Podcasts about marketer's journey

On this episode of The Marketer's Journey, I interview Cristy Garcia, the Vice President of Marketing at Impact, a partnership management platform. Specializing in content creating, lead generation programs and team building, Cristy is a B2B marketer who is equally hungry, humble and smart. During the episode, we discuss the qualities Cristy looks for when hiring new marketers, tips for marketing teams to create sales pipeline, and the role of content and events in customer engagement.Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play!Key takeaways from this episode:The best marketers are both hungry and humble. Cristy noted that when hiring new talent for the team, she looks for these two qualities because they signal a desire to be the best they can be while remaining kind and willing to learn new things.All teams are ultimately responsible for creating sales pipeline. Cristy mentioned that when it comes to sales, she considers all teams including marketing and business development responsible for creating pipeline and driving high-quality conversions. This is why collaboration and communication is key at every stage of the journey.Cristy takes a 360-degree approach to campaigns. She believes that every level of the funnel is equally important, and all touchpoints like email, events and content marketing should ultimately come together to create a comprehensive journey for the customer.Learn more about Impact here: https://impact.com/Learn more about Cristy here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/cristinaebert/

On this episode of The Marketer's Journey, I interview Bill Kramer, VP of Marketing at Karat, a company that conducts live technical interviews for leading tech talent acquisition programs. We discuss his career trajectory so far, content creation and how to market to people who don't want to be marketed to.Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play!Key takeaways from this episode:When attempting to reach a target audience that's resistant to most marketing efforts like engineers, a different approach may be necessary. From the beginning, Bill recognized that engineering leaders and software engineers despise marketing, which is why the team at Karat uses quality content and thought leadership to entice prospects while leaving the decisions in their hands.Go where the buyers are. When developing creative content and out-of-the-box solutions to reach people who are marketing-averse, Bill emphasized the importance of staying on top of trends in their space and always being one step ahead of the pack. Part of this strategy includes regularly attending and speaking at events in the technology space to position your brand as a thought leader and authoritative voice on the subject. Draw attention to the pain points you're solving with your business. Bill mentioned that part of their strategy at Karat is increasing overall awareness of the pain points in the traditional interviewing process to show companies that there's a better way of doing things they may not have considered previously. Once they know they're on fire, so to speak, it's your chance to step up and help put it out.Learn more about Karat here: https://karat.com/Learn more about Bill here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/realbillkramer/

On this episode of The Marketer's Journey, I interview Carol Carpenter, CMO of VMware, a cloud computing and virtualization technology company. Carol shares some of the lessons she's learned during her roles at several different startups, including stints as CEO of ElasticBox and as GM at Trend Micro. During the episode, we discuss strategy, customer segmentation and the learning experiences that have helped her build confidence along the way.Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play!Key takeaways from this episode:Sometimes, a new role can mean a major shift in perspective. For Carol, shifting gears from Global VP of Marketing to General Manager at Trend Micro was a massive wake-up call and as she describes it, like “business school on steroids.” In her new role, Carol was responsible for multiple, cross-functional teams, profits and loss, revenue and customer acquisition.Ask, and you shall receive. After working under several different CEOs throughout her career, Carol realized she just might have the chops to do it herself. Once she had been struck by the idea, she began spreading the word that she was in the market for a CEO role and lo and behold, the calls started flooding in, which is how she landed the coveted title at ElasticBox.Follow the pain. Carol mentioned that an important lesson she learned while working at Google Cloud was that customers aren't necessarily interested in what you can do, but how you can help them solve their personal pain points. When in doubt, identify the pain points customers are struggling with and help them come up with a “painkiller,” which will ultimately help to drive urgency and immediacy.Learn more about VMware here: https://www.airtable.com/Learn more about Carol here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/carolwcarpenter/

On this episode of The Marketer's Journey, I interview Archana Agrawal, CMO at Airtable, a San Francisco-based cloud service. With a background in data science and analytics, Archana applies her experience to her new role to leverage data and gain a deeper understanding of the marketing team's needs. During the episode, we discuss tips for how marketing teams can stay nimble, agile and organized for success.Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play!Key takeaways from this episode:Play to your strengths. Archana mentioned that one lesson she took away from the transition from her role at IBM to the Ladders was to recognize where your strengths and weaknesses lie, and double down on your strong points to leverage them as much as possible. Ultimately, this will help you build resilience so you can overcome your weaknesses.Focus on operational excellence. Bringing together people, processes, systems and tactics into one place has been a gamechanger for Archana and her team, especially during big launches. She mentioned that with such a high volume of campaigns, content and requests happening at once, a strong focus on operational efficiency is the key to developing the kind of agility marketers need today.Building a positive team culture is a must. Archana shared that the marketing team at Airtable often engages in interactive, team-building activities like contributing to a crowdsourced newsletter or even a virtual Airbnb tour through the streets of Paris. Creating a strong team culture increases collaboration and communication, which in turn, makes the chaos a little more manageable. Learn more about Airtable here: https://www.airtable.com/Learn more about Archana here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/archana-agrawal/

On this episode of The Marketer's Journey, I interview Leela Srinivasan, CMO of Momentive, the company previously known as SurveyMonkey. We discuss the reasoning behind the company's rebrand and how the process unfolded from ideation to execution. Leela shares the wisdom she's gained through roles at Lever, Bravado and Stage 2 Capital, and as a board member at Upwork. She also offers her tips for building relationships, understanding the sales pipeline and collaborating effectively across teams.Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play! Key takeaways from this episode:Growth is always tapping talented people on the shoulder. Employers need to stay cognizant of this fact and provide their employees with continuous growth opportunities every step of the way. Otherwise, they may begin to stagnate in their career and as a result, seek other opportunities.Wearing multiple hats throughout your career gives you the opportunity to empathize with others and learn valuable skills. Leela mentioned that having experience on both ends of the sales pipeline enabled her to put herself in the shoes of others and gain a better understanding of the entire process from the perspective of both the customer and the sales executive.A company rebrand involves much more than just a fresh coat of paint. For Momentive, the process of rebranding (or relaunching, if you will) involved telling a new story around the solutions the company offers, and keeping their vision of raising the bar for human experiences by amplifying individual voices at the forefront of it all.Learn more about Momentive here: https://www.momentive.ai/Learn more about Leela here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leelasrinivasan/

On this episode of The Marketer's Journey, I interview Joe Chernov, CMO at Pendo, a company that's on a mission to elevate the world's experience with software. We discuss his career path so far, and how it's evolved over the years from leading with content to leading with product. Now, he's focused on finding a way to bring the two areas together seamlessly.Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play! Key takeaways from this episode:According to Joe, there are essentially two ways to build a brand in B2B: the path of the dragonslayer or the patron saint. In the former, you're fighting against something and existing in opposition to it, like ads, for example. With the patron saint approach, you're standing to give rise to a new role or to strengthen a new role within a company, which is where Pendo has always operated in terms of product.Joe mentioned he once read a study that tracked every visitor to a grocery store in an attempt to find a pattern in the way people walk through aisles, and the answer was that there was no pattern. Applying this to the buyer experience at Pendo, Joe mentioned he tries to create a portfolio of different avenues people can use to discover the company such as free content about becoming a better product manager, or requesting a demo of the product. This way, there's something for every style of grocery store perusing.Joe's parting advice for marketers was to take the spirit of advice from marketing thought leaders, instead of taking it so literally. He believes we could all benefit from learning from the problem somebody is trying to solve and how they're approaching the solution rather than rushing to learn the specific tools that were used in finding the solution.Learn more about Pendo here: https://www.pendo.io/Learn more about Joe here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jchernov/

On this episode of The Marketer's Journey, I interview Tarah Neujahr Bryan, CMO at Health Catalyst, a leading provider of data and analytics to healthcare organizations. Tarah shares her perspective on humility, learning from mistakes and her approach on everything from content strategy to hiring.Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play! Key takeaways from this episode:When hiring new marketers, engage in a free-flowing conversation rather than a traditional interview. This way, you can get a better sense of who the candidate is as a person, where their true passion lies, and whether they'll be the right fit for your team.Don't underestimate the power of marketing from an internal perspective. Tarah believes a great mentorship network within a company can go a long way in terms of maintaining resiliency and consistency among the team.Content creators and digital marketers need to come together to create the most effective strategy. Catalyst Health is big on breaking down the barriers between departments to ensure strong collaboration and a versatile approach.Learn more about Health Catalyst here: https://www.healthcatalyst.com/Learn more about Tarah here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tarahn/  

On this episode of The Marketer's Journey, I interview Dan Lowden, CMO at HUMAN, a cybersecurity company formerly known as White Ops. Dan is a passionate marketer and storyteller, and he's held several positions throughout his career including CMO, founder and even head chef. During the episode, we discuss the path to becoming a CMO, meeting customers in a human way, brand storytelling and much more.Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play!Key takeaways from this episode:Passion rules at the end of the day. When it comes to hiring processes, building a brand narrative and carrying forward your company's key messaging, the passion behind it all is the secret ingredient for success. If you can't have passion, then intrigue that has the potential to turn into passion is the next runner up.Case studies are more crucial now than ever before. With the rise of digital and virtual video conferencing due to the pandemic, impactful case studies demonstrating tangible examples of your company's work are key for connecting and engaging with your customers.Demonstrate your wins. Dan mentioned that so much of the news today is about losing, so it's important to show off your wins in a compelling way. Paint a picture of your success like you're crafting a scene from a movie, and trust that your buyers will connect with your narrative on an emotional level. Learn more about HUMAN here: https://www.humansecurity.com/Learn more about Dan here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danlowden/

On this episode of The Marketer's Journey, I interview Leslie Alore, Global Vice President of Growth Marketing at Ivanti. In her role, Leslie focuses on growth and offering a fresh perspective to the executive table. Not only is Leslie an experienced marketing expert, but she also understands the nuances of the business world and the importance of strategic decision making tools. Previously known as Landesk, Ivanti is an IT software company offering enterprise service, management solutions, security solutions and unified endpoint management. Ivanti has seen tremendous growth in recent years, acquiring at least one new company each quarter. Leslie works synergistically with the leadership team to evaluate every facet of the business as a whole, and ultimately ensure the marketing strategy is aligned with the company's overall strategic priorities.Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play! Key takeaways from this episode:While the remote work revolution has its downsides, it's also made it easier for companies to embrace inclusivity by expanding the talent pool beyond a physical location. Leslie says hiring and onboarding new employees remotely has allowed for a more equitable integration of diverse backgrounds and perspectives overall.From a B2B marketing perspective, businesses need to be strategic about the companies they're targeting to maximize their chances at success and adding value to the organization. Marketers would be wise to spend more time listening, researching and synthesizing information gleaned from buyer interactions to offer personalized and precise experiences.Marketing teams are responsible for the entire continuum of a customer's experience from the first interaction to the close. To create a personalized experience for customers, the marketing and sales teams need to be aligned on their approach so that each aspect of the funnel feels streamlined and consistent. Collaboration is key, and providing value at every stage helps to create a memorable experience for the customer. Learn more about Ivanti here: https://www.ivanti.com/Learn more about Leslie here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lesliecocco/

On this episode of The Marketer's Journey, I interview Kirsten Newbold-Knipp, Chief Marketing Officer at FullStory, a digital experience intelligence (DXI) platform that helps companies drive digital growth based on user experience data. Kirsten is also an investor and advisor, and during the episode she reveals her secrets for juggling multiple roles and maintaining balance throughout it all. We also discuss the importance of striking a balance between making full use of customer data while maintaining trust in the relationship.Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play! Key takeaways from this episode:A flexible organization structure is crucial for marketing teams. In order for companies to retain valued employees, it's important to recognize their personal career aspirations and provide them with opportunities to expand their skill set and learn new things. Losing a marketer to another company can create a gap in the structure, and filling this gap isn't always easy.In order to create a personalized customer journey, companies need to track each step along their path to making a purchase. However, trust and transparency is more important than ever. It's essential to strike a balance between taking advantage of behavioral data and maintaining an open, honest relationship with the customer.The marketing operations team is the primary champion in terms of customer data ownership. This team serves as the central holder of data points crossing from the buyer stages to the customer journey. As marketers invest in more technology, the role of the marketing operations team is becoming more crucial as a bridge to a greater understanding of the buyer overall.Learn more about FullStory here: https://www.fullstory.com/Learn more about Kirsten here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirstenpetra/

