Another great interview in the books!
Let’s talk about scouting with Martez Moore, and discuss how well marketing works for it!
About Martez:
Martez Moore serves as the Deputy Scout Executive for Greater St. Louis Area Scouting. In this role, he oversees Scouting operations to include fundraising, marketing, strategic planning, membership, and program development across 63 counties in Missouri and Illinois. The Greater St. Louis Area Council is the 5th largest council in America and serves 28,000 youth.
Contact Martez: https://www.linkedin.com/in/martez-moore-cfre-a1790020/
Martez’s plug: https://beascout.scouting.org/
The Marketing Gateway is a weekly podcast hosted by Sean in St. Louis (Sean J. Jordan, President of https://www.researchplan.com/) and featuring guests from the St. Louis area and beyond.
Every week, Sean shares insights about the world of marketing and speaks to people who are working in various marketing roles – creative agencies, brand managers, MarCom professionals, PR pros, business owners, academics, entrepreneurs, researchers and more!
The goal of The Marketing Gateway is simple – we want to build a connection between all of our marketing mentors in the Midwest and learn from one another! And the best way to learn is to listen.
And the next best way is to share!
For more episodes: https://www.themarketinggateway.com
Copyright 2025, The Research & Planning Group, Inc.
Transcript:
Sean Jordan (00:08)
Hey everyone, welcome to the Marketing Gateway. I’m Sean in St. Louis and today we learned about the perils of technology because we were recording this interview on Riverside and things just weren’t working out. Riverside’s our podcasting platform and so we had to switch over to Zoom. And so I apologize if you’re watching the video. The video quality is not quite as good as usual. Hopefully the audio quality is just as good, but you’re in for…
yet another treat and this is somebody who I have been trying to get on the show for months because he is one of my favorite people ⁓ and just an amazing guy. His name is Martez Moore. He is the deputy scout executive for the Greater St. Louis Area Scouting Organization for Scouting America and Scouting America formerly known as the Boy Scouts of America now also includes girls so we have a more inclusive term and Martez is one of those folks that is out there working to let people know about
how great of a program scouting is. And he and his assistant, Caitlin, are doing all kinds of amazing things. And I know this because I sit on the marketing committee for a greater St. Louis area scouting. I also volunteer at the district level in my county and at the unit level, which is the troop that my son is in for Scouting America. So I get to see it at all different vantages. And I know Martez is one of those folks who is just absolutely rock solid in what he does. And you’re going to enjoy hearing from him.
Now just want to mention, and he’s going to say it too, but the organization that he works for serves 28,000 youth, 8,000 adult volunteers across 63 counties in Missouri and Illinois. It’s the fifth largest council in America. And that is not nothing, believe me. This is a large group of people who are working together to benefit the community.
by equipping youth with all of these different adventures and skills and experiences that they might not get to have otherwise. And when I was a Cub Scout, I got to go learn how to canoe. I got to learn how to shoot a BB gun and a bow and arrow. I got to hike. I got to earn merit badges for all kinds of different things. I didn’t make it to the next level of scouting. My son, I’m hoping, will make it to an Eagle Scout one day because he’s working hard at it right now. But
Even with the limited experience I had, I was a better person for it. I see Scouts all the time becoming better people for the experiences that they have. And I’m so happy that we have folks like Martez in the community who are working to keep this organization healthy and thriving and even more accessible to those who want to be a part of it. So here we go. Enjoy this great interview.
Sean Jordan (02:49)
Well, welcome back to the Marketing Gateway. I’m Sean in St. Louis and I have with me Martez Moore, who is a Deputy Scott Executive with Scott America and Martez, welcome. Thank you. Thanks for having me, Sean. Honor to be here. Glad to join the podcast.
Well, we are still glad to have you too. And you know, one of the things I always like to ask guests when we start out is to tell me something surprising that I don’t know. So anything you’d like to share, tell me something surprising. All right, I’m going to go with I was in the movie of the year in 1999. Do you know what movie that is? 1999, gosh. I don’t know. That takes me back. I think South Park or Star Wars Phantom Menace or, well, probably wasn’t one of those.
Nobody has ever guessed this correctly and people always go Google afterwards to try to figure it out and it’s probably not going to pop up. But I was an extra in the movie in 1999. And I’ll give you a hint. Tom Hanks was the leading actor in the movie. So it was a pretty cool experience. And I like sharing that because it definitely gave me a whirl into what actors go through and people on movie scenes and stuff like that.
