Podcasts about marketing podcast

Hesitant or too busy for AI? No worries. Competitor A is already gapping you and you don't even smell it. Dive in and see a real case study now.   https://dentco.us https://youtube.com/@dentcopdr

A key theme that emerged was the influence of hidden psychological triggers—such as trust, simplicity, placement of CTAs, and personalization—on driving purchases and conversions. The discussion explored why focusing on consumer outcomes, using keywords aligned with search intent, and maintaining clear, concise messaging at a 5th-grade reading level are essential for maximizing website conversion rates. Several points were raised, including the importance of fast-loading, visually optimized pages with above-the-fold CTAs, minimal form fields, and tailored button text, all of which can significantly improve user experience and reduce friction. Proven strategies such as benchmarking against industry conversion rates, budgeting to avoid impulse purchases, and making sites accessible were also highlighted, offering actionable insights for marketers and business owners aiming to enhance their digital sales funnels.Who Is This For?The conversation focused on business owners, entrepreneurs, marketers, and anyone seeking to increase online sales and improve their website conversions. It is especially relevant for those interested in understanding the hidden psychological triggers that influence consumer buying behavior. Whether running an e-commerce shop, developing landing pages, or offering professional services, these insights aim to help optimize the digital customer journey and drive measurable results.Key Moments & TimestampsIntroduction to Psychological Triggers & Setting the Stage 00:00:05The Importance of First 5 Seconds & Above the Fold Content 00:05:50The Power of Keywords and Messaging for Trust 00:17:29Impact of Simplicity: 5th-Grade Reading Level Copy 00:24:48Median Conversion Rate Benchmarks & Short Copy Benefits 00:30:33Importance of Above the Fold & CTA Placement 00:41:37Sales Cycles Based on Deal Size 00:47:13Budgeting to Avoid Buyer's Remorse 00:55:55Checkout/Lead Form Field Optimization 01:00:14Personalized vs. Generic Calls to Action 01:02:22Accessibility & Decision Fatigue 01:05:035 Key Points1️⃣ First Impressions Make or Break SalesA key theme that emerged was the importance of the first 5 seconds—60% of users won't scroll past the top of a page. If your hook isn't clear and outcome-focused, they bounce.You have FIVE SECONDS to show them their dream, not your bio. 06:122️⃣ Keep It Simple, Keep Them BuyingThe discussion explored the power of simple sales copy. Pages written at a 5th-grade level convert up to 110% better than 8th-grade+ text. Every extra syllable or convoluted word? That's friction, not persuasion. 25:463️⃣ Above-the-Fold Buttons = 317% More ConversionsOne concept discussed was the impact of “above the fold.” Place your #1 call-to-action before users need to scroll. This alone can boost conversions by 317%. Let them click before they have time to second-guess! 41:58For more support, listeners are encouraged to book a 30-minute discovery call, or subscribe to upcoming training and resources.4️⃣ Less Friction = More MoneySeveral points were raised, including the number of form fields at checkout. Reduce to five or less, and conversion rates climb 120%. Every extra field is a potential lost customer. 01:00:145️⃣ Personalize Your CTAsPersonalized Call-To-Action buttons (“Grab your spot”, “Claim your bag”) outperform generic “Buy Now” by 202%. The little words you choose make a BIG difference in how ready people are to say yes. 01:02:46Bonus: Trust Is the Real CurrencyA central piece: none of this matters without trust. Fast-loading pages, relevant keywords, clear copy—all build micro-trust. Lose it, and you'll spend forever (maybe never) getting it back. 17:23Takeaway:Optimize for brains, not just clicks.Capture dreams in secondsKeep everything simpleMake actions effortless, immediate, and personalAlways build trust firstFAQsQ: What is the most important area to optimize on a sales page?A: Above the fold content and CTA placement are crucial; keeping key messages and calls to action visible without scrolling can boost conversions by up to 317% 00:41:37.Q: How simple should my sales copy be?A: Aim for a 5th- to 7th-grade reading level; this increases conversions by 56%–110% over more complex copy 00:24:48.Q: What's the ideal number of form fields at checkout?A: Five or fewer; reducing form complexity can lift conversion rates by 120% 01:00:18.Q: Does button text matter?A: Yes, tailoring CTA text to the specific context or segment can improve click-through rates by over 200% compared to generic “Buy Now” buttons 01:02:22.Q: How can I avoid buyer's remorse for my customers?A: Encourage budgeting, avoid impulse purchases, and allow decision time to ensure purchases align with real needs 00:55:55.Action Steps for Favour Obasi-ikeReview Sales Copy: Ensure all web copy is written at a 5th-grade level or simpler 00:24:48.Audit CTA Placement: Place primary call-to-action buttons and benefit headlines above the fold on all major pages 00:41:37.Simplify Checkout Forms: Limit lead and checkout forms to a maximum of five essential fields 01:00:18.Personalize CTA Buttons: Replace generic button text with context-relevant phrases to boost engagement 01:02:22.Benchmark Conversion Rates: Compare landing page performance to the 6.6% median industry standard and adjust as needed 00:30:33.Align with Search Intent: Use transactional keywords in headlines and content for maximum conversion potential 00:17:29.Optimize for Accessibility: Ensure mobile and desktop experiences are easily navigable for all users 01:05:03.Educate Audience: Share budgeting and purchase decision frameworks to foster loyal, satisfied customers 00:55:55.Wondering which trigger could DOUBLE your sales? Start with your CTA and above-the-fold layout. The difference is immediate.Ready to Rank? Book Your SEO & Web Dev Services Today

Marketing im Kopf - ein Podcast von Luis Binder In dieser Folge wird über verschiedene Unternehmen gesprochen, da Markennamen genannt werden, handelt es sich um UNBEZAHLTE WERBUNG!In dieser Folge: In der heutigen Podcast Folge von Marketing im Kopf sind Verena Sudarić-Hefner und Philipp Zwez zu Gast und gemeinsam sprechen wir heute über Cultural Marketing. Verena und Philipp sind Gründer und Geschäftsführer von PIERCE. Beide waren davor unter anderem viele Jahre bei Universal Music beschäftigt: Philipp als Managing Director for Brands, Verena als Senior Director Brand Strategy & Creation. PIERCE ist eine Agentur die Marken mit Kultur und Entertainment verbindet, zum Beispiel durch Musik, Gaming und die Zusammenarbeit mit Künstlern und ihren Communities und arbeitet mit Unternehmen wie Zalando, Fiat, DAZN und vielen vielen weiteren.  In der heutigen Folge sprechen wir über Cultural Marketing und darüber, wie Marken mit echten Erlebnissen Nähe zu ihrer Zielgruppe schaffen. Warum wird Lidl für Musikstars interessant? Wie entstand die Pizza von Capital Bra? Und wie werden aus Live-Events Geschichten, die Menschen freiwillig teilen?____________________________________________Hier kannst du Verena Sudarić-Hefner und Philipp Zwez erreichen: Linkedin Verena: https://www.linkedin.com/in/verena-sudari%C4%87-hefnerLinkedin Philipp: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zwez____________________________________________Unternehmen PIERCE: Webseite: ⁠⁠https://www.pierceculture.com/LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/pierce-culture/____________________________________________Über den Podcast: In dem Podcast Marketing im Kopf soll es um die Frage gehen, was notwendig ist, um ein Produkt oder eine Dienstleistung gut vermarkten zu können und was für grundsätzliche Strategien verfolgt und ganz leicht umgesetzt werden können. Egal, ob du selbst im Bereich Marketing arbeitest, oder, ob du dich einfach nur für das Thema interessierst, in diesem Marketing-Podcast lernst du alle Grundlagen und Strategien, die aktuell im Marketing verwendet werden. ____________________________________________Vernetz dich gerne auf LinkedIn: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/luisbinder/⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/marketingimkopf/⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Du hast Fragen, Anregungen oder Ideen? Melde dich unter: marketingimkopf@gmail.com Die Website zum Podcast findest du hier. [⁠⁠⁠https://bit.ly/2WN7tH5⁠⁠⁠]

This episode dives deep into using Google AdSense for website monetization. Key strategies Favour Obasi-ike, MBA, MS included are blogging regularly with a focus on informational and commercial keywords, optimizing technical SEO (site speed, mobile performance, image optimization), and leveraging multiple traffic sources such as Google search, social media, and referrals. The discussion emphasizes understanding AdSense payout thresholds and analytics, using content clusters to increase page views, and continuously refining your website for better search visibility and revenue. Real-life insights, especially from Celese's experience, showcase the unexpectedly large impact of even a single well-performing blog post.For more support, listeners are encouraged to book a 30-minute discovery call, or subscribe to upcoming training and resources.Who Is This For?This episode is for small business owners, website/blog owners, content creators, entrepreneurs, and anyone interested in earning passive income through website monetization—especially using Google AdSense. It's also highly relevant for those looking to improve their SEO strategies to drive traffic and increase online revenue.Key Moments & Topics (with Timestamps)Welcoming the audience and introducing Google AdSense 00:00Explanation of what Google AdSense is and its importance 00:02:32Celeste's story of unexpected blog traffic via AI-generated content 00:06:44Importance of blogging consistently and building web traffic 00:11:30Detailed walkthrough of the Google AdSense user dashboard and features 00:15:02Payment thresholds and requirements for AdSense monetization 00:12:02How traffic sources (Google, social media, referrals) drive AdSense earnings 00:30:38Creating topical clusters and interlinked content for SEO and user retention 00:38:10Discussion on technical SEO: website speed, images, schema, and internal linking 00:51:05Comparing Google AdSense to other advertising/monetization platforms 00:50:07Actionable advice: spend time on SEO before paying for ads 00:55:16Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)Q: What is Google AdSense?A: An advertising program from Google that allows eligible website owners/bloggers to monetize their online content through display ads 00:02:42.Q: How does blogging help with AdSense earnings?A: Regular blogging drives website traffic, which increases ad impressions and the potential for revenue 00:13:00.Q: What is the minimum payout for AdSense?A: The threshold is $1,000 before payout is initiated 00:12:02.Q: Do I need good SEO for AdSense?A: Yes. Technical SEO, fast loading times, and relevant keywords are crucial for attracting and retaining traffic 00:51:05.Q: Are there alternatives to Google AdSense with better rates?A: Yes, but it depends on your niche and traffic source. Search for "AdSense alternatives" for more info 00:50:07.Ready to Rank? Book Your SEO & Web Dev Services Today

Guillaume, VP Content Marteting chez Shine I Cegid, nous explique ce qu'il attend des équipes PMM pour réussir la collaboration et les process mis en place.Dans l'épisode complet découvrez :Au programme :

