Hi! My name is Georgiana I am CEO and founder of Beaglecat, and soon you will be listening to Employer Branding: The Inside Podcast. In this podcast, I regularly talk to employer branding managers, acquisition managers, and human resources managers in tech companies in Germany, Romania, and the US. For more content on employer branding-related themes, go to employerbranding. tech or beaglecat.com. Stay tuned!
Overview
Long time, no podcast!
We’re back with episode Season 5, episode 9 of #EmployerBranding: The Inside Podcast! This time around we’ve had the pleasure of speaking with Jolien Demeyer, Founder at Jelloow. We talked about building connections with people to attract and retain top talent, but also about values, entrepreneurship, and how a scaleur mindset can help strengthen your employer brand.
What you’ll learn by listening
- Digital marketing 2.0: connecting agencies with companies to build a next-generation marketing marketplace
- An overview of recruitment from a founder’s perspective
- Building connections with people to attract and retain top talent
- How honest values help strengthen your employer brand
- Diversity & inclusion in entrepreneurship: understanding emotions, logic, and personality in both men and women
- What is a marketing scaleur?
- What are the 4 Ss that help entrepreneurs become scalers?
About Jellow
Jelloow is a cloud-based web application where startups or any growing company can match with qualified marketing agencies to get support for their digital marketing/growth needs. The brainchild of a staunch marketer, Jolien Demeyer, started Jelloow back in 2020. Mapping her experience and struggles, she figured out how digital agencies and businesses don’t have an open platform to do business.
She trusted her instincts and nurtured the idea with a team of experts from around the world. This creative, intuitive, entrepreneurial, and skilled team developed a platform that now hosts business deals seamlessly.
Digital agencies are connecting with Jelloow for its You-First policy. The secret of why we strive is hidden in your success. By keeping ourselves true to our values, our services outshine others!
Podcast link – Enjoy listening on Spotify!
Podcast transcription – Employer Branding T.I.P S05Ep.9
Georgiana:
Hi, everyone! This is Georgiana with Employer Branding: The Inside Podcast. I have been away for quite a while now. And I’m really happy to be talking to a female founder after this long break that I took this summer. Her name is Jolien Demeyer. She’s originally from Belgium but has been living in the States for quite a while, and I will let her introduce herself in just a bit. We’ll be talking today with Jolien about what it’s like to be a woman entrepreneur. But that’s not the core focus of our podcast. We will be touching on themes such as company culture and employer branding, primarily. Jolien, you have founded so many companies, please tell us a little bit about your business ventures, about your background and eventually, about why you moved from Europe to the States. Welcome!
Jolien Demeyer:
Thank you. Thank you. Hi, everyone! So Jellow, I always start. My name is Jolien and I’m the founder of Jelloow. And with Jelloow, we are matching brands with marketing agencies. So that’s really the core business of what we’re doing. And I’m originally from Belgium. Indeed, I’m a big avid traveler. I’m a nerd. Definitely, when it comes to education, I also wrote my own book, “Think big, scale fast”.
And yeah, my main focus goes to Jellow. I went to America for my corporate job. And then I said, you know, I like it here. And I wanted to stay here. I started my marketing agency, and building a marketing agency, Jellow was founded. You learn a lot from the startup world, you learn a lot about agency worlds. I also do some side hustles like we have some condos we are selling or renting out in Florida. And I’m also a board member of some startups. So that’s a little bit of me in a nutshell.
Georgiana:
So your most recent venture is Jelloow, right? What’s exactly the unique value proposition for this venture? And how did you come up with the idea to build such a platform?
Jolien Demeyer:
The reason why we started was mainly that I had running my own marketing agency for three, four years. Being a marketing agency always gets referrals from people. And it’s like, okay, they’re always nice, but they’re not in this space, you always have the biggest knowledge, and then it’s like, how can we find that fit? That is really right, based on my skill sets.
