One on One Interviews

We're looking back at 2022 on this final episode of Small Biz in :15 for the year. Check out the highlights from business experts who chatted with us in the first 7 months of our show. During that time, we learned about some amazing business tips, advice and how you can stay abreast of changing trends. We're positive that entrepreneurs and solopreneurs can take away some priceless business gems from the interviews and use them to elevate their small businesses in the year 2023 and beyond.

In this episode of Small Biz in :15, Executive Editor Shawn Hessinger talks with Jim Kukral and they discuss ways small business owners can better market their companies, brands, products and services to reach more people.

Are you looking for ways to create the perfect lead magnet to collect more clients and customers? In this episode, Annie P. Ruggles Founder of the Non-Sleazy Sales Academy (tongue firmly in cheek on that one) shares tips with us for creating a lead magnet that will help you attract more leads and close more deals. Don't miss this inspirational overview of how to create a lead, magnet, prospects won't be able to resist, and what all it has to do with King Arthur and Merlin, for a fun twist.

Rieva Lesonsky joins host Shawn Hessinger of Small Business Trends to discuss the latest retail trends, including how to understand Millennial and Gen Z shopping habits.

James Clift discusses how to use artificial intelligence to build a small business website in this latest episode of Small Biz in :15.

On this latest episode of Small Biz in :15, host Shawn Hessinger talks with Monique Johnson to discuss the topic of hybrid events, those held both in-person and virtually, for small businesses.

A little over a year ago I spoke with Bryan Catanzaro of Nvidia about some of the interesting technology they were developing in the areas of graphical AI, voice synthesis and conversational/speech AI. Bryan shared a vision of the future of what things like machine learning and deep learning could do to impact the way we experience the world around us. And while some of the things like AI creating things like art and music and human sounding voices get a lot of attention, there are some more practical examples of AI already being used to help create better customer experiences when we need help with a product or service. With a year going by I was curious to hear how things are progressing in these areas, and I was fortunate to speak via LinkedIn Live with Erik Pounds, Sr. Director of Enterprise Computing and Data Science at Nvidia, around the direction things like conversational and speech AI have moved in since l last spoke with Bryan.

If you are interested in buying a franchise, you might be surprised to discover that ones like Dunkin', and McDonald's probably aren't the opportunities that potential franchise owners should be looking at. In this latest episode of Small Biz in :15, The Franchise King Joel Libava sits down with us in this episode to tell us about the latest franchise trends and what you should look for in a franchise opportunity.

Ecommerce expert John “ColderIce” Lawson and I recently transitioned our Watching Amazon show/podcast into Pass the Mic. The new name doesn't mean we've grown tired of, well, watching Amazon, as we still plan to do plenty of that with all the things the company is into. But by rebranding it as PTM it allows us to broaden the topics and companies we can dive into, and of course TikTok is a great example of that. In fact, there have been a few recent reports of TikTok potentially following in Amazon's footsteps by building out their own fulfillment centers and capabilities in order to support the growing digital commerce of creators using their video platform. And though there haven't been any formal announcements that this is happening, it got us to thinking if TikTok could really pull this off. And if they did what would be the potential impact for creators and small retailers trying to reach the billion-plus monthly visitors to the platform. Or why would TikTok fare better than Shopify who tried to build their fulfillment capabilities only to fail fast. John and I went round and round on this one, as the thought of the fastest growing video platform taking on such a huge infrastructure project is intriguing. And we probably came away with more questions than answers.

If you need curated content for your business, you may think about doing it alone, especially if you're a good writer. However, this may not be the best course of action. Instead, it may be best to hire a professional copywriter. They can help you create compelling, engaging content that will help you attract more customers and grow your business. In today's Small Biz in: 15 video, David Leonhardt, President of THGM Writing Services, explains why hiring a copywriter is often a better idea than trying to go it alone. Other highlights of the video include the benefits of hiring a copywriter, how to hire a copywriter and how to convey your message to them once you do.