This episode dives deep into the distinction between SEO marketing research and strategy, emphasizing the foundational role of your website for long-term discoverability, authority, and monetization. Favour Obasi-ike, MBA, MS argues that while social platforms provide community and engagement, true ownership and sustainable growth come from building an optimized, content-rich, and technically sound website. The discussion spans the nuances of technical SEO, the power of toolkits and resources, strategies for competing in an AI-driven search world, and actionable tactics for entrepreneurs wanting to future-proof their presence.For more support, listeners are encouraged to book a 30-minute discovery call, or subscribe to upcoming training and resources.Who Is This Episode For?This episode is for business owners, entrepreneurs, creators, and marketers—especially those wanting to understand or enhance their approach to SEO, marketing strategy, and building sustainable digital visibility. It's highly relevant to those considering the balance between social media and independent platforms like websites for building authority, credibility, and long-term engagement.Key Moments & TimestampsIntroduction & Importance of SEO vs. Marketing Strategy00:00:02 – [Favor] lays out the focus: SEO marketing research vs. SEO marketing strategy.Content-Led SEO and Social Media's Role00:09:33 – Explanation of content creation, topic clusters, and why your website and social media presence must work together.The 4 Types of Media & Brand Control00:14:05 – [Favor] distinguishes owned, paid, shared, and earned media and emphasizes building ownership via your website.Social Proof, Domain Authority, and the Website's Central Role00:22:57 – Discussion about how websites provide trust, enable list-building, and outlast temporary social trends.Building Tools/Toolkits for Traffic & AI Searchability00:43:09 – The value of offering digital tools on your site and considerations for AI model visibility.Schema, Technical SEO, and Structuring for the Future00:35:04 – Practical details on schema, site architecture, and local SEO for scalable, resilient traffic.Competitor & Keyword Gap Research: Free Tool Highlight00:57:54 – [Favor] introduces intentgaps.com for spotting and filling keyword/content gaps.Balancing Free vs. Gated Tools/Resources01:05:21 – Insights into offering free toolkits vs. requiring information for access.Frequently Asked Questions1. Why is a website more valuable than just having social media accounts?Because you own the content, can control the narrative, build domain authority, enable SEO for long-term discoverability, and are less vulnerable to platform changes or outages (00:15:07, 00:53:10).2. How can I make my website more visible to AI search models?Ensure schema optimization, FAQ/listicle/glossary pages, keep information up-to-date, and include files like llms.txt to help AI models crawl your content efficiently (00:43:25).3. Should I offer my digital tools for free or require user information?[Favor] recommends a hybrid approach: some free access for traffic, with gated portions (email or payment required) to encourage conversions and retargeting (01:05:21).4. What is the impact of building content clusters and topic authority?It builds trust signals for search engines, increases website dwell time, and positions your site as an expert resource (00:10:39, 00:31:10).5. What tools can I use for keyword gap or competitor analysis?Intentgaps.com is highlighted for quickly spotting missing content and keyword opportunities (00:57:54).Action StepsAudit Your Website:Check for technical SEO basics—schema, meta tags, local pages, current copyright info (00:35:04, 00:53:18).Create Content Clusters:Build topic-focused blog series and link them internally.Add/Freshen FAQs and Glossary:Make your site more valuable to both users and AI search models (00:49:02).List and Gaps Analysis:Use intentgaps.com to compare your site's topics with competitors (00:57:54).Decide Toolkit Strategy:Determine what portion of free vs. gated resources to offer (01:05:21), and plan email list growth accordingly.Monitor & Update:Keep your site content fresh—update copyright, add new case studies or tools, and regularly review analytics for new opportunities (00:53:10).Ready to Rank? Book Your SEO & Web Dev Services Today

Comment sortir du lot sur Apple Podcasts et Spotify une fois que votre podcast est publié ?Des milliers de podcasts se battent pour la même audience, mais vous avez le pouvoir de booster votre visibilité et d'attirer plus d'auditeurs que vos concurrents !

Ai has never been more powerful. From helping businesses like yours and mine to helping a house sell with better marketing, photos, video and strategy. We got a record sale, sold in 2 days with 5 backup offers OVER asking price. Over 100 people came to the open house and the police even showed up-   AKA Don't sleep on AI   Lend an ear now. https://dentco.us

Dein Name und deine Person ist Millionen Wert, wenn du verstehst wie Personal Branding wirklich funktioniert. Personal Branding, also deine eigene Personenmarke aufzubauen kann der größte Hebel für dein Unternehmen / Business sein. Wenn du es aber falsch angehst, kann von heute auf morgen auch alles wieder zusammenfallen, siehe Fall JP Performance. In dieser Episode des Next Level Business Podcast erklärt Unternehmer Max Weiß ganz genau wie Personal Branding funktioniert, wie du damit Millionen machen kannst und analysiert dabei den Fall JP Performance.

On prend du recul sur le Product Marketing à travers le regard d'un partenaire clé : le Content Marketing.Cette conversation avec Guillaume, VP Content Marteting chez Shine I Cegid, vous aidera à mieux comprendre les attentes des équipes Marketing, les ingrédients d'une collaboration efficace avec les PMM et l'évolution de la fonction dans un contexte marqué par l'IA et la transformation des organisations.Au programme :

Levi's and TBWA leaders reveal how the brand tapped Beyoncé, reimagined its iconic advertising through a female lens and turned big cultural moments into lasting momentum. Dive into more insights and inspiration from leaders in ad tech: https://www.thecurrent.com/ Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

A step by step guide how to use the new and improved Youtube.   Youtube has never been easier   https://dentco.us https://youtube.com/@dentco

A key theme that emerged was the impact of trial structure on user acquisition and conversion optimization by Favour Obasi-ike, MBA, MS. Free trials without card requirements drive higher volume but lower user commitment and retention, typically achieving 8-25% opt-in rates. Free trials that require a card—even at $0—deliver 30-50% opt-in rates and greater psychological attachment. Paid trials, even at a nominal amount, filter for high-intent users, lead to 51%+ opt-in rates, and yield better final conversion rates into paying customers. The discussion explored strategies for leveraging HVCO (high-value content offers) versus LCVO (low-content value offers), and underscored the importance of financial commitment on day one for building sustainable, quality user bases.Who Is This For?The conversation focused on website owners, entrepreneurs, business builders, and anyone considering how to use free or paid trials to drive conversions, engagement, and revenue for digital products or services. The discussion is especially relevant for those managing memberships, courses, newsletters, events, or any online offering looking to optimize user acquisition and retention strategies.For more support, listeners are encouraged to book a call, or subscribe to upcoming training and resources.Key MomentsOpening emphasis on the evolving relevance of free trials versus paid trials 00:01:12Clear explanation of "free" vs. "paid" trials and psychological attachment 00:02:08Discussion of opt-in rates and findings from Growth Unhinged and RevenueCat 00:05:22Detailed breakdown of conversion rates for each type of trial 00:07:19Psychological impact and perceived value of financial commitment 00:09:51Live FAQ: Are free trials better for conversions? Answer: Paid trials are better 00:12:56Analogy of phone numbers/emails and level of user commitment 00:14:55Filtering out low-intent users with paid or card-on-file trials 00:17:30Long-term vs. short-term strategy and the importance of first-day financial commitment 00:19:18Actionable call to decide between free and paid trials for your business 00:20:19Use cases and examples (newsletters, magazines, events, courses) 00:23:55Closing encouragement to take action, test, and iterate 00:28:39TimestampsIntroduction and framing: 00:01:12Trial types and user psychology: 00:02:08Research findings and opt-in data: 00:05:22Conversion rate breakdown: 00:07:19Financial commitment and user value: 00:09:51Conversion FAQ clarified: 00:12:56User filtering and targeting: 00:17:30Decision points for business owners: 00:20:19Use cases and practical advice: 00:23:55Action encouragement: 00:28:39FAQsQ: Are free trials better for conversions than paid ones?A key theme was that paid trials yield higher-quality conversions compared to free trials. Free trials without financial attachment tend to have lower retention and conversion 00:12:56.Q: What's the impact of requiring a credit card on a free trial?Requiring a card signals higher user intent and increases opt-in conversion rates to 30–50% 00:09:00.Q: Should I offer free content or put up a paywall from the start?The discussion explored both options and suggested aligning trial structure with long-term business goals and customer quality 00:21:36.Action StepsAssess your business goals: Volume vs. quality of leads? 00:12:31Decide between free, free-with-card, or paid trials for your offerings 00:20:23Experiment with HVCO and LCVO to see what content drives true interest 00:05:03Set up clear processes for card-on-file or paid entry, even at a low amount 00:16:58Analyze your conversion metrics regularly and optimize for commitment and retention 00:19:11Test, iterate, and don't hesitate to filter out low-intent users for long-term business health 00:28:39Ready to Rank? Book Your SEO & Web Dev Services Today

The discussion with Favour Obasi-ike, MBA, MS focused on why websites often attract high traffic but fail to convert that into sales, highlighting issues like confusing navigation, unclear offers, and lack of trust signals. John emphasized the importance of SEO and targeted keywords for driving the right kind of traffic that is more likely to convert 00:29:58. Carol and Celese stressed the need for an easy, streamlined purchasing process and understanding user behavior to minimize drop-off points 00:33:00 00:35:11. Participants emphasized using analytics and A/B testing to regularly refine content and calls to action for better conversion rates 01:04:04. The group agreed that clarity, trust, and simplicity are key factors in turning website traffic into actual sales 01:09:06.SummarySEO Is Essential: Multiple guests, especially Celeste and John, attribute business growth and audience reach primarily to consistent SEO efforts through content, keywords, and high-authority backlinks (Celeste at 06:10, John at 03:38).Content & Relevance: Content specifically targeting transactional keywords and providing clear, relevant information converts better. Consistency and updating content regularly are emphasized (Celeste at 35:40).Technical Elements: Secure sites (HTTPS), user-friendly navigation, fast load times, and mobile responsiveness are critical for both SEO and user trust (43:12).Analytics: Using tools like Google Analytics or Fathom Analytics to track user paths, page popularity, and drop-off points enables continual optimization (01:09:56).Trust Factors: Payment options, clarity on pricing, and visible security all influence both SEO ranking (indirectly) and actual conversions.Who is This For?This episode is for small business owners, entrepreneurs, web designers, marketers, and anyone interested in understanding why their website might generate traffic but not convert visitors into sales. It's especially valuable for those seeking actionable SEO insights and practical website optimization strategies.Key Moments & TimestampsIntroduction to the problem of website traffic vs. sales 00:00John introduces his podcast/radio brand and SEO focus 03:09Celeste shares her SEO success and journey from struggling entrepreneur to full-time business owner 05:05Carol introduces expertise in Shopify and Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) 11:39Discussion: Website navigation, tabs, and user experience (John, Celese, Carol) 17:52The role of ease, simplicity, and minimizing steps for conversions (Celese) 35:11Pricing transparency, payment methods, and abandoned carts 43:12Tools, analytics, and actionable next steps 01:09:56Summary roundtable: final takeaways and implementation advice (John, Celese, Carol) 01:05:46For more support, listeners are encouraged to book a call, or subscribe to upcoming training and resources.FAQsQ: Why does my website get traffic but no sales?A: Common reasons include poor navigation, too many steps at checkout, unclear offers, lack of trust signals, and disconnect between content and buyer intent (Celeste at 36:15, 43:32).Q: What's the most important SEO tactic for small business?A: Keyword research focused on what your buyers are searching for, plus consistent, clear content supported by reputable backlinks (John at 03:38, Celeste at 06:10).Q: Should links on my site open in new tabs?A: Only external links should open new tabs. Internal navigation should stay in the same tab for a seamless user experience (Celeste at 19:01, Carol at 19:49).Q: How do I know where people are dropping off my site?A: Use analytics tools to monitor page visits, bounce rates, and conversion funnels (Carol at 01:04:04).Action Steps for Favour Obasi-ikeHighlight offers/service links more clearly (CLARITY = SALES) in all call-to-action buttons and navigation (01:09:02).Refine site navigation: Ensure internal links do not open in new tabs and streamline the visitor path for ease of use (Celeste at 19:01).Request user feedback: Regularly test your website's checkout and inquiry process from multiple devices (50:30).Show payment options upfront: Add visible payment logos and ensure broad compatibility (48:13).Install/Review Analytics: Regularly review entry and exit pages to find and fix drop-off points (01:09:56).Gather client source data: Continue to ask every client how they found you, using that info to double down on winning channels (Celeste at 06:07).A/B test changes: When updating navigation, CTAs, or checkout, track the impact using metrics for ongoing improvement (Carol at 01:04:43).Educate with transparency: Update website copy and offers to set clear expectations and reduce confusion (01:09:06).Ready to Rank? Book Your SEO & Web Dev Services Today

