Building a Resilient Marketing Empire in 2025 with Meaghan Ralston

Building a Resilient Marketing Empire in 2025 with Meaghan Ralston

Kelly Kennedy: Welcome to Episode 218 of the Business Development Podcast. And today we're diving into Marketing Mastery with Meaghan Ralston, the entrepreneur behind Maggie Jane Marketing, a Calgary based marketing company that hit seven figures in its very first year. From industry shakeups to game changing digital strategies, Meaghan shares all the insights you need to stay ahead.

Stick with us. You're not going to want to miss. This episode,

Intro: great. Mark Cuban once said business happens over years and years value is measured in the total upside of a business relationship, not by how much you squeezed out in any one deal. And we couldn't agree more. This is the business development podcast based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, and broadcasting to the world.

You'll get. Expert business development advice, tips, and experiences. And you'll hear interviews with business owners, CEOs, and business development reps. You'll get actionable advice on how to grow business. Brought to you by Capital Business Development. CapitalBD.ca. Let's do it. Welcome to the Business Development Podcast.

And now your expert host, Kelly Kennedy.

Kelly Kennedy: Hello, welcome to episode 218 of the business development podcast. And on today's show, it is my absolute pleasure to bring you Meaghan Ralston. Meaghan embarked on a remarkable journey from Vancouver to Calgary at just 21, leaving behind a university degree and a demanding commute to seize lucrative B2B sales opportunities.

Her career began in automotive advertising, where she quickly made a name for herself before transitioning to the digital printing and visual marketing space. Known for her innovative approach and exceptional sales skills, Meaghan rapidly became one of Western Canada's top printing salespeople. When an equity promise fell through at a major digital printer, she seized the opportunity to launch Maggie Jane Marketing in 2021.

Growing it into a million dollar enterprise in its very first year, despite industry downturns, Meaghan's relentless drive and strategic pivots ensured the company's resilience and success. Meaghan's story is not just about business acumen. It's a testament to her unwavering integrity and passion for community.

As a proud dog rescuer, Rotarian, and advocate for women's leadership, she embodies the spirit of giving back. Her commitment to authenticity and resilience inspires those around her, making her not only a formidable entrepreneur, but also a beacon of hope and empowerment. Meaghan's decades long career is marked by her ability to overcome obstacles, turning challenges into opportunities.

Her powerful narrative of perseverance and success is a rallying cry for entrepreneurs everywhere. Relentless pursuit and unwavering integrity are the keys to not just surviving. But thriving, Meaghan, it's an honor to have you on the show today.

Meaghan Ralston: Wow. Thank you, Kelly. That was quite the introduction. I appreciate it.

Kelly Kennedy: You are, you are very, very welcome. It's cool, actually. We met through Ross Huartt, who is also a past guest on the show multiple times. I've been a guest on his show, and that is actually where we connected, because you were producing his show.

Meaghan Ralston: I was, and we still are doing it. It's great.

Kelly Kennedy: Amazing. Yeah. I knew I knew when we connected via that, that I just, I wanted to know more because I know that you've done so much and we had our initial conversation and we started talking about Maggie Jane marketing and we're going to get into that today, but my gosh, you have done some impressive things in a short period of time.

Meaghan Ralston: Well, thank you. I like to keep life spicy, if you will.

Kelly Kennedy: Well, there's nothing wrong with that. And let's get real. You're a serial entrepreneur. So I don't think you would accept anything less.

Meaghan Ralston: Well, yeah, I mean, I guess so, right? Like I've done a lot of things. I don't know that I've been promised many steady paychecks over the years, even if I was working for someone else.

It was you kill what you eat girl so.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, no, I agree, you know, and I've talked to so many experts at this point on the show where. There is nothing guaranteed anymore. There is nothing like that guaranteed paycheck, that 30 year career thing. That is so long gone.

Meaghan Ralston: It sure is. Yeah, I think we have that in the rearview mirror here.

Kelly Kennedy: I, I used to believe differently, right? Like, I spent 10 years at a past organization. Like, I was that like long term commitment. And you know, my parents were too. So, it was like for me, that was the way it was. So, it was kind of a bit of a A rude awakening, I think when that job went away and it was like, okay, Kelly, figure it out.

Like this is your world now, but you're going to have to make some tough choices. And I think from this point forward it's going to be on you.

Meaghan Ralston: Oh yeah, for sure. And I, like you, I had an 11 year commitment at a job I was at and you know, that's, I see those days long in the past, but I certainly hope that I might be able to make an employer or to do that for me.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, yeah, of course. It's like the hope is that there's somebody out there who still likes long term commitment for sure. Right, right, right. But on the other side of it, it's like, I don't know, you know, is it really a bad thing that we're all getting so many more skills than maybe we would have, right?

Like, I would say at this point, I learn faster and quicker. Then I ever have in my entire life out of pure necessity. But like some of these things, it really keeps it really keeps the job exciting.

Meaghan Ralston: Oh, it's true. I mean, in any digital marketing space, even in media and podcast, everything is changing every day.

So I think, you know, like that's certainly kept my interest for a while and that we're always we're always learning new things. And if you're not learning new things, you're falling behind in the digital space. So.

Kelly Kennedy: Oh my gosh, yeah, like if I just looked even like when I started capital and then even hell, like not even that, not even that long ago when I started this podcast, like at this point, a couple of years ago, yeah, I knew nothing.

I knew nothing about, about audio production, about so like creating social posts, about like trying to do anything. And I have learned so much. I produced my own shows. I like, I've learned it all. And yeah, like in the beginning it wasn't the best, but as I got better and better and better and I started using more and more tools and learned how to use more and more tools.

I would say we compete with the big boys now, but yeah, it took time. But honestly, I love it. I love that I've learned all of these amazing skills. And I think that there's something to be said about that. Like I think. You know, I look back at like my beauty career and I really kind of really leveled off, like I spent a lot of time doing the exact same thing and it was like at some point, I just wasn't learning anymore and and I look now and it's like, my gosh, I learned something new.

I swear like every three days.

Meaghan Ralston: Yeah, it's like rapid fire, right? When you're doing this kind of stuff, it's rapid fire and and this is the same here, you know, as much as as much as we know a lot, like there's always something more to know and always something that's changing and keeping us on our toes.

And this This economy and our space in the digital world right now.

Kelly Kennedy: Totally, totally. And you know, you have a large marketing agency and you've been doing this a really long time. And so I hope today that like one of the things we get to you is, you know, how, how do companies market themselves in 2025 and beyond?

You know, what, what are the trends? What are changing? What isn't a waste of money? Because I think at this point, like we're all trying to figure out how in the world can we save money because we can't afford groceries. Absolutely. Absolutely. Oh my gosh. Yeah. It's just, it's the inflation in this world is absolutely bonkers.

We have a, we have a big family and it's getting a little bit bonkers.

Meaghan Ralston: Oh yeah. It is bonkers. Well, and you know, what's funny, you know what those brands are doing that you're talking about right now are like, well, how can we convince them to stay? Yeah. Right. So that's also happening. These brands are like, oh, we know we have a problem on our hands.

So like, what is the solution? So unfortunately what you're seeing a lot is that shrink inflation at the store.

Kelly Kennedy: Huge.

Meaghan Ralston: But. You know, it, unfortunately, that's, that's actually marketing so.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, and we are going to get all into that today. But before we do, who is Meaghan Ralston? How did you end up on this path?

