Georgiana is a strategic advisor, author and speaker who's passionate about turning customer value into revenue-generating outcomes. Marketing online since 2000, she began her track record as a marketing executive and product growth advisor in 2010 working with high-growth, B2B SaaS like Unbounce, Sprout Social, Bitly, Appcues, SparkToro, Invoice Simple and more.

Questions and topics we covered in this interview include:

• The origins of Forget The Funnel (and why funnels are bad for business)
• What Customer-Led Growth is and why it comes before all other growth models (like product-led, sales-led, marketing-led, or community-led)
• How do marketers begin to learn from their customers? 
• What’s the best way to collect product feedback?
• What’s the best way to implement that feedback? + How does marketing champion and facilitate this process with other departments?
• You’re a prolific advisor to several big name startups, what does it take to become one?
• Georgiana’s advice on how to become a startup advisor

And more!

Important Links

You can say hello to Georgiana on LinkedIn here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/georgianalaudi/

You can find me on LinkedIn here- https://www.linkedin.com/in/kennysoto 

Get her book on Customer-Led Growth™ here - https://www.forgetthefunnel.com/customer-led-growth/book

Check out her podcast with cofounder Claire Suellentrop here - https://pod.link/1713510690

Past guests of The People of Digital Marketing include April Dunford, Amanda Goetz, Melissa Rosenthal, Bill Macaitis, Miruna Dragomir, Andrew Capland, Erik Newton, Andy Crestodina, Sarah Bedrick, Michael Wieder, Dan McGaw, Kathleen Booth, Foti Panagiotakopoulos, Tommy Walker, Lea Pica, Maya Grossman, Sara Pion, Margaret Kelsey, and more.

Music for this podcast comes from www.davidcuttermusic.com 

Kate Guerrero helps early stage startups solve positioning and messaging challenges, and translates strategy to a crystal clear homepage. She's a 2x small business owner, a 2x mom, and the author of an award-winning manuscript.

Questions and topics we covered in this interview include:

• Fletch’s philosophy around product marketing
• How product positioning lays the groundwork for all other forms of marketing collateral a business will need to make and deploy
• How to sell the work of product positioning internally
• How the size of a business’s product portfolio affects positioning exercises and GTM strategy
• The core differences between brand marketing and product marketing
• The actual step-by-step process Fletch takes to update a B2B SaaS company’s homepage and product positioning  
• How to identify what differentiates a product from the rest of the market
• Why it’s okay to actually talk about the competition in your positioning 

And more!

Important Links

Learn more about Fletch PMM’s positioning and product marketing services here - https://www.fletchpmm.com

You can say hello to Kate on LinkedIn here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kate-guerrero-🖋%EF%B8%8F-42b56348/

You can find me on LinkedIn here- https://www.linkedin.com/in/kennysoto 

Past guests of The People of Digital Marketing include April Dunford, Amanda Goetz, Melissa Rosenthal, Bill Macaitis, Miruna Dragomir, Andrew Capland, Erik Newton, Andy Crestodina, Sarah Bedrick, Michael Wieder, Dan McGaw, Kathleen Booth, Foti Panagiotakopoulos, Tommy Walker, Lea Pica, Maya Grossman, Sara Pion, Margaret Kelsey, and more.

Music for this podcast comes from www.davidcuttermusic.com 

Over her career, Lindsay McGuire has contributed to the content functions at the largest credit union in Alabama, the most well-known nonprofit brand in the world, and a SaaS company that made five acquisitions within two years. Now as the Associate Director of Content & Campaigns at Goldcast, her days are spent overseeing and creating content around how B2B marketers can use events as one of their top revenue-driving channels.

Her diverse background across various industries makes Lindsay a well-rounded content leader and a strategist who knows how to create a content engine, build relationships across teams, integrate holistic messaging, and think creatively while staying laser-focused on business goals.

Questions and topics we covered include:

• Lindsay’s method to recover from layoffs
• Ways marketers can improve their confidence on camera
• The lessons Lindsay has learned about marketing events and webinars by working at Goldcast?
• What’s the right strategy for promoting and repurposing events?
• What are the keys to strong customer interviews? How can marketers leverage them to improve their brand’s storytelling?

And more!

You can connect with Lindsay on LinkedIn here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/lindsayladeroute/

And you can find me on LinkedIn here - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kennysoto/

Past guests of The People of Digital Marketing include April Dunford, Amanda Goetz, Melissa Rosenthal, Bill Macaitis, Miruna Dragomir, Andrew Capland, Erik Newton, Andy Crestodina, Sarah Bedrick, Michael Wieder, Dan McGaw, Kathleen Booth, Foti Panagiotakopoulos, Tommy Walker, Lea Pica, Maya Grossman, Sara Pion, Margaret Kelsey, and more.

Music for this podcast comes from www.davidcuttermusic.com 

Alex is a former professional soccer player turned growth marketer and now works as a community growth manager at Funnel, a marketing data platform with over 1500 customers including Adidas, Samsung, and Havas. Prior to Funnel, Alex worked agency-side at Brainlabs building cross-channel digital growth strategies for brands such as Digicel & MARS.

Questions and topics covered:

• The story on how he became a Growth Marketer.
• Why did he join Funnel.io?
• What are some of the weekly and monthly challenges Funnel’s marketing team faces?
• What is his approach for testing several different marketing channels?
• What are some go-to mental frameworks that he uses to help him develop and refine his marketing strategies?
• What are some of Alexander’s marketing resources that he can’t live without?
• Alexander’s list of favorite MarTech tools.
• Characteristics he likes to see in job candidates.

You can connect with Alexander on:

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexander-ross-billington-0a2a1090/

Youtube - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVuHcUzOvfuIelublasK1Hw

Resources mentioned:

“How to Build an A/B testing Framework – Our VICE Framework Revealed” - https://mcgaw.io/blog/how-to-build-an-a-b-testing-framework-our-vice-framework-revealed/

The Knowledge Project hosted by Shane Parrish - https://fs.blog/knowledge-project-podcast/

The Digital Marketing Podcast by Target Internet - https://www.targetinternet.com/digital-marketing-podcasts/

Aazar Ali Shad is a Growth Marketing Lead at Synthesis.is, an online games-based academy started by Elon Musk and Chrisman Frank. He has a podcast called Growth Marketing Stories where he tells unconventional growth stories. He also has more than 10 years of marketing and sales experience.

Questions we covered:

• Why did he make the transition from sales to marketing?
• What’s been the hardest challenge in regards to growing his personal brand on Twitter?
• For someone who is interested in starting a podcast but, they need help—what’s the best way to start? What are some things they can do early on to help them succeed?
• What worries him and excites him about growth marketing in 2022?
• And more!