In the latest episode of Scratch, Nick Tran, President and CMO of First Round, breaks down what culture actually looks like when people put their phones down, why brands are over-indexing on micro-cultures, and what it takes to create work that cuts through the sea of sameness.From building Cîroc Athletic Club into a media and events platform to rethinking the traditional conference format at Cannes, Tran shares how brands can respond to changing social behaviors by creating spaces people genuinely want to be part of.We get into:→ Why culture is really about the “campfire conversations” happening off-screen→ Why the next big opportunity might be moving from micro-culture back to macro-cultural moments→ How Cîroc Athletic Club turned changing drinking habits into a 20M+ monthly-view media ecosystem→ Why the best experiential marketing gives people space to play, connect, and surprise each other→ What the “30 moons” approach to AI means for creativity, taste, and human judgment→ Why brands should stop worrying about who did an idea first and focus on who does it best→ Why intimate, practitioner-led conversations are replacing the traditional marketing conferenceThe key takeaways:Culture happens around the campfire — Culture isn't just music, sport, fashion, or whatever is trending on your feed. It's the conversations people have when the screens go away. That's where brands should be looking for cultural insight.Micro-culture isn't the only answer — The industry has spent years fragmenting audiences into increasingly niche communities. When everyone is doing the same thing, going bigger can be the more distinctive move.AI needs a human with taste — The first AI output is rarely the best one. Tran's “30 moons” principle is about pushing through iteration after iteration until you find something genuinely distinctive. AI can generate. Humans still need to know what's great.Socializing is changing — Younger consumers aren't necessarily going out just to drink. Active leisure like pickleball, tennis, and golf is becoming the reason to gather, with alcohol playing a secondary role. Brands need to build around the behavior, not force the old one.Build platforms, not campaigns — Cîroc Athletic Club turned a cultural shift into an ongoing media and events ecosystem, taking organic social views from 100,000 to more than 20 million a month.Kill the grind — At Cannes, First Round deliberately removed the panels, packed schedules, and endless meetings. Leisure created the conditions for the conversations and connections everyone was actually there for.Execution beats originality — Consumers don't care who technically did something first. They care about who did it best. Fear of being derivative shouldn't stop brands from executing a good idea brilliantly.The conference needs a rethink — Senior marketers don't necessarily need another panel. They need access to people who have actually done the work, in environments where genuine conversation can happen.Watch the video version of this podcast on Youtube ▶️: https://youtu.be/najVJ8Fd9lg Scratch is a production of Rival, a marketing innovation consultancy. Scratch is hosted by Eric Fulwiler, and he's joined by Nick Tran of First Round in this episode.Find Rival: wearerival.com | LinkedInFind Eric: LinkedInFind Nick: LinkedInSay hi: media@wearerival.com Rival is a marketing consultancy for brands that want to challenge convention in their category. We're on a mission to understand what challenger brands do differently to grow in categories that are being disrupted, and use a challenger playbook to deliver outsized impact through an integrated, tech-enabled approach. Past guests include CMOs from Mastercard, GE, Shell, Hyperloop, Adobe, PepsiCo, and Papa Johns.

Episode Summary In the final episode of The Amazing Intern ChatGPT Experiment Podcast, host Cary Weston reflects on three years of learning, experimenting, teaching, and sharing what he has discovered about ChatGPT and AI. Cary looks back at the moment that first sparked his curiosity—a demonstration of ChatGPT in a conference room in Jackson Hole, Wyoming—and how that curiosity eventually turned into coaching, teaching, and a podcast heard by people around the world. He explains why now feels like the right time to bring the podcast to a close. AI is changing incredibly quickly, and keeping the show going would mean shifting toward constant updates about new tools and features, which was never the purpose of the podcast. Cary feels he has shared the frameworks, lessons, and ideas he set out to teach, and he doesn't want to keep producing episodes simply for the sake of producing them. While the podcast is ending, Cary believes the archive still offers plenty of useful, evergreen guidance for anyone learning how to work with AI. His core message remains the same: treat AI like an amazing intern. Explain what you're doing, why you're doing it, what success looks like, and then work through the problem together. Most of all, Cary closes the show with the idea that the most important part of working with AI isn't the platform or technology. It's your curiosity. His hope is that the podcast has helped listeners become more confident in following theirs. 3 Key Takeaways Curiosity matters more than the tool. AI platforms will continue to change, but being willing to explore, ask questions, experiment, and learn will remain valuable. Treat AI like an amazing intern. Give it context, explain what you're trying to accomplish, describe what success looks like, and make the process a conversation instead of expecting the perfect answer from one prompt. Knowing when to stop matters too. Cary is ending the podcast because he feels he has shared what he set out to share. Rather than force new episodes or turn the show into an AI-news podcast, he's choosing to leave listeners with an archive of practical lessons that can continue to help people who are just getting started. Cary offers customized one-on-one ChatGPT training in 60 minute sessions. Find out more information on the sessions, answers to frequent questions, and how to register at www.ChatGPTExperiment.com +++++++++ CONNECT WITH CARY ChatGPT Podcast Website: www.amazingintern.ai Marketing Podcast: www.PracticalMarketingShow.com Cary's Agency Website: www.CMWeston.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/caryweston

Un bon PMM ne se contente plus d'appliquer des frameworks.Pour Capucine Roche, CEO de Letsignit, il doit comprendre le produit de bout en bout, rester proche des deals et être obsédé par le business.Dans cet extrait, elle partage les qualités qu'elle recherche aujourd'hui chez un PMM et pourquoi il faut recruter dès la phase d'early stage.Dans l'épisode complet, nous prenons du recul sur le Product Marketing à travers le regard d'une CEO, ancienne responsable marketing et impliquée depuis des années dans les sujets produit.Au programme :

Consistent content updates, correct metadata (like canonical tags), and site speed also directly affect your sales potential. Move users from social platforms (rented land) to your site (owned land), collect their emails, and continuously improve based on analytic feedback for sustainable success.Favour Obasi-ike, MBA, MS breaks it down in this episode so you can turn clicks into clients by using SEO to sell your products and services on your business website.Who Is This For?This episode is for entrepreneurs, small business owners, content creators, podcasters, and anyone aiming to sell products or services online using a website. Listeners seeking to understand website fundamentals, SEO essentials, audience analytics, and digital selling strategies will find actionable insights and clear steps to optimize online growth.For more support, listeners are encouraged to book a call, or subscribe to upcoming training and resources.Key Moments & TimestampsImportance of Website for Selling Products/Services: 00:00:02The Role of Payment Processors: 00:05:37Why Policy Pages Matter (Policies, Shipping Info, Terms): 00:07:13Pre-purchase vs. Post-purchase Customer Behavior: 00:19:15The Power of Analytics for Your Website: 00:26:53Browser & OS Impact on Audience Targeting: 00:31:02Why Website Ownership Outranks Social Media-Only Strategy: 00:45:06Website Audits—Practical Example: 01:04:17The Expanding Role of SEO and GEO: 00:58:49Key Action Steps for Audience Retention and Conversion: 01:22:06FAQsQ: Why do I need a website if I have big social media followings?A: Social media is rented land—you can be deplatformed or lose access any time. A website gives you control, credibility, visibility in AI search, and allows you to capture leads and earn revenue directly 00:46:38.Q: What's most important on my website for selling?A: Secure payment processing, clear product/service pages, updated policy/info pages, fast loading speed, and internal linking for easy navigation 00:05:37, 00:14:12.Q: How do analytics help me?A: Analytics show where visitors come from, which content they engage with, and how they buy, so you can tailor ads and products and avoid wasting budget 00:27:05.Q: What is GEO?A: Generative Engine Optimization—preparing your content and site not just for Google, but for AI/LLM search platforms that cite reliable websites 00:58:54.Q: What if I don't feel “techy” enough?A: Start simple and iterate. Hire help for technical parts, or use platforms like Podpage for podcasts. What matters most is taking ownership and taking the first step 01:20:50.Action StepsAudit Your Website: Check for up-to-date content, navigation, and canonical tags 01:04:17.Integrate Secure Payment Processing if you sell products or services 00:05:37.Create and Update Policy Pages (shipping, refunds, terms) 00:07:13.Analyze Your Analytics: Use Google Analytics to see audience, behaviors, and refine content and ads 00:26:53.Capture Emails: Move your audience from social media to your own email list for retention and remarketing 00:53:08.Speed-Test Your Website: Use tools like GTMetrix. Ensure load times

Today's conversation dives deep into three powerful pillars of online visibility: search intent, semantic search, and keyword research. You'll hear Favour Obasi-ike, MBA, MS talk about the mechanics behind how people find information, the role of intentional searches, and the evolving ways AI processes and retrieves content. Whether you're a business owner eager to optimize your website or just curious about what happens behind the scenes when you type a query, this episode unpacks everything you need to know to boost your reach and relevance online.Get ready for actionable tips and real-world examples that will help you harness the power of smarter searches.Summary & LearningsUnderstand the Four Mechanics: Indexing, query processing, retrieval, and ranking are foundational for getting discovered in search (05:33).Search Intent Drives Results: Recognize user intent—informational, navigational, commercial, transactional—for better keyword targeting (18:49).Structure Your Keyword Research: Use broad to narrow targeting. Utilize phrase and exact match to control relevance; negative keywords exclude unwanted traffic (37:46).Optimize Content Types: Incorporate multimedia (text, image, audio, video) and embed relevant posts for better reach (24:40, 25:58).Prioritize UX: Easy, clear booking and navigation processes convert more clients (32:20).Refresh Content Regularly: Each page needs updates at least every 24 months to stay competitive (56:48).Key Moments & TimestampsWhat are indexing, query processing, retrieval, ranking?Thorough breakdown of the fundamental mechanics behind keyword search and discovery:05:33Defining Search IntentUnderstanding what “search intent” means and how it guides customer behavior:09:40Types of Search Intent:InformationalNavigationalCommercialTransactionalExplained with examples: 18:49Types of Keyword MatchesBroad matchPhrase match (using quotation marks)Exact match (using square brackets)Negative keywords (filter out irrelevant traffic)Step-by-step guidance: 29:06 and 37:46Importance of Easy User ExperienceStreamlining booking and why simplicity beats complexity: 32:20Content Formats for SEOWhy using text, image, audio, and video enhances discovery: 24:40Embedding as SEO StrategyHow embedding social posts boosts indexing: 25:58Refresh Cycle for Web PagesWhy every web page needs regular updates—24-month SEO lifespan: 56:48Who Is This Episode For?This episode is ideal for entrepreneurs, business owners, marketers, service providers, and anyone seeking to understand the nuanced differences between search intent, semantic search, and keyword research. If you want practical advice on increasing your visibility online and actionable SEO strategies to convert searchers into customers, this is for you.For more support, listeners are encouraged to book a call, or subscribe to upcoming training and resources.FAQsQ: What's the difference between search intent, semantic search, and keyword research?A: Search intent is understanding why someone is searching. Semantic search considers context/meaning alongside keywords. Keyword research identifies what terms people actually use. Each approach builds on the other for effective SEO.Q: How do keyword matches influence my results?A: Broad matches cast a wide net. Phrase matches require the user search to include an exact phrase. Exact matches show your result only for the exact query. Negative keywords prevent unwanted clicks (e.g., blocking “free” if you sell paid services).Q: How often should I update my website?A: Pages should be refreshed every 24 months to maintain SEO performance (56:48).Action StepsAudit Your Website: Ensure every page is indexed and updated within 24 months (56:48).Clarify Your Target Intent: Map your major pages to specific intents (informational, navigational, commercial, transactional).Do Keyword Research: Use SEMrush or Google Keyword Planner to explore broad, phrase, and exact match keywords (47:37).Implement Negative Keywords: Filter out irrelevant or unqualified traffic, especially in paid ads (41:16).Upgrade Your Content: Add images, audio, and video; embed social media posts for context (25:58).Simplify Your User Journey: Make booking and buying as frictionless as possible (32:20).Book a Consultation: If you need 1:1 guidance, schedule a call (49:24).Ready to Rank? Book Your SEO & Web Dev Services Today

Dave recently crossed 500 cold plunges in two years, but for him, it's about much more than the cold. In this episode, he explains how self-awareness, mental discipline, and understanding what motivates you can help you build routines that maximize your strengths and push through negative self-talk.

In this episode we cover how AI works with humans and how to navigate it for your business. And we tough on the importance of integrating AI into schools for the future success of human beings.

