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In this conversation with Matt Dynan brings to life how he kicked off his marketing career. After Matt shares his story, we dig into what it means to build a category. Matt Dynan is the Digital Marketing Manager at Jellyfish.io. He is a B2B digital marketer with experience owning SEO and paid media programs at high-growth SaaS companies. He focuses on building consistent digital experiences across channels that enable brand awareness, prospect education, and customer acquisition.

Alyssa Maker started off in PR and is now a demand gen marketer. It really goes to show that you just never know where your marketing career will take you! Alyssa shares her story then we discuss what demand generation means to her and how she approaches it as the glue that holds all their marketing efforts together. Alyssa is the Director of Marketing for Sana Commerce. As a Director of Marketing, she manages a marketing team focused on accelerating growth through multiple channels including digital, demand gen, events, and partners. She loves marketing because it allows her to find sophisticated solutions to everyday challenges. She is passionate about growth and committed to developing new skills. Here’s my conversation with Alyssa.

In this final episode of Season 12, Kerry Guard hangs out with Tom Wedding all the way from Australia! Tom is committed to building digital communities on behalf of his clients. If you listened to my conversation with Sekou who talks about the power of community then consider this a perfect follow. Sekou was the why. This is the how.

Welcome to Season 11! Eight more episodes are here for you. Check em out and listen in whatever order you choose. We did curate them for you to serve up the best flow possible if you did decide to binge, but no worries if you’d prefer to skip around. Listen your way!On this first episode of season 11 is Dani Woolf. Dani chimed in all the way from Israel and she and Kerry dig in to what it really means to know your audience. Not just know them, but understand them —what challenges they face, what their priorities are, and if what we’re doing as marketers is really working for them or not. Dani breaks it down on she has gotten to know her buyer and why we all need to pick up the damn phone and do the same.Dani is the VP of Demand Gen at Cybersixgill. She’s a swimmer turned marketer and she still has the same appetite to win.She’s been applying lessons learned as a distance freestyler to B2B organizational success for the past 10 years.And while still get the same adrenaline rush looking at the scoreboard instead of beating personal records ⏱, she prefer racking up net new opps and revenue 💰with growth marketing strategies.Today, she is responsible for digital marketing and demand gen programs at Cybersixgill.Dani’s core specialty is in digital marketing with a focus on net new customer acquisition via digital channels - website optimization, SEO, SEM, social media, conversion rate optimization and marketing automation.Connect with Dani on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniarad/Season 11 Spotify Playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6zszIevpfzAuRpJSOYvci3?si=f2fca4cd6ecf4e3a

Welcome back to season 11! In this episode Kerry Guard chats with Chris Spellman. Chris is the Senior Demand Generation Manager at Offensive Security. He is a marketing leader with over a decade of experience helping organizations grow. Dedicated to leading orgs in driving brand, demand, and revenue. Chris and Kerry talk about what it means to be a mission driven organization. To have a real message about creating a real difference in the world, then backing it up through all your marketing efforts. This episode was brought to you by MKG Marketing - our digital marketing agency that helps cyber security and data companies get found via transparent, measurable digital marketing. It’s hosted by me, Kerry Guard - CEO and co-founder of MKG Music, mix, and mastering done by Austin Ellis. If you’d like to be a guest, please visit mkgmarketinginc.com to apply. Jam out with this season's Spotify playlist.

In this episode Kerry Guard connects with Kaya Adams and Alexandra McWethy. Kaya and Alexandra work together at Watch Guard. Kaya is a Director of Demand Generation and Marketing Operations at Watch Guard Technologies. She’s a passionate marketing leader with a proven track record of delivering innovative, data, and technology driven integrated campaigns in fast-paced, deadline-driven environments. She’s a creative problem solver with an analytics, detail-oriented approach, hungry to drive results. Alexandra is also a Director of Demand Generation at WatchGuard Technologies. She’s focused on developing educational and engaging content that helps small businesses and mid-size enterprise organizations better protect their employees, customers, and sensitive data. Kaya and Alex are a force. They have teamed up to build a team of Business Development Representatives. They are focused on drumming up leads then nurturing them to a place where they can pass them off to the sales team. Kaya and Alex break down how they did it, why marketing and sales love this approach, and the early outcomes they’re seeing. This episode was brought to you by MKG Marketing - our digital marketing agency that helps cyber security and data companies get found via transparent, measurable digital marketing. It’s hosted by me, Kerry Guard - CEO and co-founder of MKG Music, mix, and mastering done by Austin Ellis. If you’d like to be a guest, please visit mkgmarketinginc.com to apply. Jam out with this season's Spotify playlist.

