About Buckley Barlow

Hey there!

I’m Buckley Barlow, the guy behind IN THE KNOW, a site designed to help you navigate and dominate along the customer journey. From acquisition to retention, this site is designed to give you a starting point to gain the relevant knowledge, learning, and training needed to make a quick and sustainable impact in your organization and market.

Several years ago I started and hosted the IN THE KNOW podcast. It was there that I talked to leaders, strategists, technologists, and forward-thinkers about the specific things they were doing to enhance both the customer’s journey and their own experience. Those same high-profile individuals have continued to thrive with their forward-thinking and innovative approach to the business world, but the conversations we had remain compelling today because it gets you inside the brains of some truly successful and inspiring professionals, and where they were in the moments they were getting incredible results.

The podcast was never about teaching you simple tactics. Everything I’ve done at IN THE KNOW and at RocketSource has been about navigating the S Curve of Business in an ever-changing world and then answering those needs head-on with insights and empathy.

We’re living in a dynamic world where staying up-to-date on modern consumer behavior isn’t just nice — it’s necessary. Still, navigating through all the changes and shifts in how, why, and when customers today buy is intimidating. When you have to bring your ideas for how to meet customers head on back to your manager, director, or the C Suite, you need to be equipped with the richest insights possible, so you can garner trust and credibility within your team. While that sounds complex on the surface, I’m a master at simplifying this critical need, making it easier to understand what’s working, when it’s working, how it’s working, and HOW WELL it’s working.

In short, IN THE KNOW isn’t just about helping you avoid dead ends. It’s about equipping you with the knowledge needed to elevate your credibility through simple, yet powerful maneuvers that will keep you, your team, and your organization relevant no matter what happens along the ever-shifting customer journey.

Looking for innovative solutions for…

How to get deeper insights into the customer journey?
How to create actual results from all that data at your disposal?
How to leverage new technologies to become more magnetic for your target audience?
All the many moving components to operating in today’s digital world…
… then you’ve come to the right place.

is a resource for those tasked with propelling an organization upwards on the S Curve of Business, navigating the inevitable inflection points, and creating gorgeous customer experiences that won’t just attract customers but keep them coming back. To get you there, I’ve started by curating some of the best insights out there today to jumpstart your personal and professional development.

bigLightbulb OUR WHY
Empower and position forward-thinkers to disrupt markets and move the needle.

bigCogs OUR HOW
Offer unique learning paths and curated Stacks to keep you and your business relevant.

bigGamePlan OUR WHAT
Exceptional content that cuts through noise and gives you actionable strategies to create impressive customer and employee experiences.

Brands I’ve worked with:

I spent over a decade in the trenches building, growing, buying, investing in, advising, and selling various businesses. Now, I am one of the founding partners at RocketSource, where I continue to work shoulder-to-shoulder with well-known brands, as well as create our own line of technologic solutions to common pain points we see in the market. At the heart of it all is the customer. Everything I teach and do day in and day out is dedicated to providing modern consumers with impactful and unprecedented experiences — the kind of experiences that build enthusiasm for brands.

Today’s customer journey isn’t like the journeys of the past. It’s non-linear and highly complex. The good news about this is, to pair with the evolving buyer behavior, we have rich insights that empower us to anticipate and predict consumer behavior, wants and needs. These strategies aren’t reserved for the big players alone. They’re accessible to anyone who is willing to roll up their sleeves and expand their skillset. In taking this leap and dedicating themselves to learning, members of every department can stay pointed in the right direction, working arm and arm toward generating results. Often, amazing results.

Eric Smith,
Founder of Control4,
Angel Investor

I have now known Buckley for the better part of two decades. He is a really smart entrepreneur who has a constant sense of enthusiasm that is infectious. He also has what I consider to be the best skill any executive can have: He never gives up and doggedly goes after whatever it is he needs to take his business to the next step. I have seen him create results where I saw no opportunities. I also am proud to call him a friend after all these years. ”

My fascination with new technologies, channels, tools, tactics, and platforms has become the benefit of our clients over at RocketSource and our internal developments in our unique Labs division where we’re creating our own powerful customer experiences. I love watching the market. In fact, I’m the guy who anxiously awaits — and then thoroughly dissects — the issue of Inc 500 which showcases America’s Fastest-Growing Companies. For me, it’s a wild afternoon of gathering data and gleaning insights that I can then take and put into motion across all my ventures.

