Tony Zayas 0:05
Hey everybody, welcome to the SaaS founders show back for another episode. I’m Tony Zayas, your host. And this week, we have Brynn Gibbs. She’s the founder and CEO at Consumer Fusion, excited to hear all about it. But I’ll give a little read overview, Consumer Fusion’s only on one reputation management solution that specializes in removing illegitimate negative reviews and over 60 plus online review sites. So, Brynn, welcome. Thanks for joining here today. Yeah, tell tell us more about about the business.
Brynn Gibbs 0:43
Yeah, so I started Consumer Fusion over 10 years ago. And like you mentioned, we are an all in one reputation management solution for businesses and brands. Our specialty niche, however, something that no one else is doing is helping brands and businesses. Remove inappropriate reviews and photos on popular review sites like Yelp, Google, Facebook, TripAdvisor, Healthgrades, over 60 review sites we actively work on. So again, it was about 10 years ago that we started, I sort of fell into the industry. And we’ll get to that I’m sure later in the conversation, but we’ve had continued growth. And I absolutely love and I’m so passionate about what we do here. And I’m excited to kind of share my journey with all of you here today.
Tony Zayas 1:28
Yeah, that’s awesome. And I would really love to hear what is the origin because you know, what you guys do that’s become something that is, like, there’s a lot of competition out there. There’s a lot of companies that you know, services that are out there, and I’m sure you guys have some things that really make you unique, but we’d love to hear what the origin like where did the idea come from? How did you decide to dive in and turn the concept into a business?
Brynn Gibbs 1:55
Yeah, so years ago, back in high school, I was a victim of bullying from a group of mean girls. And this was back before social media as we know it today. This was like AOL profile days. And I had to learn how to dispute and try to remove inappropriate content that was posted online about me. So I was successful in doing that. And you know, I didn’t think about it for years, until a very close family friend of mine, who is now a retired dentist, he let go of an employee who was a pill popper. And she and her friends and family completely bashed him and his dental office online. And this is back when Google reviews, Yelp reviews were just starting and getting popular. And he noticed a new patient drop off over like a three month time period. And he couldn’t figure out why because he was still actively marketing. So somebody brought it to his attention. And he was in his early 60s at the time. So this is all, you know, foreign to him. And he was telling us at the dinner table what had happened. And so I offered to look into it and try to help him clean it up. And I was successful in cleaning up like 95% of the fake content that those individuals had posted online about him. But from doing that with him, somebody in his rotary group who was an attorney was dealing with a similar situation, but from a competitor. And then that attorney connected me to a plastic surgeon in Los Angeles whose ex wife was going crazy on him. So it just kind of started snowballing from word of mouth referrals. And this was all me manually doing the work in the beginning, I was figuring it all out. And more and more review sites were kind of popping up daily. And I just saw a huge need for this service. And of course, this is where like the enterprise level platform and reporting and the ability to provide regeneration to these businesses. Like it was all a vision for me, I just, you know, it took some time to get there. But that’s the back story about how I got introduced to reputation management. And again, it just snowballed from there.
Tony Zayas 4:05
Wow that’s super interesting. So it was like a personal experience, and learn along the way. And to that point, I think, you know, I saw that, you know, 10 plus years ago, people dealing with a company that I was at, I had a founder, early on as I got started, I oversaw all that digital marketing, and a company and one of the first things you know, was, Hey, there’s this blog out there that put out, you know, bad information business, and it was, you know, I don’t know how impactful it was like you said, the, you know, the person you were working with saw the drop off and in new patients coming in, which is horrible. But yeah, so there was obviously that demand, you know, showed up. So when did what was the timing when did you make the decision to like, turn this into like a full blown business when you said you develop the vision for it of like, what more you could do. And I want to get to that in a second. But what allowed you to push forward and say, Yeah, let’s, let’s do this, let’s turn this into a full blown business.