Chris Hurn joins Shawn Hessinger to discuss how rising interest rates could affect small business loans now and in the future.

As the year has gone on I've been dipping my toes back into the industry conference scene more and more. And while I'm gearing up for my first trip to Vegas in three years for Oracle CloudWorld, Hurricane Ian kept me from getting there a couple of weeks ago for Oracle NetSuite's SuiteWorld conference. SuiteWorld is a conference I've attended a number of times over the years, and with it being physically back I was looking forward to sitting down with company founder and Oracle EVP Evan Goldberg face-to-face for a conversation, instead of virtually for the past two years. But I was appreciative that even during this year's event, Evan made time for another virtual conversation on LinkedIn Live, as I was really curious about his perspective on the current economic uncertainties of the economy – and what it means for the 32,000 small and midsize enterprises using his company's platform to run their businesses on.

In the latest edition of Small Biz in :15, we discuss the impact of higher gas prices on small businesses and how to deal with them.

This week marks the 31st year of celebrating Customer Service Week, an international celebration of the importance of customer service and of the people who serve and support customers on a daily basis. Many companies are participating in the spirit of the week's salute to customer service workers with a look towards improving the service experience from both the customer and the employee perspective. Pegasystems, a leading customer engagement platform vendor, is hosting a free webinar on the trends driving the future of customer service, with the results of a survey on the same topic coming later in the week. Fortuné Alexander, Senior Director, Product Marketing for Customer Service and Sales Automation at Pega, recently shared a few of the upcoming findings from the report in a recent LinkedIn Live conversation, and talks about why the future of service isn't about replacing humans, but humans leveraging AI and automation for better service experiences, and to be more human with each other when the need arises.

Are you in the repair business? If so, you'll want to check out this Small Biz in: 15 episode, where we discuss Right to Repair and how it impacts small businesses, especially when it comes to the electronics repair business. The U.S. House Committee on Small Business recently held a hearing on the right to repair and what it means for entrepreneurs. Gay Gordon-Byrne, Executive Director of the Digital Right to Repair Coalition, testified at the hearing and spent some time with us explaining the right to repair and its impact on small businesses. Other highlights include explaining the right to resell (if you can't fix it, you can't sell it), how people in the repair business need to be very aware of what they can't do under copyright law and more.

The One-on-One series here at Small Business Trends was an idea I had that I shared with SBT publisher Anita Campbell, and she was gracious enough to allow me to give it a whirl. And the first conversation I had for the series was with Jon Ferrara, who is the cofounder of Goldmine (which he sold back near the turn of the century) and more recently the founder of Nimble. Well, that initial conversation took place twelve years ago this month, and to mark the occasion I recently caught up with The Right Reverend (my nickname for Jon) for a LinkedIn Live conversation (as part of a back-to-back show with TechCrunch enterprise reporter Ron Miller) to talk about the state of CRM, and why he's still as passionate today about the industry he co-founded back in 1989 as he was back then.

Are you aware that Amazon offers last-mile services through delivery service partners? They do. And if you are thinking about a small business opportunity in this fascinating logistics niche, you'll want to check out this episode where Brent Leary, the Managing Partner at CRM Essentials, talks to Small Business Trends about his amazing visit to an Amazon delivery station in the Atlanta metro area and the important role small businesses play in Amazon's last mile.

This week I'm headed off to Dreamforce, Salesforce's huge annual user conference, for the first time in three years. Before the pandemic shut everything down, 170,000 people attended Dreamforce in 2019. And while the conference took a few baby steps the last couple of years with very limited amounts of people attending the event in San Francisco, many more people experienced it virtually on Salesforce+, the streaming platform Salesforce created when all their physical events had to be canceled. But this week the conference is back with a significant number of folks expected to attend. And even though estimates are floating around of at least 30,000 people will be at the physical event, there may be four times that number if not more who will attend virtually. My CRM Playaz co-host Paul Greenberg and I had the opportunity to speak with Colin Fleming, Salesforce EVP of Global Brand Marketing, who is leading the Salesforce+ effort. We spoke with him two days after the streaming service was announced last year, and we wanted to hear what role Salesforce+ was going to play in this year's Dreamforce now that it's opening back up with a big attendance number expected. Colin also shares how the last year of Salesforce+ has led to a transformational change in how he sees events being designed, as well as the impact these changes will have of traditional B2B marketing initiatives.

