In today's episode of The Pipeline Brew podcast, host Matt Hummel, VP Marketing at Pipeline360 is joined by Hannah Jordan, the Director of Digital Marketing for Demandbase. The two discuss the rise of the self-service buyer's journey, how to leverage AI with customers tactfully, and why sales & marketing alignment is critical.

What’s the benefit of fostering a self-service buyer journey? Hannah emphasizes that allowing customers to initiate conversations on their own terms can significantly improve their experience, pointing out that constant prompts to engage can often repel potential clients, whereas a more subtle approach respects the client's timeline and autonomy. Additionally, Hannah underscores the necessity of customizing content based on the customer’s journey stage. She advocates against a one-size-fits-all approach, highlighting that knowing where a customer is in their decision-making process allows marketers to provide the right information at the right time.

For those who have yet to implement any sort of AI or automations until their daily life, Hannah offers some great anecdotes and practical advice on how she leverages them. You’ll also hear why she was awarded with the "Make Sales Love Us" award recently at Demandbase and how she views the marketing-sales relationship as a whole.

Guest Bio

Hannah Jordan is the Director of Digital Marketing at Demandbase, where she specializes in account-based marketing strategies. With a strong focus on enhancing campaign effectiveness, she has been instrumental in rethinking audience engagement and leveraging data-driven insights to optimize marketing efforts. Her expertise in digital marketing is complemented by a passion for exploring innovative advertising techniques, which she shares through webinars and industry discussions.

In addition to her role at Demandbase, Hannah actively engages with the marketing community, sharing her insights and experiences on platforms like LinkedIn. Her journey into account-based advertising reflects her commitment to continuous learning and adaptation in a rapidly evolving digital landscape. Through her work, she aims to inspire others in the field to embrace new methodologies and drive impactful marketing results. 

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Matt Hummel: Hey everyone, and welcome to another episode of the Pipeline Brew, the podcast that meets at the intersection of people and pipeline. We're bringing you fun yet insightful conversations where you'll not only hear from marketing experts, but also get to know them as well.

Today I am super excited to be joined by Hannah Jordan, Director of Digital Marketing at Demandbase. Hannah has been with Demandbase for just over three years now, after she joined the team from ForgeRock. She's focused on driving brand awareness, account engagement, and optimizing the buyer journey through digital channels.

I had the pleasure of working with Hannah for a season and can definitively say she's truly one of the brightest minds in digital marketing. Welcome to the show, Hannah. How are you doing?

Hannah Jordan: Thanks so much for having me on, Matt. Excited to be working together again.

Matt Hummel: Absolutely. And I know you love when people talk positively about you. And so I'm just imagining right now that you're loving this spotlight.

Hannah Jordan: Oh, yes. It's just my favorite thing, as you know.

Matt Hummel: Well, I'm super excited to have you on the show. So thank you for joining. And I like to kick off each episode with a little bit of an icebreaker just to get the ball rolling. You ready for that?

Hannah Jordan: Yeah, bring it on.

Matt Hummel: What is your favorite go-to beverage when you need a little pick me up?

Hannah Jordan: Oh, gosh, my favorite go-to beverage, it's gotta be sugar free Red Bull. I'm actually kind of infamous here now because I've door dashed a few sugar free Red Bull during calls and people think it's insane that I'm going to that level, but I gotta have it. It's just like, afternoon hits, I don't want a heavy coffee, it's just, it's perfect.

Matt Hummel: That's amazing. So you're a coffee drinker in the morning and then a sugar free Red Bull drinker the rest of the day.

Hannah Jordan: Yes, exactly. It's a powerful combination.

Matt Hummel: That's amazing. So sugar free. Have you tried the sugar version? Is it too much?

Hannah Jordan: It's too much. I don't know. The sugar free version tastes like cotton candy to me, which is delicious, so why would I ever go back?

Matt Hummel: I'll have to give that a try because I'm not an iced coffee fan, but in these summers, you need something a little cooler.

Hannah Jordan: Yeah, something easy to drink, so that's my go to.