Check it out, but it had Tom Hanks, that’s the only clue I’ll give, and it was released in December of 1999. Wow, so would have been after Forrest Gump, it would have been after Philadelphia or any of those movies, so I’ll have to look that up, that sounds like fun. Check it out, it really was a good movie. Awesome, awesome. Well, in this series on the marketing gateway, we’re really focused on the St. Louis area, so tell me how you came to live and work in the St. Louis area. All right, well, I’ll start it off
by saying that I had only been to St. Louis twice prior to come to live and work in here. And it actually started off on a scouting trip when I was in the ninth grade. I was going to a event called NOAC in Lafayette, Indiana at Purdue. this was like, St. Louis was a halfway point. And so we stopped at the zoo to tour the zoo in St. Louis. And you know how, ⁓ how
how people appreciate the zoo here, right? And definitely on a trip, it’s, know, the zoo is free, you know, it’s one you can stop at the zoo. So was for a scouts trying to travel from one location to the next. It was a very, very nice place to stop to get a little educational stuff in, but also just to get my first look at St. Louis. you know, I just remember being a good experience. And then I had later came, I took my family to Six Flags.
know, sometime after that, I drove here from Tennessee. And so it was a short drive. It was the closest Six Flags to me at the time. And so that was my second time coming to St. Louis. And then eventually, I was working at the National Office for Scouting America. And then the Greater St. Louis Area Council reached out for me to interview for a position called the Director of Field Services here.
That’s fantastic. And so you’ve gotten to see St. Louis from many different vantages. And oddly, like a lot of the reason people come to St. Louis is to go to the Arch or to go to the Cardinals. You didn’t mention either of them. Have you gotten to see them since you came here? yeah. Yeah. That’s my family. We first moved here. We went and just took a picture in front of the ⁓ Arch. Now, it wasn’t open at the time because this was 2020 when I moved here. So was the heart of COVID, if you will.
Didn’t get to do that, but I’ve been to lots of Cardinals games and I’ve been back even to the arts since then and so yeah I’ve got to see most things in st. Louis, but I’m still working on a list right now things I still need to see there’s a lot to see and do in st. Louis region There definitely is and I mean the thing I always tell everybody is if you haven’t been to the City Museum You got to check it out. It’s not what it sounds like. It’s like a giant indoor playground. I’m sure you’ve been there It’s still on the list actually I hadn’t been there yet
Yes, like I said, still have a lot of things because so many things were closed when I first moved here. And so I had to start making a checklist of all the things that I needed to see and do here. But working through a lot of them and every year I’m getting to add different experiences on. fantastic. Well, what’s something about St. Louis area that you wish other people knew? Great question. ⁓ And I’m going to say when I first moved here, was certainly things I
I didn’t know about the region here, but the things that surprised me the most, I spent a lot of times outdoors. And so, you know, I love, you know, I love walking and running and hiking. ⁓ And so when I first moved here, I found a very, very active running community ⁓ in the region. ⁓ I also like mountain biking and the mountain biking trails in this area are just phenomenal.
They’re everywhere in all types of different levels and you know there’s volunteers that take care of trails. It’s just a whole community around this mountain biking and so I’ve definitely enjoyed that in this region. And then ⁓ one of my other hobbies is snowboarding and you know maybe two months after moving here somebody was like you know they found out I like snowboarding. It was like there’s a ski resort here and I’m like no way.
And then I was like, yeah, it’s called, you know, they didn’t even know the name of it. But of course, I went to go look it up because I couldn’t believe it. But then I found this place called Hidden Valley. you know, so a lot to do outdoors here, you know, basically year round, you know, because you can go hiking year round here and mountain biking. And there’s a good season for that. And then the snow sports as well. That’s fantastic. And yeah, Hidden Valley is one of those things that if you didn’t live around here, you wouldn’t even know it was there. It’s kind of hidden.
