Episodes
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IT’S THE NEW AGE OF BRANDING
In this episode of The Business Conversation, Garrio welcomes Michael Stich, Partner at CourtAvenue and Investor and Advisor to various companies. He discusses the challenges being faced by the modern-day CMO and how much evolution this role has seen over the years.
Michael talks about starting with the basics of the language of money and bridging the gap between marketing and sales. He also dives deep into the need for strategic planning and alignment, the journey from data to the creative process, and how to use data to drive business monetization.
HIGHLIGHTS
MICHAEL: BUILD A ROADMAP WITH A CLEAR VISION OF OPTIMAL CUSTOMER EXPERIENCES
“What the roadmap is is the series of initiatives that we're going to go put in place to achieve those and to realize those experiences that drive that profitable growth for our company. We can tie all that together, that we've got ourselves in alignment and a vision for where we want to go. Many companies will develop a vision but they won't have a journey and they won't have a roadmap. Many companies will have a journey, but it won't ladder up to a Vision and CFO will wonder why you doing all that. Or we want to have a roadmap that delivers on that journey so that everyone can walk around, but they don't understand how their day-to-day jobs to deliver on it.”
MICHAEL: START FROM THE POINT OF SALE AND NOT FROM ABOVE
“Where are we going to start? That's peace, love and happiness is an optimal basis, right? So where do we actually start, where we find that things get self-funded, is by staying close to the point of sale. So that optimal experience is great. But why don't we get some sales going first, within that, and prove to me that all of this great planning results in that you can do that, then great, we can, we can start to build a flywheel around left. But if you start at the top of the funnel, or the point of wealth, etc, coming on this unified framework, you get some companies that lose momentum, or at times lose patience or what have you.”
MICHAEL: YOUR PERSONALIZATION STARTS WITH THE VOICE OF THE CUSTOMER
“So we're sort of the facilitator in that multi-party effort. But we have sort of integrated teams with different audiences, are those different parties that I mentioned, coming together to say, great, what is our personalization roadmap? How are we going to guide that? And it starts with the customer. It starts with understanding what are the requirements. What are the needs that they have. And we're very fortunate that we've got the voice of the customer, like literally primary user research brought into those sessions to tell us what people would like to have more personalized"
Follow the link below to learn more about Michael Stich:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mstich/Website: https://courtavenue.com/This series is being put together in collaboration with AIGA Minnesota - one of the largest chapters of AIGA, that works to enhance the value and deepen the impact of design across all disciplines of business, society, and our collective future.
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Curious
Curious, a group of B2B marketers helping their clients define a conversation that is unique, relevant, and honest with their ideal customers. They then help their clients find their ideal audience to start the conversation by pushing content through the most efficient channels, whether that be traditional or digital.
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IT’S THE NEW AGE OF BRANDING
In this episode of The Business Conversation, Garrio welcomes Kelli Schutrop, the VP for Sales and Marketing at Madecraft. She discusses the importance of leadership teams becoming more visible and active online. She explains that this became more of a necessity due to the COVID pandemic, as video connection was a way to better build relationships faster. She also explains that it is important for businesses to have a brand that resonates with their audience, as this is a key part of promoting their message and brand. She emphasizes that it is critical for businesses to have a strong presence online in order to be successful.
HIGHLIGHTS
KELLI: LEADERS ON SHOWING UP ONLINE
“I think what has evolved is just this realization that in a sales capacity in a leadership capacity, even in your own career search, if you put yourself out there online, let's say on LinkedIn or another social platform, people are able to see more of who you are as a personal brand. And that can drive immense opportunity for your business for networking connections for career connections in the future.”
KELLI: DEFINITION OF AUTHENTICITY
“To me, authenticity is really, whether you're hitting the record button, or you're posting something on LinkedIn, even if it's a poll, just the way that you were actually forming your sentences can drive who you are as a person, right? Is it warm and welcoming? Is it more informative and structured? And so part of it is just about continuity and making sure that whatever it is you're providing, is going to be the same experience for someone no matter what environment they see you in.”
KELLI: THINKING ABOUT YOUR AUDIENCE
“Part of it is saying who can I help? So addressing? Who is your audience? Ultimately, who are you trying to impress? What is the industry? What are the company types? What are their levels? Right? And then what is important to them? So what are the key topics, they think about? What is thought leadership trends in your industry? Because this can kind of help break down to distill that. Man, I want to, I want to be more visible, but I have no idea. I don't know, how do I how do I approach that? So those are some of those questions.”
KURT: GETTING CONNECTED HELPS WITH YOUR SKILLS
“if a prospective employer, if someone you're networking with a prospective client, whatever that person may be if they go to your LinkedIn, we all see that activity feed. And they can see like, wow, this is cool. Like they've been posting content that's really intriguing. And you can even feature you know, as LinkedIn is current user experience stands, you can feature posts, so you can kind of control that narrative. It's really your own website, and you don't have to pay to host it, you get to make it what you want. And so the more that you can pour into it, the more it's going to create opportunities for you, but also benefit others, specifically, you know, within that, that stream of that audience, you're looking to support.”
Follow the link below to learn more about Kelli Schutrop:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellischutrop/Madecraft Website: https://onlymadecraft.com/This series is being put together in collaboration with AIGA Minnesota - one of the largest chapters of AIGA, that works to enhance the value and deepen the impact of design across all disciplines of business, society, and our collective future.
