Tea Time With Tech Marketing Leaders

This week, Paige Roderick, Demand Generation Manager at Cado Security, joins to discuss the benefits of regional trade shows with a human touch. Face-to-face interaction is important when enabling the sales teams to build relationships.

Emily Mireault, Marketing at Nectar, joins to discuss how a community can deliver value for internal teams and bolster employee engagement. Creating culture through living your mission, vision, & values.

Matthew Ziegler, Director of Product Marketing at Clarity, joins to discuss the challenges of crafting a message, translating between the design team and the potential customer. He speaks to how he utilizes specific environmental knowledge as well as the emotional side, using real, not exaggerated examples to avoid potential scary scenarios. Don’t rely on F.U.D. (Fear, Uncertainty, & Doubt) to push your products.

Marcus Cauchi, CRO at Mobile Practice & Coach at Success With Integrity, joins to discuss how we as sellers & marketers need to understand where our prospective buyers are and meet them there, rather than where we wish them to be. It relies heavily on trust, particularly in the Active-Looking and Decision-Making Phases.

“No one buys products, people pay for and rent outcomes.” 

“Selling is helping people get their needs met.”

Sign-up for his exclusive webinar if you're selling a complex, high-value solution for mid-market and enterprise clients:

Email Marcus@laughs-last.com with the subject line "Tea Time with Tech Marketing Leaders Webinar" and tell him why you're interested and any initial questions. He will choose 6-8 companies based on whom he feels he can help the most.

Recommended Reading:

Bob Moesta - Demand-Side Sales 101

Charles H. Green - Trust-Based Selling

Andy Tzortzinis, Cybersecurity Messaging Mentor, joins to discuss building credibility with your target customer profile. He talks of the shift from Specialist to Generalist, Lead Generation to Demand Generation, and the rise of Product Led Growth.

It really goes to show the power of product marketers and their ability to communicate like he gives definitions that are succinct and spot on. He gives examples that tell a very clear story with a through line within less than like two minutes. He has given his communication style, we are able to get it all in here and it feels so smooth, so smooth in terms of this conversation. I can't wait for you to hear it before I get there. Just a little bit about Andy.

Andy Tzortzinis is a seasoned messaging expert with over 12 years of PR communications and marketing experience, a lover of dynamic industries, and he starts his marketing career in the food and beverage industry and made his way into cyber, just a few years back. He breeds an authentic and programmatic approach to marketing that is less dependent on industry buzzwords, and just you just focus on using empathy to understand the customer journey.

This strategy has led to success in content comms and product marketing roles across a range of security products, services and platforms. And as you will find out he is also a frequent collector of hobbies which we cannot wait to share with you.

Full Transcript

Additional episodes mentioned:

Evan Kling, Growth Marketing Manager at Vicarious, joins to discuss how he spearheads different creative campaigns and utilizes his teammates’ specialties in bringing a vision to life in a fast-paced startup environment.

Ashish Malpani, Head of Global Product Marketing for DX, joins to discuss how product marketers can own the process and become the voice of the customer. They need to understand the nuances of each market & vertical particularly in global cybersecurity brands.

Matthew Delman, Director of Marketing at Techstrong Group, joins to discuss how he utilizes classic storytelling techniques in B2b product marketing. “Storytelling is all about finding the levers to pull in your audience to create the response you want to create.”

Josh Martin, Technical Solutions Architect at Cyolo, joins to discuss how his team leverages curiosity in the sales process, putting the power back in the users’ hands. They allow the user to think up questions and test drive their tool Walnut.io in a controlled environment.

Alec Foster, Growth Lead at Stealth & Public Policy Manager at AI Alignment, Inc, joins to discuss GDPR compliance and how companies can protect their users and customer data. Individual control over data is crucial when building trust and ensuring security.

Justin Brock, a B2B SaaS Marketing Leader at Coro Cybersecurity, joins to discuss how he leverages his background as an English teacher to help rewrite websites and simplify complex jargon, abstract acronyms into plain language.

Bryant Pulecio & Theresa Woodiel from DeepInstinct join to discuss how to effectively utilize Account Based Marketing to bolster your cybersecurity company. They stress matching strategic planning, consistent messaging, and a well-rounded tech stack both reach and educate different personas throughout the complex sales process.

Saren Sakurai, Senior Director of Digital Marketing at Blackberry, joins to discuss what the future holds for brand marketing in the age of ChatGPT, speed with a human touch. He envisions that the customer journey is accelerated with the assistance of artificial intelligence. In addition, he warns of the tendency for some brands, particularly in cybersecurity, to operate based on fear rather than optimism.

In this episode, Christian DeGobbi highlights the significance of incorporating emotions in B2B marketing. B2B marketers should use emotions like humor and storytelling to humanize marketing and appeal to emotions that influence decision-making.

Kate Neuens, Marketing Manager at Beyond Identity, joins to discuss switching industries and building a cohesive skillset.

Jon-Eric Cornellier joins to discuss how to best market your company's capabilities at industry events, even when your team is small. He stresses the importance of cultivating 'buy-in' among team members and potential clients to successfully form relationships.

Peter Wheeler,  joins to discuss how Product Led Growth can form bonds between the customer and product, allowing the features to do the heavy marketing lift. He also lays out the framework for a freemium model that enables the customer to try a product and integrate it in their daily usage prior to signing any hefty contracts.