Qu'attendent vraiment les CEOs des équipes Product Marketing aujourd'hui ? Comment savoir si la fonction crée réellement de la valeur ?Pour répondre à ces questions, j'accueille Capucine Roche, CEO de Letsignit, scale-up à 12M€ ARR. Dans cet épisode, nous prenons du recul sur le Product Marketing à travers le regard d'une CEO, ancienne responsable marketing et impliquée depuis des années dans les sujets produit.Au programme :

Matt Covington, Senior Vice President of Product at BlackCloak, walks through two features recently added to the member application. The first grew out of a question the concierge team fielded often. Members planning family travel to China or Eastern Europe wanted to know what to expect, how to protect their devices, and how to stay safe. That work now sits inside the app as a travel advisory page. A member types in a destination and the advisory breaks risk into the four categories the intel team uses. Physical security, cybersecurity, geopolitical climate, and social climate. A risk score, click to call contact information for US consulates and embassies, and up to the minute incident reports round out the page. The second feature is impersonation protection. Matt Covington describes a voicemail from someone claiming to be Chris Pierson, CEO of BlackCloak, asking for wiring instructions to be changed and $5,000 sent to an individual. Replying to that message to ask whether it is really him produces a yes from whoever is on the other end. Impersonation protection moves the question to a channel the sender did not pick. The member touches a name in the address book, selects the communication channel in question, adds a custom message, and submits. The person being challenged accepts or denies the request through a push notification in the BlackCloak app. The circle of trust reaches past coworkers and immediate family. Matt Covington names a childcare provider, a personal wealth advisor, a private banker, and a key vendor in the supply chain. Members with impersonation protection can create an unlimited number of invitations, and the person invited does not need to be a fully paid up BlackCloak member to respond. Much of the deepfake conversation has centered on Zoom, Teams, and other corporate platforms. Matt Covington argues that attackers are more likely to go after the channel they perceive as unprotected, a personal phone number found online or a social media post that accepts a message. For a security team, the question worth asking is where approval authority for a payment actually sits, and whether the verification step reaches the assistant, the advisor, and the vendor contact too. This is a Brand Spotlight. A Brand Spotlight is a ~15 minute conversation designed to explore the guest, their company, and what makes their approach unique. Learn more: https://www.studioc60.com/creation#spotlight GUEST Matt Covington, Senior Vice President of Product at BlackCloak On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mecovington/ RESOURCES Learn more about BlackCloak: https://blackcloak.io Impersonation Protection with circle of trust announcement: https://blackcloak.io/news-media/blackcloak-extends-deepfake-protection-to-the-executives-entire-trusted-circle/ Member Travel Advisory announcement: https://blackcloak.io/news-media/blackcloak-integrates-real-time-defense-and-intelligence-to-close-the-security-coverage-gap-for-executive-teams/ Are you interested in telling your story? ▶︎ Full Length Brand Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#full ▶︎ Brand Spotlight Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#spotlight ▶︎ Brand Highlight Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#highlight KEYWORDS matt covington, blackcloak, sean martin, brand story, brand marketing, marketing podcast, brand spotlight, black hat usa 2026, digital executive protection, impersonation protection, circle of trust, deepfake, travel advisory, executive travel risk, wire fraud, business email compromise, supply chain risk, concierge cybersecurity, personal cybersecurity

Matt Covington, Senior Vice President of Product at BlackCloak, says the feature exists because CISOs kept asking the same question. Can you help us manage this influx of deepfake media, whether it arrives by email, video, or voicemail. The requests that follow are familiar. Change the billing information on a vendor. Wire me $5,000 to bail me out of jail. Rather than sitting in line with every communication to judge whether a piece of video or audio is fake, BlackCloak gives people a way to establish the authenticity of the message and the sender. Matt Covington walks through it on camera. A suspicious guest joins a Zoom call under a familiar name, camera off. He opens the app, creates a request, selects the medium, adds context, and submits. Biometrics confirm the device owner. The response comes back with identity confirmed and location attached, and the app keeps an audit trail. The news this week is who can be in the circle. A BlackCloak member can invite as many people as they want to connect as part of their trusted network. Personal lawyer, private banker, childcare, dog walker. Matt Covington describes a message arriving on vacation, claiming to be the dog walker and asking for $5,000 for an emergency vet bill, and confirms that scenario is a real thing that has happened. Tracey Moon, Chief Marketing Officer at BlackCloak, joins for the demo. This is a Brand Spotlight. A Brand Spotlight is a ~15 minute conversation designed to explore the guest, their company, and what makes their approach unique. Learn more: https://www.studioc60.com/creation#spotlight GUESTS Matt Covington, Senior Vice President of Product, BlackCloak On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mecovington/ Tracey Moon, Chief Marketing Officer, BlackCloak On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/traceymoon/ RESOURCES BlackCloak: https://blackcloak.io/ BlackCloak Extends Deepfake Protection to the Executive's Entire Trusted Circle: https://blackcloak.io/news-media/blackcloak-extends-deepfake-protection-to-the-executives-entire-trusted-circle/ BlackCloak Product Overview: https://blackcloak.io/product/ Are you interested in telling your story? ▶︎ Full Length Brand Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#full ▶︎ Brand Spotlight Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#spotlight ▶︎ Brand Highlight Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#highlight KEYWORDS matt covington, tracey moon, blackcloak, sean martin, brand story, brand marketing, marketing podcast, brand spotlight, black hat usa 2026, impersonation protection, circle of trust, deepfake, digital executive protection, identity verification, social engineering, executive protection, wire fraud

BBDO's Daale Carter reveals how consumer listening, challenger thinking and a willingness to take risks are helping both iconic and upstart brands stay relevant. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What a company is trying to reach is rarely a certificate. Michael Parisi, Chief Growth Officer at Steel Patriot Partners, treats the destination as the opening question rather than the closing one, and the firm orders its own priorities to match. Business owners first, engineers second, compliance and security people third. What does a secure and compliant business actually look like? It looks like whatever lets that business do what it set out to do. For one company it means entering a regulated industry it has never served. For another it means proving to itself and to an auditor that it is secure enough to work with a partner that will not move without evidence. The framework follows the objective. Before a framework gets named or a control gets selected, someone has to decide whether the trip is worth taking. Michael Parisi puts more than half of that work in the category of psychology, and describes the most fulfilling part as helping someone understand where they actually stand. He comes at it from several sides of the same decision, having spent about fifteen years with the Big Four, five and a half with a cybersecurity standards organization and certification body, and two in a similar role at an audit and attestation firm. How does a company know which route it is on? Steel Patriot Partners narrowed it to five positions and put three questions in front of them under the name Find Your Path. Growth has tapped out and a new industry looks like the way to keep going. Money is already committed to a direction someone else recommended. The decision is settled and the work needs a specialist. The open question is which partners and auditors to trust. Or the team needs sustained support rather than a project with an end date. What makes the answer usable is that the firm has nothing riding on it. Steel Patriot Partners stays agnostic relative to tools, software, and auditors, which keeps the opening question plain. Who do you like, and what do you already have? Personality and culture then carry weight alongside capability. Knowing the route also means knowing where it narrows, so Michael Parisi and CEO Jason Ford both press on what a client has not considered, then on what to watch out for. Sometimes the useful answer points somewhere else entirely. Find Your Path is not a robot, an LLM, or an AI tool, and the point is to give an organization enough value to lower its guard and talk directly. One of Michael Parisi's favorite outcomes is confirming that a company may not need to do the thing it walked in asking about, and when the work sits outside what Steel Patriot Partners handles, the firm connects them with someone who does. This is a Brand Spotlight. A Brand Spotlight is a ~15 minute conversation designed to explore the guest, their company, and what makes their approach unique. Learn more: https://www.studioc60.com/creation#spotlight GUEST Michael Parisi, Chief Growth Officer, Steel Patriot Partners LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-parisi-4009b2261/ RESOURCES Steel Patriot Partners: https://www.steelpatriotpartners.com Find Your Path, three questions to start: https://www.steelpatriotpartners.com/find-your-path Steel Patriot Partners Insights: https://resources.steelpatriotpartners.com Are you interested in telling your story? ▶︎ Full Length Brand Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#full ▶︎ Brand Spotlight Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#spotlight ▶︎ Brand Highlight Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#highlight KEYWORDS michael parisi, steel patriot partners, sean martin, brand story, brand marketing, marketing podcast, brand spotlight, black hat usa 2026, find your path, secure and compliant business, business enablement, cybersecurity strategy, grc, governance risk and compliance, agnostic advisory, audit readiness, fedramp, cmmc, entering a regulated market, vendor and partner selection

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An attacker who wants to reach an executive often goes through the people around them. Family members, assistants, advisors, and caregivers all carry access and standing, and none of them sit inside the corporate directory. Dr. Chris Pierson, Founder and CEO of BlackCloak, describes digital executive protection as work that comes down to an individual and the circle around that individual. What does BlackCloak actually protect? Corporate executives, boards, the C-suite, and their families, across privacy, personal cybersecurity, home network security, deepfake impersonation, and travel. Dr. Chris Pierson frames impersonation protection and deepfake protection as an answer to someone pretending to be a human being in order to swindle, defraud, or take advantage of a persona. The control point sits with the person rather than the message. What did security teams want to talk about at Black Hat this year? Specifics. Dr. Chris Pierson says the excitement around AI and agentic AI arrived with a demand to dig in and actually talk about it. He recalls standing nearby while BlackCloak SVP of Product Matt Covington explained how the company uses engines, as opposed to the marketing language circulating elsewhere. Two more patterns came through. People want a real relationship with the team behind a product rather than something they plug in and hook up, and Dr. Chris Pierson points to a community at Black Hat that he says has built up considerably over the past four years or so. People also want net new. Version nine of a familiar firewall is becoming a little less exciting, he says, and the sales engineers spent their time on the additive items instead. BlackCloak appears on the 2026 Inc. 5000 for a second consecutive year, and earlier in 2026 it was named to Inc.'s Best Workplaces list in the Security Industry category, also for a second year. Dr. Chris Pierson credits the roughly 150 Cloakers based in the US, the company's own word for its team members, for both. The data matters, the hardware matters, the platform matters, and at the end of it someone clicks, someone allows access, someone does something. That last step is where BlackCloak places its protection. This is a Black Hat USA 2026 Recap. It is a post-event conversation revisiting the week on the ground, putting a spotlight on the guest and their company and pairing it with the editorial reach of ITSPmagazine. Learn more: https://www.studioc60.com/performance/#briefing GUEST Dr. Chris Pierson, Founder and CEO at BlackCloak On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drchristopherpierson/ RESOURCES Black Hat USA 2026 event coverage: https://www.itspmagazine.com/black-hat-usa-2026-cybersecurity-event-coverage-in-las-vegas Learn more about BlackCloak: https://blackcloak.io Impersonation Protection: https://blackcloak.io/impersonation-protection/ BlackCloak Extends Deepfake Protection to the Executive's Entire Trusted Circle: https://blackcloak.io/news-media/blackcloak-extends-deepfake-protection-to-the-executives-entire-trusted-circle/ BlackCloak Featured on the 2026 Inc. 5000 for Second Consecutive Year: https://blackcloak.io/news-media/blackcloak-featured-on-the-2026-inc-5000-for-second-consecutive-year/ BlackCloak Named to Inc.'s 2026 Best Workplaces List for Second Consecutive Year: https://www.prweb.com/releases/blackcloak-named-to-incs-2026-best-workplaces-list-for-second-consecutive-year-302788730.html Are you interested in telling your story? ▶︎ Full Length Brand Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#full ▶︎ Brand Spotlight Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#spotlight ▶︎ Brand Highlight Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#highlight ▶︎ Get your own Brand Briefing at an upcoming event: https://www.studioc60.com/buy-brand-briefings KEYWORDS Dr. Chris Pierson, BlackCloak, Sean Martin, Marco Ciappelli, recap, brand story, brand marketing, marketing podcast, Black Hat USA 2026, digital executive protection, impersonation protection, deepfake protection, circle of trust, executive threat intelligence, travel advisory, human attack surface, Inc. 5000, Cloakers

