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Experiences is a podcast about humans creating happy memories through their participation in the experience economy. We discuss how brick and mortar retail is changing rapidly, the clear winners in the experience economy, and visit with brands that are not just surviving, but thriving.
Welcome to The Experiences Podcast. My name is Mark Sandeno. I'm here with Chip Keyes.
Chip Keyes:Hey. How's it going?
Mark Sandeno:Well, Chip, Chip, thanks for asking. It's going very well. This is our first podcast. There was one, but we're gonna delete it. And so if you're listening to this, you're probably not gonna hear it.
Mark Sandeno:It might live on somewhere, but it's certainly not gonna be on our podcast channel. We love experiences. Who doesn't?
Chip Keyes:Yeah. It's fun to do things.
Mark Sandeno:It is fun to do things. And is it that simple? Is it that simple that just doing things can improve our lives, improve everyone's lives? Well, that's what this podcast is about. We have ulterior motives or is it ulterior or ulterior?
Chip Keyes:Oh, that's a good question. I don't know. Alteria. I think it's Ulterior.
Mark Sandeno:If only we had the Internet to look it up, but it is definitely spelled u lterior. So it's Ulterior. Yep. These ulterior motives are to promote and to put into use technology that we created to help anyone help people create happy memories. And that's that's our mission.
Mark Sandeno:Let's start with that. Our mission is to help people create happy memories together, and there's a way that we do this. Mhmm. We do it through technology we created that helps anyone or any brand curate experiences for people.
Chip Keyes:Yeah. I think it's important too that you don't need technology to do it. You can do these kinds of experiences without it.
Mark Sandeno:Exactly. You know what I was thinking? We just redid our patio in the backyard. And in my mind, I'm thinking, man, this is gonna be great. We'll get this patio done.
Mark Sandeno:We've got our smokeless fire pit for so my neighbor Holly doesn't get tormented by the smoke because she's pointed that out before when we didn't have a smokeless. And I'm gonna get a bunch of guys together. We're just gonna hang out, and we're just gonna be, like, this is all it'll be is essential. And bear with me because I want you to do this with me. Just, just, raucous laughter.
Mark Sandeno:We'll be around the fire. We were like, and it'll just be that's in my mind. That's what it is. Yeah. And I haven't done it yet.
Mark Sandeno:Yeah. You don't need technology to get people together in your backyard.
Chip Keyes:No. You do need some better weather than Washington has had lately.
Mark Sandeno:That is so true. Chip and I, who is the CTO of Experiences, I am the CEO, live in Washington state. Mhmm.
Chip Keyes:Not not the capital.
Mark Sandeno:How would you yeah. That's right. You know? And by the way, it is patently unfair how often in news and media in Washington today. We're like, oh, news for Washington.
Mark Sandeno:No. It's Washington DC. Can you convey what the weather is like here really quick now that we've mentioned it?
Chip Keyes:I mean, right now, it's it's the stereotype. It's what everyone thinks of when they're like, oh, Seattle. It's like gray and rainy. And it's but but, like, at this time of year, it's not supposed to be that way. It's supposed to be sunny and warm ish.
Chip Keyes:I mean, relative to where you live. Like, it's not gonna be Florida.
Mark Sandeno:Yeah. And we're we're we're June 17th 2022. As a quick antidote, my wife and I, when we first got married 20 years ago, we moved down to Arizona and then to Southwest Colorado, and then we eventually moved back here about, 13 years ago. And I remember this was back when you would still go to Blockbuster to run a movie. Uh-huh.
Mark Sandeno:And and they would say, can I see your license, please? That's how they would look up your account. Mhmm. And I would hand over my license and I still had a Washington license. I don't know how I got away with it for so long because we've lived in Arizona and Colorado for years.
Mark Sandeno:Some I don't know why I had a Washington license or I was using that as an ID. And I remember one time, more than one time, but one time in particular, this guy goes,
Mark Sandeno:Oh man, why would you ever move away from Washington? I'm like, oh, yeah. It's great. I like it. It's like, man, it's the best. That's the best place.
