Ep. 420 – SampleCon 2021 Highlights: Don Golden, CEO of Precision Sample

Welcome to the SampleCon 2021 Highlights Series. Recorded live in Pasadena, this series is bringing interviews straight to you from exhibitors, speakers and attendees at this year’s event. In this interview, host Jamin Brazil interviews Don Golden, CEO of Precision Sample. More about SampleCon 2021: https://samplecon.com/ Find Don Online: LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dongolden/  Email: [email protected]  Website: https://www.precisionsample.com/  Find Jamin Online: Email: [email protected]  LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jaminbrazil Twitter: www.twitter.com/jaminbrazil  Find Us Online:  Twitter: www.twitter.com/happymrxp  LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/happymarketresearch  Facebook: www.facebook.com/happymrxp  Website: www.happymr.com  Music:  “Clap Along” by Auditionauti: https://audionautix.com  [00:00:00] Jamin Brazil: Hey everybody. I am live at SampleCon. Apologies for the background noise. I am joined today by Don, Precision Sample is the name of the company. Don, welcome to the show. [00:00:12] Don Golden: Thank you very much. Happy to be here. [00:00:14] Jamin Brazil: What do you think about the show? [00:00:15] Don Golden: The show is great. It's been a long time since we've seen everybody. Everybody calls it SampleCon, I call it sample reunion because I'm running into folks that I've been working with for ten, 15-plus years. So a lot of old faces, but some new faces as well. And I think it's just great to be back in person. Everybody is so tired of the Zooms, and all that. [00:00:36] Jamin Brazil: Totally. One of the – it's interesting, you're a self-identified OG of the sample space, I think I can say that. How has COVID impacted us as an industry? [00:00:46] Don Golden: I think it's business as usual for the industry really. And even more so, I think that – so I've heard some stories while I've been here about the major packaged goods companies, the C-level is more connected to the insights divisions than they are before, and we're seeing it with the sample demand. Customer habits are changing and the big research buyers know it, and so there's just more research going on. So as an industry, I think, unfortunately, it's a really unfortunate event, but I think it's actually – it's pushing the industry forward because there's more need for our services than ever. Personally, the way that we're working, what I learned from this is that the office is still there, but it's empty. And the team was just so efficient during the whole pandemic, that the way that Precision Sample works now is, we were always a highly remote company, but now,