The People of Digital Marketing

“If you can understand business, it will make you a better marketer.”

JC Polonia is the Head of Growth at LOOP, a car insurance company based out of Austin, Texas, that takes biased and discriminatory data out of the industry. He’s also the founder of Digitality, a New York-based performance and production marketing agency. From local small businesses to venture-backed companies, JC developed his chops for growth marketing from the grassroots. Data-driven and results-oriented, his efforts revolve around paid media buying and conversion rate optimization.

Questions and topics we covered include:

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"I need content to connect dots that I didn't know were connected before...Otherwise...I could go look all this stuff up already on my own."

Tracey Wallace is the Director of Content Strategy at Klaviyo. Prior to that, she was the head of marketing for two early stage start-ups (Eterneva and MarketerHire), and the Editor-in-Chief over at BigCommerce. She has 13 years of experience in content marketing, and began her career in Journalism. She is    also a content creator for WorkWeek, managing her own weekly newsletter called “Contentment.”

Questions and topics we covered include:

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 "When you stop selling, you stop growing...If you think that you're maxed out right now...what if you lose a client?"

Ali Schwanke is the CEO and Founder of Simple Strat, an agency of expert strategists in sales and content marketing for B2B tech companies. Ali and her team focus on growing businesses through technology and automations, specializing in the implementation of HubSpot.

Ali is a sought-after speaker and co-host of HubSpot Hacks - the popular YouTube channel with over 1M views and 15k+ subscribers.

Questions and topics we covered: 

“If there’s not a fit between your personality and the environment that you’re in, it’s going to be difficult for you to drive impact. This is regardless of how much you know in your [marketing] domain.” 

Patrick Moran was most recently an Executive in Residence at Reforge where he led the Growth Marketing, Experimentation and Testing, and Brand Marketing programs which he also co-developed. Previously, he was the Head of Consumer Marketing at Houzz and held leadership roles at Spotify, YikYak, and was one of the earlier marketing leaders at Netflix during its transition to producing original content (starting with House of Cards).

He is currently advising early-stage B2C companies looking to profitably scale their marketing initiatives.

Questions and topics we covered include:

And more!

“It doesn’t matter if you’re employed or not, it matters if you’re employable…if you learn the skills around how to grow ‘capital-efficiently’, [affecting] the growth curve in a positive way—that’s incredibly employable.”

Bill Macaitis is an advisor and board member, guiding aspiring unicorns and helping build out world class teams and innovative go-to-market strategies. Over his 20 year career Bill has achieved five successful exits and powered growth at three of the fastest-ever growing companies: Slack (CRO/CMO), Zendesk (CMO), and Salesforce (SVP of Marketing). He has also held leadership positions at Fox Interactive Media (SVP of Online Marketing) and IGN Entertainment (VP of Marketing).

Questions and topics we covered include:

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“Take a look at your agency and if their tests keep losing and you’re like ‘oh our current ad keeps performing better’…you should have a real hard conversation…[You’re losing] every time they tested…” 

“Failure is the best way to learn…You have to try new methods and new things to surprise your audience and surpass your competitors.”

Keren Pakes is the Chief Brand & Communications Officer at Bright Data and the General Manager of The Bright Initiative. After 14 impressive years as an award-winning BBC News journalist (she won an Emmy?!), Keren left the field of journalism to pursue marketing senior leadership roles in the B2B tech space.

Today, Keren focuses her efforts on expanding the reach and impact of The Bright Initiative, an organization that uses web data to drive change across the globe.

Questions and topics we covered include:

And more!

“Video is great, and audio is better.”

Nora Sudduth, Co-founder of Hello Audio is a leading marketing & conversion strategist who has helped businesses sell over $500M of products & services online. She’s also designed several courses, coaching, and certification programs that have generated millions more.

Nora has over 20 years of experience working with startups to Fortune 500 companies and everything in between. From market positioning and messaging, to offers and sales strategies, she’s consulted on thousands of marketing campaigns to help businesses have authentic, compelling conversations with their clients. She was also responsible for rebuilding ClickFunnel’s Certified Partner Program—consulting various businesses on over 1,000 marketing funnels.

Questions and topics we covered includes:

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“When someone interacts with your brand for the first time, it’s literally a first impression.”

Sydney Michuda is the owner and creative lead behind Super Creative, a design and branding studio based in Milwaukee. With a nearly decade of design experience under her belt, most of which has been focused on branding small businesses, she's most at home when working with passionate, like-minded creative entrepreneurs.

Whether it's designing for brands large and small or educating fellow creatives, Sydney's always game to make something super. 

 Questions and topics include:

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“Take your top priorities and cut them in half, and then focus on doing fewer things exceedingly well.”

Chad is the VP of Marketing & Communications at Jotform, a leading online form, and productivity software company. He holds a master’s degree in communication and resides with his wife and cats in Oakland, California.

And more!

“A podcast is like a Swiss army knife, it can accomplish so many objectives…”

“[For] some clients who have not necessarily reinvented themselves yet–the experiences that we’ve experienced in the past need a facelift…”

Ashley Cline is a Digital Marketing Consultant and Freelancing Expert. As the VP & Co-Founder at Ice Cream Social, Ashley has over 17 years of experience specializing in marketing strategy, execution, and collaborative efforts. She is a proponent of the importance of word-of-mouth marketing in today's digital age.