Meaghan Ralston: Well, well, you know, when I was young, my dad used to let me negotiate with him. And when I would make an argument, that would make sense. I would get to complete whatever I was arguing for or get whatever I was arguing for. So that started me off as a salesperson basically when I was like five or wow.

Cause I was, I think I was talking at like two and so this, this kind of sales. Process developed when I was actually a kid and I didn't even know it. So from there, like I was always a hustler. Like I was umpiring softball when I was 12 babysitting, you know, going out and hustling girl guide cookies and chocolate bars for hockey and you know, whatever it took, if I needed to eat those chocolate bars, so my parents had to pay for them.

Like, that's what was going to happen. Like I was. I kid kind of, and so I was really entrepreneurial when I was a kid and I always thought that I was going to be a lawyer. So like I go to university after school and I am going to law school or like starting out in free law. I take this marketing business course by some chance.

And I'm just like, Oh, I really like this. Like, Oh, this is kind of cool. I like, and I liked that it blended psychology and business together. And so I wound up in a BA degree, a business mid degree, and I was doing that for a while at the same time. I was. Also hustling for magazines, selling advertising. And I was driving over four bridges in Vancouver every day.

Two ways, terrible, terrible for anyone who's been out there. And I wasn't making that much money. I was like, well, Hey, I have like two years of university under my belt. Like I can do this, like, let's go. And I had family in Calgary. And so I was like, well, let's, let's move. I'm like, dad, I want to move home.

He's like. What, what do you mean? Oh, home to Calgary. Cause I was born here. I like lived here till I was like two. So I moved to Calgary and within like the first few months I was working at the Calgary Sun, a major daily newspaper in the auto department and. Starting out was like I was doing ad layouts by hand.

Like, Oh my God, that's how old I am. I'm like doing ad layouts by hand, taking images of vehicles. And I was, got really tired of being someone's someone's assistant. Cause I was an assistant role there. And I was, I was offered a job in a grand format print house with one of the first of its kind in Western Canada.

And so I quickly became an account executive there and. They had a draw. I remember it was 3, 000 a month. This is not very much money. So I had this job. I was working at a comedy, comedy the comedy cave on the weekend, serving winning tables to make some extra bucks. Cause I was, this draw wasn't enough.

But within the first three months, lo and behold, I had beat my truck. And so I was pulling in decent money, pulled in like 60 K in the first year there, and I, that was, you know, almost 20 years ago. So that was good times, you know, with that same company, I quickly grew over six figures and so I, and I was.

Easy. I was living the easy street. Like I had Molson as clients, like WHL, Hockey Canada back when they were, you know, relevant to cool they're not there. They're not now they're working really hard. Sorry, sorry for that. Hockey Canada. I love hockey. Anyways, we're working for these huge brands getting these really great contact tracks and I loved it.

Yeah, I quickly progressed to the senior account manager there and then the sales and marketing managers. So I started, that's really when I started getting into marketing at that same place. I was also brand manager for a company called Mark Brick who made great trade show products out of Sweden.

And, you know, I was managing all this stuff and it was great. But then I, this is really weird. So I get this email, I'm at work from this guy works for the competitor shop and he wants to have coffee with me. Okay. This is kind of weird, but all right, I'll go have coffee with this guy. So I have coffee with this guy.

He tells me he wants to work with me and what he wants me to work for him. So I guess Molson was like, they were a huge client of mine and they wouldn't leave me. And they had said to this dude, you know, if you want. If you want us as a Molson as your full customer, well, you got to go get Meaghan. And so he made it his mission to get me.

And he wanted, he had a shop in Vancouver. He's like, I want to grow my shop in Calgary. I want to expand. I'm like, okay, great. Well, you know, I can help you with that. But like at the time I was considering opening my own shop. I was also going to school at that time, full time at Royal Roads University in Victoria to complete my Bachelor's of Commerce in Entrepreneurship.

So I was really learning from experts on how to run a business. So he said, you know what, I will, I will make you promise to cut you some equity. And the more you act like it's your business, the sooner that will come. So I go in there and I act like it's my business. Their sales were under 400, 000 in that first year, they, but when I joined them and that first year, like we exploded it, I think of what passed 1.

5. And then by the time I left, it was just, I was only there for three and a half years and I was their director of sales and marketing, but really what I was doing was expanding the business here in Calgary with some other folks, of course, as well and we had got it to just about 4 million in sales.

So like significant, significant growth and that equity opportunity never came. It never materialized, right. It wasn't fully written into my contract. It partially was. And looking back, that was a bit of a mistake on my part, but you live and learn. And you know, at the time I thought that most people in business.

I've had good intentions and I think still think most people do, but I do realize now that some people do take advantage of other people's lack of experience. And in that case, I kind of think that that was what had happened there, unfortunately. And at the time I was, it was COVID and I had led the business through it and helped it survive.

You know, I, when that whole thing happened, I immediately jumped on producing those safety screens and producing, you know, the awareness decals and these full kits and packages. So that really did keep us going and lo and behold, because I had got us into warehousing marketing materials for cannabis business, we were considered an essential service from that.

And that allowed us to produce those safety screens. After all this goes on, I get hired to do all of the seat covers in the Winsport Arena for the Briar, the curling championships that were here. Let me tell you, when you, when it's COVID and an arena is locked down. And you have to get in there to measure entire, like, massive, massive sections of seats, and you can't only get in there once, and you miss something, and this is an Olympic size arena, like, it is really bad, right, and it's really hard to access it, so this job was super challenging, you know, we were producing things overseas, having it shipped in, and, you know, we were actually sewing on site, it's, it's And I had asked the shop for help and said, I need help.

Like, this is a six figure job, need hands on deck. Nobody helped me until it was too late. And so I am there sewing on site and I am not a seamstress. I am not, I am not great with my hands. I can draw, I can do art, I can. Do these things, but I'm not that person. So, but I, I made it happen because that is what I do.

So by that time I was working 24 hours a day sometimes to get this whole project done. And I had a small child at home at the time, about two years old. So it was really challenging. And that whole project is just kind of a little bit of the. Key in the can to working for that company that I was with at the time.

So I remember going into this meeting with my, my old boss and a couple of colleagues, and he keeps asking me, why do you keep looking at so and so this way? Why do you keep looking at him? What's wrong? Like, I just, I, I just can't do this anymore. And he's like, what do you, what do you, what can't you do?

I'm like, work for you. And he's like, why? I'm like, because you're a bully. And he's like, what? No one's ever told me that before. I'm like, yeah, that's the level of bully you are is that no one's ever told you before. And I'm telling you now, and I'm not going to sit here and take this anymore. And I'm not going to watch people be treated this way.

I don't want to go too far down that road. But it was the moment where it was just. Like I had already started working with a few customers with Maggie Jane on the side. And I was like, okay, well I'm going to, and I'm going to take off and I'm going to do this now. So he gave me a month off. He's like, yeah, you can come back.

We're just going to take a month to cool down. It's going to be fine. And after that month I started getting into Maggie Jane. I had a customer that was rolling, doing a lot of work with us. And I was just like, no, I'm out. Like I, I'm going to go work for myself now and be completely on my own and completely in control.