Brynn Gibbs 5:15
Just the need was there, I was getting more and more word of mouth referrals. And I was fortunate to where I was able to do a lot of the work to where we’re self funded bootstrap and never had any outside investment. So again, I didn’t rush the whole process. And looking back, I still wouldn’t change the steps and paths that I did take. But for me, it was being able to a learn how to do this, create the process, and then kind of work it into the platform that we were developing.
Tony Zayas 5:50
Yeah, that’s pretty cool. Um, I just wanted to acknowledge we’re here on the day after International Women’s Day. And so it’s always awesome to have women founders on we actually profiled quite a bit, we have Russia on our team who finds really great people to be on here. She’s made a point to do that. So I would love to hear you know, your your experience of, you know, kind of bullying. That’s pretty awful. But I love the way that you turn that around into like seeing the opportunity in it. What did you you know, what did it look like? As you How did you formulate? You said you came up with the vision? How did you put that together? And then how did you go to work on executing that? Understanding that early on, this was manual work, and you were picking up probably clients here and there that like formulation of the vision, and what was the vision back then, as to how it as to how it relates, like what what the business looks like today?
Brynn Gibbs 6:52
Yeah, I just knew that, you know, I was only one person in the beginning and for how, you know, I wanted to grow, I knew that I needed to implement software, I knew that I could not manually continue to continue doing everything that I was doing. Back when I first started, I had an unrealistic and unhealthy work life balance, because I was not, you know, investing in software. And I just knew that I needed reporting, I knew that I needed to give my clients a way to manage and oversee their reputation online. So I really had to break it out into pieces when I started. And I prioritized with the reporting for our clients. That way, I didn’t have to manually pull reports for them on a monthly basis. And as well as like the review notifications, which is how they monitor their online reputation themselves. And then from there, consumer fusion has grown into so much more. So reputation management is our specialty niche, but it within our platform. We also do local listings, we have social media tools, so a business can sync up all of their social sites into one place and post and schedule out content from within. And this year, I’ve actually implemented AI into the platform, which I’m so excited about. So we have years worth of records of disputes from all the different sites. And we just had to have that much data to feed the machine to learn the type of content that can be successfully removed from different sites. So now when our clients get new negative reviews, a probability score pops up next to the review on a scale of 1 to 100 on the likelihood of that review being removed. And if it’s above 50%, chances are that we can successfully get that review removed for the client. So it’s just really exciting. When I think back of where I started to where it is now. I was you know, with SMBs single businesses, now I’m working with big brands who are trusting consumer fusion with you know, hundreds 1000s of locations. So again, it was gradual, I had to prioritize where to start. And then I reinvested every dollar back into the platform. And it was tempting to spend that money on frivolous things. But I was very strict because I knew that I wanted to have control over my life and my company because I’m so passionate about it. I didn’t want to take outside funding, because I wanted to again, just be able to kind of control my life and the business. So it was definitely a little bit of a longer process than it would have been had I you know, partnered with somebody, but again, I’m just so happy with where we’re at today.
Tony Zayas 9:37
So do you have a technical background? As you know, developing our software, are you non technical?
Brynn Gibbs 9:43
No.
Tony Zayas 9:44
And that’s common, like we you know, on this show, we typically have maybe 50-50 where we have someone who’s like a software engineer and you know, they a lot of times we have, you know, a co founder that’s more on like the marketing sales side of things. But then we talk to you a lot people who are non technical founders, and I think a lot of people that watch the show, love to hear from them, because there are those folks out there that have these ideas, and they want to take a product to market. So how did you both like the envisioning process of like knowing you what you wanted? Like, let’s start with reporting. I think you said that was one of the first things you realize you need to like, automate. So you need software behind that. How did you take that concept? And then what did you do? Like, who did you find to help you? You know, build that out? And what did that look like?
