The Implement Podcast: Recent Episodes
Badis Khalfallah
This podcast is produced by Implement and hosted by co-founder Badis Khalfallah.
In this podcast, guests from different industries deep-dive into what great marketing management is. We talk about marketing, motivation, learning, leadership, teamwork, and many other topics.
For this 60th episode, I had the chance to chat with Chris Clemente, Director of Online Marketing at WebMD, the popular health information website, with 130M visits/month and 23M email subscribers.
In this episode, we talked about:
- The traffic sources of a 134M visits/month website
- Implementing predictive content management
- How to learn data analytics
- Bridging the gap between marketing, automation, and data
- What the marketer of the future will look like
- Managing and segmenting a 23M subscribers email list
- Email marketing tips from sending 1 billion emails per year.
Christopher is the Sr. Online Marketing Director for Medscape WebMD.
His background is in web development, but he has been working in email for the last 10+ years.
He’s worked with agencies and ESPs, and also worked with clients from the American Cancer Association to the Academy Awards.
Now at Medscape WebMD, he oversees the email and app marketing channel of physician and healthcare professional users.
For this 59th episode, I had the chance to chat with Sylvie Giret, Managing Director North America at De Buyer USA, a leading French handmade cookware brand created in 1830 and present in over 90 countries.
In this episode, we talked about:
- Launching French brands in the US
- The difference between the French and the American consumer
- How to craft your messaging for the US consumer
- The operational side of launching a French brand in the US.
- The relationship with retailers
- Going DTC first and building a relationship with US consumers first
- How to maximize trade shows
- The timeline you need to set up in the US
- The team you need to build to succeed in the US
- Geographic coverage and if it matters
- De Buyer challenges for 2021
Sylvie is a multicultural Executive specializing in CPG.
She has been advising and operating niche brands willing to expand in the US market for almost 15 years.
A French-born citizen, Sylvie has lived in 7 different countries, including Northern Africa where she spent most of her childhood, France, the UK, and now the US.
She lives in NYC with her husband and 2 teenage children.
For this 58th episode, I had the chance to chat with Eva Valerio, Global Head of Discovery Ads at Google. Before joining Google, Eva grew the uber-luxury skincare brand 'La Mer' on digital.
In this episode, we talked about:
- The early days of digital marketing
- The journey from Fashion School to Google
- The growth story behind the uber-luxury skincare brand La Mer
- The funnel used to grow La Mer and reach a younger audience
- Building a high-touch digital experience for a luxury brand
- The Discovery Ads project at Google (to compliment Search Ads)
- Resources for intercultural communication.
- The cultural aspect of asking and giving feedback.
Eva has led the digital evolution for many brands including La Mer and NYLON Magazine, defining what it means to be a successful brand in today’s digital age.
For this 57th episode, I had the chance to chat with Zoë Lefeuvre, Senior Director of Solutions & Content Marketing at Gainsight, a customer success platform. Gainsight counts over 800 employees and serves clients like Dropbox, Zendesk, Marketo...
In this episode, we talked about:
- Customer success KPIs and tracking
- The best way to share customer testimonials & case studies
- Launching a podcast and using LinkedIn live
- Adjusting as a marketer from B2C to B2B
- Finding a human touch with your colleagues and disconnecting in this remote environment
- The skills you need to take a company from $100M ARR to $300M ARR
Zoë is a passionate marketer who brings experience from a wide range of industries from financial services at Merrill Lynch, retail at Bloomingdale’s, beauty at L’Oréal, media/publishing at Condé Nast, and B2B SaaS at Cheetah Digital, Braze, and Gainsight.
When not marketing by day, she is exploring the world (40 countries and counting) with her French expat husband and their two poodles.
For this 56th episode, I had the chance to chat with Kate Erwin, Content Marketing Manager at Mailshake, a sales engagement tool with 47,000+ users. [When recorded, Kate was Director of Content Marketing at StorySlab].
In this episode, we talked about:
- Creating content for the Sales Tech community
- Building no-buzzwords and no-fluff content
- LinkedIn Marketing tactics to succeed in organic and paid
- Leveraging Twitter to promote long-form content to a B2B audience
- The journalist and poet within all marketers
- Copywriting: the tactics & practice you need to get better at it.
Kate Erwin is also co-founder of Hack/Slash, a blog that amplifies the voices from the tech trenches: Check it out: https://medium.com/hack-slash-media
Follow Kate on IG: @straightupkate
For this 55th episode, I had the chance to chat with Kirsten Moorman, Marketing Manager at DocuSign, the pioneer in e-signature tech, counting more than 500,000 customers today.