Mark Sandeno:I'm like, well, Colorado is pretty cool too. Man, I I was up there. The weather, it's just so amazing. I'm like, yeah. When did you go up there?
Mark Sandeno:Oh, it was July, and I'm like, let me guess you went to, like, Pike Place Market in Green Lake. Oh, yeah. It was amazing. It was just,
Mark Sandeno:oh, so green and so beautiful and so sunny. I'm like, well, that's the siren song of the Pacific Northwest. People people get off the cruise ship or off out of their caravan, and they they're hanging out in Seattle in July August. And then, you know, it's pretty grain rainy the rest of the year. And then this guy goes, oh, I love the rain.
Mark Sandeno:I love the rain, man. The rain's so cool.
Mark Sandeno:And I'm like, you like Southwest Colorado rain Yeah. Where it's sunny all day, and then 7 clouds come from nowhere. It's like they're stalled in the sky or clicked into place. Yeah. They rain furiously.
Mark Sandeno:Clear 2 minutes. Just for 2 minutes. Everything gets cleaned up. All the anything that's in the sky is gone. And then
Chip Keyes:and There's a nice smell afterwards. You're like, oh, nice.
Mark Sandeno:It's like patch patchouli meets sandalwood meets lavender. Yep. It it's like a and and then then and then someone uninstalls the clouds and it's sunny again and everyone's happy. Yeah. That's not what happens in Washington.
Mark Sandeno:And like, oh, man. No. I love the rain. I'm like, okay. Picture this.
Mark Sandeno:And I actually did this with this guy. You're sitting in your car, and you're on this road, and you almost can't see at your windshield because your windshield wipers have given up. Yeah. Because it's been raining for 60 days straight.
Chip Keyes:Yeah. And somehow they're still squeaking even though it's wet.
Mark Sandeno:Yeah. And the weather doesn't even have the decency to really rain. It's just kinda like kinda raining. And the clouds like, take a gray blanket, get it really wet, and kinda install it just above your eyebrows and put it over the top of your head. Yep.
Mark Sandeno:So the ceiling of the sky feels like it's barely beyond the height of your head. Yeah. And it's never fully light.
Chip Keyes:But but it's not dark.
Mark Sandeno:But it's not dark. Anyways, people from the Pacific Northwest will be like, you jerks. Yeah. But it hey. That's not an exaggeration.
Mark Sandeno:It can get that way. Yeah. Anyways, I think we might be a bit off topic, but we are talking about experiences and living in the northwest is an amazing experience. Mostly wonderful, temperate, beautiful.
Chip Keyes:No no, animals or bugs trying to kill you.
Mark Sandeno:No. No copperheads in your backyard. Slugs slugs in your backyard. And I one one might ask, would you rather have a copperhead chase you or step on a slug with bare feet? Oh.
Mark Sandeno:That's a tough one.
Chip Keyes:That's tough.
Mark Sandeno:Yeah. Because that's pretty gross. Anyways, Chip and I are here to share with you the glory of experiences. Once again, our mission is is to help people, any people, and mostly we do this with retail brands.
Chip Keyes:Mhmm.
Mark Sandeno:Curate experiences that lead to happy memories. And here's the secret. It's a great business to be in. Yeah. If you if you are a candle making workshop, if you're a kitchen supply store doing, cooking classes, we see an incredible variety of, experiential stuff happening.
Chip Keyes:Yeah. And it's only growing, especially coming out of the pandemic. We see just everyone and their brother is like, I I do a thing, and that and it turns out other people like to do that thing too. And so let's let's do that thing together.
Mark Sandeno:Yeah. And and we would say this is a polarizing thought. In the world of hustle and everyone trying to find meaning in what they do or trying to find something to do Yeah. We believe that if you wanna be successful, you should start an experience business. Yeah.