Brynn Gibbs 10:33
Great questions. So I do not have a technical background, I’m more so sit in the seat of the visionary like I see the ideas. And then I run it by my team, who we’ll get to in a second about how we rolled out. And then I’ve also been very hands on like a practitioner that way, I’m always asking my clients, what they like about service with dislike, what they would like to see us develop. And this day, I still get involved and do the hands on when I can because it is constantly evolving and changing. But what I did back in the beginning was I surrounded myself with people who could do things that I could not do, I don’t know, the technical development background side of it. But our product manager, her name is Bridget, she’s been with me since the beginning. And then Mark Spencer, who’s actually my husband, he’s our COO, the two of them handled the dev side of things. And I did not have the funds in the beginning to give them the hours that they deserve. They do equity in the company. But to me, that’s been crucial with our success, because they have such a vested interest in consumer fusions, growth and overall success. So Bridget is the one who again, is the project manager who does all the communication with our developers, and marks kind of like the in between, and they present it to me to third grade level so that I am following where we’re going with the dev, and I’m very open and honest about that. That is not my background. But it was definitely needed for consumer for Consumer Fusion.
Tony Zayas 12:09
No, that’s great. Have you ever like have you tried to get in there and, and learn any programming? And have you like, it sounds like you’ve gotten to a place where like, you don’t really need to having people in place. But did you? We talked to a lot of people who say Oh, well, you know, I like I learned that now I’m fairly proficient and understanding enough to speak the language more effectively and whatnot, was that part of it?
Brynn Gibbs 12:36
Let’s say I, I did try. And I’m a big believer in the right person being in the right seat, that is not the right seat. For me, my right seat is taking care of the client working with client thinking of new ideas, being out at the conventions, and networking. So I quickly removed myself from that, because I felt like I was more so just like a bull in a china shop.
Tony Zayas 13:01
Well, that’s kind of the vibe I got when you mentioned like, basically, you let them do their thing and use that visionary and deal with the customers. So I think that’s a takeaway to people who are listening. And I’m a big believer in to your point, like having the right team. And then complementing one another and doubling down on your strengths rather than, you know, as a founder, you’re typically in that role that you’re doing a lot of everything, sometimes almost got your your hand and almost every cookie jar. Once you get people in place, a lot of people have trouble. Knack a little bit. But I think when you have that ability, like it sounds like you do, to step back and let the right people do their thing. That I think that’s a great, you know, great lesson to learn. So, really cool. Something else I picked up on this. You said your husband is a COO. I’d love to hear about that dynamic, because we have, you know, heard people say that, Oh, don’t get, you know, family and involved and others talk about Oh, that’s great. We have you know, so I would love to hear about how does that, you know, how does the dynamic work? And
Brynn Gibbs 14:12
Yeah, I actually get asked this question every day for our particular relationship we thrive working together, my strengths are his weaknesses, and vice versa. Of course, we’ll have little tats where one of us just kind of has to give each other space. But for the most part, there are two things that we’re both passionate about life and it’s our family and Consumer Fusion. So it’s a great feeling, knowing that my partner in life and I both have the same vision and the same passion about the same things in life. So we have date night, every Thursday and we have a rule no talking about work or the kids. And all we talk about is work and the kids it’s just
Tony Zayas 14:49
Yeah, now that’s what I was gonna ask about the whole, you know, we try to stay away from the term work life balance because as a founder, it’s usually not balanced but so how what else do you guys do to maintain kind of that work life harmony, if I could call it that. So you guys do make a point to make regular date nights? What else? What else is there separation or just, you know, keeping the sanity.