So I went and started doing Maggie Jane full time, probably at the beginning of, I would say June. Well, let's see, what year is this now? 2024 is a 2020, 2021 in June is really when I started Maggie Jane.

Kelly Kennedy: Wow. Like right in the middle of COVID. Let's talk about that.

Meaghan Ralston: Oh, it was, it was a little crazy. But we were doing marketing, we were doing design, we're doing websites.

I had some really strong creative directors that, you know, I had been. Toying with working with before, and we kind of been starting to put the feet in the water for the past few years. And we, we just took it off and we were all at home to get started. So very beginning of Maggie Jane, we were all working from home and just, you know, seeing each other as we needed.

Having meetings on patios.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, yeah. Nothing wrong with that. Except for, it does get a little bit challenging, I think, like KPIs and everything along those fronts need to be pretty set in stone. Hey, like what was your management style like when you were trying to work with people from home? It's not easy.

Meaghan Ralston: Oh, no, you know what? It just is what it is. Like Meg and Jane has always been that way and always been hybrid. I mean, I always worked with people kind of across the country in a national way. And a lot of, some of my suppliers and my supply chain members are based overseas or working with people overseas.

So I think like managing from a distance has always been something I've just done because when you have marketing campaigns that are executing nationwide, you need to be able to manage from a distance. So that management style is always there. Right? And I find You know, I'm, I don't, I'm not an aggressive manager.

I don't even really consider myself a manager. It's, it's part of one fault that I have. I'm not really a manager. I, I lead, so, you know, I leave a lot of discretion in the people that I work with hands. I really truly only try to hire people I trust and I believe in their capabilities. So that really made it a lot easier to manage from a distance and, you know, keep on track of that thing.

And like being really clear about deadlines, about when things were needed. And You're still having those touch points that you would have in person, but having them on, on zoom or picking up the phone or texting or, you know, by whatever means, there's so many different ways we can communicate from a distance now.

I mean, there, there were really just not lacking in it, but what you do lack a little bit is the camaraderie and that whole experience you get in working with one each other in person.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, I find it really interesting because I like, you know, like you, I spent a lot of time working at one organization and we worked from the office and we built relationships.

And if you wanted something done, the benefit about working in an office with the team is when you want something done, you're like, you know, two steps away to head down to the next office and say, Hey, I need some help with this or Hey, we're doing this and I need this right now. Like there's a, there's a speed that happens.

When you work in an office with a team, and you know, I had to learn how to adjust to that, obviously, because when I started capital, it was a work from home scenario. Same thing. I started December of 2020. So it was like right in the middle of the shit.

Meaghan Ralston: Yeah, yeah.

Kelly Kennedy: And so I, I actually struggled working from home for quite a while.

It took me, I like, I almost hate to admit it, like probably took me like three months before I was effective at working from home. And I was actually able to not just deliver, but deliver well. I, at first I had to lock myself in the basement. And I was like, the only way was if I like myself away from distractions, I was able to be more successful, but I know that I wasn't alone.

Like there was a lot of people. who struggled with working from home. Now I work from home all the time. So it's like, it's no big deal. I figured it out. I'm great at it, but it did take a while for me to get there.

Meaghan Ralston: Oh yeah. No. And I, I don't like it as you can maybe see behind me. I don't work from home now.

We, we haven't actually, we got our first place in September of 2021. So we weren't at home for very long.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah.

Meaghan Ralston: Yeah. Home for very long.

Kelly Kennedy: You know, lead me into Maggie Jane marketing. Like you guys have had some pretty amazing success. Like most companies do not launch. And in the first year do over a million dollars in sales.

Like, Oh God. First off, congratulations and good for you. And second off, how the heck did you do it?

Meaghan Ralston: Well, you know, like I think like part of it is many, many years of experience and a lot of connections in the marketing design art world. And, and, you know, also not only having those connections, but having those connections want to work with me from past experience.

You know, they know I operate with integrity. They know that I wanted to pay a fair wage. They know I'm not going to yell and scream at them. So they, we have a certain level. I have a certain level of relationships with these people who I need to execute the business that I would get already in place when that happened.

Now the first full year is when we made that million dollars and that was in 2023, so the, or. 2022, sorry, 2022. Where are we? Okay. So we're in 2022. I did that the other day. And the industry that we had launched into was cannabis. I was quite successful at the last print place I had with getting these customers on and helping them get their visual marketing together.

And that's kind of how Maggie Jane came about was customers. There were like, Hey, can you do more stuff for me? I'm like, well, yeah, sure. But it's out of purview of this business that is going to be over at Maggie Jane. So, you know, we kind of like started out having those connections and having worked in, you know, a sales and marketing role for you know, a couple of decades.

Well, now a couple of decades is probably 15 years at the time when I started Maggie Jane we had a lot of really great connections and people who had worked with me before in several spaces that had given me referrals for customers. And like, I am just like relentless on this stuff, right? Like when we take on a customer and we promise to do something for people, we do not let them down.

We make it happen. We do, you know, whatever it takes to do that. So I think that attitude, you know, obviously the space at the time was kind of burgeoning and there were people that needed some help, whether it was because they were from the United States they didn't really have the business acumen or maybe they didn't know anything about cannabis and, you know, I know a little bit about it.

So we were able to help them and that really. That really propelled the business to like an insane degree. Another customer I had before followed me with, and they were, they were quite large for us and they did really big experiential events. And they're like, Meaghan, we don't care if you don't have a printer, you, I really want you to continue to manage our work despite all that, because we love the experience that you give us.

We're willing to pay your markup and your margins and pay for your time. Right. So they came along for the ride too. And I was not expecting that. I, you know, I didn't ask for that, but the company said, this is what we want. And I cleared it with my former boss. I'm like, I'm not trying to steal his customer, but they want to work with me and I will happily buy the prints from you.

And I did for a while until he said some not so great things. But anyway, they really. I've had a lot of support support from colleagues who helped me execute the jobs that I would need to do to do the design work, to do the, you know, the production work, to do the installations. And I had a great network of individuals in that way that I had sold to in the past that wanted to continue working with me maybe for some different services.

And then just in addition to that, you know, I'm quite active on LinkedIn and I'm always hungry. I'm always looking for something, right? Like the, the hustle never stops. I'm out meeting new people. Like I talk about Maggie Jane, I talk about all these things. So that first year really was kind of like built on a lot of the past, right?

So a lot of past experience, past connections. And just like having the, the. Connections who were like, Meaghan, no, we believe in you. We want to stick with you. We don't care where you go. Will you please keep us? I'm like, yes, I will.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah. Yeah. No, that's amazing. Those are, those are the customers we all dream of.

That's for sure. I look back at, you know, I worked business development for a lot of years in the inspection industry. And I'll tell you what, like some of those relationships, they're still close friends. There's still people that I, I would love to grab a, I would love to go, you know, golfing with, or I'd love to go grab a drink and some food with, you know, like it's funny because I think if you're good at business development, if you're good at marketing or any type of sales, it's establishing those really great friendships that just follow you for a lifetime.

You know, it's, it's one of the only jobs on planet earth, I think where you really get to do that. And I'm thankful that that's been a part of my career.

Meaghan Ralston: Yeah. And me too. I mean, there's so many people that I just adore and, you know, like there was, we had several non cannabis customers in that first year because of that, right?