Matt Hummel: Alright, well, awesome, thank you for that. So, as I mentioned earlier, you're an expert when it comes to all things digital marketing, so I'd love to pick your brain on a few topics. So let's start with strategy. Arguably one of the most important pieces of anything, digital marketing included. In your thoughts, Hannah, what makes a good digital strategy? And how do you think about digital strategy in relation to an overall marketing strategy?

Hannah Jordan: Yeah, that's a really great question. And the way that I think about digital strategy now, and I think you had some influence on this, Matt, is really trying to think about what are the brand's priorities, and then almost acting like an internal agency to making those priorities come to life.

So when I think of our overall marketing strategy, there are the very high level goals that it's, you know, drive pipeline, create this many meetings, make yourself known in the market as X. And then when I think about digital strategy, It's then a little bit more like, okay, what are the tactical ways we can take those overarching priorities for the company and actually bring them to life through the channels?

So taking a look at like, okay, I know paid search is a great lead gen driver. So when the company is meeting pipeline, I'm going to pull on that versus if it's more brand awareness, I'm going to look at other channels like LinkedIn and display advertising. So just again, always making sure that the medium mix that I'm using is aligned to what is going to be best for the company.

Matt Hummel: Oh, that makes sense. I love that. I mean, maybe I love it because I was influential, but no, that's awesome. It makes a ton of sense. And, you know, obviously you're with Demandbase, which is, you know, heavy on digital marketing. So you know, I think a lot of internal stakeholders would understand what your role is, right?

And so when you think though, do you have any perspective or advice you'd offer others who are doing digital marketing? Who, you know, may not have quite the same line of sight to pipeline. And so you've got more of the leading indicators. How do you sort of defend the role of digital marketing for those who don't necessarily understand the nuances of what good looks like?

Hannah Jordan: Yeah. And so I'd say, you know, before coming to Demandbase where I was very much tied to, you know, the pipeline side of things and we're using all this attribution touch points. A lot of the leading indicators that I've used in the past are things like intent. So if we launch, you know, a new integrated campaign across our digital channels, that was all around security.

Did I start to see the intent levels for those keywords go up across my target accounts after we launched that campaign? And could I continue to see that increase as we launch the new phases of it? Of course, I mean, there's site analytics, so seeing like, are we getting an increase in web traffic?

But not only that, but are people engaging in the way that we want? So. It's great if 10,000 more people come to my website, but are they actually engaging with the content? Are they scrolling on the website? Are they really engaging with me in a way that means something? And so I think looking at some of those leading indicators can be a great way to see, are we on the right track?

Matt Hummel: I love that. And I love that I didn't hear you at any point say things like cost per lead or metrics that would probably drive others nuts and, not that they're not important, but at the end of the day, they don't really mean anything. That's awesome. Super helpful. Next topic related to digital marketing, ABM.

Matt Hummel: So ABM is a term everyone loves to talk about, but I would contend nobody agrees on what it means. So I wanted to ask you, how do you think about ABM? What do you think it means? And how do you think about it with respect to what you do at Demandbase?

Hannah Jordan: Oh, well, I don't think about ABM. No, I'm just kidding.

Matt Hummel: Tell me more.

Hannah Jordan: I mean, Demandbase is an ABM platform at its very core. And so I kind of joke that everything we do has this ABM motion to it. You know, at a very basic level, I think that ABM is really aligning between like the entire revenue organization. Which accounts are the best to go after? And so sales is going to promise to dedicate their time and resources behind them.

Marketing is going to promise to dedicate more of their time, resources and budget behind them. And it's this very aligned emotion around these are the accounts that we are doubling down on and that we all agree are going to have the biggest revenue potential for us. And then, of course, you have your evergreen campaigns in the background, and those are, you know, just running as the always-on throughout the different buyer's journey.

But account-based marketing is really honing in on what are the special things that we can do to make this feel like we are literally right there guiding these top, top accounts kind of through this buying cycle.