In this episode Kerry Guard chat with Hana Jacover where she gives me my first lesson in Web3. She’s so passionate about Web3 that she has actually left her previous company to be able to dedicate time into really digging into Web3 and becoming an expert.Hana is a technical demand generation marketer with a proven track record of strategies and programs that accelerate revenue. She has deep experience in the optimization of high-performance tactics and marketing automation technologies that build and measure pipeline. She has a strong history of client loyalty and retention with marketing and sales executives at B2B tech companies. And she has a thorough understanding of marketing strategy, the importance of data and attribution, and execution. Most importantly, she can clearly articulate KPIs to decision makers.Hana and Kerry take the conversation from Web3 101, into a deeper conversation around the power of community, and how community needs to be apart of your marketing efforts to give them a vote and allow them to be part of the development of your brand and product.This episode was brought to you by MKG Marketing - our digital marketing agency that helps cyber security and data companies get found via transparent, measurable digital marketing.It’s hosted by me, Kerry Guard - CEO and co-founder of MKGMusic, mix, and mastering done by Austin Ellis.If you’d like to be a guest, please visit mkgmarketinginc.com to apply.

In this episode, Kerry Guard gets to hang out with Rob Neuman where we dig into his unique approach to Account Based Marketing. Unique in his ability to personalize his marketing based on what he knows of his audience which is a unique and niche. Not what we’re used to the cyber security and data side so it’s nice to hear of other approaches outside of these industries and maybe find opportunities to apply it. This conversation is especially special because we’re talking just a week or so after Russia invaded the Ukraine and we take a moment to sit and chat through what that means and the impact it’s had on Rob and his company. Rob is the Digital Leader of CSS Commerce. He works to create the most effective, uniquely innovative solution that will build your business, handle more traffic and transactions, move more clients to your platform and give you real insight into your business. Basically eCommerce for B2B. Rob knows the only way to make B2B transactional like ecommerce is to approach each of his clients with turn key solutions as they are all different. This episode was brought to you by MKG Marketing - our digital marketing agency that helps cyber security and data companies get found via transparent, measurable digital marketing. It’s hosted by me, Kerry Guard - CEO and co-founder of MKG Music, mix, and mastering done by Austin Ellis. If you’d like to be a guest, please visit mkgmarketinginc.com to apply. Jam out with this season's Spotify playlist.

In this episode Jada Holst joins Kerry Guard to discuss raising up the next generation of marketers. There are some clear hiring challenges in the marketing industry and it’s going to take all of us to fix it. Jada leads with her story where she grew up on a farm and had quite the journey to becoming a marketing leader. Jada Holst is a marketing manager at an ISV focused on supporting higher ed, non-profit, and other similar industries succeed in their missions. Her background also includes cybersecurity and B2B start-up's with experience in demand, channel, field, and customer marketing. This episode was brought to you by MKG Marketing - our digital marketing agency that helps cyber security and data companies get found via transparent, measurable digital marketing. It’s hosted by me, Kerry Guard - CEO and co-founder of MKG Music, mix, and mastering done by Austin Ellis. If you’d like to be a guest, please visit mkgmarketinginc.com to apply. Jam out with this season's Spotify playlist.