Like my friends at Spolumbo still work with me and like, they're just, those people are, have been my friends for years and years and decades, like you now. Right. And it's, it's great to have that kind of support and continue to keep that support. I think that's part of like what business development is always about, right?

Like you find your people. And your people find you that, that want or need that specific style that you offer. Cause not everyone's style is for everyone. Like, believe me, I am not everyone's cup of tea. I am most people's cup of tequila though. But, but like in business development, not everyone's style will suit every customer.

Right. So I think once you find those who really truly resonate with that and appreciate your style, like those relationships are gold, like they are worth. millions of dollars, potentially, like seriously, actually worth millions of dollars. I have this one friend who like, he just keeps sending stuff my way and I just adore him for it.

He like asked me to, he's like, could you design me a sign and make it for me? He's like, I just don't want it to cost you much. I'm like, buddy, for you, this is like. This is free. Like, you have earned this.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, yeah. I know. I look at like, I look at the relationships that we've even been able to generate just from this show, right?

Just from this podcast. It is unbelievable the people that I've gotten to meet and that I now get to know and call my friends, you know, whether it be sponsors or expert guests or just fans of the show along the way, you know, like, it's wild how much impact you can have if you're just willing to put yourself out there.

Meaghan Ralston: Absolutely. I mean, it can be really hard and scary to put yourself out there. And many people never do it, but I think it's worth it. I mean, if you want to live a life full of richness and, you know, weave fabric of different infusions of people in your life, right, like putting yourself out there is a great way to do that.

And make genuine connections, right? Like it's not just about having this surface level connection. I find for me anyways, it's really more about having a genuine connection. Like, can we relate to each other on a genuine and authentic level and not this person that I'm putting out there to be. You know, someone that I'm not right.

Like, of course we don't put out negative stuff on our social media. I mean, we shouldn't like, if you do, let's try and stop that. I mean, it's okay to make a mistake, but you can hit delete. For like, well, that's, that's not really part of it. I mean, Yes, sometimes like some people like myself, I choose to speak about the hard stuff publicly on social media, some of it, not all of it but I think, you know, in general, being your real and authentic self, it comes through, right?

And then you can build those relationships that are going to be the most beneficial and potentially create that million dollar relationship, right?

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, yeah. No, I think, I think you're absolutely right. Like, I think the key to social media is be yourself as much as you humanly can, right? Yes. But I also agree with you on the standpoint of, is that not every single You know, huge thing going on should be posted about either.

Like, I think you have to be very careful about what you're willing to do with regards to social media. Like, you know, when I started the podcast, I really wanted to stay very apolitical. Like, do I have political beliefs? Of course. Who doesn't? But once again, Why would I discriminate against half of people when I'm in business?

Like at the end of the day, I care about both sides, right? Like I and I don't think anybody is really one side or the other. I think 99. 9 percent of us fit in the middle. Anyway, we just don't have a choice because there's certain issues that we agree a little differently on. So. You know, I mean, first off, I agree with most people anyway, so why would I even want to alienate them by, by making political posts or things like this that have nothing to do with business?

Meaghan Ralston: Yeah. Yeah.

Kelly Kennedy: You know, so many people do. So many people do. And I just, I struggle with that a little bit.

Meaghan Ralston: LinkedIn is not the place for that. Right? Honestly, I do not want to see anything political on LinkedIn ever. Right? Like, I mean, sometimes like I did, I did make one political post on LinkedIn and that was when the whole Roe versus Wade thing went down, but that's something like that I'm deeply passionate about.

I don't care like what political party you follow or any of that. But I think that like LinkedIn is not the space for it. Like there is social media. If you want to post about that stuff. There are places to do it. LinkedIn is not the place to do it. And I talk about LinkedIn a lot because I think it's just a gold mine.

I think it's the, the place that entrepreneurs, business development matters, everyone needs to be. But it's also about how you represent your personal brand on LinkedIn. And, and like you're right, you'd, you'd be upsetting half of the people. out there by politicizing it in any way. Yeah, stay, stay apolitical, stay fun, stay positive, you know.

That's, that's the place to do it, because that is where your personal brand is, you know, built for a large part, especially in the digital world.

Kelly Kennedy: I'm not sure what happened here. I just saw that there was a bit of a heads up here. Something happened with your thing. We're recording fine, but there was a bit of a hiccup, I think.

Meaghan Ralston: That's where I think it was when, like, I slapped my table.

Kelly Kennedy: Oh, okay. You gotta be nice to the table, okay? I did a table slap

Meaghan Ralston: and I'm like, Why, why would you post something about not posting about politics and then offering your opinion?

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah. No, that is perfectly fair. Yeah, I anyways, yeah, totally, totally.

Anyways, Meaghan. You know, I want to get into your time in the cannabis industry, because believe it or not, in over 200 episodes, we have not even remotely touched on the Cannabis industry in Canada. We have a worldwide audience, so many of them might not even know that in Canada, I believe it was 2017, they legalized Cannabis.

And so there's a whole burgeoning industry here on the cannabis side. How did you end up on that side with regards to marketing? Well, to me, that seems like an interesting path.

Meaghan Ralston: Yeah, it was pretty interesting. I think it was somewhat natural for me. A lot of my customers in the visual marketing space were beer customers and spirits.

So I was already in the regulated space serving the regular space. So when cannabis came about, like any good salesperson, I was like, I'm going to go get it. I'm like, yes, like, look, if there's like a whole brand new world of business and brand new businesses that need stuff, like some of them might not know what they're doing, so they need me.

So I went after the cannabis space and that just kind of continued because you know, you know, I was right to a certain degree, they needed all that. And yes, cannabis legalized here in Canada in October of 2017. So it's been legal for almost. Six years now. And the space at the time was wild. Like I never forget the day.

Someone at a cannabis company that shall remain unnamed says to me, Meaghan, the taps are on for all of 2020. We have no budget restrictions. So bill us whatever you want. And in 2021, we're going to need to reign it in. It's like. What? So that's at the time when I was like, maybe being the entrepreneur and owning the business is the best position for me to be in because I didn't see extra funds because of that.

It was, I did receive my commissions, but not, you know, the, the rewards that an entrepreneur might reap from such statements. Not that I would take advantage of it but, you know, certainly having, you know, unlimited budget for marketing assets is not a terrible thing.

Kelly Kennedy: No, it is not.

Meaghan Ralston: No. Right. So the industry at that time was just going wild and, and no one knew like nobody's still, we, we're still learning.

Like if you look at legalized cannabis markets, I think there's one small country and I can't remember which one it is, but Guatemala, Guatemala is legalized. But they don't have a retail space like we do. So in, in Canada, cannabis is sold at a store, like walking into a drugstore. You're walking into this drugstore and all is in there.

And so nobody, nobody knew what was going on. No one knew. What kind of displays would work with, you know, a new, you know, really where the lines of the regulations fell because it is a very regulated here in Canada, like there's some very strict regulations around marketing. So nobody knew anything.

Like it was this whole wild West. No one knew how sales would turn. No one knew how to do sales planning. So imagine manufacturing something and having zero clue how much of it the market's going to buy. Right. And so some of these companies either get stuck with, you know hundreds and hundreds of pounds and like that equates to maybe, you know, tens of thousands of packages of unsellable product. Right.

So that's happening. And then there's other product they can't keep on the shelves. I mean, at very first they couldn't get a lot of it in because the regulations were so stringent. Growers were having difficulty. Well, time getting to market. So it was, it was wild. Like the cannabis space back then was wild.