Matt Hummel: I love that. And you mentioned the alignment with sales between marketing, obviously. And I want to come back and talk through that a little bit more in a minute. But you also talked about alignment around the key accounts. How do you approach that? How do you decide what are your key accounts? Is it purely data driven? Is it purely sales driven or is it some combination or something else?

Hannah Jordan: Yeah, it's a fun combination of both, at least how we approach it here. So I would say the foundation is very data driven. So we're looking at things like firmographics, technographics, their engagement levels. There's a few AI components in there too in terms of their qualification score. And so really all of that's coming together to give this account a score on a scale of five.

And so, you know, obviously a five being, hey, this account is amazing, it's perfect. And a one being like, I wouldn't touch this account. So we do use the data to come up with those account lists where we pass them over to sales and then say like, hey, based on the data, this is the recommended accounts that fit the tier one score.

But then sales will ultimately have the final say because they have the inside knowledge. An account can look great on paper, but maybe they just had a conversation with them last quarter that we don't know about that for whatever reason makes them not a good account to go after. So it's data. Sales has the final say, and then that's kind of how we align on, okay, here is the final target account list.

Matt Hummel: And that makes a ton of sense. And, you know, John Miller talks a lot about the 5 percent of accounts that are in-market at any given time. Only 5%, right? So when you're looking at your engagement score, are you typically only targeting accounts that would be part of that 5%?

Or do you think about the evergreen campaigns targeting some of those accounts who aren't necessarily showing intent to buy right away? How do you approach that?

Hannah Jordan: Oh, yeah, we do a full buyer screening approach here at Demandbase, so definitely targeting the accounts that are in our ICP that aren't necessarily ready to buy now, but when they are, we want to be top of mind for them. 

So it's staying in front of them, making sure that they know who our brand is, and it's really acting as more of that strategic advisor, I would say, at this point. Like we know they're not ready to buy. Let's not try to push them like, Hey, are you ready yet? Are you ready yet? And instead just provide them resources that can help them accomplish things while they maybe don't have our platform.

Hannah Jordan: And when it makes sense for us to step in, they're going to think of us first because we kind of have been there since the beginning.

Matt Hummel: I think that's so smart. I think, I mean, obviously you're competing with other companies who are going after that same 5%. And so, you know, your ability to tap into the other 95, so that to your point, when they are ready, your company will be top of mind.

So sounds like an awesome approach. All right. Next topic, the buyer journey. So, the data continues to show more and more of the buying journey’s happening before somebody wants to engage with sales. And so that puts a huge responsibility on folks like yourself in digital marketing to drive meaningful engagement and stand out amongst all the noise.

So what are some things you do and would recommend to our listeners in ways they could think about leveraging digital to effectively engage the modern buyer?

Hannah Jordan: Yeah, absolutely. I'm going to get really specific with this one because it's a play that we just started running that I am just obsessed with, so I kind of want everyone to try it.

So what we're doing is we can actually ingest G2 data into Demandbase. And so we can now see like when our target accounts are actively on G2 looking and comparing us to other platforms on there. And so that's a really rich signal that shows that, yes, they're not necessarily ready to raise their hand yet and say, I want to talk to you guys.

But if they're looking at our category, like comparing us to other platforms on there, we know they're getting ready and they're doing some pretty solid research. And so what that will do is it will send an alert to me, which then I will go and build out this one-to-one page for them. So it's a little more templatized.

So it's swapping in some of the company name, but then we launched a display campaign around them and it's very educational. So it's, “Hey, If you're inviting ABM platforms, we've put together some resources to help you” because basically we know they're on G2 evaluating ABM platforms. And so since we can then start to be kind of seen as this strategic consultant and this partnership to them, I think then it puts this, you know, Good feeling in their minds towards how they think of Demandbase like, “Oh, they're not, you know, trying to push me on anything.”

And it's a great way for us to make a soft intro. And then the pass off to sales is like, “Hey, if you ever just want to talk strategy, we're here.” So it's very much meeting the buyer where they're at and providing value rather than trying to push a sale.

