Interview with Marketing Manager Scott Boyson

Dr. Starkey: Hi, this is Dr. Starkey. Welcome back to Trace Your Day.

Today I have a special guest with me. In fact, a dear friend that’s worked with Trace Minerals for 20 years now. In our conversation before we started, I was quite shocked. I didn’t realize that you’ve been with the company that long.

This is our marketing manager, his name is Scott Boyson, that I’d like to introduce to you. All those that are listening today, I feel it’s important, I think it’s probably more than anything, appropriate, that Scott’s our first guest on our podcast since anyone that’s watched any of our videos, he’s the tall, dark, and handsome one standing beside me. So today, I’d like to introduce you to Scott Boyson.

Scott: Well thank you Darrin. I appreciate that. It’s been a while though, and it’s good to be on. I appreciate you inviting me on. It’s been quite a while. I think, as I look back on the videos that we did, it was at least 8 years since we did some of these videos, and I think it’s been even longer than that. I was looking back and realized that I’ve got a lot more gray hairs since we did those videos.

Dr. Starkey: I don’t want to talk about that part of it, but it’s hard to believe. 8 years since our last video. Isn’t it amazing, Scott, having been with the company for 20 years, the waves that we’ve been through together. The products that have come and gone. The interest in certain nutrients that have come and gone. Today, my thought was, we cover a little bit about how the company is going about marketing and what our goal is. And I think the best way to do that first is sharing our mission statement as a company.

Scott: Yeah, I think that’s great. I was kind of apart of writing this mission, and also obviously with the owners and stuff. But the way that it reads is, “At Trace Minerals, we envision a world where people are empowered and in charge of their own health. A time when all consumers are committed to living a healthier lifestyle. A day when ionic trace minerals area part of every consumer’s daily supplement intake. Since 1972, Trace Minerals branded products have been recognized around the world as the pioneer of ionic trace mineral products that have supported consumers in living healthy lives.”

So that’s, as I think about our mission and my part of it a sfar as marketing, and helping people come to a knowledge of trace minerals, because its something that you start talking about oftentimes, I’m sure you’ve run into this, I’ve run into this at tradeshows and whatnot.

Like, what are trace minerals? What do you mean by trace minerals? And so, being able to educate people about trace minerals and how important they really are, is something I wouldn’t say I’m as passionate about it as you are because your passion is beyond passion of anybody I know. But it’s fun, it’s exciting, it’s fulfilling.

I think that’s something we had talked about was really how fulfilling it is to share these things with people, to see their lives change, to have the testimonials come in weekly, sometimes daily, where somebody sends an email “Hey, we just got this testimonial from this person about how literally trace minerals in one way or another, whatever product it is, is changing their lives.” And that’s a cool thing to be a part of.

Dr. Starkey: Absolutely, in fact, I also, again it kind of takes my breath away when I asked you how long have you been our marketing manager and that’s 18 years. And the first thought that came to my mind, in 18years, how drastically it’s changed for you as to your approach.

You know, a magazine article was the big you know, getting an article in the top nutritional magazine, to the point now where we’re at levels of whether it be Instagram, or Facebook, or all these different platforms that you’ve had to learn and grow with and kind of interact with our consumer now because that’s where we’re at. But it’s amazing to think about how you’ve had to adapt to adjust and of course spread that statement, our mission statement, across all platforms.

So there’s the neat thing about what we’re now involved with, is the interaction with our consumer. Where they can ask questions, they can share their experiences, and of course, that’s what keeps my wind in my sails, is when an individual calls and shares with me their personal experience with ConcenTrace or whatever product they’re supplementing with. And then we get to share that.

I wish we could write a book on them. I wish we could publish those testimonies and share it with the world, but we can’t. But at the same time, from a personal standpoint on a daily standpoint, that’s literally what keeps the wind in our sails and keeps us passionate about the products and the new products.

I do know having worked with Scott for all these years that there are certain times in your year that you’re so incredibly busy, whether it be the conventions we have to prepare for or helping us as representatives of the company being able to get the information out. So I just want to one, publicly say thank you for what you do, but again, knowing what we know, shoutout to our owners who allow us to do what we do and share this with the world.

Scott: Yeah, for sure. And going back to your point, you know on social media, and how marketing has really changed over the last 10years, it’s definitely been a challenge, but it’s also been fun because I feel like we have so many more personal experiences with our customers because they’re sending us messages, they’re asking us questions through direct messages. I mean, I answer questions every single day on Instagram, I know you do on Facebook and the other platforms that we have, YouTube and comments and people are asking questions. I think that has been really a huge benefit for social media, even though sometimes it’s this beast. Sometimes it’s hard to control, right? I mean you know that.

Dr. Starkey: Absolutely.