Next week Salesforce's big industry event, Dreamforce, is back in full force for the first time since the pandemic. It's the 20th anniversary of the first Dreamforce, and they're expecting about 150,000 folks to descend on San Francisco, which is not that far off from where it left off in 2019. As I get ready to head out west for Dreamforce, I recently had the opportunity to speak with Salesforce's Chief Equality Officer Lori Castillo-Martinez. Salesforce has been a leader in the area of diversity, equality and inclusion (DEI), taking up a number of initiatives sparked by the George Floyd murder. Over the past two years I spoke with then- Salesforce Chief Procurement Officer Craig Cuffie on a few occasions (in 2020 and 2021) to discuss the company's efforts to increase the participation of underrepresented minorities in employment, leadership, supplier participation and venture capital investment. And Lori joined me to discuss the company's continuing efforts in this area, and to share why she feels the future of work is not only being transformed by virtual technologies, but also by integrating DEI deeper into the core of how the business operates – and how it measures success.

Vibhav Vankayala, Product Marketing, Zoho Corporation and Dilip Nagarjaran, product manager of Zoho CRM discuss some of the surprising things a small business owner can do with CRM software.

The topic of this conversation is one that is common to any business looking to implement a tool to optimize their operations. What to avoid when deploying said technology, which in this case is Customer relationship management (CRM).

CRM software is an excellent tool for elevating your small business to new heights. But what's it all about? Recently, Small Biz in: 15 on Location traveled to Austin, Texas for Zoho Day 2022 to speak to the experts there and learn more about how customer relationship management (CRM) software can help small businesses reach the next level. Dilip Nagarjaran, product manager of Zoho CRM, discusses what CRM does and why your business needs it. Then, Vibhav Vankayala, head of product marketing for Zoho CRM, speaks with us about how CRM helps your business manage customers while you scale. So, if you are a small business owner who wants to save time and money while your list of customers grows, you won't want to miss this special edition of SBT in:15.

Are you looking for a way to grow your business? Heat maps are a great way to track how people are interacting with your website or physical store. Recently, Small Biz in :15 On Location, traveled to Austin, Texas, for ZohoDay 2022. In this episode, Shawn Hessinger, the Chief Editor of Small Biz Trends talks with Zoho Corporation Product Manager Naresh Kumar to find out more about how heat maps and other software marketing tools can be used to grow your business.

Recently, Small Biz in :15 On Location talked with several industry leaders about what to look for in CRM software. Expert guests who weighed in on the topic and gave their insights include: • Felena Hansen, founder of Hera Hub Co-working Space and Accelerator for Women, • Corey Reid, Senior Director of Marketing for Counter Culture Coffee & Specialty Roaster, and • Akshay Bama of Global Supply Acquisition, and Akhil Pippala, Associate Project Manager, for India-based car sharing service ZoomCar. If you are a small to medium business and want to learn more about CRM systems and how to choose the right one for your type of industry, be sure to catch this episode.

Are you an entrepreneur, or even a solopreneur, wanting to effectively manage your business's social presence without a lot of hassle and expense? If so, you'll want to catch this latest Small Biz in: 15 On Location, where we travel to Austin, Texas for Zoho Day 2022 to talk to Praval Singh. In this episode, Praval, the Zoho Vice President of Marketing and Customer Experience, sits down with Shawn Hessinger, the Chief Editor of Small Biz Trends, to discuss the ins and outs of managing your small business's social presence through Zoho Social. Highlights of the interview include: • What Zoho Social is and how it can help your small business. • How automation allows small business owners to spread their social presence. • How social listening platforms can flip negative customer feedback into “aha moments.” • Other features in Zoho Social that improve social media impact. • How to get started with the right tools.