Here are some amazing Twitter threads that Aazar has written:

• Aazar’s list of favorite marketing podcasts - https://twitter.com/Aazarshad/status/1476579470404247556
• Aazar’s list of favorite marketing professors - https://twitter.com/Aazarshad/status/1483122979496071171

Foti graduated with a degree in finance in 2007 but, quickly pivoted into digital marketing a year later as the first non-engineer hire at the managed hosting provider, EuroVPS. Fast forward a decade and in 2018 he launched his startup called GrowthMentor which helps founders and marketers connect with vetted mentors.

Questions we covered include:

• Why did he create GrowthMentor?
• How would he describe his job as a founder?
• What are some of his weekly and monthly challenges?
• What resources would he recommend to someone who’s new to growth marketing?
• What new marketing skill is Foti learning right now (PREVIEW: it’s a skill with three letters)?
• When is the right time for a business to hire a growth marketer and do they need to be a full-time employee?
• What interview questions should entry-level growth marketers know how to answer?
• What are his favorite MarTech tools?
• Why does he think people are too obsessed with personal branding?

You can connect with Foti via LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/fotis-panagio

Demand Curve’s slack channel (I’m in here too by the way) - https://www.demandcurve.com/slack

Neil Patel’s advice on why you need to STOP studying digital marketing - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2BIMXX7lbQ

And here’s another great episode about growth marketing that you can check out, the guest is Agata Krzysztofik who recommended me to Foti - https://anchor.fm/kennysoto/episodes/Interview-with-Agata-Krzysztofik---Want-to-Win-as-a-Growth-Marketer--Have-a-Growth-Mindset---Episode-60-e18lvt4

“You want to make sure your survey questions result in stories.”

Michele Linn is the founder of Mantis Research where she helps content and community managers conduct surveys so they can learn about their audience and publish compelling, original research findings. Prior to Mantis, Michele was head of editorial at Content Marketing Institute, where she led the company's editorial strategy and helped grow its audience to more than 200,000 subscribers.

Questions:

• What are some of the benefits marketers can get from doing original research?
• When is the best time to do original research?
• What’s a simple step-by-step process marketers can use to conduct original research?
• What are some suggestions for marketers who want to conduct original research projects, but who don’t know how to propose these projects to their managers and business leadership?
• What are some common misconceptions about original research that annoy her?
• What are some incentives a marketer can use to get people to respond to surveys?
• What it is like working for Joe Pulizzi?
• What skills did she learn from working at the Content Marketing Institute?
• And more!

You can connect with Michele via:

Her LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelelinn

Her website - https://mantisresearch.com

And here’s the article I mentioned regarding community-building as a marketing strategy (definitely something worth reading more than once) - https://review.firstround.com/a-founders-step-by-step-guide-to-getting-your-first-1000-community-members

If you’re looking for another wonderful interview with an expert content marketer who also talks about original research, check out the episode I did with Andy Crestodina here (it’s episode #43) - https://anchor.fm/kennysoto/episodes/Interview-with-Andy-Crestodina---Understanding-Digital-Empathy-with-The-MASTER-of-Content-Marketing---Episode-43-e145vsu

“[E-commerce marketing] is so difficult now because anyone can open up a Shopify store, you collaborate with other brands and sell [their products], you can drop-ship, there are just so many stores and everybody is just trying to make it…”

Jimmy Zona is the Director of E-Commerce & Digital Marketing for Turbie Twist. At Turbie Twist, he created and scaled the company's digital presence in order to become the market leader in its category. In this episode of the podcast, we talk about all things e-commerce: ads, SEO, cross-channel marketing, email marketing strategies, and more!

Questions and topics we covered include:

• How did Jimmy get into the hair care industry?
• What lessons did he take from his tv producing experience while transitioning to a full-time marketer?
• Why is scaling an e-commerce business difficult? Is it difficult?
• What's the single best way to re-engage users who abandon an app/website?
• How is Jimmy handling email updates with iOS 15 rolling out? (Hint: he’s focusing on SMS marketing)
• When is it the right time for an e-commerce business to run ads?
• What are the best examples of cross-channel marketing?
• What are the similarities between building an affiliate marketing network and scaling PR hits?
• How does e-commerce and SEO come together? Do e-commerce businesses need an SEO strategy?
• What are the main reasons why he doesn’t use influencer marketing?
• What’s the hardest part about marketing products on Amazon? Should e-commerce marketers focus on DTC-only, Amazon as the main focus, or a mix?

You can connect with Jimmy via LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/zonajimmy/

And for anyone interested in a deep-dive on Amazon PPC tactics and strategies, check out this episode I did with Dr. Travis Zigler - https://anchor.fm/kennysoto/episodes/Interview-with-Dr--Travis-Zigler---The-Basics-of-Amazon-PPC---Episode-25-emd36f

“You should be speaking truth and focusing on honesty in marketing…”

Maddy Martin is the VP of Marketing for Smith.ai, which provides 24/7 communication & intake services for businesses, by phone, website chat, text, and Facebook Messenger. She has spent the last decade growing tech startups from New York to California, and has expertise in digital marketing, small business communications, lead conversion, email marketing, SEO & content marketing, social media, co-marketing, and event marketing.

Questions I asked her included:

• Why do email open rates no longer matter (Hint: iOS 15)?
• What’s the best way to use branding guidelines?
• Do leads/prospective customers really read e-books?
• What is the ultimate goal for any B2B company?
• What is a “leaky” lead funnel? How do you “plug it”?
• What role do chatbots play in a business’s SEO strategy?

Connect with Maddy via:

Email - maddy@smith.ai

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/madelainemartin/

Twitter - https://twitter.com/madelainemartin/ 

And here's a FREE and wonderful eBook from the Smith.ai team, How to Use Virtual Receptionists for Small Business Growth - https://assets-global.website-files.com/5b15d605b7c459fc409872b5/6189368976b9b9c71fb04012_Smith-SMB-white-paper-11052021.pdf

“When you are a business owner—you’re a digital marketer. That’s the bottom-line.”

Deirdre is the creator of The Viralocity Formula, author of The Traffic Formula and founder of Growth Boss, a leading mentorship and Virtual CMO program for e-commerce business owners wanting to scale to multiple- 6 and 7 figures using the power of tribe-building, virality and human connection.

Questions I asked her included:

• What is a virtual CMO? What do they do?
• Why shouldn’t you discount Instagram as an acquisition channel in 2022?
• What is your definition of a tribe? Why are Facebook Groups still the best option for building a tribe?
• How should marketers go about lowering Cost of Acquisition? What tips can you provide?
• What are some proxy metrics that can help improve CAC over time? (She discusses reach/impressions as the key to measuring creative assets and CTR for measuring copy👀)
• When is it the right time to tap into influencer marketing? When is a business ready for this?
• How can a business evaluate influencers?

You can connect with Deirdre here:

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/deirdretshien/

The Remarkable Entrepreneur Facebook Group - https://www.facebook.com/groups/theremarkableentrepreneur

Kathleen Booth is the VP of Marketing at Clean.io, the market leader in digital engagement security solutions used by businesses looking to optimize their revenue and buyer experience by taking back control over third-party code on their websites. Prior to joining clean.io, she spent 13 years in the digital marketing agency world, first as Owner and CEO of Quintain Marketing and then as VP of Marketing at IMPACT.

