“We're builders in the sense that we build culture.” Kyle Hodges knows how to pivot. He has pivoted in his career and he has helped his company pivot during covid. In this Growth Series event, Kyle Hodges discusses how to stay afloat during covid, offline and organic strategies to expand brand awareness and how to build a community around your product. When Kyle started at Dark Matter Coffee in Chicago, he had no connections and no budget for marketing. His main objective strategy to grow the brand and be a staple in Chicago was to be a major culture driver and to be fun. His strategy started with unconventional events with local beer festivals and concerts. After the first year, Dark Matter saw the correlation between beer lovers and coffee lovers and developed partnerships with breweries and artists. His goal is to always push boundaries and not fall into hitting the same audience. Dark Matter has never purchased social media ads or paid advertising, instead they find success in collaborations, and partnerships across the city. And now? They continue to lean on their community to stay afloat during covid and continue to help others as well. The key takeaways for surviving covid are: 1.Communication is key. Communicate with your internal team and communicate with your consumers on regulation, hours and business operations. 2. Utilize your immediate resources. Dark Matter only paid for necessities and stayed within their budgets. Their goal was to maintain, not to grow. 3. Help everyone you possibly can and it will come back full circle. Kyle and the Dark Matter team gave away archived merchandise to artists and their community so they can sell for themselves. 4. Create efficiency by reducing overhead. Dark Matter Coffee reduced their menu options and staff when they were not operating at full capacity. About the Panelist: Kyle is a Hoosier native, living in Chicago with 20+ years in the entertainment business. He started his own record business, later had to declare bankruptcy due to the industry however has pivoted his career to move past the tough times. Kyle has deep rooted marketing and public relations experience with a focus on disrupting the norm and testing innovative strategy for his brands. He is an expert on adapting skills that have allowed him to pivot both personally and professionally during Covid. As the Minister of Propaganda at Dark Matter Coffee, he drives lead generation and collaboration for the brand. Reserve your spot at future free events--- https://www.visualfizz.com/growth-series ▶︎ Instagram: @visualfizz ▶︎ Twitter: @visualfizz ▶︎ Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/visualfizz ▶︎ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/visualfizz From inspiration of "How I Built This" Podcast, Growth Series was born. Growth is one of the best problems a business can have. It is also something that you, as a business owner, Director, C-Suite individual, or team member have to deal with on a regular basis. Whether it's closing a sale, seeking outside funding from investors, hosting a successful networking event, hiring new members, or even simply not going crazy, you have to be mindful about the actions you take when growth happens. This is why we launched the Growth Series networking event. Many of us have questions and few of us have all of the answers. VisualFizz, a digital marketing agency that predominantly works with 'growth stage' businesses has been asked these questions constantly and we felt that it's time to provide you with some answers. We have asked the best and brightest to speak up and chat with us AND YOU about what they've learned through their years of GROWING their own thing and their marketing strategies for small businesses. These individuals are industry leaders, founders of notable companies, sales geniuses, event hosts and personalities, and so much more.