Mark Sandeno:You really should. And the mission is not just to sell stuff in person or people doing stuff, which you can also do this stuff virtually, but it's because being in the business of helping people create happy memories together is by far the best business to be in.
Chip Keyes:Yeah. And I think there's a fatigue of stuff, but there's but there's an overwhelming, excitement for for experiences.
Mark Sandeno:Peak goods has happened. It used to be there were 5 or less toasters on the market. You went to the local toaster or small appliance repair shop. Now, we just throw them into the garbage because there's 50,000 toasters. Stuff does not regale us anymore.
Mark Sandeno:The smartphone market, for instance, one thing that used to be super exciting, it's just like incremental minor improvements. Unless you're a complete photography nut nut job, you're really not even noticing the incremental improvements. But what we do know is everybody, this felt need of creating happy memories. And we're not even thinking about it that way. We're thinking, I I want to do go be with some people, and the result is I'm creating happy memories that over time actually mutate and become nostalgia.
Mark Sandeno:This is a this is an amazing thing to explore, to talk about, and an amazing thing to, business to be in. And that's what we wanna do with this podcast. Yeah. We want to inspire, you laugh together and explore the possibilities. And, we're gonna get in this first podcast into a little bit of who we are, what we've done, why we do it.
Mark Sandeno:We're gonna share one cool experience, and then what's next for us in this podcast. So, Chip, I wanna start with you. Who who is Chip Keys or Kip Cheese?
Chip Keyes:Oh, man. I haven't heard that nickname since college. But, I am the CTO for experiences. I mostly am you know, heads down on the code stuff, and, people don't care about that in terms of, what that looks like on the outside, but they they want the app to keep working. But, I I have grown more and more passionate about the experiences economy as I've seen the people that use our app, that are successful with our app, that, that I interact with on a daily basis because I'm the one that that is in the little chat bubble in the corner.
Chip Keyes:And,
Mark Sandeno:yeah, I think that's I'm in that chat bubble sometimes too. I used to be more. Yeah. And to your chagrin, I'm not there more often than doing support. So one one thing to point out, the experience economy, there's this well, there's this book called The Experience Economy written by these guys, Joseph Pines and Gilmore.
Mark Sandeno:Mhmm. Pines and Gilmore. 22 guys. It's sports entertainment, travel, and dining. It's massive.
Mark Sandeno:Right? I potentially 1,000,000,000,000 of dollars, certainly 1,000,000,000 of dollars. It's every stadium show. It's every sporting event. It's every time people shove themselves into a tube in the sky to buy airplane tickets to go somewhere.
Mark Sandeno:And we really live in the kind of the long tail of the experience economy, the the odd edge case kind of stuff.
Chip Keyes:Yeah. Right? Which is booming.
Mark Sandeno:Which is booming. And and we think it's actually in aggregate in total, potentially bigger than the big tracked categories Yeah. Of sports entertainment travel 90. Because while it's relevant, it's, you know, I don't know that anyone is tracking the Ducks Unlimited canoe experience. Yeah.
Mark Sandeno:Or the Candle Land Miami candle making experience in 3 locations in Florida. Yeah. But we consider it all the same thing, which is, you know, someone saying, I want to have an experience, and they're not going to a stadium show. They're not booking a seat at a restaurant. They're not flying somewhere, but they're getting the same intrinsic value, which is Yeah.
Mark Sandeno:I'm going to I mean, and here's the absurdity of it. Right? You can get a candle anywhere, but I'm paying I'm paying some money. Let's say, 35 to $50 to go with a couple friends. Maybe they're my besties.
Mark Sandeno:To contribute my own labor. I'm grabbing a vessel off the wall. I'm putting hot wax in there, placing the wick. I'm doing some scent, mixing some scent. The thing could end up with a big bubble in it and smell horrible.
Chip Keyes:Mhmm.
Mark Sandeno:But it's super valuable to me because it represents a happy memory I created with my friends. It's like a it's a totem for a good time.