And, and I think to this day, people are starting to learn a little bit more. I think maybe they can do some sales planning now which is probably quite helpful. But back then it was, it was the wild west and it not in such a way that you were like having cannabis people selling it on the street. Like, it's like, no, they were in stores and retail outlets with completely covered windows by vinyls and like other blockers, which actually turned out to be really bad because they started getting robbed.

People couldn't, you wouldn't really see the people coming. Right. And like, unless your eyes are on the video cameras outside, you're not seeing it coming. So these poor people that we call, we call them bud tenders. They were getting robbed and held up at gunpoint. So the, the, the regulations have changed a little bit since then and things have, you know, settled down a little bit since then, but I mean, in 2023 cannabis, like was crazy in that single year.

I think almost all of our customers turned over. We had a customer leave Canada. Suddenly there was some sort of something happened and they were like, we're out immediately with no notice. We had customers become acquired by much larger entities that no longer needed marketing services. We had customers go bankrupt.

It was, it was absolutely, 2023 was like the reckoning for cannabis. And like a lot of companies went bankrupt and a lot of companies went away. They, you know, are decided to close, seize operations or make significant changes. To how they were operating. And it was really, it was a true reckoning for a lot of people, like us included, like, I, I didn't know if I was going to be one of those companies going down because of, you know, being so vested in cannabis.

Kelly Kennedy: You're so tied to it. Yeah. Yeah.

Meaghan Ralston: So in 2023, I decided. To not only serve cannabis customers, but to serve the like wild world of business that I had been serving already for almost, you know, at least 15 years, I'd been serving all sorts of different industries. And that's part of what I love was that I worked in, you know, I worked in construction, I worked in sustainability, I worked in beer, I worked in cannabis, I worked in all sorts of different industries.

So in 2023, I really had to look at things and I was just like, Oh God, like I am not going down with this ship. This is why I decide I'm like, I am not going down with this ship.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah. Plus variety is the spice of life.

Meaghan Ralston: Oh yes. And like being in such a regulated market where things like literally like your packages are single colors, like they're not exciting.

The marketing regulations are just like, they're down your neck and like, it's so much like almost like negativity coming at you at that time in those years that I was like, I just need. I need, I need a breath of fresh air here. I think a lot of people who are in cannabis felt that way. And I was lucky enough that we were ancillary so we could pivot and serve other people.

And other people weren't so lucky because they weren't in that same position. Cause it was a pretty nasty year last year in cannabis. So not, not all things are rosy in cannabis in Canada. But yeah, but ultimately, I think, you know, keeping, keeping the funds out of gangsters hands is a great thing.

And, you know, making sure that these products are tested and safe for people is also great too.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, I would, I would definitely agree with that. I think at the end of the day, if it, if it combats the illicit market. It is, it can't be all that bad. It

Meaghan Ralston: can't be all that bad. I mean, it's, it's getting there.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Like you said, it's like six years, but it's still, I mean, I think there's still a lot of learning left to go in that industry. Yeah.

Meaghan Ralston: Oh, a thousand percent, right? Like I think now, like just now you'd be like, okay, here's the things I need to do to successfully launch a brand in cannabis.

You kind of just have like a good sense of that now, like for us in the marketing space anyways. But like, there's so much learning to do and I think for like, we're really the first country in the world to do this on this scale, right? At a federal level despite the US having many legalized states, right?

It's a different story when you look at it federally the regulations are a lot different and the costs are a lot different, the cost to consumers and all those things. So there's absolutely a ton of learning we can do. Like we're pretty much the guinea pig for the world on this. So, you know, and, and as Such where there are going to be natural trials and tribulations in the market and natural ups and downs.

Like, you know, I've seen the cannabis market go into Marianas Trench. It started out on top of Everest, went down to Marianas Trench. Now it's just starting to climb back up again. Right? So it's, it's, will be interesting, I think, for the whole world, like the whole world is watching this process. And so I think it's a, a privileged position to be in to a certain degree.

Also I think that sometimes I'm like, why am I doing this? Absolutely. Absolutely.

Kelly Kennedy: Well, and I want to, I want to talk to you about this because like I said, I haven't talked to anybody at all about anything regarding the cannabis market and I think, you know, you having a very unique view of what it was like to market that can you just like chat a little bit about like, what were some of the lessons or what were some of like the things you had to do completely different because it was cannabis?

Meaghan Ralston: Well, you definitely like You cannot have anything that is attractive to children, right? So, and like that really, that really does leave out a lot of things, right? So, they don't allow characters in your marketing. So, a lot of the time, what I called my role was like, I am the fun police. Wee oo, wee oo, wee oo.

Because like, hey, oh look, oh you got a paw print in that. No, that's not going to be okay. You can't do that. Or hey, no, you can't actually have a smiley face in that. No, you can't have characters. Oh gosh. Please don't glamorize this. Like we cannot add any what is it? Glamor? You don't want to, you don't want to evoke a lifestyle of glamor, risk, vitality or daring directly from the regulations.

So now, you know, cannabis can't be cool. So like, how are we going to market it? Well, So that got really interesting and that led to like, some brands were very, very compliant. I would say you would have people that were very concerned about compliance and the regulations and all that, and they would, they, the black brands, the images might want to be a little bit boring.

And then you have other people who are like, I don't care. I'm putting a monkey on it. I'm like. Your brand man, like I, I'm not here to police you. If you want to put a monkey on your advertising fine, because back then when it was all starting, we thought that we were all going to be getting hundreds of thousands of dollars of fines.

I thought, Oh my gosh, my customers are getting these big, big fines. Well, it turned out that. No, they're not. They're getting slaps on the wrist saying bad, don't do that again, right? Like that's what's happening in the market.

Kelly Kennedy: It blows my mind because everything we do in business development is about creating enough interest to get to that like meeting with somebody but it's all about building interest and when I look at marketing, that's what it is.

You need to build interest. Yeah. How do you build interest if it's not cool? It sounds like an impossible task.

Meaghan Ralston: It was pretty impossible. I mean, like, a lot of, like, you can use nature, like, you can use nature. You can use color combinations. You can use shapes. So we had to get really creative. I'll never forget the first campaign that I did that someone knew someone was able to recite back to me, was for a caramel.

That for a brand called choose and we had created this alliteration. I think this was our first really great work. Thank you, Steve. Steve is one of our creative directors. He's amazing. So it was choosy, choosers, choose, choosy, chewers, choose, choose. And. I walked into the store in Vancouver and I'm like, Oh yeah, I want to get some of these salted caramels.

And then the butt tender is like, Oh yeah, choosy, chewy, choosy, chewers, chews, chews. And I'm like, yes, that's my line. I think that was one of the greatest moments of my career was hearing that guy repeated back to me. So like we got creative, we worded around it and we still do, right? So it, I think it adds another challenge to that level of creativity and, but like some people when they get penned up against the wall, they stop.

Yeah. Or they fly, they run away. Like I am like, Oh heck no. Like I am fighting this and I am going to win be damned. So you would have to get really, really creative to do some things. I mean, there were times when we just had to do some lame stuff. You know, at the end of the day, I am not the boss of this creative.