Scott: It’s hard to control because people can just post whatever they want. But at the same time, I think it has been so much more of a benefit. The pros outweigh the cons for sure because we can talk directly with these consumers who are asking questions, who are on their health journey. They have a question about a product, and it also helps us know how to market that product even better and explain it better. And so that’s been invaluable.

Dr. Starkey: I know that on our daily, weekly, monthly basis, you and I get to share some pretty neat experiences. And you know, that’s one of the things that especially from an employee standpoint, our employees have to know the details of these products and we try to do our best. One of the opportunities for our new employees when you’re first trained as you’re learning, we challenge all of our employees to have an experience because that’s what these products are based on is results.

I love the company’s “feel the difference or your money back guarantee" offer. I mean, money’s hard enough to come by. Why should we keep your money if you’re not getting results with one of our products? I love standing behind that guarantee. But we also offer that to our employees, especially our newest employees. But my question to you from a personal standpoint is, what was your experience? What product helped you understand this is where I’m supposed to be?

Scott: Yeah, no this is an experience I share with a lot of people because when I tell them I’ve been with the company for 20 years, and of course their jaw drops because like, wow. 20 years. Who’s been with the same company for 20 years? Probably a handful maybe.

The first thing, I remember this was back in 2002. I started in August. I started as a sales rep and then a couple years later is when I moved into marketing. But as soon as I started, the first thing they said was “You need to take ConcenTrace because ConcenTrace is our flagship product. This is the product people know us by. You need to just take it. See what happens.”

Of course, I was pretty recently graduated from college. At that time, I was taking naps everyday after work, you know, in my previous employment before I was hired on. That was just a routine that I had. I would come home, eat something, take a nap, and then hang out the rest of the night until bed. And as soon as I started taking ConcenTrace, those naps stopped. And I mean literally stopped. In 20 years, I’ve taken some naps in the afternoon here and there when I maybe was up with a child or whatever, but as far as just those daily run-down type naps, they completely stopped. And right then and there, I knew that was my lightbulb moment. And it was like, “Man, this is something special.”

Dr. Starkey: This is a game-changer for you.

Scott: Absolutely. This is a game-changer. And you know, I had never been really into nutrition - when I say I wasn’t into nutrition, I probably shouldn’t say it like that. I tried to eat healthy, right? But as far as supplements and things like that, I was never really into that.

Dr. Starkey: I remember when you first hired on, I was like, “This dude should be a GQ model. What’s he working for Trace for?”

Scott: No, never.

Dr. Starkey: We laugh about it now because of course, when we’re at the conventions I used to laugh because he was young, he was single, it seemed like there was a lot of our customer base that were interested in talking to Scott. You know, “Where’s Scott at?” And they weren’t disappointed when they got to meet their rep.

But at the same time, all joking aside, I remember thinking of course, Scott, taking your pre workout and post workout and your protein because again, most of our hired reps are newly graduated, work out in the gym, that’s their concept of supplement. Because they go to the gym, they’re most interested in the electrolytes.

But here’s a product that changed your life. We assume that we’re getting all that we need from our multivitamin. But the minute that you start taking something and it makes that big of a difference. What I love about what you’ve done over the past 20 years, and I think it’s easy to do when you’ve had that lightbulb moment is that you get to share it. It’s repeatable. And if it works for you, it’ll work for anybody, right?

Scott: Sure.

Dr. Starkey: And to say that you’ve been with the company for 20 years, that’s credibility. That’s something that people have to take notice of. There’s something there that’s keeping you here. And now taking that experience and putting that into the marketing of these products. That flagship, that niche that we have, makes this company.

Listening to these different companies with their interest groups and they talk about “recession-proof” or “pandemic-proof.” I love to be able to hear them comment on “Once you’ve tried ConcenTrace, you’ll never go back.”

Scott: Yeah, we get that all the time. I just got an email from someone, a testimonial, just yesterday, this guy called in and said, “I’ve been taking ConcenTrace since 1996.” We’ve had people saying earlier than that. Those are some of the earliest people to send an email or a phone call it used to be before or maybe even a letter. We used to get letters back in the day before email was a big thing.

Dr. Starkey: Sure. I’ve got a three-inch file of testimonies written on paper because that’s the way we once did it.

Scott: Yeah, it’s pretty cool. As you were talking about the company, definitely a shout out to our owners and the opportunities that they give us and also the fact that we’re selling products that help. Tome that’s most important. When we’re developing and we’re formulating a product. When you and I both sit in on those meetings to talk about a product that we want to come out with, something that’s going to help somebody.

That’s the most important part of it. How is this going to help? Because like you said with the feel the difference or your money back guarantee, that’s on every single product that we sell and that’s something that we know we need to stand by and so every product needs to be able to do that. And that is a neat thing to be able to have on every single product.