Welcome to another episode of B2B Marketing & More! My guest today is Tommy Walker and he started Shopify Plus blog and after that, he became the Global Editor-in-Chief will QuickBooks. Now, he's a consultant and is sharing his knowledge that he gained over the past 15 years with other brands. Oh my God, Tommy. So happy to have you!   Tommy Walker: Thanks so much for having me, Pam. It's great to be on here.   Pam Didner: All right. Talk to us. Talk to us about your experience in Shopify. I mean, obviously it was a small mom and pop shop and to start with and you were employee number 14 and you got handed their blog post or whatever you want to call it. And became a content marketing machine. Can you share that experience with us in terms of the journey that you went through and, you know, the knowledge that you gain and the insight that you can share with our listeners.   Tommy Walker: For sure. Absolutely. So, um, I was employee number 14 at Shopify Plus, um, and when I had…   Pam Didner: OK. What are the differences between the two?   Tommy Walker: So that was a great, that's a great question. At the time, there really wasn't too much of a difference. Um, and we had to figure that out. The difference now is very clear. Uh, Shopify Plus is basically Shopify plus a whole bunch of other stuff, right? For enterprises and high growth startups, which is great. Shopify is a little bit more of the standard merchant, right. People who are looking to get into e-commerce and we were looking at the more experienced e-commerce side of the house. So, yeah. How did I get there? I was the editor in chief at a website called Conversion XL at the time and was recruited over into Shopify. Craig Miller their CMO at the time had asked, “Hey, would you be interested in running the Shopify plus blog?” And I said, “yeah, that's great.” So I got over there and I was asking people, “Hey, what is the difference between Shopify and Shopify Plus? And they were like, “well, from a feature set, there's not really a huge difference. We have, you know, dedicated customer service and a more customizable checkout.” And that was pretty much it. And I said, “well, what about from a voice and tone perspective?” And they were like, “Well, we don't really know.” And this was at the time I was running the blog, which was the most frequent publishing arm of the entire company. We were the putting most stuff out into the market.   Pam Didner: So how often do you guys publish at that time?   Tommy Walker: Uh, at the time we were publishing three times a week. So every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. And the way that that calendar worked every Friday, we were publishing a new case study. I tried to leverage the size of the part of the company to our advantage because we had much more direct access to our customers. So we were able to kind of tell these stories and make these case studies every week, which was really great. It was a great part of the calendar.   Pam Didner: So how do you determine the editorial in general? What topics did you chose and also, do you actually have editorial meetings with your writers? How does that collaboration and communication go?   Tommy Walker: With the picking the subjects it was kind of a combination of a few different things. Obviously you look at the search side of things, but that wasn't really a huge concern of mine, to be honest with you. The main thing that I was looking at at the time, and I still kind of look at this depending on where I am, what I'm looking at is taking an observation as I'm going through my own e-commerce experience, as I'm like buying stuff and kind of realizing like, “Hey, what part of this process, where is the friction here? Where am I seeing opportunities that these particular sites can do be better?” Making note of that and continuing to go about that. As I'm looking at a broader calendar though, uh, I'm starting to look at the year, right? I come from an acting background. I was an actor for 10 years. A lot of what we had done there was about learning subtext and creating story structure and looking at all of these different things to make a good performance. And the way I look at this computer screen that you and I are talking on right now, it's not very different than TV screens or movie screens of the past. Right? All of this is performance to a certain extent. So when I was looking at structuring my content calendar, I would break the year up into a four-act structure, right. Where we can say we're all heading into the very end of the year, Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas, like that's the big, that's the biggest…   Pam Didner: That's a big deal for Shopify and how I build up that momentum to that specific month or that season.   Tommy Walker: Right. So that's kind of how I was looking at the calendar, was telling the story over the course of four quarters and then breaking that down by each month to basically say here is how we can make the perfect website all the way up until the end, and then really get that story, make it really pop.   Pam Didner: So do you followed that four act structure every single year? I mean, would the story kind of repeat itself or you are kind of talking about it from a different approach. Um, that is a story. Does the story, uh, , stall, you know, because it's exactly the same four acts?   Tommy Walker: Uh, it can, it can, but the way I think about it is you've got one year and you've got that first sort of origin story, if you will. Right. And this was what I was looking at when we were there, cause at the time Shopify Plus primarily for people who felt like they were outgrowing Shopify as a product. Right? So what we were looking at at that time was like, you know, if to use a video game reference, it's what happens when Mario gets the power up mushroom for the first time, right? The world is completely different. People are moving out of their garages to do shifts. Into 3PLs so third-party logistics. They are starting to bring on employees, all sorts of new things like that. So we're dealing with that. And then knowing that that stuff is going to get picked up by Google or have its own natural discovery process, the next year, we can start to look at that as more of the sequel, if you will. And then start thinking about it like that year over year.   Pam Didner: You're constantly going back to evaluate your past content? So it's not like you finish writing a blog post, you just like publish it, then you move on to the next one. You publish it and you move on to the next one. I think you constantly go back evaluating what has been published. And they either try to create a SQL or possibly, maybe I'm just like—maybe I'm putting words in your mouth--like go back and update and refresh it.   Tommy Walker: I'm, actually I'll give you an example. So, at the beginning of the month, we would write a piece that would say, you know, “how to build the perfect webpage.” Right. And we'd go, here's navigation, here's a hero image. Here's a, you know how to write a great headline, right? And we'd break down the entire page in that. The following week, we would follow that up “How to make the perfect navigation” and then just focus specifically on that.   Pam Didner: So very, very specific--I hate using the one narrow--but very specific topic. One very specific topic at a time, but it is a narrative it's very intentional in terms of what specific topic that you want to talk about. So how long did you plan your editorial? Did you plan that one quarter ahead or did you play in that whole year or how does that work?   Tommy Walker: So I would plan it for the whole year, right. At least the loose themes that we would want to do for the full year. So, you know, uh, first quarter is this, second quarter, is that so forth and so, on. And we always have to build in room for flexibility, but yeah, we would try to plan loosely the entire year and then kind of break it down quarter to quarter and then month to month and then eventually week to week.   Pam Didner: Yeah. So you do actually have something at a very high level, but like you said, very loosely, but you have some ideas and then every single quarter, every single month you hone into that. So how often do you change that news structure of your annual. editorial narrative? I mean, did you set it up and then you kind of just follow that or do you change it like in the middle of the year and then completely, sometimes you have to restructure it due to the new product launches or new features that's being added, you know, Shopify went IPO, I don't know, you know, something big things happened. So what is, how do you make that balance?   Tommy Walker: So the way that I try to think about it and the try the way I think about it now, even now that I'm not at Shopify is that yeah. You have to anticipate that product marketing is going to come up with something that they want and they're going to want it two weeks before they, it comes out and yeah, yeah,   Pam Didner: Yeah, all the time it was like, “oh, are we going to have a product launch? You know, but this has got to be a secret.” You will not know that product launch until like two days before.   Tommy Walker: “Can we have a blog post?” (laughs) So, so knowing that that's gonna happen, try to have, you know, when I build out my freelance team have somebody that can write quickly. And have somebody who's really good at that. Um, but to answer the question yeah it's, it's about building in knowing that things are going to go sideways or, you know, things are going to change in the industry or things like that. There are always going to be constants, but then you have to also think about where that flexibility needs to be. So not always so rigid, but you try your best to stay on topic, um, and hit those points that you already know are gonna come up.   Pam Didner: Got it. So how big is your freelance team if you will?   Tommy Walker: Sure. So I always had to 2-10 people and the reason for that is, uh, I wanted to plan my calendar out. I always want to have at least a month worth of articles in the hopper, just in case product marketing comes up or there's a drought and somebody gets sick or any of that. Right. So I always have at least one week planned out and I want to have at least two people for each rotating week. So the more people you have, obviously the, the better you can go about it.   Pam Didner: Does that mean you need a huge amount of money to budget this?   Tommy Walker: Fortunately at Shopify, I wasn't restricted by budget. (Pam laughs)   Pam Didner: Aha! (laughs)   Tommy Walker: It's just, yeah. Uh, you know, throwing dollar bills out there. Um, but at QuickBooks I had a very strict budget that I had to follow. Um, and fortunately I had to, I got to make my own budget. So I would get to break it down by technology and authors and promotion and all of that. And, and yeah, I mean, that's something I consult on now too, is how you make that budgeting work and have the right amount of people. And the way that I like to think about this is the more money you're willing to spend--and this is going to be true across the board, right--but the more money you're willing to spend, the less time you're going to have to spend in revision. However, if you have the right deputy editor, which I've always had included with this stuff, they're going to have a more consistent salary and they'll be able to do some of those more consistent edits so you can balance it out. And you'll always have your lead writer. And this happens with a lot of editorial staff on, you know, newspapers and magazines. You have your lead author, and then you have other people that you work with that might need a little bit more massaging. But the idea is if you really get solid with the edit, you can help those people who need more, attention need a little bit more love to bring them up to a certain point where your not having to spend so much time in editorial. And what's always been important to me is making it so they become more valuable out to the rest of the market. Right. So I might not have to pay them as much, they're getting paid more, but there's a lot other places. But there's still loyalty internally because that relationship between author and editor is, I believe like it's, it's a very close bond and it has to be respected because as an editor, you're the first person that sees any of this work. Right.   Pam Didner: So Tommy, did you do any other formats of content, such as a case study or podcast or a video?   Tommy Walker: Yeah. Um, so we did case studies. We did the case study every week. And I'll talk about that a little bit more in a second, um, how we approach that, but we definitely did a lot of video, too.   Pam Didner: You do write a video script yourself, or you have someone else to do?   Tommy Walker: I was more in the creative development side of the script. If that makes sense more concepting. Now, because a lot of the, the video stuff we did was more live capturing--like it was more. With the merchant. There wasn't a lot of scripting that had to happen, but I did have to work with the people over in the agencies that I was working. To pull out certain narratives that we wanted to kind of talk about. So yeah.   Pam Didner: What are some of the key objectives? What are some of the key messages that needs to come out and also is the closing? I think that very important, any kind of the video, or even podcasts from my perspective tend to be the opening and closing.   Tommy Walker: Yeah. And like, what do we want to get for B roll? And, you know, let's like that type of thing where what's the, what's the background that's going on here? And with our case study, case studies were really important to me, especially in those early days, because we had access to customers, which as I started working for larger companies realized there are way more layers between you and the customer.   Pam Didner: Oh yes.   Tommy Walker: There was a whole team that I had to go through, uh, at, at one of the other positions to gain access to customers. It was a crazy process.   Pam Didner: I am not surprised. (both laugh) Been there, done it, seen it. Yeah, all of it!   Tommy Walker: Yeah, but fortunately, because Shopify Plus at the time was so small, we had direct access to our customers. And one of the things I noticed when I was doing my market research, before we, before we even wrote a single line of text was a lot of the competitors out there--and this isn't just in this space, this is any company really--it was always this problem solution. Results right. Company X works with company Y and see Z results. And that has its place. But at the time we were trying to differentiate. So what I was always looking at, and I, and I worked with this excellent author, Nick Winkler, give him a shout out. He was an Emmy award winner, which was great. He was able to pull out these really excellent stories from people. But what we did is instead of looking at problem solution results, I said what led to the problem? Obviously we know that you're a customer because we're doing a case study here and we know that you're going to have some amazing results because we have a bias, right? We're only going to show you the excellent results. But what led to the problem and what we found when we started to dig into some of these more personal stories, I wanted to treat them more like Rolling Stone interviews. So we would find out from one of my favorite cases was the problem was, was that the guy's server room was on fire and that meant he needed to go to a cloud-based solution and because he went to the cloud-based solution, didn't have to worry about server rooms catching on fire. (Pam laughs) Cool. But what was interesting about this guy's story is how he found out his server room was on fire. So he was at his bachelor party and it was about three o'clock in the morning, which already gives you the sort of frame of mind that somebody at a bachelor party at three o'clock in the morning would be in, when they find out that their server room is on fire. Right. So there's like there, that adds a little bit of extra color. There adds some context.   Pam Didner: Yeah. It does add a little drama to it and the peak people's interest.   Tommy Walker: Yeah. Right. And like, in some of the other stories, they got really emotional because we wanted to learn their origins, right? What led them to become this entrepreneur? And we wanted to speak to that entrepreneurial spark. So there are some people who were bullied their entire life and their business was almost a direct response to being bold. Some of these came from visits across the world and seeing completely different cultures and bad situations, and then finding ways to really help in that area. So there was some really excellent stories that came out of this and they're very human stories. And at the end of the day, like that's what we, as people really want to see is that the companies that we work with are invested in the humanity of, of you, right? We want to know that you care about what's going on in my life, not to like a creepy extent, but we want to know that the product that we're putting out there is going to help in some aspects, some real aspect and not just be another number. Right.   Pam Didner: Speaking of number. I mean, all those are great content. How did you measure success?   Tommy Walker: That was very difficult at the time.   Pam Didner: Yeah, as a B2B marketer or being in the enterprise for a long period of time, we always want to quantify the marketing success. And sometimes it's very, very hard, especially your marketing campaigns or marketing tactic is a focus on top of the funnel, because you are building that brain awareness. You try to build that emotional connection, but it's very hard to quantify that. So how do you suggest for the brands would like to do something similar to quantify the success? Because ultimately they need to have a Come to Jesus meeting with the VP of marketing, VP of sales, even the, a CEO.   Tommy Walker: Um, so it's been different depending on the company that I've worked. Shopify was a very different situation because it was just getting off the ground. There wasn't a ton for attribution modeling in place. We weren't able to look at that. So the metrics that I was really looking at at the time, because I did have access to this was returned visitors. Right. Um, and return visitors have always been sort of my true north metric that I, I try to look at because in a B2B context specifically, the more return visitors you have, the more return visits you have. That corresponds really well with the consideration area. Right. I want people to spend a lot more time with me. New visitors are cool. I love new visitors, but return visitors that's really where it's at. I want to know that I'm retaining people. So that was part of it at Shopify Plus moving over to QuickBooks, I got to work with this really excellent data scientist who helped model a number of different things. Like how many visits does it take for a person to actually convert to a customer? Right.   Pam Didner: What is the magic number, according to QuickBooks?   Tommy Walker: Um, that's proprietary.   Pam Didner: Can you give me a range?   Tommy Walker: I will tell you this, when we were able to double the amounts of, uh, return visits we had from individuals within a 90 day period, we were able to half the time it took to make a sale. That's about as much as I can say, uh, when it came to that, but it's a decent amount of visits, right. You know, maybe anywhere between 15 to 30. We'll kind of give, we'll kind of give that sort of a range.   Pam Didner: You were like, okay, I'm going to give you a very wide range. Why don't you guys just do a test yourself? And I agree (both laugh).   Tommy Walker: Yeah, 1 and 100. Um, no, it was really between 15 and 30 is what we would find it, especially in the 90-day period. And what we found was that, when you can increase the amount of return visits for a single user, um, and increase the amount of page views per session, then you're able to reduce that time to sale, um, really in half, which is incredible. And it makes total sense when you look at it beyond the numbers perspective, right? If I'm going to spend more time with you, that's time that I'm not spending with somebody else. And that makes me far more likely to like your stuff and trust you.   Pam Didner: Yeah. The next question I have is in terms of the content that you created over a period of time, do you go back and repurpose some of the content or do you reuse some of the content? Can you share some of the examples with us?   Tommy Walker: Sure. So, um, I didn't mention this earlier, but when we did at, uh, one of the different formats that we had explored when I was at Shopify Plus where a series of industry reports. Right.   Pam Didner: So you guys do primary research?   Tommy Walker: We would compile research from other outside sources.   Pam Didner: Ah, I see. So is the base, uh, it's a, is the industry report that you compile based on the secondary resources that you have?   Tommy Walker: Okay. Right. And what we did with these, because Shopify plus was not going to compete on features. Purposefully, we're not going to compete on features primarily because we couldn't, but we also decided that. We weren't going to, I had said we're going to compete on knowledge, right? So we would do these industry reports, which is a strategy they still use today, which makes me very happy with this. What would happen is we'd have all of that data and information, and then we could repurpose some of that into a blog post, you know, bring some of that stuff in. But the other thing that we would do is we would merchandise, if you will. We'd create trailers for the industry reports. So you have video going into that and now you're repurposing it over into a blog post. And then with the trailer, you can have these little gifts that come out of it. So there are a number of different ways that you can splice up this information. And with the industry reports themselves, there were, I think some of them had over a hundred pages worth of just pure information. And they were like—   Pam Didner: How long did it take to create the industry report?   Tommy Walker: Forever! Uh, several months, several months,   Pam Didner: I would not be surprised.   Tommy Walker: No. And we were projecting out for the next five years.   Pam Didner: So the industry information. You gather, you projected the trends for the next five years?   Tommy Walker: Correct. Yeah. And that was the depth that we were going into. And we were able to take our own internal knowledge, even though we weren't publishing that at the time and sort of apply that to what was going on here in, and really say that we were at the ground level on some of this stuff and bring in, you know, merchant quotes and stuff like that. And then we were able to repurpose a lot of that into other forms of content.   Pam Didner: Definitely. But that requires a lot of planning and intentional effort. I want people to understand that repurposing a piece of content, it's not very simple, like, oh, okay. You pull, uh, several paragraphs from one white paper and you write a blog post. It's a very intentional effort. As of you creating a, not a piece of content, even though you are using existing content that you have.   Tommy Walker: Right. And the way to think about it really is making it modular. Right. Like when you're thinking about the big piece, what are the smaller things that you can create that are modular and put that out there? Something I learned years ago is create soundbites within your content, right? Like in this is, this is totally different, but like, what are, what are some tweetables that you can put out there? And it's the same thing as like PR and you know, all of that is you get the, you put the little soundbites out there. What's the news going to pick up on? And when you're able to put that stuff in, then it becomes infinitely more shareable, but it's also, you can use it to repurpose in a number of different areas, especially if you're planning that ahead of time. Pam Didner: Being a content marketer myself, where a good period of time, especially in enterprise, it's a lot of work. And I think from editorial planning down to the content creation, or even once you create content, you have to repurpose the content is there's a lot of coordination that needs to happen within the company. And if you have a one lesson for enterprise marketers that actually trying to manage the content, what is that one lesson that you want to share?   Tommy Walker: Ooh, that's a good question. Um, Content marketing is not a solo sports. It is very much a team sport and it's not just on the content team. So if you need to work with other parts of the company to get what you need done, try to understand their working cadence and how it is that you can fit into their day, so you're not bashing heads when it comes to getting stuff created.   Pam Didner: I hear you. I hear try to understand how they work and their process and work with that.   Tommy Walker: Exactly.   Pam Didner: Very good. Hey, before I end our podcast, I would like to ask you to answer one silly question and you can pick one out of two. Number one: What is the most useless talent that you possess? The second one is, did you have a ridiculous goal in your life?   Tommy Walker: (laughs) Um, yeah, the, the most useless I have a few use those talents. Um, the, the most useless talent I would say that I have is an encyclopedic knowledge of Marvel movies and movies in general, coming from the filmmaking background.   Pam Didner: What about, uh, DC? You are more into the Marvel universe. Okay.   Tommy Walker: The Marvel Universe. Um, but movies in general, that's just from my acting background. So, um, my wife hates watching movies with me sometimes because I'm like, did you know?   Pam Didner: And you're like, shut up. Can I just enjoy the movie? Don't tell me!   Tommy Walker: She, she wonders how I enjoy the movie. I'm like, “this is exactly how I enjoy the movie!”   Pam Didner: Thank you so much, Tommy. So happy to have you on my show and you share a lot of insight with us and I enjoy our conversation.