Brynn Gibbs 15:13
So we tagged him everything. And I think that is why we are why it works for us. Like, he knew that I had this podcasts today, which is a little bit earlier than I start my days because I have drop offs. So we just have to openly communicate about our schedules, and then juggle, it’s a constant juggling act. But we are at the point now in our career, and it wasn’t always like this. But we do have a healthy work life balance, like I’m done every day by 3:30. So I can be the one to take my kids to their games or their practices, doesn’t mean that after they go to sleep at night, that I’m not back on the computer doing work. But it is it was worth the years of hard work in the beginning to get to this point. So back when I first started, I also didn’t have children, it was not a healthy work life balance. I mean, I was up at 5:30. And staying at the office till sometimes nine o’clock at night. I didn’t mind because I was so passionate about it. But that’s always kind of my advice to people who are thinking about a startup is, you know, when you are the business, you will end up working harder than what you’re most likely doing in corporate America right now. Because everything is your responsibility. So again, now I’m in a great place. But looking back, I would not be able to balance how I started with three kids. But it evolved to where it works. But it was definitely crazy in the beginning.
Tony Zayas 16:39
It’s great to hear that you’re at that point, you can manage it. So how old are the kids by the way?
Brynn Gibbs 16:45
Three, five, and seven.
Tony Zayas 16:46
Okay so you’re a busy lady.
Brynn Gibbs 16:50
Second cup of coffee.
Tony Zayas 16:53
I have a 12 year old and just one and that was by design. Give you a lot of credit. So yeah, a lot going on there. So that is awesome. I would love to hear a little bit about you know, you said in your role a big part is dealing with your customers. How? How do you approach you know, getting that customer feedback? And then using that feedback loop to make improvements roadmapping the product? What does the process look like for you? And is there any? Do you do it with intention? Now? How did that use the lock, lock approach.
Brynn Gibbs 17:31
I’m very open and direct with my clients when it comes to this. So I do monthly reporting for them quarterly calls, depending on their wants and needs, of course. But on an annual call, I dive deeper. And I asked them what we are not providing them that they would like to see. And for example, one of my favorite brands that we’ve worked with for going on two years now. He had a whole list of things and I joked I said hey, why don’t you just come work for us to Consumer Fusion because he had great ideas. And they were all ideas that would make his life easier, but would also enable Consumer Fusion to provide a better service. And so I’m constantly asking what they would like to see and what would make their day to day easier. And like you said, there is competition out there, I pay so much attention to what my competitors are doing, because I need to provide that if I think it’s valuable. And I of course want to also be better at how I provide whatever service I’m not provided yet. So those two things, getting feedback from current customers, even prospects, when I’m, you know, talking to prospects about possibly partnering with consumer fusion, I want you know, to dive in deep and hear exactly what their needs and wants are that way, when they come on board, they’re satisfied. So kind of a mix of both of those things, paying attention to what the competitors are doing, and then wants the needs of prospects and current clients.
Tony Zayas 19:00
So how do you stay out in front because again, it is a competitive space. How do you stay out in front? Knowing you know, again, keeping close watch on what the competition is doing? How do you maintain an advantage? Like what are some of the things that you’re always looking for being that visionary in your business?
Brynn Gibbs 19:20
Well, I think for Consumer Fusion, the specialty niche that sets us apart from anybody else who technically falls under the reputation management umbrella is the fact that we actually go and remove inappropriate content for people. Everyone else is strictly just software, they do monitoring, and then they give tools to generate reviews or to respond to reviews, which we do. But at the end of the day, like for example a brand that I’m currently working with. They have a couple of hundred locations and about six of their locations are getting completely spammed with fake robot reviews. So you have to be able to move needle for your clients not just provide them with reporting and ways to get reviews, like you have to get out there and clean up content when it comes to reputation management.
Tony Zayas 20:11
So how did you guys put that feature in place the whole removal and when you know, over the course of it, because that is something that I have not really seen. I’m familiar with some of the services out there. But that is a, you know, an awesome feature that you guys offer. So how did you guys implement that?
Brynn Gibbs 20:32
Well, and that’s also kind of a myth that we’re constantly debunking with people is that you can remove illegitimate inappropriate reviews, photos, Yelp tips that are online about your business and your brand. So when we first started, it was manual, and we had to, you know, go out there and search for the content, and then report it and dispute and stay on top of it. Now, our platform when our clients onboard, we connect all the sites, so we get alerted of all new content that’s posted in the net AI tool that I mentioned shows the probability for removal, it’s still a manual prospect having to dispute and report the content with the different social and review sites. But we’ve found ways to streamline it so that we can scale. So it has been the removal aspect was has always been the bread and butter and is what we initially started with. And then we kind of evolved and added to the platform in the service with other tools that we provide.