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Curious, a group of B2B marketers helping their clients define a conversation that is unique, relevant, and honest with their ideal customers. They then help their clients find their ideal audience to start the conversation by pushing content through the most efficient channels, whether that be traditional or digital.
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Episodes manquant?
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NETWORKING IS NOT SO BAD
For a long time, networking had an unpleasant reputation of being just a means of achieving one’s targets or quotas. Today, Garrio welcomes Kurt Schmidt to prove them wrong. He is the President of Foundry, and author of “The Little Book of Networking: How to Grow Your Career One Conversation at a Time”. Kurt shares his own definition of networking, why it’s important for every person, why it should not be viewed as a selfish act, and how it can help you in your career. Find out more in this latest episode of The Business Conversation.
HIGHLIGHTS
KURT: DEFINITION OF NETWORKING
“What networking truly is, is about finding ways to let people know what your value is, what your worth is, and then understanding what their value and their worth is, and trying to find opportunities to work together”
KURT: BEING A STEWARD OF CONNECTIONS AND GOALS
“It should be going out and finding out what people's needs are and trying to connect those people who have those needs, and being that good connector and steward of their goals.”
KURT: NETWORKING IS A LIFETIME ENDEAVOR
“Networking is a lifetime endeavor. You've heard the terms before networking is your net worth and all those things, it's absolutely true. So you've got to find the time to invest in those things, and I've found that building systems around it, that allow you to help you has been really powerful.”
KURT: GETTING CONNECTED HELPS WITH YOUR SKILLS
“It really let me hone my pitch and get good at pitching, I got better and better at anticipating what the questions were that were going to come up, I got better at anticipating and changing my pitch to address questions before they even showed up. Because I saw commonalities in how I was pitching. And my confidence was going up in my pitch”
KURT: FIND THE PEOPLE WHO WANT TO TALK TO YOU
“You've got to talk to people that want to talk to you, they got to understand what you're looking for what your value is. And then they have to also understand that you're off there looking out for them as well. Like I said, these micro partnerships, which I find to be super valuable, I built a multimillion-dollar business on it. Let's just put it that way.”
Follow the link below to learn more about Kurt Schmidt:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/-kurtschmidt/Foundry Website: https://www.foundrymakes.com/The Little Book of Networking: How to Grow Your Career One Conversation at a Time: https://www.amazon.com/Little-Book-Networking-Career-Conversation-ebook/dp/B0BPB2ZTHZ?ref_=ast_author_mpbThis series is being put together in collaboration with AIGA Minnesota - one of the largest chapters of AIGA, that works to enhance the value and deepen the impact of design across all disciplines of business, society, and our collective future.
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Curious, a group of B2B marketers helping their clients define a conversation that is unique, relevant, and honest with their ideal customers. They then help their clients find their ideal audience to start the conversation by pushing content through the most efficient channels, whether that be traditional or digital.
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IT’S BEEN A LONG TIME COMING…
Joshua Fedie is a sales expert who has been working in the field for over 20 years. He and Garrio are discussing how leaders can rebuild their sales organizations from scratch and how sales, marketing, and customer success can work together. Sales and Marketing have been apart for so long and it is high time for them to start working together. Stay tuned as Joshua will be sharing some tips on how sales and marketing can work together with some stories from his career, only here, in the latest episode of The Business Conversation.
HIGHLIGHTS
JOSHUA: HOW MARKETING SHOULD REACH OUT TO SALES
“If you're in marketing, reach out to someone in sales, and I don't even care who it is reach out to someone in sales right now and say, Would you mind sitting down for 15 minutes with me to teach me about sales and to teach me about your process in this organization, I want to see if there's anything I can do to help the sales team better, and I want to use you as a guinea pig. If you're in marketing, do that tomorrow.”
JOSHUA: HOW SALES SHOULD REACH OUT TO MARKETING
“If you're in sales, I want you to reach out to someone in your marketing team, I don't care who it is, I want you to reach out to somebody in your marketing team. And I want you to say, I want to start creating more stories around what we do here, through myself on social channels, and I need some help coming up with some creative ways to go about this.”
Follow the link below to learn more about Joshua Fedie:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshfedie/SalesReach.io: https://www.salesreach.io/This series is being put together in collaboration with AIGA Minnesota - one of the largest chapters of AIGA, that works to enhance the value and deepen the impact of design across all disciplines of business, society, and our collective future.
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Curious, a group of B2B marketers helping their clients define a conversation that is unique, relevant, and honest with their ideal customers. They then help their clients find their ideal audience to start the conversation by pushing content through the most efficient channels, whether that be traditional or digital.
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Garrio Harrison welcomes Nicole Middendorf, as they discuss the origin story of Prosperwell, how difficult dreams sometimes need to be achieved, and how positivity and a strong mindset are key to success.
In the conversation, Nicole describes how she became a financial advisor after originally intending to go to law school. She talks about how her husband encouraged her to enter the financial industry instead, leading her to start the journey of being a wealth advisor. Find out more about Nicole in this latest episode of Business Conversations.
HIGHLIGHTS
NICOLE: LIVE A LIMITLESS LIFE
“When you're living these limitless experiences, you're boosting your confidence and like I feel like I can do anything.”