How can we really bring them together, and then Jelloow was founded. On one hand, you have the problem of the agencies, how can we find the right fit; on the other side, working with a lot of startups they always have amazing ideas, but they don’t know how to go to the market. So then we thought, let’s go for a Tinder-like approach. And let’s start matching in the business world. So that’s what we do with with Jellow.
Georgiana:
And you founded the company less than two years ago if I’m correct. And you’re still rather a small team. Do you have any plans for growing this company?
Jolien Demeyer:
Yes, we will. But I’m a big believer. And that’s also one of my knowledge and my background is really to have the foundations straight. It’s always like they say, don’t start to run before you can walk. And I rather have a teezing start happening, walking very straight, let’s walk straight, and then to the point where we have all the foundations in place. And then once we really have that, it’s easy to start scaling. And from the moment you start scaling, you want to have the right team with it.
Georgiana:
The right people in the right seats, indeed. Since you’ve founded multiple companies, and you were also in a corporate environment for a while I’m wondering, also as a woman founder and as someone who has moved to a different continent, not just a different country, what has been so far your perception on recruitment? How does a founder who has to deal with so much in their company, how do they attract the proper workforce and how do they retain it? Because I’ve also been doing it for a while. And it’s really, really difficult, especially while scaling. But tell me please what has been your experience with that?
Jolien Demeyer:
I think it’s one of the biggest hurdles most companies have. Talent is so scarce, and finding the right people is so hard, and definitely, the ones that you want to believe in. It’s really a roller coaster, you have to be I am a big believer of okay, what you really want to achieve in the long run, it’s about identifying who you really want, it’s making an overview of these are the people I want to have, which kind of function subs functions, and you always put KPIs next to it if you can measure it, again, not you really know what you’re doing.
And then you start talking to a lot of people, you start learning about who the people are, what they’re interested in, what their passion is. And then you see, okay, this person might fit those roles. So let’s, let’s try it out, right? But, of course, you’re higher still on company culture. For instance, with Jelloow, it’s about vibrancy, openness, growth, entrepreneurship, real connections, and having fun. I think that’s also a very important one, the balance of diversity, men, women, young, old, all kinds of people for me, is so important.
But from the moment you talk to a person, that first impression, for me is really important. And not only the first impression but like how do they reach out to us and they send an email? Do they do a video chat, like, I’m in really under the marketing world, right? So the more creative they can be, the better. If they send me a nice video message or a video link, I already like it. If they make a nice PowerPoint presentation. It’s like, bam, they know they have an eye for detail.
So first impression is always very important. How they talk is also for me important. If you have a person like yes, my name is your lien, and I’m not, you know, very boring, you know, they’re already off because one of the values is for my enthusiasm. And also next to that position that you like to hire for is also understand like, what does the person like to do? Like you ask a little bit next to it, like what do you like to do in your free time, I like to read okay, you can understand a little bit that that person is a little bit of nerd, loves a challenge, is curious. I love to rock climbing then you know that adventure is part of them. They’re so and that is so important. For me.
It’s really who you are first starting the first moment in the conversation and how you are and what you want to achieve. So that’s for me the attraction part. But like I said, it’s easier said than done. Right? Yeah. Because everything can still be in the check in the box. But in the end, it might not be the check in the box. Right. So attracting based on KPIs, how do people perform, and how they are is for me really, really key. And then the second part that you’re saying is indeed retaining so you might have done that people in your team and how do you retain them?
Onboarding is very important, really, like take the time to tell the person you know, what is it about the business? What is the team about? What do they need to do? But don’t only important just for one moment, right? Really important on several timings, have a weekly check-in every month, have 15 minutes, or always everything going? Do you still like it, ask for the feedback, and accept the feedback. Invest in foresight, that person, I’m a big believer as well. And the person, I’m always saying, you know, if you want something, you need to ask for it. Because I don’t know what you really want, I can ask you questions, and I can trigger certain stuff. But at the end, you really know what you really want.