I don’t just keep these insights internalized either. I created IN THE KNOW to be a resource and hub for those who are just as hungry for knowledge as I am to dig into my findings. Rather than spinning wheels on research and sifting through the immense amount of digital noise, I built this site to serve as a spot where you can start to hone in on one subject quickly. Whether it’s on my IN THE KNOW podcast where I talk to many successful entrepreneurs, on the blog, or in any of the curated learning paths, there’s a lot of knowledge available for you right here.

I’D LOVE TO HELP YOU TAKE THIS CURATED KNOWLEDGE AND YOUR BUSINESS.

HOW?

But it’s not as simple as giving you a 1, 2, 3 step formula. Not even close. There are so many intricacies and beautiful nuances to the customer’s and employee’s journey that must be approached from an insightful and empathetic stance.

Traditional approaches to making decisions are rooted too deeply in guesswork and gut reactions. While I’m a firm believer in the cognitive ability to feel your way through business, I’m equally in tune with just how powerful empathy can be in making more intelligent decisions. Take a look at what I mean in this modern empathy map I built out with the team over at RocketSource.

Here, you can see that we’ve created two empathy maps, three new sections, and added 32 data points to better understand how the customers are thinking and feeling, as well as what they’re saying and doing along the customer’s journey.

But Buckley, how do I use this type of empathy to make better decisions in my own business? You’re not the first one to ask. Let me give you a quick overview of what this could look like for you.

The Modern Customer Journey is Rooted in an Empathetic Experience

What I call a framework is really a guideline for making insightful decisions about your customer’s experience and your employee’s experience along their journey with your brand. It seems simple enough on the surface, but when you see a Customer Insights Map like this, you can quickly tell just how complex it can get.

people Peopleattract prospects, gain leads, and ensure that customers become loyal advocates for your brand.

process Processthe strategies and workflows that actually run the engine.

plat-form Platform software systems, social channels, and other tools to create efficiencies of scale

When you put your People, Process, and Platform together, you can focus ON the experience from an empathetic view rather than constantly spinning your wheels IN the business. You have the engine you need to build incredible customer experiences and employee experiences — both of which are critical to have in place to close sales, drive revenue, and drive profit. After all, no matter what metric you want to achieve, your goal is to make more money.

customer journey map

PEOPLE

Running your business in a way that aligns both your employee and customer’s experiences starts by mapping out the insights you have at your disposal with empathy top and center.

Read more about the deep nuances and details of this insights-fueled customer journey mapping exercise in my post over at RocketSource.

When you leverage a Customer Insights Map like the one I’ve created here, you’re able to generate the type of brand euphoria the big name disruptors have achieved over the years. I spent years crafting the framework for how to build out this map. I call it StoryVesting, and it was a framework born out of thousands of conversations, and now I’m sharing it with savvy professionals hungry for continual forward momentum.

PROCESS

Think of the Customer Journey as an Engine, not as Experiences Based on an Individual Campaign or Silo.

When you’re a startup or a solo online marketer, you can easily ensure that your Process runs smoothly, and that all the pieces are part of a whole that works together. In big companies, dozens of people are forced to try to coordinate between various departments and cross-functioning teams. It’s inefficient — and it often makes real collaboration impossible.

process-step

process-setting
Your Process comprises the strategies and workflows that actually run the engine: lead generation strategy, content marketing strategy, SEO strategy, social media strategy. Everything you do in your business is a process, but it’s how you combine those discrete processes into a comprehensive experience that is the key to staying relevant while driving growth up the S Curve of Business.

HOW TO GROW YOUR BUSINESS IN THE DIGITAL AGE

Download the first two chapters of my book, The Growth Code, for free!

PLATFORM

Your Platform encompasses the software systems, social channels, and other tools you use not only to get the job done, but also to gather and evaluate information. The right software will let you drill down to see WHERE your best customers reside, HOW they are buying from you, WHY they are buying from you and WHEN they are buying from you. Via your platform, you get efficiencies of scale that let you reduce your marketing costs dramatically and improve your ROI exponentially. Traditional outbound channels, with their limited metrics and analytics, can’t compete.

Buckley Barlow is a truly unique talent who not only understands entrepreneurial marketing but has a proven track record in successfully launching new businesses that last.”