Across her tenure in the field, Ashley has held nearly every role in the digital marketing space, giving her unmatched expertise in customer acquisition and email, search, and content marketing.

Questions and topics we covered include:

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Skip the intro: 00:04:41

“…This just provides more flexibility for really top-notch marketers to live the life that they want.”

Arlyn Davich is an entrepreneurial executive with a proven track record of building and scaling consumer-tech businesses as a startup Founder/CEO (PayPerks...Allswell...ShopShops) and Fortune 50 Intrapreneur at companies like Walmart. She specializes in direct-to-consumer strategy, brand building, demand generation and digital acceleration.

She's currently building her latest venture, Little Fish: a company that deploys top-tier executive talent, on a fractional and interim basis, to grow early stage e-commerce businesses.

Skip the intro: 00:03:59:58

Questions and topics we covered include:

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“Assuming timing exists, you [have to have] people, process, and technology…”

Zac Litwack is a partner at Savage Ventures, a venture operator with HQ in Nashville, TN which has created $450M in enterprise value so far. He recently led marketing for Savage portfolio company OutKick, which scaled to 7 figures per month in revenue and sold to FOX less than 1 year after its launch. He is currently Chief Marketing Officer / Partner of American Songwriter, Savage Sports, Rare, and 247Health whose properties reach 100+ million people per month, and is an owner plus leads growth hacking and high tempo testing across Savage’s portfolio companies, including MyDrHank, a 7 figure D2C online pharmacy and telemedicine brand focused on the senior male market, and Savage Media, a full-service creative service and video production firm. Savage Ventures has created $450M in enterprise value and is on a path to $1,000,000,000.

Questions and topics we covered include:

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“Relationships are what turn into opportunities.”

Rachel B. Lee is a fearless marketing #ladyboss and the wife of Joshua B. Lee. Together they have formed a powerful business relationship that connects with audiences across the world. Rachel leads the marketing and branding strategy for Standout Authority and its clients and can help you find your voice and create influence like you’ve never imagined.

She’s passionate about helping students navigate their careers, so In her spare time, she’s a Texas MBA and MS Marketing Industry Consultant helping our future leaders navigate their personal brands and build careers that they love.

Questions and topics we covered include:

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“The first question is, ‘How hard is it to extract value from our product?’”

Justin Parnell is the VP of Marketing at BrightIdea. Justin is a data-driven marketing leader who oversees a full range of initiatives including influencing business strategy, developing lifecycle marketing plans, and the project management of BrightIdea’s marketing initiatives. Justin is also experienced in launching and scaling new offerings and providing the vision of BrightIdea’s new product go-to-market strategy.

Questions and topics we covered include :

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“It can help to work for a mission-driven organization, but you’re going to maximize that opportunity if you have some perspective on what your personal values are...”

Always one to believe in bringing her whole self to work, Julia knows that the marketer who is deliberate in the purpose of their work will have the greatest impact.

Early in her career, personal circumstances helped Julia define her own purpose. She has learned how to drive more impactful outcomes by being on purpose throughout her career in healthcare.

Julia believes marketers who find their own purpose can enjoy professional success and personal satisfaction because of the way they do their work.

She is currently a marketing leader at Genentech and formerly a Marketing Director at Pfizer.

Questions and topics we covered:

And more!

“Click rates don’t always correlate to revenue.”

Joe works as the Director of Retention at The Beard Club. In his spare time, he's been growing his audience of 30K+ followers on Twitter and LinkedIn by sharing daily marketing tips and content geared toward DTC marketers.

He has generated over $50mm in revenue with email marketing throughout his career and recently finished teaching his first Email Marketing 101 course on Maven.

Other brands he’s helped in the world of marketing include Hopsy, FanDuel, and PetHonesty.

Questions and topics we covered include:

And more!

Links to learn more from Joe:

“Your job as a manager is to only care about three things: the financial goals of your direct reports, their professional goals, and finally their personal goals.”

Patrick Ward is the VP of Marketing for Rootstrap, a custom software development consultancy that digitally transforms companies like MasterClass & Google, along with A-List Celebrities like Tony Robbins & Snoop Dogg. He’s also the Founder of NanoGlobals, an expert-led platform that helps mid-size tech companies tap into global markets through remote hiring, offshoring, and international market expansion (this is his side hustle).

A writer by trade, Patrick's international brand & B2B marketing expertise has been featured in The New York Times, Ad Age, Fast Company, Morning Brew, Hacker Noon, HuffPost & Business Insider.

Questions and topics we talked about include:

Relevant links:

“Fun translates into good performance.”

The four things every marketer should know before starting their career:

Key moments from marketing experts:

“SEO takes time…”

“You gotta be flexible but, not spineless.”

JD Dillon lives by the principle of "Mission First, People Always." A U.S. Army veteran and graduate of the United States Military Academy, JD has spent his career in Corporate America focused on profitable top-line growth while investing in individuals and organizational development.

Currently, the CMO for renewable energy upstart Tigo Energy, his career has spanned a variety of functions while being focused on bringing value to his customers and his employees.

