We were lucky to catch up with Stix Nilsen recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Stix , thanks for joining us today. What did your parents do right and how has that impacted you in your life and career?
My father basically came from poverty in Mobridge, South Dakota.
Chinese food was obviously very foreign to him so he didn’t experience it until later in life. His first fortune cookie was quite profound for his fortune was a simple lesson in life everyone should follow…as he did every day on this earth (RIP Dad):
“Never look down on someone unless you’re there to help them up.”
I have always tried to stay true to those words both personally and professionally.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I was fortunate enough to go to private school K-12 (education is very important in my family) and was surrounded by students from prominent families of major/global companies.
There is truth to the saying, “With wealth, comes mobility”.
Being surrounded by people with “resources” (as my Dad would humbly refer to $) I started to see that I was going to have to figure out a way to get said resources if I wanted “mobility”. (which is important to someone like me that can’t sit still)
@ that time, the careers that would fund said mobility were medicine, law, finance etc……none of which were of interest to me.
I was infatuated with action sports: skateboarding, snowboarding, surfing and everything that came with those activities: cool locales (all over the world), the fashion, photography, travel, the events, the music etc.
After pounding the proverbial pavement (that’s a whole other gnarly journey) to break into “the industry” I landed a gig as a snowboard boot developer – which parlayed into one of the first Sports Marketing Managers @ Red Bull – which led me to help resuscitate the Pabst Blue Ribbon brand – which got me audience with Liquid Death’s visionary/co-founder/CEO Mike (Cessario).
If I was to summarize what I do: I credibly integrate brands into scenes other brands try to buy their way in. From that comes growth in brand equity which leads to sales.
The hardest part of what I do is it’s tough to “scale” the ROI which some people can’t accept/understand. Those who have let me do what I do have been rewarded. This is not an arrogant/vain comment; but check my track record with the brands I’ve been involved with.
Any fun sales or marketing stories?
When I was a snowboard boot developer, the brand I was with had the biggest boot marketshare of the snowboard industry. Our biggest account/customer was Gart Sports.
Long story short, we missed their VERY valuable delivery window thereby costing them a grip of $.
Human nature would guide you to start making excuses to try and shift the blame: factory incompetence, shipping issues, customs hang-ups etc.
A bloodbath @ their HQ awaited.
Our rep for the Rocky Mountains who handled Garts walked – confidently – into what should have been a buzzsaw and said, “Did we f*#k you guys or what?!?!”. Totally diffused the powder keg.
Moral of the story: admit when you’re wrong and work tirelessly to make it right.
Society today seems to be riddled with those looking to blame when they keep walking by the mirror.
Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?
This may seem cliché but be authentic. Be funny. Make people stop and say, “Holy s#*t! Did they just do that?!?!”
Every brand has a social media plan of some sort. More often than not, they’re checking proverbial boxes and not really putting thought into how their brand/business is conveyed on social media.
I don’t care what your background is or how educated you are, most consumers know when something is inauthentic.
Pay a celebrity to post: check. Pay a pro athlete to post: check. Take token shot of brand @ an event/iconic location: check.
Usual it’s all super un-engaging and lazy.
Liquid Death embraced UGC since the beginning. We have let consumers decide for themselves what our brand means to them instead of shoving some half-baked messaging down their throats. All the while making people laugh and smile. (as well as make drinking water and sustainability cool)
With everything going on right now, the world needs more of that.
Contact Info:
- Website: www.liquiddeath.com
- Instagram: @liquiddeath
- Facebook: www.facebook.com/DrinkLiquidDeath
- Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/company/liquid-death
- Twitter: @liquiddeath
- Youtube: www.youtube.com/@liquiddeath2793
- Other: www.tiktok.com/@liquiddeath
Image Credits
Stix