On this episode of The Marketer's Journey, I interview Melissa Sargeant, Chief Marketing Officer at Litmus, a company that empowers brands to build, test and analyze email marketing campaigns. We discuss Melissa's career path through corporate communications, public affairs and tech, and the experiences that have shaped her into the CMO she is today. As a founding member of CMO Huddles, Melissa shares some of the topics and issues the group discusses each month. The current state of email marketing and where it's headed in the future is also a topic of discussion, and Melissa offers her perspective on the benefits of the channel from a brand perspective.Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play! Key takeaways from this episode:The path to becoming a CMO isn't necessarily straightforward. By continually following her passions and interests throughout her career, Melissa carved out a niche for herself in the tech world and first landed the coveted title at ChannelAdvisor back in 2016. Her experiences ultimately paved the way for her current role at Litmus.Email marketing is one of the best ways to nurture relationships with customers. One of the most popular trends happening in email marketing right now is personalization and tailored communications strategies based on analytics and subscriber interests.Ultimately, the role of the marketer is to help drive the growth of the company. Your job shouldn't end with your skills—it should extend beyond everyday functions to continue building the pipeline forward.Learn more about Litmus here: https://www.litmus.com/Learn more about Melissa here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissa-sargeant-a133142/

On this episode of The Marketer's Journey, I interview Katherine Calvert, CMO at Khoros. Katherine began her career in communications and by her admission “didn't even know what marketing was” but was always interested in tech and the idea of helping connect businesses to their customers. Her background has led her to take a conscious holistic approach to marketing: she understands the value of comms but also knows that data is hard to argue with when you're trying to prove ROI. This holistic view of marketing and ability to adapt was integral to her success as CMO as her team merged and rebranded two $100M companies to form Khoros.Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play! Key takeaways from this episode:Data is the one thing in marketing you can truly measure and it's important that as leaders we understand the advantage of this to earn a seat at the table.Rebranding is difficult, expensive and messy, especially when you are merging two defined identities. In Katherine's case, it was a perfect opportunity to fuse data into the decision making process. Doing market research became critical to going about the rebrand properly.As a B2B marketer, your job is to create and accelerate revenue opportunities. When you are clear about this North star and impart this to your team the next steps become natural and it allows more collaboration with your sales team.Learn more about Khoros here: https://khoros.com/Learn more about Katherine here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katherinecalvert/

On this episode of The Marketer's Journey, I interview Monica Ho, CMO at SOCi Inc. Monica has a wealth of experience scaling companies and when she moved to SOCi, she was looking to get back to building again. She wanted to be an integral part of their growth as they started fundraising for their Series B; now they have just closed their Series D and are close to 200 hundred employees. Today we discuss Monica's approach to her career and finding new opportunities. We also dig into how to leverage data on social for consumer insights to better connect with your target audiences. Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play! Key takeaways from this episode:Monica's mantra is “F*** average, be legendary”. She says that in your career, you have to always push yourself forward even if you feel like you don't have it in you. At every stage in a company's growth cycle, different marketing skills and strategies are required. To be a successful marketer with a growing company, you need to be comfortable with trying new things and reinventing yourself.Tap into social! It's where conversations and communications are happening. As marketers, we used to put a lot of money and resources to solicit info, now it's all online for us to tap into. These conversations will be happening with or without your brand, so you need to find a way to engage with your target on social, and take ownership of your message.Learn more about SOCi here: https://www.meetsoci.com/Learn more about Monica here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/monicamho/

On this episode of The Marketer's Journey, I interview Blake Adams, VP of Marketing at Florence Healthcare. Florence is solving workflow issues in clinical trial execution, allowing companies like Pfizer more efficient operations to run trials through tech. Blake joined the company years ago as a marketing manager and has been a part of their growth from 8 to 100 employees. He is now VP of Marketing at the company, a position that he loves because it allows him to advocate for marketing as a tool to drive business. As a marketer, Blake understands the importance of metrics, especially because data allows you to take risks and still instill your board with confidence, even in a high growth company like Florence.Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play! Key takeaways from this episode:The hardest challenge moving into a higher level marketing role can be moving from a place of subject matter expertise to a place of connecting the dots and facilitating the experts. Blake had to learn how to move away from leading with technical skills and focus on setting his team up for success.Marketing is a tool to drive business value. As marketers we need to bring marketing into the conversation at the executive table and talk about how it can drive business strategy. How does it fit into the overall business structure? How does it drive revenue growth?Measure everything-- even if you don't report on it outside your team you may eventually be able to put that data to use somehow-- a culture of measurement and metrics also evokes trust in your board to allow you to take risks as you grow.Learn more about Florence Healthcare here: https://florencehc.com/Learn more about Blake here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/blakegadams/