Questions and topics we covered include:

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“The key thing in all of this really is understanding the value that you give and that you have, and then getting other people to help tell that story for you…”

Christina’s love of marketing started during her undergraduate days, when under the wise guidance of her grandmother she decided to do a marketing and management degree and hasn’t looked back.

Having held various roles in marketing in different sectors, managing teams of different sizes, she is now the head of marketing at Paid, a UK tech start-up that is changing the way procurement teams work with their smaller suppliers, making the process more efficient and cost-effective for both parties. In her words, she is “excited about the opportunity for marketing to shake things up, and deliver real value.”

Always in learning mode Christina also holds an MBA and she likes to keep up to date on what is going on in marketing and other things that interest her. She also runs Ara and Obi, which is a bedroom and bathroom linen brand for babies and toddlers with eczema.

Questions and topics we covered in this episode include:

“Carpenters aren’t scared of nail guns. It can replace the hammer but, it can’t replace the carpenter. I think that is what AI is and represents.”

Dave Snyder is the CEO of CopyPress. His background in SEO, social media, and content marketing led Dave to look for a better way to scale and create content. That search led to the formation of CopyPress.

Today, CopyPress is one the most trusted content providers online working with brands like Linkedin, Zenefits, Sears, Macy's, IHG, and Stitchfix. With help from CopyPress, clients are able to increase their organic web traffic, improve their search engine rankings, and build their brand awareness.

Questions and topics we covered include:

If you work in e-commerce, you need to listen to this podcast interview.

Joel Garthwaite is the CMO of Harbour Lifestyle, the UK's fastest-growing outdoor furniture brand. With 10 years of experience working with global companies, Joel specializes in paid media programming, demand generation, data analytics, PR, and more. He has a proven track record not just in the DTC space—developing and leading world-class marketing teams across B2B and B2C.

He has also advised and led multiple companies across tech, commodities, and finance through successful IPOs.

Prior to moving client-side, he worked in the agency space too—helping clients like Nike, Nestlé, Shell, AstraZeneca, and more.

Questions and topics we covered include:

And more!

“Just niche down on one thing…People have been saying SEO is dead for 20 years. Focus has allowed to double in size almost every year.”

David Finberg has been building websites since the age of 9 and he decided to go all-in on the digital marketing industry in 2015 when he founded Peaks Digital Marketing. Since then, he’s generated tens of millions of dollars in revenue and has a passion for growing small businesses and corporations through data-driven ROI-centered strategies.

As a "Digital Sherpa" for his clients, he helps guide them on the best online path for the success of their businesses. He defines success as doing what you want to do and making an impact in the lives of others.

Questions and topics we covered in this episode include:

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“Just like you need to understand the business, you need to help them [the c-suite] understand the realities of marketing…”

“The art of persuasion lives in the craft of writing…if you want to catapult your writing skills, write a book.”

Léandre Larouche is an author, speaker, and writing consultant based in Toronto, Canada. He is the author of Hétérochrome (2017), Write a Book That Matters (2021), The Architecture of Grammar (2021), and The End of Nonsense (forthcoming).

Léandre is a writing activist. He believes that writing is the most powerful skill in the world and that writing well isn’t hard with the right mindset and approach.

Questions and topics we covered in this episode include:

Connect with Léandre via his:

Jacob Warwick is the CEO of ThinkWarwick, an executive leadership and career growth firm. He's on a mission to help more people love what they do. Prior to starting his own business, he grew into c-suite marketing and product roles in Silicon Valley and was the CEO of a multi-million dollar a year career management company.

Questions and topics covered:

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“Success can look drastically different, you don’t always need a lot of downloads…”

Jeff Large is the CEO & Founder of Come Alive Creative, a podcast production company. Clients hire Jeff to produce their podcasts and to develop strategies for their content marketing. Jeff spends most days actively learning about goal setting, writing narratives, collaborating with others, and producing amazing audio.

Questions and topics we covered:

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Fun fact: Jeff has been podcasting since 2012.

“Podcasting is not inherently viral…”

Harry Morton is the founder and CEO of Lower Street, a podcast production agency specializing in creating shows for agencies, startups, and enterprise clients. Harry and his team of producers, audio engineers, and marketers have launched more than 50 podcasts and produced thousands of episodes. Harry is also a happy father of 2, an avid mountain biker, and an occasional music producer.

Questions:

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Saarim is a recognized LinkedIn expert and consultant who has helped thousands of people master LinkedIn for client acquisition. Today, multiple people have credited Saarim with helping them to get their businesses 6 & 7 figure levels. Today, Saarim has coaching programs specifically focused on client acquisition using LinkedIn. For all things LinkedIn & getting clients - Saarim is the guy to go to!

Questions and topics we covered include:

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Sara Pion has spent the last 4.5 years growing her career in B2B Saas, starting in technical support and moving into Growth and Demand Generation marketing across high-growth companies like Drift, Alyce, Voiceflow, and now Dandy. She has a proven track record of fostering community within a customer base, scaling teams, and acquiring and activating users.

Outside of work, she has an amazing podcast on personal and professional growth with her co-host Bridget called “Self Control & Cheese”. When she isn’t working, Sara likes exploring Denver and boxing.