On this episode Naz Ekim joins Kerry Guard to discuss PR and what great PR looks like when it comes to finding your partners. She’s so candid which makes for a real honest conversation, which given the current state of events we all need a good dose of honesty especially when it comes to cyber security. Speaking of cyber security, Naz is an award-winning communication strategist and the Director of Global Marketing Communications at Keeper Security. She comes equipped with more than a decade of experience in orchestrating integrated communications campaigns for a diverse number of technology companies. This episode was brought to you by MKG Marketing - our digital marketing agency that helps cyber security and data companies get found via transparent, measurable digital marketing. It’s hosted by me, Kerry Guard - CEO and co-founder of MKG Music, mix, and mastering done by Austin Ellis. If you’d like to be a guest, please visit mkgmarketinginc.com to apply. Jam out with this season's Spotify playlist.

In this final episode of season 11, Jim Mitchell joins to discuss the pitfalls of receiving too much funding as a startup. This conversation with Jim is an eye opener. Jim has been at a few security startups over the last 5 - 10 years and he has seen somethings. Especially as it pertains to rapid growth and the pitfalls, more like craters as he describes them, of what can happen if you grow to quickly. Jim is a complete marketing professional with years of experience to get the job done: content management, brand management, end to end project management, and the ability to communicate across departments. He leads by doing not by telling. This episode was brought to you by MKG Marketing - our digital marketing agency that helps cyber security and data companies get found via transparent, measurable digital marketing. It’s hosted by me, Kerry Guard - CEO and co-founder of MKG Music, mix, and mastering done by Austin Ellis. If you’d like to be a guest, please visit mkgmarketinginc.com to apply. Jam out with this season's Spotify playlist.

What an honor to kick off Season 10, with having our very first guest back with us, Amber Anderson. Be sure to check out her first episode - the very first episode of the Series. She takes Kerry to school on intersectionality and how it relates to marketing. Specifically the intersectionality of women, where they live, their ethnicity, their race, their life stage and how as marketers we need to make sure our marketing meets women where they are. It’s so good. Amber is so clear in what we need to do as marketers and how we can do better. Which she brings us to this episode. Amber’s company, Tote and Pears has become more strategic in seeing a clear need for both women and tech companies. Given the great resignation, how real working remotely is now, and the realization for woman that the need for a true work life balance is non-negotiable, Amber and her team have identified a clear way to use their marketing and branding super powers to help tech companies, who are ready to embrace what it truly means to hire a working woman, find great talent. And to help women find awesome careers where they can have the lifestyle they want and can lean into it without apology. https://www.toteandpears.com/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/ambernanderson/ Spotify Playlist

On this episode Kerry Guard chats with Peter Zaballos, who is a fractional CMO at Authentic Brand. This is actually perfect timing in following Amber’s episode, because Peter is a prime example of what it means to be living the life he wants and to have a company support it. Before we met Peter, he sent Kerry an email with something called his User Manual. We, here at MKG marketing, just started looking into this when Kerry very first met Peter and to see one in action was so cool. It really set the stage for who Peter is and the amazing conversation we knew he and Kerry would have. We’ll tell you all about what a User Manual is and how it fits into the bigger picture of how Peter leads, which is heart centered. People centered. Let’s take a listen. https://www.linkedin.com/in/peterzaballos/ Spotify Playlist

On this episode Kerry Guard chats with Lavanya Ganesh… Lavanya is the Senior Manager of Global Digital Strategy and Demand Generation, at VMware. Lavanya was kind enough to take time out of her trip to New York city to chat with Kerry which worked out perfectly, because they were talking about the customer experience and Lavanya could share first hand real examples of brand experiences - the good, the bad, and the ugly - and in no better place. As B2B marketers, like Lavanya, we are taking more cues from consumer brands on how to build better customer experiences end to end, this episode is a great opportunity to do just that. https://www.linkedin.com/in/lavanyag9/ Spotify Playlist