NICOLE: LIVE LIFE TO THE FULLEST
“I really believe in, in the word of having a blast, like living life to the fullest today, but also being very thoughtful and planning to live life to the fullest in the future when you retire.”
NICOLE: JUST DO IT
“Go do it, go take those risks and delegate along the way.”
NICOLE: GIVE YOURSELF SOME GRACE
“Give yourself some grace along the whole process and enjoy, enjoy the ride, because that's what life is all about.”
Follow the link below to learn more about Nicole Middendorf:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolemiddendorf/Prosperwell Financial: https://prosperwell.com/This series is being put together in collaboration with AIGA Minnesota - one of the largest chapters of AIGA, that works to enhance the value and deepen the impact of design across all disciplines of business, society, and our collective future.
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Curious, a group of B2B marketers helping their clients define a conversation that is unique, relevant, and honest with their ideal customers. They then help their clients find their ideal audience to start the conversation by pushing content through the most efficient channels, whether that be traditional or digital.
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HIGHLIGHTS
What is a brand? Manage your brand's "Association Bundles", or consumers willMarketing has become trajectional because of technologyAgencies no longer invest as much on their people with trainingJust because you can, doesn't mean you have to The rebirth of traditional knowledgeJust talk to real people On refreshing brand associations for the modern consumer Find the most relevant associations of your brand and nurture themMarketing doesn't have to be complexAlways be looking for differentiationRefreshing and unique ideas do not come from your comfort zoneQUOTES
Ulli: "The brand is the sum of all the associations consumers have about your offering."
Ulli: "As a marketer, if you don't manage these associations or decide which associations you want to build, consumers will create automatic associations, that's just how the brain is wired."
Garrio: "The prevailing narrative right now is the customers define what the brand is, and so on. But by taking this intentional approach and understanding the mechanics that a user will use to define your brand, the marketer now has a little bit more control over architecting the kind of experience they want to have."
Ulli: "People look at brands as coming back to bundles of association. Which are the ones you want to nurture and which are the ones you want to build, and which are the ones you want to move away from? It's not about a framework with 26 little buckets inside on strategic nuances and details. It's either you are an expert, or you have soft paper, or you are the bear, or you are really cheap. It's as basic as that."
Ulli: "Empathy is not, 'we're both educated, we both believe in these social issues, we empathize together.’ No, empathy is really empathizing with someone whose point of view you completely disagree with. And that is so extremely difficult and that's what we have lost over the last 10 years."
Follow the link below to learn more about Ulli Appelbaum:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ulliappelbaum/Book: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09RM46WFB/ref=tsm_1_fb_lkThis series is being put together in collaboration with AIGA Minnesota - one of the largest chapters of AIGA, that works to enhance the value and deepen the impact of design across all disciplines of business, society, and our collective future.
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Curious, a group of B2B marketers helping their clients define a conversation that is unique, relevant, and honest with their ideal customers. They then help their clients find their ideal audience to start the conversation by pushing content through the most efficient channels, whether that be traditional or digital.
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HIGHLIGHTS
The 3 Levels of Digital Transformation, explainedTechnology is forcing brands to change their communicative approachWhy a marketer should study the "creator economy" Creators vs InfluencersListen with an open mindKnow when to go fast and when to go slowEffective internal communication is crucial to organizational successBeing a good manager is more important than learning the latest techChoosing kindness goes a long wayQUOTES
Jim: "Every experience that we have with Amazon or Apple or Starbucks sort of sets the bar for what every other company should aspire to. Because we all sort of expect things to be as easy as our easiest experience. We want it to be that way all the time."
Jim: "The big macro shift is going from a really polished, really professional look as a way to communicate credibility, to looking more home made as a way of communicating either a different kind of credibility, or a little bit of anti-establishment."
Jim: "The algorithms of Tiktok, short attention spans, it's kind of a self-perpetuating thing. The creator economy, the expression format, and reels and stories and Tiktok and elsewhere, plus short attention span, plus the algorithms that push it in front of you, plus the never-ending scroll. Brands have to look and act and feel different to kind of stop the scrolling.
Garrio: "It was much easier back in the day. You could make it a conscious choice to pick up one book versus another. To choose to consume this piece of literature, piece of writing to either be inspired or educated, or this is too far out of my left field, I'm not gonna read it kind of thing. And it was easier to stop. The same idea of exchange of knowledge, exchange of ideas is happening today with new technology. The difference is, it's so frictionless."
Jim: "When in doubt, listen. For most leaders, listen to your consumer, listen to what the people closest to the consumer are saying about the consumer's needs, wants, and intent. Listen to the salespeople that are in the market and try not to presuppose that you know what is happening."
Jim: "Pay attention to the basics of communication wherever possible. Are we clear about the problem we're trying to solve? Are we clear about the choices that we're trying to make? Are we clear about the decisions that we've made? Have we clearly communicated those? Does everyone understand the impact on the priorities?"
Jim: "Be kind to the people, especially now. I think everyone is at their wits end. I think everyone is just barely hanging on. I don't know everyone that is really happy with how work is now. Providing a little bit of grace, a little bit of kindness, assuming positive intent is really helpful."