Questions and topics we covered include:

Daniel Botero is a career coach, best-selling author, and top-rated podcast host who helps international STEM students land their dream jobs (and helps them get a company to sponsor the H1B visas). His proven system helps students obtain their dream tech roles within 90 days of graduation, without having to apply to hundreds of companies. To say he's a job search and career expert is putting it mildly. Notable organizations he's helped his clients jobs at include: Amazon, Apple, Google, Tesla, Disney, Salesforce, Microsoft, Goldman Sachs, IBM, Boeing, Deloitte, and many more.

Questions and topics we discussed include:

Derek Osgood is a former marketing exec turned founder, building Ignition – the collaborative GTM platform helping Product and Marketing teams to get new products to market faster and more effectively.

Prior to founding Ignition, he was an early hire at Rippling where he stood up the Product Marketing function and helped scale the company to $20M in ARR. As a Product Marketing leader everywhere from startups to major brands like PlayStation, Derek has launched over 100 products and his products have generated over $1B in revenue. Now he’s building the platform he wished he had along the way.

Questions and topics we covered include:

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“You just want to make sure you’re joining a rocket ship, not a sinking ship…”

Maya Grossman is a marketing executive with over fifteen years of experience taking products to market and driving growth for Fortune 500 companies like Microsoft and Google, as well as fast-growing startups.

She is a career coach, the best-selling author of “Invaluable, an unconventional business book for employees who want to deliver exceptional results,” and the creator of the Career Success Secrets Course, a transformative program that generates quantum career leaps.

Questions and topics we covered included:

✅Maya’s story of how she created her first marketing job.

✅Maya’s advice for any marketer who wants to get promoted this year.

✅Why does imposter syndrome creep up at any stage in a marketer’s career?

✅The common lessons and experiences Maya gained from each of her previous executive positions.

✅What are some mistakes a new marketing leader might make when building a team for the first time?

✅What are hiring managers looking for in marketing candidates this year?

✅What’s the best way to come up with new ideas for LinkedIn content?

And more!

Yisrael Segall, Yiz for short, is an engineer at heart. As a kid he has always loved to take things apart, learning how they worked and putting them back together. His passion is knowing how things work, how businesses work, and what drives successful people.

Yiz currently serves various clients as a Fractional CMO and is a mentor on the GrowthMentor platform.

Questions and topics we covered include:

WARNING: This episode is only for marketers who use data to make informed decisions.

Lea Pica is an industry-acclaimed data storytelling advocate, international keynote speaker, and instructor. She began her career as a data analytics practitioner with over 15 years of experience building digital marketing practices for companies like Scholastic, Victoria's Secret, Ralph Lauren, and Prudential.

Today she teaches presentation, data visualization, and her signature data storytelling methodology, the PICA Protocol, to tens of thousands of data practitioners all around the world. Lea also hosts the Present Beyond Measure Podcast, and is authoring her first book, called “Story-Driven Data,” publishing later this year.

Questions and topics we discussed include:

You can find links to Lea’s work below:

“Links plus content equals profit.”

Adam is the co-founder and COO at Loganix, a fulfillment house for SEO. Notable clients of Loganix include Backlinko, FreshBooks, and Drift (now they are making a shift to working primarily with agencies). Adam spends most of his days building links and SEO products for agencies and in-house marketers.

Questions and topics we covered include:

“I write words that sell for people…”

Finding the voice of ideal clients for business owners across the US and Canada, Sarah Talbert is the copywriting strategist trusted by six and seven-figure business owners alike. Founder of Sandbar Marketing, Sarah has developed a proven research process to truly dig out the language of an ideal client, research their behaviors, and turn it into copy for everything from websites to social media. With her expertise, Sarah changes the lingo from various industries into common, everyday words.

Certified by CopyHackers, Sarah enjoys working creatively with business owners in a variety of industries. A loving mother of three, Sarah and her entrepreneurial husband enjoy boating and living life with their family on the coast of Florida.

Questions and topics we covered include:

And more!

“Most businesses…they haven’t finished their site.”

Since 2005, Sean Work has been the go-to internet marketing consultant for startups, universities and many other businesses. Additionally, as Marketing Director, Sean grew the Kissmetrics blog (its business-to-business publication) to over 1 million readers a month.

Sean's extensive knowledge of search engine optimization, pay-per-click advertising, copywriting, site architecture, and company building, makes him an invaluable adviser for any new venture or existing business looking to increase its numbers.

Questions and topics we covered included:

Will Haire is the co-founder of BellaVix which is a full-service Marketplace Marketing Agency for direct-to-consumer retail brands who want to grow sales on the world’s largest marketplaces like Amazon and Walmart. Will has worked with eCommerce businesses in leading the strategic planning, implementation, and tactical execution of marketing strategies for products across all Amazon business segments. His portfolio includes companies like Instant Pot, Pyrex, Derma E, Think, and Outward Hound.

Questions we covered on the show:

“I think everyone is interesting in some way…”

Sarah Snyder is the CEO of Connection Enthusiast, a strategic public relations firm. Snyder has a vast array of experience representing both high net-worth individuals, start-ups, and budding entrepreneurs. Her expertise and talent have been the catalyst for clients securing deals in excess of 100K per client acquisition. Media placements for her clients have included numerous local and national media outlets, including Forbes, Huffington Post, Cheddar TV, Dr. Oz, and so on.