Small businesses are always looking for ways to save money and become more efficient. One way they can do this is through all-in-one software solutions. Recently, Small Biz in 15: On Location, traveled to Austin, Texas for Zoho Day 2022 and interviewed Zoho Senior Evangelist Taylor Backman about the benefits all-in-one software solutions bring to small businesses, including cost and time savings. During the interview, you'll find out helpful information, such as: • How using one software solution as opposed to several different solutions can be a huge advantage. • Some examples of systems that you might have in an all-in-one solution that you would want to integrate. • How all-in-one solutions can be less costly than going everywhere and paying different prices for different software. • The savings you can reap beyond just the price tag on the all-in-one software. • The cost savings that an all-in-one software platform can bring when it eliminates redundancy in business processes. It's important to focus on business instead of technology. So, be sure to tune in to learn how you can use an all-in-one software solution to do that and other things to help elevate your small business.

Inflation is a huge problem right now. The cost of goods and services is going up, making it harder and harder for businesses to get by. Why is inflation so high right now? Anything from the Ukraine War to a strong demand laying waste to supply is behind the surge. What's a small business owner to do? In this special episode of SmallBiz in :15 On Location, we interview business expert, Chandrashekar LSP, Senior Evangelist of the Zoho Corporation, to discuss how you can battle inflation with your business.

As a small business owner in the technical sector, have you ever heard of no-code and low-code apps? Or maybe you already well-versed in them and want to dig deeper into finding out how they can help your business? Maybe you want to know about getting started with implementation of the right one for your needs? What then? This week in a special episode of Small Biz: in 15 On Location, Small Biz Trends travels to Austin, Texas for Zoho Day 2022 and talks to Zoho Product Manager Tejas Gadhia to get the answer to those questions and more. Highlights of the interview include Tejas discussing the difference between low-code and no-code solutions and how to use low-code automation to improve your workflow. Other insightful business questions that Tejas Gadhia sheds light on during the episode include: -When we say no code and low code, what are we really saying? -How easy is it to build an app with a low code or no code solution? -Is there a benefit to low-code or no-code if you're going to have to hire a developer due to the time constraints small business owners face? Small business techies won't want to miss this episode. We'll see you there!

I've known angel investor, advisor and entrepreneur Larry Augustin since his days as CEO of SugarCRM, and have had him as part of this series a couple times (2011 and 2016). SugarCRM grew from $10M in annual revenue and a $15M loss to $100M in revenue and $7.5M in EBITDA. Accel-KKR acquired SugarCRM in August 2018. And after nearly a decade as Sugar's CEO, Larry spent a couple of years at Amazon Web Services (AWS) as vice president responsible for their applications services businesses – including their contact center offerings. Currently Larry is focusing on angel investing and advising a number tech startups. And with his varied experiences and background, my CRM Playaz co-host Paul Greenberg and I were excited to catch up with Larry for a long overdue LinkedIn Live conversation.

Stoyan Kenderov discusses how a small business can survive a recession in this latest episode of Small Biz in :15 by the team from Small Business Trends.

A recent report on the future of marketing commissioned by customer engagement platform provider Pegasystems found that more than half (51%) of marketing leaders felt that investment in MarTech could increase revenues by 10% to 40% over the next five years. On the other hand, 59%. also admit that they haven't been allocated enough budget to deliver truly effective. digital transformation. The study was full of interesting datapoints and insights about what marketers think will be important to them being able to do their jobs going forward, and I was able to ask a few questions of my own during a recent LinkedIn Live conversation with Tara DeZao, Director of Product Marketing, AdTech and MarTech at Pega. Tara goes over some of the main findings of the survey, and also provides her take on what the implications are as MADTech (marketing and advertising technology) itself transforms customer expectations and demands for how companies communicate with them going forward – whether that by via text, email, in the Metaverse or anything else hurtling in our direction at accelerating speeds.