In this episode, we talked about:
- DocuSign growth and project-based organization
- Running marketing on a budget - a few ideas to do it well
- Running virtual events and their value for the prospects
- Enabling others (sales team, clients, colleague) as a marketer.
Kirsten is a specialist of the SaaS industry and has global experience. Currently, her mission is to grow the Benelux business for DocuSign.
For this 54th episode, I had the chance to chat with Denisse Diaz, Marketing Director at Global University Systems, a network of higher education institutions, with over 60,000 students in six countries and a global presence online.
In this episode, we talked about:
- The impact of the COVID crisis on higher education
- Growing higher education brands, what it takes
- Marketing to learners and students
- Digital vs offline, and how trends evolve in marketing
- How to become a good communicator
For this 53rd episode, I had the chance to chat with Amin Makhani, SVP of Growth Strategy at BentoBox, a SaaS solution for restaurants (6k customers worldwide). Amin was also first marketing hire at Yext, the company grew revenue from $5M to $120M and went public during his time.
In this episode, we talked about:
- The state of the restaurant industry with the pandemic
- Marketing to restaurants, the channels, the strategy, the audience targeting
- Marketing to restaurants, the digital and physical marketing
- First marketing hire for Yext (NYSE: YEXT); the company grew revenues from $5M to $120M
- Joining a future billion-dollar startup during the 2008 recession
- The faith and scaling journey of growing a company until you take it public
- Learning management on the go and growing as a leader, what resources and what tactics to adopt.
- Hiring for intellectual curiosity and troubleshooting skills.
Here is Amin's newsletter about financial markets and investment: https://mokhani.substack.com/
Follow Amin on Twitter: @mistermacomedy
Follow Amin on IG: @mistermacomedy
In this episode, we talked about:
- Building yourself as a marketer in the startup world
- Advice to junior self: 1) Know when to ask for help. 2) Take bigger bets.
- 10x'ing' your growth
- Doing unscalable things
- The “subway ad” for startups
- The fun side of E-commerce marketing
- How to learn from your peers
- What DTC marketers should be doing
- What integrated marketing is (growth+brand)
- The mix between new channels (TikTok, Clubhouse) and older channels (Radio etc…)
- Finding balance between distraction and learning as a leader
- Creating a culture of empowerment as a leader with your team
Before joining Health E-commerce, Kristin was Director of Growth Marketing at Dormify.
For this 51rst episode, I had the chance to chat with Spencer Marlow, Marketing Director EMEA at Anaplan, an NYSE-listed SaaS company specializing in business planning and data visualization.
In this episode, we talked about:
- The importance of consolidated data and connected planning
- What data matters and should matter to a CMO?
- Internal and external data
- The questions you ask your data are the answers you’re going to get.
- How to link brand engagement to pipeline growth
- How to mix Account coverage, engagement/intent data, and lead-scoring data to show the impact of marketing on the bottom line
- What’s new in marketing metrics
- The importance of accountability and common language when it comes to marketing metrics.
- Less is more when it comes to data (the example of email marketing and the unique focus on CTR)
- The data you should measure is what really makes a difference for the business
- Building data tools and keeping a minimum amount of dashboards
- How marketing metrics can be liberating
Spencer is a highly accomplished B2B Marketing professional, with 20 years practitioner experience in IT/Technology marketing, including 4 years agency side.
For this 50th episode, I had the chance to chat with Larry Sharpe. Larry was candidate for the Libertarian Party nomination for Vice President of the United States in 2016 and was the Libertarian nominee for Governor of New York in 2018. Larry is the Host of a popular podcast: The Sharpe Way. He is also a business consultant and trainer with The Neo Sage Group.
In this episode, we talked about:
- Building trust as a leader by being consistent and The Oprah Effect
- The importance of being seen
- The difference between Sales/Marketing vs Operations
- Congruence as the key to effective branding
- A simple 3-questions exercise to define your brand
- A simple 3-questions exercise to define your customer
- How marketing is about managing expectations
- Getting to the top 1% of your industry by curating a niche: big fish small pond.
- The story behind running for Governor of New York in a third party
- How the key to leadership is in voluntarism, not authority
- Building leadership locally or in a specific department before organizing change at a higher level.
- How great politics and great marketing start with the mandate to serve people.
