In the final 2023 episode of "Tea Time with Tech Marketing Leaders," Kerry Guard and David Mundy, VP of Marketing at Dasera, explore the indispensability of AI in marketing. They delve into David's journey from cybersecurity startups to his role at Dasera, underscoring AI's pivotal role in content creation and competitive strategy.

Dasera

David Mundy on LinkedIn

Full transcript on ⁠⁠⁠⁠MKG Marketing

In this episode of "Tea Time with Tech Marketing Leaders," host Kerry Guard sits down with Dan Sanchez, an expert in audience building and digital marketing. Dan shares his journey from graphic design to marketing, highlighting his experience in transforming a university's enrollment rates through innovative digital strategies.

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Dan Sanchez on LinkedIn

Full transcript on ⁠⁠⁠MKG Marketing

Getting quality, qualified leads takes intention and purpose. And once you have the lead, you can't just pass them off to sales immediately. The market has changed, and as marketers we must move with it.

Mason Cosby, Founder of Scrappy ABM, joins Kerry Guard on this episode of Tea Time with Tech Marketing Leaders to spill the tea on how to cultivate leads and then activate leads over time without needing fancy, expensive Martech.

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Tea Time with Tech Marketing Leaders is a Livecast on LinkedIn and YouTube almost every Thursday around 3pm ET.

Kerry Guard, CEO and Co-Founder of MKG Marketing, interviews B2B marketers who work for complex tech brands and market to tough audiences who generally don't like marketing – CISOs, Developers and even us... marketers.

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.

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.

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.

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/

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.

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

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Leads aren't going anywhere. We must capture, nurture, and cultivate an audience to be effective marketers and sellers.

But WHEN and HOW we is anyone's game.

In this episode, Alex Titze, VP of Marketing at Blue Team Alpha joins host Kerry Guard to spill the tea on how he keeps his content ungated and cultivates qualified leads.

Through his partnership with his subject matter experts, their MBA expertise, and outgoing personalities sees how this unusual partnership has brought success to The Blue Team Alpha cyber security company, building awareness and education to conversation and conversion.

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Tea Time with Tech Marketing Leaders is a Livecast on LinkedIn and YouTube almost every Thursday around 3pm ET.

Kerry Guard, CEO and Co-Founder of MKG Marketing, interviews B2B marketers who work for complex tech brands and market to tough audiences who generally don't like marketing – CISOs, Developers and even us... marketers.

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

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.

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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

Lawrence Elliot joins to discuss conversion copywriting.

Creating In-Depth, PILLAR Content that can be written in a way that both informs and persuades.

The best copywriters pass what Lawrence calls the ‘barstool test’; in order to put the reader at ease, imagine as if you were sitting in a restaurant with the reader. By writing in a conversational tone, you invite the reader in and avoid confusing them with complicated industry jargon.

To build this perfect storm of growth, you’ll need an irresistible offer, understanding of sales psychology that drives your ideal customers, and the writing chops to weave a story that engages that audience into making a direct response.

By following three steps, companies are able to employ content as a method of lead generation.

1. Providing valuable information
2. Positioning product/service as an industry leader
3. Drive engagement, (email opt-in, call to action)

Headlines need a solid hook and a solid graphic because people see the image first then read headline. If you don’t position your business along the way, a call to action won’t hit home. By utilizing a CHALLENGE/SOLUTION framework, companies can structure their content efficiently.

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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."

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Arel Moodie is a multi-talented professional speaker and bestselling author. He has spoken to over 650,000 people in 48 states and 5 countries. 

His podcast The Art of Likability was rated the Number 1 career podcast in iTunes and is listened to in 178 countries worldwide helping people build better relationships with people. Arel Moodie joins to discuss how public speaking can be utilized to generate leads and create demand.

Apply to be a guest on Tea Time With Tech Marketing Leaders 

2021, finally!! We've got some fantastic changes coming to the podcast starting with a new name - Tea Time with Tech Marketing Leaders! We hope that this new name and format can better help our audience grow big, fast through meaningful, measurable marketing. 

In addition, we're changing our release schedule and releasing all of Season 6 next Monday, January 11th! You can binge to your heart's content. 

8 New Episodes to start off your new year right, coming 1/11/2021!

On the Season 5 Finale, Tom Martin joins to discuss how to "sell greatly" and bolster marketing efforts by making friends. The sales game has shifted; old models have faded into obscurity.  Success is more often achieved when representatives choose to "sell greatly" rather than to "always be closing", to nurture a relationship instead of extracting a prize.

*Editor's Note- Thank you so much for tuning in this year! We have some exciting plans in store for Season 6, coming 2021! Have a wonderful and safe holiday season! -Kerry & Austin

Renato Agrella, Founder of 2A Consulting, joins to discuss how he helps build partnerships and utilize storytelling to communicate highly technical messaging. His firm simplifies the complex stories in ways to make it easier for an unknowing audience member to just hop in and understand the key elements. Whether they've been aware of the offer for 5 years or 5 minutes, the content needs to create an intriguing story and communicate the potential value add.