In addition to being a self-earned business maverick, Snyder’s drive, interpersonal skills, and compassion in times of pressure while working with the media come from her previous background and experiences. Snyder is a licensed professional counselor and has helped develop a nationally recognized $25+ million dollar pilot program involving emergency crisis response teams and managed residential treatment programs for trauma survivors. These traits help drive her creativity and unique style, as does her sense of humor under pressure.

Snyder’s goal-oriented focus and strength-driven approach are also evident in her personal life. Snyder has played women’s professional football and been ranked as one of the strongest women in the US. She believes connections are the key to a thriving business and has built her business off this belief.

Questions and topics we covered:

Tommy Walker is the founder of The Content Studio, a content marketing consultancy for Fortune 1,000 companies and fast growing B2B startups. Prior to founding The Content Studio, Tommy was the Global Editor-in-Chief at QuickBooks, and the first marketing hire at Shopify Plus.

Questions and topics we covered :

“I wanted my income to be free from my physical location…”

Branko has lived in seven countries and speaks four languages fluently. His passion for language, analytical thinking, and desire for efficient systems lead him to co-founding Chosen Data, a content and SEO consultancy for successful MarTech companies. With a global team, Branko splits time between California and Slovakia. When away from the computer, he spends time doing mountain sports or socializing.

Questions we covered:

“I learned more being on my own…”

Lila Schneider is a NJ native with an extensive background in marketing. Before starting her own marketing agency, Lila worked at PR agency managing big clients such as Neutrogena and Aveeno.

After a few more years of work, she realized the world of PR was not the right fit for her and shifted her focus to starting her own business. She established her own agency, Let’s B Media in March of 2018. Focusing on guiding businesses through the digital landscape, Lila prides herself on transparency and providing a seasoned marketing solution for the everyday business owner.

Questions we covered include:

You can say hello to Lila via:

Her website - https://www.letsbmedia.com/

Alex is a former professional soccer player turned growth marketer and now works as a community growth manager at Funnel, a marketing data platform with over 1500 customers including Adidas, Samsung, and Havas. Prior to Funnel, Alex worked agency-side at Brainlabs building cross-channel digital growth strategies for brands such as Digicel & MARS.

Questions and topics covered:

Foti graduated with a degree in finance in 2007 but, quickly pivoted into digital marketing a year later as the first non-engineer hire at the managed hosting provider, EuroVPS. Fast forward a decade and in 2018 he launched his startup called GrowthMentor which helps founders and marketers connect with vetted mentors.

Questions we covered include:

“You want to make sure your survey questions result in stories.”

Michele Linn is the founder of Mantis Research where she helps content and community managers conduct surveys so they can learn about their audience and publish compelling, original research findings. Prior to Mantis, Michele was head of editorial at Content Marketing Institute, where she led the company's editorial strategy and helped grow its audience to more than 200,000 subscribers.

Questions:

You can connect with Michele via:

“[E-commerce marketing] is so difficult now because anyone can open up a Shopify store, you collaborate with other brands and sell [their products], you can drop-ship, there are just so many stores and everybody is just trying to make it…”

Jimmy Zona is the Director of E-Commerce & Digital Marketing for Turbie Twist. At Turbie Twist, he created and scaled the company's digital presence in order to become the market leader in its category. In this episode of the podcast, we talk about all things e-commerce: ads, SEO, cross-channel marketing, email marketing strategies, and more!

Questions and topics we covered include:

“You should be speaking truth and focusing on honesty in marketing…”

Maddy Martin is the VP of Marketing for Smith.ai, which provides 24/7 communication & intake services for businesses, by phone, website chat, text, and Facebook Messenger. She has spent the last decade growing tech startups from New York to California, and has expertise in digital marketing, small business communications, lead conversion, email marketing, SEO & content marketing, social media, co-marketing, and event marketing.

Questions I asked her included:

Connect with Maddy via:

Email - maddy@smith.ai

Kathleen Booth is the VP of Marketing at Clean.io, the market leader in digital engagement security solutions used by businesses looking to optimize their revenue and buyer experience by taking back control over third-party code on their websites. Prior to joining clean.io, she spent 13 years in the digital marketing agency world, first as Owner and CEO of Quintain Marketing and then as VP of Marketing at IMPACT.

Kathleen is the host of the long-running Inbound Success Podcast and was named by TopRank as one of the 50 Top B2B Marketing Influencers of 2019.

Questions I asked her:

You can say hello to Kathleen via:

“The adventure starts when things go wrong.”

Mary is a designer, brand strategist, and founder of Vitality Creative Studio. She believes in the triple bottom line (people, planet, and profit) and that creativity can be the catalyst for change. From her mobile studio, she collaborates with social and environmental change-makers on projects from sustainable design to digital media and everything in between.

Questions we covered:

You can say hi to Mary via:

“There’s no dictionary for marketings strategies…when you work in a marketing team, if you’re going to keep trying what other people are doing—it’s not going to be productive. You have to do is be open to your market and your customers and talk to your customers.”