Follow the link below to learn more about Jim Cuene:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimcuene/Website: https://hellofahren.com/This series is being put together in collaboration with
AIGA Minnesota - one of the largest chapters of AIGA, that works to enhance the value and deepen the impact of design across all disciplines of business, society, and our collective future.
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Curious, a group of B2B marketers helping their clients define a conversation that is unique, relevant, and honest with their ideal customers. They then help their clients find their ideal audience to start the conversation by pushing content through the most efficient channels, whether that be traditional or digital.
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HIGHLIGHTS
The reason behind 'The Great Reshuffle'How the COVID-19 pandemic shifted how businesses workThe companies that are doing it right: how to keep talent inYou should be doing stay interviews, not exit interviewsTrusting people to work remotely is crucial to thriving in the pandemicThe role of offices moving forwardThe beauty of giving people grace and treating them as humansWhat recruiters and hiring managers should stop doingConsider hiring the people who are eager to learnIncrease the benefits of working in your teamIt's not just about the money, but money is importantJob hopping is not necessarily a bad thingQUOTES
Kelly: "People are noticing that they're unhappy and making sure that they're on the right path to becoming happy. And I think that's the biggest factor that we should be focusing on as why people are unhappy."
Kelly: "There's a lot of reasons why people are leaving. But I think one of the biggest that we've been dwelling on and talking about over and over again these past few years is this horrible pandemic that we're in. It's a rollercoaster ride and it's been going up and down but there's been loss of business, budget cuts, re-orgs, layoffs, furloughs, just back in 2020 and that's still happening."
Kelly: "The teams that are doing well, they're actively listening, they're showing interest in what's going on with their employees, they're opening up about their own struggles, whether it's work-related or personal life-related, and just showing the team that they're human and that therefore their team is looking up to them and saying, like, okay, you're going through the same stuff, you're not invincible, you're not a slave driver trying to make sure that we're doing exactly what we need to do and hitting our numbers in a daily basis."
Kelly: "There are companies that are archaic in their ways of thinking, like, just old-school, an older boss thinking that working remotely, they're not gonna get their work done. They're gonna take a nap or do their laundry. Like, yeah, maybe they are taking a nap and doing their laundry, but they're still getting their work done."
Kelly: “I think if you treat your team the way you want to be treated and you treat them like humans, they're gonna work hard for you. If you don't, they're gonna leave.”
Garrio: "I've seen this firsthand: the teams that invest in building trust with each other are the ones that are able to tackle it off. Because again, when the pandemic hit I've heard from a lot of colleagues and a lot of friends. You know, fellow startup founders, business owners, and so on, we're about to enter uncharted energy. There's literally no playbook that we can follow here. We have a choice, we can either do it together, or we can go at it alone."
Kelly: "It's a candidate's market right now. So in the interview process, and this is the most tactical thing I guess I could give as a piece of advice, is to make sure that you're selling your company and your team instead of grilling these candidates because they are also looking at you. They're interviewing you, basically. They're making sure that this is the best fit for them."
Garrio: "It's important to understand the context of a resume that has a lot of jobs. One one hand, like yes, you can say woah this person doesn't appear to be loyal. Yeah that is one lens to look at it through. But this also means that this person has a bunch of different industry knowledge that they bring into the table. They clearly know how to navigate different industries."
Follow the link below to learn more about Kelly Gunderson:
Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kellygunderson/This series is being put together in collaboration with AIGA Minnesota - one of the largest chapters of AIGA, that works to enhance the value and deepen the impact of design across all disciplines of business, society, and our collective future.
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Curious, a group of B2B marketers helping their clients define a conversation that is unique, relevant, and honest with their ideal customers. They then help their clients find their ideal audience to start the conversation by pushing content through the most efficient channels, whether that be traditional or digital.
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HIGHLIGHTS
A whole percussive section is better than a singular drumFind a central narrative and tell that story with the tools you haveSeparating work and life is a fool's errandDiscovering LinkedIn as a platform for storytellingFind your own point of viewBuilding a framework for content strategyFocus on your why and have your plan of attackContent is currencyYou're never too busy to post contentContent burnout is a real thingQUOTES
Gaby: “People do business with people that they know, like and trust. And one of the singular most important ways that everyone out there can create that rapport and build that likeability factor and that trust factor, and that credibility factor, is through online content.”
Mike: “I don't believe in work-life balance. I believe in work-life integration, which is I don't think you can do great work without having a solid life structure, neither can you live a great life without doing meaningful work.”
Gaby: “For anyone listening, if you're struggling, if you're debating, oh should I do it, should I not do it: do it because it's invaluable. It's invaluable to have your name out there, to have your point of view be heard, and to create those relationships.”
Mike: “Whether you like it or not, whoever you are, whether you're an engineer, whether you're an architect, whether you're a business owner, whether you're a marketer or a salesperson, you are always selling something. You are selling yourself, you're selling your ideas.”
Gaby: "Content is today's currency. Content can happen anywhere, anytime if you're open to it, if you're thinking about it."
Mike: "An executive that says I don't have time, what they're really saying is I don't think this is valuable. I don't see enough value in spending my time posting on LinkedIn. I can do something more important with my time."
Gaby: “It's okay to also pace yourself, come up with a plan that's sustainable for you, and know when it's okay to pull back. Know that even the best content creators, even the most prolific content creators have pauses, they take breaks and they are strategic about when and how they post.”