On this episode Kerry Guard chats with Shane Whelan, Owner of PetBidder and Carrying the fire. You might be wondering why we have Shane on our Tech Marketing Leaders Podcast. Sometimes we come across people who just catch our attention. Who has a great story. Who is out there doing something different and thoughtful and after talking to these people we realize that we all can learn from their journey… and Shane’s journey is inspiring. How he sees the world and his customers is something we all need to lean into no matter who we’re marketing for. It was an honor to connect with Shane and we hope you feel just as inspired as we did. https://www.linkedin.com/in/shane-whelan-13356bb5/ Spotify Playlist

On this episode Kerry Guard chats with Lisa McDermott, VP of Marketing at Acqueon. When Lisa and Kerry talked, Lisa was working at CoreDial, which is interesting because it’s a business that relies solely on partners. Marrying the business model with Lisa’s view of marketing and content makes for a new and exciting conversation we haven’t had before. Take a listen. As an FYI - Lisa is now the VP of Marketing at Acqueon. She just started in January and is already looking for some great people to add to her team. Head over to their website and check out their job postings: Product Marketing - https://www.acqueon.com/careers/director-product-marketing/ Partner Marketing - https://www.acqueon.com/careers/director-partner-marketing/ https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisa-mcdermott-marketing-leader/ Spotify Playlist

In this episode Kerry Guard chats with Steven Shapiro, who has been a marketing leader at companies such as Qualys, Informatica, Weaveworks and more. At each company he has set the stage for how to build Generate Demand. Given his track record Kerry asked him to walk through his secrets of where he starts and then builds upon it to create a pipeline generation machine. Demand Generation is the new Lead Generation. If you haven’t thought about your demand generation efforts, you could find yourself playing catch up in 2022 and Steven talks through exactly where to start so break out that note book and take notes. Let’s go! https://www.linkedin.com/in/stevenshapiro/ Spotify Playlist

In this episode Kerry Guard chats with Rachel Jordan, head of marketing at TeachFX. Rachel is a purpose-driven marketing leader and change agent with more than 20 years of experience guiding brand strategy, content marketing, and marketing-sales partnership in b2b SaaS startup, b2b enterprise, and b2c nonprofit brands. Given Rachel ran her on marketing company for many years she discovered that a strong brand strategy is the lynch pin to a sucessful business - it fuels everything from product to sales to marketing. She even has a framework to help you build one! Grab your notebook and take a listen. https://www.linkedin.com/in/racheljordan/ Spotify Playlist

Christina Kay, Vice President of Marketing at ResellerRatings joins Kerry Guard to talk about how given her lean team she’s had to lean on Rev Ops and how it has impacted ResellerRatings business and helped find major and important efficiencies across the whole organization. Take a listen. https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinakay/ RevOps Templates Spotify Playlist

In this episode Kerry Guard chats with, Diana Morante, Marketing Director at Richo where she works in the education department helping schools get the necessary STEM equipment to keep their students on the cutting edge… I loved this conversation. I got to nerd out super hard on STEM and education which I’m super passionate about and so is Diana! It was an amazing conversation and such an honor. Season 9: Spotify Playlist

In this episode, Kerry Guard had the pleasure of speaking with Delitha Morrow Coles. Delitha and Kerry connected over LinkedIn and after one 20 minute conversation with her, Kerry knew this was going to be a special episode. Delitha is the Global Corporate Communications Leader at NCR corporation in Atlanta. She is an award-winning, results driven leader who develops strategic communication programs that engage, education, and inspire employees and build company brand and reputation. She has extensive B2B experience with large, global brands, and is passionate about employee engagement. Season 9: Spotify Playlist

On this episode Kerry Guard chat with Joshua Kanter, CMO of Encora. Josh and I dig into how Marketing and Product and work together. So many times organizations are set up in silos and don’t necessarily coordinate. Josh and I talk through how to work through and towards a more unified organization across departments and how to bring the customer voice to the table in doing so. Season 9: Spotify Playlist