On this episode of The Marketer's Journey, I interview Seema Kumar, CMO at New Relic. Seema is an accomplished CMO who walks me through her journey to joining New Relic and how her approach differed the second time she stepped into a CMO role. For Seema, education is key, all around. After a long tenure at Salesforce, she only moved on when she felt that she was no longer learning there and believes in educating her team about their role in their organization's big picture. She also understands the importance of educating your customers through your content marketing and other marketing efforts. As a content marketing expert, Seema breaks down how to approach content marketing for top of funnel customers vs. bottom funnel customers. The difference? Focus on pure product education for top of funnel customers-- but be straightforward in doing so, and you'll build more trust.Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play! Key takeaways from this episode:Focus on content that truly educates your buyer-- if it's informative and based in fact it will be much more successfulRemember to think about the fact that adults learn in different ways. Too often marketers don't think about different form factors and alienate a large part of their audience.As a CMO, you need to focus both on your team and your executive peers. Tight relationships are imperative to scaling your impact in the business.You don't always design your career. Often it's about walking through doors when they're open and a fair bit of luck. But Seema noted, “the harder she worked, the luckier she got”.Learn more about New Relic here: https://newrelic.com/Learn more about Seema here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seemaxkumar/

On this episode of The Marketer's Journey, I interview Pascal Ehrsam, SVP of Marketing at Rokt. Pascal has held multiple CMO and fractional CMO positions but actually came to his latest post after losing his job in the pandemic. He chose to view it as an opportunity to build his next chapter and follow his passion. As a marketer, Pascal's north star is to follow products he believes in and when he was presented with the opportunity at Rokt, he knew it was something he was excited to help build. On today's episode we discuss Pascal's career journey, his jump from B2C to B2B marketing, as well as what he learned working agency side. We also reflect on the importance of balance in marketing and how to personalize with the customer experience in mind.Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play! Key takeaways from this episode:Setbacks and losing opportunities can hurt but the key in these moments is how we respond, how we adapt, and what we do next.Marketing is all about balance. Balance between science and art, data and customization; balance in your messaging. Striking a balance can be tricky and is a skill marketers hone over years and years in the industry.Timing is also such an important factor. It's not just about serving your customers with what they need, it's also about serving it at the right time.Learn more about Rokt here: https://rokt.com/Learn more about Pascal here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/thefractionalcmo/

On this episode of The Marketer's Journey, I interview Jessica Hoffman, VP of Marketing and Communications, and also an operating partner at Craft Ventures. Jessica learned the value and definition of a story from her background in traditional news, eventually moving into a career in PR, agency side. She moved away from agency because she wasn't able to develop a depth of understanding of any one company and wanted to work in a role more rooted in strategy over tactical execution. In fact, she measures  a lot of the leaders and CEOs she has worked with by their ability to think of comms and media strategically, as a proactive tool, as opposed to reactively. On today's episode, we discuss the role communication plays in defining your strategy and creating your movement.Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play!Key takeaways from this episode:Once you've established who you are and how you speak about your company, there are so many other factors like customers, community, and social media that all come into play. Yet the only way to do comms well is to be aligned on what the overall goal is.Understanding your customers and having a feedback loop is so important in communications, it will influence how you speak to them and how you develop your strategy.Movement marketing is based on a deep understanding of your mission and marketing in a way that holds this in focus and ensures your message is heard and understood by your customers. Learn more about here: https://www.craftventures.com/Learn more about Jessica here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-hoffman-a65224/

On this episode of The Marketer's Journey, I interview Megan Lueders, CMO at Silicon Labs. Silicon Labs is a transformative company in the semiconductor space, and focused on building a smarter more connected world. As a tech company, their marketing has always been product focused but today we explore how the buyer journey is transitioning and the acceleration of digital has driven a need for content marketing and other touchpoints for product driven businesses. We also discuss Megan's career journey and how she used a six month sabbatical to focus on her family, but also refocus on herself and understand what she needed in her career. Any buyer journey starts with a customer saying “give me something that will be of use to me” and Megan took a similar approach to her career, assessing opportunities for value, fit and holding out for the right opportunity.Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play! Key takeaways from this episode:You can balance being a career driven leader and a family person. For Megan, she needed this time to refine her needs and approach and be strategic about her next move.Your career is like a marriage-- it needs to be right because it has implications on every aspect of your life. It needs to be a good match and a good partnership.Even when your company is product driven, it can't be as simple as “these are our products, buy them from us”, especially during these turbulent times when things are less certain, you need to connect with customers and potential customers in increasingly different and digital ways.Learn more about Silicon Labs here: https://www.silabs.com/Learn more about Megan here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meganlueders/

On this episode of The Marketer's Journey, I interview Amy Holtzman, SVP of Marketing at AlphaSense. On today's episode we chat about the important role of demand generation and how it builds an earned platform for other forms of marketing.  We also discuss Amy's career journey and hiring strategies to build out her team at AlphaSense; and how you know both when you need to bring subject matter experts onto your team and when you need to reinvent yourself as a marketer.Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play! Key takeaways from this episode:Your demand performance is what gives you the right and the budget to do other, cooler things like invest in brand and do cooler executions. Amy says she always spoke in terms of metrics and demand and this earned her a seat at the table.Good content always prevails-- find out what content works for you and prioritize making it great.There is always a debate of who should “own” things in marketing. When we have projects where there isn't a specific owner, this actually builds opportunities for partnerships and teamwork.Learn more about Alphasense here: https://www.alpha-sense.com/Learn more about Amy here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aholtzman/

On this episode of The Marketer's Journey, I interview Brian Kardon, CMO at InVision. A big part of Brian's strategy is building an enterprise sales channel, and this remains top of mind as he leads his team. Brian is an accomplished marketer who has held senior marketing roles at companies such as Fuze and Forrester. At InVision, he leads sales and marketing, with an understanding that they need to be integrated to be successful. On today's episode, we discuss how to leverage product led growth to build a successful enterprise strategy, lining up customers who are ready to advocate for you.Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play! Key takeaways from this episode:Take calls with recruiters. Even if you're not looking, you may know someone who is a great fit, and it's good to stay informed about what's out there. It always benefits to stay connected and continue relationship building even if you're not in the market for a job.So few companies consolidate sales and marketing under the same leader, and most C Suite teams talk about aligning sales and marketing when they should be talking about integrating them. At InVision, Brian has had great success with converting PQLs or product qualified leads into enterprise clients--as he says, seeds become trees. People do certain things in the app that trigger a signal to try to convert them to enterprise customers. But Brian recognizes the skills needed to nurture an enterprise account are very different than those needed to nurture other customers, so it's important to have a diverse team to manage this.Learn more about InVision here: https://www.invisionapp.com/Learn more about Brian here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brian-kardon-446b4

On this episode of The Marketer's Journey, I interview Heidi Bullock, CMO at Tealium. Throughout her career, Heidi has garnered extensive experience building and scaling high-performance marketing teams. She knows the immense importance of understanding your customer data and taking advantage of it, and on today's episode we discuss: how to utilize this data to create better experiences for our customers, embracing change (whether in our business or in our careers), and how to be a marketing leader that provides vision, excitement and a point of view.Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play! Key takeaways from this episode:Change is scary but it's so important- it's the only constant in life and in marketing, and learning to embrace it is so beneficial.Acquisition is great but ABM is all about “land and expand”. Especially in SaaS marketing, acquisition is only half the battle. It's all about landing enterprise clients and expanding to other parts of their business.You have to know who you're targeting to deliver the experience they expect. The more we know, the better we can deliver.Learn more about Tealium here: https://tealium.com/Learn more about Heidi here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hbullock/

On this episode of The Marketer's Journey, I interview Anna Griffin, CMO at Smartsheet. Anna says that she has never thought about her career path in a traditional sense, but instead has always looked for companies doing something new or disrupting existing business models-- just like MarTech startup Smartsheet. On today's episode, Anna and Randy discuss the importance of consumer curation in creating new business models, how to set your team up for success as a CMO, and where you should focus to build a successful MarTech business.Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play! Key takeaways from this episode:In marketing, we often think we need to “stay in our lane” but the most creativity can happen when we take these lanes down, try new things and collaborate.Demand and brand do not need to be mutually exclusive-- as a CMO, you have to have both and you have to be focused on both. It can be advantageous to move into tech/startup marketing from a large company. Working at enterprise companies can help you identify pain points in business models and with using MarTech.Learn more about Smartsheet here: https://www.smartsheet.com/Learn more about Anna here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anna-griffin-1969843/

Jay Desai has always wanted to be an entrepreneur. At 11-years-old, he had a newsletter business. In middle school, he was reselling sticks of gum bought at Costco. While working for Trend, a B2B startup last year, Jay came upon a problem: how to collect content from around the Web for future reference. One thing led to another and Jay created Swpely, which he describes as Pinterest for B2B. It's a free service that makes it easy to collect digital content, social media, updates, videos, and photos. In this episode of Marketing Spark, Jay talks about the transition from full-time employee to entrepreneur, and how he plans to grow Swpely into a full-featured content aggregation platform.

On this episode of The Marketer's Journey, I interview Gil Rosen. Gil started his marketing career in pharmaceuticals which he cites as a great training ground that helped him understand what marketing is all about including distribution, targeting different demographics, adhering to regulations and more. He is now CMO of Amdocs, a massive company with over 27,000 employees and over 4 billion in revenue. To lead an organization like this requires perspective to tell the right stories. Gil knows that storytelling is key to bridging the gap between the creator and end user, and also key in rallying everyone around an idea. On today's episode, Gil and Randy discuss the different aspects of storytelling, escaping a legacy to expand your offering, and the importance of the communication industry in a post COVID world.Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play! Key takeaways from this episode:In tech and startup marketing, finding the sweet spot between “too early” and “too late” is key in a go to market strategy. Imagine trying to explain TikTok to someone five years ago!One of Amdoc's greatest challenges has been escaping its legacy, however positive it may be. They are the “Michael Jordan of billing” but this can make it difficult for them to escape this box and make a name for themselves in another domainA new segment has been born-- enterprise consumers. Businesspeople are working from home, requiring security and broadband previously only available from the office. Identifying new customer segments like this is key to thriving in a changing world.Learn more about Amdocs here: https://www.amdocs.com/Listen to their podcast, The Great Indoors here: https://www.amdocs.com/TheGreatIndoorsLearn more about Gil here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gilrosen/

On this episode of The Marketer's Journey, I interview Anthony Kennada, CMO at Hopin. Hopin has exploded into the market, revolutionizing the digital events space. Not even two years after launching in only June of 2019, they raised 400 million dollars and are evaluated at an apparent 5.65 billion dollars. Anthony has always had a passion for events, dating back to prom committee in high school and planning concerts in college. He even left a role at Gainsight to build out an event tech startup but ultimately ended up joining Hopin as their CMO. On today's episode, Randy and Anthony discuss how to frame your digital events as entertaining experiences and what our post-COVID world holds for the events industry.Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play! Key takeaways from this episode:Relationships are the most important currency in building your career. Value and nurture the people that are going to champion you and build you up throughout your careerYou can fight Zoom fatigue by considering what would make your event a unique experience. What will differentiate you and get people talking about it?Perfecting the formula for digital events is about packaging things specifically for digital first, not adding in digital as an afterthought, much like the sports industry does--digital viewers may not be as connected with their in-person community but they have a one of a kind viewing experience.Learn more about Hopin here: https://hopin.com/Learn more about Anthony here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/akennada/