Kevin Surace, Chief Executive Officer at TokenCore, opens with the attack path he says is doing the most damage right now. A phishing email carries a PDF and no links, so it clears the filters. The domain is one character off from the real one, the site is pixel perfect because AI built both the page and the message, and the employee approves an auth prompt they were already expecting. The code was real and the approval was real. Kevin Surace points out that auth apps and passkeys run over cellular and Wi-Fi, so the prompt has no way to know the request came from ten thousand miles away. Anything a person can read or hand over can be shared, and by his account an attacker needs about thirty seconds of trust to get it. Passkeys moved the target rather than removing it. Kevin Surace counts 39 separate passkey attacks in the wild within two weeks of Microsoft telling customers to migrate, and points to Michael Grafnetter of SpecterOps, who presented passkey and Entra research at Black Hat. He walks through the FIDO2 counter that WebAuthn treats as optional so shared passkeys can move between devices. What changes with TokenCore in the mix is where the proof sits. Kevin Surace describes signing into Entra in under two seconds, both passwordless and ID-less, over secure Bluetooth, with the device carrying no apps and no screen. Proximity holds it within three feet of the computer being logged into, the credential stays bound to the original domain, and fingerprints stay off the network. Agents raise the same question in a new place. Kevin Surace describes a policy where an agent action above a million-dollar check needs a person to approve it, and notes that another agent, a hacked one, or a bad actor can clear that approval just as easily. A biometric gate is what tells you the CFO was actually in the room, which is a governance answer as much as a security one. For CISOs, identity architects, and risk owners, the question worth asking is what an identity program looks like when the proof of a person becomes the control, and how much residual risk that removes from privileged access, financial approvals, and agent workflows. This is a Brand Briefing. A Brand Briefing is an on-location conversation recorded on site at Black Hat USA 2026, putting a spotlight on the guest and their company and pairing it with the editorial reach of ITSPmagazine. Learn more: https://www.studioc60.com/performance/#briefing GUEST Kevin Surace, Chief Executive Officer at TokenCore LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ksurace/ RESOURCES Black Hat USA 2026 event coverage: https://www.itspmagazine.com/black-hat-usa-2026-cybersecurity-event-coverage-in-las-vegas Learn more about TokenCore: https://www.tokencore.com TokenCore products: https://www.tokencore.com/products Are you interested in telling your story? ▶︎ Full Length Brand Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#full ▶︎ Brand Spotlight Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#spotlight ▶︎ Brand Highlight Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#highlight ▶︎ Get your own Brand Briefing at an upcoming event: https://www.studioc60.com/buy-brand-briefings KEYWORDS Kevin Surace, TokenCore, Sean Martin, brand briefing, brand story, brand marketing, marketing podcast, Black Hat USA 2026, biometric identity, identity assurance, passkey attacks, MFA relay attack, phishing resistant authentication, auth app compromise, FIDO2, WebAuthn, Microsoft Entra, passwordless authentication, agent authorization, privileged access

Send us Fan MailWhat if the biggest thing holding your marketing back isn't your ads... but your brand?In this episode of Imperfect Marketing, Kendra Corman sits down with Matt Raminick, founder of Sunnyside, to explore what branding really means and why so many businesses miss the mark by focusing on logos, colors, and visual identity before understanding their customers.Matt shares the four foundational questions every business should answer before investing in marketing, explains why customer research should guide every decision, and discusses how data, curiosity, and real conversations help brands stand out in crowded markets. You'll also hear why AI is a powerful tool for analyzing information, but it can never replace genuine customer insights.Whether you're launching a new business, refreshing your brand, or trying to improve your marketing results, this conversation will help you build a stronger foundation that supports long-term growth.In this episode, you'll discover:✔ Why branding is much more than your logo✔ The four-part framework for building a memorable brand✔ How to identify and understand your ideal customer✔ Why talking to customers is still one of the best marketing strategies✔ How surveys and customer feedback can improve your messaging✔ Why trying to market to everyone usually hurts your business✔ Matt's biggest marketing lesson after more than 20 years in the industryYour brand isn't what you say it is. It's what your customers remember and why they choose to come back.About Matt RaminickMatt Raminick is the founder of Sunnyside, a marketing agency that helps lifestyle brands grow through strategic branding, paid advertising, and customer-focused marketing. If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, leave a review, and share it with another business owner or marketer who could benefit from the conversation.LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mattraminick/Website: sunnysidecalifornia.com Connect with Kendra Corman:Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kendracorman/#branding #marketingstrategy #smallbusinessmarketing #digitalmarketing #brandstrategy #businessgrowth #entrepreneurship Looking to leverage AI? Want better results? Want to think about what you want to leverage?Check and see how I am using it for FREE on YouTube. From "Holy cow, it can do that?" to "Wait, how does this work again?" – I've got all your AI curiosities covered. It's the perfect after-podcast snack for your tech-hungry brain. Watch here

This "Flodesk Studio & Email Copywriting: Email Marketing Strategies (Serious Conversations)" episode delivers a masterclass in email marketing strategy, copywriting best practices, and leveraging AI-powered tools like Flodesk Studio for audience growth and engagement.Favour Obasi-ike, MBA, MS tells listeners to learn critical details such as: Effective subject lines, preview text, and body structureThe impact of timing on open ratesSegmentation, cleaning, and list healthPersonalization and branding through design and font choicesHow to use Flodesk Studio to streamline campaign creation with AISpecial attention is paid to A/B testing, the difference between click and click-through rates, and practical features like polls and analytics for persistent improvement.Who is This For?This episode is for entrepreneurs, marketers, real estate professionals, coaches, consultants, and anyone seeking actionable advice on email marketing, copywriting, AI-powered content creation, and using Flodesk Studio. The content is tailored for those wanting to grow their business, improve engagement, and optimize digital communications.Key Moments & TimestampsIntro & Topic Breakdown — 00:00:03Why Email Marketing Still Matters — 00:02:18Email Copywriting Tips (PS, emojis, numbers, preview text) — 00:04:07Intro to Flodesk Studio & AI Features — 00:07:12Real estate applications & audience segmentation — 00:08:43Email List Cleaning, Segmentation, and Engagement — 00:38:40Choosing the Best Time to Send Emails — 00:51:075 Essential Elements of Email Copy — 01:01:44Email Design, Fonts, and Branding Insights — 01:17:24Testing & Optimization Emphasis — 01:24:13Actionable Takeaways from Guests — 01:22:26FAQs1. Who benefits most from using Flodesk Studio?Anyone who wants a seamless, AI-assisted way to design and send beautiful, brand-consistent emails, especially business owners, marketers, and real estate professionals.2. How do you improve open and click-through rates?Use strong subject lines (with emojis, odd numbers, brackets), compelling preview text, personalization, and clear CTAs. Incorporate A/B testing for continual improvement.3. What is the best time to send email campaigns?It varies. Analyze your own audience data (via tools like Flodesk reporting) to find your optimal window: weekday mornings often outperform, but testing is essential 00:53:19.4. Why is list cleaning important?Regularly removing unengaged contacts preserves deliverability, yields accurate analytics, and improves campaign performance 00:38:40.5. How can you personalize emails effectively?Use segmentation, address recipients by name, and tailor content/offers by user behavior and preferences 01:04:00.6. What are key elements of a high-performing email?Subject line, preview text, concise and well-formatted body, clear call to action, optimized images—each tested before broad send-off 01:01:44.Action Steps for youPromote the episode using engaging snippets and “clips” across LinkedIn, TikTok, and Instagram for wider reach 00:23:00.Share Flodesk Studio link and personal testimonials; encourage audience to experiment with AI-powered email design 00:07:12.Encourage listeners to A/B test subject lines and preview text for their own audiences.Build and nurture a peer community for ongoing discussions on marketing, copywriting, and tech tools 00:58:37.Offer private consulting or group workshops on best practices in email marketing, segmentation, branding, and testing.Continue to spotlight client and listener wins secured through these tactics for future episodes and social proof.Gather feedback/analytics from podcast listeners on their favorite actionable tip, using surveys or Flodesk polls.Remain updated with new Flodesk and Clubhouse features, suggesting product improvements where valuable (as discussed re: heat maps 00:48:19).For more support, listeners are encouraged to book a call, or subscribe to upcoming training and resources.Ready to Rank? Book Your SEO & Web Dev Services Today

Asana CMO Prachi Gore explains why AI's biggest marketing opportunity lies beyond content creation, as agents reshape workflows, B2B buying and growth. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

BlackCloak collected two Inc. recognitions in 2026. The company was named to Inc.'s Best Workplaces list in June, and in August it landed on the Inc. 5000 for a second consecutive year, at a higher position than the first. Founder and CEO Chris Pierson points both at the same two groups, the people who build BlackCloak and the clients and members who rely on it. What does a second Inc. 5000 ranking confirm? Three things, according to Chris Pierson. The company is doing right by its clients and members. The product has found its market. And BlackCloak continues to fill the gap it identified in digital executive protection. He describes an environment doubling consistently year over year, and calls a repeat harder to achieve than a first appearance. The pride he describes belongs to every cloaker, the people building, running, and operating the company day to day. A great idea helps, and so does the right product and the right market, though sustained growth depends on having really amazing people. Chris Pierson ties the Best Workplaces listing to paying attention to team members, doing right by them, and keeping a solid culture and foundation in place so the company can grow. Protect your digital life is the motto, and he says it is what brings both recognitions home for employees, clients, and members alike. This is a Brand Highlight. A Brand Highlight is a ~5 minute introductory conversation designed to put a spotlight on the guest and their company. Learn more: https://www.studioc60.com/creation#highlight GUEST Chris Pierson, Founder and CEO at BlackCloak LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drchristopherpierson/ RESOURCES Learn more about BlackCloak: https://blackcloak.io Inc. 5000 list of America's fastest growing private companies: https://www.inc.com/inc5000/2026 Inc. Best Workplaces list: https://www.inc.com/best-workplaces/2026 Are you interested in telling your story? ▶︎ Full Length Brand Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#full ▶︎ Brand Spotlight Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#spotlight ▶︎ Brand Highlight Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#highlight KEYWORDS chris pierson, blackcloak, sean martin, brand story, brand marketing, marketing podcast, brand highlight, black hat usa 2026, inc 5000, inc best workplaces, digital executive protection, executive protection, company culture, category creation, cybersecurity growth, protecting executives and their families

Favour Obasi-ike, MBA, MS discussion explored transactional keywords as the key to converting online searches into business results. Several points were raised, including keyword modifiers, intent-driven content creation, analysis of competition (including CPC and search volume), and the ongoing challenge of understanding actual customer journeys through data analysis and attribution. The conversation stressed the importance of consistent SEO practice and the need for business owners to act on this knowledge to truly benefit from organic search.Who Is This For?The conversation focused on entrepreneurs, business owners, marketers, and content creators seeking to grow their businesses online through effective SEO strategies, particularly around the use of transactional keywords. A key theme that emerged was helping those who want to boost sales, improve website discoverability, and understand user intent by mastering keyword research and practical website tweaks.Key Moments & TimestampsIntroduction to Transactional Keywords: what they are and why they matter 00:00:03The importance of website pages and matching content to keyword searches 00:06:14Examples of transactional keywords and practical modifiers (buy, order, cheap, sign up, hire, near me, company, services) 00:25:03The power of intent and understanding the buyer journey 00:17:12Insights on last-touch attribution and multi-touch user journeys 01:23:25The importance of CPC (cost-per-click) and identifying valuable keywords 01:15:14Actionable advice on keyword research, consistency, and implementation 01:41:15Final takeaways and action steps from experts 01:42:53 and 01:44:02FAQsQ: What are transactional keywords?A: Transactional keywords are search terms used when someone is ready to make a purchase or complete a specific action online—like “buy,” “order,” “subscribe,” “hire,” or “near me” 00:04:09.Q: Why are modifiers important for keywords?A: Modifiers (e.g., “best,” “cheap,” “discount,” “download,” “local”) clarify intent, match your content to customer actions, and help attract high-intent customers 00:25:03.Q: How do I find the best keywords for my business?A: Use tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, or meetglimpse.com to analyze search volume, competition, and cost per click (CPC). Look for high CPC or low competition keywords for better ROI 01:15:14.Q: What's more important, search volume or keyword competition?A: Both matter, but targeting lower-competition keywords with reasonable search volume often yields quicker, cost-effective wins 01:17:11.Q: How can I track the effectiveness of my keywords?A: Use analytics platforms and Search Console data, not just customer surveys, to understand which keywords drive traffic and conversions to your site 01:23:25.Action Steps for Favour Obasi-ike's AudienceAudit your website: Ensure each page targets a specific, high-intent keyword or keyword phrase.Research modifiers: Add transactional and relevant modifiers to existing content and URLs.Analyze CPC and competition: Use keyword analysis tools (e.g., meetglimpse.com) to identify lucrative opportunities.Update and expand FAQs: Build trust and answer buyer questions directly on your site.Track attribution scientifically: Rely on Search Console and analytics for accurate insights instead of only customer self-report.Stay consistent: SEO is a long game—regularly update content and refine your keyword strategies.Implement, don't just learn: Turn insights into action—schedule regular SEO check-ins or book expert consultations.For more support, listeners are encouraged to book a call, or subscribe to upcoming training and resources.Ready to Rank? Book Your SEO & Web Dev Services Today