Yeah, it really is. Well, great. Well, so glad to have you here in St. Louis. So glad to have you here in Scouting. And, ⁓ know, you know this, but our listeners might not that I have a son that’s in Scouts and he started out as a lion scout, which is the lowest level kindergarten level of Scouting. And he’s working his way now towards hopefully getting his eagle in a few years. And he loves it. He goes every week. And, you know, it’s a big part of our lives. And I’m a volunteer in the organization as well. And
I am on the marketing committee with you for the council, which is the area that oversees kind of the whole greater St. Louis area. And then I also work with the district, which is the level that I’m at locally. And then of course we have the, we call the unit, which is where my son is. So I get to see all these different levels of scouting. And of course you do too, cause you go to all the events. So, Well, let me talk to you first about,
enthusiasm about Scouting because this is one of those things where, you when I was a kid, there was a Scouting unit in every school and many churches too. I mean, it was a big deal and it’s, you know, especially post COVID, a lot of the interest in many youth events has waned and Scouting has been not immune to that. So part of your job is to help rebuild that enthusiasm and awareness of this organization. So tell me something about
you know, how you’re trying to do that because this is something that’s been around for a really long time, but it’s got these deep roots in the community. And you have to go out there and remind people that, this is still around for youth to look into and now boys and girls because girls weren’t traditionally allowed in and they’re allowed in now. So tell me a little bit about what your day looks like.
Yeah, so my typical day in my job, in my current role right now as Deputy Scout Executive, I focus on three parts of our operation, our field operations, our program operations, and as well as marketing. And I’ll say with marketing especially, one of the things I focus on is telling our, I’m not going to say tell our story, tell our stories, because we have so many stories that we can tell.
One of the most important things that we’ve done recently is we just focused on, we created what is called a Look-Alike Campaign. And what we wanted to do was go out and find the stories from all the different parts of our council. Because we have such a large footprint, we’re in 63 counties, we’re in Missouri, and we’re in Illinois. ⁓ And we want to share those stories, and particularly so that families that look like them ⁓ can know that scabbing is for them.
One of the greatest things about scouting is scouting is for everyone. Everyone’s welcome into scouting and we want people to know that. And so a lot of part of my job is just making sure that people know that scouting is for them. It’s for their family. And it’s a place where the entire family can participate in scouting. You just like you just said with your son, your son’s in scouting, but you’re also in scouting, right? It’s something you guys get to do as a family. And one of the best parts about my job is getting to watch the
the families grow together in scouting. It’s not just about the kid, but it’s about touching that entire family. that’s pretty magical when you think about it. Absolutely. I I was a Cubmaster for a few years and I watched one family go from just dropping their kids off to being so involved that they’re now leaders in that group. And many of us are on that trajectory, right? Yep, that is exactly how it works.
So it really, ⁓ I love that you guys are thinking about how do we help people see themselves in this organization? Because the traditional image of a Boy Scout is ⁓ very kind of Americana sort of thing. But it’s also sort of like, the Boy Scouts, they’re just going through good deeds and they don’t really, it’s not really something that everybody would want to do. yet there are so many activities that scouting offers, which are for everybody. whether that’s STEM, whether that’s.
the adventures that they get to do, whether that’s just going out and getting to do things in the community. ⁓ There’s so many different things that they get to do that are not just the good deed kind of stuff that’s traditionally associated with scouting. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, scouting is, scouting, really is a complete program. And that’s what sometimes people don’t realize. Like sometimes people will look at scouting like it’s a seasonal thing and it’s not, it’s a year round experience. ⁓
that a kid can do every month of the year. And it’s not something that you have to do every month of the year, right? You can use it interchangeably. ⁓ When you’re scouting, your kid essentially needs something extra to do, whether it’s to keep them occupied, or really they have meaningful things going on in their lives, scouting can fill in a lot of those gaps. Totally agree. And I’ve seen it happen with…
kids that are in sports or kids that are in other activities come in and come out and still earn their merit badges and move on. Totally okay in scouting. know, in scouting, we often think about the older scouts, especially the ones that are working towards their eagle, but it actually starts when the kids are younger ⁓ and you have to keep them interested and involved. And like I said, my son started in kindergarten. And so for him, it was like, we have to get him to want to be that older kind of scout. And then you have to keep them involved through high school, which is a tough time because you have to get through middle school too. So
How do you think about that with marketing? Like how do you think about showing them kind of this is the path that you’re getting on and the benefits of what’s coming ahead and what are you what are you thinking about in terms of the starting points and the ending points and you know in terms of getting those scouts on that path? Right so I’ll say I’ll start with the starting point and I’ll go with the ones you mentioned like our largest program is our Cub Scout program you know because it’s that is where so many people come into the program
And we’re marketing fun ⁓ to the kids, right? Because that’s what we want from them. We want them to have some fun, do some things they’ve never done before, get that initial exposure, because exposure definitely changes things. But to the parent, the message is a little different. We want to market to them that Scouting is a safe place for their kid. We want them to know that, while they’re having fun,
we’re gonna be working on the character development. And for me, the time window, it’s different for every kid. We want a kid to be in scouting long enough to where those character development that we’re working on, we wanna make sure that we have enough time to board the stick. And so, it’s not necessarily about when they come in or when they leave scouting. It’s great if they become Eagle Scouts. But if they leave here ⁓ after being in two or three years in their character,
has improved greatly. We’ve done our job as a den leader or a scout leader. ⁓ Even in my role, if kids are leaving with good character, we’re helping create better citizens for the world that we live in. And so that’s ultimately what we try to focus on. And then we also, we still extend opportunities for youth members to join scouting any time of the year. It’s not one isolated point that they have to join.
