Executive Conversations – Détails, épisodes et analyse

Welcome to Executive Conversations, where we dig into the gritty realities of leading modern marketing teams. In this episode, Maeva Cifuentes sits down with Janet Jaiswal, chief marketing officer at Blueshift and long-time marketing advisor. Janet unpacks why her team now owns 90 percent of pipeline, how she killed the vanity of MQLs in favour of BANT-qualified “stage 1” leads, and what it really takes to align marketing, sales and CS around the same revenue target.

She explains the hidden CRM and training work that comes with that shift, the dangers of chasing efficiency before effectiveness, and why AI-powered search is rewriting the SEO rulebook. Janet also shares practical steps for surfacing in LLM results—from tweaking robots.txt to publishing Q&A-style content—and reveals how Blueshift is already closing deals that start with ChatGPT queries.

In this episode, Maeva talks with Amir Jabbari, the three-time CMO now steering growth at BimeBazaar. Amir explains how bouncing from FMCG to fintech to insurtech sharpened his creativity and pushed him to blend street-level observation with hard data. He breaks down why posture and facial cues matter more than click-through rates, how a brand-attitude study convinced a data-obsessed board to bankroll “click-and-brick” campaigns, and why scaling an ineffective channel is a fast track to failure.

Expect candid advice on separating efficiency from effectiveness, injecting human touch into digital funnels, and training your team to zoom out and question every best practice.

In this episode, we talk about:

• qualitative customer insights

• cross-industry marketing innovation

• effectiveness versus efficiency

• human touch in insurtech

• critical thinking for cmos

Mark and Maeva discuss navigating experiment overload in GTM strategies, emphasizing the need for trade-offs.

The conversation covers the importance of aligning marketing and sales efforts, with a focus on multi-threaded outreach to decision-makers.

Mark shares his approach to working closely with the VP of sales to present a united front to the co-founders.

The episode explores how to use data effectively to tell a narrative and gain executive buy-in for long-term GTM motions.

Mark highlights the challenges of getting executive support, especially from CEOs and CROs, and strategies to overcome these obstacles.

He discusses the necessity of long-term planning and how to balance immediate results with strategic growth goals.

In this episode we talk about

GTM (Go-to-Market) strategies

Executive buy-in

Data-driven decision-making

Marketing alignment

Long-term growth planning

Takeaways

Importance of detailed planning: Mark highlights the need for a clear strategy and contingency planning for marketing campaigns to ensure they meet objectives and adapt as necessary.

Securing buy-in: Discusses effective strategies for gaining support and buy-in from executives and other departments for marketing plans.

Budgeting challenges: Provides insights on creating realistic marketing budgets aligned with category benchmarks and total addressable market (TAM) considerations.

Marketing in SaaS: Explores the unique aspects of marketing in the SaaS industry, such as managing free and freemium models.

Using data effectively: Emphasizes the importance of leveraging data, including tools like Google Analytics, to understand user behavior and optimize marketing strategies.

In today’s episode, I chat with Josh Spilker, a B2B content marketing consultant and founder of Growthcontent.io. He just launched his own consultancy but has been working in content marketing with companies like ClickUp, Toptal, and Workzone for years.

Josh says that in content marketing, there are three main genres: brand, thought leadership, and education/search. They all play together but are usually not very well coordinated. There are also different expectations for how the different genres should perform. Each type of content is essential but understanding the jobs of each type, and what goals they can help your business reach, is essential to the success of your strategy. 

In this episode we talk about:

• Growth hacking vs. content marketing
• The balance between the technical side of SEO and having good content
• Balancing topic clusters in your content calendar

Timestamps: 

0:58 - Josh Spilker and his journey into content marketing

4:50 - How does content marketing drive companies with a long sales cycle

6:32 - The three genres of content and their role in strategy 

9:40 - The first step when setting up content marketing for a startup

10:58 - Growth hacking vs content marketing

13:00 - Growth hacking experiments

16:00 - Finding balance between technical SEO aspects and quality content

18:25 - What’s next for Growthcontent.io?

22:52 - How do you balance out topic clusters in your content calendar?

25:45 - Are you building a publication or are you building a library?

27:45 - Is the word blog becoming outdated?

30:18 - Making changes to evergreen content because of COVID

Connect with Josh Spilker on LinkedIn and check out his website Growthcontent.io.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Ryan Holiday - Growth Hacker Marketing

While you’re here:

Follow Flying Cat Marketing on the following channels to get more tips, tactics and knowledge on content marketing

Visual – YouTube

Audio – Flying Cat Marketing Podcast (Spotify) (Apple Podcasts) (Stitcher)

Instagram

Facebook

Linkedin

Damian Sheridan joins me on today’s episode. He’s the director of The Book Direct Show, an event for property managers who want to learn how to generate more direct bookings. He’s also an SEO consultant for short-term rental and property management companies and has nearly two decades of experience in the industry. 

In the short-term rental industry, business owners know that SEO is something they need to do but don’t know how to do it. It’s a long, ongoing process involving optimizing content, recycling it, link-building, and data-driven decision-making.

