Dan Knowlton on Winning Big Brands and Overcoming Business Fears

Today’s episode of the podcast is an interview with the very funny and very clever Dan Knowlton, where we chat about all things business, marketing and public speaking. This episode is not only filled with some really valuable and practical tips and advice, it also has some funny stories and lots of laughs in it too - and I know you will love it!   KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST Marketing strategies that have worked for Knowlton Tips and advice for pitching to big brands Techniques to overcome fear and impostor syndrome in public speaking   Dan is the Co-Founder of Knowlton, a business that he started with his brother back in 2015. Knowlton is a creative video and social media marketing agency based in Kent, UK, and they are on a mission to rid the world of crap marketing! Knowlton help businesses to generate a trackable ROI from their marketing with their creative social media management and thumb-stopping marketing campaigns. They've generated millions in trackable sales for some of the world’s leading brands like Wahl, Buy Whole Foods Online, Boston Consulting Group, and BBC Storyworks! If you enjoyed this episode then please feel free to go and share it on your social media or head over to iTunes and give me a review, I would be so very grateful.   LINKS TO RESOURCES MENTIONED IN TODAY’S EPISODE Connect with Dan on LinkedIn Check out the Knowlton website Watch the Steven Bartlett parody video Connect with Teresa on Instagram, LinkedIn or Facebook Transcript Teresa: Hello and Welcome to this week's episode of the Your Dream Business Podcast. How are you doing this week? So this week I have. a very dear friend on the podcast and a fellow podcaster. He has his own podcast as well, but his on the whole is a little bit more funnier than mine, which I'm a bit gutted about because I think I'm funny, but no, his is definitely funnier than mine. So this week I am very, very excited to welcome to the podcast, the very lovely Dan Knowlton. Dan, how are you doing? Dan: Oh, good. I'm really pleased. I can't believe I've never been on your podcast. Teresa: Never. I can't believe it. I don't know how. Dan: Yeah. Yeah. It's good to be here. Nice. Really, really good to be. I don't know how funny our podcast is that you've kind of built it up a bit. Teresa: Oh, so I was doing my research this morning, right. And I was listening to some of your episodes. Now I do listen to your podcast, but I have to say as a podcaster, I don't know about you, but I am a bit rubbish at listening to other people's podcasts. And also when I do listen to podcasts, I tend to listen to health related podcasts or like I listened to Andrew Huberman, Huberman's lab. Do you listen to that? Dan: I don't, but I watch his content on TikTok and stuff. Yeah. Teresa: Love it. He's so good. So yeah, I'm not very good at listening to like businessy type ones, but yeah, so I was listening this morning and there's always a funny story, which generally in our life, there's always funny stories, but you told this one. Wrecking hilarious story. Oh, of what I listen to. Right. Which I had to, had to ring up. You were talking about Cheese on toast. Dan: Oh no. I thought you were gonna say it. Oh. Teresa: Brilliant. Please tell, tell my lovely listeners what the hell happened. Dan: I'm like this is a business marketing podcast. This is nothing to do with business or marketing. So I'll very briefly tell the story. We were talking, we did an episode about the biggest mistakes we made in 2023 and you know, how everyone shares the highlight reel. And we were like, so we talked about business mistakes and stuff. And then I just sort of had to share one of the biggest mistakes I made over the Christmas period. Which was I, I basically like cheese on toast. I've always liked cheese on toast from a kid. And Crystal, my other half had gone out for the day and I had the kids at home and I thought, I'm going to make some cheese on toast. So got the cheese out, got the bread out, you know, and saw this new cheese grater on the side. I thought, wicked. We've got a cheese grater. I grated the cheese. cook the cheese and toast was delicious. And then the next day I did the same thing. I was so good yesterday. I'm going to do it again. And then to my horror, the next day, Christelle said to me, why is my foot greater in the dishwasher? And I was like, Oh no, it's the grimace thing. And she used it, the worst bit is she like soaked her feet the, the night before and stuff and really had a good go on her. Oh no. Teresa: My God. Oh my God. It's too brilliant. And do you know what, like, because I have one of those. Dan: Oh, do you have one? I didn't know they were a thing. Teresa: Yeah, Right. Dan: I didn't know they were a thing. Teresa: And Paul and I always joke, like anybody would need Parmesan. Dan: Yeah. I literally ate some Parmesan. Teresa: Literally disgusting. But yeah, like, I don't, is it just women who have really awful feet? I think men don't have awful feet. Dan: I don't know. I just don't. Yeah. I don't get why you need to grate your feet. So I didn't even know that was a thing, but apparently it is. Teresa: It is. It is. But what it was doing in the kitchen, I'm not entirely sure. Dan: I think like an open plan space. Yeah, that was my thing. Like it was like on the side in the open plan kitchen. So I was just like, Oh, it's been put over there. Like just on the edge. Teresa: That is brilliant. That is brilliant. Were you sick or were you all right? Dan: Oh, it's fine. They tasted delicious at the time, but yeah, I also can't believe you've actually done research for this episode. I thought, because we know each other, I thought she's not going to bother doing anything. You've actually. Teresa: I do. Right. And it's funny because it's almost worse when I know someone because it's almost a case of like, I'm so relaxed about what, like, just chatting, but then actually, is there a reason to us chatting? Can I just share, right, just so people know the research that Dan did in preparation for this interview. I have an Asana form that people have to fill in, right? And it says on the Asana form, can you please give us examples of questions that would be great to ask you? This is my way of, like, not having to do research. Dan wrote, These is questions he wants me to ask him. Why are you so charming and incredibly good looking and model? Please can I give you 10, 000 pounds and why are you such an incredible human being? Those are my questions to ask Dan today. So yeah, I needed to do a bit of research. Dan: Well, I thought it's your podcast. I'm not giving you the questions to ask me. I don't know what you want to ask me. Teresa: That's helpful. That's really helpful. Dan: You know me anyway, you know me. Teresa: We do. We do. So Dan, let's start by you explaining what you do and how you got to do the thing you do. Dan: What do I do? I am the co founder of Knowlton, which is a creative video and social media marketing agency that I started with my brother back in 2015. And we, we work with brands to support them to deliver really creative marketing campaigns, mainly on social media that deliver a trackable return on investment. And we've worked with lots of well known brands over the years. We're also like you said, we've got a podcast called business anchors and we love that. Teresa: Just even the name, like, you know. Dan: Do you know, do you know, Yeah, because we wanted to call it business anchors, but we knew that it wouldn't, it would get demoted in the algorithm. So we called it business anchors and put an anchor in front of the A and made it like nautical theme. So it looks like a W. So you can imagine the vibe of the podcast. And anything else I should tell you? Also, speak at events. We've spoken at quite a few events together over the years. Teresa: Yeah, we have. That's how we met. Except the first time we met, do you remember the first time we met? Dan: I just remember us really getting on, but I can't remember which event it was at. I'm amazed it's not ingrained in your head. No, go on. What was it? Teresa: So, it was at a social day. It was one that was at like Years ago, right? Yeah, yeah. It was like a...