Tony Zayas 21:32
So let’s talk about the AI feature. And I know you’ve mentioned that, does that allow you to basically like, kind of prioritize which reviews you’re gonna go after the ones you have the greatest likelihood on down is that you guys do it.
Brynn Gibbs 21:50
So it’s a scoring system, and anything that’s 50% or higher, and we’re constantly feeding the machine new data, because it always needs to be learning to provide better scoring. But yeah, that’s exactly correct. And some examples, because a lot of people don’t really have an understanding of the type of content that we can remove. So more often than not, it’s content from ex employees, competitors, with the labor shortage, we’re seeing a ton of negative reviews about that across the country right now. People who are just ranting about COVID, like, oh, I went to this restaurant, he wasn’t wearing a mask. What else? I think I already said spam. So there’s several different reasons why reviews violate guidelines for removal. And just so you guys have an understanding of the types of content that we can
Tony Zayas 22:40
Speaking of COVID? How did the pandemic affect the business? You know, we hear from people that it’s what caused their business to boom, others that, you know, had their maybe changed our core model, or kind of just stayed status quo for you guys, what did it look like?
Brynn Gibbs 22:59
So the first two months from like, oh, shit, what is going on, because nobody knew. So our SMBs that could not operate, we put them on hold, we provided complimentary work for them, because we knew that things would get back to normal eventually. And we wanted to be supportive and be there for them so that when they were open and operating, they would come back and, you know, continue with us. So we just shifted, and we started targeting the industries that were essential, and that were thriving when at the start of the pandemic. So we heavily got into home health care, in the beginning of the pandemic, and that is what kept us afloat because about 25% of our SMBs went on hold. And so had it not been for the PPP, I would have had to have done some temporary layoffs, we we were able to qualify to where we retained 100% of our staff, everybody did remote, and actually there’s still promote to this day, I’m by myself in this office right now. It’s just my husband and I who come in, but I think everybody really digs the new working from home life. And we’re fortunate that we’re able to do that gives them more time with their families are doing what they want to do instead of commuting to the office. And so it’s, it’s turned into a positive.
Tony Zayas 24:10
That’s great. We saw a lot of the same, we went remote, and we’ve stayed that way. And we’ve actually gotten rid of our office now have people you know, fire people in different places. And there’s a lot of advantages to that point, like happy employees more productive. So pretty interesting. Do you guys have plans to require anybody to come back in or is that up to
Brynn Gibbs 24:34
We do like once a month meetings, but it’s really up to the individual, like we’ve had people who’ve air air conditioning is broken. So they asked to come in or their Wi Fi either and it’s down and they come in. But for the most part, we’re just kind of letting everybody do their thing. Their their productivity has actually improved from working from home. So I’m good with whatever makes them happy as long as they get what needs to be done. Done. I’m cool with whatever.
Tony Zayas 24:58
That’s great. Um, so I would love to hear a bit of more about like the team. And what’s the culture? Like, you know, obviously hiring is, especially today with the labor shortage, it’s a challenge for everybody. So what do you look for? And how does like, you know, what’s the culture at the business?
Brynn Gibbs 25:19
We are female lead, our leadership team is majority female. And we are younger, because we are tech. But right now we are hiring actually. And when we have hired recently, I always start from within, and I asked the team, hey, do you know anybody because I’m huge on company culture. I’m a big believer and take care of your team. And then they will, in fact, take care of your clients. So I always prefer to start that way. But again, it is challenging right now hiring people. So hopefully, this works again, because it did work the last two times, we needed to do this, but I really think culture plays a big role in attracting top talent to, you know, you get one life and you spend the majority of your time working with, you know, the people in the company that you choose to align with. So I pay close attention to that. And then make it a priority.