On this episode Kerry Guard chats with Jeanne Hopkins, who was the Chief Revenue Officer at Happy Nest. Jeanne was an interesting conversation because it’s not everyday Kerry gets the opportunity to speak with Chief Revenue Officers! It was fascinating seeing marketing through her lens. We dug into the importance of marketing to existing customers. It sounds like a no-duh, but when you’re just getting going a lot of focus is outbound and new new new, so to take time to create marketing funnels to upsell and cross sell existing customers isn’t always on the radar. Jeanne thinks it should be not just on your radar, but something all brands are actively doing. And she walks us through why and how. Season 9: Spotify Playlist

In this episode Kerry Guad chats with, Genepha Murphy, CMO at Five9. We dig into how she builds and leads a team. She has developed a frame work - FIRE and we walk through what this framework is and how it has helped her build brands, such as Five9. Resources Spotify Playlist LinkedIn

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

First up, we have Marguerite Yeo. This is a special conversation to me as Marguerite and MKG Marketing have a long standing relationship having worked together since Marguerite’s days at VMware back in 2014. Marguerite is now at Nutanix and has been for three months. Congratulations Marguerite! I hope all is going well. In our conversation, Marguerite and Kerry Guard dissected what it means to work on corporate marketing verse product marketing and the pros and cons of both and why Marguerite’s heart lives with Demand Generation. Season 9: Spotify Playlist

On this episode Kerry Guard chats with Chris Ott, CEO of Creative Blue. Chris and I were introduced through mutual connections. He first met my business partner, Mike Krass then Mike had the genius idea to see if Chris wanted to join us on Tea Time so here we are! Chris and Kerry dig into Brand Marketing, especially as it relates to startups who are looking for funding so his company can help them get the funding then scale. Chris is a big believer in story and has a very direct approach on how brand can tell their story. Season 9: Spotify Playlist

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

Friday Ahrenby, CMO of Get Accepted joins Kerry Guard to discuss how she’s building a global team and staying connected. LinkedIn Profile GetAccept

Tara Pawlak is the Head of US Marketing at GetAccept. She is a dynamic marketing expert who has over 15 years of experience in Marketing Operations and Automation, Marketing Strategy and Demand Generation, Marketing Technology and B2B Lead Generation. She joins to discuss breaking into a new market and positioning a product internationally. Season 8 Spotify Playlist GetAccept

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

Niki Wilson is the Director of Sales and Marketing for ClickClaims. She shares how she brings new customers along through personalized customer journey via LinkedIn. From awareness, to connection, to close. Here are the tools Niki uses: LinkedIn Sales Navigator LinkedHelper 2 LinkMatch Zapier Our Season 8 Playlist: Spotify Playlist

When we were children, and people asked us what we wanted to be when we grew up, not one of us said, "MARKETING LEADER!" We each have a unique story on how we found marketing or in some cases, how Marketing found us. For David Mundy, head of marketing at Accurics, it was a symbiotic relationship. One he is deeply passionate about. In this episode David takes us on a journey through how he met Marketing, fell in love with Data and team building, and how he truly believes that Marketing should be a key pillar to the success of any organization... you build it then marketing brings them to it. Season 8 Spotify Playlist

Martina Trucco is the VP of Corporate Marketing at Clari, a revenue operations software. She is an award winning tech marketer specializing in helping leaders build trust through what she calls "radical transparency". Our Season 8 Playlist: Spotify Playlist

For this final episode, I had the opportunity to chat with Gabrielle Dalvet, and Natalie Cantave. Natalie is Product Marketing Manager at Cohere Health, and Gabrielle is Director of Marketing at Vendr. Gabrielle and Natalie started Marketing Women, it's a Slack channel of marketing women who support one another. Suppose that they have a small virtual gatherings around hot topics with experts who lead those gatherings. They started in December of 2020 and they have been growing exponentially. Mark wrote, in The Marketing Rebellion, that building communities is one very important tactic in leading as a human company. So what better way to wrap up the season than to give you a real case study of two women who have done just that?