In today’s chat, we talk about setting achievable goals with SEO, how to approach your content depending on those goals, and what a healthy approach to content-driven SEO looks like.

In this episode we talk about:

• What “good SEO results” actually look like
• The best type of content to start with (BOFU!)
• Vacation rentals and email marketing

Timestamps: 

0:50 - An intro to Damian Sheridan

3:30 - The SEO process in the short-term rental industry

5:05 - Content quality vs content quantity 

6:45 - What’s the definition of “good SEO results” with content?

9:03 - Email marketing in the short-term rental industry and where people go wrong

10:40 - How to balance SEO between TOFU, MOFU and BOFU content

14:00 - Diversifying from OTAs in the short-term rental industry

17:37 - How Damian gets experts to speak at The Book Direct Show

Connect with Damian Sheridan on LinkedIn or find him at seoconnect.co.uk.

While you’re here

Follow Flying Cat Marketing on the following channels to get more tips, tactics, and knowledge on content marketing

Visual – YouTube

Audio – Flying Cat Marketing Podcast (Spotify) (Apple Podcasts) (Stitcher)

Instagram

Facebook

Linkedin

In today’s episode, I have Chris Maughan, founder of I-PRAC, a verification platform for the short-term rental industry. I-PRAC was born from the need for a reputable way to certify rentals to prevent consumers from becoming victims of fraud. They are now the leading global certification for the short-term rental industry. Chris is also the CEO of AES events group in Cannes, providing accommodation and event management for corporate clients like Twitter, Spotify, Microsoft, FOX and Disney. 

Building I-PRAC was no walk in the park for Chris. He made mistakes, as all business owners do, but stresses the importance of learning from those mistakes and moving forward. As his mother always said, “don’t make the same mistake twice”. Continuous learning, whether from mistakes made or still stacking is the key to becoming a successful business owner. Chris walks us through his journey in building his business, and the lessons he learned along the way. 

In this episode we talk about:

• The importance of outsourcing when building a startup
• Biggest lessons learned in the beginning stages of your business
• Why skill stacking is so important as a business owner

Timestamps 

1:30 - An intro to Chris Maughn and I-PRAC

5:00 - Fraud in the short-term rental industry

8:10 - Marketing & fraud-prevention 

11:27 - Challenges and lessons in starting I-PRAC

15:57 - How to identify whether your outsourcing is the problem or your own systems

21:05 - Choosing what components to outsource 

23:30 - I-PRAC - Skillshare partnership

26:35 - Importance of skill stacking and consistent learning 

Connect with Chris Maughn on LinkedIn or reach out via email at chris@i-prac.com. 

While you’re here

Follow Flying Cat Marketing on the following channels to get more tips, tactics and knowledge on content marketing

Visual – YouTube

Audio – Flying Cat Marketing Podcast (Spotify) (Apple Podcasts) (Sticher)

Instagram

Facebook

Linkedin

In today’s episode, I talk to Oren Greenburg, the Chief Growth Officer for Kurve, a marketing consultancy helping enterprises and startups navigate growth through digital marketing. They’ve worked with many big names like Canon, Investec and Lifecake, plus have been featured in publications by HubSpot, Zapier and Adweek. Digital marketing is, in Oren’s word, “his cup of tea”

Almost every channel can be validated in a shorter time frame by using paid advertising. It allows you to quickly identify whether a channel is the appropriate one for your audience based on the results. If your ad campaign flops, then likely your audience isn’t using that specific channel. There are a few levels of where things can go wrong: the channel level, the audience level, the message and the conversion funnel. Oren talks deeper about each level and how to avoid the most common mistakes. 

In this episode we talk about:

• How to find the right marketing channel for your business
• How to identify if you’ve picked the wrong channel
• How to start marketing once you’ve chosen an effective channel

Timestamps 

0:35 - Fun facts about Oren Greenburg 

3:09 - About Kurve 

4:27 - Finding the right marketing channels

7:15 - Did you pick the wrong channel? Or are you just using it wrong?

11:15 - The 4 areas where things can go wrong

11:38 - Writing a good CTA

13:50 - Mistakes that SaaS companies make 

20:07 - What’s the RIGHT way to start?

24:25 - Funnels vs channels

27:00 - Restructure your concept of brand building

31:34 - Identifying if your marketing sucks, or your product does

To connect with Oren Greenburg follow him on LinkedIn, and be sure to check out his consultancy, Kurve. 

While you’re here

Follow Flying Cat Marketing on the following channels to get more tips, tactics and knowledge on content marketing

Visual – YouTube

Audio – Flying Cat Marketing Podcast (Spotify) (Apple Podcasts) (Sticher)

Instagram

Facebook

Linkedin

Today, I chat with Mark Simpson. He’s the founder of Boostly, which offers website design and content creation coaching for people in the short-term rental industry. He’s spoken at various events and conferences, such as the Short Stay Show, and has won the “Best Use of Social Media” award at the Shorties Awards. He also hosts The Boostly Podcast, which is now in its 9th season.