Gaby: “Be inspired by what you see but also take the time to be unstructured in your thinking and come up with your own unique take on content creation.”
Follow the link below to learn more about Gaby and Mike Grinberg:
Mike: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mikegrinberg/Gaby: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gabriellaisrael/Website: https://proofpoint.marketing/This series is being put together in collaboration with AIGA Minnesota - one of the largest chapters of AIGA, that works to enhance the value and deepen the impact of design across all disciplines of business, society, and our collective future.
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Curious, a group of B2B marketers helping their clients define a conversation that is unique, relevant, and honest with their ideal customers. They then help their clients find their ideal audience to start the conversation by pushing content through the most efficient channels, whether that be traditional or digital.
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This episode of The Business Conversation Podcast features Ryan Truax, Director of Marketing at Sportsdigita. Ryan gives an in-depth look at the intricacies of branding, and how the brand is an investment for organizations, not just a marketing tool.
Ryan emphasizes the need to clearly define and understand the “WHY” of the organization in its branding efforts. This way, companies can clearly define its position and differentiate itself from the competition.
Ryan believes that a brand must resonate first with the organization and its different departments first before it can help reach prospects and customers. If any element in the brand falls in the company level, then customers are bound to feel the disconnect. Branding should empower the organization and its members should be its ambassadors.
HIGHLIGHTS
Branding is an investment, not just a marketing toolHow to align leadership with branding valueUnderstanding your "WHY"Involve the different departments in your organization in your brandingIdentify the relevant KPIs to make branding efforts measurable Your brand should empower the whole organizationQUOTES
Ryan: “At its core, the brand is your DNA. It informs your soul, it informs who you are, what you mean to your customer, your prospects alike.”
Ryan: “Let data speak when it can. Leverage it when you can. I'm looking at engagement metrics on my website. For instance, I can point to areas where we're excelling, and where we're falling short perhaps. We can look at those as opportunities as the brand sits there as kind of a conversion engine -- is it doing the job that it needs to for our sales team and our entire company as a cumulative whole.”
Ryan: “We look at Teslas, we look at the Apples of the world. They understand their 'Why' better than others. Their competitors, their infrastructure are not so dissimilar to the next. But their ability to own the 'Why' in that branding discussion positions them radically different than their competition.”
Garrio: "The next generation of marketing leaders have to be swiss army knives. They have to be able to walk into a room with the CFO, the spreadsheet is open, and quickly have a discussion with the CFO around what you're trying to accomplish."
Follow the link below to learn more about Ryan Truax:
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ryan-truax-50517111/This series is being put together in collaboration with AIGA Minnesota - one of the largest chapters of AIGA, that works to enhance the value and deepen the impact of design across all disciplines of business, society, and our collective future.
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Curious, a group of B2B marketers helping their clients define a conversation that is unique, relevant, and honest with their ideal customers. They then help their clients find their ideal audience to start the conversation by pushing content through the most efficient channels, whether that be traditional or digital.
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HIGHLIGHTS
02:18 Executives on social: Looking for leaders whose values align with theirs
06:59 Corporate communications: Executive's personal accounts hold more weight
13:55 Sara Blakely of Spanx: A corporate event increased employee branding, talent retention and company culture
19:13 What people want: Transparency, honesty, empowerment, mental health
25:24 3 myths about executives posting on social media
30:31 Actionable tips: Make your bio personal, engage the community, and understand content pillars
36:56 Book recommendation: Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi
QUOTES
09:08 "Whether it's employees or prospects or customers or partners, they want to hear from the leaders and the leaders are usually pretty reticent to do that. When you have someone like Ed Bastian that puts himself out there... it really stands out."
15:33 "Recording on video was again, a simple decision, but a stroke of genius because you capture the emotion a little more there because you got the pictures, you got the video of her tearing up and talking about it, and that's a lot different than writing it and showing pictures."
20:14 "You should be hitting some of the notes that Sara's hitting, which is inspiration, empowerment, right now mental health, like some of those things, transparency, honesty. I mean, think about everything that people want from executives."
32:22 "You've got to soften it up a little bit... let's take the bio and massage it and work it into the points we made before about personal details, more personal narratives, more about your passions, more about maybe even a little bit about your family... more personal details, more about you."
35:31 "That's what people want. They don't want to see you share the corporate stuff, they want to hear from. Let employees share the corporate stuff. That's fine, that's what you want. You don't want the executives doing that."
Follow the link below to learn more about Arik Hanson:
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/arikhanson/This series is being put together in collaboration with AIGA Minnesota - one of the largest chapters of AIGA, that works to enhance the value and deepen the impact of design across all disciplines of business, society, and our collective future.
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Curious, a group of B2B marketers helping their clients define a conversation that is unique, relevant, and honest with their ideal customers. They then help their clients find their ideal audience to start the conversation by pushing content through the most efficient channels, whether that be traditional or digital.
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HIGHLIGHTS
01:33 Social signals: Learning from the past to prepare for the future
03:59 For marketers: The metaverse, rise of NFTs, and the need for multiple channels
07:44 The "Yes, and..." approach and creating a curious culture
12:31 Metaverse: Implications on marketing and decentralized zones
23:02 NFTs and the idea of provenance is rooted in human nature
29:25 Overhaul data gathering, stay curious, and keep learning as technology changes
34:51 Focusing on emerging technologies and new consumer habits post-pandemic
QUOTES
09:46 "I'm not advocating for hustle culture. But what I am advocating for is a curious culture. Constantly learning, thinking about where are we today? Where have we been? Where are we going? that might mean that you're going to rethink how you approach work, how you lead your teams, how you engage with your client."