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

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

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

Quincy Johnson is a Marketing and Technology Strategist who teaches at the University of Texas at Dallas. He lectures primarily on how to effectively utilize social media marketing. He started in inside sales as has discovered the wide range of social and martech as it relates to technology companies. Social Selling For Quincy, social media is the grand Truman Show: a great experiment to observe and document the way humans form connections and present stories. People have access to share whatever and whenever they want. For brands, the pandemic has forced them to create an identity and ‘meet people where they are’ but not cross the line into just selling. Many sales reps have had to “dust off their LinkedIn” and get down to forming connections in a remote world. Pro-tip: please don’t follow up five times on unreplied inMail message. Staying true to one’s message allows for better buy-in; for instance, Simon Sinek sharing tid-bits and helpful information, while still having a selection of books and content available for purchase. For Quincy, he argues that the executives (even via ghostwriters) needs to drive vision and the sales teams can be on the ground making connections, create 1 to 1 relationships. C-Suites have the ability to both garner attention and inspire internal commitment from their teams. Evangelists have a way of captivating audiences and crafting industry-shifting visions. Petting the Belly of the Puppy As discussed on previous episodes, LinkedIn and Facebook have different superpowers and can offer various techniques on engagement. The latter is more of the ‘softer’ side of the company, in terms of demonstrating culture and community. Quincy mentions that TikTok has an enormous audience and brands can have the latitude to reach a variety of niche markets; the algorithm doesn’t discriminate on previous content. However, it’s an ever-changing platform that some videos garner a few hundred views and one could blow up reaching multiple millions of screens. YouTube is another, more established platform which requires people to build a channel; there is incredible value because millions go to the platform for information- from learning a new skill to fixing a sink. Demonstrating expertise on how to do what you do can garner leads and provide value. In addition, by learning how to navigate a platform, the future workforce can become skilled and implement those systems down the line. He advocates an entrepreneurial mindset when learning and implementing new technologies and strategies. This was only a high-level overview of our conversation with Quincy. Be sure to listen to the full episode and the rest of the season on all streaming platforms!

Meghan Nesta, Senior Product Manager at AWeber, joins to discuss how she and her team build and maintain relationships while working from home. Agile Resource: Agility Is Key with Lisa Furrow

Max Borges joins to discuss running public relations agency and How To Be Fan-F*cking-Tastic! Max Borges runs a Public Relations (PR) agency that works exclusively with consumer tech companies. He employs 50 incredibly talented people and has built a profile of 50 clients. When starting, he mentions AFM (anything for money) wherein he built an agency to fill any need that would bring in a paycheck. He also hosts the “Unconventional Genius” podcast where he interviews authors and other industry-driving leaders in hopes to share stories and inspire listeners. Both he and Kerry focus on impacting the client’s bottom line through pipeline creation. + Pivoting from Sales to PR + The Four Stages of Growth + Life Is An Open-Book Test Read the full overview on MKG Marketing Are you a Marketing Leader working in Tech? Be our guest!

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

On the Season 7 premiere, Larry Long Jr., Director of Collegiate Sales at Teamwork joins to discuss how his EPIC values (Entrepreneurial Spirit, Practice, Internal Drive, Communication) help lead high performing teams. Larry has a goal to change 1,000 lives in 2021. Not B2B or B2C but rather P2P, people to people sales. The most successful people care about others first. For Larry, sales is playing matchmaker; finding the right partnerships between products or services and individual’s wants and needs. They may not know what they need but it is a perfect opportunity for the salesperson to offer that service or assistance. When faced with failure or obstructions Larry allows remembers the acronym FIDO- Forget-about It, Drive On. Try to not get bogged down with the rough patches of work-life because they will only slow you down in the future. When in conversation, strive for a 53-47 split. Listening is an excellent opportunity to learn.