Tripadvisor and PMG leaders share how breaking down barriers between brands, agencies and platforms can drive stronger performance, smarter collaboration and better marketing. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

In this episode we show how to use AI and Human touchpoints for the best human experience

Favour Obasi-ike, MBA, MS discussion explored the evolving relationship between SEO and artificial intelligence, stressing that while AI revolutionizes content generation and search, SEO's foundational importance endures. One concept discussed was the need for website structure (schema, sitemaps, quality content) to ensure both human users and AI agents can discover, trust, and transact with a site.Who Is This For?The conversation focused on entrepreneurs, website owners, business leaders (including C-suite/Fortune 500), marketers, and anyone seeking to improve their business's online presence and growth using SEO and commercial keyword strategies. A key theme that emerged was bridging the knowledge gap for those new to digital marketing, whether launching a site from scratch, rescuing one, or scaling brand visibility.Key Moments & TimestampsIntroduction, Part 2 Justification & Audience Engagement: Highlights the need for deeper commercial keyword discussion; encourages live participation 00:00:13.AI vs. SEO: Relationship & Current Landscape: Explores whether AI will replace SEO; demonstrates synergy and need for structure 00:02:42–00:12:24.Website Structure & Longevity: Analogies for domain authority and building strong foundations 00:13:11.Ads vs. SEO Investment: Explains why investing in SEO creates lasting value versus short-term ad spend 00:17:11.WordPress vs. Vibe Coding: Evaluates traditional site-building vs. new AI/code-heavy approaches 00:22:56.Learning & Mastering SEO: Recommendations for ongoing strategies, resources, and communities 00:28:47.User Search Patterns & Keyword Strategy: Examines how users shop online, with a focus on long-tail and local keywords 00:32:22.Sitemaps & Robust Web Presence: How site architecture and multiple pages boost authority 00:40:10.Live Tools & Practical Auditing: Use of isitagentready.com for real-time AI/SEO readiness checks 00:43:28.Commerce, Payments, & Security: Significance of payment protocols and HTTPS for trust 00:44:29.Color, Calls to Action & Conversion Psychology: How interface details impact buying behaviors 00:54:03.Types of Commercial Intent Keywords: Differentiates high vs. low commercial intent; relevance for product, service, and pricing pages 00:59:19.Action-Oriented Keyword Construction: Guidance for structuring keyword phrases to increase conversions 01:04:23.Takeaways & Final Thoughts: Recap and encouragement to test, research, and take control of digital outcomes 01:07:42.Several points were raised, including:Investing in SEO produces compounding, evergreen visibility, unlike fleeting paid ads.Commercial keywords (e.g., “buy now,” “pricing,” “best [product],” “alternatives to”) are essential for conversion-focused pages.Local and long-tail strategies help users “find you” for specific contexts and regions.Security (HTTPS), trust signals, and payment protocols are non-negotiable for commercial viability.Testing and optimizing details—color, CTAs, copy—directly impact sales.FAQsQ: Will AI make SEO obsolete?A: No. AI depends on well-structured SEO content to deliver relevant results. They're complementary, not mutually exclusive 00:04:31.Q: What are commercial keywords?A: Specific search phrases indicating purchase intent (e.g., “buy,” “pricing,” “deal,” “best,” “compare”). Essential for pages targeting buyers 00:52:04.Q: Should I invest in SEO or ads?A: SEO offers sustainable, long-term visibility; ads work immediately but disappear when you stop paying 00:17:11.Q: Are modern coding approaches like vibe coding a good idea?A: New site builders offer fast results, but lack the proven, authority-strengthening foundation of established platforms like WordPress 00:22:56.Q: How do I start learning SEO?A: Combine online courses (Google, podcasts, masterminds) with community interaction and direct experimentation 00:28:47.Action StepsAudit your website with tools like isitagentready.com to gauge AI/SEO readiness 00:43:28.Review your site's structure—ensure schema markup, sitemaps, and multiple relevant pages exist 00:36:01.Identify and implement high-intent commercial keywords on key pages: homepage, product/service, pricing, and demo 00:52:04.Ensure your site is HTTPS-secured and supports modern payment integrations 00:46:07.Test calls-to-action and site colors to optimize conversion rates 00:54:03.Regularly engage in industry communities, podcasts, and training to stay current.Track and measure progress; iterate based on results and user feedback.Ready to Rank? Book Your SEO & Web Dev Services Today

Welcome to Season 14 with Favour Obasi-ike, MBA, MS!The discussion explored the importance of understanding the four main keyword types: informational, commercial, navigational, and transactional, highlighting that commercial keywords account for a crucial 22% of search demand. Emphasis was placed on commercial keywords being the bridge between window shopping and purchase intent.A key theme that emerged was the necessity of data-driven keyword selection using tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, Moz, and Ubersuggest. The discussion highlighted that even highly niche or seemingly unconventional businesses can yield significant results when leveraging strategic keyword research.Several points were raised, including the technical significance of URL slugs, content quality over quantity, proper keyword placement, and the increasing value of integrating social media channels for SEO purposes (e.g., linking Instagram/LinkedIn pages for higher authority).Personal success stories from participants illustrated rapid ranking improvements and revenue growth, underscoring the long-term value of SEO over paid ads for sustainable traffic and leads.Who Is This For?The conversation focused on business owners, entrepreneurs, marketers, and anyone interested in leveraging SEO and commercial keywords to drive meaningful growth—especially those with websites or digital services looking to increase traffic and conversions through organic search.Key Moments With TimestampsIntroduction to Keyword Types and SEO Fundamentals 00:00:04Explanation of Informational, Commercial, Navigational, and Transactional Keywords 00:01:21Real-World Case Studies on SEO Transformations 00:10:00Deep Dive Into Commercial Intent and Keyword Research Tools 00:14:14Strategic Use of URL Slugs and Their Impact 00:32:43Using Social Media Integrations in SEO 00:19:03Success Stories: Ranking Improvements and Data-Driven Tactics 00:49:56The Importance of Niche and Low-Competition Keywords 00:46:33How to Turn SEO Traffic Into Leads 00:58:04FAQsQ: What's the difference between informational and commercial keywords?A key concept discussed was that informational keywords answer questions, while commercial keywords indicate buying intent, such as “best software for…” or “top alternatives to…”.Q: How do I choose the right commercial keywords?The discussion explored using data from keyword research tools rather than guessing, emphasizing specificity, intent, and competition metrics.Q: Why are URL slugs important for SEO?One concept discussed was that your URL slug directly impacts your site's discoverability—matching it to target keywords can boost rankings.Q: Can small businesses compete for high-value keywords?A key theme was targeting long-tail, niche, or region-specific variants to outmaneuver larger competitors—sometimes ranking quickly.Q: How often should I update SEO content?The conversation focused on improving and refining content over time, especially as ranking and analytics reveal what's working.Action Steps for Favour Obasi-ikeEducate Your Audience: Continue breaking down SEO concepts such as keyword types, intent, and technical fundamentals in digestible formats, using case studies and real-world examples.Promote Data-Driven Decisions: Encourage the use of keyword research tools, and stress the importance of not guessing terms but validating them with competition and search data.Advise on Technical SEO: Remind clients to optimize URL slugs, interlink content, and leverage Google Search Console and social integrations for enhanced visibility.Showcase Success Stories: Regularly share tangible case studies demonstrating before/after results from commercial keyword deployments.Foster Community Engagement: Invite listeners to submit their own results, questions, or niche discoveries for review in future episodes or on social media.Create Step-by-Step Resources: Develop checklists or templates for commercial keyword research, URL optimization, and data tracking.Offer Consultations: Direct listeners to book a strategy call for personalized SEO roadmaps and deeper dives into their analytics and keyword gaps.Plan for Follow-Ups: Organize part 2 sessions to address advanced or transactional keyword strategies and continue the learning journey.Ready to Rank? Book Your SEO & Web Dev Services Today

Espresso in hand at Black Hat USA 2026, Monzy Merza, Co-Founder and CEO of Crogl, gave Marco Ciappelli the read from a week that started Monday. The free download the company announced the week before had drawn a strong community reaction, and a hackathon was running alongside the conversation with people downloading Crogl, hacking on it, and competing in challenges. Merza credits the openness of the approach as much as the product. What do security teams want from AI right now? Sovereignty. Merza describes a movement in which organizations have concluded that any work with AI has to cover privacy and security of the product and of the AI workload itself. Crogl was built as an on-prem product from the very beginning to serve mission critical organizations and critical infrastructure operators with hard requirements, and a larger community is now arriving at the same principles and asking what should be governed. The second shift is operational. The question moved from whether to look at AI to how work stays consistent and repeatable when one model is swapped for another, prompted by outages across model providers and in-house AI services going up and down. Merza describes the arc as a pendulum, from avoiding AI, to human in the loop, to a stretch where autonomy dominated. Crogl customers now run it both interactively and fully autonomously, with the line drawn at the tasks where a human has little reason to sit in the loop. This is a Brand Briefing. A Brand Briefing is an on-location conversation recorded on site at Black Hat USA 2026, putting a spotlight on the guest and their company and pairing it with the editorial reach of ITSPmagazine. Learn more: https://www.studioc60.com/performance/#briefing GUEST Monzy Merza, Co-Founder and CEO at Crogl On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/monzymerza/ RESOURCES Black Hat USA 2026 event coverage: https://www.itspmagazine.com/black-hat-usa-2026-cybersecurity-event-coverage-in-las-vegas Learn more about Crogl: https://www.crogl.com Download Crogl: https://www.crogl.com/download Crogl newsroom: https://www.crogl.com/newsroom Are you interested in telling your story? ▶︎ Full Length Brand Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#full ▶︎ Brand Spotlight Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#spotlight ▶︎ Brand Highlight Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#highlight ▶︎ Get your own Brand Briefing at an upcoming event: https://www.studioc60.com/buy-brand-briefings KEYWORDS monzy merza, crogl, marco ciappelli, brand briefing, brand story, brand marketing, marketing podcast, black hat usa 2026, sovereign ai, on prem ai, ai governance, security operations, model choice, ai workload security, critical infrastructure, autonomous investigation, human in the loop, free download, hackathon, security community

Steel Patriot Partners lists its priorities in an order much of the cybersecurity industry reverses. Business owners first, engineers second, security and compliance people third. Michael Parisi, Chief Growth Officer, says the sequence is deliberate and shapes how the firm opens a client conversation. The order tracks the path the founders took. Jason Ford, Co-Founder and CEO, started in the late 1990s as a government contractor at the FBI, met FISMA and SAS 70 early, and built a platform for the Treasury that sold savings bonds online before PCI was a standard. He started his first company in 2004, took it through FedRAMP in 2013, and was acquired in 2017 holding 35 to 36 authorizations to operate across multiple agencies. What changes when an advisor is free to answer directly? Parisi spent about 15 years in the Big Four across PwC and Deloitte before joining Steel Patriot Partners. Auditors hold independence, which means watching a decision head the wrong way without steering it. In an advisory seat, he says, telling an organization that its preferred direction falls apart as a business decision becomes part of the work. How does a company find out where it actually stands? Ford says compliance is one outcome among many, sitting alongside operational maturity, better visibility, and integrating AI into DevSecOps. The common gap is not knowing where you sit on your own maturity journey. That finding cuts both ways, and some organizations learn they are further along than they assumed. Buying more tools rarely closes the gap. Ford argues the work is holistic and that each organization is unique, so what fits one may fit another poorly. AI does not settle it either, since a model fed your own assumptions will hand them back. The name follows the same logic. Steel is Pittsburgh, Patriot is Boston, and Partners is the operating model, since Steel Patriot Partners advises, deploys and operates environments alongside the client. Parisi closes by asking anyone weighing a path to verify it as a business decision rather than as an information security purchase or a price comparison. This is a Brand Spotlight. A Brand Spotlight is a ~15 minute conversation designed to explore the guest, their company, and what makes their approach unique. Learn more: https://www.studioc60.com/creation#spotlight GUESTS Jason Ford, Co-Founder and CEO, Steel Patriot Partners LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jason-ford-5ab206/ Michael Parisi, Chief Growth Officer, Steel Patriot Partners LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-parisi-4009b2261/ RESOURCES Steel Patriot Partners: https://www.steelpatriotpartners.com/ Find Your Path, the qualifier that helps you locate your starting point: https://www.steelpatriotpartners.com/find-your-path ROI Workshop: https://www.steelpatriotpartners.com/roi-workshop ITSPmagazine event coverage: https://www.itspmagazine.com/black-hat-usa-2026-cybersecurity-event-coverage-in-las-vegas Are you interested in telling your story? ▶︎ Full Length Brand Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#full ▶︎ Brand Spotlight Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#spotlight ▶︎ Brand Highlight Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#highlight KEYWORDS jason ford, michael parisi, steel patriot partners, marco ciappelli, brand story, brand marketing, marketing podcast, brand spotlight, cybersecurity compliance, grc, fedramp, fisma, cmmc, maturity assessment, cybersecurity advisory, business risk, compliance strategy, security consulting, ai in devsecops, trusted advisor

