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Welcome to CultivatED Marketer … In the tenth episode of CultivatED Marketer, hosts Brent Bowen and Matt Tidwell, PhD, chat with Grant Gooding, CEO of PROOF Positioning. This part 2 of a two part discussion, we discuss a distinctive approach to hiring and what attributes he’s looks for in team members. We also chat supporting non-profits and why it’s so important to help underserved communities. If you haven’t listened to part 1, do. We chat emotional data in marketing and fear as a marketing catalyst. About Grant: After a professional start in the mergers and acquisitions world, Grant spent nearly a decade analyzing, valuing and transitioning hundreds of small and mid-market businesses. Eventually, he naturally gravitated toward understanding the 70% failure rates of acquisitions. Grant discovered a quant method that helped assess brand preferences; with that as a starting point, he and his team used principals of neuroscience and created a new methodology that accurately quantifies emotional resonance.
Grant Gooding, CEO of PROOF Positioning

CultivatED Marketer Ep. 10 (Part 2) — Grant Gooding

Brent and Matt talk with Grant Gooding, CEO of PROOF Positioning and emotional data expert. Using principals of neuroscience, he and his team created a new methodology that accurately quantifies emotional resonance. He’ll share his distinctive approach to hiring as well as his alignment with community and cause in part two of this interview.
  • Matt starts by asking Grant what he’s looking for when it comes to hiring young professionals — what are the qualities he wants to see see in the members of his team?
  • Grant says he doesn’t typically look at resumes. He’s most interested in people who ask good questions.
  • He also believes that each of us is genetically predisposed to be great at something, but society discourages us from doing those things. Why do we focus more on the classes where we have C grades, for example, rather than the classes where we get an easy A+?
  • Grant prefers hiring people who weren’t necessarily straight-A students, because while those people are smart, they may not be self-aware.
  • Meanwhile, each person on his team at PROOF Positioning excels at something specific, and it means he has a very high-performing team. Everyone knows their responsibilities and areas of expertise.
  • Brent asks Grant about something he previously said: that talent is equally distributed, but opportunity isn’t. How does Grant’s civic-mindedness play out as one of his company’s values?
  • Grant shares that he believes any organization is only as strong as the community that surrounds it. While his company has a nonprofit outreach branch, Grant’s passion is sharing information about entrepreneurship with kids in areas of the city that may not have been previously exposed to it.
  • Grant gives a quick preview of the next topics he’s working on for his PROOF Positioning blog: identifying your “A+” and why the pre-election data was wrong again.

Upcoming CultivatED Marketer Guests

  • Kristen Petrillo Majdanics — Senior VP of Marketing for Firehouse Subs. She will share her experience in B2C marketing and likely talk about what it’s like in the restaurant industry during a pandemic.
  • Jessica Best — VP of Data-Driven Marketing at Barkley and previously worked at emfluence. Her specialty is email marketing — for anyone who thinks it isn’t effective, Jessica would beg to differ.