So therefore, I’m always saying, if you really want something, for instance, I give you a role in social media, and you are a little bit triggered about SEO, then then ask me that we can put you in contact with the right person of the SEO manager and see if you like it. If you don’t like it, and you can check it off. It’s something you don’t like and build upon that. But the person needs to ask, right? And then, of course, retaining is also part of the numbers. I’m a big believer in the number game.
But overall, numbers are important. Yes, on a weekly basis, they need to perform, for instance, two blog posts. I’m just saying something write two blog posts a week. But how are they doing it? That’s totally fine if they do it two blog posts or five blog posts just have one day and they did everything? Yeah, they can take off right so it’s really all depends on the personality and how they roll up their sleeves and have that mindset of Yes, I believe in and I want to do it. And the last part for me is with that retaining aspect is also celebrating the small successes, really recognizing them. If they’re doing an amazing job, just say it. Amazing, I love it. Or sending a card to it. Sometimes right now everything is digital right? With all these working teams, you send the card, and it’s like, amazing job. 10 out of 10.
Georgiana:
Yeah, it’s not such a big of an effort, right? Recognizing the small successes.
Jolien Demeyer:
Correct. And it’s, yeah, I love it. So and then definitely, also, if you send these things, and most of the time you, you really say thank you so much. I really appreciate it. They feel warm. So and that’s, I really liked that. But like I said, it’s be prepared for turnover, right? I think finding the right people is so hard, talent is all about that scarcity, and really finding that intrapreneurs, who will want to go the extra mile are so so hard.
Georgiana:
It is and I have to confirm that because I’ve also been working with with a small team for I think about seven years, some of the people for five, the other seven, I really came to the conclusion that it’s super important to give autonomy, to give independence, like you said to recognize the successes, indeed, and or, and all the other small achievements along the way. And in the end, okay, maybe it sounds a bit cliche, but you have to acquire that feeling of a little family without making it sound too cheesy, or too corny. But yeah, this, this has been my experience as well.
Jolien Demeyer:
I’m aligned with that little family stuff. So see them as your brother or sister or you know, don’t go too far right, but see them as as part of your family.
Georgiana:
Indeed, and where would you say Employer Branding fits into this whole game? I mean, you’ve mentioned it indirectly, until now, during this conversation. But how do we fit it into the business, when we also aim to get business growth at the end of the day or a business?
Jolien Demeyer:
Right, we are a business. And we need to always focus on that at the end of the day. You want to grow your brand. And you produce at your milestones for your brands. And for us with Jelloow like mentioned, indeed, it’s about real connections, it’s about enthusiasms, it’s really taking them of the opportunities, it’s about vibrancy, and these core values should also be part of the team.
So if a person is not enthusiastic, then probably you will not be part of the Jelloow team, regardless of your finance director with all respect, right? Because sometimes they are very numbers driven. But you know, you can always have fun as well. So for me, these values are very, very key, because that is our branding. And you have personal branding and corporate branding, and then you have team branding. So everything should be interlinked. To really have that’s that at Jellow. In between, right, it’s like three circles, and you put them in together or like three circles to on top one below. And then you have the one metal that crosses everything. So for us, that will be Jelloow, and then you have corporate branding, personal branding, and the team running. So everything should definitely be aligned.
Georgiana:
You mentioned the company values previously, as well. But I’m wondering, are all of them your personal values as well? Do you manage to make a separation between your personal values and your company values?
Jolien Demeyer:
It’s a good one. I think for Jellow, it’s definitely the personal brand. Because it’s also my company, I think most entrepreneurs is always little baby. And I think always you have a little bit of you in there. Right? And for me, real connections, I’m a big believer in connections, friends, family, people, and communities are so important. Giving opportunities during my career always gives people the opportunity to go the extra mile, enthusiasm funds, either positive sides, totally me diversity, working with different people learning from the people. So yeah, it would be me.