Sadly, there was a time when small business owners might have shied away from hiring neurodiverse employees, concerned they couldn't complete tasks or fit in with the team. But those days are over, says Anita Murphy, CEO of One Bridge Center, a company specializing in training these individuals for the workforce of the 21st century. In this latest episode of SmallBiz in: 15, Anita Murphy sits down with Shawn Hessinger, the Executive Editor for Small Business Trends to discuss the major misconceptions that employers have about neurodiverse employees and the many reasons why it's a good idea to hire them. Other key points Anita Murphy discusses in the video center around successful neurodiverse worker case studies and how small businesses can go about placing these individuals within their organization.

Right before last week's Prime Day (which accounted for roughly $12B in sales over two days), Amazon announced a new training initiative aimed at helping people with the right mix of experience and skill start their own delivery business. The Road to Ownership (RTO) program is an extension of Amazon's Delivery Service Partner (DSP) program they started in 2018, that has allowed Amazon to grow and work with a network of local small businesses to get more Amazon packages delivered within their own ecosystem. To learn more about the program, During a recent LinkedIn Live conversation I had the opportunity to speak with Karena Scoggin, Senior Program Manager for the Amazon RTO Program. Also joining us in the conversation is Marvin Edgar, a recent graduate of the initial RTO cohort, to share his experience with the program and how it led him to pull up stakes from Florida to start his new delivery business in New Mexico.

Between Boomers seeking to cash in and fears of inflation and recession, more small businesses are expected to go up for sale. But how do you get the money to buy one of them? One excellent option, says Chris Hurn, Founder/CEO of Fountainhead Commercial Capital, is a loan backed by the US Small Business Administration (SBA). In this latest episode of SmallBiz in: 15 Chris Hurn sits down with Shawn Hessinger, the Executive Editor for Small Business Trends to discuss this topic in depth. Other key points Chris Hurn discusses in the video are the steps small business owners can take if they've found a business they want to acquire and want to finance through the SBA. This includes the requirements and documents you'll need to put together to qualify. You can catch up to Chris Hurn at https://www.fountainheadcc.com/ if you need more information after watching this episode.

If you are wondering what is a chamber of commerce and if it can help your business, this latest episode of SmallBiz in: 15 is one you won't want to miss. Here, former Chamber Executive and Co-founder of Save Your Town Deb Brown sits down with Shawn Hessinger, the Executive Editor for Small Business Trends to discuss this topic in depth. Highlights of the interview What is a Chamber of Commerce? include: • Benefits your local chamber can bring your small business • When you should join more than one chamber • If you should consider starting your own chamber of commerce Deb Brown also explains why asking how a chamber can help your business may not be the right question to ask and what is a better question to ask instead. You can catch up with Deb Brown at https://saveyour.town/ if you need more information after watching this episode.

Are you thinking about opening a small business in a small town but aren't sure there are enough customers to support it? If so, you'll want to check out this latest episode where Patrick Palmer, Business Owner of the Computer Guy, discusses how to have a successful small business in a town of 5,000 people or less. In this video episode, Patrick gives you tips on how to plant your flag in the ground and become the local expert in your niche. Plus, he discusses how to use your successful small town business as a launching pad for new subdivisions and examples of surprising up-and-coming creative niches that really deliver. You can catch up to Patrick Palmer at https://thecomputerguy.bz/ if you need more information after watching this episode.

If there's one thing for sure, the only constant is change. That's never more true than in the business world where changes like tech and shifts in customer's tastes threaten your small business's very survival. Why then, does it take many of us small business so long to make the changes needed? Here to demystify why that is and let you know how to actually make the changes you already know you need to make is Barry Moltz, Business Expert and Author of Change Masters. Just call Barry Moltz the Small Business Expert at www.barrymoltz.com if you need more information after watching this episode.