On this episode of The Marketer's Journey, I interview Melissa Hanson, VP of Marketing for Trimble Transportation. Trimble is a massive organization with a lot of employees. It has many different products spanning many different industries but they all focus on connecting the physical and digital world. Marketing for an organization of this size requires a very specific strategy and an understanding of when it makes sense to operate in silos and when it makes sense to operate autonomously, always keeping your customers in mind. On today's episode, Melissa and I discuss her take on revenue marketing, and what it truly means for marketing and sales to work hand in hand.   Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play!   Key takeaways from this episode:  Melissa has been intentional about pursuing opportunities where she has questioned if she was ready because it's important to recognize the opportunity and need to be constantly expanding your tool belt as a marketer.Working at large companies that touch many different industries present opportunities for growth in your career.First, it's important to have the right people, then you can define the right processes. After this you can think about how to better leverage technology to support these people and processes.Marketing is part art and part science but revenue marketing focuses on the science portion and looks at marketing in a more value based way, questioning how you are driving value for the business.Learn more about Trimble here: https://www.trimble.com/Learn more about Melissa here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/melissahanson1/

On this episode of The Marketer's Journey, I interview Meagen Eisenberg, CMO at TripActions. Meagen is a sought after marketing leader who any company would be lucky to have, and interestingly she chose to become CMO at a company centred in the travel industry. Meagen and Randy discuss how Meagen finds time to balance her wide range of advisory roles with her day job and home life, steps her team has taken to find success throughout the pandemic, and the role of the marketing team when developing new products.Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play! Key takeaways from this episode:Business advising, or any new challenge can seem daunting but Meagen is able to advise more efficiently after doing it for so long. Companies at various stages in their growth cycle face similar problems and pattern recognition allows her to build models and give faster advice.To choose her roles, Meagen assesses five things: the addressable market, the investors, the team, the ability to execute, and whether she can add value.Marketing and product might seem like very different things but one important thing they have in common is that they're key for connecting with your customers.Learn more about TripActions here: https://tripactions.com/Learn more about Meagen here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/meageneisenberg/

On this episode of The Marketer's Journey, I interview Lynne Capozzi, CMO of Acquia. Lynne did what she calls a “boomerang” by leaving her job at Acquia to pursue other passions and opportunities and ending up eventually returning as their CMO years later. According to Lynne, the company was at such a different stage in the growth cycle that it was like starting fresh, and she viewed it as such. She treated it as though she was brand new and erased what she knew from her past life at Acquia. Sometimes, in cases such as Lynne's, the opportunity to come back is far from a step back, it's an opportunity to bring your new skills and knowledge to a workplace you know and love. On today's episode we discuss Lynne's role as a CMO across different company growth cycles and the importance of both product marketing and customer marketing in our changing economic climate.   Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play!     Key takeaways from this episode:  As marketers we need to get rid of the jargon in our content. There is more content than ever before which makes it even more important to be genuine. If you're not genuine, people will notice-- and they will leave.   Sales is the front line to the customer but product marketing and product management are right behind them so they should have a direct line to your customers as well.   There should be absolutely no shame in “boomeranging” back to a company. In many cases it can be seen and treated as a totally new opportunity, especially in cases like Lynne's where she returned to a company at a completely different stage in their growth cycle.  Learn more about Acquia here: https://www.acquia.com/  Learn more about Lynne here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lynnecapozzi/  

On this episode of The Marketer's Journey, I interview Prachi Gore. Marketing for a company with a strong mission that aligns with her values has always been very important to Prachi. But who is responsible for communicating a company's mission? And how do you use your company mission to develop tangible messaging and brand voice? On today's episode, Prachi and I discuss her career journey, in which she focused on driving outcomes for the business, even when it meant stepping outside of her lane. We also discuss the Checkr buyer journey and how to evolve your company mission and differentiators into simple messaging that resonates with your audience.   Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play!    Key takeaways from this episode:   It's important to understand why your company exists before you can build out what you do and how you do it. This framework will allow both your company and your customers to buy into your mission.    It's not always sufficient to stay high level with your messaging. If you have something to say, customers want you to go deeper and establish thought leadership.   Audiences don't want to be sold to, they want to be educated. This is what's most important for top of funnel stages of the buyer journey.   Learn more about Checkr here: https://checkr.com/ Learn more about Prachi here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/prachigore/ 

On this episode of The Marketer's Journey, I interview Sydney Sloan, CMO of SalesLoft. After a long tenure at Adobe, Sydney worked hard to ensure her next role was a great fit and that she would be working with a product she was passionate about. In her current role, she leads marketing for a SaaS company that has taken off, not just because of what they do, but also because of their emphasis on one-to-one selling and marketing. On today's episode we chat about the need for alignment between sales and marketing and the importance of proper customer onboarding for good retention and customer experience.  Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play!   Key takeaways from this episode:  The buyer journey is “the most important and most forgotten”-- once customers buy in, they're often disregarded. In reality, the customer onboarding process is very important and creating a good customer experience right off the bat will ensure greater retention.    Often the people you sell to are not the people that own the application in the long term. Be aware of who will be using your product regularly and align your communication strategies with them.   Marketing is in a unique position to lead the customer experience across the board-- and a great customer experience turns your customers into advocates.   Learn more about SalesLoft here: https://salesloft.com/  Learn more about Sydney here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sydsloan/  

On this episode of The Marketer's Journey, I interview Michelle Huff, CMO at UserTesting. UserTesting has seen amazing growth, moving from 50 million to 100 million in revenue over the course of Michelle's time there and as the CMO Michelle has kept laser focused on this growth but been mindful of building a cohesive team that feels embraced by her as a leader. UserTesting has created a double-sided marketplace that is redefining the market research industry. What Michelle has learned marketing for this rapidly growing company in this developing industry is that listening to your buyers is king. Many marketers champion the importance of their buyers without ever speaking directly to them; outsourcing market research and feedback collection. CMOs need to make sure their entire organization is committed to listening to their customers no matter what.   Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play!   Key takeaways from this episode:   Working within an existing category comes with budget because the need has been proven.  With new categories, you're constantly justifying why you and why now. You're convincing people to do things in a different way and this always comes with challenges.  One of the most interesting things about the COVID-19 pandemic is that literally every industry has been impacted. Consumer buying behaviour in every industry has changed and companies are thriving based on their adaptability.  Who you are working for is important. Culture is important. Consider these factors as much as you consider the role and the company itself.  Learn more about UserTesting here: https://www.usertesting.com/. Learn more about Michelle here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michellehuff/. 

On this episode of The Marketer's Journey, I interview Karen Peterson, CMO of Lendio. As the largest marketplace for small business loans in the USA, Lendio experienced rapid growth and acceleration due to the COVID-19 pandemic and Karen describes taking on this new role and being at Lendio for these changes as the most exhilarating, challenging and rewarding time. Throughout her career she has always been open to opportunities and employed a willingness to be agile and adaptable. This attitude has led to her doing things like accepting an interim CMO role, moving to a new city to pursue new opportunities, and more. Today we discuss how to build the right modern day marketing team for your business and the key pillars that will be relevant to your specific strategy.    Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play!   Key takeaways from this episode:  Wherever you sit you should have a certain hierarchy: customer is number one, then the company, then your team, then an individual. If you keep this in mind, you really can't go wrong.   We often think as marketing leaders that our team is made up of the marketers that report into us. We need to also realize that there is “the rest of our team”. This could be the executive team, the board of directors, or other team members at the company. It's important to give appropriate time to our wider team as well.   As a CMO, it's important to come into a new role with framework, pillars and ideas but then you need to apply and customize these ideas to the specific company.  Learn more about Lendio here: https://www.lendio.com/  Learn more about Karen here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/karen-peterson-marketing/  

On this episode of The Marketer's Journey, I interview Kristin Treat, VP of Corporate Marketing at Nintex. Kristin took an unusual path to becoming a senior marketing leader. She comes to the table with a PR background having worked over 25 years in PR, and though it's an unconventional path, the foundations Kristin takes from her background are critically valuable to her as a marketing leader. Messaging and the way we communicate are key pillars of public relations that Kristin focuses on and that have helped her and Nintex find success, especially during the challenging times of the COVID-19 pandemic.Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play!Key TakeawaysSuccess does not have to be complicated: focus on the basics, collaborate and do good work.Have a learning mindset: don't be an executive who just delegates and attends meetings. Employ a collaborative, learning approach to the day to day in order to never lose touch with the work.Real world examples are so valuable in marketing and just to companies in general. It's one thing to say “our product can solve your problem” but you need to be able to prove it.It's often argued that it's hard to measure ROI with PR (which is true) but PR is really invaluable. PR creates opportunities to advance your brand, your product, your reputation and your messaging.Learn more about Kristin here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ktreat73/Learn more about here: https://www.nintex.com/

On this episode of The Marketer's Journey, I interview Chuck Johnston, CMO at FINEOS. Chuck interestingly did not originally know that he was going to be a marketer. He moved into marketing by being an insurance industry expert, and on today's episode we discuss the different pathways to becoming a marketer--by being an expert that learns marketing or a marketer that learns industry-- and when it makes sense to hire people that fit these profiles. We also discuss in depth the rise of ABM marketing, something FINEOS uses as a cornerstone of their marketing strategy as a way to ensure they are maintaining client relationships and delivering personalized content strategies.   Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play!   Key takeaways from this episode:  There is more than one entry point into the world of marketing. Many people enter this world by being industry experts wanting to explore new realms of business. Sometimes these people can be even more valuable than seasoned marketers.  Content by itself isn't enough; it's about understanding the journey your customers are on and meeting them there. The right content to the right buyer at the right time is a core pillar of any ABM strategy.  Good ABM is about relationships and personalization: knowing your customers, understanding them and maintaining a personal touch.Learn more about  FINEOS here: https://www.fineos.com/Learn more about Chuck here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chuck-johnston-66136/

In this bonus episode of the podcast, Charli interviews Jennifer Cardillo.Jennifer works for Sulzer and is the Marcom Director for the rotating equipment services division in the Americas and for the global turbo product line. She has spent her career in a variety of roles including working as an artist for several years. Jennifer enjoys being a dynamic, strategic, creative and solution-focused international Marcom Manager. Via her career, Jennifer's number one mantra is to inspire people.For more information on Jennifer, visit: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-hauri-cardillo/Connect with us:Twitter | Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagramhttps://empoweringpumps.com/email: podcast@empoweringpumps.com

On this episode of The Marketer's Journey, I interview Bethany Walsh, VP of Marketing at Alloy. Bethany identifies as an early stage marketer and has a lot of experience being the “first, second, or third” marketer at early stage companies. She likes to build, problem solve and scale companies. This is something that sounds appealing to a lot of people but Bethany knows it can be scary in practice marketing without much support, data or establishment. Alloy had raised 40 million in Series B funding before even bringing in any marketing support, so she had challenges in front of her when she took on the role. Today we discuss these challenges, along with the excitement and the opportunities of growing an early stage company. We also discuss brand tone and how you ensure it remains consistent throughout your organization.Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play! Key takeaways from this episode:When you're marketing through a private equity roll out, it's important to bring confidence to investors. Make yourself visible, and ensure you have a voice.Bethany brings a builder mentally to her roles and she knows she is best suited for early stage marketing but you can bring a builder attitude to later stage organizations too. Consider how to employ this mindset and remain agile and adaptable in your marketing. When thinking of your brand tone, consider the concept of relationship building. If you're meeting someone for the first time you don't start out telling jokes or puns, you introduce yourself with your name and once you know them better you loosen up. If you don't know your audience, be straightforward, give the facts and share what they're looking for, until they know you a bit better.It's important that at every single stage in the buyer journey brand tone is considered and you take steps within your communication to make sure it remains consistent.Learn more about Alloy here: https://alloy.co/Learn more about Bethany here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/babarker/

