Kevin shares how books influence his approach to branding in trust-driven environments, while Shanita connects those insights to her book, The Front Porch Leader: Great Grand’s Recipe for Success, exploring storytelling as a strategic tool for building credibility, connection, and impact.
A thoughtful exchange for marketers, brand leaders, and business professionals who believe strategy works best when it’s informed, human, and intentional.
Full Podcast Transcript:
Shanita Akintonde:
Greetings and welcome to another special edition of the Marketing Insights podcast. I'm your host, Shanita Baraka-Akintonde, professor, author, career coach, and very excited to talk about my new book, The Front Porch Leader: Great Grand's Recipe for Success. But I don't want to jump ahead because we're going to get to that momentarily.
Today's topic is books, branding, and all things related to business, and I have a very special guest with me today. His name is Kevin Davis. He is the senior director of marketing and brand strategy for Erie Family Health Center. And we both have a love of books. If you can look behind him, you look behind me, you can see books are our North Star. But before we delve into all of that, too, I'm going to turn the platform over to Mr. Kevin Davis and let him tell you a little bit about himself, what he does, and sprinkle in a little bit about books while he's at it. Hi, Kevin.
Kevin Davis:
Hey, hey, glad to be here. Glad to be here. It's a pleasure to jump on your podcast, so well known. And so, today, being able to carve out some time to chat was great for me. But really quickly, for those listening, my name is Kevin Davis. As Shanita said, I lead marketing and brand strategy for Erie Family Health Centers, which is great mission-based work, feel-good work, make sure we provide access for everybody for healthcare. I'm also an adjunct professor at North Park University, teaching marketing and leadership. I'm currently a doctoral student, getting my doctorate in business administration and leadership excellence, my DBA.
So, like Shanita, we have a lot of things in common: marketing, branding, teaching, reading, and all those good things. But today I am taking over the show so that I can flip the microphone on Shanita and talk about her book. And so, it was a pleasure to chat about that. So, Shanita, you just wrote The Front Porch Leader: Great Grand's Recipe for Success, which is available on Amazon, for everybody's listening. I love to start at the beginning. What is front porch leadership, and why was this the book you felt compelled to write now?
Shanita Akintonde:
Well, thank you, Kevin, and again, thank you for being a guest. I could think of no better person to be here with me, and I'm so thrilled to have you ask me that question.
So, front porch leadership essentially means being what I call front porch ready, how do we show up. As a kid growing up, I grew up on the south side of Chicago, home, my mom and dad. My dad worked. My mom was a homemaker. And being home with her a lot, when I would come home from school, or even before I went to school, I just remember her having certain unspoken rules about who we allowed, not only on our front porch, but into the house. But in order to get into the house, obviously, you have to start on the front porch.
And what that meant, as I got older, I started to think about being front porch ready or having a front porch leadership tenet really speaks to how are you showing up. And this can relate to how we show up as marketers, how we show up in business, if students are listening, how you show up for that interview. And I call it being front porch ready, because in my house, in order for my mama to open the door and let anybody in... Well, first of all, she didn't let just anybody come in the house, but that's another conversation. But people can relate to that, and I know now what that meant.
It also means, for me, going down to visit my great-grandmother in the rural South, and her front porch had a different meaning. It was expansive, it was surrounded by greenery, and it was a gathering place for our family, in large part, to fellowship, to talk, to learn, to listen. And from that perspective, I learned so much that guides me today, as a businesswoman, as a marketer, from just sitting on that front porch and listening to my elders.
Kevin Davis:
It's interesting hearing you say that. I'm thinking about even my role, leading marketing for a healthcare organization, often in communities where there's mistrust of healthcare and all of that good stuff. And so, we have to be front porch ready to even be allowed into their homes, so to speak, or to be considered. And so, it's such a powerful metaphor. How does that image shape the way that you think about leadership, influence, as well as storytelling?
Shanita Akintonde:
Well, I think it's three-pronged. So, when you think about it from a leadership perspective, how leaders show up is important. And I think sometimes people misunderstand what that means. When I say that, I don't mean that the leader always has to be out front and loud and boisterous. At times, that's what's needed. But what I learned from my great-grandmother on her porch was actually the opposite was true, which can be seen as counterintuitive to how you view leaders. She didn't talk a lot. She sat on her front porch, in the wheelchair, or in the rocking chair, excuse me, not wheelchair, rocking chair, but in total command of that space. She could do it with a look, she could do it with a raised finger, and sometimes just a raised eyebrow. And we knew exactly what she meant, because the leader in her emanated from her presence and her being.