18:30 "The dark web... where you can still go seek out websites that are not archived in Google... unless you know the URL, you can't access it. And some of that stuff is bad. And some of that stuff is good, which is exactly as it was in the early days of the internet. It will be the same thing within metaverse."
26:15 "If you think about provenance and who owns what, you think about collectibles, you think about the history of access, and then the history of celebrity and exclusivity. This is why NFTs matter."
32:12 "The first thing that you have to do as an executive, as a thought leader, as a modern marketer, no matter what level you are at your career is just admit you don't know everything. You're not an expert. You got a lot to learn. And the best way to learn is to be curious and to try things."
38:58 "I believe if we're not living in the center of change, we've already been left behind. We have to embrace the change and we have to run to the front and say, here is coming, where can we point it? What can we do? Because to not do that is to literally be left behind, and that's not where I want to be."
Follow the link below to learn more about Greg.
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregswan/Website (Social Signals by Greg Swam) - https://gregswan.substack.com/This series is being put together in collaboration with AIGA Minnesota - one of the largest chapters of AIGA, that works to enhance the value and deepen the impact of design across all disciplines of business, society, and our collective future.
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Curious, a group of B2B marketers helping their clients define a conversation that is unique, relevant, and honest with their ideal customers. They then help their clients find their ideal audience to start the conversation by pushing content through the most efficient channels, whether that be traditional or digital.
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HIGHLIGHTS
02:20 Working with creative skill sets and how Greg works with his team
12:17 Passion for user experience: Understanding what they’re really trying to say
18:10 Learning behaviors and creative psyche: Knowing the risks and pain points with sales and marketing
23:39 Buyer’s journey, user experience, the in-betweens - Asking and knowing the right questions
28:23 Bridge the gap between sales stages and guide your team to understand the bigger picture
36:45 Know your role: Understand and set expectations for you and your team for success
42:36 Buyer Personas by Adele Revella, The Road Less Stupid by Keith J. Cunningham, and valuing your time by knowing when to rest
QUOTES
13:40 "Ultimately what you really realize is that salesperson wasn't literally saying 'this is what's gonna win,' they're saying 'how do we demonstrate that we understand them and their business better than the next person that comes into this room?' If we can hear what they're saying but understand what they're trying to say, which is sometimes different ... I think that's the key to our success."
15:44 "There needs to be a shared understanding of trust that each person is bringing their superpower to the table with the goal of building a user experience that is good for the customer, and good for the organization."
29:13 "One of the things that worked really well for us was to show the power of the brand holistically through its pieces ... because each individual piece, whether it be for a sales pitch, marketing campaign, support for thought leadership ... each piece always looks good.”
34:58 "That mentality of leaders, setting divisions and organization. Trusting their leadership team to make the calls that their area of expertise but then coming together to say, 'does this get closer to that vision?'
41:55 "No creative team has ever said, 'here's the one golden ticket or one silver bullet.' Oftentimes they challenge themselves by playing around with 5, 10, 15 versions. Boil them down to 3 that they feel good presenting to a peer and then saying 'give me your feedback.'"
Follow the link below to learn more about Greg.
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregtucker/This series is being put together in collaboration with AIGA Minnesota - one of the largest chapters of AIGA, that works to enhance the value and deepen the impact of design across all disciplines of business, society, and our collective future.
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Curious, a group of B2B marketers helping their clients define a conversation that is unique, relevant, and honest with their ideal customers. They then help their clients find their ideal audience to start the conversation by pushing content through the most efficient channels, whether that be traditional or digital.
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HIGHLIGHTS
02:08 Tiffany first started off in law as her background and how it was able to help shape her to what she ultimately is now today, being a leader in innovation in a legacy company
08:18 The start of a solution to the inefficiencies of the construction industry in terms of changing how it's been over the years in regards to its methods to address concerns that were widely accepted
14:50 Tiffany's motivation towards her challenges in the construction industry
17:17 Your setbacks are interrupted by successes and why motivating and believing in yourself in those dark moments is what drives you to continue on your path
20:17 The customer you thought you have is not the customer you're looking for and how to identify that
24:16 The first or next step to approach a challenge about disrupting the status quo of a massive industry
QUOTES
06:24 "The contractors that were under us who were more experienced, I asked them 'why don't you challenge this more and isn't this a problem for you and how have you dealt with this?' And they just said this is baked into the business model across the board. These inefficiencies, these assumptions, these subjective opinions ... and everybody just accepted it over the years."
07:43 "If there was software or a method that was widely adopted across the industry to sort of address these concerns. Then I'd really wanted to understand it, and study it, and figure out how do I improve on it. But then what I discovered was there was nothing, it was a void."
15:46 "People who are of a stature who are subject matter experts, who know the industry, see what I created and tell me, 'this is special and you just need to hold on because your break is coming.' And that's what kept me going."
20:56 "You need a seat at the table at the people who own the projects because they are losing money. And if you can help save them money, they control everything down ... that's the value of having a diversity of advisors with different backgrounds to help you see the forest for the trees."