Chip Keyes:Yeah. Right? And I think the, the idea of, like, the long tail being, you know, eve potentially, in aggregate bigger is in in and of itself kind of a testament to the experience economy and and what people are craving. And it's this, small there's sort of a revival of this, like, handcrafted experience. Like, the the huge stadium events, They're fun.
Chip Keyes:It's fun to go watch your favorite sports team to see the big concert or whatever, but it doesn't feel as intimate and curated as this small, you know, 15 person experience or, like, we went to a dinner over in, Prosser for doing some wine tasting and, the the restaurant was this, like, super farm to table, awesome food restaurant. But but then you felt like you were sitting there, like, done the the design of the restaurant and, like, you felt like you were sitting in your grandma's kitchen. There's cookbooks, like, stacked up. The the chefs are, like, right there in the kitchen with, like, an island, and they're plating you're watching them plate the food and cut the herbs from the garden and stuff. It's like that is, like, the testament to the experience economy.
Mark Sandeno:Right. And that is a part of of of making experiences great. It's the theater of it. It's the staging of it. And when you get good and we're gonna talk about all this stuff over time, the, the plan, arrive, experience, remember, and return stacked under each one of those, and that's, our friend Lauren, O'Loughlin introduced me to this concept, the payer model.
Mark Sandeno:Plan, arrive, experience, remember, return. I think it's a it's a really good mnemonic, to remember, how you can organize experiences. That was a very thoughtful thing they did. Right?
Chip Keyes:Yeah.
Mark Sandeno:So yeah. Going back to who you are, Chip. You you're a technologist. You're a cool guy. You you were previously in what was your previous career before you went back to school?
Chip Keyes:Oh, biomed research.
Mark Sandeno:Yeah. And you worked for? Fred Hutch. Yeah. Do what heart medication experimentation.
Mark Sandeno:Yep. Right.
Chip Keyes:A little bit of everything there.
Mark Sandeno:And you and you got in to this industry because what was the impetus for for changing careers? And how how old were you when you did that?
Chip Keyes:So the the desire came about from doing, data analysis in the lab that I was working in. It turns out to do crunch numbers like that, you need to to understand some computer programming. I kinda still, for a while, wanted to stay in the biomed world. And so I started going back to school for bioinformatics. Eventually realized that I just like the programming side of things, shifted to full computer science, and I think I finished that when I was about 26.
Mark Sandeno:And is that because you don't like people? That's You just wanted to be in a cubicle somewhere writing code?
Chip Keyes:Yeah. That did play a factor into it. But, you know, sometimes people are nice.
Mark Sandeno:Yeah. Yeah. I mean, get you
Chip Keyes:Ironically, now I'm I'm chatting with people on a regular basis.
Mark Sandeno:Yeah. And you're you're a wonderful, affable affable human. You're just just just delightful.
Chip Keyes:Oh, thanks.
Mark Sandeno:And, a little bit about me. I am, well, I don't know that I have any skills other than trying things and succeeding and failing in in various states. Years ago, me and one of the people that, worked for our company, Helpful Human, which is our consulting company, were thinking, what would we really be into? And we thought about what moved us and what was happening in our economy and thought, you know, the best things in life are the experiential. It can happen anywhere.
Mark Sandeno:It can happen at work. It can happen just out in our everyday life. It can happen preplanned as a family, as friends. Can we get into that business? And that's where we decided to, get into launching experiences.
Mark Sandeno:I'm not a developer. I'm not a salesperson. I'm not a marketing guy. I am I guess, I'm an entrepreneur Mhmm. Insufferable.
Mark Sandeno:And, and
Chip Keyes:All that that word entails.
Mark Sandeno:Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Coming from an employee, that's very meaningful. And, yeah, that's my thing.
Mark Sandeno:I really enjoy starting things and and seeing them become successful. Unfortunately, I don't always have the skills that it takes to make something successful. I have great starting skills, and that's why I rely on people like you who really know how to move the needle.