Kathleen is the host of the long-running Inbound Success Podcast and was named by TopRank as one of the 50 Top B2B Marketing Influencers of 2019.

Questions I asked her:

• Does a marketer need an MBA to succeed?
• What are the benefits of joining an advisory board?
• Why is 1st party data important for marketers? What are the differences between 1st-party, 2nd-party, and 3rd-party data?
• Why is cyber security important to marketers?
• What are the 3 categories of cyber security vulnerabilities? Your tech stack, your website, and your team…
• How does cyber security play a role in the world of e-commerce?
• What are client-side injections and how do they affect consumers and marketers?
• How do browser extensions (like Honey and Capital One Shopping) interfere with revenue attribution reports for online retailers?
• Do e-commerce businesses actually benefit from using coupon codes? How do they affect conversion rates?

You can say hello to Kathleen via:

• LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kathleenslatterybooth
• Twitter - https://twitter.com/workmommywork

Resources mentioned:

• CISA Homeland Security (cyber security education) - https://www.cisa.gov
• On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft by Stephen King - https://amzn.to/3aHxKgc

Check out episode #62 if you want another related episode about MarTech with expert Dan McGaw: https://anchor.fm/kennysoto/episodes/Interview-with-Dan-McGaw---You-Can-Build-The-Ideal-MarTech-Stack----Episode-62-e19n54k/a-a68tnmh

“The adventure starts when things go wrong.”

Mary is a designer, brand strategist, and founder of Vitality Creative Studio. She believes in the triple bottom line (people, planet, and profit) and that creativity can be the catalyst for change. From her mobile studio, she collaborates with social and environmental change-makers on projects from sustainable design to digital media and everything in between.

Questions we covered:

• What are the challenges that come from being a digital nomad?
• What tools are essential to her daily work?
• How does social impact play a role in her career?
• What does it mean to have an ethical brand? Why is this important for a Gen Z consumer audience?
• Why is graphic design “easy”? Why is this an under-appreciated skill?
• What is one challenge when it comes to owning her own business that she wishes people knew about before starting?
• Is her career path something that anyone can get into?

You can say hi to Mary via:

• Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/vitalitycreativestudio
• LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/margraceand/
• And her website - vitalitycreativestudio.com

If you enjoyed this episode, check out episode #54 with Maria Bryan (who recommended me to reach out to Mary). We talk about non-profit marketing in that episode and it ties really well with this one!

You can find that episode here: https://anchor.fm/kennysoto/episodes/Interview-with-Maria-Bryan---Enter-the-World-of-Nonprofit-Marketing---Episode-54-e16qbvm

“The average company spends 25% of their operating budget on technology, they spend 24% of their budget on advertising.”

Dan McGaw is an award-winning entrepreneur, speaker, and the CEO of McGaw.io, an analytics and marketing technology consultancy and SaaS platform, UTM.io. In addition, Dan also finds time to be a 500 Startups Mentor, and has previously started the first business accelerator in Orlando, FL.

He’s also a thought leader in the MarTech world and a CXL instructor on the topic. Having spoken at leading marketing conferences and online events, his expertise lies in helping businesses extract and interpret the right data to grow their revenue exponentially.

Questions and topics we covered:

• Dan’s story about his first marketing job promoting a band!
• How does Dan qualify leads for both of his businesses?
• How does Dan leverage automation to scale his service-based business?
• Why is building a MarTech stack so difficult?
• What are some ways that marketers can cut costs when building a MarTech stack? (Hint: don’t use HubSpot)
• How can a business get a full inventory of the tools in their stack?
• What are the categories of MarTech tools?
• What are UTMs and why are they vital to a marketer’s success?
• Is Google Data Studio a tool that all businesses should add to their stack?
• If Dan could mold the ideal marketer, what skills would he want them to have?

You can say hello to Dan via:

• Linkedin - https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielmcgaw/

Resources mentioned

• Text “Martech” to 415-915-9011 for a free copy of Dan’s book “Build Cool Shit” (this is to help business owners build a great tech stack)
• “Ego is The Enemy” by Ryan Holiday - https://amzn.to/3nSsvRg
• “Play Bigger: How Pirates, Dreamers, and Innovators Create and Dominate Marketers” by Al Ramadan, Christopher Lochhead, Dave Peterson, and Kevin Maney - https://amzn.to/3waVfZb
• Effin A/B Test Calculator (Chrome Extension) - https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/effin-ab-test-calculator/ijndnpondlemhcgdmbdljpgohnlpejhp

Amir Shahzeidi, Head of Demand Generation at Uscreen.tv and Host of the Beyond the Funnel podcast, combines deep SEO roots with a passion for driving growth. His expertise empowers brands and creators to thrive in the digital landscape, through strategic, revenue-centric marketing approaches.

Questions and topics we covered in this episode include:

• The unique challenges you’ll face when you’re the first marketing hire 
• How does Amir define demand generation and how to properly measure it
• What does a marketer need to do after demand is generated?
• Examples of short-term marketing tactics that create the wrong incentives for businesses…
• Examples of vanity metrics we need to avoid as marketers and some of them aren’t that obvious…
• What can marketing teams learn from creators?
• What has contributed the most to Amir’s success at UScreen?
• What does Amir look for in new team members?

And more!

Connect with Amir on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/amir-shahzeidi/

You can say hello to me on LinkedIn at - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kennysoto/

Past guests of The People of Digital Marketing include April Dunford, Amanda Goetz, Melissa Rosenthal, Bill Macaitis, Miruna Dragomir, Andrew Capland, Erik Newton, Andy Crestodina, Sarah Bedrick, Michael Wieder, Dan McGaw, Kathleen Booth, Foti Panagiotakopoulos, Tommy Walker, Lea Pica, Maya Grossman, Sara Pion, Margaret Kelsey, and more.

Music for this podcast comes from www.davidcuttermusic.com

“There’s no dictionary for marketings strategies…when you work in a marketing team, if you’re going to keep trying what other people are doing—it’s not going to be productive. You have to do is be open to your market and your customers and talk to your customers.”

Julian is the Co-Founder & Head of Growth at TheSecretCompany.co 🗝 a crew of serial entrepreneurs, with a pirate mindset, and secret co-founders of over 10 startups. Julian fell into entrepreneurship by selling computer scripts online at the impressive age of 14 years old. Over time he quickly developed a digital side-business studio, called SideFounders. He’s also co-founded an import-export company with a Chinese partner, exported machines to Africa and Europe, and sold thousands of masks during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic last year. His main focus right now is managing growth at The Secret Company.

Questions we covered:

• What is “Pirate Marketing”?
• How do you define a “North Star” metric?
• What are some of the growth secrets he’s learned from starting several businesses?
• Can you describe Human Market Fit and how it differs from Product market fit?
• What makes for a good growth marketer?
• Why he looks for marketing experts who aren’t marketers?
• And more!