27:00 "The best advice I can offer is for me the big thing is transparency. And if you are transparent with the people who work for you and transparent with your customer. Then I think you building a very healthy environment where there's little room for surprises."
32:29 "In all bad things there's opportunity. And I am a firm believer that when it's the dark, dark times, there is an opportunity if you just have the clarity of mind and willingness to see it. The other thing is, and I've already said it is 'if it was easy, everybody would be doing it.' So find some solace that you're doing something that a lot of people aren't willing to do the work to accomplish. And lastly is ... follow the money."
Follow the link below to learn more about Tiffany.
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tiffanyhoseyThis series is being put together in collaboration with AIGA Minnesota - one of the largest chapters of AIGA, that works to enhance the value and deepen the impact of design across all disciplines of business, society, and our collective future.
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Curious, a group of B2B marketers helping their clients define a conversation that is unique, relevant, and honest with their ideal customers. They then help their clients find their ideal audience to start the conversation by pushing content through the most efficient channels, whether that be traditional or digital.
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HIGHLIGHTS
02:14 Workplace conflict not a gender issue as it is a communication and personality issues
08:34 Performativity: Taking on traditional masculine traits to advance professionally
13:38 Work-life balance: Mothers are viewed differently in the workplace
19:02 Queen Bee Syndrome and maintaining the status quo on diversity and inclusivity
24:49 Authentic communication keeps the conversation of inequality alive
27:01 The pandemic has revealed that working mothers are burnt out
31:26 Organizations need to address pay gap to truly move forward
34:44 Effective communication is the first step to healing inequality
39:28 Book recommendation: Find Your Fierce by Teresa Sande
QUOTES
05:30 "What my interview participants articulated was that personality traits and communication styles of men and women is what actually influences conflict in the workplace. It's not so much about someone's gender."
12:22 "For so long, women have viewed behavior of men being able to make these decisions and behave in a certain way, it gets them that seat at the executive table. So now, as a woman, I'm going to mimic that because I view that as being successful."
22:54 "Men are aware that these challenges exist. But again, it doesn't impact them in the same way as it does women. And then, at least from my study, from an organizational perspective, in some cases there didn't necessarily seem to be any actionable desire to make change."
25:06 "Literally using our voice through communication, we have to be authentic, confident communicators in order to make change happen. So from that gender inequality perspective, keeping those conversations going."
35:29 "Effective communication in the workplace is absolutely critical... It all links to corporate culture, employee engagement, business operations. If your employees aren't happy and they're not engaged, there's going to be issues. So offering that two-way dialogue."
Follow the link below to learn more about Amelia.
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ameliareigstad/Get your copy of Find Your Fierce by Teresa Sande below
Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/Find-Your-Fierce-Interrupt-Imposter/dp/1634894103This series is being put together in collaboration with AIGA Minnesota - one of the largest chapters of AIGA, that works to enhance the value and deepen the impact of design across all disciplines of business, society, and our collective future.
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Curious, a group of B2B marketers helping their clients define a conversation that is unique, relevant, and honest with their ideal customers. They then help their clients find their ideal audience to start the conversation by pushing content through the most efficient channels, whether that be traditional or digital.
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HIGHLIGHTS
01:51 Defining the voice of the customer
06:17 Reconciling marketing and sales and elevating both to be more effective
11:06 Flash points in the marketing and sales relationship
15:04 Case study: Marketing launches a misaligned product for the market
22:29 Understand the voice of the customer to reveal the real target market
28:10 Strategies to champion the voice of the customer as a priority
32:42 Know the voice of the customer by asking them authentic questions
35:17 Define who you are and who you are not
36:55 Book you should read now: Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life
QUOTES
11:31 "Marketing in general tends to be more of a long game. You have to be planful in order for things to really do well. The lead time on that and the planning affiliated with that is much more significant in comparison to sales."
12:46 "I think the piece that (sales teams) don't really understand or think about is kind of more, and this is I think what really elevates the marketing side of things is defining the customer, figuring out the customer journey."
19:59 "I think the sooner that marketing can kind of get in and that ideation phase of things and earlier on in the gate process, I think the better off those projects tend to be versus, hey, we're getting in at gate three or even gate four."
24:11 "Understand what is your addressable and kind of what is your sweet spot and not feeling bad around, we're not going to do this right now, I think really enables you to penetrate deeper and better and to establish those partnerships."
33:05 "I think asking questions in a way that are not leading the witness I think are really important and asking very open-ended questions and not directing it toward you specifically... but rather, who is your favorite business partner that you work with?"
Follow the link below to learn more about Jessica.
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicalynnmarshall/This series is being put together in collaboration with AIGA Minnesota - one of the largest chapters of AIGA, that works to enhance the value and deepen the impact of design across all disciplines of business, society, and our collective future.
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Curious, a group of B2B marketers helping their clients define a conversation that is unique, relevant, and honest with their ideal customers. They then help their clients find their ideal audience to start the conversation by pushing content through the most efficient channels, whether that be traditional or digital.
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HIGHLIGHTS
01:45 What exactly is a product designer?