Julian is the Co-Founder & Head of Growth at TheSecretCompany.co 🗝 a crew of serial entrepreneurs, with a pirate mindset, and secret co-founders of over 10 startups. Julian fell into entrepreneurship by selling computer scripts online at the impressive age of 14 years old. Over time he quickly developed a digital side-business studio, called SideFounders. He’s also co-founded an import-export company with a Chinese partner, exported machines to Africa and Europe, and sold thousands of masks during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic last year. His main focus right now is managing growth at The Secret Company.

Questions we covered:

Agata is a growth mentor and a marketing leader with +10 years of experience in developing and executing growth strategies at companies like Google, Groove, and Piktochart. Currently, as a VP of Growth at Piktochart, she is leading a 100% remote marketing, sales, and product team. Together with her team, Agata is on the mission of empowering people to tell great visual stories that stick.

Questions:

“The most valuable skill that I’ve ever picked up is the ability to learn.”

Moe Abbas is the Co-Founder and CEO of Acadium, a revolutionary company that enables just about anybody to launch a career in digital marketing - for free. Acadium has raised $1M from top angel investors like the ex-CEO of Expedia, and it has launched more careers in digital marketing than any other learning platform (which is saying something, let me tell y’all).

Questions we discussed:

You can connect with Moe via:

“Write playbooks, don’t follow them.”

Michael Wieder is Co-Founder, President and CMO at Lalo, and most importantly, dad to 18-month old Jemma. Utilizing his diverse experience helping build world-class brands, Michael oversees all of Lalo’s marketing and consumer engagement efforts. Prior to founding Lalo, Michael held various leadership positions, including Head of Brand Marketing and Partnerships at WayUp. He also gained valuable entrepreneurial experience, having founded a fitness-tech brand and a music management and event production firm. Michael graduated from the University of Michigan and currently lives in Brooklyn with his wife, daughter, and dog.

In this episode we covered:

“People are more emotionally attached to people than they are to entities…when nonprofit leaders share their stories, it humanizes the nonprofit’s brand.”

Maria Bryan helps founders create thriving nonprofits by marketing on purpose. She provides practical strategies and empathetic coaching to nonprofits ready to amplify their mission and their message. Maria is a firm believer that storytellers make the world a healthier, safer, cleaner, and happier place.

Maria gave a lot of great answers to questions like:

1️⃣ How would you describe your role as a Nonprofit Marketing Strategist?

2️⃣ What are some of the unique marketing challenges nonprofit orgs face that other businesses don’t?

3️⃣ What makes up a good story?

4️⃣ Why should nonprofit leaders tell their own stories on social media?

5️⃣ If a marketer wanted to volunteer their time for a nonprofit, where should they search?

And more…

With over 12 years of digital marketing experience, Nicholas runs a conversion-focused growth marketing agency specializing in landing page optimization and marketing automation. He’s also the host of a top-rated podcast called Growth Marketing Toolbox and he writes a weekly marketing newsletter read by over 4,200 subscribers.

In this episode we talked about how Nicholas manages his content marketing for two brands, the core differences between webpages and landing pages, how businesses can leverage a newsletter to grow community, the best certifications to get as a budding marketer, how businesses can vet Martech tools before purchasing them, and more!

Cara Meiselman is the Director of Strategic Content & Performance at Slice. She is a seasoned marketing leader with 10+ years of experience working at high-growth startups. Cara has experience leading brand strategy for several large companies as well as creating custom training for corporate clients and their employees. Cara is a frequent speaker at conferences including INBOUND and Social Media Week and has featured blog posts on sites such as Mashable, Inc. and Forbes.

In this episode we talked about Cara’s journey from law school to the marketing world, the unique challenges from marketing a B2B2C business, the hardest part about managing a content calendar, how to major a brand strategy’s impact, how to reach out to journalists and influencers, how marketers can get their writing featured on major publications, and much more!

"Being data-led is core to becoming product-led…”

Arpit is a non-engineer who loves data and APIs and believes that everybody, irrespective of their technical chops, should gain data literacy to stay relevant. He likes to spend his days thinking, writing in simple terms, and answering questions about data. He also firmly believes in the power of delayed gratification.

In this episode we talked about how Arpit refines his ideas through writing, the importance of product analytics tools for growth marketing, what is product-led growth, the four core elements of a “data stack,” his definition of “data spaghetti,” and much more!

Here are four keywords to reflect on after listening to this episode: collect, store, analyze, and activate…That’s how marketers need to use data to make it worth something…

“Digital marketing is a blessing and a curse…”

Maurice Bretzfield has been a lifelong Dodger fan, a raconteur, traveler, and a connoisseur of matters of the tongue, ear, and eye. He's also a blue water sailor, dad, granddad, Digital Marketing geek, consultant, mentor, and teacher. Maurice has been practicing Digital Marketing since the release of the first Web browser, Netscape, in 1994.

This episode is near and dear to my heart. I don’t know how my career would look like today if I didn’t meet him—good thing I did! We talked about how he got into digital marketing, how he became my mentor, common mistakes small business owners make when trying to transition into a digital-first business, why he loves Martech, why personal branding is important, and more!

Want to say to Maurice? Google his name!

"It has to be true to you—it has to be real."

Heather H. Bennett is a marketing strategist and personal brand coach that lives and works in Chicago, Illinois.