Sponsor Message:The experiences podcast is sponsored by The experiences app. As a modern retailer, you know that offering bookable experiences brings people together to create happy memories with your goods and services at the center of the action. With the experiences app, you can add bookable experiences to any Shopify store with just a few clicks. It seamlessly integrates with any existing Shopify theme and allows for your customers to book future experiences and pay for them through your store or the Shopify point of sale when they arrive. From cat cafes to brewery tours, from candle making workshops to goat yoga, you can create memorable experiences for your brand that will bring your customers together to gladly spend their money with you and share their happy memories with the world.
Sponsor Message:Go to experiencesapp.com to learn how you can add bookable experiences to your Shopify store, and enjoy all the easy to use features and fantastic support you'll need to succeed as the kind of business people just can't wait to visit. That's experiencesapp.com.
Mark Sandeno:This podcast isn't going to be over time just about what our tool is. It's really gonna be about the stories that come out of people who use our tool or have what we think are amazing experiences that everyone should consider doing. It's going to be about their stories, how they succeed and fail, their doubts, their fears, and their hopes and their dreams. And and we just really look forward to learning more about them. And by the way, we have thousands of people using our app.
Mark Sandeno:We have 100 at this point in the business of them using it on a daily basis. And so we're gonna focus on those daily users. Mhmm. They're off the top of our head. What are what are some of the, like, common and uncommon experiences?
Mark Sandeno:It's hard when I put you on the spot.
Chip Keyes:Yeah. No. I'm I'm seeing a lot of museums. There's a lot of, drinks. You know, we've seen a lot of distilleries, wineries, breweries, all of those, you know, beverages.
Chip Keyes:And then I I think one some of the more interesting ones is these these shops that I see that, started off more product focused. They're they, you know, what was that? There was a flavored water one that came up, recently, but they they have a brand of of the fizzy flavored water.
Mark Sandeno:Yeah.
Chip Keyes:But they like many retailers that we see, realize that there's value in the experience on top of their product. And so while they've built a successful brand, they've also decided that they're gonna start doing, experiences over that. And I think, they were doing, they might have been doing cooking classes or or making your own, making your own flavor of water. I can't remember.
Mark Sandeno:That prompts, remembering there's, perfume perfumerase
Chip Keyes:Mhmm.
Mark Sandeno:That you you they sell perfume Yep. Scents, but they have workshops where you come and they do a consultation, and then they help you mix and create your own. Mhmm. Lot of candle making workshops.
Chip Keyes:Yeah.
Mark Sandeno:Boy, I can tell all you who are listening, if you wanna be successful in one very particular, very niche thing, start a candle making workshop. We have one who shall remain nameless in less than a year at $50 a pop from, I think, almost from 0 Yeah. Did $1,000,000 in revenue.
Chip Keyes:Yeah.
Mark Sandeno:At $50 per person using our platform. Yeah. Kind of it's kinda mind boggling. Yeah. Cooking classes.
Mark Sandeno:And then and then odd stuff like, it boy, they're not museums. They're not passive entertainment experiences. They are, a combination of merch and food and entertainment and virtual reality and AR and VR. We've had, oh, one is, Northern Ireland silver where you can come with your family or children. You can learn all about silver.
Mark Sandeno:You can make jewelry. Just a whole host Mhmm. Of of experiences. You know, some of the other cool ones and we have customers all over the world. It's amazing.
Mark Sandeno:They show up every day. We have, customers who have, legacy I don't know. It's almost like Downton Abbey style, like, Estates.
Chip Keyes:Oh, yeah.
Mark Sandeno:And they'll they'll come in, you know, picnic picnic experience or, dress up as a as a someone who would work in the home. Yeah. Like, it's just it's unbelievable. Yeah.
Chip Keyes:Agrotourism is a big one too.