Paul Smoot, CEO Trail Break Group/Modernized Media

In The Know

2015-08-10T17:24:35+00:00

Paul Smoot, CEO Trail Break Group/Modernized Media

Paul Smoot of Modernized Media

Buckley Barlow is a truly unique talent who not only understands entrepreneurial marketing but has a proven track record in successfully launching new businesses that last.”

https://beintheknow.co/testimonials/1506/

In The Know

The Modern Marketing Funnel Marketing has changed and the modern sales funnel functions completely differently from its antiquated grandfather. Think of the old sales funnel as an old fashioned telephone, with an earpiece you lifted, a rotary dial, and a shared party line. Sure, it served a purpose once upon a time, but why would anyone use it today, given the alternatives? Today, at every step of the process, in each level of the marketing funnel, the prospect is experiencing something. And you have the power to control that experience — down to the tiniest details — and drive your prospect exactly in the direction you want him to go — so that he not only becomes a customer, but he becomes an engaged customer.

bottomPic

Professionals across all departments need to take an empathetic stance and put the audience first

WHAT

DO THEY WANT?

WHEN

DO THEY WANT IT?

HOW

DO THEY WANT TO GET IT?

When you think about how your employees and your customers are feeling, what they’re thinking, how they’re acting, and what they’re saying at each stage of the journey, then back that empathy mapping into rich insights pouring into your organization every day, you reposition yourself to make decisions that keep you on a straight path forward. By aligning the stories of your employees with the stories of your customers, well…that’s StoryVesting.

StoryVesting

Your story sets the trajectory for your customer’s journey from acquisition and well through retention. You can’t fake this kind of story either. You and every single person on your team have to believe it with all your heart. Customers can smell inauthenticity from miles away. They’re smart. If you’re focused on pushing your buyers through a conveyor belt-like journey, you’ll lose their interest fast. But, if you focus on putting your customer in the heart of your story, you become a brand they’ll believe in and buy from time and again.

This framework isn’t as simple as meets the eye. StoryVesting is a highly intelligent framework that leverages data, analytics, and empathy to get to the heart of what’s needed to develop beautiful and effective customer experiences across the entire journey. By navigating the way these concentric circles ebb and flow together, you can move both the customer’s experience and the brand experience closer together, delivering something to sublime it’ll make your mouth water to think about it. My heart skips a beat just typing those words because I’ve felt — not just seen — first-hand the effects of this approach…and I want the same for you.

WANT TO BE IN THE KNOW WHEN IT COMES TO GROWING YOUR BUSINESS ALONG A MODERN CUSTOMER JOURNEY?

Join our growing community and get specific and relevant information at your fingertips.

eirck Jonathan Virgin,
Co-Founder, Modernized Media

Working with Buckley means you will never have a shortage of great ideas and solid strategy. I’ve never worked with someone who’s had quite the same knack for accurate, big-picture thinking. In addition, Buckley is a highly creative and visually talented individual who can execute famously on a presentation that is both beautiful and enticing.”

Ready to be IN THE KNOW about Building a Business Aligned With the Modern Customer Journey?

Yeah, I thought so. But I also know how crazy overwhelmed you are with how much there is to learn. That’s why I’ve created IN THE KNOW. It’s here that you can sift through the noise and take your professional development on a rich journey as you navigate all the intricacies that go along with building the kind of experiences you crave along your own journey, your team’s journey, and your customer’s journey.

I’m here to bridge this gap for you. I’m here to keep your organization relevant with accessible learning, training, mentoring, consulting, and personalized programs. The first step? Getting your copy of the first two chapters of my book, The Growth Code, which you can do by entering your email address above.

About Buckley Barlow

Okay, so after all of that, who am I? I’m the Founder of IN THE KNOW and a founding partner at RocketSource where we implement StoryVesting for our clients. I’m also one of the lead guys in our Labs division where I’m practicing what I preach every single day by making StoryVested decisions.

But these experiences and this type of growth isn’t new to me. Not even close. My first experience with transforming a business and moving a customer through a sublime journey came when I was an early team member at STSN, the third fastest growing tech startup in the nation behind Google, whose revenues grew from just $51,000 to over $60mm in a few short years. I’ve since worked with a few names you might recognize, such as Apple, Microsoft, Toyota, Nestle, HP, American Express, Marriott, and Carlson-Wagonlit. As an entrepreneur, I’ve co-founded and exited multiple companies. As a consultant and active investor, I’ve rolled up my sleeves with the best of them to help build, implement and optimize people, platforms, and processes.

But my most important job is that of a doting husband and father to two wonderful children. My personal creed is “people first.” My insatiable appetite for knowledge paired with my tremendous desire to see others succeed has driven me to commit my life to my family and to making a difference in the lives of others.