These are not, these creatives are built for other people. So, you know, if their tolerance for risk was really, really low then we had to comply with that so.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, just, yeah, it just sounds like an incredibly challenging task. From where I stand when I'm marketing a business, I'm always looking for how can I generate the most interest right as possible in as little words as possible or as short a time as possible, right?

That's, it's just like, but it's like to do that usually requires something that's exciting or like captivating or visually appealing, and it's like. You're right. It's like if you're, if you're trying to do something that doesn't appeal to kids, my gosh, like that also doesn't appeal to like 90 percent of adults.

Meaghan Ralston: Yeah, right. So now, now, now what I say we do is we skate that line, right? Like it's up to us to kind of skate that line. And like at the end of the day, like here's the thing that just kind of doesn't make a ton of sense is that we're not allowed to have children view our advertisements. So like in cannabis.

You are not allowed to have an ad out of home at all. You can't show ads on any television, radio, or anything like that. Any advertising that you do has to be in an educated environment. So that means that someone who is not a minor, that's for someone like of age adult, is able to go, and minors are not allowed.

So children are really not going to see that. see the advertisements anyways, so it's a bit of a dichotomy, but in any industry that's new and developing, it's a lot easier to loosen the regulations than to tighten them. So I also understand why the government has made the regulations so tight to begin with.

There's actually currently a major legislative review going on regarding cannabis. So it'll be interesting to see what drops out of that in the future here.

Kelly Kennedy: Totally, totally. Well, that's exciting. And I do wish you the best of that. You know, what I, what I want to chat about as well is, you know, what are the trends as we head into 2025?

You know, like, obviously the world has changed a lot since, you know, even 2023 since COVID. The shift has been gigantic. Me and you talked about, you know, the power of LinkedIn. I call it the rise of LinkedIn because it really has just taken over it. I used to say it was an optional thing. I would say at this point, LinkedIn is 100 percent mandatory in any marketing that you are doing.

What's your view on that?

Meaghan Ralston: Oh yeah. I mean, LinkedIn for me, I think from a business development perspective and sales perspective has been mandatory for like at least 10 years. I've been getting worked off LinkedIn for at least 10 years. Like significant amounts of work and significant clients to LinkedIn is, should not be optional.

I mean, if you're not on LinkedIn, if I looked at you up and you're not on LinkedIn, I'm like, are you real? Like, do you exist? Like, are you digital ghosts? Like, why aren't you here? And for anybody who's in a sales marketing design, like any role like that, like connecting with people is your job. So LinkedIn is all about connecting people.

Right. And you're right. It has really risen in the past. Several years, I think a lot of that due to COVID and that was, you know, people who were looking for a digital networking space and finding it in LinkedIn to maybe replace some of those, you know, business networking groups that that exist out there.

So the LinkedIn is, is just such a powerful tool. And I find it's a great place for you to build your personal brand. To add some credibility to your personal brand. So if you're doing business development for a business or for yourself, either one of them is still important. My old boss used to always give me trouble about my LinkedIn posts.

And I'm like, dude, like this is my profile. Like, I appreciate that you may not want me to say things, but like, this is ultimately my personal profile. And I've been working on my LinkedIn for over a decade. And when you do that and when you spend time on it, you can get a huge. Huge network there that can bring you back so many rewards, right?

Like just yesterday I was asked by someone like, Hey, you know, it's high time we connected. I really want to talk to you about your services and I have a meeting with them in a month because we're both going on holidays. But I have a meeting with them in a month from now to, to do some significant amounts of work with them.

And that's not the first time. Right. So I think it's a, it's a necessary place to be and it can bring you great rewards if you work at it. Like you can get million dollar relationships off link.

Kelly Kennedy: Totally. And I would say too, like for me, like I didn't really start, I've had LinkedIn since 2013, like I've had it my whole career, but I didn't really start using it until COVID.

I'll be honest. Like I used it, but not, I didn't learn how to use it effectively until COVID. It was like, It was like a switch, and I've talked to a lot of people who have said the same thing. They're like, I feel like there was pre COVID LinkedIn, and then there was post COVID LinkedIn. They are two completely different beasts.

Meaghan Ralston: Yeah, I love that so many people have joined us there. And like LinkedIn is a different beast as far as social media goes, because like your content lives forever. They're like, I am not kidding you. Somebody liked one of my comments on a post from five years ago today. Five years ago. Right. Wow. So like this, this is part of what LinkedIn is.

Right. So if you post frequently and you like, give you like an ideal posting. Maybe three times a week, if you can do it, right. If you can manage three times a week, great. If you want to do it every day, like some people, great. But you know, it's not totally necessary. I find I post between two and three times a week, kind of depending on the week and how busy I am, because as much as I manage other people's contents in social media, I do mine ad hoc.

It's kind of like the cobbler's kids, right? You get your class, but like. Thankfully, I have things to say quite often but once you start doing that and posting two to three times a week, your content starts to build up critical mass. Like I can go on there and see, see posts from, you know, years ago that have still gotten views this week.

So it's really pays to invest in LinkedIn because your, your posts are getting impressions. Long, long after you've made them, especially when you start building your network, right. And, and building that following on there as well, that also helps increase your impressions too. Right. And the more people see you, the more they're thinking about you, right?

Like that's, that's also part of the business development trick where I kind of merge that with marketing, right? Like our job in marketing is help you be seen. Right? So like, we want to be reminding people of you at every step of the way. And LinkedIn is a great place to do that. It's a great place to help supplement those marketing efforts that maybe you have behind you in a team.

Kelly Kennedy: Very cool. Can we talk about what type of content you use on LinkedIn? And like, like obviously you've seen the content changing, right? Like it was pictures and there was carousels and now we're seeing a lot of videos because it's changing all the time. What is relevant with regards to content? What should people be posting about or posting?

Meaghan Ralston: Well, it really depends on your level of comfort, right? So I guess I can talk about myself and what I generally post and what really gets the most attention. So I post a lot about entrepreneurship, about marketing, about branding and stuff like that. And I post about the downsides of it too, and not just all the pretty stuff.

But generally in your posting, like honestly, I find like there's, I guess a couple of different ways to kind of talk about this. So there's several different. Post types that you can create and you have carousels, you have your videos, you have your text. You have, you know, also, I think there's all the kudos posts and those kinds of things.

Okay. So here's what performs the best on LinkedIn. And I don't know that this will ever change written posts with nothing else. And, but they have to have a poignant message. If you have a poignant message in a written post, those posts are the ones that still perform the best on LinkedIn out of.

Anything by and large, huge. Like I made a post about Purelator this week that has almost 7, 000 impressions. And it's a written post because they intercepted a package. I was trying to ship to a canvas company. It was t shirts. Okay. And like, I'm like, why was it like, nobody can tell me, this is all craziness.

No one can tell me why I was intercepted. Anyways, that post was a written post only and I got almost 7, 000 impressions. So written posts have always and will always fall, like get the best impressions on LinkedIn. And, but they do kind of honestly need to be a little bit controversial. Or a little bit spicy, right?

Like you're written posts saying, Oh, so and so is so great. Like, Hey, no, that's probably not going to perform that well. Something that, you know, like not necessarily a super controversial opinion, but something a little bit con for con for con controversial is probably the best kind of to do, or like also like.