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

Medium: julianivaldy.medium.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/julianivaldy

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/julianivaldy

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/PirateMarketer

If you’re interested you can join the Pirate Marketing movement by joining Julian’s community group:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/piratemarketingcommunity

Agata is a growth mentor and a marketing leader with +10 years of experience in developing and executing growth strategies at companies like Google, Groove, and Piktochart. Currently, as a VP of Growth at Piktochart, she is leading a 100% remote marketing, sales, and product team. Together with her team, Agata is on the mission of empowering people to tell great visual stories that stick.

Questions:

• Lessons she learned from her 7 years working at Google.
• Why is it hard to become an SEO expert?
• What is one of the hardest parts of managing a 100% remote team? How can managers measure the performance of their remote teammates?
• What should a content marketer focus on first—finding the right channels or discovering the right content format?
• What is an often overlooked metric that content marketers need to pay more attention to?
• What makes for a great Instagram ad in 2021?
• Should social media marketers have some sort of experience using Google Analytics?
• What does Agata look for when she is hiring new team members?
• Why is Product Hunt important? For any businesses launching on Product Hunt, what advice would she give them?
• Why are mentors essential to a marketer’s career growth?

You can say hi to Agata via Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/agatakrzysztofik/

Resources mentioned⬇️

• Backlinko (a great SEO learning resource): https://backlinko.com
• For a deeper dive into how OKRs help marketing teams, check out episode #56 of the podcast with Sarah Bond: https://anchor.fm/kennysoto/episodes/Interview-with-Sarah-Bond---Lessons-in-B2B-SaaS-Marketing-and-CRO----Episode-56-e17ldnb/a-a68tnmh
• Agata’s blog post on the CUTENESS ad formula for Instagram: https://piktochart.com/blog/create-winning-instagram-ads-with-cuteness-ad-formula/
• If you need a Growth Mentor: https://www.growthmentor.com

David J.P. Fisher (D. Fish) is an internationally recognized keynote speaker, sales trainer, and business coach focused on bringing empathy and the human touch back into sales, social media, networking, and entrepreneurship. He is also the author of 9 books including the best-sellers “Hyper-Connected Selling” and "Networking in the 21st Century". And lastly, he is the host of "Beer, Beats, and Business", a podcast that shares his casual conversations with leaders in sales, marketing, and entrepreneurship.

Questions I asked David include:

• How does David grow his personal brand as a “soloprenuer”?
• What are the benefits of being a published author?
• Any tips on how to market a book in 2021?
• What are the biggest mistakes sales professionals and marketers are making on LinkedIn?
• What strategies and tactics have you used to grow your personal brand?
• How has public speaking changed in 2021?
• What is a Sales Sherpa?

You can learn more about David and say hello via

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/iamdfish

And his website - https://davidjpfisher.com/about

Forrest Dombrow is a sales consultant at Solve Sales, a marketing and sales consultancy firm helping agencies get new leads and more clients. What makes them different is that they’ve walked the walk and have been contracted by brands like Amazon and Costco.

Forrest was also named one of the Online Marketing Institute’s Top 40 Digital Strategists in Marketing and has over 17 years of experience as a sales consultant in this space.

Questions we covered:

• How would he describe lean generation to a 10-year-old?
• Why inbound strategies and tactics work better than outbound (e.g. cold emails)?
• Does someone need to be an extrovert to be successful at sales?
• What are some changes that have occurred in the world of lead gen this year?
• What are some pitfalls businesses make when trying to coordinate a sales team and marketing team to work together?
• Why should B2B marketers attend sales calls?
• How does someone scale their agency from their 1st client to their 20th?

You can learn more about Forrest at Solvesales.com or Forrest@solvesales.com

Or via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/forrest-dombrow/

“The most valuable skill that I’ve ever picked up is the ability to learn.”

Moe Abbas is the Co-Founder and CEO of Acadium, a revolutionary company that enables just about anybody to launch a career in digital marketing - for free. Acadium has raised $1M from top angel investors like the ex-CEO of Expedia, and it has launched more careers in digital marketing than any other learning platform (which is saying something, let me tell y’all).

Questions we discussed:

• Why is having some understanding in sales and buyer behavior useful for marketers?
• How did he come up with the idea for Acadium?
• How does someone launch a career as a freelancer or independent digital marketer?
• How can a marketer identify their strengths?
• What are the most in-demand skills marketers should know in 2022?
• What is the main difference between a digital marketer and a growth marketer?
• Where is the best place for marketers to learn more about unit economics?
• What are some of the challenges in marketing an EdTech business?

You can connect with Moe via:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/realmoeabbas

And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/realmoeabbas

Sarah is the Senior Director of Marketing Strategy at Lucky Orange, a software company that helps businesses around the world improve website conversion rates. She is responsible for leading all aspects of marketing and communications including product marketing, brand positioning, market research, pricing strategies, and communications.

Prior to joining Lucky Orange, Sarah grew her knowledge of marketing, communications, and brand strategy through roles with a Fortune 1000 health care information technology company, a marketing agency focused on higher education, and an Air Force public affairs office.

In this episode we talked about:

• How often should a marketing team review their strategy documents?
• How should a marketing team use OKRs (Objects and Key Results) and goal-setting frameworks to leverage their strategy documents?
• What is Lucky Orange?
• How does Lucky Orange (the team) use Lucky Orange (the tool) for conversion rate optimization?
• How often should a business leverage giving out a free trial? What’s the difference between product-led growth and sales-led growth?
• How can B2B SaaS companies optimize their onboarding funnel? What’s the best way to build out experiments?
• What is a Product-Qualified Lead (PQL)?
• How often should a marketer experiment?
• And more!

You can say Hi to Sarah via email - Sarah@LuckyOrange.com

Resources Mentioned:

Measure What Matters: How Google, Bono, and the Gates Foundation Rock the World with OKRs by John Doerr - https://amzn.to/2XIMIjn

“Write playbooks, don’t follow them.”

Michael Wieder is Co-Founder, President and CMO at Lalo, and most importantly, dad to 18-month old Jemma. Utilizing his diverse experience helping build world-class brands, Michael oversees all of Lalo’s marketing and consumer engagement efforts. Prior to founding Lalo, Michael held various leadership positions, including Head of Brand Marketing and Partnerships at WayUp. He also gained valuable entrepreneurial experience, having founded a fitness-tech brand and a music management and event production firm. Michael graduated from the University of Michigan and currently lives in Brooklyn with his wife, daughter, and dog.

In this episode we covered:

• The unique challenges involved when marketing to parents. How are the decision cycle and customer journey different?
• How has Lalo achieved product-market fit?
• How Lalo provides the emotional benefit their customers are looking for?
• The first year of Lalo’s growth and how they went about testing acquisition channels.
• The importance of creating a council of power users/power customers.
• Why creative > audience targeting is the way to go and is the best unlock to great marketing performance.
• Why a low-CAC or high ROAS isn’t necessarily a good thing.
• What Michael looks for when hiring marketing talent.
• Why’d focus more on organic growth vs paid growth in the early years of operating Lalo.
• And more!