You’ll see us often in the schools in September and October welcoming new families into scouting, but you can join scouting anytime. Anytime of the year is an appropriate time to join scouting. And along that journey, because we have multiple programs, it’s not just Cub Scouts. We have Scouts BSA program that you can join when you’re in middle school. And you don’t need the Cub Scout background to do that. You can jump right into that program. We also have the Venturing Program.
which is more your high school years. And again, you don’t need the Cub Scouts or the Scouts BSA background to join their program and flourish in it. And then our Exploring Program, which is a career-based program, you can join that program completely independently and it can still have a major impact on your life. And so, we’re good at wherever a young person comes into the Scouting Program. We just wanna have that opportunity to make an impact on their character.
And I’ve seen it and I’ve seen kids come in who ⁓ they they’ve absorbed those lessons and you see them doing good things in the community because they want to, know, because it just kind of it gets ingrained in them after a while. And I think that’s one of the wonderful things about this organization is seeing that happen in those kids lives. Well.
One of the benefits of having a lot of scouts in your community is you have kids who are out there trying to do these good things, right? They’re doing service projects, they’re doing food drives, they’re helping people in need, they’re doing all of those things. So how do you work with communities to build up stronger awareness of scouting and a better relationship so that scouts have more opportunities to actually be of service? Yeah, I would say with us, we first started with the scouts and you just actually just mentioned this a moment ago and so,
⁓ The slogan in scouting is to do a good turn daily. And even me as a kid, I remember getting that challenge, if you will, and you start actively working on doing it on your own. And so our scouts, ⁓ independent of anything that we do, they’re already working on this. And most of the projects that we do, they’re identified by the scouts in their communities, right? And it’s because people know they’re scouts.
you may have an organization say, hey, can you help us with this? And they may never talk to somebody like me because they have their relationship with that local scout pack or troop. And they’re talking to that scout that wants to do a good turn or the scout is just seeing an opportunity to go and do something without anybody noticing it. And so that’s truly how it happens. And you start doing that immediately coming into the program. It starts off with something small.
And then, you know, later on you get the opportunity to do something really big. one of the things you mentioned was our Eagle Scout program. And so every Eagle Scout does a project in their community. And we make a point to make sure that it can’t benefit scouting, right? It has to benefit something local, something in the community. And the cool part about a kid that’s working on the Eagle Scout project is they don’t do it by themselves. And so let’s just say you’re in, you know, a troop.
and there’s five kids working on the Eagle Scout at the time, you’re gonna probably be a part of five different projects that’s not yours, right? You’re helping them be successful and then eventually you’ll do it for yourself, right? To turn your own badge. And so those are always happening. And then there’s all those big opportunities like Scouting for Food that the council puts on. The council has done this for over 40 years now.
started right here and it’s a nationwide project that goes on throughout the nation. And that’s where, know, at least for me when I did Scouting for Food as a kid in Scouting, and that’s when you kind of realize that helping other people is really, really important. And you want to keep doing stuff like that because not only does it help people, but it also feels good to be somebody that’s giving back.