Over the 9 seasons of the Boostly Podcast, Mark has had to consistently come up with topic ideas that resonate with his listeners. Content needs to be relevant, engaging and include notable guests who can provide valuable insight into all aspects of the industry. Mark gives us tips for preparing for podcasts, including how he comes up with the content he’s going to discuss. We also dive deep into the process he uses to get notable guests onto his podcast and how it’s contributed to a 200% growth in traffic.

In this episode we talk about:

• The steps to prepare for your podcast
• How to get big-name guests to come on your podcast
• How to repurpose your podcast into other content

Timestamps 

0:01 - Intro to Mark Simpson

3:38 - About the Boostly Podcast

7:40 - The power of podcasts

11:19 - How to prepare for a podcast/come up with questions

17:30 - Building relationships in any industry

18:50 - How do you approach big name people to be on your podcast

24:00 - Engaging on social media to build connections

29:00 - Incentivizing your guests audience to connect with you

32:20 - Repurposing your podcast

37:30 - How to ensure your team repurposes the right part of your blog

43:00 - Getting more guests through your guests

44:45 - Letting go of control - the importance of outsourcing 

Connect with Mark Simpson on LinkedIn and make sure to check out Boostly on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. You can also listen to the Boostly Podcast on YouTube, Spotify or Apple Podcasts.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Traffic Secrets by Russell Brunson on Audible

How to Find Great Virtual Team Members - Blog post by Tega Diegbe

While you’re here

Follow Flying Cat Marketing on the following channels to get more tips, tactics and knowledge on content marketing

Visual – YouTube

Audio – Flying Cat Marketing Podcast (Spotify) (Apple Podcasts) (Sticher)

Instagram

Facebook

Linkedin

In this episode, I talk with Christophe Salmon, Co-founder of Revyoos - the only review aggregator in the vacation rental industry and winner of the VR Tech award. 

He started in the short-term rental industry as a property owner in 2006 and started his own property management company in 2016, managing 40 units in Costa Blanca. 

As the owner of a property management company Christophe was looking for ways to get the most out of his property reviews, and struggled to find a platform or solution that would give him control over his reviews. Thus, Revyoos was born. 

Like with any startup, there are always challenges getting it off ground. The biggest challenges that Christophe faced with Revyoos were:

• Finding the right team to work with/build the product
• Finding the time to market the product

After the product is rolling, you can shift focus into creating partnerships with companies, collecting feedback from users, and using that to develop new and improved features. 

In this episode we talk about:

• The challenges of getting a new platform off the ground
• Developing a product roadmap using user feedback
• The biggest lessons learned launching a startup

Timestamps:

0:01 - An introduction to Christophe Salmon

2:26 - How Revyoos was born

5:00 - Creating a software that addresses everyone's needs

7:39 - Challenges with getting a new platform off the ground

11:00 - Strategies and future plans to grow Revyoos

12:27- New features coming soon on Revyoos

14:02 - Developing your product road map

15:05 - Biggest lessons as a startup founder

18:30 - Don’t wait until your product is “ready”

Connect with Christophe Salmon on LinkedIn, and be sure to check out Revyoos.com!

While you’re here

Follow Flying Cat Marketing on the following channels to get more tips, tactics and knowledge on content marketing

Visual – YouTube

Audio – Flying Cat Marketing Podcast (Spotify) (Apple Podcasts) (Sticher)

Instagram

Facebook

Linkedin

In today’s episode, I chat with Carla Chicharro, the marketing manager and head of the content team at Lodgify. She built their content strategy from the ground up and now they have content that outranks Airbnb! So, how did they create an effective strategy that not only drives traffic but conversions as well?

When you’re building a content strategy from scratch Carla suggests focusing on the quantity first. Create as much quality content as you can, using extensive keyword research and research through forums, articles and competitor blogs. Even to this day Lodgify still gets 60% of its monthly traffic from their old content. 

Lodgify splits their content between the three stages of the sales funnel: TOFU, MOFU and BOFU, though they now focus on quality over quantity. Carla talks us through all the steps of creating and implementing a content strategy that works! 

In this episode we talk about:

• Building a content strategy from scratch  
• Optimizing old content
• Adapting your content strategy as you grow
• The importance of lead nurturing 

Timestamps :

0:45 - Introduction to Carla

2:30 - The structure of the Lodgify content team 

4:06 - Planning out, and implementing content strategy 

6:15 - Quantity, then quality 

7:35 - Re-optimizing old content

10:45 - Defining leads 

11:33 - Content strategy experiments gone wrong

14:50 - Content strategies that work! 

18:35 - Lead nurturing tips 

21:20 - Importance of lead nurturing

22:44 - Using content software and applications 

Connect with Carla Chicharro on LinkedIn or email directly at carla@lodgify.com. 

While you’re here:

Follow Flying Cat Marketing on the following channels to get more tips, tactics and knowledge on content marketing

Visual – YouTube

Audio – Flying Cat Marketing Podcast (Spotify) (Apple Podcasts) (Sticher)

Instagram

Facebook

Linkedin