Mark Sandeno:Agrotourism. Yeah. Come and
Chip Keyes:pick our apples for for us.
Mark Sandeno:Yeah. Yeah. And that's, that's one of the funny things. I I met with a, a brewery the other day. They have 16 locations.
Mark Sandeno:And and one of the things that we see across the board that is a very powerful thing to know and believe is it it matters less what the actual thing they're learning or doing is. Mhmm. What matters most to people is they're actualizing time together and creating happy memories. And I think the perfect example is candle making. Yeah.
Mark Sandeno:I mean, that's the ultimate commodity. Yeah. You could go anywhere online or many places online, order a candle, professionally made Mhmm. And guaranteed to smell good
Chip Keyes:And burn properly.
Mark Sandeno:And burn properly. And it would not that making candles is that crazy, but I know you can screw up a candle. Oh, yeah. I have. Yeah.
Mark Sandeno:And it will be sometimes shipped to you same day or within a very short amount of time, and it's gonna cost you less.
Chip Keyes:Yeah.
Mark Sandeno:People are paying a premium to go and create essentially a subpar candle. Yep. But what is actually of value there is you've given me something to do with people that I know and love, and the value is I've created a memory that is more precious to me. Yeah. Than any one thing I could create or consume.
Mark Sandeno:Yeah. That is the business to be in right there. Full stop. Polarizing statement, That is the business to get into.
Chip Keyes:Yeah. Exactly. I think that, you know, for I don't know how many articles I see written right now of, like, the top five things to start, you know, making money of, building wealth or whatever. And it's like and there are all these these, you know, write your blogs, write your, you know, start a consulting thing. It's like, no.
Chip Keyes:We're seeing people use our app to to build these, not just side hustles, but huge businesses all based on this premise, which is that people wanna get out and do things with their friends and family.
Mark Sandeno:Yeah. And millennials, that generation, spend I'd have to get out my stats again. Something like 3 to 4 times more than previous generation on experiential kind of stuff. Mhmm. And I'm I don't have data on Gen z, but I'm assuming it's the same.
Mark Sandeno:Millennials will sell their couch to take a trip. Right? But why is that? Well, there's this felt need to connect and actualize memory making. The other thing is, and I can't remember what book this was, but we think we have some pretty good data on it actually dispels anxiety.
Mark Sandeno:So creating memories reduces anxiety, and boy, if there's something we need these days, it's anxiety reduction. Yeah. Can I get an amen? Amen. Alright.
Mark Sandeno:So what we've done is we've created it's essentially a booking app. Mhmm. Okay. But we can both agree the world needs another booking app or ticketing or reservation system like it needs another hole in its head. Yeah.
Mark Sandeno:So in your understanding, Chip, and this is putting you on the spot. Oh, man. What is different about experiences, and why does it matter?
Chip Keyes:I think what is different about experiences is, that we are wholly committed to coming alongside you, staying on brand, and, on your domain inside of your, experience. And and we really fully believe that
Mark Sandeno:Versus losing them to Eventbrite, Ticketmaster, x y z brand, booking, whatever. Yep. Okay?
Chip Keyes:And we fully believe that the experience starts at the booking process. Like, it's not when your customer shows up. It's when they start you know, if we go back to the pair model plan, it starts at that moment when they're like, I wanna do something. And and so that's where experiences inserts itself and, works to make that process as enjoyable and seamless as possible.
Mark Sandeno:I would say something about that planning step. This is often forgotten by people that anticipation
Chip Keyes:Mhmm.
Mark Sandeno:Of the future event leads to this concept of increased savoring Yeah. Before you actually consume the experience. And then when you consume the experience, it's much more significant. It's heightened.
Chip Keyes:Yeah. The other thing is that we're just we're not interested in being just another booking tool. Like, we, we see the value in this economy, and so our interaction with you is going to be around building that experience experiential commerce system, not just here's how you take bookings and set up schedules.