On this episode of The Marketer's Journey, I interview Robin Daniels, CMO of Matterport. Robin has enjoyed an impressive career and earned the right to work with brands such as Salesforce, WeWork and Linkedin. The core threads that have tied his career together have been the pursuit of bringing people together through technology and working with tech and products that are taking off to shape their journey. As a marketing leader, he finds it easier to tell a human story around tech and products that are bringing people together and have a human element and knows that storytelling and messaging are key to product marketing.Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play! Key takeaways from this episode:It all comes down to the story you're trying to tell in the market. Storytelling should be focused around making your product more human and more customer-centric. It should make you come across like you care about your customer's story.You don't have to stay in one industry, you just have to find something you're passionate about and that you want to pursue-- for Robin this was bringing people together and creating connectivity.Product marketing “should be a circle”. It's about making things consistent at their core. Your story at the top of your funnel should be the same at the bottom of your funnel.Learn more about Matterport here: https://matterport.com/Learn more about Robin here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robingdaniels/

On this episode of The Marketer's Journey, I interview Allison MacLeod, EVP of Global Marketing at Flywire. Allison rose to her current role by constantly pursuing education and ensuring she was advocating for herself and putting her hand up for new opportunities. On this episode, we discuss her career journey and philosophies before diving into the true meaning of marketing globally and the perks and challenges of leading and marketing on a global scale. Flywire goes to market in verticals and takes a “squad based” approach that allows them to ensure they aren't working in silos and ultimately, that everyone stays connected with Flywire's overall goals and objectives.  Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play!   Key takeaways from this episode:  It's important to always raise your hand to try things- learn more, be open more. Value growth in learning and being challenged.  Flywire's approach to product and marketing comes down to one core sentiment: you can't work in silos. Everyone at a company must work in pursuit of a shared vision even if you're performing different tasks.  As a global company, it's important to understand your customers everywhere. Many companies have marketers in North America working to understand markets all over the world but it helps infinitely to have people on the ground in each market with a deep understanding of the demographic.  Learn more about Flywire here: https://www.flywire.com/  Learn more about Allison here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/allisonbmacleod/  

On this episode of The Marketer's Journey, I interview Deborah Singer, CMO of Girls Who Code, a unique and groundbreaking non-profit organization focused on getting more girls into STEM-focused education and career paths. Though Deborah started her career in the tech/startup world before joining Girls Who Code, she said one of the things that attracted her to the company was how it is run a lot more like a startup than a non-profit: it's fast-paced, fast-growing, agile and ambitious. She also understands the importance of working with great people and says that she has landed in most of her roles from a desire to work with passionate individuals who challenge and empower her.   Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play!   Key takeaways from this episode:Girls Who Code is an organization marketing to both corporate sponsors and young girls-- they know they have to do this very differently, using different channels. It's important to understand where you'll reach your audience segments and what you need to say to each of them rather than blasting your message across every channel.  No matter what you're doing, passion is key. It's important to be passionate about what we're doing, or at least passionate about the influence we can drive and understanding of how we can give back.  We carve career paths for ourselves based on unexpected parallels. To many, it seemed like an unprecedented move for Deborah to move from a tech startup Lulu to nonprofit, Girls Who Code, but to her it made perfect sense. Lulu was disrupting the dating game for women, while Girls Who Code was looking to disrupt the tech industry for women.   Learn more about how Girls Who Code is creating opportunities for girls and women in tech here: https://girlswhocode.com/Learn more about Deborah here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/deborahjsinger/

On this episode of The Marketer's Journey, I interview Rebecca Grimes, CMO at Ruby. Ruby is another company that had to quickly adapt their strategy and product offerings in order to find their footing and thrive through COVID-- and thrive, they did. Not only did Ruby's team continue throughout the pandemic without laying anyone off, they actually brought on 200 new employees. Rebecca, who oversees both marketing and sales, said that they were able to do this by digging into data and creating customer profiles and products to align with the business segments that were still thriving. Adapting their business and understanding their buyer experience was integral to Ruby thriving in the “new abnormal”.   Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play! Key takeaways from this episode:  Marketing and sales should work hand and hand-- they should not be at odds. There should be no success you can celebrate that would not be a team success.  Staying in touch with your network throughout your career is important-- even if it doesn't get you a job, the insights you can take from the learnings of your colleagues are invaluable, even if it's just understanding why someone else took an opportunity.  There is value in customers even if they're not ready to buy right now-- it's important to find ways to provide value and content to these people so that they'll be more likely to convert in the future.  Learn more about how Ruby can help your business here: https://www.ruby.com/Learn more about Rebecca here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rebeccalgrimes/

On this episode of The Marketer's Journey, I interview Duri Alajrami, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer at Moneris. Duri immigrated from Dubai to Canada and built an impressive career and wonderful family life that align with each other and make him proud. Though he started his career agency side, he recognizes that the shift to digital means brands are building out their own digital teams, sectors and in-house digital agencies, in many ways, slowly rendering digital agencies more and more obsolete. On today's episode, we discuss the prominence of digital, his career and personal life, and most importantly, the way he thinks of the buyer journey and sales funnel at Moneris, when the lines between B2B and B2C solutions for the company have become so heavily blurred.   Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play!   Key takeaways from this episode:  90% of Canadians start their buyer journey online (and one of the things they're often looking for is what kind of payments you accept) so we need to take a “digital dating” approach to marketing. Pull them into the funnel with strong digital first.  Historically, payment solutions companies' buyers are the merchants-- but these lines have become increasingly blurred, not only as payments solutions cater to small business owners but also they acknowledge they need to be creating a great experience for their end consumer, as well as their merchants. Balancing this is key.  In many ways, COVID-19 has humanized work and brought work and life together-although it can be a struggle for work life balance, it can also be positive. We are all in each other's homes and working together to maintain balance.   Learn more about Moneris's payment solutions here: https://www.moneris.com/Learn more about Duri at https://www.linkedin.com/in/duriajrami/?originalSubdomain=ca

On this episode of The Marketer's Journey, I interview Soraya Alexander,  SVP of Marketing and Customer Growth at Classy. Soraya has not had a traditional path to a senior marketing role. In her own words, her career has been a little “random” and all over the place, spanning PR, media, big business and marketing, and she says she still doesn't know what she wants to be when she grows up. But she is hungry to learn and ensures whatever role she is in, she is constantly learning so she takes something to her next role. In her current role at Classy, she is focused not just on customer acquisition but on customer retention and growth. Soraya knows that customer marketing is an undervalued tool that often allows for faster growth than customer acquisition.    Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play!   Key takeaways from this episode:  For 80% of your working days your job is to accumulate enough knowledge and experience as you can, and eventually it will all make sense. Focus on what's fun, what's interesting, do your best and the next step will materialize.  When you're an established company, customer acquisition is easy. True growth comes from a deep understanding about your customers. There is a lot of opportunity post-sale to grow with your customers by continually deepening your relationship with your them.   It takes 3x more dollars to acquire a new customer than to retain a current one. Nurturing the customers you have turns them into advocates and can be a good customer acquisition tool in itself.  Learn more about Classy's fundraising software at https://www.classy.org/Learn more about Soraya at https://www.linkedin.com/in/sorayagalexander/

On this episode of The Marketer's Journey, I interview Samantha Goldman, VP of Marketing at breather. breather is a company that provides spaces for people to work, so during the pandemic, it's been more important than ever for them to have a truly strategic marketing leader who knows her team has to be mobilized and able to work collaboratively--wherever they all may be. Before her time at breather, Samantha held senior marketing roles at Lyft and Castlight Health. In her current role she is working through the pandemic as breather iterates on their product offerings to keep people everywhere connected.   Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play!   Key takeaways from this episode:  Giving people access is the trait that all tech companies share. Whether it's access to credit, transportation, healthcare or office space, technology exists to provide people with access.“When there's a rocket ship you get on the rocket ship” even if it's not the perfect role, when grand opportunity knocks, you get on and find a place for yourself.Throughout the pandemic, we have gotten great at working remotely but the next phase of things will find people trying to figure out how to work in a “hybrid” approach with some people fully remote and some people coming into the office.Learn more about breather here: https://breather.com/ Learn more about Samantha here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/samantha-goldman/

On this episode of The Marketer's Journey, I interview Susanne Gurman, SVP of Marketing at SecurityScorecard. Susanne spent ten years working as a marketer at an established company, but eventually, despite what she had learned and the opportunities she had been afforded, she felt that she had taken the position to its ceiling and made the leap to leave the company. She did not have a job lined up when she left but took the time to rebrand herself and understand her goals before eventually joining the team at SecurityScorecard. On today's episode we talk about the importance of being unafraid of failure, how to build your personal brand, and marketing tactics field marketers are exploring throughout the pandemic, with buyers becoming too “Zoom fatigued” to bother with virtual events.  Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play! Key takeaways from this episode: Field marketing has a reputation about being all about events, but there is more to it than that, and especially during COVID, we have had to fill in the gaps with supplementary tactics that drive leads. Since we don't have physical events to fall back on, it's important to consider how we create like-minded experiences with our buyers with similar touchpoints and opportunities to get them into the funnel. One of the key ways to take buyers on this journey is with content. As a marketer, your personal brand is extremely important. The first thing you are marketing should be yourself. Learn more about SecurityScorecard here: https://securityscorecard.com/ Learn more about Susanne here: https://securityscorecard.com/company/leadership/susanne-gurman 

On this episode of The Marketer's Journey, I interview Rishi Dave, CMO at MongoDB. Rishi credits his time at Dell with shaping his journey to becoming a CMO. It's where he worked his first marketing job, with a higher up eventually taking a chance on him and providing him with a platform to become the marketer he is today. In his current role, Rishi knows that the success of his company is built on two things: a great product and a great go-to-market strategy. On today's episode, we chat through the particulars of the different types of go-to-market strategies, what it's like working at a high growth company, and relying on your wife to help you take time off.   Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play!   Key takeaways from this episode:  Answering to a board can seem scary but your board just wants you to succeed in driving growth for the company. Focus on working with your team to drive growth and communicating effectively with the board. That's all you need to do.  It's important to keep in mind that users should be able to choose how they want to interact with your company, and it's the job of a good marketing team to ensure that you're not stepping on each other's toes and duplicating efforts.  As a CMO and a marketer in general, it's important to try new things but you will likely gravitate towards companies at a certain stage because this will define your roles and responsibilities.  Learn more about MongoDB here: https://www.mongodb.com/.   Learn more about Rishi here:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/rdave/. 

Because there are so many important roles and departments in marketing, it can be a bit too easy to think of things in silos. But today's guest, Caleb Rubin understands that to be successful in our marketing, we need to ensure departments are working together, and think of things like brand story and data science synergistically, rather than in silos. Caleb Rubin is Head and VP of Marketing at EQ Bank, a digital first bank working to change banking to enrich customer lives by shifting financial and lifestyle value to them. Today we discuss Caleb's career journey, the buyer journey at EQ Bank, and the importance of collaboration and synergy in marketing. Key takeaways from this episode: Your product is what you do or what you make but your brand is how people feel about what you do or make-- they are both equally important.In many ways, marketing for startups is about how you get people through the funnel with technology and tools rather than large scale  budgets.Good marketing teams are always focused on how we learn and the great ones instill systematic ways of learning and gathering new insights.Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play! 

To many, it might seem like a bad move to hire someone good enough to replace us for fear of losing our jobs. But a true A Player knows that this just makes team members strive for excellence and that strong, dedicated employees should be hiring others just as good. Looking to the future is something today's guest is more than familiar with. Not only has Mauricio Barberi acted as a fractional CMO and a consultant in a number of roles, he's spent his career working with tech; originally as an engineer and eventually as a marketer. Just like the right team is important, so is the right tech-- though it's important to focus on how the tech is serving us and what the tech can help us achieve, rather than just the tech itself. Key takeaways from this episode: We often think of fractional CMOs as “fixers” when really we should be thinking of them as people setting companies up for future success.The fear of hiring people as good as us is a broken system in business. It starts at the top: a true A player will hire A players underneath them and this is how you build a world class team.Heads of Sales and CMOs are different jobs but increasingly have overlapping responsibilities. Above all else, Heads of Sales should be collecting data and CMOs should be leveraging the data to measure outcomes your company is driving.Companies that buy tech don't have one decision maker. Map your selling team to your client's  “buying team” and ensure you have an understanding of the intricacies of their decision making.Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play! 