I also think that when we look at it from a storytelling perspective, what is the story that we attach to ourselves, and what is the story we give to our followers as leaders that make them want to buy into it. Whether it's a company mission statement, whether it's as a marketer, what our tagline is, it all ties to this idea of being a person that is seen, but sometimes not always necessarily needing to be heard. And I understand that that goes against what a lot of people think, but I think being heard is also metaphorical. It doesn't mean out of your mouth necessarily, but how you present yourself, what you exude from your spirit, so to speak. Wow, we're going to church, so that people can buy in without you even having to say anything.
Kevin Davis:
It being her part is huge, and I think that that's super important, just in all aspects of life. You may not have to agree with what somebody's saying, but at least give me the opportunity to be heard, and acknowledged that you heard me. And then, as marketers, being seen and then letting me know that you see me, and I should be able to see myself or hear myself in what you produce as an organization.
As I sit here, I have a few books on my desk that have been influential to me. I was thinking about this podcast and some books that have been influential, like For the Culture by Marcus Collins, Emotion by Design, which is by Greg Hoffman. Those two people we actually had on the AMA Book Club. They joined us. The Brand-Driven CEO by David Kincaid, and then Fusion, which is written by Denise Lee Yohn, and that tied brand and culture, which is what I do. I straddle that line. And so, reading has become very, very influential to me as a marketer, way beyond what I experience in the day-to-day. And so, with reading being so influential and impacting the way marketers think, how did writing this book clarify or sharpen your own thinking about branding and leadership?
Shanita Akintonde:
So, I share your love for books. I'm a bibliophile myself. I read outside of class. I love reading in college. And when my professors would assign us the book lists, sometimes at the end of the syllabi, I was the one that would go to the library and actually look them up and read them. And that's one of the reasons why I enjoy you and I being in the American Marketing Association Book Club together, because I really appreciate that.
For me, it was a 360 moment. It was a lifelong goal that I was able to bring to fruition, to reverse uno this, and be on the other side of reading and be the writer. I definitely know being a reader has made me a better writer because you can't be something that you don't understand or have an in-depth knowledge of. I've read all the books you've listed, except for Fusion. I have to add that to the book list. Whatever you read, Kevin, I just [inaudible 00:08:37] and get it, by the way. Whenever you hold up a book on your LinkedIn profile, or whatever, I go, "Oh, that's a good book. I'm going to go get it." So do that for me too, please, with my book on your LinkedIn-
Kevin Davis:
Absolutely. Absolutely.
Shanita Akintonde:
... profile too, because you're an influencer in the book community.
But I think that writing for me, as a marketer, allowed me to practice what I preach, because I think a lot of times we have to, as I say, put the wheels on the rhetoric, and not just be someone who espouses theories or talks hypothetically about things, but actually shows how it has manifested. And so, in reading my book, and I talk about leadership and trust and how we show up, and all the things I espouse on this podcast as well, I'm giving the reader an opportunity to not only hear me talk about it, but I have concrete examples of how that has influenced me holistically in so many ways. And so, I feel really good about it. It took me a while to get here, Kevin, but I'm here, and I'm happy to be here.
Kevin Davis:
I think that that's super important. You said that being a reader made you a better writer, and that definitely resonates with me. And as I was thinking through some of the questions here, for me, really digging in on the branding piece made me a better leader, because it made me think of why are people attracted to the brands that I'm associated with and I work with, but even beyond that, what makes the people that work here so great and connect them to the brand. And so I think that digging deep on those passions and convictions, I think, makes you better in other regards that you wouldn't have seen otherwise. And so, reading, I think, has also helped open that up as well.
And the storytelling piece, I think, is super, super important, because, as marketers, everything we do, we have to think about the arc. What are we talking about? What is the intended messaging, and what is the intended outcome? And one of the good books, I think you may have read this one too, is Start with the Story, written by Kristian Aloma, who's in the American Marketing Association with us as well. And it made me rethink or unlearn some things that I learned over the past 20 years, because you learn so much and you get away from the basics. But that's a theme in your book is the [inaudible 00:10:58] of storytelling is not just a tactic, it's a responsibility. So, what do leaders and marketers often get wrong about the storytelling aspect of things?
Shanita Akintonde:
Yes, I will address that. But I want to go back to something you just said too, a moment ago, about how, and I'm paraphrasing it, what you've learned from a marketing perspective or from a branding perspective that's influenced you in other areas of your life or other ways that you may not have seen, or it may be unprecedented. I want to use that analogy as well, because for me, in my book, I talk about my great-grandmother, the one I said was sitting on the porch in her rocking chair. But she also would go into the kitchen and cook big meals for us, a lot of us. One of her sons had 14 children. So that alone-
Kevin Davis:
Wow.