Georgiana:
And I’m wondering, without discriminating, of course, because I don’t want to put men in one bucket and then women into another one. But do you feel that maybe women are more involved when it comes to caring about employees? Do you feel that they maybe go the extra mile in other ways than men? Sometimes because like I said, without wanting to discriminate, I’m sure there are exceptions to the rule. But in my experience, it has been that they tend to have I don’t know how to call it an extra field for some things sometimes. And I’m curious, has this been your experience as well? Or not?
Jolien Demeyer:
It’s a hard one right? And another one and I’m very triggered to say yes, but I think it also depends on the personality. Everyone is different and I think the overall tendency is probably as a woman I have more that they always say it right IQ is higher, emotional intelligence, you get a little bit more about that part. So I would say yes. But I also see a lot of men going more in that direction. I think you have 1000s of books, on why incompetent men are leaders.
So we have like a lot of these books, which is funny, but I think you also have incompetent women, right? So it’s not like what one left, right. But being part of as well, a female entrapreneurial tribe of only businesswomen, you really see that we talk about different subjects than the men group is doing. And then I probably we are more thinking of okay, this person right now have a hard time and we will take a breath or take say, you know, to the person, have a moment of taking a break. And versus a man would probably say no, get your KPIs done. So, I think we touch base, and probably how we communicate certain phrases are different, but it really depends on the personalities.
Georgiana:
I think you’re probably right because even on this podcast, I spoke to so many sensitive men and men who have given me and our audience such good advice about managing teams and getting involved, and going the extra mile. I’m just thinking that maybe sometimes women are a little more on the on the sensitive side. But like you said, it’s probably a question of personality, but I don’t want to go into that too deep, because it touches on other topics. And I don’t want to do it right now. Coming back to marketing, though, what is the marketing scalar? And how can entrepreneurs scale their business operations? Can you give me some tips in this?
Jolien Demeyer:
Of course. So a marketing scalar is a person that really scales a business, professional life, personal life or a team. So that is what scaling is all about. And a scaleur is the combination between scaling your business and being an entrepreneur. So therefore, as well, that said, marketing scalars.
And for me, I’ve always been a nerd in marketing, where you always have to Kotler the four P’s, what is marketing about price promotion product? And, and therefore, I said, you know, why not go for the scaling Ss. So, therefore, I set the 4 scaling Ss and that’s what a marketing scaleur is all about. The first s would be the strategy, like, where do you want to go? And you are also capable to grow your business because you also need to be capable, right? If you have a certain company that is not scalable, if you don’t have that scalability behind you, then you know, you can forget about it.
So the strategy is definitely the first one having that scalable strategy. The second one is having systems in place, having really the capabilities to handle the growth. So yeah, with the right systems and processes, you really can scale in the right place, then that scaler mindset, having that growth mindset, and being that scaler in enterpreneurship. And really understanding what scaling is about and your success panel. And that will be the fourth one is really the dashboard where you track everything with your main KPIs and understand your ROI. So we return on marketing investment then. So that would be the four S’s and coming back on your topic rights. discolor mindset is not only your mindset but also the mindset of your team. So you really want to have to invest in your scaleur in your AI team. So that part will definitely fall under the mindset part.
Georgiana:
And, you know, we work on a lot of recruitment marketing projects, as well as Employer Branding projects. Do you think there’s anything universal that businesses can follow? Some I don’t know, pillars are guidelines that could be universal into this marketing, core recruitment marketing mix that they should have in mind?
Jolien Demeyer:
Would it be universal? I think overall, it’s a hard one. Because if you think about the four S’s, it really depends on your company on your industry as well, right? So for instance, going back to that scalable strategy, if you’re in tech, that probably your scalability is much easier than for instance, in clothing and you make everything from yourself. The scalability comes in when you have an e-commerce platform.