Tangerine may have made strides in making banking “cool” by aligning themselves with brands like the Toronto Raptors, but is building a cool lifestyle brand enough? It may be for some, but not for everyone and a key part of every marketing strategy is understanding where to find your different customer segments and meeting them where they are. Some customers buy because a brand stands for something while others buy because a product fills their need. Brands that can achieve both can build even stronger bonds with their customers. On this episode of the Marketer's Journey, Tangerine CMO Martin Fecko chats about how he got his start in the finance world, bringing banking and tech together, and achieving product market fit for Tangerine's wide customer base. Key takeaways from this episode: When you're starting your career, it's important to leverage opportunities as they present themselves. Even if you don't have a roadmap for where you want to land, utilize the chances you're presented with and shape them into something.As a CMO, ultimately what you're doing is taking various components and figuring out how your brand is represented when you consider all the moving parts.The ability to understand both business and technology is important because technology is the future for so many industries and businesses.Building a good brand is less about building something “cool” and more about adapting to the changing needs of your customers. This is how Tangerine has reimagined banking.Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play! 

Content encompasses more than just pretty videos and social posts-- it can be technical copy, sell-sheets, product manuals and more. Now more than ever, how we understand and consume content is undergoing significant changes-- it's relevant to much more than top funnel and we need to make sure there's consistency across all channels. Dayna Rothman is CMO at OneLogin, and a seasoned content marketer by trade. She knows that the role of a content marketer is not just to create content, it's to think of the impact and role of that content and how it aligns to different stages of the buyer journey.  Key takeaways from this episode: Don't discount your passion and your drive. It's a key motivating factor on why people would hire you, even if you don't necessarily have the right experience.Content marketing is definitely not the most direct route to becoming a CMO but content marketing skills are so unique and valuable. Focus on understanding demand generation and how your content drives results and you can be on the C-suite path if that is your goal.We're no longer creating content that is top funnel. The desire to consume content has increased exponentially and buyers want to engage with custom content throughout the decision making process.Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play! 

Today's guest Andrea Kayal asks an important question—is pipeline dead? Another way to put this is, what's the benefit of tracking pipeline? Where does this data get us? And if we don't track pipeline, how do we understand marketing's contribution to the business? To Andrea, it's important to keep metrics simple and tangible. Influence is important, but it's even more important to understand what is driving sales. While multi-touch attribution is important, we can't over justify every touch point because ultimately, every touchpoint extends your sales cycle.  Multi-touch attribution is great but ensuring as few touches as we can have is going to create a more efficient sales cycle and a more efficient company overall.Rather than tracking everything and pulling the numbers that make us look the best it's important to look at the data behind successful sales cycles and figure out what led to the successes.There are benefits to marketing both “painkillers” and “vitamins.” With vitamins, you need to convince a market of the viability of your product and with painkillers, the need is already established but the market may be over saturated.Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play! 

Like many of the other 90s kids that taught themselves how to build websites before building websites was cool, Alex Schmelkin eventually grew up to run a web agency. This gave him a great perspective on what customers need in order to launch their digital initiatives and bring them to market. After decades in agency, Alex eventually went on to become CMO of Unqork. The important role of product in B2B marketing has never been lost on Alex. As CMO, though he is focused on his customer, refinement and excellence of his product is what helps him reach those customers. To him, they go hand in hand. He uses understanding of the commonalities in all of his customers to refine his product roadmap and drive solutions for his clients. Key takeaways from this episode: B2B marketing doesn't have to be self-promotional and amidst a pandemic, it really should not be. It's about communicating how your product can help your clients find solutions to their problems.When you're creating a software and marketing to CIOs, it's important to focus on how your product could drive efficiencies for their team-- and do so in a way that does not seem competitive.It can always seem daunting moving from agency to brand or vice versa but each builds important skill sets that can be relevant in the other, just remember to highlight them and be open to learning.Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play! 

Throughout her career, this week's guest Melanie Marcus learned to pursue roles that gave her a bit more of what she liked and a bit less of what she didn't. This philosophy eventually led her to become CMO at Surescripts where they've had to change their marketing mix from “very in person” to  “very digital”. Retooling her events team to develop new skills and execute on a wholly different strategy was a key reminder of something Melanie has known throughout her career -- it's important to be constantly reinventing yourself. Key takeaways from this episode: Pivoting is a great opportunity to bring ideas to the floor-- but sometimes you don't have the time. It's important to ensure your team has the time and permission to bring more ideas to the table even amidst something like a pandemic.Marketers are typically the ones selling the company message, and as such, they need to believe in their company message to succeed. It's important to love marketing, but believing in your company's  value proposition is essential.We think of “incubators” as specific to the tech and startup world but Melanie says she was involved in many incubators early in her career. To her, these were larger projects she was given permission to do, even in very junior roles. It allowed her to learn at a rapid pace and develop key business skills.Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play! 

Leadership is something we talk about a lot, but according to Rossa, something that doesn't get enough focus is followership. He knows that much of success can be about ensuring your boss looks good and is empowered to do the tough work. As a marketer, he understands the importance of marketing himself to ensure he is nurturing his professional connections, and categorizes people into two groups: radiators and drains. The people he seeks out for his team are radiators -- they are eager to learn, promote a positive atmosphere and remain nimble and adaptive through challenges. Rossa attributes some of his success to ensuring he makes a good impression with everyone he works with, whether it's his boss, a peer or even a report. The world is small, the industry is smaller and he knows it's not just about who you know, but also about who cares about you. While it's clear that emotion and creativity are important in marketing, Rossa is also focused on ensuring that marketing is driving value and is solidified as a core business pillar driving success for sales and operations. Key takeaways from this episode: “Followership” can be just as important as leadership -- we need to go above and beyond for our managers and our peers to promote a great environment and drive success.In business, you never know when a connection is going to matter. It's important to always put your best foot forward and make a good impression with everyone.Personalization is about adding value. Without relevance to your market any personalization is really just for the sake of itself.It's important to think of marketing as a core pillar of your business but emotion also plays a huge role in decision making so creativity and relationship building can be just as important.Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play! 

Big business and startups may seem like two things that are mutually exclusive, but they don't have to be, and according to this week's guest, they shouldn't be. Growing up, Jennifer Anaya, Ingram Micro's Senior Vice President of Marketing, learned about the many facets of business over dinner with her entrepreneurial parents. It helped her learn about everything that went into running a business -- and ultimately where she wanted to fit. She's carried this entrepreneurial mindset with her throughout her career because, from Jennifer's perspective, entrepreneurship is defined by the ability to drive change. Jennifer describes herself as a “change agent” and she knows better than anyone that innovation can be just as important at large corporations as it is at growing startups.  Key Takeaways: People are attracted to startups because they can shape where the organization goes but you can also do this with larger organizations and it's equally important to drive change to stay relevant.There have been significant changes to who is buying technology--it used to be CTOs and tech teams. Now business leaders are buying tech to give them a competitive advantage, so it's important to communicate the business advantages technology can drive rather than simply explaining the tech itself.It's important to be resilient and adaptable. Things change quickly and the best marketers are eager to learn and excited to make things work.The best managers embrace opportunities to educate the people they work with. It helps with retention when you're giving your team the chance to learn and grow.Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play! 

When it comes to content, we used to believe that if we built it, they would come, but with the amount of content our buyers need to sift through, we need to begin taking the approach of guiding our buyers to water before we can expect them to drink. On this episode of The Marketer's Journey, we discuss building content with context for our buyers, providing value to our shareholders and the importance of sales and marketing teams working hand in hand. Our guest Paul French is EVP & CMO at Axway, where he worked for several years before pursuing other opportunities at companies ranging from startups to larger organizations, eventually returning to Axway as CMO and having the unique opportunity to, in his words, fix problems that he may have even been the cause of, years ago. Paul is an advocate for marketing with authenticity and ensuring your buyer perspective is top of mind with everything you do. Key takeaways from this episode: Marketing starts with one thing: the customer perspective. This is why good marketers aren't order takers. They understand cross referencing customer expectations with outcomes you're trying to accomplish and building a way to get there.Content is queen but context is king. You can build content that aligns with your business but you need to ensure you're also building content that aligns with your buyers' perspectives and needs.Every company is different but they all share a need for growth and progress. Your shareholders are all different but they all want to know you're moving forward.Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play! 

Working with a brand like Twitter is like a box of chocolates-- you never know what you're going to get! To a marketer, this can be terrifying. Yet on the other side of that, it keeps you on your toes, creates an exciting atmosphere and teaches you how to get comfortable with fluid conversations and continue moving forward. On this episode of The Marketer's Journey, I chat with Laura Pearce, Head of Marketing in Canada at Twitter about her exciting career journey, the many different paths of Twitter's customer journeys and how to embrace a culture of change.  Key takeaways from this episode: If a channel like Twitter is used for multiple purposes (generating acquisition, generating pipeline, marketing, customer service, etc.), we need to think not just about how we define the channel, but more importantly, how we define who is responsible for the channel.As marketers, we always need to make sure we're joining the conversation rather than just trying to make the conversation about us.Communication strategies, whether with your staff, your customers or even your kids, are so important for setting reasonable expectations and empowering people to make their most informed decisions.Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play! 

It has never been more important to ensure our customers have a thorough understanding of our message. We need to amplify our message with more clarity and more colourful storytelling. In this episode, I interview Sean B. Pasternak, AVP of Global External Communications at Manulife about telling a brand story for a company focused on regulatory products, in a post-COVID society. Key takeaways from this episode: It's okay to cross over “to the dark side” from working as a media professional, to working on an internal brand communications team.Telling brand stories is crucial in today's landscape.There is still a role for traditional PR in our evolving society.Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play! 

It may be the oldest cliché in the book, but if you do something you love, you'll never work a day in your life. In this episode I learn about Victor Lee's career journey which, in his words, was based on passion and character. Dreaming, tinkering, dabbling and thinking of innovative new ways to do things created the launchpad that guided his career. Victor was most notably SVP at Hasbro and in this episode we discuss the skills he developed as an agency marketer, his work leading pivots to digital marketing for a wide range of companies and the importance of having the conviction to fight the fights worth fighting for, not just the ones you know you can win.  Key takeaways from this episode: Clichés are overused for a reason and many of the cheesiest have merit when considering your career: do what you love, find passion in what you do, don't be afraid to fail and know that there is always a bit of luck involved.Marketers are often tasked with coming up with big ideas, to the point where we're almost scared to get the “yes” and having to follow through. These big ideas are great but they're not everything. There is beauty in pragmatism, in small pivots, and small wins.Digital isn't black and white. There are many different ways digital can work in tandem with other facets of business, such as retailers. It doesn't need to be competitive, and it doesn't need to be complicated.Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play! 

Product and marketing have always gone hand in hand. In most cases, product exists to address pain points that your customers are feeling, and marketing helps you communicate these solutions to your market. In this episode, I interview Paul Cowan, CMO at Freshbooks about understanding your addressable market and using your marketing toolkit to refine your product strategy. Key takeaways from this episode: Growth is a mindset. You need to focus on scale, find new avenues for your business and be constantly figuring out new revenue streams in order to remain relevant.Stick to what you know and love but look for waves! If your roots are in tech, don't be afraid to explore a wide range of tech companies in your career from startups to tech giants.Face-to-face interaction with your customers can transform the way you understand your product.Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play! 

The journey may be important, but when you manage a team, it's just as key to make sure that even when they're taking different paths, your team members arrive at the same destination. As we navigate new waters, diverse perspectives and different approaches are more important than ever in marketing. In this episode, I interview Danielle Brown, CMO at Points about how to make space for your team to do their best work, and the value of both objective and subjective approaches to marketing. Key takeaways from this episode: Marketing generalists are immensely undervalued. We need subject matter experts but adaptability and the ability to see the world broadly are imperative marketing skills.As a manager, you don't need to have all the answers. You just need to ask the right questions and set your team up for success, driving towards a common goal.There is a time and a place for both subjective, “go with your gut” marketing and objective, data-driven marketing. Analytics and scientific approaches are key, but many successful marketers like Danielle, began their careers simply by knowing their customers and understanding how to communicate with them.Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play! 