Tony Zayas 26:12
Yeah. So how do you in those initial interview kind of discussion stages with potential employees? How do you find out like, how do you figure if there is a good fit for your culture? And what are some of the things like what are some of the, you know, core values that you guys have in place? Because I think that sometimes attracts the right people as well.
Brynn Gibbs 26:39
Yeah, no, I agree, I actually don’t do the direct hiring. Currently, because I have the leadership team in place, I trust them implicitly to choose their team, because at the end of the day, they are the ones overseeing who they bring on. And I just want to make sure that they will fit within our culture that they will make sure to prioritize our client’s needs. In this industry, you can’t let a day go by without responding to a client email like they want quick five, five to 10 minute response time. I’m not saying that that’s something that’s mandatory. But when you see everybody just hopping on any clients needs promptly, you know, you just kind of shadow and mirror that behavior. And so that’s, even though we work hard, we play hard. And I just always want to make sure that, and I lead by example, in this way, too. We take care of each other, and our clients. So I always compliment my team when they help one another. I think that’s a huge, huge thing to shout out and point out, not just when somebody helps clients, but when they help team members as well. So those are just a few things that.
Tony Zayas 27:51
Yeah, the importance of culture is like, can’t be overstated. And that’s something as a theme that we hear all the time. I would, I would like to hear a little bit, you know, as far as how do you communicate as the, as the visionary as the founder? How do you share the vision with your team? So that they get a sense of like, where are you guys headed and all of that, and sometimes that’s, you know, in your head as that visionary, but how do you articulate it? When When do you do with you share kind of strategy, you know, strategic plans quarterly annually?
Brynn Gibbs 28:29
Yeah, so I’m actually glad you asked this question, because we just kind of changed how we do this this year, we are implementing EOS. And part of that is sharing your vision with your team. So I had always done a good job at doing that with leadership team. But I was not doing a good enough job, portraying it to the whole entire company. So that’s where we shifted, and we have monthly zoom calls. And on those zoom calls, that’s where we go over just everything in our pipeline for both development as well as prospects events, and we just try to be as transparent as possible. On those zoom calls, it is more challenging to do this virtually at rather than if we were all in the office. But it has definitely made an impact. Because now everybody, you know, we’re all operating as one oiled machine with one vision, one goal, one purpose, where in the past, I was neglecting a big part of you know, our team and only kind of making sure the leadership team understood everything. So that’s one thing where I realized I was not doing something correctly and to the best of my ability, and we shifted, so it’s only been a few months, but I’ve already seen major improvements from it.
Tony Zayas 29:41
Very cool. So when did you guys implement EOS?
Brynn Gibbs 29:44
We’re still in the process. So it takes like six to nine months. So we started at the end of last year. And I’m a big fan and it all circles back to the right person being in the right seat.
Tony Zayas 29:55
Yeah, yeah, we were in the EOS company as well. So good. like that, and yeah, and a lot of your approach, you know, certainly fits with that. So So that’s great. I’d like to shift gears a little bit just to talk about, you know, your growth and like focus. I know, you mentioned, you started with us some B’s. And you mentioned growing to these larger, you know, enterprise, large brands, multi locations, all that kind of stuff, what were, you know, one or two things that really helped you gain traction and grow, you know, moving in that direction.
Brynn Gibbs 30:30
So, two and a half years ago, we hired an advisor in the franchising space. And she helped us kind of strategize how to break into the franchising industry. And this is what allowed us to start working with larger brands, we have definitely made a name for ourselves in that space now. So we are now going to do the same and work with an advisor in the medical field, that way, you can make more of a splash in that area. So for us, it was definitely working with an advisor, and just finding ways to kind of break into industries that we didn’t have a strong name in yet.