He's launching his very own podcast soon! Be sure to subscribe: https://www.heygoodchat.org/

In this episode of season 13, Kerry Guard chats with Matt Hathaway, Chief Marketing & Strategy Officer at TrueFort. Matt Hathaway shares about the changes in the cybersecurity industry and the dangers of over-promising.

In this episode, Kerry Guard chats with Rachel Ratchford, Head of Marketing Communications at Cobalt.io. Rachel Ratchford shares about managing small, efficient teams across time zones.

In this episode of season 13, Kerry Guard chats with Anna Hrach, Senior Strategist at Convince and Convert. Anna Hrach shares how the industry has changed through the pandemic as well as how the mindset of the "Marketing Funnel" is antiquated and should be replaced with Customer Journeys.

In this episode, Kerry Guard chats with Patrick Garrity. Standing desk to standing desk, they dug into how to be decisive. 

As marketing leaders trying to grow tech companies, you have to make 100 decisions a day, which can get overwhelming and daunting. Patrick somehow managed to find his way through that. 

He shares how he's been able to do this daily while moving towards lofty goals and getting the magical thing about how Patrick does this is that he gets buy-in from key stakeholders every step of the way. 

It's not just about making decisions, but how you make those decisions and then bring people in along with you to agree to those decisions that you're making fast and furious.

Patrick Garrity is a Go to Market specialist with over 15+ years of experience providing marketing, sales, and product expertise to high-growth SaaS startups with a primary focus on Cybersecurity.

In this episode of season 13, Kerry Guard chats with Brianna Doe, Senior Demand Generation Manager at Inventables. Brianna explains the importance of the customer experience and how you should pull your audience in and take them on a journey.

Brianna Doe is a marketing leader with ten years of experience driving growth and revenue and building engagement communities. She's driven over a million and monthly revenue two times the email subscribers and grew social channels by 70% for one of her customers.

In this episode of season 13, Kerry Guard chats with Yoni Solomon, VP of Product Marketing at Gympass.  Yoni Solomon explains what product marketing is and how he uses his unique experience and perspective of product-led growth.

It’s not everyday Kerry Guard run into someone who has built an entirely internal team dedicated to SEO. Content yes. Front end web development. Absolutely. But to then have internal SEO support driving the content and front end web development is unheard. Even Luke talks about the unusual position he’s found himself in and the payoff they’ve experienced because of it.

Luke Richardson is a web subject matter expert with 9 years of experience working in SEO and conversion rate optimization. In his current role, he leads a team of 5 and oversees SEO, web analytics, and web development for a rapid-growth cybersecurity unicorn. In his free time, Luke enjoys spending time with his fiancee, playing chess, and learning about wine.

Luke will share his story so you’ll see how you too can put emphasis on SEO.

In this episode Kerry Guard chats with Siena Dixon where they discuss the power of gamification and how to introduce your customers to your product in a fun creative experience. Whoever said B2B couldn’t be fun! We’re all people after all and how we experience consumer brands can be done with B2B. At least according to Siena.

Siena Dixon is Head of Strategy & Commercial at Zebrar. She is a  relentlessly curious senior marketing executive focused on innovation where storytelling meets new and immersive technology. Exploring and refining technologies like AR, VR, AI and gamification for brands.

In this episode Kerry Guard connects with Sekou White where they discuss how to market to tough audiences, who are marketing skeptics. In his case the developer. Having been a developer Sekou understands his audience and that traditional advertising won’t work.

Sekou is a multifaceted marketing professional with 20 years of experience in technology, entertainment and media. He spent the first half of his career launching some of the biggest video games, mobile apps, and digital advertising products. More recently, he’s focused on building robust developer communities through advertising, PR and partnerships.

Here’s my conversation with Sekou.

Sekou also joined our live roundtable where we discussed putting your audience first. You can find that here. 

In this episode Kerry Guard chats with Aileen Casmano. In Cyber Security it’s very easy to use language that strikes fear in the hearts of buyers everywhere.  But Aileen is committed to proving time and time again that you don’t need to scare your customers into buying your product. There’s a better way and she walks us through it.

Aileen Casmano is an experienced marketer in cybersecurity and technology. Her work experience and skillset spans across brand strategy, product marketing, communications, and creative strategy. Aileen is currently the Director of Marketing at Cyvatar, where she leads the brand vision, strategy, and team. Prior to Cyvatar, Aileen held various marketing roles at Owl Cyber Defense and Dynata (formerly Critical Mix). She is also a co-founder of the Cybersecurity Marketing Society. When she’s not thinking of the next big idea, she’s can be found hanging out with her Goldendoodle pup Oakley or catching a yoga class.

In this episode, Kerry Guard hangs out with John Steinhert  where they discuss what a marketing career can look like. As more people examine their careers and look at making moves, marketing offers not only options in terms of disciplines, but clear growth opportunities as well.

As TechTarget’s CMO, John Steinhert is responsible for positioning the  company and messaging to their subscribers  in ways that maximize understanding and energize action. He’s convinced that if they do this well, everyone benefits. At TechTarget, they’re committed to customer centricity and a win:win view of the world.

Here’s my conversation with John.

In this conversation with Matt Dynan brings to life how he kicked off his marketing career.

After Matt shares his story, we dig into what it means to build a category.

Matt Dynan is the Digital Marketing Manager at Jellyfish.io. He is a B2B digital marketer with experience owning SEO and paid media programs at high-growth SaaS companies. He focuses on building consistent digital experiences across channels that enable brand awareness, prospect education, and customer acquisition.