It's incredibly important to meet face-to-face with customers—except that right now, we can't.    We have to rely on messaging more than ever before.   In this episode, I interview Christophe Coutelle, VP of Marketing at Element AI, about the two strategies he's using for messaging right now.   What we talked about: Global sales in a world without international travel How to be timely and relevant (without exhausting your clients) The relaxation benefits of spending 5-6 hours a day in the water Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play!

Product message equals product strategy. It's worth repeating: The message is the strategy. But how do you get there? In this episode, I interview Des Cahill, CMO at Oracle, about the importance of storytelling in product marketing.   What we talked about: Why product messaging is so integral to strategy Three pillars of the experience economy and how to tell a customer-focused story Making time for frequent breaks between hours of Zoom calls Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play!

Today, work is cross-functional. So it's that much more important for all departments to come onto one Project Management Solution.  Getting them onto one platform, though? That's the tough part. In this episode, I interview Saranya Babu, SVP of Marketing at Wrike, about her journey from engineer to VP of Marketing and why today's organizational structure almost requires all departments to use the same PMS.   What we talked about: How Saranya became SVP of Marketing at a 1,000-person company Why she made the unusual switch from engineering to marketing How to continuously advance your career How to rally a whole company around one PMS   Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play! 

Could CMO and CPO—Chief Product Officer—ever be filled by the same person? As it turns out, yes. In this episode, I interview Chris McLaughlin, Chief Product & Marketing Officer at Nuxeo, about the importance of product marketing and how a focus on product shaped his career.   What we talked about: How a background in product marketing gave him insight into customer needs The full circle of the product-based buyer journey Benefits of getting completely off the grid at least once a year Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play!

How'd you like to be the CMO that takes your org from 30M to 100M in less than a decade? To do that, you'll have to drill down into content marketing. In this episode, I interview Joshua Leatherman, CMO at Service Express, about his content marketing wins.   What we talked about: Hire the will, teach the skill How to bring the buyer in to your content marketing approach Going all in on content Not waiting for a big vacation but making the weekends meaningful Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play!

Fun is the key to engagement on social media.    Fun doesn't mean irresponsible or irreverent—but it's a quality that takes our responses from mediocre “like” to up to “love.”   Fun is a personality trait that also marks an effective brand. At least, that's the mantra of one of the most successful brand builders who focuses on telling compelling stories.   In this episode, I interview Henk Campher, VP of Corporate Marketing at Hootsuite:   What we talked about: How to work for Nelson Mandela, Marc Benioff, Starbucks, and Salesforce Work should be fun, and so should brands Marketers sell their brains, so pouring back into your mind is essential   Check out this resource we mentioned during the podcast: Creating a Sustainable Brand by Henk Campher   Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play! 

Strategic selling starts with trust. And when someone chooses to work with a marketer at an agency, they're pretty much putting their job into your hands.  In this episode, I interview Andrea Lechner-Becker, CMO at LeadMD, about selling strategically vs. functionally.   What we talked about: Selling strategically versus selling functionally  What it's like selling people's brains and problem-solving abilities If you write a novel about only having 60 days to live, you gain a new outlook on life How Andrea stepped away from her job to work on a passion project for a year   Check out this resource we mentioned during the podcast: Andrea's debut novel, Sixty Days Left Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play!

In an ideal world, when a marketer leads with the value their product or service provides, then follows up with a price that's surprisingly good for that value, closing a deal would be easy.  But in reality, it isn't always that simple.  In this episode, I interview Patrick Moorhead, Chief Marketing Officer at Price f(x):   What we talked about: When to introduce the pricing conversation into the buyer journey Formally asking someone to be your mentor (despite the awkwardness) The most overlooked component of the price discussion: feelings Finding little quality moments with family can equal an entire vacation Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play!

In a mobile-first world, how do we capture engagement? Creating a buyer's journey that feels real, authentic, and engaging is pretty much the only way to get a B2C or even a B2B consumer not to tune out.  In this episode, I interview Tara Ryan, CMO at Swrve, about consumer engagement and overseeing two IPOs: What we talked about: Being demand-minded is even more important than being marketing-minded Consumer attention is all about value How small startups can show authenticity at every stage in the buyer's journey Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website.

The decision to cancel a 1,000+ person event isn't an easy one, but it ultimately comes down to the health and safety of your attendees.  And unfortunately, many businesses are in the same boat right now.  In this episode, I interview Peter Isaacson, CMO at Demandbase, about his team's decision to postpone the ABM Innovation Summit, and how important it is for marketers to be flexible.    What we talked about: The two essential traits in marketing team members early on Practical strategies for being flexible after a postponement Why an annual vacation should be two weeks, not one Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play!

Which part of the buyer's journey is arguably most important and often the least integrated into your team? Content. I had a stellar conversation about marketing ownership over the entire customer journey with Steven Shapiro, VP of Marketing at CleverTap. What we talked about: The 4 Ds of taking a hiring chance Integrating content is just one example of how marketing has ownership over the whole customer journey Exercise makes 80 hour work weeks doable Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website.

The next wave of B2B marketing has arrived.    Marketing and revenue executives are re-thinking their infrastructure, process, and approach to meet changing customer and executive expectations. What worked in the first era of modern marketing, will not deliver in the next era.   In this episode of The Marketer's Journey, I check in with Scott Vaughan, Chief Growth Officer at Integrate, Inc.   In addition to the new era of B2B marketing, we discuss:   Mapping out a career from VP level to C level Encouraging internal change management Bringing real innovation back to the B2B space Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play.

Success isn't having a lot of money from VCs or investors. It's signing on customers. In this episode of The Marketer's Journey, I catch up with the former CMO at Tableau Software turned advisor, Elissa Fink. She shares her journey through the marketing world and how she found value by helping customers get smarter. We also discuss: What the true sign of success is for startups Working and thriving within budget constraints The value of taking risks with startups who don't have the brand recognition yet Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website.

The sales process is broken. Nobody actually enjoys buying anymore—especially not software. And when it comes to most sales processes, the human touch has just disappeared. I recently talked with Ryan Bonnici, CMO at G2, about his approach to this problem. What we talked about: How being a mini CMO prepared him to wear all the CMO hats His take on how the sales process is broken (& how to streamline it) Why marketers should think like consumers Four weeks off a year is the bare minimum Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play!

Content and thought leadership are both king. But if they had a fight, content would win.   First off, content doesn't just have to be a thought leadership exercise. Secondly, it isn't something that just the content marketer owns.   On this episode, I interview Natalie Lambert, Chief Marketing Officer at Instart, about creating content and culture:   What we talked about: Natalie is highly self-taught and has a voracious passion for learning What the exact relationships between content and thought leadership should be Why culture and team dynamics are everything Go on safari to truly disconnect from work (and see big cats) Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website.

Does the term “growth hacking” make you cringe?   What if we called it “analytically measuring ROI conversion rates at each point of the funnel and applying ingenuitive methods to the customer journey”?   On this episode, I interview Patrick Edmonds, CMO at Proposify, about explosive growth:   What we talked about: Is the quick path to CMO a good or bad thing? How to balance two execs who each focus on demand and content communications Don't let vacation days pile up. Take a staycation instead. Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website.

What do you think of having a “smarketing” department? It's one team, essentially, with two interior sets: marketing and inside sales.   In this episode of The Marketer's Journey, I interview Edwin Abl, CMO at Modulr, about heading up the smarketing department.   What we talked about: The entrepreneurial mindset inspires marketing leadership in so many ways Where should SDRs sit, marketing or sales? (Marketing, actually) Why you should put your laptop and phone in the cupboard after 7:30 PM   Check out this resource we mentioned during the podcast: Edwin's site: www.edwinabl.com Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website.

At DW's company, there are 60 in sales and 8 in marketing. Yet he counts the marketers as part of sales (and the SDRs as part of marketing). This exemplifies the extent to which marketing IS sales—in other words, smarketing.   In this episode, I interview Dailius Wilson, VP of Sales and Growth at Get Accept, about how he positions sales and marketing.   What we talked about: Why he has 60 salespeople and 8 marketers How he's excited to use tech to influence the buyer experience Learning languages, writing plays, DJing, and Hollywood life   Check out these resources we mentioned during the podcast: DW and his brother were on the Ellen Show Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website.

It's not really a buyer's funnel anymore. It's a buyer's circle — with 9+ on a buying committee at any given time. Which makes things seem pretty impossible to personalize.   On this episode, I interview Meredyth Jensen, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Brand Communications at RGP:   What we talked about: How taking a wandering career path can be highly advantageous Communicating with buyers using the methodology they prefer You can't be fully present for your team if you're burned out Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website.

It can be a huge struggle to get started in a new role when you don't have good records. Or any records. And building a content marketing strategy from scratch is a challenging feat for anyone!    On this episode, I interview Patrick Spencer, Senior Director of Content Marketing at Fortinet:   What we talked about: What it was like for Patrick to start his career mid-30s with a Ph.D. The questions Patrick asked to form the journey stages for customers Where to start when you're starting a content strategy Why we love Iceland   Check out these resources we mentioned during the podcast: The CISO Collective, where you can read Patrick's articles   Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website.  

Every step of the marketer's journey takes trust: from implicitly trusting your team to creating innate trust in your company's brand.    On this episode, I interview Jeanne Hopkins, CMO at Lola.com:   What we talked about: Trusting your team, 3 buyer personas, and the impossibility of using the same messaging Creating content for individual personas and the Voice of the Customer meeting Where you vacation when you work for a travel company (New Hampshire, actually) Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website.

Don't choose an opportunity based on the role. Look for a cause, not a job (something you're so excited about that you'll do pretty much anything to be a part of that story). On this episode, I interview Latane Conant, CMO at 6sense: What we talked about: Why she chooses her job based on a cause she believes in All about the details of implementing V2MOM  Keeping your inner kid and being an unofficial waterski instructor Check out these resources we mentioned: Trailhead on Writing a V2MOM Marc Benioff's book Behind the Cloud  Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website.

What's it like in your first year of your first job as head of marketing? For one thing, you have to build your team. On this episode, I interview James Winter, VP of Marketing at Brandfolder, about his first year in his first VP marketing role. What we talked about: From job hopper to explosive growth at his first VP role Sell to the buyers, not to the analysts If you're looking for the trip of a lifetime, go to Colombia Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website.

I love speaking to marketing leaders…learning about how they got where they are, what worked and what backfired. I also love having them challenge my ideas. It gives me a fresh perspective that I can take back and share with my team. So many times when I've been having these conversations I've wished we'd been recording them — there's just so much value in what these leaders have to say. Well, get ready. Because from now on, that's exactly what we're doing.  This is Episode 0, our introductory episode, of The Marketer's Journey. In this episode you'll get to know our host, Randy Frisch, CMO at Uberflip. We'll also talk about what you can expect this show to look like going forward.

Marketing is a discipline with a lot of functionally specific excellence—and a good CMO will let them get on with their expertise. CMOs have to be able to explain the executive team's needs to the marketing team and vice versa. On this first episode of The Marketer's Journey, I got to talk with Maria Pergolino, Chief Marketing Officer at Forbes Communications Council. What we talked about: Why you should let the email marketer get on with sending email How Maria's high points were also her low points The 2 pieces of advice for a senior marketer to jump into the executive team Mentorship vs. Sponsorship Balancing over 80,000 customers Find The Marketer's Journey on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and here.

To create trust in the buyer's journey, you have to be consistent. Just as employees have to buy into the brand of their organizations, buyers have to buy into the brand and the product. On this episode, I interview Julie Springer, CMO at TransUnion, about how to build a consistent brand — and therefore build trust: What we talked about: Career Journey: your team will fail without a sense of mutual trust Buyer's Journey: brand consistency is everything Personal Journey: work/life balance often means ditching your phone Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website.

82% of the buying cycle is spent doing research, but not research that includes talking to salespeople. It's in front of their computers or phones. On this episode, I interview Christina Bottis, CMO at Coyote Logistics What we talked about: Career Journey: Mentors who encourage you to leave the comfort zone are everything Customer Journey: Creating the buyer journey starts with empathy with the buyer Personal Journey: How to love your work travel and keep yourself balanced Check out this and other episodes of The Marketer's Journey at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or our website.