Drawing from over 20 years of experience in brand marketing, research & development, and personal branding, Heather brings a unique spin to understanding how a personal brand can impact business and personal goals.

Her social media strategy expertise has been used by professionals and entrepreneurs in areas as diversified as financial wealth management and law to non-profit and professional speaking, education and consumer products to technology and start-ups.

“At the end of the day, your business is your database.”

“No one on social follows a brand to be advertised to.”

As Director of Public Relations and Enterprise Social Media, Jen is responsible for protecting and improving John Deere’s reputation by leading an enterprise social media and public relations strategy for the company. Jen has over 25 years of experience in public relations, communications, and marketing with 12 of those years at John Deere.

In this episode of the podcast, we talked about John Deere’s 100+ year old content marketing history, why UGC is important to incorporate into a marketing strategy, defining a community and how UGC helps with community building, how she manages JD’s social media profiles in 54 countries, her advice to entry-level marketers who want to move up in an organization, and much more!

“What we do is we start small and we start today…today, now is so much better than tomorrow.”

“If I feel like I am getting close to perfection, it’s almost too late…will it work even it is not perfect in my eyes?”

Sarah Bedrick is a marketing advisor and former VP of Marketing. She's spent the last 13 years working in SaaS startups and scaleups.

Her journey includes most recently co-founding Compt, an HR software company, and building the business and marketing engine from scratch. One of her biggest career wins was starting the HubSpot Academy team and growing it into a world-class educational institution for marketing, sales, and customer success professionals.

Sarah is also a new mom, loves to explore by bike, and is a life coach to fellow people in tech.

In this episode, we discuss inbound marketing, what makes HubSpot Academy a great resource for marketers to get new skills, how she built Compt and Compt’s marketing engine, why she left the company she co-founded, her marketing principles, universal challenges all marketers face when launching a campaign, and more!

“Belief drives behavior.”

“No one’s talking about how more brands should be having more fun on social media.”

“Our job in content marketing is to show deep expertise on all the related topics…Our job in that case is to simply be active enough to be consistently visible…”

For those of you who have listened to my episodes with Araminta Roberston and Dennis Shiao, you would have heard today’s guest mentioned in both episodes!

"You should take a T-shaped approach..."

“It took me many many jobs to figure this out—you are in a support role…marketing is a support role. ”

“Being out on my own is so amazing that thinking about a full-time role again…being in one job is hard for me to think of…”

Dennis Shiao is the founder of Attention Retention LLC, a marketing consultancy that works with Silicon Valley technology companies. Dennis consults with clients on content marketing, product marketing, and social media marketing.

We talked about his IT background, how he got into marketing, how he defines a “successful webinar”, his strategy for growing a personal brand, and more.

“There is not enough education about finance or money…People are hungry for information. ”

Araminta is a marketing consultant at Mint Studios where she helps fintech companies acquire and retain customers online with content. She's also the host of the Market Like a Fintech podcast, publishes her own blog and newsletter, and is a partner at the Fintech Marketing Hub. She loves talking about everything fintech and content.

In our interview we talk about the unique challenges fintech companies face, her top 3 favorite fintech companies that are killing it in marketing, the importance of a founder’s personal brand, how she scales her own personal brand, and more!

"Growth is defined differently at every company…”

My guest for today’s episode is Andrew Capland. Andrew has worked at B2B startups for just about 14 years to-date. During his career, he’s worked at several amazing companies including HubSpot (early team member), Wistia, and most recently Postscript.

“KPIs are soulless numbers and a lot of people focus on KPIs…”

My guest today is Todd Wheeler. Todd makes the complicated understandable, to help companies not only grow but to thrive. With almost 50 years of business building experience, from startup companies to Fortune 500 giants, Todd has taught business leaders how to understand the causes of critical issues in the business environment.

Todd was engaged by 25-year-old marketing agency to help them identify issues that kept them stuck. He was able to identify that the team had the right people but, they were in the wrong positions. This is just one of many examples of how he was able to change a company for the better, by helping them to discover and reveal their own hidden wisdom, creating a path to success.

He would summarize his job as, “helping people become the best versions of themselves.”

“When you’re doing virtual [events], depending on how complex this technology is that you’re using—some people may not event make it through the ‘door.’”

“Most CRM software comes with the expectation that you’re this perfect person who fills out the CRM at every step of the way…we found that that didn’t work for us. That doesn’t work for anyone and that doesn’t make sense…most CRMs don’t work because they are dependent on people.”

“We go about speaking to people about the end result, versus trying to educate them on the hemp plant.”

Amanda founded House of Wise after realizing the potential of CBD oil in her life. Despite what you might assume, she wasn't always totally on board with CBD. Until recently, she had never used any cannabis products. Amanda was born in a conservative Midwestern home and is a former group-fitness instructor, marathoner, and overall health nut. Over the past two years, she has navigated a divorce while being a mom of three children and working as a VP of marketing at a major wedding industry brand (The Knot Worldwide). Amanda turned to CBD out of desperation, and it has truly changed her life.

“What you thought was cutting-edge yesterday is already outdated or been done 20 times over by the next day…I find that to be the biggest challenge and the most rewarding part of this job.”