Sometimes making posts like that, saying these kind of crazy things that happen in the cannabis space, like people are like, what the hell? I'm like, yes, I'm just trying to do business. Like, I am not a drug dealer. Like, this is ridiculous. Right? So like stuff like that video content can perform well on LinkedIn.

I find. That if you are speaking to the camera or you got podcast kind of snippets and stuff like that. I love those. Those perform quite well to carousels I find just like, they kind of tank it like they are not the way you were going to post a photo on LinkedIn. You post one photo because if you post more than one photo, guess what?

You can't boost that post now. And that's really annoying as a marketer. Oh man, I would love to do that. But like, it's a carousel you cannot boost. I'm like, that seems like really kind of not the best advertising infrastructure, but like, you know, LinkedIn advertising is still kind of, I think finding its footing here honestly.

So yeah, those are kind of the best. And then like, yeah, honestly, a little bit of controversy, never heard anybody. It doesn't need to be political. Like we talked about, right. It can be something that's, you know, you have an opinion on your business or some thought leadership or like thoughts around trends, sharing industry insights, right.

The people wouldn't normally get to. See backstages, the back of this behind the scenes kind of content. I find that really performs well on LinkedIn. Right. And that kind of stuff also, it shows your customers that human side of your business that, you know, that they can kind of connect a little bit deeper with you.

So there's a lot of different ways. Like one thing I can tell you not to ever do on LinkedIn, please, for the love of God, if you are in business development, hear me now. Do not get AI to contact people ever.

Kelly Kennedy: Yes. Agreed. Right? I am so sick of getting AI messages in my inbox. I'm going crazy.

Meaghan Ralston: I am going crazy too.

And some of these people, I'm like, if you just wrote me a real message, I probably would have talked to you. Cause like, I am actually interested in your service, but frankly, having your AI contact me is showing like, it just feels lazy. Like I realized that AI can. Reach a lot of different people, a lot of different times, and there is a space and time for AI, but for the love of God, it's not in sales, especially when you're an enterprise salesperson or trying to sell a high ticket item, for the love of God, do not do it.

Kelly Kennedy: Well, and remember, you're not selling anything on LinkedIn. Nothing is getting sold on LinkedIn. You're right. I think that's it. People think that they're selling on LinkedIn. Yes. We're not selling on LinkedIn. We're building a connection on LinkedIn. Yes. Not selling them anything until you get the person anyway.

So stop trying to sell people anything on LinkedIn. We're sick of it.

Meaghan Ralston: You're just creating opportunities, right? Like that's so, so important to know, Kelly. Great point. Like you're creating your opportunities on LinkedIn and nobody wants to go for coffee with an AI. I mean, at least not yet. Maybe later. I don't know.

Kelly Kennedy: Give it five years. There's some crazy things happening. Right?

Meaghan Ralston: Yeah. I'm like sometimes and it also can be very rude, like stunningly rude. I mean, I think that's one thing people have really lost the touch of in this day and age is like manners matter, especially when you're in sales and business development.

And when the AI is like, Oh, well, I guess you don't care about your business. I'm like, how dare you?

Kelly Kennedy: Well, that's going to make me talk to you. Absolutely.

Meaghan Ralston: Like, yeah, no, sign me up. Oh, I care. Sorry, AI, I need your product now.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah. Oh my goodness. I, yeah, that was the compelling thing. . That was the moment. ,

Meaghan Ralston: I love that so much.

Kelly Kennedy: Oh my goodness. Yes. Not all interaction is good. Interaction people .

Meaghan Ralston: No, no, no. This isn't like one of those all presses good press kind of things.

Kelly Kennedy: No, it is not. It is not. You know. What are you using AI for? Like obviously for us with the podcast, we use AI quite a bit. Yeah. Streamlines a lot of the processes, like Absolutely.

I don't know what I would do half the time to try and get all the shit done I need to do with the podcast. without AI. So we do use it for a lot, but what are you finding are the best use cases for it in marketing?

Meaghan Ralston: Yeah. So like, like you, I do use AI and when harnessed and used properly, it can be quite powerful.

So we do use a program called mid journey to help us generate some images. But the trick is that I think the use case for AI, as far as image generation goes, is like it's not enough to generate an image and AI and just use it. Right? Because there's going to be some spelling mistake. There's going to be a sixth finger or seventh finger.

You don't need that stuff. So, like, it needs to be edited, right? So, still, like, I think the key to using AI at this stage is you need to be proficient in what you're asking the AI to do. Because you need to know what it should look like in order to make it do that. Because the AI is not doing that for you.

for you, right? The A. I. Can't vet things. So you need to be able to vet the A. I. That you're using. So because we are very proficient and experts at graphic design and art and all that kind of stuff, we do use mid journey to a certain degree. But then those photos or images or like graphics that are generated are edited very highly.

But what it has allowed is how does allowed us to create. world class artwork for clients that otherwise wouldn't have been attainable with our budget. So that's been a really cool thing for us and being able to elevate the artwork and the advertising we're doing for these people that is just like to this like insanely great level.

Like it's got that surrealism of the AI, but also has you know, the true love of a graphic designer or creative director. That can really take it to that level. So we merge some of those things with Adobe Illustrator, with Photoshop, we merge them all together and then you can create this really cool piece.

But it's really just not enough just to go in there and generate it and spit it out and say, Hey, that's our stuff. It's like, no, we, we are not doing that. And a lot of cases it's great for inspiration. So for people who do a lot, a lot of writing or, you know, whatever, sometimes you can sit there and write copy and like.

I find like I, I look up synonyms all the time because writing is my passion. Like that is like, even though I'm the CEO, I will always write coffee because I just love writing coffee. So I still write a lot and you know, it's fine to be sitting there and see, like, instead of going to synonyms. I'll go into chat, GBT and say, Hey, say this a different way.

Oh, write me a list. And it takes a while. And usually it's your picking and choosing a couple of different words. Like, oh, I didn't think about that word. And then you can like dump it in there. Right. So there's, there's some use cases in marketing for it. I don't think it's ever, it's never safe to use it on its own without a professional.

Like we saw a couple of years ago, people starting to use AI to make logos and guess where they wind up. They're like, Hey, I'm so I need you to fix my logo. I'm like, Oh no, what happened? Oh, well, I made it with AI and now I can't print it. Like, Oh, Okay, well, you know, we'll help you, right? So there was a couple, a few years ago, people were just going buck wild with it.

I think, I think now in marketing, we're starting like as agencies and many agencies do, we're learning to harness the power of it. But to do it, like I said, with a professional running the program.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, actually, what I find myself doing a lot more now, like, obviously, just like anybody, when it came out, we're like, holy crap, this thing does amazing things.

Yeah, but I've always said it from the beginning, you have to insert yourself into it. You can't just like copy and paste what's going on a chat GPT or you legit sound like a robot. And so what we've actually started doing, and I found it really effective is I will type something up because like you, I like to write copy.

Yeah, I will type something up. I'll put it into chat GPT. And I'll just say, Hey, can you grammar check me? And see if maybe there's a better word that I could use somewhere in here. And that way, you kind of get the best of both worlds. It'll give you a, hey, have you thought about this without changing the copy completely to robotic.

And so you still get your personality coming through. And that's what I always recommend to do if you're going to use it.

Meaghan Ralston: Yeah, definitely. Definitely. And there's another site called Grammarly where you can do very similar stuff too. And like, that's like an interesting use of AI. I mean, if we kind of look at our, even like Microsoft Word, like we have been using some form of AI for a lot longer than I think anybody really realizes it.