Shanita Akintonde:
... shows you how large my family is.
We were in Brinkley, Arkansas. I don't think I said this. I call it Blinkley, Arkansas, because it was so small of a town that if you blinked, you could miss it. But what I would learn from her, that I applied in other areas of my life, when she would go in that kitchen and cook her meals, and I noticed that she didn't measure. She didn't have any measuring cups or measuring utensils, and I would ask her, "How are you even able to know how much of the ingredients to put in, say, the cornbread mix or whatever?" And she looked at me, which was rare, incredulously, like, "Okay, I don't have to measure because I'm doing it from knowing and doing this so long that I don't need to measure anymore. I know innately how to get there, how to do that."
I think, as marketers, we cannot solely rely on our innate understanding of our customers. However, I think what she was also saying to me, that how you approach it can also affect that outcome. I knew she was doing it from a place of love. I knew she was doing it from an in-depth understanding of all of us in the family, down to who needed to have the hot sauce bottle next to them on the table, just say, because she knew that they would want that on their meal.
And I think, as marketers, we have to understand that that skillset of really understanding our audience translates into family life. I know you're a dad and a husband, Kevin. I'm a wife and a mother. I can innately know what my family wants, right? Because now I can predict it, and that helps for a happy home. So those kinds of skills that we learn when we pay attention, we listen, we observe, and we give from a place of that basic, I'll call it, love, place of love, it really translates on the other side, I think.
Kevin Davis:
Mm-hmm. You just hit on something that just made me think. I think that being a marketer has made me grow personally, professionally, because it's always not about finding alignment, but it's about finding understanding where people are coming from, their motivations that make them think or feel a certain way. And then, as a marketer, if you're in a position with your brand to help reshift or reshape that narrative, then you have that ability.
But I think that it just changed the lenses through which I look at the world. It's not just my way, or like you said, the assumptions about our customers, but it's, why do you feel that way? What makes you think that way? And I think that being a marketer helps us look through that lens and be more understanding, even at home, or as a dad, or as a husband, because I know it's just not my way. But people feel a way for a reason, and sometimes just need to hear them and understand where they're coming from with that.
Shanita Akintonde:
And I do want to add another point. Kristian Aloma, who's a member of Chicago AMA as well, and I just am a big fan of his, he has a book. I can't think of the name of your book, Kristian, I'm sorry, but it's a good book. Aloma, A-L-O-M-A, is his last name. We were at a BrandSmart conference, which was a big conference that AMA puts on every year, and I remember that Kristian said something that resonated with me as well.
The marketing maestros listening to this podcast, Kevin, know that my background, primarily before I started teaching, before my professorship, was advertising agency work for that little client called McDonald's. And what Kristian mentioned at one of the BrandSmart conferences was how McDonald's has tapped into that emotional string. And he used an example of being a kid and how excited-
Kevin Davis:
Yes.
Shanita Akintonde:
... he would get if he could get his McDonald's Happy Meal. And I used that and I talked about that even before I heard Kristian say it. My kids and when I was a little kid, when you see those golden arches, something in you as a kid lit up.
And so, I use that just to say, when I'm talking about this emotional tie-in, as marketers, and what I learned from watching my great-grandmother cook, that I talk about in the book, and how she knew innately these things, those brands, like the McDonald's of the world, the Starbucks of the world, the brands that have given us, who consume those products, an emotional connection, which is real, understand that this stuff we're talking about is not just fluffy fluff. It translates and it transcends. And so, that's what I learned from my great-grandmother in the book. And I use it as a marketer because it works.
Kevin Davis:
That is Start with the Story. That's the book I mentioned from Kristian. If you're a marketer, please read it. It's a pretty quick read. It's a great read. Kristian's also a dope person-
Shanita Akintonde:
He is.
Kevin Davis:
... so check him out.
So, we both admire writers who take things, take culture seriously. And so, one of the writers that we both know, Marcus Collins, often talks about the shared meaning over messaging. Where do you see alignment or distinction between that idea and what you're offering in The Front Porch Leader?
Shanita Akintonde:
Yeah. And you asked me the other question about storytelling, and I'd totally went off on a tangent. So, just like a story has a beginning, a middle, and an end, it's analogous to the product life cycle, where you have the intro of the product, the growth, the maturity, and the decline. You want to catch people so that it doesn't decline. I'll borrow what happens on the soap operas, and they are the masters of storytelling. I used to watch those as a kid as well, with my mom, all Channel 7. I only know Channel 7 ABC stories, as we call them. They were called stories. We call them stories because-
Kevin Davis:
Absolutely.