Matt Hummel: I love that. That's so cool. One of the greatest pieces of advice I ever got was probably 10 years ago. I was at a conference and it was: “Trust the buyer” and, you know, said just at face value or taken at face value. It's kind of simple, right? Trust the buyer. Well, yeah, of course, but I think the way that most marketers approach potential buyers is a lack of trust. It's kind of what you were alluding to earlier of just pushing, pushing, pushing, even if they're not ready to buy.

And so, of course, you know, you want to be front and center and visible and known when the timing's right for someone to actually engage and buy. But, you have to have that element of trust so that when they do get to that point, they want to talk to you. So I love that.

One of the things that you were doing a lot when we were working together was use of chat tools. Are you still leveraging those in terms of aligning to the buyer journey? And if so, you want to walk us through. How do you think about that and approach that?

Hannah Jordan: Oh, absolutely. I think chat is one of the more underutilized channels that people don't necessarily think about incorporating in their marketing strategy.

Maybe they just have the bot that sits on there and it's like, Hey, how can I help you? But then really it's the salesperson jumping on there. I was looking at cars the other day just cause I don't know, I was interested in buying a new car and I’d just gone to the website. I was looking at one and there's this person, I guess, on the other side that was like, Hey, are you interested in more information about this particular car?

And then I didn't reply. I was just kind of looking at other things and they just wouldn't stop. And so eventually I just left the website because I'm like, God, that was so annoying. And so I think what makes Demandbase’s chat approach unique is that we've actually taken a more like automated approach to this.

So we don't actually really have a lot of the salespeople sitting in the chat tool trying to jump on people who are visiting the website. I'm a firm believer in the self-serve buyer’s journey. If they want to chat with us, the option is there and they would click it.

Someone jumping in and saying, hey, chat with us. It's just annoying at a certain point. And so we've really automated it based on, again, what journey stage an account is at and then being able to offer content based on that journey stage. What I mean by that is how engaged is that account with us? So if they're a highly engaged account, you know, they've downloaded a bunch of ebooks and white papers, then I'm not just going to give them a blog article that I recommend.

I'm going to provide content through the chat that's much more lower level. Maybe it's the newest analyst report versus if they are more top of funnel, I'm not going to expect them to care about an analyst report, but hey, here's just a blog that matches your industry. So I think it's one, you know, we're always promoting new and engaging content.

We're definitely letting people kind of choose their own adventure. And so then it's just another point where they can get information to then ultimately make the decision if they do want to raise their hand and talk to us.

Matt Hummel: I love that. It's funny. I think a lot of times companies will think about chat tool to your point of a way to align a sales rep to somebody who's visiting the website, but that definitely doesn't align with this notion of buyers still, in any format, don't want to talk to someone in sales till they're pretty much ready to buy. And as a funny aside, I think we should pretty much as B2B marketers do the opposite of what car dealerships do. So I think that's a good lesson. Funny side story. One time we were looking at buying a car, went to a dealership, test drove one. We didn't like it. They were kind of pestering us. We said, Hey, we're going to go to lunch, talk about it, and then we'll be back. I kid you not. The sales rep followed us to lunch. Creepiest thing ever. We definitely did not buy from them.

Hannah Jordan: Did you go to the police, at least?

Matt Hummel: No, we just peaced out. I think we took a couple quick turns and found our way out. It was bad. So when you brought up the car dealership, I started to have some flashbacks.

Hannah Jordan: So I'm sorry to trigger you like that. My apologies.

Matt Hummel: Yeah. It's okay.

All right. Now that we're back. So, you mentioned AI earlier, and I would say outside of buying groups and ABM, AI is like the hottest term right now.

So you talked about how you guys are leveraging AI with respect to some data. You want to expand on that and/or talk about how else you're either thinking about or leveraging AI within your digital marketing role.

Hannah Jordan: Yeah, absolutely. So, I'm probably one of the few people who thinks about AI more from the terms of data.