As of next year, Google Analytics as we know it will be disappearing forever. In its place will be Google Analytics 4, or GA4, for short. Meanwhile, don't panic, says Anil Batra, Managing Partner of Optizent, and Shawn Hessinger, the Executive Editor for Small Biz Trends. In this episode, they sit down together to discuss what GA4 is, the main differences between it and previous versions (including expanded event tracking that enriches your data for better analysis) and other important takeaways. For more from Anil Batra and Optizent, visit https://www.optizent.com/

While COVID restrictions may be lifting, the virtual events that became popular during the pandemic aren't going anywhere, says Monique Johnson, Founder of LIVE Video Lab and The M.O.V.E Experience. In this video interview with Shawn Hessinger of Small Biz Trends, she discusses how small business owners can use this trend to their advantage. By watching, you can find out more about how virtual events have evolved, their benefits and how small businesses can use them as a business strategy to level the playing field against larger players. For more from Monique Johnson, visit LIVE Video Lab at: https://livevideolab.com/home/

Join Kristin Ostrander of Mommy Income and Shawn Hessinger of Small Biz Trends to get the lowdown on how FBA works, how sellers can get started, how much it costs on average to start up and more. Kristin also goes into the different business models people are using (e.g., retail arbitrage, your own private brand and wholesale)

Are you a business owner that feels you are going alone most of the time? Your work time and personal time is valuable, so no one needs to inform you that it is essential to find a way to balance things out. And then there is the aspect of finding time to grow your business. What to do? If this sounds like you, maybe it's time to rethink getting a virtual assistant. Join Shawn Hessinger of Small Business Trends and Andrew Cohen of Work Better Now to find out if a virtual assistant can be the solution to your overextended workload. Andrew answers questions in the video, such as what is a virtual assistant? What does a virtual assistant do? What kind of businesses need them? Is a VA worth it to my business? And where and how you can find a virtual assistant.

Alan Trefler of Pega – Current Climate Makes You Focus on Efficiency, but Not at Cost of Engagement by Brent Leary and Small Business Trends

If you are a professional that sat at home during the pandemic dreaming of starting a small business online, this video is for you. In it, Pamela Wilson of pamelawilson.com lends her expertise on how to use marketing research and the four stages of the iterative process to build an online business that helps sell your knowledge and products globally.

Earlier this year I partnered with Oracle on a survey of over two thousand US-based consumers to learn more about who they trust between social media influencers and brands in learning about products and services, understanding out how to get the most out of them once the purchase has been made, and how they'd like to handle things when they needed help with a product or service. And while there were a number of interesting findings that were surfaced from the survey, one of the overarching findings was that close to forty percent of those surveyed trusted influencers over brands. But a deeper look into those numbers found that Millennials and Gen Zers surveyed were approximately 2.4X more likely to say they trust influencers than Baby Boomers were. To dig in and discuss some of the numbers and what they might mean going forward, I recently had a LinkedIn Live conversation with Jeff Wartgow, Vice President of Product Management for Oracle. Below is an edited transcript of a portion of our conversation. Click on the embedded SoundCloud player to hear the full conversation.

If you are a business owner that gets less than flattering reviews about your company, you may participate in manipulating or suppressing reviews. For instance, you don't ask unhappy people to leave a review but ask happy customers to leave one. Additionally, you may also be tempted to buy or incentivize reviews, thinking these tactics will make the problem go away. However, is that savvy business practices or does it make the problem worse? And—is there a better way to go about responding to negative online business reviews? Shawn Hessinger, the Executive Editor for Small Business Trends, sits down with Mike Blumenthal, the co-founder and analyst at Near Media, to answer those questions and more. In this episode, they discuss new federal guidelines and how you should respond to negative reviews.