You can say hello to Michael via Twitter - https://twitter.com/mwieder

“People are more emotionally attached to people than they are to entities…when nonprofit leaders share their stories, it humanizes the nonprofit’s brand.”

Maria Bryan helps founders create thriving nonprofits by marketing on purpose. She provides practical strategies and empathetic coaching to nonprofits ready to amplify their mission and their message. Maria is a firm believer that storytellers make the world a healthier, safer, cleaner, and happier place.

Maria gave a lot of great answers to questions like:

1️⃣ How would you describe your role as a Nonprofit Marketing Strategist?

2️⃣ What are some of the unique marketing challenges nonprofit orgs face that other businesses don’t?

3️⃣ What makes up a good story?

4️⃣ Why should nonprofit leaders tell their own stories on social media?

5️⃣ If a marketer wanted to volunteer their time for a nonprofit, where should they search?

And more…

Connect with Maria through her website: https://www.mariabryan.com

Or through⬇️

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mariabryancrtv/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MariaBryanCrtv

The Digital Marketing Hive | For Small Nonprofits & Businesses: https://www.facebook.com/groups/digitalmarketinghive

With over 12 years of digital marketing experience, Nicholas runs a conversion-focused growth marketing agency specializing in landing page optimization and marketing automation. He’s also the host of a top-rated podcast called Growth Marketing Toolbox and he writes a weekly marketing newsletter read by over 4,200 subscribers.

In this episode we talked about how Nicholas manages his content marketing for two brands, the core differences between webpages and landing pages, how businesses can leverage a newsletter to grow community, the best certifications to get as a budding marketer, how businesses can vet Martech tools before purchasing them, and more!

If you want to say “Hello” you can find Nicholas on LinkedIn, Tiktok, Twitter, and through his website: Growthmarketer.co

Other resources mentioned:

• Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Revised Edition by Robert by Robert B. Cialdini (book on psychology every marketer should read)
• https://mymind.com (marketing swipe file)
• http://notion.so (marketing swipe file)
• https://evernote.com (marketing swipe file)
• https://www.leadpages.com (landing page software)
• http://clickfunnels.com (landing page software)
• https://unbounce.com (landing page software)

Cara Meiselman is the Director of Strategic Content & Performance at Slice. She is a seasoned marketing leader with 10+ years of experience working at high-growth startups. Cara has experience leading brand strategy for several large companies as well as creating custom training for corporate clients and their employees. Cara is a frequent speaker at conferences including INBOUND and Social Media Week and has featured blog posts on sites such as Mashable, Inc. and Forbes.

In this episode we talked about Cara’s journey from law school to the marketing world, the unique challenges from marketing a B2B2C business, the hardest part about managing a content calendar, how to major a brand strategy’s impact, how to reach out to journalists and influencers, how marketers can get their writing featured on major publications, and much more!

You can say Hello by visiting her website or her LinkedIn profile.

Two years after graduating from Harvard with a degree in Applied Math, I quit my corporate job to travel the world with my then girlfriend for 5 years. Together we visited over 60 countries. During that time I launched and exited from my first SaaS, NinjaOutreach, an influencer marketing platform. Nowadays I run Shortlist.io, a boutique digital marketing agency. Our team is 20 people strong and we work on cool problems.

I've been on dozens of podcasts and my style is always to be engaging, energetic, and transparent - often focusing more on the realities and the failures than the highlights. 

Questions and topics we covered include:

• The story of NinjaOutreach and what lessons do you take from that experience into the agency you manage today?
• The latest trends in link building, whether or not link building is still an effective way to increase rankings
• How to select websites (what's a good target what's a bad target)
• Behind the scenes look at your data from building thousands of links
• What to expect in terms of results (how long does it take to rank)
• When linkbuilding is most effective and who it's most effective for
• Google Generative Search experience, thoughts on how it will affect marketers?
• Go to SEO and MarTech tools…

And more!

Connect with Dave on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/dave-schneider-8a693115/

You can say hello to me on LinkedIn at - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kennysoto/

Past guests of The People of Digital Marketing include April Dunford, Amanda Goetz, Melissa Rosenthal, Bill Macaitis, Miruna Dragomir, Andrew Capland, Erik Newton, Andy Crestodina, Sarah Bedrick, Michael Wieder, Dan McGaw, Kathleen Booth, Foti Panagiotakopoulos, Tommy Walker, Lea Pica, Maya Grossman, Sara Pion, Margaret Kelsey, and more.

Music for this podcast comes from www.davidcuttermusic.com

"Being data-led is core to becoming product-led…”

Arpit is a non-engineer who loves data and APIs and believes that everybody, irrespective of their technical chops, should gain data literacy to stay relevant. He likes to spend his days thinking, writing in simple terms, and answering questions about data. He also firmly believes in the power of delayed gratification.

In this episode we talked about how Arpit refines his ideas through writing, the importance of product analytics tools for growth marketing, what is product-led growth, the four core elements of a “data stack,” his definition of “data spaghetti,” and much more!

Here are four keywords to reflect on after listening to this episode: collect, store, analyze, and activate…That’s how marketers need to use data to make it worth something…

You can say “Hello” to Arpit via Twitter, LinkedIn or visit his website.

“Digital marketing is a blessing and a curse…”

Maurice Bretzfield has been a lifelong Dodger fan, a raconteur, traveler, and a connoisseur of matters of the tongue, ear, and eye. He's also a blue water sailor, dad, granddad, Digital Marketing geek, consultant, mentor, and teacher. Maurice has been practicing Digital Marketing since the release of the first Web browser, Netscape, in 1994.

This episode is near and dear to my heart. I don’t know how my career would look like today if I didn’t meet him—good thing I did! We talked about how he got into digital marketing, how he became my mentor, common mistakes small business owners make when trying to transition into a digital-first business, why he loves Martech, why personal branding is important, and more!

Want to say to Maurice? Google his name!

Or you can visit MauriceBretzfield.com or say hi on LinkedIn.

Resources Mentioned:

https://www.SproutSocial.com

https://SearchEngineLand.com

https://www.SEMRush.com

https://www.Ahrefs.com

https://ChiefMartec.com

https://www.Lately.ai 

"It has to be true to you—it has to be real."

Heather H. Bennett is a marketing strategist and personal brand coach that lives and works in Chicago, Illinois.

Drawing from over 20 years of experience in brand marketing, research & development, and personal branding, Heather brings a unique spin to understanding how a personal brand can impact business and personal goals.

Her social media strategy expertise has been used by professionals and entrepreneurs in areas as diversified as financial wealth management and law to non-profit and professional speaking, education and consumer products to technology and start-ups.