Tony Zayas 31:08
So how do you you know, from a marketing standpoint, how do you guys, what are the, what are the areas of greatest focus that drives the most new customers for you?
Brynn Gibbs 31:19
It’s PPC for small businesses right now. And then what we’ll do to get our foot in the door for larger brands, is we offer a complimentary two month pilot, where we will just work for free to show them the types of results they can expect with consumer fusion, that has worked with every large prospect I’ve had except for one, and that was just because they did not have a high volume of reviews in general. So it has definitely been a good ROI for the two month pilot for every brands that we brought on, in run that two month pilot with.
Tony Zayas 31:55
That’s great. Something that we like to talk to our guests about is, you know, mentors, and other like networks, like where do you? Who do you lean on? To get that outside perspective step outside of the business? Is that something that you know, you and your husband can have those conversations? Or do you like having, you know, a completely more of an outside view, you know, as well.
Brynn Gibbs 32:22
So when I first started, it was just my husband and I leaning on each other. I wish I knew then what I know now, in franchising, there is a huge support system of not just women, but just people wanting to support, empower and help one another. And I, of course, recently, started working with a business coach who has already made so many beneficial changes, I highly encourage people to consider that option as well. And of course, in the beginning, when you’re starting up, you don’t necessarily have the opportunity and funds to do those things. But there are so many leaders in all industries who are willing to, you know, share their expertise or lend a hand or do connection for you. I was too intimidated and nervous to even look into that in the beginning. And I just put all of the weight on my shoulders and figured out you know, a way to do it myself. Looking back had I just been a little more open and confident. You know, I think things could have happened for me quicker. So and I think part of it also circles back to my insecurities from when I was bullied, I it took a lot of time and years and experience for me to be comfortable. Seven years ago, I would have never done this podcast. And that was on me. But I’m glad that I have grown. And I’m now confident enough to be out there. So that’s always my advice is figure out, you know who you can meet who can connect you with the right people? And just get out there. Don’t worry about what other people might think.
Tony Zayas 33:49
Yeah, that’s great. You can’t do it all by yourself. That’s for sure. So I would love to hear two weeks ago, we have another founder on that talked about a business coach. And you know, sometimes when you’re in, depending where you’re at, geographically, sometimes you’re in a community for entrepreneurs, and you can learn so much and there’s incubators and all that. And sometimes you’re either not in those areas, or you just personality wise, not someone who can get out and work like like others can, comes a little more challenging. And so the guests we had mentioned, you know, the idea that that he works with a business coach, and that was that outside perspective that was so powerful for him. So I that was the first time we I think it was episode 50 something here. That was the first time business coach was mentioned. And now you’re again. So I would love to hear more about that because I think that is a great option that should be explored. I would love to hear your experience like how did you find your coach and what are some of the things that what are some of the perspectives and things that the coach brings to the table that otherwise you don’t have?
Brynn Gibbs 35:00
So Mike was a personal referral from a partner of mine who has had great success in his industry. And so when he recommended this business coach, I already went into it knowing what he’s capable of doing. And it’s kind of like an in someone’s personal life, I feel like every person needs therapy, I feel like every business owner needs a business coach. It’s just, they give you that outside perspective, they help you learn social styles of your team, as well as your clients and your prospects. And you know, they have experience in, you know, things that you don’t, and it is just somebody who is there to kind of help guide you on a path to success. It is relatively newer for me. So I wish I could give more thorough examples. But I can say in the short time that I’ve started doing this, it’s already been so eye opening, like kicking myself, like, why didn’t I think of that? And why didn’t I implement that five years ago, but in other things, like constantly reading, he has us reading a book every week, which I think is so important. Excuse me, but I highly recommend that people look into a business coach, if it’s something that they are considering.