Mark Sandeno:Right. Couple other distinctives. Well said, Chip. Well said. Is, we are not an ecommerce system.
Mark Sandeno:We integrate with other ecommerce systems. Right now, our primary integration is with Shopify.
Chip Keyes:Mhmm.
Mark Sandeno:There's a we wanna be an integrator, and that's why we are building features like our Zapier connection and our connection to Zoom and building custom custom integrations with other platforms that help retailers, whether they're startups, a battery powered Seattle based bike tour that also sells Merge, or let's say you're a a d two c brand. Right? And this is what we're seeing. We're seeing Casper, Warby, Parker, you know, and all those d to c brands realize that they've gotta get into the lives of their consumers. So we're seeing some of those brands start to do prebooked, preanticipated moments.
Mark Sandeno:Mhmm. And sometimes it's not about, you know, let's say it's a a kitchen supply store. It's not just about, book, an appointment to come and get your knives sharpened or something like that.
Chip Keyes:It's it is Or come watch a demo of us using our kitchen. Right.
Mark Sandeno:It's an it's an affinity based thing. So it would be a cooking class or a a chef luminary coming to do an interactive something or other because they understand that when we get people in creating memories with our brand at the center Mhmm. We become unforgettable in a critical part of people's lives. It creates FOMO. They share with other people.
Chip Keyes:And they buy and they buy the things that they were gonna buy that they probably weren't gonna buy before the experience.
Mark Sandeno:They they spend more money because they have and anyone listening to this know knows what that's like. You know what I think is the perfect example of this? I'm not into NASCAR, but I went to 1 NASCAR event. That is a whole crazy thing, in Phoenix. Big NASCAR event.
Mark Sandeno:I've seen people walking around with NASCAR t shirts before. I can't I how do you stick so many so much graphics on a t shirt? Yeah. By the way, the effigy of the driver, their sponsors, a picture of the car, zooming, or whatever. It's like Yeah.
Mark Sandeno:They're like these little memoriams before the, you know, the driver's still alive, hopefully. Yeah. Right? And I look at those. I was like, why would you why would you ever it's kinda like concert merch, by the way, as well.
Mark Sandeno:It's like, I went to, I don't know, Slipknot, and on the back is a printout of all their tour tour stops. Right? And you're kinda like, that's, I mean, why would you go out of your way to to buy something like that? Well, when you're in a NASCAR event or a Slipknot concert, you're fully brought into an experience and you wanna commemorate it. You wanna it's you know, here's I'm wearing this, you know, as a signal of my affiliations, I guess, too.
Mark Sandeno:But it's meaningful to me, the person wearing it. Everyone else is like, oh, gosh. What's up with that weird t shirt? Or at least I am because I don't understand NASCAR. Right?
Mark Sandeno:And so, what is my point there? I don't know what my point is. My point is the the the thing that you consume goes hand in hand with the experience you have. Yeah. Leads to higher average order volume, greater customer lifetime value.
Chip Keyes:Yeah. More like, there's a there's a level of, like, loyalty and and sort of, like, this is this is my I'm not just buying a candle. I'm buying their candle because I like them, and we had a fun time there, and I drank wine and stuff.
Mark Sandeno:Yeah. So whether someone is we're seeing these entrepreneurs that have the most simple offering
Chip Keyes:Mhmm.
Mark Sandeno:Doing like, for instance, someone just signed up the other day. If you go to Scotland, you can go on these Scottish excursions and these amazing historical walks. And then what they'll often do is they'll combine it with maybe a scotch tasting or some merch sales. They're building these experiential brands because there's such an incredible hunger and thirst for this stuff. As I say these things, I I'm already thinking about, yeah, when's my next experience that I'm gonna do?
Mark Sandeno:Anyone who's listening to this, like, yeah, you're right. I can either go sit in a bar and and stare into my beer, or I can get people together or join people doing something. It doesn't have to be expensive. It doesn't have to be the latest Coldplay show. There's so much you can do when you look around.
