We had the good fortune of connecting with William Leach and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi William, what was your thought process behind starting your own business?
My thought process behind starting Mindstate Group was not typical. Many entrepreneurs have the same story behind their start-ups. They either saw a need in the marketplace or they were solving a problem that they personally had. I had a different experience. For me, it was throwing myself into two unique passions of mine.., behavioral science + marketing. My day job was working for Frito Lay in their consumer insights & marketing department, and at night I was obsessed with reading anything that had to do with behavioral science or neuroscience. The more I read, the more I saw that these two areas had crossover potential and that if I was lucky, I could spend all my days focused on these. That was the genesis of my idea to start my consultancy, the Mindstate Group. I had no idea if anyone would buy into the idea of behavioral science-based marketing, but I knew I didn’t want to do anything else in life.

Can you give our readers an introduction to your business? Maybe you can share a bit about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Mindstate Group is a behavioral science-based research and marketing consultancy specializing in identifying the subconscious factors driving consumer engagement and purchases to increase your topline growth and marketing ROI for brands. Simply put, we help brands understand and change customer behavior. Growing has not been easy because I was about 5-10 years ahead of the industry. Back in 2012, when I started, most presentations started with convincing brand marketers that they had to understand their customers’ subconscious to generate brand value over the long term. This was a very foreign concept to most, and to be frank, I was very bad at explaining it to them. I just knew all of this science but struggled with selling these ideas to anyone. In 2018 I wrote a book titled Marketing to Mindstates, the practical guide to applying behavioral design to research and marketing, and the process of writing changed the trajectory of my business. When writing my book, my editor made it clear that if I couldn’t simplify behavioral science so that anyone could understand it, the book would tank. He was patient with me and kept pushing me to simplify these ideas even more. Eventually, I found that I could explain complex scientific topics by relating them to personal, relatable stories, like being in the room when my son Nicholas was born. This made my ideas relatable, easy to digest, and applicable to any reader, and this focus on simplification has helped me to sell many more consulting projects. I still struggle with it, but I have found that clients buy simplicity over complexity almost every time..

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Friday night, we would go to a Texas High School Football Game. Saturday we would tailgate and attend a College Football Game, followed by eating at Fogo de Chao. On Sunday, we’d wake up, have breakfast at The Star and would go to Jerry World to see Cowboys Game. Then I would send them home on their merry way knowing that they had the full Texas experience.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I have two shout-outs. The first is to my wife Melanie who more than a few times believed in me more than I could. And the other is Pam Forbus, SVP, Chief Marketing Officer at Pernod Ricard North Amerca. For years when I was at Frito Lay, she empowered me to keep moving towards my passion for behavioral economics, even though there was very little benefit to the organization at the time. When I told her I wanted to leave to do this full-time, she encouraged me to follow my dream and supported me by helping find me speaking opportunities and projects along the way.

Website: https://mindstategroup.com/

Instagram: @marketingtomindstates

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/will-leach

Twitter: @triggerpointer

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@mindstategroup

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