Like when you're using Microsoft Word and it's underlining and spell checking and checking your grammar and all that, like that is a form of AI. Right. So as much as like, I, I didn't see this when AI first started making images. I thought we were done. I'm like, Oh no, I started the wrong business. I'm screwed.

What have I done? I'm going, I'm going to the shit pit of doom and despair now. And like, or truly thought that graphic designer and artists and brand and creative direction and all that, like would become the way of the Dodo bird. But it's quite interesting because now we're actually seeing a. Surgeons of people knowing that they need good graphic design and, and good brand.

I think some of it's actually coming from this whole AI thing. Everyone got so bloody excited. And for, for all rights that we all just went buck wild doing AI thinking like, Oh, this is going to save us so much money. It's like, Oh, I actually know what cost you your reputation.

So there's been people have actually refocused again, which is really interesting.

Kelly Kennedy: Sure, I would agree completely. I would say what it's done is shone a big bright light on why you need creative people. Yes. Like, creative people are almost more in demand than ever because actually to separate yourself out now, you need to be more human than robot.

Meaghan Ralston: I love that. I'm like, thank God. Like, way to hold on, kid.

Kelly Kennedy: That's right. That's right. Yeah. I, I don't think honestly, I don't think like marketing people, sales people, business development people. I don't think that we're ever going to be easily replaced. It's just, it's not, and it's so much, it's so human. Yeah. It's so human. It's so human.

Meaghan Ralston: And so intuitive.

Kelly Kennedy: You can't take the humanity out of the jobs.

Meaghan Ralston: Right? Like, you use your intuition so much in sales and business development. And just your ability to generally read body language and, you know, how someone's feeling by maybe the looks on their face or, you know, what they're doing with their hands and stuff like that, right? Like these, these are things that it will take time for AI to be able to assess.

I mean, Hey, if like, there are also salespeople out there who are not necessarily born with those gifts. And so the interesting thing could be like, Hey, maybe I can do that one day for, for those people who choose to be in sales, despite not being a natural born salesperson, right? Like we all know natural born sales salespeople.

They're they're out there. I'm one of them. Right, Kelly. I think you're one of them too, from everything I've seen here. Some people don't have those gifts. So perhaps the gifts that humans have could come one day, but like, I still don't see them being applicable without a human to operate them. Do you know what I mean?

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, I would say that sales skills, business development skills, marketing skills, they're all trainable. What's not trainable is personality.

Meaghan Ralston: There we go. Right. And this is the business development expert here.

Kelly Kennedy: Like I can tell you, I can tell you that I can sit down with somebody for five minutes. And I can tell immediately if they're going to be great at sales and business development or not.

And it's because they may not have the skills, but the skills are trainable. What I can not train is the personality is the connection. And some people have it and some don't. And it just is what it is.

Meaghan Ralston: Yeah, it's true. It's true. It's true.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah, yeah. Meaghan, this has been amazing. I want to get into Mary Jane or I want to it's Maggie Jane.

Sorry, not Mary Jane. I want to get into Maggie Jane marketing. Can you talk to us about Maggie Jane marketing? What are the services you provide? What's the area you serve? Talk to me.

Meaghan Ralston: Yeah, for sure. So first of all, it was kind of created as a combination of Mary Jane. And my name, my name is Meaghan Jean. So Mary Jane, Meaghan Jean, Maggie Jane.

That's how we got there. I thought it was just far enough away that, you know, should I wish to not serve cannabis customers or serve customers outside of cannabis? I could so Maggie Jane, we are. full service marketing agency based in Calgary, Alberta. We're very, very familiar with Canada specifically with Western Canada, but we do serve North America.

We charge in Canadian dollars, which is very helpful for some of our friends down South. I mean like, Hey, I would love that situation reversed. So we do a ton of brand development. We do brand design. We create logos. We do marketing strategy and research, and we're really heavy into social media management and content creation.

So those are the primary services we offer brand advertising, marketing strategy. I am also a fractional CMO. I'm currently the fractional CMO for. One of Ross's companies EcoClaim, which I absolutely love working with them and sustainability. It's odd. I actually have this really weird experience in my life.

Like I have a lot of experience working in sustainability cause I founded an upcycling company that cost me a lot of money at the time because the world wasn't ready for it back then. So I really love sustainability. I really love. Dogs, we rescue a lot of dogs and we like working in regulated industries.

So yeah, that's so in a nutshell, Maggie Jane, I have some amazing creative directors over here that have been doing this for 20, 30 years. And some people, I have some Gen Z's too, because you got to like keep it relevant, right? So, so yeah, Maggie Jane is a full service marketing agency serving North America with most of our clients in Canada, but we sure would love some sweet American bucks.

Kelly Kennedy: Amazing. Well, there's some Americans listening. I'm sure. So you're good. Quite a few Americans listening.

Meaghan Ralston: Wonderful. Yes. I am also American, by the way. So a little shameless plug. God love them United States. My mom's from Sandpoint, Idaho. So I was able to get my citizenship a couple decades ago.

So proud us and Canadian dual citizen.

Kelly Kennedy: Nice. Nice. Oh my gosh. That's awesome. Yes.

Meaghan Ralston: Yeah. I wouldn't mind. California someday or somewhere south, right? Like that has been a consideration.

Kelly Kennedy: Yeah. Yeah. I heard that Texas is pretty awesome too. Especially if you're looking into industry.

Meaghan Ralston: Oh yeah. Well, that sounds like an interesting spot.

I mean, I'm really looking for some ocean, but you know, Texas, I has a little bit of The ocean on that on the Gulf Coast there. So that's some pretty nice ocean they've got going on.

Kelly Kennedy: It is. It is. Yeah. Yeah. No, we've flown over it plenty of times going to Mexico. Right?

Meaghan Ralston: Yes. Yes. Exactly.

Kelly Kennedy: I've yet to stop in there, but it's on my to do list.

Meaghan Ralston: Awesome.

Kelly Kennedy: Meaghan, I also want to chat. You said you're a member of Rotary International. Can we chat about that? You said there's a big event coming up.

Meaghan Ralston: Yeah, so I'm a member. I'm a Rotarian. I just joined about just under about six months ago. And actually next year in 2025, we have the Rotary International Conference coming here to Calgary, Alberta.

And we're really excited to host everybody here in this town. Calgary is a wonderful city. I've lived here for for almost 20 years now, and it is really second to none as far as an entrepreneurial business city. And it's beautiful and very, very close to some gorgeous mountains. So if you are interested in joining Rotary, definitely check them out on the website.

And if you are a Rotarian, please do get your ticket sooner than later and come hang us out with us in this fine entrepreneurial city.

Kelly Kennedy: Amazing. Amazing. Thank you for joining us, Meaghan. I appreciated having you on today. Until next time, this has been episode 218 of the Business Development Podcast and we will catch you on the flip side.

Outro: This has been the Business Development Podcast with Kelly Kennedy. Kelly has 15 years. sales and business development experience within the Alberta oil and gas industry and founded his own business development firm in 2020. His passion and his specialization is in customer relationship generation and business development.

The show is brought to you by Capital Business Development, your business development specialists. For more, we invite you to the website at www.capitalbd.ca. See you next time on the business development podcast.