Mark Sandeno:Right? And so what we get at at experiences is we get people who's like, yeah. Okay. Maybe I could start something and sell it on Airbnb experiences. They're gonna take 30% of my top line revenue.
Sponsor Message:Mhmm.
Mark Sandeno:Or I could I could, you know, go to Peak, Kluk, Viator, TripAdvisor. I can do all these things, or I can build a brand. That's what we're getting. We're getting people building these little brands and succeeding Yeah. And struggling to succeed.
Mark Sandeno:Right? And so we wanna we wanna share those and highlight those. Why we did it? If you haven't already figured it out is because we love experiences more than anything. And we when we thought when Chip and I thought and ultimately Pete Albertson who's, no longer with the business but still a friend of the business, when we thought about what do we wanna invest our energy in, it's it's in creating memories ourself and helping others create happy memories.
Mark Sandeno:That's our mission. And we believe retailers and entrepreneurs are the best people in the world to do that. Yeah. So, what's next, Chip? What what are we doing moving forward?
Mark Sandeno:We're still figuring this out.
Chip Keyes:Yeah. Well, so the big one that's been on on our, radar for a while is the Zapier integration, which you mentioned earlier. That's, an an app that I think a lot of people haven't heard of, but don't but are realizing the power of of it as they get it in integrated into their store. But it basically, as Mark said, we wanna be integrators, and so this, is our first step in allowing, things that happen in our app, experiences app, to impact your flows out outside of of our app, places like Mailchimp, Klaviyo, Google Calendar, any any of these other apps. They it's a basically a way to to just connect your our system to all of these other ones.
Chip Keyes:And, and it it stays it goes back to that comment that I made about us, you know, coming alongside you and helping facilitate this experience flow. You guys know best, where what your customers do, where you how you need to track them, how you need to, help them have the best experience ever. And so we wanna integrate with things like Zapier to allow you to control that better than than we know how.
Mark Sandeno:Yeah. And you is talking to anyone out there who wants to do this kind of stuff is already doing this kind of stuff. So, yeah, so continued integration with other systems, making it really stable and robust. We're also creating themes that make it easy. For instance, we have a candle theme.
Mark Sandeno:We have a brewery, winery, distillery theme. We have a workshops and whatever theme. Mhmm. So that's been hard. It's easy to design something.
Mark Sandeno:It's hard to make it work really well. Yeah. Right? So we've we've been struggling to get that done, but we're getting close. Yes.
Mark Sandeno:Very close.
Chip Keyes:We're super close. And it's it's pretty awesome to see, you know, the the way that it can really integrate with people's, current shops and and add that experiential flow to them.
Mark Sandeno:And when you say current shops, it's these are obviously Shopify customers who can 5 clicks and it adds our app to their store. But what we wanna do is we want to create a a faster way for people to be successful through having ready to go themes that they can plunk their own images and their own copy into. Yep. Yeah. Exactly.
Mark Sandeno:And I think we're probably gonna end up doing a lot of education. We're gonna start, creating some how to videos kind of, experiences school. Yeah. That's what the name will be. Okay.
Mark Sandeno:And then moving forward for this podcast, what's really cool is we have a really awesome database of people doing everything from the mild to the wild. We're gonna try to get these people on the phone, so to speak Mhmm. And find out what they're doing, why they're doing it, what's working, what's not working, and, maybe we'll even go have some of these experiences together. Yes. I would like that.
Mark Sandeno:Alright. Well, Chip, thank you for your time today. Thank you, listener, for your time today. And, if you want to give us ideas on, hey, I would really like to hear this, or can you stop doing that, or can you, go here and say this thing on the street corner? I don't know.
Mark Sandeno:I don't know what. You can you can hit us up at hello at experiencesappdot com. That's hello at experiencesapp.com. We're done for this. This is, Mark signing off, and
Chip Keyes:this is Chip. That's a wrap. Alright. Talk to you guys again later.