Alyssa Maker started off in PR and is now a demand gen marketer. It really goes to show that you just never know where your marketing career will take you!

Alyssa shares her story then we discuss what demand generation means to her and how she approaches it as the glue that holds all their marketing efforts together.

Alyssa is the Director of Marketing for Sana Commerce. As a Director of Marketing, she manages a marketing team focused on accelerating growth through multiple channels including digital, demand gen, events, and partners.

She loves marketing because it allows her to find sophisticated solutions to everyday challenges. She is passionate about growth and committed to developing new skills.

Here’s my conversation with Alyssa.

In this final episode of Season 12, Kerry Guard hangs out with Tom Wedding all the way from Australia! 

Tom is committed to building digital communities on behalf of his clients. If you listened to my conversation with Sekou who talks about the power of community then consider this a perfect follow. Sekou was the why. This is the how.

Welcome back to season 11! In this episode Kerry Guard chats with Chris Spellman. Chris is the Senior Demand Generation Manager at Offensive Security. He is a marketing leader with over a decade of experience helping organizations grow. Dedicated to leading orgs in driving brand, demand, and revenue.

Chris and Kerry talk about what it means to be a mission driven organization. To have a real message about creating a real difference in the world, then backing it up through all your marketing efforts.

This episode was brought to you by MKG Marketing - our digital marketing agency that helps cyber security and data companies get found via transparent, measurable digital marketing.

It’s hosted by me, Kerry Guard - CEO and co-founder of MKG

Music, mix, and mastering done by Austin Ellis.

If you’d like to be a guest, please visit mkgmarketinginc.com to apply.

Jam out with this season's Spotify playlist.

In this episode Kerry Guard connects with Kaya Adams and Alexandra McWethy. Kaya and Alexandra work together at Watch Guard.

Kaya is a Director of Demand Generation and Marketing Operations at Watch Guard Technologies. She’s a passionate marketing leader with a proven track record of delivering innovative, data, and technology driven integrated campaigns in fast-paced, deadline-driven environments. She’s a creative problem solver with an analytics, detail-oriented approach, hungry to drive results.

Alexandra is also a Director of Demand Generation at WatchGuard Technologies. She’s focused on developing educational and engaging content that helps small businesses and mid-size enterprise organizations better protect their employees, customers, and sensitive data.

Kaya and Alex are a force. They have teamed up to build a team of Business Development Representatives. They are focused on drumming up leads then nurturing them to a place where they can pass them off to the sales team. Kaya and Alex break down how they did it, why marketing and sales love this approach, and the early outcomes they’re seeing.

This episode was brought to you by MKG Marketing - our digital marketing agency that helps cyber security and data companies get found via transparent, measurable digital marketing.

It’s hosted by me, Kerry Guard - CEO and co-founder of MKG

Music, mix, and mastering done by Austin Ellis.

If you’d like to be a guest, please visit mkgmarketinginc.com to apply.

Jam out with this season's Spotify playlist.

In this episode Kerry Guard chat with Hana Jacover where she gives me my first lesson in Web3. She’s so passionate about Web3 that she has actually left her previous company to be able to dedicate time into really digging into Web3 and becoming an expert.

Hana is a technical demand generation marketer with a proven track record of strategies and programs that accelerate revenue. She has deep experience in the optimization of high-performance tactics and marketing automation technologies that build and measure pipeline. She has a strong history of client loyalty and retention with marketing and sales executives at B2B tech companies. And she has a thorough understanding of marketing strategy, the importance of data and attribution, and execution. Most importantly, she can clearly articulate KPIs to decision makers.

Hana and Kerry take the conversation from Web3 101, into a deeper conversation around the power of community, and how community needs to be apart of your marketing efforts to give them a vote and allow them to be part of the development of your brand and product.

This episode was brought to you by MKG Marketing - our digital marketing agency that helps cyber security and data companies get found via transparent, measurable digital marketing.

It’s hosted by me, Kerry Guard - CEO and co-founder of MKG

Music, mix, and mastering done by Austin Ellis.

If you’d like to be a guest, please visit mkgmarketinginc.com to apply.

In this episode, Kerry Guard gets to hang out with Rob Neuman where we dig into his unique approach to Account Based Marketing. Unique in his ability to personalize his marketing based on what he knows of his audience which is a unique and niche. Not what we’re used to the cyber security and data side so it’s nice to hear of other approaches outside of these industries and maybe find opportunities to apply it. This conversation is especially special because we’re talking just a week or so after Russia invaded the Ukraine and we take a moment to sit and chat through what that means and the impact it’s had on Rob and his company.

Rob is the Digital Leader of CSS Commerce. He works to create the most effective, uniquely innovative solution that will build your business, handle more traffic and transactions, move more clients to your platform and give you real insight into your business. Basically eCommerce for B2B. Rob knows the only way to make B2B transactional like ecommerce is to approach each of his clients with turn key solutions as they are all different.

This episode was brought to you by MKG Marketing - our digital marketing agency that helps cyber security and data  companies get found via transparent, measurable digital marketing.

It’s hosted by me, Kerry Guard - CEO and co-founder of MKG

Music, mix, and mastering done by Austin Ellis.

If you’d like to be a guest, please visit mkgmarketinginc.com to apply.

Jam out with this season's Spotify playlist.