Alex Dunn, head of Levelset, joins to discuss the importance of building a content machine. Alex Dunn has been a friend of MKG for a long time. He is a results-oriented business development professional in B2B and B2C marketplaces; he specializes in driving traffic through content solutions Alex is the Head of Demand at Levelset, a payment solutions company for the construction industry. They’ve created a platform to alleviate roadblocks, get people paid. Alex started with video content creation while getting his MBA in Massachusetts, and went on to sell his production company in 2016. That venture primarily focused on video testimonials for B2B tech companies. He honed his craft and started to replicate the success using similar content creation patterns. As Ben Horowitz quoted in The Hard Thing About Hard Things, “There’s no silver bullet, there’s only a ton of lead bullets”. A new company must operate and define itself around a core philosophy. There’s not going to be one quick and easy solution for all problems; most of the time, the answer will be one specific solution replicated over and over. For Levelset, the mission and main question was ‘how do we drive the most traffic to our site?’ The solution that Alex found was to become a media company (within their niche). Levelset leverages data to create a news website for the construction industry- from news, payment disputes, trends, they seek to grow thought leadership. Rather than ABC, the sales team shifted their focus to providing quality service. Their mantra is ‘help first, sell second’; this multifaceted approach builds trust, brand recall, and expands inbound traffic. In addition to being a reliable helping hand, creating content demonstrates the human element and often forges a connection with the reader. Apply to be on Tea Time with Tech Marketing Leaders

In order to construct a high performing team, you have to ask during the hiring process - Would you enthusiastically re-employee the people on your team? Paul advocates utilizing the classic, Norton's balanced scorecard of company effectiveness as well as 9 key foundational elements to create a high-performing team. Check out Paul's Mentoring Website HERE - https://www.buildlivegive.com/sales And listen to his podcast Build, Live, Give HERE - https://paulhigginsmentoring.com/podcast/ Be our guest on Tea Time With Tech Marketing Leaders: https://mkgmarketinginc.com/resources/mkg-podcast-guest/

Gwen Lafage, Manager at Sköna - European HQ, joins to discuss how they create impactful branding for B2B tech companies, marrying brand awareness and lead generation. LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gwen-lafage-9500381/ Website: https://www.skona.com Apply to be on Tea Time with Tech Marketing Leaders

Originally from Australia, Paul Higgins is a business mentor, podcaster, and publisher who helps coaches and consultants to help build profitable and sustainable online businesses. He previously spent 18 years at the Coca Cola company, managing $700 million in marketing strategy across the world. This conversation shares insight into how set up effective processes to run a global remote team. Shifting away from his 12-14 hours of meetings per day at Coca Cola, Paul tries to keep the team to be as 'meeting free' as possible. They utilize Voxer, a voice chat platform that allows for instant communication across timezones. By utilizing this technology, Paul's team can effectively execute work 24 hours a day, from Melbourne to the Maldives to Colombia. Everyone will update a key focus, biggest win, and one area they need help. Every Friday, they update rewards summary. They utilize Asana for project management as a bible; every task done by team members is noted and can be set up as repeatable tasks in order to keep the business on track. Trying to use too many tools can lead to friction; by keeping the amount low, you can streamline tasks and never miss a project. Dub, like Loom, allows the recording and sharing of processes which makes training and sharing recordings of meetings easier.

Adam Mendler, host of the podcast Thirty Minute Mentors, joins to discuss the importance of understanding your superpower as early as possible. From Los Angeles to Wall Street, Adam Mendler has learned some hard-earned lessons. While earning an MBA at the Anderson School of Management (UCLA), Adam interned in entertainment (Universal). Upon graduation, he returned to finance and worked in large corporate firms. After nearly a decade, Mr. Mendler wanted to try something different, to build his own success. He founded the Velos Group in 2012 with his brother. They built three companies under the umbrella: Beverly Hills Chairs - the biggest refurbished furniture store in Los Angeles, a fully online cigar shop, and a life insurance software. He wanted to have more of an impact as it is nearly impossible to do so early on in career at older, bureaucratic companies. Adam wanted to contribute right away; building firms from scratch allowed Adam to build upon lessons from other companies. Apply to be on Tea Time with Tech Marketing Leaders

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

Aileen Horgan, VP Marketing at Gremlin, joins to discuss executing fearlessness in content creation and nurturing trust among team-members. "People that work with you and for you don't have to like you, they just have to trust you." Apply to be on Tea Time with Tech Marketing Leaders