06:14 Important questions to answer in the discovery phase
12:49 The cupcake analogy
14:50 Product designer roles in the growth phase
22:36 Advocacy to empower users and ethical design
26:01 Working together with sales and marketing
33:16 Creating a customer-centric product begins with leadership vision
37:45 Books your should be reading about product design
QUOTES
02:20 "It's important that they help make those products look good. Make them beautiful. But they're thinking about it on a much deeper level. They also know how to make something intuitive, easy to use, familiar and, more importantly, make it useful."
04:39 "After you have a great understanding of the problem through research, you can iterate quickly, you can prototype quickly, and you can validate the solutions with customers to find that product market fit."
07:18 "We either have a market here that has a problem that we can solve and they're willing to pay us for a solution, or maybe it's not exactly what we thought, it's something related, or there's actually not a problem here that's worth solving."
12:51 "If you wanted to eventually build a wedding cake, you won't start by giving everyone a pile of frosting, you would first assemble all the key ingredients on a much smaller scale, requiring less time, requiring less money."
22:12 "More isn't always better. I would say more of what each user needs right at their fingertips is better. And that comes through constant curation."
32:17 "The product team should be creating value by solving customer problems, which makes sales and marketing's job really easy because then they just have to talk about the value that's already been created."
Follow the links below to learn more about Nick.
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickwellner/This series is being put together in collaboration with AIGA Minnesota - one of the largest chapters of AIGA, that works to enhance the value and deepen the impact of design across all disciplines of business, society, and our collective future.
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Curious, a group of B2B marketers helping their clients define a conversation that is unique, relevant, and honest with their ideal customers. They then help their clients find their ideal audience to start the conversation by pushing content through the most efficient channels, whether that be traditional or digital.
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HIGHLIGHTS
01:42 Aligning sales and marketing departments with company goals
07:01 The features of a good sales team: Curiosity, Competition, and Chemistry
18:56 Action plans to align sales and marketing teams
23:35 Recommendations to leaders: Create covenants and use scorecards
31:11 Nigel's book recommendations
37:17 How to connect with Nigel
QUOTES
02:53 "When I come in and do these assessments with executive teams that struggle with misalignment between sales and marketing, the first thing we do is we pull out the stated goals of the company."
04:59 "A good sales team is driven by revenue attainment. So where they tend to get frustrated with marketing is when the materials, whether it be messaging, collateral, ads, don't have any implication on revenue attainment."
09:18 "Any reason that you could assert or assume a customer might need your product is never going to be as strong as any reason that already exists. So any motivation that I already have to use your product is always going to be stronger than any clever copy."
16:05 "It doesn't matter if the sales team is competent. Competent is curiosity in a competitive streak. If they don't match the company values, if you don't enjoy hanging out with them, it's not going to work."
28:34 "For your leadership, okay so for the folks that manage a department's outcome, they have a PNL, they have people that report to them, get rid of job descriptions and start having scorecards."
Follow the links below to learn more about Nigel Green.
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/revenueharvest/Website - https://therevenueharvest.com/This series is being put together in collaboration with AIGA Minnesota - one of the largest chapters of AIGA, that works to enhance the value and deepen the impact of design across all disciplines of business, society, and our collective future.
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Curious, a group of B2B marketers helping their clients define a conversation that is unique, relevant, and honest with their ideal customers. They then help their clients find their ideal audience to start the conversation by pushing content through the most efficient channels, whether that be traditional or digital.
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Heather Polivka is CEO, Advisor, Speaker at HeatherPSolutions. Heather works with progressive leaders of small and mid-sized businesses to accelerate revenue growth by creating work environments where people thrive. Her proven methodology focuses on driving business performance through employee performance. Heather does this by addressing workplace culture, breaking down silos, optimizing ways of working, empowering front-line managers, and improving employee engagement.
Heather is a proven global leader, she understands the power of a purposeful brand experience that reaches customers, communities, employees, and stakeholders alike. She has seen the impact because she’s led these initiatives for some of the world’s most recognized brands.
To learn more about Heather Polivka through the following links below.
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/heatherpolivka/Webiste - https://www.heatherpsolutions.com/This series is being put together in collaboration with AIGA Minnesota - one of the largest chapters of AIGA, that works to enhance the value and deepen the impact of design across all disciplines of business, society, and our collective future.
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Curious, a group of B2B marketers helping their clients define a conversation that is unique, relevant, and honest with their ideal customers. They then help their clients find their ideal audience to start the conversation by pushing content through the most efficient channels, whether that be traditional or digital.
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Dave Koerner is an award-winning marketing leader with a background in international business development and building revenue-based marketing teams. His natural habitat consists of early to mid-stage, fast-growing tech companies or challenger brands.
Dave is also the VP of Global Marketing at 75F - a global market leader in smart building automation. They’re on a mission to make buildings smarter — and in doing so, save energy and our environment.
To learn more about Dave Koerner through the following links below.
Website - https://www.75f.io/Webiste - http://www.davekoerner.com/LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/dckoerner/This series is being put together in collaboration with AIGA Minnesota - one of the largest chapters of AIGA, that works to enhance the value and deepen the impact of design across all disciplines of business, society, and our collective future.
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Curious, a group of B2B marketers helping their clients define a conversation that is unique, relevant, and honest with their ideal customers. They then help their clients find their ideal audience to start the conversation by pushing content through the most efficient channels, whether that be traditional or digital.
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