In this episode Jada Holst joins Kerry Guard to discuss raising up the next generation of marketers. There are some clear hiring challenges in the marketing industry and it’s going to take all of us to fix it. Jada leads with her story where she grew up on a farm and had quite the journey to becoming a marketing leader.

Jada Holst is a marketing manager at an ISV focused on supporting higher ed, non-profit, and other similar industries succeed in their missions. Her background also includes cybersecurity and B2B start-up's with experience in demand, channel, field, and customer marketing.

This episode was brought to you by MKG Marketing - our digital marketing agency that helps cyber security and data  companies get found via transparent, measurable digital marketing.

It’s hosted by me, Kerry Guard - CEO and co-founder of MKG

Music, mix, and mastering done by Austin Ellis.

If you’d like to be a guest, please visit mkgmarketinginc.com to apply.

Jam out with this season's Spotify playlist.

On this episode Naz Ekim joins Kerry Guard to discuss PR and what great PR looks like when it comes to finding your partners. She’s so candid which makes for a real honest conversation, which given the current state of events we all need a good dose of honesty especially when it comes to cyber security.

Speaking of cyber security, Naz is an award-winning communication strategist and the Director of Global Marketing Communications at Keeper Security. She comes equipped with more than a decade of experience in orchestrating integrated communications campaigns for a diverse number of technology companies.

This episode was brought to you by MKG Marketing - our digital marketing agency that helps cyber security and data  companies get found via transparent, measurable digital marketing.

It’s hosted by me, Kerry Guard - CEO and co-founder of MKG

Music, mix, and mastering done by Austin Ellis.

If you’d like to be a guest, please visit mkgmarketinginc.com to apply.

Jam out with this season's Spotify playlist.

This episode was brought to you by MKG Marketing - our digital marketing agency that helps cyber security and data  companies get found via transparent, measurable digital marketing.

It’s hosted by me, Kerry Guard - CEO and co-founder of MKG

Music, mix, and mastering done by Austin Ellis.

If you’d like to be a guest, please visit mkgmarketinginc.com to apply.

Jam out with this season's Spotify playlist.

https://www.toteandpears.com/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ambernanderson/

Spotify Playlist

https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterzaballos/

Spotify Playlist

https://www.linkedin.com/in/lavanyag9/

Spotify Playlist

https://www.linkedin.com/in/shane-whelan-13356bb5/

Spotify Playlist

https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisa-mcdermott-marketing-leader/

Spotify Playlist

https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevenshapiro/

Spotify Playlist

https://www.linkedin.com/in/racheljordan/

Spotify Playlist

https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinakay/

RevOps Templates 

Spotify Playlist

First up, we have Marguerite Yeo. This is a special conversation to me as Marguerite and MKG Marketing have a long standing relationship having worked together since Marguerite’s days at VMware back in 2014. Marguerite is now at Nutanix and has been for three months. Congratulations Marguerite! I hope all is going well.

In our conversation, Marguerite and Kerry Guard dissected what it means to work on corporate marketing verse product marketing and the pros and cons of both and why Marguerite’s heart lives with Demand Generation.

Season 9: Spotify Playlist 

On this episode Kerry Guard chats with Chris Ott, CEO of Creative Blue.  Chris and I were introduced through mutual connections. He first met my business partner, Mike Krass then Mike had the genius idea to see if Chris wanted to join us on Tea Time so here we are!

Chris and Kerry dig into Brand Marketing, especially as it relates to startups who are looking for funding so his company can help them get the funding then scale. Chris is a  big believer in story and has a very direct approach on how brand can tell their story.

Season 9: Spotify Playlist 

On this episode Kerry Guard chats with Jeanne Hopkins, who was the Chief Revenue Officer at Happy Nest.

Jeanne was an interesting conversation because it’s not everyday Kerry gets the opportunity to speak with Chief Revenue Officers! It was fascinating seeing marketing through her lens. We dug into the importance of marketing to existing customers. It sounds like a no-duh, but when you’re just getting going a lot of focus is outbound and new new new, so to take time to create marketing funnels to upsell and cross sell existing customers isn’t always on the radar. Jeanne thinks it should be not just on your radar, but something all brands are actively doing. And she walks us through why and how.

Season 9: Spotify Playlist 

On this episode Kerry Guard chat with Joshua Kanter, CMO of Encora.

Josh and I dig into how Marketing and Product and work together. So many times organizations are set up in silos and don’t necessarily coordinate. Josh and I talk through how to work through and towards a more unified organization across departments and how to bring the customer voice to the table in doing so.

Season 9: Spotify Playlist 

In this episode, Kerry Guard had the pleasure of speaking with Delitha Morrow Coles. Delitha and Kerry connected over LinkedIn and after one 20 minute conversation with her, Kerry knew this was going to be a special episode.

Delitha is the Global Corporate Communications Leader at NCR corporation in Atlanta. She is an award-winning, results driven leader who develops strategic communication programs that engage, education, and inspire employees and build company brand and reputation. She has extensive B2B experience with large, global brands, and is passionate about employee engagement.

Season 9: Spotify Playlist 

Tracy Hansen and Kerry Guard talk about the importance of CMOs working with their executive teams in bringing them along with the importance of marketing. It’s not a world where if you build they will come and it’s up to the CMO to help the executive leadership team make space for marketing in an effort to impact everyone’s goals - especially the businesses bottom line.