This week, Tish Millsap joins to discuss how to directly connect marketing spend to revenue. For the past 6 years, she has helped dozens of companies implement and sustain effective demand-gen and revenue-boosting solutions. 

Tirrah Switzer, Senior Director of Community Brands, joins Kerry Guard, CEO of MKG Marketing on this episode of Tea Time with Tech Marketing Leaders to spill the tea on why your competition matters, what matters, and what to do about it.

It's a delicate balancing act of not comparing and keeping focused on building your brand, and it helps to know how other brands are shaping the industry.

We can all pretend we're special snowflakes, but at the end of the day, other companies do what we do. What are they doing? How are they doing it? What waves are they making, and how does it impact the industry?

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Tea Time with Tech Marketing Leaders is a Livecast on LinkedIn and YouTube almost every Thursday around 3pm ET.

Kerry Guard, CEO and Co-Founder of MKG Marketing, interviews B2B marketers who work for complex tech brands and market to tough audiences who generally don't like marketing – CISOs, Developers and even us... marketers.

Jonathan Pogact is the VP of Marketing at Seamless.AI. He was the previous VP of Marketing for Drips, a text messaging software that helps brands deliver conversion results. He joins this week to discuss the power of text messaging in business development and solving the 'always on' problem.

Tamsen Webster joins to discuss, "The Red Thread", a method to help audiences, organizations, and individuals build and tell the story of their big ideas. The result? Real, transformative change. She works with individuals and organizations on how to talk about their ideas so that other people will act on them. "Your idea, business, product, or service is an answer. It is a new way to slay an old monster."

Christopher S. Penn is the Chief Data Scientist/Co-founder of Trust Insights. He is an authority on analytics, digital marketing, marketing technology, data science, and machine learning. Too often, marketers get caught up in the heaps of data without coming to a viable conclusion. If a decision isn't reached, all the statistics and metrics are ultimately useless.  As he neatly puts, "analytics without action is a recipe you cook but never eat."

On this week's podcast, Anna Hrach joins to debunk a few widely-believed myths surrounding content production. Content is a piece of the puzzle that stretches over the entire marketing ecosystem. It remains the primary way in which brands communicate with their audience.

On the Season 5 Premiere, our guest is David Liljegren, the President & COO of ADK America. His mission is to aid brands in the complicated process of healthcare marketing. This particular industry requires marketers with a deft touch, who are able to concisely communicate their value propositions. To keep the focus, David encourages the team to keep these four core questions top of mind- What is the business goal? What is the right message? Who is the right audience? When is the right time to engage?

Klyn Elsbury is a keynote speaker, author, and executive trainer. Through her consulting and bestselling book, I Am___:The Untold Story of Success, she helps leaders identify their unconscious motivators and utilize them to grow both personally and professionally.

Her podcast, Elevation Nation,  offers helpful insight and bite-sized pieces of wisdom from ordinary people who have overcome incredible odds.

Kathleen Booth is the VP Marketing for Attila Security. Her Mission - To help clients bolster inbound marketing utilizing fundamental tactics. By creating compelling content and cultivating community, brands are able to successfully grow. Her podcast Inbound Success helps marketers adjust their strategy and find the key niche for their development.

Carolyn Lyden is the President/Lead SEO of Search Hermit. Her goal is to help established women-owned businesses improve their online visibility through SEO and content strategy that drives sustainable growth and creates a more substantial online presence. 

AJ Huisman is a coach for chief marketing officers (CMOs) and their teams on how to work better in an effort to generate better business outcomes.
His Mission- to offer a fresh perspective and mediate between marketing teams and the CMOs. He pushes the executes to be the chief rainmakers or drivers of change within their organizations.

Pam Didner is a passionate digital and tech marketer, speaker, and author who loves to bring alignment between sales & marketing. She is the author of The Modern AI Marketer and Effective Sales Enablement.

Her mission- to help bridge the gap between sales and marketing teams so they can work efficiently and grow together.

Given the new world order in privacy protection – GDPR, Apple Tracking (or not tracking), 3rd Party Cookies being discontinued, etc.– marketers need to revert back to basics... or a better way to think about it, is to look at the channels on the fringe that have been shoved to the wayside and reinvent bringing them back.

Juan Mendoza, CEO of The Martech Weekly & TMW 100 Awards, joined Kerry Guard, CEO of MKG Marketing, on this episode of Tea Time with Tech Marketing Leaders to spill the tea on reactivating long-lost digital marketing channels to target through context and build first-part data lists faster and more intentionally.

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Tea Time with Tech Marketing Leaders is a Livecast on LinkedIn and YouTube almost every Thursday around 3pm ET.

Kerry Guard, CEO and Co-Founder of MKG Marketing, interviews B2B marketers who work for complex tech brands and market to tough audiences who generally don't like marketing – CISOs, Developers and even us... marketers.