Heather's latest book is “Fun and Fulfilling Careers One Question at a Time: A Step-by-Step Guide to Thriving in Your Personal and Professional Life”

In this episode we spoke about the hardest part of getting an MBA, how she defines personal branding, why all professionals (regardless of their industry) need to establish a personal brand, why a personal brand is important for doing the job you already have, common mistakes people make in the early days of personal brand development, how ageism affects a personal brand, and more!

You can connect with Heather via her website or on LinkedIn!

“At the end of the day, your business is your database.”

Tracy Sheen is recognized as a Certified Practicing Marketer by the Australian Marketing Institute. She is a speaker, small business digital coach, and the author of “The End of Technophobia: a practical guide to digitizing your business”. With over 30 years of experience in marketing, sales & small business technology, Tracy works with businesses to up-skill their digital understanding.

She has facilitated over 2000 workshops and webinars and is one of a handful of federally approved small business advisors. Tracy is a regular on judging panels for various Australian industry awards including the Australian Marketing Awards and the Australian Podcasting Awards.

In this episode, we talk about the challenges with hosting and growing a podcast, why CRMs are vital to small businesses, why your website is your true “digital real estate,” what digital overwhelm means to her, the challenges with marketing a book, how technophobia affects small business owners today and how it could potentially affect Millennials and Gen Z professionals 30-40 years from now, and more!

You can connect with Tracy on LinkedIn or her website (just remember to tell her you are coming from this podcast)!

“No one on social follows a brand to be advertised to.”

As Director of Public Relations and Enterprise Social Media, Jen is responsible for protecting and improving John Deere’s reputation by leading an enterprise social media and public relations strategy for the company. Jen has over 25 years of experience in public relations, communications, and marketing with 12 of those years at John Deere.

In this episode of the podcast, we talked about John Deere’s 100+ year old content marketing history, why UGC is important to incorporate into a marketing strategy, defining a community and how UGC helps with community building, how she manages JD’s social media profiles in 54 countries, her advice to entry-level marketers who want to move up in an organization, and much more!

You can say hello to Jennifer on Twitter (let her know you’re coming from this podcast).

“What we do is we start small and we start today…today, now is so much better than tomorrow.”

Will is an operator, advisor, and investor for early-stage companies. He has spent a decade leading strategy and ops at start-ups in NYC across a wide variety of industries. He is currently the VP of product and strategy at Rhino (sayrhino.com) and an operating partner at Lakehouse (lakehouse.vc).

In this episode we discussed why Will got into the world of startups, why he has stayed at Rhino for more than 4 years, the challenges with operating in a Business-to-Business-to-Consumer business model, how Rhino grew with no revenue for the first 2 years of operation, why CAC is the North Star for startups, how to network to find the right job opportunities, and more!

If you want to say “Hello!” you can connect with Will on LinkedIn and on Twitter.

“If I feel like I am getting close to perfection, it’s almost too late…will it work even it is not perfect in my eyes?”

Sarah Bedrick is a marketing advisor and former VP of Marketing. She's spent the last 13 years working in SaaS startups and scaleups.

Her journey includes most recently co-founding Compt, an HR software company, and building the business and marketing engine from scratch. One of her biggest career wins was starting the HubSpot Academy team and growing it into a world-class educational institution for marketing, sales, and customer success professionals.

Sarah is also a new mom, loves to explore by bike, and is a life coach to fellow people in tech.

In this episode, we discuss inbound marketing, what makes HubSpot Academy a great resource for marketers to get new skills, how she built Compt and Compt’s marketing engine, why she left the company she co-founded, her marketing principles, universal challenges all marketers face when launching a campaign, and more!

Connect with Sarah at LinkedIn or at https://www.sarahbedrick.com/

“Belief drives behavior.”

Here’s a bonus episode where I interview Todd Wheeler for a second time. If you have not listened to episode #37, do that first and then listen to this one.

Topics we covered are below:

• Tell us a story about your most difficult client, how did you navigate that situation? What would you do differently today?
• What makes someone a good leader/manager?
• Why is consistency an important leadership trait?
• What litmus test or criteria can someone use to know if they should even attempt to move up the corporate ladder? When is someone ready for that coveted leadership role?
• Why is executive coaching helpful? When is the right time to seek an executive coach?
• What is the difference between engagement and compliance?

Say hi to Todd via email: todd@mangagementinsight.co

“No one’s talking about how more brands should be having more fun on social media.”

Shana Bull is a best-selling children's book author, freelance writer, and digital marketing educator based in the Bay Area. She is passionate about low-alcohol wines, elaborate cheese boards, and traveling on food adventures with her husband and redheaded son (the co-author of their children’s book - Randall the Blue Spider Goes Surfing).

With over 12 years of social media marketing under her belt, she had a lot to share on the pod!

In this episode we talk about Shana’s writing process, how she created her first children’s book, the importance of finding a mentor, how to get into creating Instagram Reels and TikTok videos, why you need to outsource the tasks you don’t want to do, and more!

You can connect with Shana on Instagram, Twitter, or at http://shanabull.com.

“Our job in content marketing is to show deep expertise on all the related topics…Our job in that case is to simply be active enough to be consistently visible…”

For those of you who have listened to my episodes with Araminta Roberston and Dennis Shiao, you would have heard today’s guest mentioned in both episodes!

My guest today is Andy Crestodina. Andy’s the co-founder of Orbit Media, an award-winning 40-person digital agency in Chicago. Over the past 20 years, Andy has provided digital marketing advice to 1000+ businesses and written 500+ articles on content strategy, SEO, visitor psychology and analytics. He’s also the author of Content Chemistry: The Illustrated Handbook for Content Marketing.

In this episode we talk about why seeking projects leads to more work than seeking a job, his definition of content strategy, the importance of original research as the best form of content, how he has developed his personal brand, and much much more!

You can connect with Andy on LinkedIn and on Twitter.

Resources mentioned:

The Art of Asking: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help by Amanda Palmer

If you want to support this podcast go here: https://anchor.fm/kennysoto/support

Allie is currently the Growth Marketing Lead (formerly the Content Marketing Lead at the recording of this episode) at Sequel.io, a webinar platform that allows you to host events directly on your website. She lives and breathes SaaS start-up marketing after falling into the space while overseas and diving deeper into the realm of content. 

Over the years she has become a huge advocate for killing bad B2B marketing and bringing life into every relationship, campaign, and content piece. Connect with her on LinkedIn for marketing insights & the best coffee beans to fuel your day!

Questions and topics we covered include:

• The qualities in a team/company that Allie looks at before deciding to join them…
• Why it’s ok to (and how to) evaluate a company's leadership team before accepting an offer
• What are the pros and cons of working directly under the founder/CEO?
• Why is it important to make yourself visible at work?
• How to do “Self Check-Ins”
• Why it’s important to evaluate the product or service that a company is selling before accepting a job offer
• Should marketers specialize or be generalists?

And more!