I think everyone thinks ChatGPT and making cool images that don't yet exist. I think about it from the data capacity. It's just maybe, like, I'm a big nerd at heart. So, just the ability to actually take a ton of data and analyze it in a way and identify trends and patterns that maybe, to the normal human eye we wouldn't understand immediately or know, and then be able to action off of that.

And I'm a firm believer that data can kind of tell you everything that you do need to know. So the product itself is actually using AI in quite a few ways. So we have something called predictive models. And so what these will do, well, the first one is qualification score. And qualification score is going to look at your best of customers.

So you upload that list of them and they're going to look at everything that has to do with those accounts. So what industry are they in? How many employees do they have? What technologies do they own? And start to come up with this ideal customer profile. And then what it will do is any new accounts that then start to come into your database, it will give them a qualification score.

Seeing that, you know, based on the AI algorithm of our best customers, the new accounts we have, meet them this much percentage. And then the other one, which I really love, is called Pipeline Predict. And so that one is actually looking at the activities that happened 30 days prior to an opportunity opening in our CRM.

And so then it can start to say, as new accounts, you know, are doing those activities, hey, these accounts are matching similar patterns to the accounts that became opportunities for you last quarter. So these would be great for sales to start to get ready to maybe reach out to because we know that they're pretty likely to open up an opportunity.

And again, it's just insights that would be so hard to get to if you didn't have something like an AI, either one just like, you know, looking at all the different data sets, but then two, applying those data points as it's happening in real time. So maybe you could get there manually, but gosh, that sounds hard.

So I'm grateful I can just refresh the screen and see the information right there.

Matt Hummel: Well, that's awesome. And definitely a different use case than you typically hear from marketers, which is to your point, how can I use chat GPT to write something faster? But yeah, the amount of information that AI can comb through quickly and intelligently is mind blowing.

So that's awesome. Not surprisingly, Hannah, you've been a wealth of information on these digital topics. Is there anything else that you're doing that you'd want to talk through related to digital marketing and what you're doing at Demandbase?

Hannah Jordan: Gosh, yeah, I guess the one thing that's been kind of close to home lately is actually in the customer side of marketing.

So, I feel like digital marketing sometimes gets very focused on new business, and maybe a lot of companies are guilty of this too. Like, the new logos are, they're more fun to see come through sometimes. You know, I think that's the mindset. It's like, oh, wow, we got this great new logo. And so, sometimes I think the focus and the effort behind that customer love does kind of go away.

And so I'm trying to personally take a big step back and kind of recenter myself and think, our customers are, one, they're amazing. They're our biggest advocates. And then two, like, they're the ones that are powering this company right now. You know, it's not the accounts I'm trying to land. Our revenue is currently coming from our customer accounts.

They're keeping our lights on.

Matt Hummel: It's a great point.

Hannah Jordan: Yeah. So it's kind of how can we show them love and make sure that they're sticky and also that they love the product that we're using. And so I don't want to say that the customer notion that we're having, it's not even cross sell, up sell. It's just, hey, are you getting the most value out of the product that we gave you?

Are your sales teams using it? Are your marketing teams using it? Like, let's increase that adoption. Let's give them guides for how-tos to set up, new plays to try. And so again, like, We've already sold them. Like, that's great. So like, let's kind of take a pause and stop selling them and try to be like, how can we grow this customer even more?

Let's just make sure they're happy. And I think that can just go a really long way in terms of how then your customers feel about you as a brand.

Matt Hummel: Oh, that's so cool. And you know, it's subtle in how you presented it, but that nuance between if you're focused on customers as cross sell upsell, they'll feel that and not that there's anything inherently wrong with trying to do that and under the guise of adding more value, but if your focus truly is making happy customers, then ostensibly more revenue should follow. So I love that. That's super cool. Any tips on how to get started down that path? Did you work with the CSMs or how do you, how do you think about that?

Matt Hummel: Working with your current customers.

Hannah Jordan: Yeah. A lot of the work was done sort of in the field and I'm probably in a unique position here because I actually talked to a lot of our customers because I use our own product, but you know, it was talking to them and kind of what are some common pain points that they keep seeing?