Tony Zayas 36:14
It’s funny that you mentioned kind of like, almost like on the personal side. The other founder that we had actually started, the person he was working with was a relationship coach working with, with him on a personal personal standpoint, and then the conversation started to pivot more towards business. And so then that became the engagement and he wants somewhere else for the relationship advice and work and love, it would be interesting, because it it’s that idea of you know, the communication and outside, you know, having that outside perspective. And you like you said, not necessarily it’s sometimes why didn’t I think of that? It’s the simple things, you’re just missing from your current view, that can be beneficial. So really cool. That is something. Yeah, I think it’s a great, you know, thing that you mentioned that to bring up. So yeah, I wish you luck in continuing down that path. So that’s fantastic. Brynn would love to hear you know, what is on deck, what is what is the next three years in your mind look like for the business?
Brynn Gibbs 37:21
Well, I have a goal to, you know, had 25% growth every year. And I’m really into all the AI technology that we’re bringing into the platform, what we’re currently working on, is for owners responses to reviews. Currently, we have automated owners responses, because for large brands to have somebody manually responding to reviews, it’s very time consuming when there’s thousands of reviews across thousands of locations. But at the end of the day, they’re templated, they don’t have that personable approach. So we are using natural language learning, processing and some AI to where via through review sentiment. A business can plug in their keywords and categories. And then we can have templates based off of those keywords and categories. So if there’s a review, somebody’s talking about a long wait time, we can have a template pertaining to wait time to where the correct template will respond to just give it more of a personable approach. Because right now the automated owners responses work, but they can get better and get more personal. So that is what’s on my radar and brands that I’m kind of playing ideas off with. I’ve asked to beta test for me are loving it. Nobody else is doing it. So that is my next thing. And you know, things can change in a drop of a hat tech moves quick. So we could wake up tomorrow and Yelp could be gone. Or Google could be you know, doing something else like Google used to have the seven pack for local listings. And then they realized they made more money with PPC. So they dropped it to a three pack. So you just kind of always have to be ready to shift. So I always have a vision short and long term. But I’m also like, I have no idea what tomorrow could bring. And I’m ready to pivot even though I really tried not to say pivot anymore during covid.
Tony Zayas 39:12
Those words that have been overnight. Well, very cool. Where can people who are tuned in paying attention want to learn more about the business? I believe it’s just consumerfusion.com. What about you following the journey learning more? Where can people engage with you?
Brynn Gibbs 39:34
On my LinkedIn. It’s just at Brynn Gibbs. That’s the social platform I post the most done.
Tony Zayas 39:39
Awesome. And yeah, I’d recommend anybody go check out consumerfusion.com. Brent, before we conclude here for the day. Final question, one that we always try to wrap up these conversations with is if you couldn’t go back you’ve been doing this for some time now. What if you can go back in time to sit down with Brynn before starting the business and have a cup of coffee, you know, your past self? What What advice would you give?
Brynn Gibbs 40:12
I really liked this question. And I would tell myself not to give up because there have been thousands of hurdles that I’ve had to overcome over the years, and it has been so hard. But it’s also been so rewarding, because I’m so passionate about what I do. So I would just tell myself not to give up. And also that through this journey, I’m how much I would develop and learn. And I have made the most amazing relationships along the way through my team, clients, partners. And it’s really just given me a great life. So I’m glad that I didn’t give up because there were definitely times where it was tempting to and that would have been the easy thing to do. But that that would be what I would tell myself if I could go back in time, just how much good there was to expect in just a few short years.
Tony Zayas 41:08
That is awesome. I love it. Well, everybody, go check out consumerfusion.com This is Brynn Gibbs, CEO and founder there. Thank you so much for your time here today, Brynn. It’s been a great conversation, and we appreciate you spending the time here.
Brynn Gibbs 41:23
Of course happy to you. Thank you for having me, Tony. It was nice meeting.
Tony Zayas 41:26
Likewise, take care of everybody that’s tuning in. Again. Thank you. We will see you again next week with another fascinating founder. But again, thanks for your time today Brynn and we will see you guys next time.
Brynn Gibbs 41:40
Bye. Take care. Thanks everybody.