Connect with Allie on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandra-smith223/

You can say hello to me on LinkedIn at - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kennysoto/

Bonus Resources

Check out Allie’s Job Search Tracker template: https://l.linklyhq.com/l/1jeDq 

Check out her Career Goals template: https://l.linklyhq.com/l/1jeq5

Work Results template: https://l.linklyhq.com/l/1jeq1

Past guests of The People of Digital Marketing include April Dunford, Amanda Goetz, Melissa Rosenthal, Bill Macaitis, Miruna Dragomir, Andrew Capland, Erik Newton, Andy Crestodina, Sarah Bedrick, Michael Wieder, Dan McGaw, Kathleen Booth, Foti Panagiotakopoulos, Tommy Walker, Lea Pica, Maya Grossman, Sara Pion, Margaret Kelsey, and more.

Music for this podcast comes from www.davidcuttermusic.com

"You should take a T-shaped approach..."

A. Lee Judge is the Co-Founder and CMO of Content Monsta, a digital content agency.

Focused on B2B marketing for over 20 years, Lee is both a digital marketing practitioner and creative content entrepreneur. He is a leading LinkedIn video creator, Forbes Agency Council member, and engaging event speaker providing training on digital marketing, content creation, social selling, and sales enablement from the Marketing point of view.

In this episode we talk about the fundamental principles of marketing, how to take a T-shaped approach to learning new skills (a fresh look into the specialist vs generalist argument), understanding your audience when making an agency, his advice for college grads in 2021, and more!

You can connect with Lee via his website or through LinkedIn (make sure you let him know that you discovered him from my podcast).

If you want to support this podcast go here: https://anchor.fm/kennysoto/support

“It took me many many jobs to figure this out—you are in a support role…marketing is a support role. ”

Erik Newton is the VP of Marketing at Milestone Inc. Milestone helps companies organize and amplify their digital information to reach the right audiences with advanced technical solutions for content and SEO.

He is a growth marketing executive who takes a full-lifecycle view of customer acquisition, experience, and retention. Prior to Milestone, he was the VP of Growth Marketing at BrightEdge.

Early on in his career he spent 6 years in Japan and earned his MBA there and then started his career at Dentsu agency in Tokyo. Erik has worked in tech marketing for more than 20 years at Adobe, MP3.com, Netflix, and TiVo. He has published more than 175 blogs on SEO, is an accomplished speaker, and wrote a book called Hack the Corporate Fast Track.

In this episode Erik provides a great historical narrative of his career and the Silicon Valley scene in the 90s (he had met Andrew Grove and Steve Jobs in the same week), we talk about his experiences at Adobe and Netflix, the different roles and paths marketers can take today, how to speed up your career growth, and more!

You can connect with Erik on LinkedIn or via Email (make sure you let him know that you discovered him from my podcast).

“Being out on my own is so amazing that thinking about a full-time role again…being in one job is hard for me to think of…”

Dennis Shiao is the founder of Attention Retention LLC, a marketing consultancy that works with Silicon Valley technology companies. Dennis consults with clients on content marketing, product marketing, and social media marketing.

We talked about his IT background, how he got into marketing, how he defines a “successful webinar”, his strategy for growing a personal brand, and more.

You can connect with Dennis on Twitter and LinkedIn.

Resources mentioned:

Andy Crestodina (a marketer that Dennis follows)

Andy’s book is “Content Chemistry: An Illustrated Handbook for Content Marketing”

For learning about SEO, visit Moz.com and follow Rand Fishkin on Twiter(the former Co-Founder and SEO expert).

“There is not enough education about finance or money…People are hungry for information. ”

Araminta is a marketing consultant at Mint Studios where she helps fintech companies acquire and retain customers online with content. She's also the host of the Market Like a Fintech podcast, publishes her own blog and newsletter, and is a partner at the Fintech Marketing Hub. She loves talking about everything fintech and content.

In our interview we talk about the unique challenges fintech companies face, her top 3 favorite fintech companies that are killing it in marketing, the importance of a founder’s personal brand, how she scales her own personal brand, and more!

Connect with Araminta via Twitter, LinkedIn, or through her blog.

Resources mentioned:

Andy Crestodina (a marketer that Araminta follows)

Andy's book is “Content Chemistry: An Illustrated Handbook for Content Marketing”

"Growth is defined differently at every company…”

My guest for today’s episode is Andrew Capland. Andrew has worked at B2B startups for just about 14 years to-date. During his career, he’s worked at several amazing companies including HubSpot (early team member), Wistia, and most recently Postscript.

Now he runs a coaching/mentoring/advising business—“Delivering Value” where he helps other growth leaders at early-stage SaaS/product-led companies.

You can connect with Andrew on Twitter and LinkedIn, if you say hello don’t forget to tell him where you discovered him (cough cough).

Resources mentioned:

Productled.com to learn about growth (hint: reach out to the instructors to get advice via LinkedIn and Twitter)

Reforge.com is an advanced growth school

Growth experts to follow are Andrew Chen and Brian Balfour

And Dave Gerhardt as well!

“KPIs are soulless numbers and a lot of people focus on KPIs…”

My guest today is Todd Wheeler. Todd makes the complicated understandable, to help companies not only grow but to thrive. With almost 50 years of business building experience, from startup companies to Fortune 500 giants, Todd has taught business leaders how to understand the causes of critical issues in the business environment.

Todd was engaged by 25-year-old marketing agency to help them identify issues that kept them stuck. He was able to identify that the team had the right people but, they were in the wrong positions. This is just one of many examples of how he was able to change a company for the better, by helping them to discover and reveal their own hidden wisdom, creating a path to success.

He would summarize his job as, “helping people become the best versions of themselves.”

Say hi to Todd via his email: todd@mangagementinsight.co

“When you’re doing virtual [events], depending on how complex this technology is that you’re using—some people may not event make it through the ‘door.’”

Erica Maurer is an entrepreneur, owner, creator, event planner, speaker, and licensed therapist. She is a Partner at EMRG Media, a leading events, marketing, production, and creative agency.

Erica is also a Partner and Producer of The Event Planner Expo, New York City’s largest events and hospitality industry trade show. Erica and her team fully adapted their business when the pandemic hit to service the corporate, social, and non-profit sectors with custom virtual event experiences.

You can learn more about Erica using the links below⬇️

EMRG Media: https://emrgmedia.com

Email: events@emrgmedia.com

Instagram: https://instagram.com/EricaMaurer7

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/erica-maurer-687696

Free downloadable resource for how to market virtual events: https://bookevents.com

Psst…

If you want to listen to more episodes on marketing for virtual events check out episode #6 and episode #33!

“Most CRM software comes with the expectation that you’re this perfect person who fills out the CRM at every step of the way…we found that that didn’t work for us. That doesn’t work for anyone and that doesn’t make sense…most CRMs don’t work because they are dependent on people.”