What are use cases that I keep hearing come up that people want to learn more about? It was then working with the CSM suite, where do you think maybe we're lacking some product education? And then being able to put together some, you know, just quick three minute videos where it's like, here's how you would action this account list by doing Y.

Or here's how you would set up an orchestrated nurture sequence to your target accounts. And so by being able to understand their pain points head on and knowing that our platform can actually do that, it's just a matter of educating them as to how. That's where we started to put together some of those resources to get in front of our customers who now can use those to see value.

Matt Hummel: That's awesome. And I have to give you praise because your love for customers that I saw when we worked together and I can still hear in your voice is inspiring. And I think so many marketers miss the point around talking to your customers and you're in a unique position, obviously, because you're selling to people who do similar jobs to you, but there's so many marketers out there who just want to sit back, crunch numbers, put out campaigns, hope it works, but you're actually spending quite a bit of your time talking to customers. So I love that. And I think more and more marketers should do that. So kudos to you.

Hannah Jordan: Oh, thank you so much. I mean, at the end of the day, I'm a people person. I couldn't sit back and crunch numbers.So I'm just like, whenever I can talk to someone, I'll probably do it.

Matt Hummel: So AI can crunch the numbers. You'll talk to the people and everything else will follow.

Hannah Jordan: Yeah. It's just a beautiful, beautiful thing.

Matt Hummel: That's awesome. All right. So I want to transition to a different topic, sales and marketing alignment, which we talked about a little bit earlier related to ABM.

Matt Hummel: So I think I saw that you recently were recognized with the “Make Sales Love Us Award” at Demandbase, which is awesome. And correct me if I'm wrong, but did that not win you a trip as part of President's Club to Hawaii?

Hannah Jordan: Yes, it did come with a very nice trip to Hawaii.

Matt Hummel: That is awesome. So huge congratulations.

Hannah Jordan: Thank you very much.

Matt Hummel: Yeah. So we could talk about Hawaii and that would probably be super interesting, but I want to talk about how did you win that award? How do you approach sales and marketing alignment? Because part of what we do at Pipeline360 is we do a ton of market research and our data continually shows us that is one of the biggest pain points that marketers are facing.

Matt Hummel: And so you seem to have cracked the nut. So any words of wisdom that you want to share in terms of how you approach creating that alignment?

Hannah Jordan: I don't know if I've cracked anything per se, but I'll at least share how I approach it and what I do. So I just think it really starts with a very deep appreciation for sales themselves.

They have a really hard job. There's a reason I'm not in sales. So when I think about, they're out there every day, putting themselves out there, constantly getting no's. I mean, I think most of their job is getting told no over and over again and kind of working the front lines. And you know, my job looks pretty great as a marketer.

Then on the back end, I'm just launching some campaigns. So I've always approached it as, how can I help make sales jobs easier. Like if there's anything that I can do to help them, I would be more than happy to do so and get them a win. So I think it's kind of approaching the sales team from that perspective where it's like, I'm not gonna try to push anything down your throat or tell you to go promote this, but basically like, what can I do for you?

I feel like maybe they don't get asked that super often, and so coming from that perspective makes them like, oh, actually great. I feel like it's listening to them. Making their insights feel valuable. I think market research is amazing, but I also think sales themselves, they are out in the field.

So they have very unique insights that we probably wouldn't get just by trying to run industry analysis on trends. They have that firsthand knowledge. And so I think by establishing that partnership where, hey, I'm literally just trying to help you, like, you're heard. How can I help maybe fight off some of those misconceptions that you keep hearing out when you're talking to people and just kind of helping them see value in these different touches, I think has been really great in order to create our relationship as a whole.

Matt Hummel: That's awesome. And I love it because again, what I didn't hear from you was sort of the systematic playbook of, well, I set up these weekly cadences with so and so and we talk about it's no. I asked them, how can I help? And I listen. And it's as you were saying that I'm sitting here taking notes, like, how could I be a better parent?

