Does Brand Loyalty Really Start From Within?
"If you don't live it, it will never be embraced." - Ben Baker
Ben and Syya spotlight the real magic behind unforgettable brands. It is not about gimmicks or buzzwords. It is about people, purpose, and creating experiences that stick. Drawing inspiration from Disney and other standout companies, they unpack how authenticity in mission, empowered employees, and small meaningful gestures can turn everyday interactions into lasting brand loyalty. If you are building a business that wants to matter, this conversation will show you how to lead with heart and stand out with purpose.
Key Takeaways:
✔ People bring brands to life
✔ Authenticity builds trust and loyalty
✔ Great experiences create lasting impressions
✔ Every company has its own magic
✔ Empowered teams drive innovation and service
✔ Small actions can make a big difference
Learn more about Ben Baker: IamBenBaker.com
Chat with Syya and the team at Brilliant Beam Media
Transcript
If there's one thing we've learned about business and life is that people are the X
factor.
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:They constantly surprise us both in amazing ways and not so much.
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:We're Ben and Sia and welcome to the Nod On This Business Bites podcast.
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:This show is all about real life things we all deal with every day, how they relate to
business and how to make some sense out of our daily chaos.
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:Welcome to the show.
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:And welcome back to another episode of non this business bites.
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:I'm Ben and this is Sia.
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:So we talk a lot about mission, vision, value and purpose.
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:How do you know that your mission, vision, value and purpose are seen as relevant?
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:They're being embraced, they're valued.
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:All of these are important things.
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:You can say whatever you want.
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:You can write whatever you want on the wall.
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:You can put it all in.
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:on the website, can have it as part of some doctrine somewhere.
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:You can even have it as part of your onboarding.
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:But if you don't live it, it will never be embraced because people listen to what you say.
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:And if what you do does not is not congruent, people will believe what you do over what
you say.
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:So see you.
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:What's not in this?
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:Ooh, you know, you just made me think of like, go viral.
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:What are the, what are the key things all businesses need to know that everyone believes
in your mission value purpose?
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:Five tips.
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:Tips.
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:Right.
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:So, uh, here's, here's one of the, one of the biggest things that I think that a company
can recognize that their mission value purpose is being articulated well in their A
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:community of external.
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:people that they're, you know, their audience and internal, which is what we talked about
in earlier topic.
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:Do you have any cheerleaders?
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:Correct.
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:Do you have anyone that's speaking on your behalf, not paid?
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:Let us clarify.
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:Although there's nothing wrong to be a paid shill.
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:We can be hired very easily.
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:But that being said is, if you have people who are like raving about, know, this
restaurant makes the best minestrone bar none, you're going to get people that say, hey, I
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:like minestrone.
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:I'm going to go check it out.
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:Right.
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:I think that is one of the biggest clues is if your mission purpose and value is being
recognized.
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:Well, it's it's our people living the brand.
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:mean, I still go back to the Zappos experience.
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:You know, I love this story.
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:I'm sure we've told it here before, but I'm going to tell it again about a person who
phones up a Zappos customer experience call.
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:And he says, he says, you got to help me.
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:He says, what's wrong?
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:He says, my wife died yesterday and 12 pairs of shoes showed up on my doorstep this
morning.
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:And this guy is totally distraught.
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:He's absolutely distraught.
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:And instead of this customer service person saying, okay, you know what, you know, what's
your name?
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:What's your account number?
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:This and that, the other thing.
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:He quickly got the information.
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:First of all, he said he was sorry.
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:First of all, he said he was sorry.
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:And the second of all, he made it as simple as humanly possible to give him one UPS
tracking number that everything could be shipped right back.
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:It says, and he called UPS to have
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:have the UPS come and pick it all up.
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:He took care of it.
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:And then he went one step forward.
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:As soon as he got off the call, he found the local flower shop near where this person
lived and had a bouquet sent to this person's house on behalf of Zappos.
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:Nobody asked this customer service rep to do this.
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:It wasn't in a manual somewhere.
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:It wasn't part of the standard operating procedures.
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:It's because they knew that Zappos takes care of their clients.
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:And that the joy of having great customers is taking care of those customers.
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:And that was built into the ethos of the company.
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:And this person got celebrated for doing it.
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:They didn't have to go and check with a supervisor.
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:They didn't have to go get a requisition.
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:They didn't have to go through 12 different steps to get the flowers delivered.
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:They just called up and they had the...
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:And have the flowers, build his apples on this number, or maybe he had a credit card or
whatever.
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:However he did it, I don't know how he got it paid for, but it doesn't really matter.
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:Those are the people that believe in your mission, your vision, your values, and your
purpose.
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:Those are the people that are the ones they feel empowered.
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:Those are the people that feel...
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:that they matter because they know what's expected of them because they know the story of
the organization.
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:They know where you've been.
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:They know where you are.
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:They know where you're going.
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:They know who your customers are.
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:They know what your customers expect from you and they know what you should expect when
dealing with your customers.
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:And they believe in the brand.
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:They believe in what they're doing.
