The Philosophy of Unleadership with Steve Krull, CEO and Co-Founder of Be Found Online

In this episode of Getting to Aha!, Darshan Mehta is joined by Steve Krull, CEO and Co-Founder of Be Found Online, A strategy-driven, people-focused digital marketing agency connecting brands and humans in innovative ways. They discuss Steve’s philosophy of “unleadership”, why it’s important to let people make mistakes so they can learn from them, and how to decide what to focus on as a business leader. They also discuss how digital marketing has changed since the COVID-19 pandemic and why customer experience should always equal business performance.

Previously, Steve was the VP of Strategy and Sales at Huble Digital and excelled in what he calls “unleadership”. He believes in collaboration and leading by example; remaining vulnerable and open to new ideas, accepting feedback…and doing good things.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

👉Steve defines “unleadership” in business as more of a philosophy than a methodology. It all comes down to being a good person and trusting the people and your team around you, and once you do that, your leadership characteristics will shine through.

👉People learn from their experiences and their mistakes. As a leader of a team or an organization, you have to let people make mistakes and hit walls, otherwise, they won’t learn what you want them to. Some leaders may see this as a frivolous exercise, but Steve believes it’s necessary. It affords them the opportunity to grow.

👉As a leader, you must decide what to focus on. Steve talks about how communication strategies are something that all leaders should think about. How are you having conversations? How are you presenting facts to people? The way you deliver a message to someone else is so important, and exactly the same can be said for an organization's brand and marketing.

👉Steve’s wife was diagnosed with cancer at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, and he describes her as an inspiration. Although there were some tough times, and it can be easy to bury your head in the sand and avoid everything, it's all about how you get back up and keep moving forward. At some point, you have to face everything rather than run away. The same idea applies to business - if you’re losing customers, face it, figure out the reasoning, and learn.

👉The customer experience should always equal the business’ performance. If you were to go to a restaurant and the food was good, but the service was bad, you might give it another shot just to see, and the same if the roles were swapped. However, if both are bad, then no amount of marketing or advertising will fix that. You have to make sure your customer experience is always the best it can be.

👉As a result of COVID-19, more money and effort have gone into digital marketing. Although it seems like this was the direction it was going in anyway, it was only accelerated by the pandemic; there have been massive changes in analytics and privacy. People expect more from businesses than they did before, resulting in them carrying a heavier weight of responsibility.

Listen now!

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Youtube - https://bit.ly/3KYAHtd

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Episode Resources

Steve Krull Linkedin

Steve Krull on Instagram

Steve Krull on Twitter

Be Found Online Website

Getting to Aha! with Darshan Mehta is hand crafted by our friends over at: fame.so

Previous guests include: Luca Popovac, Senior Executive, Abhilasha Sinha of Open Secret, Laura Beavin-Yates, Stephen Griffiths of Level 2, Kristin Luck or ScaleHouse, Melina Palmer of The Brainy Business, Nicolas Zeisler of We’re Doing CX Wrong and How To Get It Right, Pricilla McKinney of Little Bird Marketing, Brooke Sellas of B Squared Marketing and Joseph Michelli of The Michelli Experience.

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