Resources:

In this episode Kerry Guard chats with, Diana Morante, Marketing Director at Richo where she works in the education department helping schools get the necessary STEM equipment to keep their students on the cutting edge… I loved this conversation. I got to nerd out super hard on STEM and education which I’m super passionate about and so is Diana! It was an amazing conversation and such an honor. 

Season 9: Spotify Playlist 

In this episode Kerry Guad chats with, Genepha Murphy, CMO at Five9.

We dig into how she builds and leads a team. She has developed a frame work - FIRE and we walk through what this framework is and how it has helped her build brands, such as Five9.

Resources

Season 8!! Industry Thought Leader Mark Schaefer joins to discuss the third marketing rebellion, focusing on people. He sets the tone for the entire season. Mark is a globally-recognized blogger, speaker, educator, consultant, and author. As Executive Director of U.S.-based Schaefer Marketing Solutions, he specializes in marketing strategy and social media workshops. Clients include both start-ups and global brands such as Adidas, J&J, Dell, AT&T, U.S. Air Force, and the UK  government.

LinkedIn Profile

GetAccept

Tara Pawlak is the Head of US Marketing at GetAccept. She is a dynamic marketing expert who has over 15 years of experience in Marketing Operations and Automation, Marketing Strategy and Demand Generation, Marketing Technology and B2B Lead Generation. She joins to discuss breaking into a new market and positioning a product internationally.

Season 8 Spotify Playlist

GetAccept

Tal Valler is the Director of Global Marketing at Centrical. He joins us from Brooklyn New York and with the sounds of the  city as the backdrop Tal and Kerry Guard dig into why Demand Gen is the new Lead Gen and how to make a personalized impact when talking to your broader audience.

Niki Wilson is the Director of Sales and Marketing for ClickClaims. She shares how she brings new customers along through personalized customer journey via LinkedIn. From awareness, to connection, to close.

Here are the tools Niki uses:

Our Season 8 Playlist: Spotify Playlist

When we were children, and people asked us what we wanted to be when we grew up, not one of us said, "MARKETING LEADER!"

We each have a unique story on how we found marketing or in some cases,  how Marketing found us. For David Mundy, head of marketing at Accurics, it was a symbiotic relationship.  One he is deeply passionate about. In this episode David takes us on a  journey through how he met Marketing, fell in love with Data and team  building, and how he truly believes that Marketing should be a key  pillar to the success of any organization... you build it then marketing brings them to it.

Season 8 Spotify Playlist

Martina Trucco is the VP of Corporate Marketing at Clari, a revenue operations software. She is an award winning tech marketer specializing in helping leaders build trust through what she calls "radical transparency".

Our Season 8 Playlist: Spotify Playlist

Marcus LaRobardiere joins to discuss the power of account based marketing (ABM).

Marcus LaRobardiere is the Senior Director of Marketing at NewStore,  a omni-channel store solution to help Direct-to-Consumer (D2C)  retailers. He is the head of Go To Market and Demand Generation.  ‘Omnichannel’ is the blending of channels; for retail, there are no  specific silos but a seamless customer experience. He describes it as a  more wholistic approach, whether the customer is shopping online or in  store. “A customer is a customer no matter how they shop.”

Lorena Morales, VP of Marketing at Go Nimbly, joins to discuss how she works directly with CEOs to help them grow their companies rapidly. She also advocates for building skills as a generalist. 

Margy Feldhuhn, CEO at InterviewConnections, joins to discuss how she helps marketers build personal brands and expansive networks through podcast appearances.

Quincy Johnson is a Marketing and Technology Strategist who teaches  at the University of Texas at Dallas. He lectures primarily on how to  effectively utilize social media marketing. He started in inside sales  as has discovered the wide range of social and martech as it relates to  technology companies.

For Quincy, social media is the grand Truman Show: a great experiment  to observe and document the way humans form connections and present  stories. People have access to share whatever and whenever they want.  For brands, the pandemic has forced them to create an identity and ‘meet  people where they are’ but not cross the line into just selling. Many  sales reps have had to “dust off their LinkedIn” and get down to forming  connections in a remote world. Pro-tip: please don’t follow up five times on unreplied inMail message. Staying true to one’s message allows for better buy-in; for instance,  Simon Sinek sharing tid-bits and helpful information, while still having  a selection of books and content available for purchase. For Quincy, he  argues that the executives (even via ghostwriters) needs to drive  vision and the sales teams can be on the ground making connections,  create 1 to 1 relationships. C-Suites have the ability to both garner  attention and inspire internal commitment from their teams. Evangelists  have a way of captivating audiences and crafting industry-shifting  visions.

As discussed on previous episodes, LinkedIn and Facebook have  different superpowers and can offer various techniques on engagement.  The latter is more of the ‘softer’ side of the company, in terms of  demonstrating culture and community. Quincy mentions that TikTok has an  enormous audience and brands can have the latitude to reach a variety of  niche markets; the algorithm doesn’t discriminate on previous content.  However, it’s an ever-changing platform that some videos garner a few  hundred views and one could blow up reaching multiple millions of  screens. YouTube is another, more established platform which requires  people to build a channel; there is incredible value because millions go  to the platform for information- from learning a new skill to fixing a  sink. Demonstrating expertise on how to do what you do can garner leads  and provide value. In addition, by learning how to navigate a platform,  the future workforce can become skilled and implement those systems down  the line. He advocates an entrepreneurial mindset when learning and  implementing new technologies and strategies.

This was only a high-level overview of our conversation with Quincy.  Be sure to listen to the full episode and the rest of the season on all  streaming platforms!