Guests spill the tea on how they navigate meeting the customer where they are in the way in which they want to be met.

Join us on Thursdays around 3 pm ET or listen wherever you podcast.

#ttwtml #marketingpodcast

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Apple Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/tea-time-with-tech-marketing-leaders/id1483655266

Sean Amster is the Manager for Digital Content Solutions at The Hershey Company. He also teaches digital marketing as a comprehensive subject at Pennsylvania State University.

His Mission: Oversee innovation and transformation processes to make data-driven decisions in demand generation and overall efficiency.

Samantha Stone is the Founder/CMO of the Marketing Advisory Network and the author of Unleash Possible: A Marketing Playbook That Drives Sales.

Her Mission: To unite marketing and sales teams around certain Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) that drive revenue in the sales funnel. She notes 3 metrics that marketers should take ownership of: lead conversion, time spent in the 'buying' phase, and win-rate. 

Maurina Venturelli is a Senior Director of Demand Generation at Sumo Logic and Kate Gigax is the Founder of Development Corps. Kate is Maurina's leadership coach with a mission to challenge and support high-achieving women in reaching their goals.

Heather Seasholtz is the Director of Meeting and Event Management. Her mission is to aid organizations in shifting from live events to virtual meetings in response to the new world of COVID-19. From restructuring sponsorships to reformating content to coaching speakers on the chat function, Heather has helped clients adapt to our new circumstances.

The traditional 'waterfall' approach to project execution is outdated and no longer effective in these unprecedented times. Lisa Farrow is a marketing agilist encouraging teams to use Agile frameworks, such as Scrum and Kanban, to ensure that they meet and exceed customer expectations. By remaining nimble and iterating constantly, teams are able to deliver a product that is exactly what the client wants and within the means of the team's capabilities. 

Latane Conant is the Chief Marketing Officer at 6sense, an A.I. powered Account-Based Marketing platform. Her mission is to utilize big data to personalize engagement with the coveted, in-market accounts that are most likely to purchase and succeed with a product.  

Social media marketing has expanded and grown in importance within the marketing mix. However, teams are consistently hindered by the lack of cohesion and clarity regarding workflow. Xenia Muntean is the CEO and co-founder of Planable, a social media tool that acts as a one-stop-shop for the entire creation process, from writing content to scheduling and distributing across a multitude of channels. 

Scott Brinker is a Software Product Leader at HubSpot. He directs the company’s platform strategy, business programs, and tech partners.

His mission is to offer guidance in the best practices to utilize evolving and expanding marketing technology ("Martech") to streamline and coordinate the various aspects of a project. 

Ashley Cohen and Sabrina Galati are marketing solutions architects with TenX4 (Ten by Four”)

Their Mission- To help marketers be more effective and cost-efficient in the long-term by aiding the agency-client relationship from the start.

TenX4’s goal is to ensure the best possible B2B partnership through intensive review, pain-point recognition, and client-agency matching.

Roderick Jefferson is a Leading Sales Enablement Consultant who has worked with many innovative, category-leading companies (AT&T, eBay, Oracle, Marketo, and Paypal to name a few)

His Mission- Drive growth in small and midsized businesses (SMBs) and Fortune 500 companies.

He does this by coordinating and conducting multiple units (HR, Product, Marketing, and Sales) to ensure that the sales team receives the necessary support to effectively close deals.

Resources

Website: https://roderickjefferson.com/

Twitter: @ThevoiceofRod

Sales Coaching: https://www.lessonly.com/sales-coaching/

Join us for an engaging discussion with Steffen Hedebrandt, the founder of Dreamdata, as he shares insights on discovering and shaping your account-based timeline.

Carmen Collins is the Senior Social Media and Talent Brand Manager at Cisco.

Her Mission - Build personal connections with future talent by amplifying authentic content from current employees.

She does this by using marketing tools to talk about what it’s like to work at a company rather than to “sell” a product, commercial good, or service.

Resources

https://www.facebook.com/WeAreCisco/

https://twitter.com/WeAreCisco

https://www.linkedin.com/in/carmenshirkeycollins/

Kelby Johnson gets real when talking about messaging for his healthcare brand Providence Health. Creating a succinct message across 150+ hospitals, internal teams, and local caregivers is a daunting task. Not surprisingly (if you know him) Kelby rises to the occasion. See how he created real, authentic messaging, helped produce ideas and content, distributed across the company, and measured its success thus far.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelbyj/

Providence Blog: https://blog.providence.org/

Hosing is Health: https://blog.providence.org/topic-spotlight-housing-is-health

It's very easy to write content to check off a box whether for SEO or just because you know you're supposed to be producing it. By taking a step back, asking the right questions, instead of just checking a box you can tell a compelling story that truly creates conversation and connection.

The Content Fuel Framework

Story Fuel

LinkedIn