Today I am very excited to introduce you to Greta Harper, a Maker’s Mark diplomat. Everyone that has already heard last week’s episode with Sarah Wilson, knows that this week’s episode is resharing a podcast that was recorded while I was a speaker on the live podcast stage at Greenbook’s IIEX North America conference in Austin a couple of weeks ago. It was such a great event!

While at IIEX North America I had the honor of interviewing Greta about the amazing shifts that Maker’s Mark made during the pandemic to support restaurants and their workers when they were under no obligation to do so. Their focus on support and advocacy turned into some amazing programs that made a really big impact (including some work with myself and the Texas A&M Human Behavior Lab). What can your business learn from their approach? Listen in to find out…

Show Notes:

[00:42] Today I am very excited to introduce you to Greta Harper, a Maker’s Mark diplomat.
[01:52] While at IIEX North America I had the honor of interviewing Greta Harper at Maker’s Mark about the amazing shifts that their company made during the pandemic to support restaurants and their workers when they were under no obligation to do so.
[04:50] Greta shares about herself, her background, and what she does at Maker’s Mark.
[06:07] In 2014, she went to Kentucky for the first time, she got to meet distillers, and absolutely fell in love with the business.
[07:19] Learning wasn’t always easy in the supplier world and she vowed that if she ever got to a place of “power” she would make learning easier for everyone that came behind her.
[08:06] Bars and restaurants are that traditional third space in society. This space isn’t work or home. It is that other space where you get away from those things to connect with something different than yourself.
[10:36] The first time she went to Texas A&M was in January of 2020 and she was very excited to start doing lots of research.
[11:54] Humans make on average 35,000 decisions every day and most of those are done on a subconscious level.
[13:20] Greta works in the advocacy sector of Beam Suntory, which is the parent company of Maker’s Mark.
[15:50] When our habits are shifted we only have so much cognitive bandwidth that we are able to give up every single day.
[17:49] Greta and her team were able to focus on other people because they didn’t have to focus on survival. One way their company showed support was to buy food from a struggling restaurant and feed their employees.
[20:22] Consumers were changing their buying habits because they couldn’t go to bars and restaurants. The Maker’s Mark team started partnering with bars and restaurants by doing virtual cocktail classes.
[22:13] They knew that on-premise was always a focus and they wanted to be there for them when they needed support (not just when it was convenient for their company).
[23:37] Maker’s Mark was leaning in at a time when they were truly not getting anything out of it.
[26:07] Helping, advocating for the trade, and educating the trade have always been at the heart of everything that Greta wants to do. This is one reason why it was so exciting to bring in Melina and Jeff from the Human Behavior Lab to do a series of trainings for the restaurant teams – and it has been amazing to see their results in the months that followed.
[29:01] The pandemic opened up so many different avenues for them to think differently. They learned so many things.
[31:15] As humans we feel compelled to give back when people give to us.
[33:30] Greta shares what is on the horizon. They are all about sustainability at Maker’s Mark.
[35:51] There is a huge difference between age and maturation. It all affects the end product. Taste and flavor are at the heart of everything they do.
[37:13] Thinking about how you can be doing the right thing in a way that leverages reciprocity.
[38:09] Melina shares her closing thoughts. Do you want to hire Melina to do work with your company? Email melina@thebrainybusiness.com
[40:01] If you enjoy the experience I’ve provided here for you, will you share about it? That could mean leaving a rating/review or sharing the episode with a friend (or 10!)

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Marketing to Mindstates, by Will Leach
What Your Customer Wants and Can't Tell You, by Melina Palmer
What Your Employees Need and Can’t Tell You, by Melina Palmer
Good Habits, Bad Habits, by Wendy Wood
The Experience Maker, by Dan Gingiss

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