Shanita Akintonde:
... that's what it was. And I remember, to relate it back to branding, even if one of the story episodes had a character die off, and you'd say, "Oh, the person's gone," they were so creative that they would resurrect the character and bring them back as a long-lost twin. And I was always amazed at how they were able to just-
Kevin Davis:
And it seemed believable.
Shanita Akintonde:
It was so believable. Even though you go, "Wait a minute, that's the same person," but it wasn't, and it was powerful.
Storytelling, when it's done correctly, when it's done with all of the antenna out and the thing says ping, ping, pinging, is so powerful. It's viscerally powerful to the point where you can feel the hairs on your arms rise up, your heart palpitates faster, your mouth moistens because you're looking at whatever they're eating. It's really something that I find, personally, to be exhilarating. And so, when I read a good book, I seriously am sad when I get to the last page sometimes. I have a relationship with my book. I feel that way. And so, I think, as marketers, we want people to feel that way about us, about our products, goods, or services, ideally. And so, that's what this is all about at the end of the day. So yeah.
Kevin Davis:
This has been amazing, taking over the podcast today, but I have one more question-
Shanita Akintonde:
Sure.
Kevin Davis:
... before we jump off. For someone listening, who leads a team, a brand, or a business, and hasn't picked up the book yet, what's the one shift you hope that The Front Porch Leader inspires within them?
Shanita Akintonde:
What is the one shift I hope The Front Porch Leader inspires in them? I talk myself in this book about my own personal trajectory, from being a scared little girl down in the South, who wouldn't leave the front porch, because the mosquitoes, first of all, were tearing me up, as they were saying. I was afraid. They knew I wasn't from there. They knew I was from the North, so they tore into me.
Kevin Davis:
North blood.
Shanita Akintonde:
They ate me up. So, I stayed on the front porch, not nobly. I don't want this to sound... I wasn't there like, "Oh, let me stay in the porch and learn all these things." I was scared. I didn't want to play with my cousins out in the fields or wherever they were. I was like, "I'm not going out there." And so, I want people to understand that embracing fear, or even having it in the first place, is not the end. Actually, if you can rechannel it or find ways to take it and put it on a different course, to embrace it and redirect it, that's where it is.
So I think, as I said earlier, people think leadership is about being the most obnoxious or loudest sometimes, or needing to have a lot of bravado. There are times for that. But the same way with, you don't have to have all the answers. You don't have to know everything. It's okay to ask, to listen, to learn, to read, listen to things like this podcast, and give yourself permission to know that everything comes when it's supposed to. I do firmly believe that. So, if you're starting off slower than you think, and you look around and other people aren't doing the same thing as you, then just know that when it's your time, get front porch ready, so that when it shows up, you can get in the house.
Kevin Davis:
If this was church, this is when the Hammond B-3, the Leslie speaker, would wind up and the collection plate would come around. What you just said was just around being courageous and being fearful. I've learned, as a good, seasoned adult, lots of gray hair in my beard, that fear is more common than courage.
Shanita Akintonde:
Amen.
Kevin Davis:
And we think that it's the other way around and that we're the outlier. And so, I think the more we embrace that and run our own race, and be better than ourselves from last year or last month, we'd be a lot better. A lot better than being scared and standing still. So, I appreciate you allowing me to take the helm-
Shanita Akintonde:
Yes, you're the first to have done this.
Kevin Davis:
... of this podcast.
Shanita Akintonde:
I was a little nervous, but you did fantastic. I'm like, "Oh, this is my podcast." Well, thank you, Kevin.
Kevin Davis:
Mm-hmm.
Shanita Akintonde:
Thank you, everyone, for listening to this special edition of Marketing Insights, books, business, and beyond. Kevin, thank you so much for-
Kevin Davis:
No problem.
Shanita Akintonde:
... taking the time to share with us your insights on how books have influenced you and what you do as a marketer to the marketing maestros and other listeners. Until next time, which will be our even better time.
Reach out to me on LinkedIn, at Professor Shanita Akintonde, Twitter, @_ShanitaSpeaks, Instagram, Google. And make sure you like and subscribe to this podcast, wherever your favorite podcasts are found. Kevin, appreciate you. Listeners, we'll tune in next time.
Kevin Davis:
See you all later.
Shanita Akintonde:
Go to Amazon, get the book. Bye.
Kevin Davis:
All right, let me go jump.