Maybe I could just stop saying no all the time. I could ask my kids what they want and I could listen. Words of wisdom from Hannah. This is amazing.

Hannah Jordan: I mean, yeah, it works with salespeople. I'm not trying to give any advice about kids.

Matt Hummel: Well, I know you don't have kids at this point, but I was the world's best parent before I had kids. So I think you're pretty qualified.

Hannah Jordan: Well, thank you very much. And it goes kind of back to that whole notion too of like, basically, they get told no all the time salespeople do. So it's like, if they're then going to their internal marketing team and asking for something and I'm saying no to them, it's like, gosh, like, where can they get a win?

Hannah Jordan: Like how defeating that would be? So one of my colleagues, Moira, she's great. But one thing she said one time, she said, I try to never say no, even if something's maybe not doable in the exact way. I'm gonna try to find like, okay, that exact thing might not be possible, but what if we tried this instead? And so I've tried to carry that like, okay, I'm never going to say no. How can we still try to accomplish what you asked for, but maybe in a different way?

Matt Hummel: Yeah. So kind of understanding the intent of what they're trying to ask versus maybe what they're asking for specifically isn't possible, but how can we still help solve what you're trying to do?

Hannah Jordan: Exactly.

Matt Hummel: Well, I love it. I think more and more marketers should focus on creating that sales and marketing alignment because to your point, sales really is the, you know, they're on the front lines. They're the ones out there talking to customers and thankfully you are as well. And so it really becomes a great combination.

Matt Hummel: So that's awesome. I want to jump into a segment called what's on tap where I want to find out a few of your favorite things. So are you ready?

Hannah Jordan: Let's do it.

Matt Hummel: All right. So at the top of the show, we talked about your go to pick me up beverage, which if I recall is sugar free Red Bull because it tastes like cotton candy, which would make my kids happy.

Matt Hummel: On the flip side, what is your go to wind down beverage?

Hannah Jordan: Oh, I mean, you said it in the name, my go to wine down beverage is wine. A giant glass of red wine is my favorite thing on planet earth.

Matt Hummel: I was wondering if you caught that wine down, because I had a feeling it was a nice, large glass of red wine, so.

Hannah Jordan: Or a coffee mug, or, you know, a solo cup, like, I'm not picky.

Matt Hummel: As long as it's red, and maybe at the right temperature, you're happy?

Hannah Jordan: Room temp, room temp only and all.

Matt Hummel: Room temp on red wine? Interesting. I thought I knew you. Okay. Well, we'll move on to the next question. So you're based in Austin, which is an amazing city for a number of reasons, but notwithstanding the food, the food there is some of the best.

Matt Hummel: So what is your favorite restaurant in Austin?

Hannah Jordan: Oh my gosh, that's probably the hardest question that I've ever been asked. Actually, there's this amazing, so I'm a huge sushi person. I think you also know this about me. And I wouldn't say it's a hole in the wall, but it's like, you know, in a shopping center and I found it when I like lived like three minutes away and it's called Ichi Umi. And it's the best sushi I've ever had in my life.

Matt Hummel: Ichi Umi. So it's not Uchi, which is not a hole in the wall.

Hannah Jordan: No, yeah, it's opposite of Uchi, really. I mean, it's pretty casual, but the quality of the fish and the portion sizes, like I could show up there with 20 bucks and leave a very happy person.

Matt Hummel: Oh, that's amazing. Yeah. Very cool. All right. Next time I'm in Austin, I know where I'm going to go.

Matt Hummel: I'm pretty sure I remember you love TV. Another great way to wind down. So. What is your favorite TV show or series that you've binged?

Hannah Jordan: Well, my favorite ones that I've binged recently. Oh, there was this, I think it was Apple TV. I don't remember what it was, but it was called Silo. Have you heard of it?

Matt Hummel: No.

Hannah Jordan: Okay. Well, I highly recommend to watch it. It's like this futuristic where everyone lives in a silo underground, basically. And there's like this whole regime and then people are like, is it real? Like you can't go outside or you die, allegedly. And so, I don't know. Maybe you do, maybe you don't.