Dr. Starkey: Absolutely. And one of the things that I was thinking about is our owners are extremely interested in at all levels of delivery. When we first started, we had the ConcenTrace in four different sizes, which we still do. We now have it in a glass bottle. But then, it was from liquid to tablets.

Now if you think about it, after these last 20 years together, we now have gummies. We have capsules. That’s a gamechanger in and of itself. We have flavored liquids. There are so many different opportunities just with our main flagship product, but that’s the way it is across the board. They give us the opportunity to help in that development, whether it be magnesium and all the different delivery systems that they’ve offered us.

So I hope that those listening today, especially when it comes to the marketing, sometimes with marketing, if it sounds too good to be true, it might be too good to be true. But take the guarantee challenge. What do you have to lose? And if it makes a difference just like in your life and all the sudden you’ve been on it now and you’ve shared it through the marketing of the company, but you share it with all your children and eventually, anyone who is willing to listen, it will make a difference.

When we stop to think about change, we don’t know what the future’s going to hold. With what technology offers us, right? To think that we can see each other through Zoom and be able to share our thoughts and feelings and see the response on our faces, that’s pretty incredible, right? But at the same time, we appreciate the consumer for asking questions.

Scott: Absolutely. Yeah, and to your point too, I wanted to make a point about the delivery systems. Because with someone that has seven kids, and you’ve got four, you know how it is to try and help our children to have the proper nutrition and it’s hard first of all to even get the right foods into their bodies, but to know what we know about food, about some of those nutrients that are lacking, right?

Being able to have products like gummies, like effervescents, things that get our greens, right? Getting greens into our kids that taste good, like are you kidding me? That’s again, game changer with what you said. That’s something that we’re always looking for.

We’re always looking for those opportunities to help people with their children and themselves as well because guess what, there are adults that are the same way, that have these palettes that if it doesn’t taste so good, they’re out. They’re not going to take the product. So being able to make a product taste good that’s good for you that’s all natural, all of those things that we know are important for our bodies. Being able to get those nutrients into our kids, making sure that they have the proper nutrition, that’s part of marketing that’s fun. That’s a fun part of being able to find ways not to just try and get a product out there.

That’s another thing I love about marketing at Trace Minerals: I know that we’re putting products out there and the purpose is to help people, not just to sell a product. We’re not just trying to sell a product. We’re trying to help people along their health journey because there’s a lot of problems out there like that with what you’ve already talked about in previous podcasts about how foods are lacking, and people don’t know that. They don’t realize that a lot of times. So helping them to say “Hey, this is a really easy product to take. I can take this every day.” That’s a lot of the reason why we do the things that we do, and we have these different delivery systems is so that we can make it as easy and as tasty as can be.

Dr. Starkey: Well, thank you again for taking the time. I appreciate your passion, your willingness. We spend a lot of time on questions because we’re constantly researching. We’re not about just putting a piece of literature out there just to sell a product. But there are questions that come up and that’s one of the things that’s important. The information that we do put out there. If it stimulates a question, we’ve done our job.

Scott: Absolutely. Yeah, we want the questions. Yeah absolutely. We want people to send questions in that they have. Because we’d rather have them ask us and let us tell them and explain to them something about our product than maybe someone else who maybe doesn’t know the product and doesn’t know the purpose.

Dr. Starkey: Right, you know, stop me here for a minute while I jump on my soapbox. It’s amazing to me knowing how hard we work to putout a quality product but somebody on some platform doesn’t like the taste or doesn’t like whatever it might be, and it’s amazing to me that as hard as we work, I don’t think we’ll ever keep everybody happy. But we would prefer instead of looking at that one star and that’s what you believe because of someone’s opinion that you reach out to us and let us help answer those concerns that you have and give you that confidence to reach out, try it for yourself, have the experience with the product, and if doesn’t do what we formulated it to do for you, send it back.

Scott: Return it, take it back to the store, call us, we’ll refund you. Whatever it takes, we’ll do it.

Dr. Starkey: Yeah, we’ll make it right with you. And if nothing else, gain your confidence knowing that we’re here to support you and your family. Thank you again for taking your time with me on Trace Your Day today. I appreciate your efforts, your passion to help others along their health journey.

Scott: Yeah, it’s been fun. Thank you. I appreciate it. It’s fun to get back to doing this again and maybe we’ll do it again.

Dr. Starkey: Absolutely. Again, that familiar voice is Scott Boyson. He’s our marketing manager and we’ll talk to you soon.

Thanks for listening in. If you have any topics you want covered, let us know on our Instagram page @tracemineralsreasearch.We’ll see you back here next week on Trace Your Day!