So probably that would be universal systems. You know, probably a system that works for a clothing company will also probably work for a tech company. Because the foundations are more or less the same. It’s just you need to tweak a little bit left and right, the mindsets. I think that’s still the hardest part. So I would say that that’s definitely a hard one. And then success battle if you have a weekly tracking. I think that that’s overall a very important one. I’ve always liked to add a fifth one and that smile. The fifth. So smiling is really having that fun in there. And is it universal? I hope so being honest. You know, if you really love what you’re doing, and you want to pursue your job, then because you spend so much time on it, pick the one that gives you energy. So I hope it will be universal, but I’m afraid it’s not.
Georgiana:
It’s not. And you probably know already that people don’t quit companies, they quit the team, they quit the people that they work with, doesn’t really matter what project you’re working on, as long as you’re enjoying yourself and you’re spending time with people who share the same values. So then I’m wondering, you’re mentioning, there has to be a lot of tweaking, of course, depending on the industry oriented, let’s say or on other factors as well. Is culture a thing depending on which factor on depending on which you can tweak your marketing plan to say?
Jolien Demeyer:
I think that we will come back to the corporate branding culture, I think it’s a little bit interlinked, because we are still a small company, right? So it’s very hard to really separate that. And I’d rather make it simple, than to complicate it, so for me. Yeah. If that makes sense, because I hear what you’re saying culture, but I think the person the team, the branding, it will come back to the branding, I’m afraid or not, I’m afraid. I’m thinking yeah.
Georgiana:
It’s probably the case, especially when you’re a small company, I absolutely agree. And we are actually reaching the end of the podcast, and we are on time. I’m wondering if you ever had or felt the need to have a marketing role model or a guru or an author that inspired you throughout your entire career or different stages while building the company?
Jolien Demeyer:
I’m a nerd as well, right? So I have three masters. I wrote my book, I read books every month overall, and I love to learn from every book and from every person. But then coming back on when I was just starting my job right? When I was 25. Coming from university, it was like people were always asking me the question, who was a marketing guru? And you just grew up and I always get the same answer.
And on one hand, there was Margaret Thatcher’s regarding I know that a lot of things wrong, but she was the first female prime minister, and I’m like, that’s always I envy that’s a woman who just did it, then I’m a big mathematic person, too. So I always said to Egyptian people, because they could build like three amazing pyramids without technology. So is that marketing? No, but it’s just building creativity, probably. And just doing certain stuff. Inspirational. Yeah. And then I always said Michael Jackson total because of the fun aspect and entertainment level, having a crowds community. So it’s not a marketing guru itself. I think it’s a combination of a lot of factors. And I think still today, a lot of people inspire you, and as long as you take one topic from every person, yeah, just be open and learn from everyone and you will go the extra mile.
Georgiana:
Indeed, and it’s funny you should mention Michael Jackson because I also somehow grew up with my sister listening to Jackson in Romania, we didn’t have a lot of access to these pop stars, but we knew a little bit about them. And I remember the frenzy when Michael Jackson came to Romania, I was six years old, and my sister traveled to Bucharest to attend this concert. And of course, I was in France when he died, and I was genuinely sad. And I cried because this guy, this person, this amazing artist had meant so much to me, as had inspired me, like you mentioned, as well, so much as I was growing up, and the previous days, I watched Madonna, on TV, thinking again, that, you know, you just have those artists that are, are here to stay. Those people that are gonna inspire you, and you’re gonna love them even after they’re not any longer with us. It’s I understand.
Jolien Demeyer:
But there are a lot of people right that can inspire you. It’s family. It’s even very close to his friends. It’s further away. It’s big people.
Georgiana:
Yeah, and actually, I enjoy asking this question a lot during this podcast because I’ve had the most diverse answers. And like you say, I’ve discovered you can find inspiration, absolutely everywhere. In your relationship with your child, with your spouse, with your partner with your friend, people, colleagues, books, blogs, and artists. Yeah, indeed. You just have to be open-minded about it that also stimulates creativity and you know how it will be the sales and marketing right? That’s true. Well, this has been a very nice conversation. Julian, thank you so much for talking to me today. I wish you the best of luck growing Jellow, and I hope we can meet at some point.
Jolien Demeyer:
That would be great. Thank you so much.
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