Meghan Nesta, Senior Product Manager at AWeber, joins to discuss how she and her team build and maintain relationships while working from home.

Agile Resource: Agility Is Key with Lisa Furrow

Max Borges joins to discuss running public relations agency and How To Be Fan-F*cking-Tastic!

Max Borges runs a Public Relations (PR) agency that works exclusively  with consumer tech companies. He employs 50 incredibly talented people  and has built a profile of 50 clients. When starting, he mentions AFM  (anything for money) wherein he built an agency to fill any need that  would bring in a paycheck. He also hosts the “Unconventional Genius” podcast where he interviews authors and other industry-driving leaders  in hopes to share stories and inspire listeners. Both he and Kerry focus  on impacting the client’s bottom line through pipeline creation.

+ Pivoting from Sales to PR

+ The Four Stages of Growth

+ Life Is An Open-Book Test

Read the full overview on MKG Marketing

Are you a Marketing Leader working in Tech? Be our guest!

Michael Sherlock, Chief Potential Officer at Shock Your Potential, at joins to discuss how to effectively use the mirror test when determining if an employee is properly trained. 

On the Season 7 premiere, Larry Long Jr., Director of Collegiate Sales at Teamwork joins to discuss how his EPIC values (Entrepreneurial Spirit, Practice, Internal Drive, Communication) help lead high performing teams. 

Larry has a goal to change 1,000 lives in 2021. 

Not B2B or B2C but rather P2P, people to people sales. The most successful people care about others first. For Larry, sales is playing  matchmaker; finding the right partnerships between products or services  and individual’s wants and needs. They may not know what they need but  it is a perfect opportunity for the salesperson to offer that service or  assistance.

When faced with failure or obstructions Larry allows remembers the  acronym FIDO- Forget-about It, Drive On. Try to not get bogged down with  the rough patches of work-life because they will only slow you down in  the future. When in conversation, strive for a 53-47 split. Listening is  an excellent opportunity to learn.

In order to construct a high performing team, you have to ask during the hiring process - Would you enthusiastically re-employee the people on your team? Paul advocates utilizing the classic, Norton's balanced scorecard of company effectiveness as well as 9 key foundational elements to create a high-performing team.

Check out Paul's Mentoring Website HERE  - https://www.buildlivegive.com/sales

And listen to his podcast Build, Live, Give HERE - https://paulhigginsmentoring.com/podcast/

Be our guest on Tea Time With Tech Marketing Leaders: https://mkgmarketinginc.com/resources/mkg-podcast-guest/

Originally from Australia, Paul Higgins is a business mentor, podcaster, and publisher who helps coaches and consultants to help build profitable and sustainable online businesses. He previously spent 18 years at the Coca Cola company, managing $700 million in marketing strategy across the world. This conversation shares insight into how set up effective processes to run a global remote team.

Shifting away from his 12-14 hours of meetings per day at Coca Cola, Paul tries to keep the team to be as 'meeting free' as possible. They utilize Voxer, a voice chat platform that allows for instant communication across timezones. By utilizing this technology, Paul's team can effectively execute work 24 hours a day, from Melbourne to the Maldives to Colombia. Everyone will update a key focus, biggest win, and one area they need help. Every Friday, they update rewards summary.

They utilize Asana for project management as a bible; every task done by team members is noted and can be set up as repeatable tasks in order to keep the business on track. Trying to use too many tools can lead to friction; by keeping the amount low, you can streamline tasks and never miss a project. Dub, like Loom, allows the recording and sharing of processes which makes training and sharing recordings of meetings easier.

Gwen Lafage, Manager at Sköna - European HQ, joins to discuss how they create impactful branding for B2B tech companies, marrying brand awareness and lead generation. 

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gwen-lafage-9500381/

Website: https://www.skona.com

Apply to be on Tea Time with Tech Marketing Leaders

Alex Dunn, head of Levelset, joins to discuss the importance of building a content machine.

Alex Dunn has been a friend of MKG for a long time. He is a results-oriented business development professional in B2B and B2C marketplaces; he specializes in driving traffic through content solutions

Alex is the Head of Demand at Levelset, a payment solutions company for the construction industry. They’ve created a platform to alleviate roadblocks, get people paid.

Alex started with video content creation while getting his MBA in Massachusetts, and went on to sell his production company in 2016. That venture primarily focused on video testimonials for B2B tech companies. He honed his craft and started to replicate the success using similar content creation patterns.

As Ben Horowitz quoted in The Hard Thing About Hard Things, “There’s no silver bullet, there’s only a ton of lead bullets”.

A new company must operate and define itself around a core philosophy. There’s not going to be one quick and easy solution for all problems; most of the time, the answer will be one specific solution replicated over and over.

For Levelset, the mission and main question was ‘how do we drive the most traffic to our site?’

The solution that Alex found was to become a media company (within their niche). Levelset leverages data to create a news website for the construction industry- from news, payment disputes, trends, they seek to grow thought leadership. Rather than ABC, the sales team shifted their focus to providing quality service. Their mantra is ‘help first, sell second’; this multifaceted approach builds trust, brand recall, and expands inbound traffic. In addition to being a reliable helping hand, creating content demonstrates the human element and often forges a connection with the reader.

Apply to be on Tea Time with Tech Marketing Leaders

Adam Mendler, host of the podcast Thirty Minute Mentors, joins to discuss the importance of understanding your superpower as early as possible. 

