Tool that Darin Absolutely Can’t Live Without in His Business
When asked about online resource that he cannot live without in his business, Darin shared that it’s a pretty generic one, but it’s Spotify. What couldn’t he live without; he can’t live without a podcast. He listens to podcasts like crazy, he got a bit of a commute, and he enjoys it. His kids play soccer 4 days a week, so when he’s waiting for them to be done; he’s on the podcast. So, he’s trying to build himself up to that. So, he’s going to say Spotify.
Books That Have Had the Greatest Impact on Darin
When asked about books that have the biggest impact, Darin shared that Seth Godin was a very much a part of the foundation of this business in early 2000s. He has read every Seth Godin book he’s ever written. And so, he’s just going say Seth Godin. So, Seth Godin Podcast, Seth Godin Books. The early ones, he thinks it was even Purple Cow, New Edition: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable it was really transformational. Just about being unique and how you stand out. And I believe the book, he might get this wrong is 1000 true fans, it might have been one of his earlier books is the idea if you have 1000 fans, that you’ll never have to work again. He thinks we’re seeing this, he was an early projector of this, this influencer movement that we see very common today and that’s exactly what he was talking about in that book. And that’s how they thought about sending video messaging that you could be this influencer.
And then he’s going to say, Verne Harnish wrote a book called Scaling Up: How a Few Companies Make It…and Why the Rest Don’t (Rockefeller Habits 2.0) and then Scaling Up 2.0 and it’s about mastering the Rockefeller habits as he calls it. And these are just these business motions that has made them very successful at BombBomb, how to run the business, how to plan for the business, how to do stand ups in the morning, all these things are very fundamentally ingrained in who they are at BombBomb. So, Seth Godin and Scaling Up 2.0, those are his two recommendations.
What Darin is Really Excited About Now!
Darin shared that he’s really excited about this growth team that they have put together, he gets to lead, it’s fantastic, it’s a cross functional team many people coming from lots of different parts of the organization are focused on how do they get after better growth for the business? So, that means acquiring new customers, better keeping the customers that they have, making the product more aligned towards those things. So, it’s been a lot of fun and he loves that team.
Where Can We Find Darin Online
Website – www.bombbomb.com
LinkedIn – Darin Dawson
Quote or Saying that During Times of Adversity Darin Uses
When asked about quote or saying that he tends to revert to, Darin shared that it’s Peter Drucker and the quote is, “Focus is the key to all economic success.” So, if he needs to get refocused, if his team does, he brings that out. Focus is the key. So, are we focused? Do we need to get more focused? Are there things that we should stop doing so we can start doing the right things?
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Links
- Seth Godin Books
- Seth Godin Podcasts
- Purple Cow, New Edition: Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable by Seth Godin
- Scaling Up: How a Few Companies Make It…and Why the Rest Don’t (Rockefeller Habits 2.0) by Verne Harnish
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