And you can do that, you can start doing it at a very, very young age because of the service that you’re able to provide the community. And Scouting for Food is one of my favorite events because it’s where the Scouts, they go out one week, they hang bags on people’s doors or ⁓ put them under their mats or whatever they’re doing. And then they come back the next week and those bags are filled with food and they pick them up and they take them to a food pantry. And I’m sure, you we get calls.
about people saying, why didn’t you pick up my food? I’m sure you guys get them at the council office too. Definitely, definitely. That has probably been, and I would say it’s probably my favorite project as well as Scouting for Food. And what I’ve enjoyed most about it is, and what I do most years, I’ve done basically two jobs since I’ve been here, is I’m either working the phones and I’m getting the calls like you just described. And some of them are like,
hey, can make sure you get my cans? I wanna make sure I help somebody. the first year I did Scan for Food, I remember the person talking about that, they don’t have a lot, but they wanna give what they can. And it was just so important for them to do that just to give back. And this is the person that didn’t have a lot, but they said they had enough. And it was so important that they helped contribute to making sure that others had food this year. so…
I don’t look at Scouting for Food as a Scouting event anymore. And that changed since I got here. It truly is a community event. We’re just the people helping move the cans from one point to another. And then there’s other partners that jump in and help us get them to the next destination. And then so many of the food pantries are part of that effort. It’s truly a community event that we are fortunate to be a part of. I couldn’t agree more. And I think
You know, again, the idea that the Scouts are really our conduit for the community to do good is such a powerful ⁓ perspective in viewing the importance of scouting in the community because, yeah, the Scouts are out there doing things. I mean, you look at some of these Eagle Scout projects and they’re amazing. Look at some of the service projects that different groups view, whether it’s just going out and putting flags on graves near Memorial Day or whether it’s going out and, you know, fixing a park or, you know, cleaning up an area that needs to be cleaned up or they do all those things, but
Really what it does is energize the community to think about how can we better care for each other? And the Scouts are just leading the way, providing an example. I love it. It’s really a special part of what we do, just giving back, right? And again, it’s so impactful to learn early that you can make a difference just by being willing to help. And Scouting, we say help other people at all times. It’s very true. ⁓
You know, one of the things that’s really interesting about scouting to me, and I didn’t really appreciate this until I was in the role of a Cubmaster, but you have all these volunteers you have to wrangle. And it’s really easy to sit on the sidelines and not do anything. when you are volunteering yourself or when you are working for the organization like you do, you have a lot of volunteers that are part of this organization. And there are what, thousands of adults that are volunteering in the St. Louis area. It’s We have over 8,000 active volunteers supporting our program.
Yeah, and so as you’re thinking about how do you work with all these volunteers, you know, have people that came up through Scouts, you have people that are Eagle Scouts, you have people that are just really, really passionate about Scouting. So you have to work with them, you have to communicate to them, you have to do some marketing to them too, so that they understand what’s going on and what’s available. So how are you thinking about them? And you guys have had to, I want to add, have had to think about that a lot in terms of changing your name recently from Scouts PSA to Scouting America.
communicating some of the different changes that have gone on from the national and local organizations. mean, how do you get all those volunteers to be aware of what’s going on and to embrace it? Yeah, that’s a very, good question. And I’m going to say very, very transparently that this is something that we’re always working on. And what I’ll describe is because there’s so many different structures in scouting, you know, what we have
kind of focus on in the past is communicating at every level. And then there’s this idea that the information will then be shared to the next level. ⁓ And I guess that works for some things, but it doesn’t work for all things. And so the way we communicate is very, very different now. There’s a lot of things that we want to make sure that everyone gets direct. And even like some of the stuff you were talking about, some of that information is going to first be communicated.
from the national organization and it may come out on social media first. And in times people may know about things before I do because it’s important that everybody knows. It’s not something that needs to be disseminated ⁓ from my office, if you will. It’s something that everyone needs to know because it’s gonna impact everybody. ⁓ what we try to focus on is when we’re sending the message out, we try to make sure that it’s focused on the end user, that it’s gonna be something that’s gonna be.
⁓ that they need to know. ⁓ And it’s not just something that’s going to just be a distraction or take them away from their time. And so every time we send out a message, whether it’s on social media, whether it’s on email, whether it’s in our newsletter, we want to make sure that it’s focused on our customer, just a really customer focus to it. And not because, we want them to know about this because the…
I was gonna say one of the offices need them to know this information. If it’s not gonna benefit the customer, we really have, ask certain questions to make sure that do we need to send this out? ⁓ And then just making sure that we’re not just communicating based on structure alone, because it may be something that a DIN leader needs to hear. And if we say, well, we’re gonna send this out to all the CUP masters, and then the CUP masters gonna naturally make sure that every leader that works with them gets that information. That doesn’t always happen.