Jeroen is co-founder and CEO of Salesflare, an intelligent CRM system built for SMBs selling in the B2B space, mostly popular with agencies and SaaS companies. Salesflare itself was founded because Jeroen and his co-founder wanted to manage the leads for their software company in an easier way. They didn't like to keep track of them manually and built Salesflare, which pulls customer data together automatically.

It's now the most popular CRM on Product Hunt and top-rated on review platforms like G2 for its ease of use and automation features.

You can connect with him on LinkedIn at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeroencorthout/

Or you can say hi via email: jeroen@salesflare.com

Just tell him you found out about him via my podcast!

Thanks for listening.

“We go about speaking to people about the end result, versus trying to educate them on the hemp plant.”

Amanda founded House of Wise after realizing the potential of CBD oil in her life. Despite what you might assume, she wasn't always totally on board with CBD. Until recently, she had never used any cannabis products. Amanda was born in a conservative Midwestern home and is a former group-fitness instructor, marathoner, and overall health nut. Over the past two years, she has navigated a divorce while being a mom of three children and working as a VP of marketing at a major wedding industry brand (The Knot Worldwide). Amanda turned to CBD out of desperation, and it has truly changed her life.

Much of the world still has a stigma around cannabis products (aka CBD and THC). Amanda wants to change this while empowering women to control their sleep, sex, stress, and wealth with House of Wise.

In this episode, we talk about why Amanda is moving to Miami, her biggest failure as a founder, how she markets through the stigmas that are associated with cannabis products, the regulatory constraints behind marketing cannabis and sex products, why she didn’t go with the Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) strategy to sell her product, why founders should be using Twitter to promote their businesses, her work at Teal HQ, what a fractional CMO is, and more.

Connect with Amanda on Instagram, Twitter or on LinkedIn.

If you're interested in the 8-week lesson series for marketing careers, hosted by Teal HQ, click here to learn more about the program.

“What you thought was cutting-edge yesterday is already outdated or been done 20 times over by the next day…I find that to be the biggest challenge and the most rewarding part of this job.”

Vowing to create the ultimate consumer experience out of anything she touches, Lindsey Bancroft has spent more than a decade producing activations for top brands including Jeep, ViacomCBS, PepsiCo Foodservice, and Hulu. Leaning on her background in touring logistics, large-scale event production, and sponsorship management Lindsey loves the challenge of turning wild ideas into incredible Experiential programs. She is also a founding Partner and VP of Client Services at Be The Machine.

In this episode we talked about the similarities and differences between digital and experiential marketing, the distinct challenges experiential marketers face in 2021, is Out-of-Home (OOH) advertising dead, and much more. If you’re interested in learning more about marketing in general, not just digital marketing, this episode is for you!

If you’d like to say hi to Lindsey, you can find her on Linkedin here.

Nathan Yeung has over 10+ years of experience advising B2B businesses on their marketing strategy. He has helped companies build their marketing teams from 0-1, delivering GTM deployments, and launching new products into the market. 

“You know, 99% of the time marketing gets handcuffed…we have golden handcuffs.”

Questions and topics we covered:

• How Nathan’s past experience as a VP of Finance makes him a better marketing leader
• How would you suggest people find good marketers? How do we make ourselves a “good marketer?”
• What is the most important thing to know when it comes to implementing marketing as a function?
• How long does it take for marketing to become effective? 
• What’s the #1 thing you would do in any company as a marketing leader?
• Paying for ops and paying for creative = why it’s necessary
• How to build a marketing team from scratch
• How to avoid getting laid off as a marketer? Is it even possible?

Connect with Nathan via LinkedIn at - https://www.linkedin.com/in/yeungnathan/

You can say hello to me on LinkedIn at - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kennysoto/

Past guests of The People of Digital Marketing include April Dunford, Amanda Goetz, Melissa Rosenthal, Bill Macaitis, Miruna Dragomir, Andrew Capland, Erik Newton, Andy Crestodina, Sarah Bedrick, Michael Wieder, Dan McGaw, Kathleen Booth, Foti Panagiotakopoulos, Tommy Walker, Lea Pica, Maya Grossman, Sara Pion, Margaret Kelsey, and more.

Music for this podcast comes from www.davidcuttermusic.com

Miruna Dragomir is the Head of Marketing at Planable, a content collaboration platform for social media teams. For the past three years, she’s been leading growth efforts at Planable. They’ve grown 30X in revenue in these past three years and continue going up. She was previously a part of Uber’s Marketing Team and Oracle’s Social Media team.

In this episode we talked about the biggest mistakes teams make when collaborating on social media marketing, what it takes to be a CMO or Head of Marketing, why her company published their product roadmap on their website, and more.

If you enjoyed listening to this episode, please send me a message via any of my social media channels (they can be found at www.KennySoto.com).

If you want to connect with Miruna, you can find her on LinkedIn.

Navindra Kewal is an explorer of all things digital and physical. We both are from the same graduating class at CUNY - City College and he’s a former entrepreneur, co-founding a hardware startup called Ekick Technologies which aimed to keep skateboarders safer at night. Currently, he’s a Product Management Fellow at the Mayor’s Office of Economic Opportunity. His current project under the Mayor’s Office of Economic Opportunity is https://working.nyc.gov/. When he’s not doing that, he’s either hiking or working as a Product Manager at Lens: Snap & Share a photo-taking app for which he is a co-founder.

In this episode we talked about…

1. Why did you get into product management and product marketing?

2. What's one of the main challenges of working in your field? Why would developing products for the public sector be a difficult endeavor?

3. What is product-market fit and how does a business know if they have achieved it? What metrics and tools do you use to measure this?

4. What are the core skills you currently have that you consider to be your main strengths? How would you relearn them in a faster way—knowing what you know now?

5. What's one prediction you have about 2021 that you think no one else cares about but—they should?

And more!

Connect with Navindra via LinkedIn or his website.

The three product management books he mentioned:

Inspired: How To Create Products Customers Love by Marty Cagan

How the World's Hottest Innovation Factory Builds Bold Ideas That Make It to Market How to Kill a Unicorn by Mark Payne

Cracking the PM Interview: How to Land a Product Manager Job in Technology (Cracking the Interview & Career) by Gayle Laakmann McDowell and Jackie Bavaro

Pierre has been focused on growing B2B SaaS for the past 10 years with Growth and Account Based Marketing. He's passionate about Sales & Marketing Alignment and he recently launched a newsletter on the subject (align.substack.com).

In this episode we talked about how he started designing websites at the age of 10, what made him get into B2B and SaaS marketing, why soft skills are more important to marketers than technical skills, how teams should be thinking about data implementation, how he stays up-to-date on digital marketing with the help of online communities, and more.

You can connect with Pierre on Linkedin.

Resources mentioned in this episode include:

The Revenue Collective

The most impactful book for Pierre’s Career: Blue Ocean Strategy, Expanded Edition: How to Create Uncontested Market Space and Make the Competition Irrelevant by W. Chan Kim

Winning By Design book list

ICE (Impact, Confidence, and Ease) Scoring for strategy and project management