Warner Bros. Discovery's Marisa Crocker breaks down why sports are becoming more valuable in a fragmented media landscape, how programmatic is changing the way advertisers buy live events and why brands should be betting on women's sports now. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See https://pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Michael Parisi, Chief Growth Officer at Steel Patriot Partners, connects with ITSPmagazine on location at Black Hat USA 2026 for a recap of the week. He describes Steel Patriot Partners in the order it sets its priorities. Business owners first, engineers second, compliance and security people third. A consulting and advisory company, he says, but really an engineering firm. What changed at this event? Parisi says the AI slop visible at RSAC Conference died down here, and that people are cutting through the noise and going back to a core group of tools and solutions with the capabilities to address the business challenges AI is creating. Non-human identities sit at the top of that list, the number one concern he heard relative to AI. Organizations recognize the risk and are working out how to solve for it. His observation is that many information security teams do not realize their traditional cybersecurity tools already carry the capabilities to do it. Who are security leaders asking before they decide? People they already know. Parisi describes CISOs going back to the individuals they have had long-term relationships with and sourcing guidance from them before decisions get made. Automation has expanded what can be done, but nobody got more hours in the day to evaluate everything arriving in front of them. The next move he points to is asking the question, either of the engineers at the provider or of a trusted advisor, and getting the configuration aligned to the business outcome it was bought to serve. This is a Brand Briefing. A Brand Briefing is an on-location conversation recorded on site at Black Hat USA 2026, putting a spotlight on the guest and their company and pairing it with the editorial reach of ITSPmagazine. Learn more: https://www.studioc60.com/performance/#briefing GUEST Michael Parisi, Chief Growth Officer, Steel Patriot Partners LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michael-parisi-4009b2261/ RESOURCES Black Hat USA 2026 event coverage: https://www.itspmagazine.com/black-hat-usa-2026-cybersecurity-event-coverage-in-las-vegas Steel Patriot Partners: https://www.steelpatriotpartners.com Find Your Path, three questions to start: https://www.steelpatriotpartners.com/find-your-path Steel Patriot Partners Insights: https://resources.steelpatriotpartners.com Are you interested in telling your story? ▶︎ Full Length Brand Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#full ▶︎ Brand Spotlight Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#spotlight ▶︎ Brand Highlight Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#highlight ▶︎ Get your own Brand Briefing at an upcoming event: https://www.studioc60.com/buy-brand-briefings KEYWORDS michael parisi, steel patriot partners, marco ciappelli, brand briefing, brand story, brand marketing, marketing podcast, black hat usa 2026, non-human identities, machine identity, ai risk, security tool configuration, trusted advisor, ciso decision making, cybersecurity engineering, compliance advisory, security tool sprawl, vendor noise Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Lisa Liu, Corporate Marketing and Communications Manager at Stellar Cyber, connects with ITSPmagazine on the floor at Black Hat USA 2026 in Las Vegas. What are buyers asking for now that the RSAC Conference noise has settled? Data. Liu says people have had time to run their own research, look at what vendors offer, and come back using specific keywords and asking for something behind the marketing. Does a more skeptical audience make the conversation harder? Liu describes the opposite. She says people are pushing back on claims they hear, which presses vendors to prove at a higher standard that a technology does what it says it does. Feedback arrives more specific, and the exchange moves from explaining to planning as people ask how a capability could work in their environment. The reply she calls validating is the customer who reports the product did what it was said it would do, giving analysts their time back and helping teams work more efficiently. What makes Black Hat different for a company that works the major events? Ask people what they are looking for and they will tell you. Liu says pain points here are felt daily and described plainly, and that candor is feedback the company works to internalize and make productive. Looking ahead, she says new product releases are coming, with new features and expansions of what customers have responded to, and that Stellar Cyber will share them on its website and on LinkedIn. This is a Brand Briefing. A Brand Briefing is an on-location conversation recorded on site at Black Hat USA 2026, putting a spotlight on the guest and their company and pairing it with the editorial reach of ITSPmagazine. Learn more: https://www.studioc60.com/performance/#briefing GUEST Lisa Liu, Corporate Marketing and Communications Manager at Stellar Cyber LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisaaliu/ RESOURCES Black Hat USA 2026 event coverage: https://www.itspmagazine.com/black-hat-usa-2026-cybersecurity-event-coverage-in-las-vegas Stellar Cyber: https://stellarcyber.ai/ Stellar Cyber on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/stellarcyber Are you interested in telling your story? ▶︎ Full Length Brand Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#full ▶︎ Brand Spotlight Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#spotlight ▶︎ Brand Highlight Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#highlight ▶︎ Get your own Brand Briefing at an upcoming event: https://www.studioc60.com/buy-brand-briefings KEYWORDS lisa liu, stellar cyber, marco ciappelli, brand briefing, brand story, brand marketing, marketing podcast, black hat usa 2026, security operations, agentic ai, ai in cybersecurity, vendor claims, proof and data, soc analysts, rsac conference, event coverage, las vegas Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