And so we really have to ask a lot of questions about who needs this information and what’s the best way to get it to them. And again, we’re always working on getting this right with so many volunteers to communicate. ⁓ It is challenging. then our area is so large. And especially if you think about the national organization, a lot of people that need to hear the message, and you want to get it to them, especially if it’s something they need to know the quickest way possible.
That’s why sometimes you will see something on social media before we send it out in the email. All right, because it may come out on social media. And then if there’s stuff that needs to be clarified, we may send out a message following what was released from the national organization, if you will. And speaking of social media, so you have a colleague, Caitlin, that you work with, and you guys are doing all kinds of amazing things on social media to talk about scouting just to the broader community. So how are you thinking about
the stories that you’re telling in terms of the social media platforms you’re using and what are you looking for that really ⁓ gets people’s attention? And tell me a little bit about that. Yeah, so ⁓ we really like to focus on the human interest piece, right? So we want to share stories that will resonate with the families that are living in that community, right? Because a lot of times if you see
Let’s just say your son is featured in one of our stories, right? There’s going to be people that know him. His school will know him. And people really want to see people doing well. And so we focus a lot on the human interest side. And so we’re always trying to tell those human interest stories. And then another strategy that we always focus on is if we hear about something good, we want to share it.
And we don’t want to share just with the people in scouting. We want the people outside of scouting to know, you know, what’s going on good as well. And when we have those opportunities to share something locally, we always want to push the regional news outlet, if you will, the national news outlets. And so one of the things we try to do is just to push our stories as far as they will go. And is there a particular
social media network that works best for sharing these stories? Or do you kind of have a divide and conquer strategy depending on the type of audience you’re trying to find? Yeah, so we currently use four different platforms. ⁓ So our largest market is on Facebook. ⁓ And then we have Instagram, and then we have LinkedIn. And then this year, we just added TikTok.
And so all those markets are very, very different. ⁓ And we’re trying to make sure our message reaches everyone where they are and meet people where they are. so ⁓ we’re in a couple of different markets, but Facebook is, I guess you would say our primary one right now, but we’re working on growing ⁓ on LinkedIn, on Instagram, and then also now TikTok.
That’s so interesting. And I imagine for each of those, you have a very different kind of target audience. you know, LinkedIn, I would imagine you’re probably looking more at professionals who might be, you know, financial donors as well as volunteers or parents. ⁓ Facebook, you’re probably connecting with more with moms maybe. And TikTok, more younger adults. And so it seems like there’s a lot of opportunity there to tell those stories in different ways to different audiences, but still, are you able to take the same content and kind of distribute it over those different networks?
Yeah, sometimes we are. But like you said, like LinkedIn, it’s a completely different audience. And so, you know, story you might see on our Facebook page or Instagram, you likely won’t see that same story on LinkedIn. But there are occasions where we do, right? You know, if ⁓ it’s a piece, and I’ll give you an example. One of our stories that we started, and it took us maybe, we shared this story for over two and a half years. And it was just working through all the different… ⁓
the markets, if you will, the different social media platforms. And so one of our scouts became the National Eagle Scout of the Year. His name is James E. Jesse. He did this amazing Eagle Scout project where he was basically feeding his birth country of Haiti. And his story, once we first shared it, it was very, very local. And then it got picked up regionally and then it got picked up nationally.
And then eventually his story landed in People Magazine. And it was just us just telling that story over and over again. And we told that story on every mark, on every platform that we had. And anybody that would listen, we just kept telling this story because it was so impactful. And it was important that people knew that Scouts ⁓ from our area were doing amazing things, helping people, and not just helping people in this local community, but helping people in an entire another country.
You know, how amazing is that? you know, and actually that same kid right now, ⁓ he’s doing his Eagle project. First time I’ve ever heard about anybody doing this. He’s doing his Eagle project for a second time and he’s redoing his project because he didn’t want his impact. It wasn’t just about him becoming an Eagle Scout. It became more about him giving back. you know, so I do think that we’ll be telling that story yet again, because he’s doing it for a second time. And so how amazing is that?
that, you know, the story that, you know, he did to become an Eagle Scout, well, the story that we captured about him becoming an Eagle Scout, doing that project, he’s pushing it a little step further because it’s more about giving back than it was about the badge that he was earning at the time. And I just, again, I love the emphasis on the storytelling because I think that’s part of what really compels youth to want to be Scouts. It’s not just seeing all the merit badges they can earn. It’s not just…
hearing about all the benefits of scouting, it’s seeing it in action and saying, I want to be that. I remember when my son was a bear and he came to his first blue and gold because we hadn’t been to them before that. Blue and gold banquet is every year. We celebrate the birthday of scouting. And we usually around that time might cross over some kids to the next level. And he saw those older scouts and he’s like, I want to be that person. And that was the day where he really decided this is what he wanted to do for the long term because he was so impressed by them and the way that they behaved.