Hannah Jordan: Like, apparently people go out there and die.They like show it. And then it's just like, obviously there's the good and the bad and the evil. And then there's a whole plot twist at the end. So I'm waiting for season two now.

Matt Hummel: Oh, so there was a cliffhanger at the end of season one.

Hannah Jordan: There always is a cliffhanger at the end of season one.

Matt Hummel: All right. I got to tune into that. That's a good recommendation. Cool. Okay. Two more. So I know you love to travel and actually one of my favorite stories about you was you decided on a whim to take what I believe was literally a weekend trip to Australia. To visit your sister, which is the funniest thing I've ever heard because that is not a weekend trip.

Matt Hummel: It takes a weekend to get to Australia. So with that in mind, what is your favorite vacation spot?

Hannah Jordan: Oh man. Well, I feel like I can't say Australia now because we already said that. And it was like five days. Because it does take like two days to get there. But it was a very quick trip and I had Covid the whole time, but I got to hold a koala.

Hannah Jordan: So, you know, Yeah, you win some, you lose some. I would say my other favorite vacation spot is Italy, specifically Florence. I went there last year and I don't know if it was the red wine situation there was unbelievable. And then there was this chef and he was my best friend for about a week because every time I walked by, there was just like an assortment of snacks.

Hannah Jordan: And then you're in Italy. So again, I just. I don't know if my life will ever reach that point again, but it was great.

Matt Hummel: No, no, Italy is pretty amazing and somehow they have figured out how to cook, in general, but especially pasta in ways that we'll never experience here in the States.

Hannah Jordan: They just figured out how to live. Like that's true. Something right over there.

Matt Hummel: Absolutely. All right. Last question. And arguably the most important one. So we're recording this a couple of weeks after what is National Ice Cream day. If you didn't know that, it's true. So what is your favorite ice cream flavor?

Hannah Jordan: Oh, there's a lot riding on this, especially given that it's National Ice Cream Day.

Hannah Jordan: And I don't want to answer wrong. Well, first, very important distinction. I actually usually prefer fro yo, but I'll stick to the script here. And I'm going to say cookies and cream has got my heart.

Matt Hummel: So do you like fro yo because there's unlimited toppings or do you just prefer the taste?

Hannah Jordan: Well, it's a combo.

Hannah Jordan: First, I like the sample aspect, you know, I can sample the fro yo. Then I do, I'm a big toppings person. So I honestly do like two or three of every topping. And then I'm really weird. I eat the toppings first and then the ice cream. I know you're like, thank God I don't work with you anymore.

Matt Hummel: It'd be like having a third kid. So it's, it's totally cool.

Hannah Jordan: I like the consistency. So even now when I ice cream, I'll like make it softer first. I don't know. I don't like chunks of ice cream.

Matt Hummel: Yeah, but you like cookies and cream. All right.

Hannah Jordan: Yeah.

Matt Hummel: Well, to each their own. And look, I won't turn down anything that's cold and delicious, so Froyo for the win.

Hannah Jordan: Oh my gosh. Yes. Froyo, ice cream, give it to me all.

Matt Hummel: I do like Jeni's ice cream when I come to Austin though, it's delicious.

Hannah Jordan: Oh, you have to try Lick next time too. They have like the weird flavors. Wait, have you tried it?

Matt Hummel: I've bought it at Whole Foods, but I've never been to, do they have like an actual brick and mortar?

Hannah Jordan: Yes. And it's so cute and fun. So, um, go there after Ichi Umi.

Matt Hummel: Okay. Will do. Well, awesome. Well, Hannah, thank you again for joining us on today's episode of the Pipeline Brew.

Hannah Jordan: Thanks so much for having me on, Matt.

Matt Hummel: I hope you all enjoyed the conversation as much as I did. Please leave me a comment with your thoughts and make sure you subscribe to the show so you'll never miss an episode.

Matt Hummel: Once again, I'm Matt Hummel and I'll see you next time.

 

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