There's a lot of announcements coming out this week with this being National Small Business Week. And a number of them came from Meta, including things like: • Native Ad Creation: Businesses can now leverage native ad creation in WhatsApp Business App and no longer need to switch apps to complete them • Quote Request on Instagram. People can now request a quote from select businesses on Instagram, following a questionnaire that appears before starting a conversation. • Marketing Messages in MBS: Meta is testing a new capability that will allow businesses to send promotional message campaigns via Messenger to customers who opt in • Unified Inbox Coming to WhatsApp: Meta is also testing the integration of WhatsApp to Inbox in Meta Business Suite, with the goal of making it easier for businesses to save time by managing their conversations with customers across Meta apps in one place and allowing multiple people at the business to manage messages from the same WhatsApp number on multiple devices To get some additional insight into some of these announcements, I had a LinkedIn Live conversation earlier this week with Rich Rao, Vice President of Small Business for Meta.

COVID-19 has affected small businesses in several significant ways. In the premiere episode of Small Biz in :15, Small Business Trends Executive Editor Shawn Hessinger and Ivana Taylor, of DIY Marketers, look at two comprehensive surveys from small business owners: one from before and one from after the pandemic conducted by Small Biz Trend's sister site, BizSugar.com and the important findings that came from them.

If you're in business today – and even if you aren't – you can't go too long without hearing, reading or talking about customer experience, and more broadly the experience economy. That wasn't always the case. In fact it wasn't until Joe Pine and his co-author James Gilmore introduced us all to the term experience economy in a 1998 article, then authored the seminal book The Experience Economy a year later. And things in business really haven't been the same since. Recently my CRM Playaz co-host Paul Greenberg and I had the pleasure of having Joe Pine join us for a LinkedIn Live conversation on how the ideas put forth in the book have evolved over time, and how companies have done putting those principals in the book into action – especially over the past few turbulent years.

I first met Girish “G” Mathrubootham, founder and CEO of customer engagement platform Freshworks, nearly a nine years ago at CRM Magazine's annual industry event Evolution. Soon after I had him on as a guest of this series to discuss why he thought it was important for CEOs to regularly spend some time taking customer support calls, in order to stay in touch with their needs. At the time the company had only been around for a couple of years and was definitely a small business with not that many employees. The last time I spoke with G was before the pandemic at Freshwork's user conference, Refresh. But a lot has happened for the company since then, including having thousands of employees and being publicly listed on NASDAQ just last fall. So I was very happy to have an opportunity to have a LinkedIn Live conversation recently to get his thoughts on how things have changed for him and the company now that they've been public for over six months.

Inspiration and education. They're the keys to modern marketing, according to Kieran Flanagan, SVP of Marketing for HubSpot. And while some businesses are pretty good with the educational component, most tech/SaaS companies come up short on the inspirational side. That's just one of the gems Kieran dropped on me and my CRM Playaz co-host Paul Greenberg on a recent episode. With HubSpot's pioneering role in inbound marketing, we've been watching closely as they continuing blazing a path in content marketing with their HubSpot Podcast Network, and the recent launch of their Creators Program. So we were glad to spend a few good minutes with Kieran to learn more about the evolution of their content strategy, why he feels data is killing marketing, why YouTube is ready to disrupt podcasting, why newsletters and blogs are still a growing part of their strategy, and more.

Jeremy Epstein, cryptoeconomist and one of the leading experts on digital currencies, is my go-to person when I need to really understand where we are with these technologies. When I last had a LinkedIn Live almost three years ago, I asked him where we are and he said we were in the very early stages. So with all that has happened in the years since we last spoke (like NFTs, Web3, oh yeah and that pandemic thing) I needed an update from him. And fortunately I caught up with Jeremy recently to see where we are now, and also to get his take on some of these newer technologies and how they are shaping the digital currency landscape. All I can say is if you have even the slightest interest in this area, do yourself a favor and check this one out.