Vowing to create the ultimate consumer experience out of anything she touches, Lindsey Bancroft has spent more than a decade producing activations for top brands including Jeep, ViacomCBS, PepsiCo Foodservice, and Hulu. Leaning on her background in touring logistics, large-scale event production, and sponsorship management Lindsey loves the challenge of turning wild ideas into incredible Experiential programs. She is also a founding Partner and VP of Client Services at Be The Machine.

In this episode we talked about the similarities and differences between digital and experiential marketing, the distinct challenges experiential marketers face in 2021, is Out-of-Home (OOH) advertising dead, and much more. If you’re interested in learning more about marketing in general, not just digital marketing, this episode is for you!

Miruna Dragomir is the Head of Marketing at Planable, a content collaboration platform for social media teams. For the past three years, she’s been leading growth efforts at Planable. They’ve grown 30X in revenue in these past three years and continue going up. She was previously a part of Uber’s Marketing Team and Oracle’s Social Media team.

In this episode we talked about the biggest mistakes teams make when collaborating on social media marketing, what it takes to be a CMO or Head of Marketing, why her company published their product roadmap on their website, and more.

Craig Zingerline is a 6-time founder with 4 successful exits and he has helped dozens of companies scale their growth. He is currently the Chief Product Officer of Sandboxx—past roles include Head of Growth at Upside Travel, CEO of Votion, Head of Growth at Red Tricycle, and VP at New Signature. Craig built Growth University to help other professionals learn the growth strategies and tactics needed to scale their companies and to create a structured and organized way for people to get started with growth.

In this episode, I got to speak to him about what growth actually is and how it differs from digital marketing, how marketing in military tech provides its own unique challenges, the skills needed to be great at product management, and more!

Kate Bradley Chernis is the Founder & CEO of Lately, which uses AI to automatically transform long-form content like blogs, podcasts and videos into dozens of "smart" social posts. As a former marketing agency owner, Kate initially created the idea for Lately out of spreadsheets for former client, Walmart, and got them a 130% ROI, year-over-year for three years. 

Prior to founding Lately, Kate served 20 million listeners as Music Director and on-air host at Sirius/XM. She’s also an award-winning radio producer, engineer, and voice talent with 25 years of national broadcast communications, brand-building, sales and marketing expertise. 

Katie Dooley is the Founder of Paper Lime Creative, a branding and design agency in Edmonton, Alberta. Her love of design and art took shape at a young age, and since then, she’s been soaking in as much knowledge about art, business, and design as she can.

“I write to find out what I know and what I don’t know, like writing is thinking to me.”

“People buy what they remember.”

Jerry Louis is a seasoned marketer with 6 years of experience and he is currently a senior creative at The SpringHill Company. As a copywriter, he has worked with several amazing clients—Jordan, Sprite, FOX Sports, McDonald's, Pepsi, and Best Buy to name a few. Additionally, he is also a fellow alum of the city college of new york and a good friend of mine.

In this episode, we talk about the fundamentals of copywriting, the purpose of advertising, how to harness your creative energy, how to get into a copywriting career, books that can help you with your writing, and more.

“When you think of it the AI is just another intermediary that a marketer has at their disposal…”

Martin Waxman is a LinkedIn Learning Instructor and he is a social media and digital strategy adjunct prof.

Although his roots are in PR and the creative arts, Martin also conducts AI research. He is also the co-host of the Inside PR podcast, a past-chair of PRSA Counselors Academy, and a past-president of CPRS Toronto. Lastly, Martin is a published novelist and storyteller, the founder of three agencies, and an ex-journalist and ad copywriter.

In this episode, we talk about Martin’s professional background, how marketing has changed throughout the decades, how his AI research helps his marketing, what he recommends marketers should be learning to prepare for the future, and more.

Brian Honigman is a marketing consultant helping NGOs, media brands, and tech companies succeed with their strategy around digital marketing, content marketing, and social media. Brian is also an adjunct professor at New York University's School of Professional Studies, an instructor at Skillshare and LinkedIn Learning, and a contributor to the Wall Street Journal, Forbes, and the Next Web. Named a "digital marketing expert" by Entrepreneur.com and a "top social media pro" by Social Media Examiner, Brian delivers strategic consulting, coaching, and training for marketers and leaders at the United Nations, the Weather Company, Medium, Asana, NATO, People Magazine, Taboola, Sprout Social, Percolate, Wix, Adobe and others.

We go over what it means to be a marketing consultant and how people get started on launching this often under-appreciated career path. This episode is a personal favorite of mine and I hope you enjoy listening to this episode as much as I enjoyed interviewing Brian.

Lindsay Peragine is a business coach and marketing specialist that is particularly obsessed with Pinterest. She is the owner of the digital marketing agency, Key Lime Media, host of the Caffeinate & Create podcast, and the founder of the Chaos to Clarity Accelerator, where she helps take overwhelmed entrepreneurs from confused to crushing it with simplified, profitable offers and a killer marketing plan in 90 days!

She confesses that she is a lover of coffee and good books, with a weakness for ice cream. As a wife and mom to two little ones, her passion is to help other female entrepreneurs grow their businesses without feeling overwhelmed, no matter what season of life they are in! In this episode we talked about all things Pinterest marketing! If you have a Pinterest account for your business or are thinking of using the platform for promoting your products or services, definitely check this episode out!