I think that those stories really helped to connect that because to a lot of kids, they’re they’re sitting at home, scouting just as something that they could be doing, but they have a million other things they could be doing. They need that connection. And you guys are so good at providing that. Are there any other great stories you’ve been telling recently? Not on that scale, but there’s always just the local stories. One of my favorite stories that we told last year,
And again, it did the same thing. started very, very locally. you know, we had ⁓ three young ladies that were ⁓ two of my twins, but all three of my sisters, and they earned their Eagle Scout rank together. And that was just one of my favorite stories, just getting a chance to meet that family. And again, this lookalike idea, right? Scouting is for families like you.
You know, there’s other families out there like that. And, you know, we thought it was important to share that family story about what they did. And, you know, three sisters all becoming an Eagle Scout. And then just as I learned by interviewing them, how successful they were ⁓ at everything else going on in their life. know, the girls were in band, they were in wrestling, their academic marks were very, very high. You know,
they were doing well in scouting, but they were also doing in everything else that they were doing in their life. so stories like that are really worth telling because it’s important for people to know that scouting can really enhance your child’s life. It’s just so amazing to hear that there’s a family like that out there where they have three girls that are all getting their eagle at the same time. And I’ve heard the story before, but every time I hear it, just makes me just think about, wow,
all that time, all that effort, all that work, and all that enthusiasm all together, that’s really powerful. Well, I know you guys have been working on a journey map recently, and I love this because it ties into what I do in research. So tell me a little bit about how this journey map is going to help you and your team to be able to think differently about messaging and retention for individual scouting families as they’re going through that scouting experience. All right, and I do have to say this that
Customer journey mapping is very, very new for me. This is the first one I’ve ever been a part of, is why I asked for a lot of help. know, Sean, that’s why I said, hey, you do this, we need you to help us with this because this is not something that we do every day. The opportunity that we have is to make sure that as scouts are on their, your zero journey, they just join scouting. There’s so much in scouting.
that could confuse a new family. ⁓ And we wanna make sure that we are communicating to that family at each one of those critical steps. So that if they get off the path a little bit, we can get them right back on. Or just to get ⁓ to a communication going about, hey, how is the journey going? And I’ll give an example. ⁓ the first time you sign up for scouting, it’s exciting ⁓ and chaotic.
all at the same time. You have all those different things going. ⁓ And even with all that excitement, you can lose somebody at that very first step. Something as simple as, well, they came, they joined, it was fun, they saw their friends there, but they didn’t really remember when the first meeting was, right? Or they missed the first meeting and they could, that fast, they could be off the journey, right? And of course we don’t want that.
Again, trying to make sure that that character development really, really sticks. We want them in Scouting long enough so that that happens, right? So we want to follow them along, you know, at least the intended journey that we have for a Scout in year zero to make sure that if they ever come off that path, if they miss their first outing, which is crucial, we want them to get out and enjoy Scouting because one of the things we do when we talk about the fun that they do,
most of that fun is going to happen at that first ad. And if they missed it, they’ve missed what we kind of sold them on, right? That fun part. And that’s crucial that we catch that as early as possible so that we can make sure that that experience happens ⁓ in a year zero.
And when you’re thinking about just the barriers to entry in terms of getting people to participate in something, so often making it easy for them is the most crucial step. And yet it’s hard because they have to get out of their normal routine. They have to think a little bit differently. They have to maybe go and meet unfamiliar people or…
maybe deal with people who are really busy and hairy because they’re trying to navigate not just one family scouting ⁓ onboarding, but you know, 15 or 20 at the same time. I’ve been there. Like I said, it’s exciting and chaotic all at the same time. And so I love that, you know, at the council level, and again, you guys are not thinking about one, you know, scouting unit, you’re thinking about 63 counties, right? And so you guys have to think big in order to be able to provide some help and some service there, but you also have to
help those of us who are in the volunteering roles and again, the 8,000 people that are doing this at the volunteer level to be able to follow that same path. so I think the Journey Map is going to be a fantastic tool once you guys get it developed. And I’m really excited that you’re working on it. And again, as marketers, this is something that we do in many different types of services or other things that we’re dealing with where we’re dealing with people who we need to help stay on a pathway. And so I’m so glad you guys are thinking about that.