From Los Angeles to Wall Street, Adam Mendler has learned some hard-earned lessons. 

While earning an MBA at the Anderson School of Management (UCLA), Adam interned in entertainment (Universal). Upon graduation, he returned to finance and worked in large corporate firms.

After nearly a decade, Mr. Mendler wanted to try something different, to build his own success. He founded the Velos Group in 2012 with his brother. They built three companies under the umbrella: Beverly Hills Chairs - the biggest refurbished furniture store in Los Angeles, a fully online cigar shop, and a life insurance software. He wanted to have more of an impact as it is nearly impossible to do so early on in career at older, bureaucratic companies. Adam wanted to contribute right away; building firms from scratch allowed Adam to build upon lessons from other companies.

Apply to be on Tea Time with Tech Marketing Leaders

This week, Marlo Oster joins to discuss the delicate balancing act of project management. She is the entire marketing force at Work Patterns, an app that streamlines management best practices through templates and simplified user experience (UX). The firm is an extremely young, seed-funded startup (out of Beta in August 2020). While the company may be new, Marlo is a veteran of the industry, having spent ten years in client-facing roles at various martech and adtech startups. True to the fast nature of the industry, she rose from individual contributor to the executive-level in a matter of six years.

Apply to be on Tea Time with Tech Marketing Leaders

Lawrence Elliot joins to discuss conversion copywriting.

Creating In-Depth, PILLAR Content that can be written in a way that both informs and persuades.

The best copywriters pass what Lawrence calls the ‘barstool test’; in order to put the reader at ease, imagine as if you were sitting in a restaurant with the reader. By writing in a conversational tone, you invite the reader in and avoid confusing them with complicated industry jargon.

To build this perfect storm of growth, you’ll need an irresistible offer, understanding of sales psychology that drives your ideal customers, and the writing chops to weave a story that engages that audience into making a direct response.

By following three steps, companies are able to employ content as a method of lead generation.

Headlines need a solid hook and a solid graphic because people see the image first then read headline. If you don’t position your business along the way, a call to action won’t hit home. By utilizing a CHALLENGE/SOLUTION framework, companies can structure their content efficiently.

Apply to be on Tea Time with Tech Marketing Leaders

Aileen Horgan, VP Marketing at Gremlin, joins to discuss executing fearlessness in content creation and nurturing trust among team-members. 

"People that work with you and for you don't have to like you, they just have to trust you."

Apply to be on Tea Time with Tech Marketing Leaders

Arel Moodie is a multi-talented professional speaker and bestselling author. He has spoken to over 650,000 people in 48 states and 5 countries. 

His podcast The Art of Likability was rated the Number 1 career podcast in iTunes and is listened to in 178 countries worldwide helping people build better relationships with people. Arel Moodie joins to discuss how public speaking can be utilized to generate leads and create demand.

Apply to be a guest on Tea Time With Tech Marketing Leaders 

Renato Agrella, Founder of 2A Consulting, joins to discuss how he helps build partnerships and utilize storytelling to communicate highly technical messaging. His firm simplifies the complex stories in ways to make it easier for an unknowing audience member to just hop in and understand the key elements. Whether they've been aware of the offer for 5 years or 5 minutes, the content needs to create an intriguing story and communicate the potential value add.

This week, Tish Millsap joins to discuss how to directly connect marketing spend to revenue. For the past 6 years, she has helped dozens of companies implement and sustain effective demand-gen and revenue-boosting solutions. 

Jonathan Pogact is the VP of Marketing at Seamless.AI. He was the previous VP of Marketing for Drips, a text messaging software that helps brands deliver conversion results. He joins this week to discuss the power of text messaging in business development and solving the 'always on' problem.

Tamsen Webster joins to discuss, "The Red Thread", a method to help audiences, organizations, and individuals build and tell the story of their big ideas. The result? Real, transformative change. She works with individuals and organizations on how to talk about their ideas so that other people will act on them. "Your idea, business, product, or service is an answer. It is a new way to slay an old monster."

Christopher S. Penn is the Chief Data Scientist/Co-founder of Trust Insights. He is an authority on analytics, digital marketing, marketing technology, data science, and machine learning. Too often, marketers get caught up in the heaps of data without coming to a viable conclusion. If a decision isn't reached, all the statistics and metrics are ultimately useless.  As he neatly puts, "analytics without action is a recipe you cook but never eat."

On this week's podcast, Anna Hrach joins to debunk a few widely-believed myths surrounding content production. Content is a piece of the puzzle that stretches over the entire marketing ecosystem. It remains the primary way in which brands communicate with their audience.

Klyn Elsbury is a keynote speaker, author, and executive trainer. Through her consulting and bestselling book, I Am___:The Untold Story of Success, she helps leaders identify their unconscious motivators and utilize them to grow both personally and professionally.

Her podcast, Elevation Nation,  offers helpful insight and bite-sized pieces of wisdom from ordinary people who have overcome incredible odds.

Kathleen Booth is the VP Marketing for Attila Security. Her Mission - To help clients bolster inbound marketing utilizing fundamental tactics. By creating compelling content and cultivating community, brands are able to successfully grow. Her podcast Inbound Success helps marketers adjust their strategy and find the key niche for their development.

Carolyn Lyden is the President/Lead SEO of Search Hermit. Her goal is to help established women-owned businesses improve their online visibility through SEO and content strategy that drives sustainable growth and creates a more substantial online presence. 