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:And it's not just a job.
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:They know they're there every single day to help people.
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:And I think that those, that is how we know as organizations that we've got the right
people and we've built the right culture because stories like that start emerging within
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:our organization.
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:Yeah.
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:You know what you made me think is, and I know we talk about Disney and again, my
experience with Disney was 30 fracking years ago.
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:Back off everyone.
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:30 years ago.
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:Anyway, um, damn.
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:Okay.
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:Wow.
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:Okay.
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:Hold please.
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:30 fracking years.
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:Okay.
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:That being said 30 years ago.
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:Okay.
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:To this day.
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:I still have very fond memories of my time working at a place 30 fracking years ago,
people 30 fracking years.
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:Okay.
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:Sorry, sorry.
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:I come back.
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:But I think that is where, if you have a strong purpose that is relatable to the business.
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:Okay.
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:I think this is where we go wrong as, you know, mission statement for businesses.
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:Okay.
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:I'm going to say I'm an AI company.
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:And we say our purpose and mission is to create a better world with our software to, I
don't know, be more efficient.
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:I don't give a crap.
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:don't know.
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:well, we talk to you be better.
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:So here's where I, but in their mission, say that we're making the world a better place.
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:If part of their pitch to clients is we can help you with reduction in workforce.
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:and help you automate and save you costs.
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:That's not matching the mission and purpose of making a better world because you're
putting people out of a job, like directly.
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:That's part of your pitch.
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:I am not saying AI should ever say no, or AI companies should say, well, that's what it
does.
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:Yeah, we know that's what it does.
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:But if it's the maybe positioning of we enable your workforce to spend more time and
creativity to increase.
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:business profitability, move them away from mundane tasks so they can actually be more
creative and useful in their whatever expertise.
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:Same same message, same same goal of selling that platform, but you're not using those
words of like, yeah, let's do reduction in force to save you guys and make you more
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:profitable, right?
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:I think that's where you know, or you get a tech company.
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:It's like, yeah, you know, we're, we're tree huggers.
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:It's like, okay, that's great if you're tree huggers, but what does it have to do with
your freaking company?
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:Like, it's gotta
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:tie in and make sense.
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:So back in the day, Google said, you know, do no evil.
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:But again, they don't believe in that clearly, because they drop that little sucker real
fast, right?
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:So that's where I think there's a problem in disconnective, like, we do have a noble
mission purpose and value, is it really tied to the business?
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:Because what you say in your business practices do not reflect this mission purpose and
goal.
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:So that's a big problem that, you know,
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:I think companies really have to do some soul searching.
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:Yeah, and Disney might not have been perfect, but they lived it to the best of their
ability.
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:On an employee by employee basis, mean, the induction of employees into the Disney family
believes in magical moments.
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:it's the idea of, I mean, you were saying this, that people learn when people are that
character.
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:They've learned how to sign their name as that character.
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:They become that character.
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:And it's about creating the special moments for that little girl who is so excited to see
Cinderella.
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:Yeah.
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:Yeah, she is so excited to see Cinderella.
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:She may never see Cinderella ever again in her life, but that 15 seconds or 30 seconds or
two minutes that she gets to spend with Cinderella makes her entire day.
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:and it might make her entire year.
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:You know what you reminded me of and you're you're getting me all like reminiscing and
whatnot is uh I remember there's families that used to come back.
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:I worked at Disneyland Hotel, right?
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:uh Working at a restaurant and we were the character breakfasts.
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:We were the old school.
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:gee, we piloted the whole concept.
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:You're welcome.
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:It's how old I am anyway.
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:30 freaking years ago anyway.
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:uh
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:It's more than 30 years, Ben.
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:I just realized that.
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:That's why I'm really super sad.
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:Okay.
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:But I remembered and my, my crew, my us in the restaurant, we would have families come
back year after year after year.
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:Nice.
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:And we were kids, you know, paying our way through college, right?
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:So we were there year after year after year after year.
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:Yeah.
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:And we remembered their names.
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:I remember their names and half.
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:I know 90 % like
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:everyone remembered like there's always a favorite family, you know what I mean?
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:And it would be funny because it got to the point where even the hosts when they would
make reservations, they would be like, Oh, the Smiths are back.
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:And you'd be like, my God, Smiths from Kansas or Nebraska, you know what I mean?
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:Like, but either way, uh you just made me remember, uh I had told the family that I was
looking to leave, I was gonna leave, go to the Bay Area to finish college.
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:um
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:And they came back and they had a little album book for me.
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:Way that, you know, over the years, the final year he was like 14 years old.
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:And I think I told the story.
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:Yeah.
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:It's all sit on my lap.
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:He's just in my lap and 14 like sit on his like, he was bigger than me at that point.
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:I'm like, hell no, I'm not sitting on no 14 year old kid's lap.
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:Are you kidding me?
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:The parents were so cute.
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:But like, yeah, it was just really cute.
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:And now you just made me remember
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:That's the thing where the magic of I believed in giving a family, this could be their
five year savings to come to Disneyland.