What actually changed for the AI SOC this year? Bill Peterson, Senior Director of Product Marketing at Sumo Logic, says it reached the point of getting into production, where a year or so ago the same conversation was about what was coming. Marco Ciappelli puts the count of companies carrying AI SOC in the name at 43, and Bill Peterson says that number strikes him as low. The market is maturing, and Sumo Logic announced its own set of AI SOC products and solutions during the week. The second thing is what a security audience does with it. Hands-on practitioners want to touch it, see it, feel it, and Sumo Logic ran live demos of its products on site. When a technical audience puts hands on a keyboard and tries something, Bill Peterson expects them to take it back to work with them. Production first, then enablement of the practitioners. The third is the pace behind all of it. Most security vendors are SaaS companies running CI/CD and shipping continuously, so three and six month roadmaps and delivery are the norm now and the 12 to 18 month roadmap is gone. Some customers are what Sumo Logic internally calls AI shy, accepting they have to get there while taking a slow and reasoned approach, and Bill Peterson treats that as normal for any technology. This is a Brand Briefing. A Brand Briefing is an on-location conversation recorded on site at Black Hat USA 2026, putting a spotlight on the guest and their company and pairing it with the editorial reach of ITSPmagazine. Learn more: https://www.studioc60.com/performance/#briefing GUEST Bill Peterson, Senior Director of Product Marketing at Sumo Logic On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/williampetersonjr/ RESOURCES Black Hat USA 2026 event coverage: https://www.itspmagazine.com/black-hat-usa-2026-cybersecurity-event-coverage-in-las-vegas Learn more about Sumo Logic: https://www.sumologic.com/ Sumo Logic Dojo AI: https://www.sumologic.com/solutions/dojo-ai Sumo Logic Dojo AI agent announcements at Black Hat USA 2026, including general availability of the SOC Analyst Agent: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sumo-logics-new-dojo-ai-agents-investigate-and-resolve-security--cloud-operations-issues-at-machine-speed-302839720.html Are you interested in telling your story? ▶︎ Full Length Brand Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#full ▶︎ Brand Spotlight Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#spotlight ▶︎ Brand Highlight Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#highlight ▶︎ Get your own Brand Briefing at an upcoming event: https://www.studioc60.com/buy-brand-briefings KEYWORDS Bill Peterson, Sumo Logic, Marco Ciappelli, brand briefing, brand story, brand marketing, marketing podcast, Black Hat USA 2026, AI SOC, agentic AI, security operations, Dojo AI, SOC analyst agent, product marketing, CI/CD release cycles, AI adoption, human in the loop, security operations center, market maturity Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Brian Dye, Chief Executive Officer at Corelight, spends Black Hat USA 2026 asking every organization he talks to the same question. What are you doing with AI in the SOC? A year ago, he says, teams thought it was a good idea but were wary of it, and people knew LLMs could produce things without being sure what to do with them. Now he is talking with organizations building their own agents for incident response and for threat hunting, and running their own quality control on the output rather than taking it on faith. What decides how far an agentic SOC workflow can go? The data does. Brian Dye describes a three-legged stool where the model and the agents are only two of the legs. The third is the data going into the workflow, and without the right data the agents hit a headroom of logic. He credits three changes for the shift. Agentic development decomposes an investigation into smaller chunks that can be trusted individually. Time in the saddle has made teams better at separating claims from reality. And organizations now ask the workflow itself what it could not answer and what data it wishes it had. Why does a week like this one matter to product development? Corelight works on translating the network into the right fuel for AI, which means understanding the architecture each customer is building toward, whether that is an in-house SOC, a third party SOC, or a workflow running through their own SOAR or SIEM. Brian Dye also describes the Black Hat NOC as a room where the work looks different. Most security teams look for a needle in a haystack. The NOC team is finding the sharp needle in a stack of dull needles, separating illicit activity from the legitimate malware analysis training running on the same network, while using the room as a multi-vendor playground for new integrations and workflows. This is a Brand Briefing. A Brand Briefing is an on-location conversation recorded on site at Black Hat USA 2026, putting a spotlight on the guest and their company and pairing it with the editorial reach of ITSPmagazine. Learn more: https://www.studioc60.com/performance/#briefing GUEST Brian Dye, Chief Executive Officer at Corelight On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brdye/ RESOURCES Black Hat USA 2026 event coverage from ITSPmagazine: https://www.itspmagazine.com/black-hat-usa-2026-cybersecurity-event-coverage-in-las-vegas Learn more about Corelight: https://corelight.com Corelight blog: https://corelight.com/blog Are you interested in telling your story? ▶︎ Full Length Brand Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#full ▶︎ Brand Spotlight Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#spotlight ▶︎ Brand Highlight Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#highlight ▶︎ Get your own Brand Briefing at an upcoming event: https://www.studioc60.com/buy-brand-briefings KEYWORDS brian dye, corelight, marco ciappelli, brand briefing, brand story, brand marketing, marketing podcast, black hat usa 2026, agentic ai, ai in the soc, security operations center, network detection and response, threat hunting, incident response, black hat noc, soar, siem, network evidence, agentic workflows Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Qualys returns to Black Hat USA 2026 with an AI Risk Operations Center built around three principles customers have been asking for over the last three years. May Mitchell, Chief Marketing Officer at Qualys, walks through them in order. Detect vulnerabilities at AI speed. Prioritize what surfaces, because not every finding calls for action in the same hour and the sequence follows the workflows a team already runs. Eliminate it through autonomous remediation, then confirm the fix worked. Mitchell also notes that Qualys has been a Black Hat sponsor for over 23 years. What are security teams asking for at AI speed? They want detection to keep pace with disclosure. Mitchell points to InstaScan, the innovation Qualys launched during Black Hat week, which provides continuous scanning and detection. The meetings on the floor have been with customers from across the regions, not only the US. How has the AI conversation shifted since RSAC Conference? It has narrowed to implementation. Mitchell says the messaging moved from AI to agents to autonomous, and that this year the questions are targeted. How do I implement it. How do I get it into the workflows. How do I have governance. The economics of AI sits alongside those questions, with more asked about ROI, since budgets are not rising across the board. That pushes organizations to evaluate their technology stack, consolidate, and look for a single platform that gives complete visibility and gives security leaders something they can take to a board or a CFO. Customization depends on the size of the organization, and larger heterogeneous environments are where Qualys partners come in with risk assessment services, planning, integration, and ongoing management. This is a Brand Briefing. A Brand Briefing is an on-location conversation recorded on site at Black Hat USA 2026, putting a spotlight on the guest and their company and pairing it with the editorial reach of ITSPmagazine. Learn more: https://www.studioc60.com/performance/#briefing GUEST May Mitchell, Chief Marketing Officer at Qualys On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/maymitchell/ RESOURCES Black Hat USA 2026 event coverage: https://www.itspmagazine.com/black-hat-usa-2026-cybersecurity-event-coverage-in-las-vegas Qualys: https://www.qualys.com/ InstaScan announcement: https://www.qualys.com/company/newsroom/news-releases/usa/qualys-launches-instascan-to-detect-vulnerabilities-within-minutes-of-disclosure Agent Insta and scanless detection: https://blog.qualys.com/product-tech/2026/08/03/instascan-agent-insta-scanless-detection ROCon Americas 2026 in Austin: https://www.qualys.com/rocon/2026/americas Are you interested in telling your story? ▶︎ Full Length Brand Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#full ▶︎ Brand Spotlight Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#spotlight ▶︎ Brand Highlight Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#highlight ▶︎ Get your own Brand Briefing at an upcoming event: https://www.studioc60.com/buy-brand-briefings KEYWORDS May Mitchell, Qualys, Marco Ciappelli, brand briefing, brand story, brand marketing, marketing podcast, Black Hat USA 2026, risk operations center, InstaScan, AI speed detection, autonomous remediation, vulnerability management, prioritization, security governance, economics of AI, platform consolidation, cyber risk management, CISO, ROCon Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Daniel Bardenstein, CEO and Co-Founder of Manifest Cyber, uses RSAC Conference as a fixed point and compares it to what he is hearing in Las Vegas. The marketing has held its shape. At RSAC Conference, companies with little claim to the label were describing themselves as agentic. Here, he cites a survey referenced in a talk that morning counting 47 AI SOC companies among the vendors on site. What has moved is scrutiny. Practitioners and security leaders are pressing on what differentiates one AI product from another and whether a product is a thin layer built around a frontier model. Bardenstein also reports conversations about open weight models and reduced dependency on frontier lab providers following the OpenAI Hugging Face incident and the White House action on Fable and Mythos. Contracting is shifting as well, with procurement teams adding due diligence and paperwork whenever AI shows up inside a product. Marco Ciappelli raises the question sitting under the label. Agentic AI brought questions about how many agents are running and who owns their identity, and AI SOC suggests an operations center assembled largely from automation. Bardenstein points to narrower use cases teams already trust, including finding vulnerabilities in source code and suggesting patches, then offers his own test for buyers. Does it reduce vulnerabilities, does it reduce false positives, does it deliver faster outcomes and fewer breaches. This is a Brand Briefing. A Brand Briefing is an on-location conversation recorded on site at Black Hat USA 2026, putting a spotlight on the guest and their company and pairing it with the editorial reach of ITSPmagazine. Learn more: https://www.studioc60.com/performance/#briefing GUEST Daniel Bardenstein, CEO and Co-Founder at Manifest Cyber On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bardenstein/ RESOURCES Black Hat USA 2026 event coverage: https://www.itspmagazine.com/black-hat-usa-2026-cybersecurity-event-coverage-in-las-vegas Manifest Cyber: https://www.manifestcyber.com/ Are you interested in telling your story? ▶︎ Full Length Brand Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#full ▶︎ Brand Spotlight Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#spotlight ▶︎ Brand Highlight Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#highlight ▶︎ Get your own Brand Briefing at an upcoming event: https://www.studioc60.com/buy-brand-briefings KEYWORDS daniel bardenstein, manifest cyber, marco ciappelli, brand briefing, brand story, brand marketing, marketing podcast, black hat usa 2026, ai soc, agentic ai, ai in cybersecurity, vendor differentiation, open weight models, frontier models, security procurement, ai due diligence, software supply chain security Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Sean Murphy, Field CISO for North America at F5, spent the week behind the scenes at Black Hat USA 2026, in the corridors and at dinner with the CISOs and cybersecurity minded people who fill the halls. Marco Ciappelli caught him at the close of it and asked what the industry learned this year. The answer arrived as three words. Vulnerabilities, and the flattening of the curve between vulnerability, exposure, and exploit. Visibility, because a team cannot defend what it does not know it has. Velocity, which carries the other two. Sean Murphy calls the acceleration a physics problem rather than a technology problem, given the forces and friction now moving through security work. Moore's law is out the window in his framing, and advancement arrives week by week. For a CISO writing a roadmap and defending an investment case for the next six to 18 months, the plan keeps pivoting underneath them. AI shifted just as fast. What was recently understood as hyperscaler sized, built for the largest organizations, is now generative and agentic AI running at the enterprise level, in production rather than in a pilot. That leaves a population question. Agents are identities, non-human identities with permissions and responsibilities, and Sean Murphy points out they are proliferating alongside the human identities already under governance. He also offers a reframe on agents that slip past misconfigured guardrails and go crawling for LLMs and repositories. That is an agent doing exactly what it was told to do, relentlessly, until it succeeds. The work ahead is guardrails and governance over all of that visibility. This is a Brand Briefing. A Brand Briefing is an on-location conversation recorded on site at Black Hat USA 2026, putting a spotlight on the guest and their company and pairing it with the editorial reach of ITSPmagazine. Learn more: https://www.studioc60.com/performance/#briefing GUEST Sean Murphy, Field CISO for North America at F5 On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/seanmurphy092009/ RESOURCES Black Hat USA 2026 event coverage: https://www.itspmagazine.com/black-hat-usa-2026-cybersecurity-event-coverage-in-las-vegas Learn more about F5: https://www.f5.com Are you interested in telling your story? ▶︎ Full Length Brand Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#full ▶︎ Brand Spotlight Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#spotlight ▶︎ Brand Highlight Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#highlight ▶︎ Get your own Brand Briefing at an upcoming event: https://www.studioc60.com/buy-brand-briefings KEYWORDS Sean Murphy, F5, Marco Ciappelli, brand briefing, brand story, brand marketing, marketing podcast, Black Hat USA 2026, field CISO, agentic AI, non-human identity, AI governance, guardrails, vulnerability management, security visibility, security roadmap, identity and access management, enterprise AI adoption Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Rahul Sood has run the application security business at Harness for almost a year. He describes application security as one of the core pillars of the company, part of a vision of building a DevSecOps platform. A year ago Harness publicly announced that security accounted for a quarter of its revenue. Sood says the figure is now considerably higher. The company did not start there. Founder Jyoti Bansal thought about Harness for a decade before founding it, Sood says, after seeing the problem inside one of the largest banks. Harness launched as a DevOps platform, then merged with an API security company Bansal had also funded. The result is a platform that treats security as part of the developer workflow rather than a bolt-on, and covers it from code all the way to runtime. What changes when security lives inside the developer workflow? Developers stop leaving their own tools to chase findings. Harness aggregates results across scanners, deduplicates them, and puts remediation, assignment, and exemption requests in one place. Security teams get the other half of the picture through a policy engine that shows which policies fire on every build, which ones break a build, and where a developer asked for an exception, with a full audit trail behind it. Where is the bottleneck now that AI writes the code? It moved downstream. Sood says nearly every development team is generating more code with AI, while the volume actually reaching users has not risen at the same rate. By his estimate coding is 20 to 30 percent of the software development life cycle, and the remaining 70 to 80 percent happens after the code is written. That includes agents. Harness has extended the platform to support the Agent DLC, with native capabilities for AI evaluation and prompt testing alongside security coverage for agents from code to runtime. Sood points to two differences. The span from code to runtime covers agents while they are built and while they run, and skill scanning and prompt scanning were added to the same scanner already looking for code vulnerabilities rather than shipped as another tool to buy. The operational payoff shows up in release cadence. Sood describes a tier one US bank that maintained 150 separate policies and convened a team to confirm each one had been met before it could launch its banking app. Automating that review removed the meeting, and the bank now runs multiple launches within weeks. With 80 to 90 percent of software now assembled from third-party packages, libraries, and open source components, the same policy engine can block any build that pulls in a package which is end of life or malicious. This is a Brand Briefing. A Brand Briefing is an on-location conversation recorded on site at Black Hat USA 2026, putting a spotlight on the guest and their company and pairing it with the editorial reach of ITSPmagazine. Learn more: https://www.studioc60.com/performance/#briefing GUEST Rahul Sood, General Manager, Application Security at Harness On LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rssoods/ RESOURCES Black Hat USA 2026 event coverage from ITSPmagazine: https://www.itspmagazine.com/black-hat-usa-2026-cybersecurity-event-coverage-in-las-vegas Harness: https://www.harness.io/ Harness customer case studies: https://www.harness.io/customers Securing the Agent DLC, by Rahul Sood: https://www.harness.io/blog/securing-the-agent-dlc Harness AI Security: https://www.harness.io/products/ai-security Harness Application Security Testing: https://www.harness.io/products/application-security-testing Are you interested in telling your story? ▶︎ Full Length Brand Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#full ▶︎ Brand Spotlight Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#spotlight ▶︎ Brand Highlight Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#highlight ▶︎ Get your own Brand Briefing at an upcoming event: https://www.studioc60.com/buy-brand-briefings KEYWORDS rahul sood, harness, sean martin, brand briefing, brand story, brand marketing, marketing podcast, black hat usa 2026, application security, devsecops, agent dlc, ai security, api security, policy engine, software supply chain, open source risk, prompt scanning, skill scanning, code to runtime, developer experience, release velocity Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Proactive and actionable get used a lot in security, and Michael DeBolt, President and Chief Intelligence Officer at Intel 471, is direct about it. Inside Intel 471, proactive means moving past indicators of compromise, which he describes as temporary, and focusing on adversary behavior instead. Indicators still get blocked. Intent, capability, and motivation are what tell a defender whether they are actually a target. So what is pre-attack intelligence? It is information gathered from inside adversary communities before an attack is launched, built on embedded access to the places where financially motivated actors communicate. DeBolt sets aside the deep and dark web framing, arguing the phrase suggests a space nobody can reach. Mapping it reveals a structured ecosystem of financially motivated cybercrime, with enabling services operating alongside the actors themselves. Why track actors rather than ransomware groups? Because operators move and behaviors stay. Many current groups are staffed by people who ran earlier groups that have since disbanded, and techniques travel with them. A threat hunt built around the behavior holds up whether that person is operating under one banner, another, or on their own. Intel 471 maps techniques to the MITRE framework, which lets a consuming team run threat profiling and decide which actors present more risk than others. The same logic applies to exposure work. An organization scanning its attack surface and finding internet facing vulnerabilities can ask which threat actors are discussing those vulnerabilities, and whether that moves an item to the top of the list. The CISO conversations DeBolt describes land on numbers most security leaders already report on. Mean time to respond, mean time to detect, and alert volume that can absorb half or more of an analyst's day. He uses the phrase decision grade intelligence for intel that informs security operations rather than sitting beside it, with integrations pushing it straight into analyst workflows. Two customer situations show the daily version. Intel 471 helped an organization locate an insider after its own monitoring flagged something unusual. Separately, initial access brokers advertise compromised credentials that feed ransomware operations downstream, and since actors lie and embellish, validating those claims is part of the work. DeBolt closes on a note that sits right next to everyone's AI investment. Credentials, identity, internet facing vulnerabilities, and open remote access tools are still how attackers get in. GUEST Michael DeBolt, President and Chief Intelligence Officer, Intel 471 LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mdebolt/ RESOURCES Black Hat USA 2026 Event Coverage: https://www.itspmagazine.com/black-hat-usa-2026-cybersecurity-event-coverage-in-las-vegas Learn more about Intel 471: https://www.intel471.com/ Are you interested in telling your story? ▶︎ Full Length Brand Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#full ▶︎ Brand Spotlight Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#spotlight ▶︎ Brand Highlight Story: https://www.studioc60.com/content-creation#highlight ▶︎ Get your own Brand Briefing at an upcoming event: https://www.studioc60.com/buy-brand-briefings KEYWORDS Michael DeBolt, Intel 471, Sean Martin, brand story, brand marketing, marketing podcast, brand spotlight, cyber threat intelligence, pre-attack intelligence, adversary behavior, ransomware, initial access brokers, insider threat, MITRE framework, threat hunting, decision grade intelligence, compromised credentials, attack surface, cybercrime underground, Black Hat USA 2026 Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.