Well, we’ve learned a lot already. We’ve already had our first session where ⁓ we went to go validate. We wanted to go validate our journey map. And we learned a lot just through that process. And so we had to go and change some things to make sure that, OK, well, we want to make sure we get this right the first time. Because it’s so important, because it’s going to be the difference in us.
and whether a family stays or leave in some cases. And some families are gonna figure it out. there are a lot of other components that are gonna make sure that families stick, right? But for the ones that don’t, this is gonna be an additional opportunity for us to make sure that we don’t lose families at any point during this journey. We wanna make sure that we don’t come back a year later and say, hey, what happened? We wanna come back the first month and say, hey, are you enjoying the journey?
Did your kid earn his first badge? How was that experience? And if they say, no, we didn’t earn any badges, we didn’t know when the meeting was, we can fix that. And so really excited about what that’s going to do for us. And I am certain that this journey mapping is going to help us retain more kids in our program. I agree 100%. Well, at the end of our show, I always like to give our guests an opportunity to plug something, anything you want. I have a feeling I know what it’s going to be. Here’s your chance. Go for it.
Yeah, so you know, I’d say for any family, you know that have learned today that you know that you know scouting is for family like yours and I invite you to go and check out be a scout.org because that’s where you can go find a unit that’s in your community and start your scouting journey. And again, you can join scouting at any time of the year. You know, because we always got something going on right now. It’s the springtime and so we have spring activities going on in our packs and they will.
you know, this summer, you know, there’ll be several camping opportunities for kids to participate in. And again, you can start scouting at any time. You don’t have to have any prerequisites to start. And so you can jump right in and go and, you know, do a summer camp program with us this summer and, you know, start your journey that way. And so be a scout.org. You can find a scout unit near you. Thanks for that. And we’ll put that in the show notes as well for anyone that’s curious.
BeAScout.org and ⁓ again, great resource. There’s a lot of good information there too about what units are doing. You can see videos, you can see all kinds of fun stuff. So check it out. Martez, I’m so excited to have had you on the Marketing Gateway. Thanks for being on and ⁓ again, we so appreciate everything you all are doing at Scouting America in helping our youth to just want to be better people. So thank you for all the great work that you do.
Thanks for having me, Sean. It’s been great just to talk about marketing and talking about welcoming families into scouting. Thanks for this opportunity. And again, what you must access ⁓ on this podcast. And thanks for thinking about scouting.
Sean Jordan (41:05)
As always, I am so delighted to have had a chance to sit at the feet of one of the masters, Martez, thank you for being on the Garketing Gateway. So delighted to have you on and wow, ⁓ just keep up the great work. And the thing for me about scouting that I always get really excited about is scouting for food. And that’s where we go out and we hang bags on people’s doors and we come back next week and collect the food as we talked about in the interview. And it’s just one of those things that when you see it,
in the eyes of the scouts, that they are realizing that they’re doing something good in the community, that they are making the world better by just being a part of this organization and going out and doing this interesting activity that they get to do once a year, so that people have food for Thanksgiving. It’s just so gratifying. And you know what? There’s a lot of organizations in the area that contribute to make ⁓ that food drive happen.
to help the food banks that are desperately in need of food around Thanksgiving to be able to have that. So thank you to everyone that makes scouting for food possible. Thank you to Greater St. Louis Area Scouting for all the great work you do. And of course, thank you again, Martez, for being on the show. If you’d like to connect with him or learn anything else about ⁓ scouting, including visiting Be a Scout, check out the show notes. All the details are there. But again, we are…
always looking for guests who want to come on and tell their story about what they’re doing in marketing in St. Louis, whether you are someone who’s working in product marketing or digital marketing or not for profit like Martez says, whatever you’re doing, we’d love to have you on. So please visit themarketinggateway.com, click on sign up to be a guest and let us know if you’d to be on, we’d love to have you. We’re always looking for new guests. ⁓
We are so excited to continue to bring you more and more of these interviews as we go. We’re now in the 100s in our episodes and we’re going to keep on going. So keep checking us out. Thanks so much for being here. I’m Sean in St. Louis and this has been the Marketing Gateway and we’ll see you next time.
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