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:Right.
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:So why not make it memorable for them?
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:And uh I believed in that mission and purpose and value.
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:And I think that's why Disney did it right in the amusement parks, in the amusement parks,
not talking about anything else about the company, just the amusement park.
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:But I think that organizations need to find their own level of magic, whether they're
three employees or 30,000 employees.
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:And they need to find out what differentiates us, what makes us special to our customers,
what enables us to do.
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:It could be just the fact that we actually pick up the phone.
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:You actually get a human being.
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:Every time you call in, you actually get a human being.
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:And it could be the fact that
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:that your chatbot is actually not an AI, it's actually the customer service department
that actually picks up and is actually chatting with you, it's a human being.
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:It could be the fact that you have a software package on your desk that says, look, if you
really like this, let me show you this.
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:Or uh was it Kimpton that has Goldfish?
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:Like if you're lonely, they'll give you a goldfish that you could have in your room while
you sleep there at night.
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:Exactly.
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:So every restaurant, every hotel, every business has the ability to wow their customers in
a unique way.
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:I mean, there was a restaurant and unfortunately the owners died and they closed down the
restaurant, but it was in Vancouver for years and was an institution, it was called the
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:Elbow Room.
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:and it was owned by two old gay guys and these guys were hysterical because their attitude
was the whole mantra was shit and abuse.
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:It says, I'll pour you your first cup of coffee, but get off your fat ass and get your
second one.
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:And they says, our pancakes are absolutely huge.
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:It says, can order one, but you're going to wait 15 minutes to get it.
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:And by the way, if you don't eat the whole thing, you got to make a donation to the Loving
Spoonful.
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:I love that.
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:And the whole thing, like we went to this restaurant for years, years and years and years.
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:And I knew Patrick, the owner and his partner really well.
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:And it was always abuse.
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:And they loved it.
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:It was always abuse because they loved it because I gave it to them just as much as they
gave it to me.
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:But that was their schtick.
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:That was that was why you came to the Elbow.
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:Was the food great?
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:It certainly wasn't Michelin star, but it was hearty, good food, breakfast, lunch type
food.
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:And it was, you know, it it was, there was always lots of it on the plate, but you went
there because of the ambiance.
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:You went there because you had a whole bunch of, you know, of people from the community
that worked there and they were all trained to give the, the, staff, know, give the
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:customer shit.
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:And it was, it was fun.
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:It was a fun way to be.
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:So every.
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:Every company has something.
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:There's something that you can do and it may be great service.
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:It may be giving your customers the gears.
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:You don't know what it is until you're doing it, but something that makes you you.
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:And that's got to be brought into the culture.
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:And people need to know not only what to do, but how to do and how to get them to expand
on it.
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:then give empower your people to expand on that ability.
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:And then
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:it.
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:You know, I think I think we again, we bring it up all the time.
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:Southwest like, man, they're the folks like, you know, I don't know what the proper flight
attendants like, you know, when they do their like announcements, like, as long as they do
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:the legally binding, you must do all the safety protocols and all that.
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:But do it fun.
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:Do it memorable.
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:it.
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:You know, you know, another thing like, I'll pick on Walmart.
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:But you know what, if there's a greeter,
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:that is like a retired like Colonel that's like a 10.
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:Like that'd be funny.
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:think, I think it is.
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:And it would make the experience of better, right?
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:Like, I, I, I worry a little bit about the customer service, customer experience, whatever
you want to call.
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:I feel like that's diminished after the pandemic.
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:feel like, I think societally
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:Maybe you and I could know this some more, but if we can advocate the bringing the joy
back, even in the mundane, like, like we had mentioned, like, you know, it could be just a
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:small little, like, if you're going to be a Walmart greeter, have fun with it, right?
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:Why be miserable being, why don't you just be like, I'm gonna start learning how to
juggle.
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:Welcome.
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:Like, who knows?
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:Like, or I'm going to do magic.
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:Like, welcome.
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:Like, here's a coupon, right?
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:That would wouldn't that make your life and day better?
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:I mean, so yeah, I
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:Make somebody smile.
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:Give somebody a reason to say, wow, that was fun.
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:And yeah, and I think, yeah, you're right.
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:So yeah, companies, if you want to have people live your mission purpose, et cetera, make
it a mission and purpose and value that it can be expanded upon in a way that is still
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:reflective of your guys's goals as an organization, but give them the freedom to make it
their own.
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:think that's no better ambassador brand than to do that.
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:So that's my, that's my final say.
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:Let's leave it there.
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:I'm Ben.
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:And we'll see you soon.
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:Hey, hey, thanks for listening to another episode of Not On This, Business Fights.
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:If you liked what you heard, be most humbly asked that you like, share, and hit that
subscribe button.
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:If you want to communicate more effectively within your organization, contact ben at
imbenbaker.com or me at brilliantbeammedia.com.
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:We can help you build your community, brand awareness, and personality.
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:digital content and podcasting.
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:We cannot wait to hear from you.
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:See you next week for another episode of Nom This Business Pites.