AJ Huisman is a coach for chief marketing officers (CMOs) and their teams on how to work better in an effort to generate better business outcomes.
His Mission- to offer a fresh perspective and mediate between marketing teams and the CMOs. He pushes the executes to be the chief rainmakers or drivers of change within their organizations.

Pam Didner is a passionate digital and tech marketer, speaker, and author who loves to bring alignment between sales & marketing. She is the author of The Modern AI Marketer and Effective Sales Enablement.

Her mission- to help bridge the gap between sales and marketing teams so they can work efficiently and grow together.

Sean Amster is the Manager for Digital Content Solutions at The Hershey Company. He also teaches digital marketing as a comprehensive subject at Pennsylvania State University.

His Mission: Oversee innovation and transformation processes to make data-driven decisions in demand generation and overall efficiency.

Samantha Stone is the Founder/CMO of the Marketing Advisory Network and the author of Unleash Possible: A Marketing Playbook That Drives Sales.

Her Mission: To unite marketing and sales teams around certain Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that drive revenue in the sales funnel. She notes 3 metrics that marketers should take ownership of: lead conversion, time spent in the 'buying' phase, and win-rate. 

Heather Seasholtz is the Director of Meeting and Event Management. Her mission is to aid organizations in shifting from live events to virtual meetings in response to the new world of COVID-19. From restructuring sponsorships to reformating content to coaching speakers on the chat function, Heather has helped clients adapt to our new circumstances.

The traditional 'waterfall' approach to project execution is outdated and no longer effective in these unprecedented times. Lisa Farrow is a marketing agilist encouraging teams to use Agile frameworks, such as Scrum and Kanban, to ensure that they meet and exceed customer expectations. By remaining nimble and iterating constantly, teams are able to deliver a product that is exactly what the client wants and within the means of the team's capabilities. 

Latane Conant is the Chief Marketing Officer at 6sense, an A.I. powered Account-Based Marketing platform. Her mission is to utilize big data to personalize engagement with the coveted, in-market accounts that are most likely to purchase and succeed with a product.  

Social media marketing has expanded and grown in importance within the marketing mix. However, teams are consistently hindered by the lack of cohesion and clarity regarding workflow. Xenia Muntean is the CEO and co-founder of Planable, a social media tool that acts as a one-stop-shop for the entire creation process, from writing content to scheduling and distributing across a multitude of channels. 

Scott Brinker is a Software Product Leader at HubSpot. He directs the company’s platform strategy, business programs, and tech partners.

His mission is to offer guidance in the best practices to utilize evolving and expanding marketing technology ("Martech") to streamline and coordinate the various aspects of a project. 

Ashley Cohen and Sabrina Galati are marketing solutions architects with TenX4 (Ten by Four”)

Their Mission- To help marketers be more effective and cost-efficient in the long-term by aiding the agency-client relationship from the start.

TenX4’s goal is to ensure the best possible B2B partnership through intensive review, pain-point recognition, and client-agency matching.

Website: https://roderickjefferson.com/

Twitter: @ThevoiceofRod

Sales Coaching: https://www.lessonly.com/sales-coaching/

https://www.facebook.com/WeAreCisco/

https://twitter.com/WeAreCisco

https://www.linkedin.com/in/carmenshirkeycollins/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelbyj/

Providence Blog: https://blog.providence.org/

Hosing is Health: https://blog.providence.org/topic-spotlight-housing-is-health

The Content Fuel Framework

Story Fuel

LinkedIn

Website: https://neilcanhelp.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/neilcanhelp/

Full Show Recap: https://mkgmarketinginc.com/blog/podcasts/neil-gordon-find-your-silver-bullet/

LinkedIn 

Brand Storytelling: Put The Customer At The Heart Of Your Brand Story

Website: https://excy.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelemehlexcy/

Book Recommendation: Blue Ocean Strategy

If done thoughtfully, the Email Newsletter can be a powerful medium. Here's how to get started. Sean Ryan, founder of Rotary Digital, has created multiple newsletters, dedicated to very specific audiences. Learn how he got them started, why they've worked, and how you can do it too!

Sean Ryan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seanryanaccelerator/

Rotary Digital: http://www.rotarydigital.net/

Elevator: http://gettheelevator.com/

http://trainual.com/

Free Asset from Jonathan, download now! > http://trainual.com/mkg 

Jonathan on LinkedIn

Connect with Erin Weed on LinkedIn. 

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joanne-jaspan/

Website: http://shift-sales.com/collective

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joanne-jaspan/

Website: http://shift-sales.com/collective

If you'd like to see take a look at John's LinkedIn profile for inspiration, you can find it here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnbellamy/

Be sure to check out his videos and posts on his LinkedIn profile for more inspiration.

To learn more about Joy of PL visit https://www.joyofprofessionallearning.org/

As a freebie, I put Kurt's idea of anyone can create to the test and to show you how easy it can be using the tools you already use everyday, I created a 10 minute how to video on making a Facebook Ad, which you can access here: https://www.loom.com/share/489196e6350c4a0f861136b99d24d76c

Learn more about NinjaCat at https://www.ninjacat.io/ and book a demo.  

NinjaCat has some beautiful reporting templates. Be sure to check those out and find inspiration - https://www.ninjacat.io/blog/client-reporting-examples. 

You can also connect with Paul on Linkedin at https://www.linkedin.com/in/paul-deraval-98671232/.