Larry provides training, coaching, and consulting in many industries. He has trained and coached hundreds of entrepreneurs, executives, leaders, lawyers, and reps from dozens of companies all over the world.
In addition, Larry has been an interim senior executive for companies in times of crisis; filling a senior post and helping them find a replacement. He consults with law firms for jury selection and trial prep. Additionally, Larry consults on political campaigns regarding strategy and debate prep. He is also a professional speaker and has spoken at dozens of venues to a wide range of audiences throughout the US, Europe, and Asia.
For this 49th episode, I had the chance to chat with Marie-Anne Dagues, Chief Marketing Officer at Perifit, a French startup company creator of a connected solution for pelvic floor rehabilitation used by 100.000 women worldwide.
In this episode, we talked about:
- A company and a product on a mission to help women
- The story of a company with an 8-figures turnover in 3 years
- The marketing strategy behind their success
- Organic virality and having entire Facebook groups built around your product that you didn’t create
- Managing sensitive messaging and handling a politically charged product
- Transitioning from big brand management to tactical startup operations
- The millennial in all of us
- How marketers leave "a piece of their soul" with what they sell
Marie-Anne has spent the past 8 years in a media agency, climbing the ladder from display buyer to Business Director and team lead for one of the largest global luxury groups.
She had managed small and large teams and has learned over the course of those years to navigate continuous turnover, stress, mean clients, and internal politics.
Also a young mom, Marie-Anne decided mid-2020 to turn that page and to dedicate her time, energy, and heart to a cause that she holds dear: women's health, and joined Perifit in December as CMO.
There, she is leading e-commerce, acquisition, branding, wholesale, PR, and communities.
For this 48th episode, I had the chance to chat with Carl Potak, Founder & CEO @ StartupDevKit, an online incubator and accelerator platform for startups.
In this episode, we talked about:
- What changed in startup building since 2007
- The increased competitiveness of finding startup opportunities
- The importance of startup education as a founder and what you should learn about.
- Building an audience VS building a product
- How to properly run idea validation
StartupDevKit, is top-ranked by Business Insider and was developed entirely by Carl.
He's a serial entrepreneur, marketer, writer, and developer who’s founded multiple startups, served as marketing director for two tech organizations, and has been in the startup industry since 2007.
Carl is the primary author of the StartupDevKit blog, which is ranked within the top 100 startup blogs according to Feedspot, and his articles are used to help teach students about startup development and growth in universities across the United States.
Carl is also working on completing his book, titled Startup Survival Secrets, which is about the top 20 reasons why startups fail, their root causes, and how to avoid them.
Follow Carl on Twitter and Insta: @carlpotak
For this 47th episode, I had the chance to chat with Audrey Saccone, a marketing and launch strategist supporting 7- and 8-figure course and membership creators. Audrey is founder of Digital Obbligato, a marketing and launch strategy consultancy.
In this episode, we talked about:
- Launching an online course
- Mastering the marketing channels for a tight launch
- Marketing live courses from Marie Forleo and Sophia Amoruso
- The importance of reassuring the audience with testimonials
- The importance of talking about yourself and who’s giving the course when launching a course.
- Email marketing during launch period
- Driving home urgency and FOMO
- How to make waiting lists successful (with freebies, sharing, giving…)
- The conversion rate of waiting lists
- The path to becoming your own boss
- Following small content producers for more value.
Audrey Saccone is the founder of Digital Obbligato, which helps female entrepreneurs develop their marketing and launch strategies.
Following 5.5 years in the non-profit sector, Audrey moved into the online marketing space where she's worked for major players like Marie Forleo and Sophia Amoruso.
She's excited to take the tried-and-true methods she's learned from working with the best in the business to help up-and-coming entrepreneurs find success with strategies that work and are the most authentic to them.
Follow Audrey on Insta: audreysaccone
Follow Digital Obbligato on Insta: digitalobbligato
For this 46th episode, I had the chance to chat with Greg Holtzman, Director of Partnership Marketing & Communications at Brainbase, a tech startup that helps globally recognized brands manage and monetize their intellectual property.
In this episode, we talked about:
- The licensing industry
- Marketing to licensing companies
- Being the first marketing hire after a seed round
- Breaking into an enterprise market with a traditional/old school target audience
- Banking on virtual events
- Brand/talent partnerships
- Mixing celebrity marketing with PR
- How to make partnerships successful and always asking for more
- What to ask for in a partnership with a celebrity
- Finding a marketing job in the sports world industry
- The persistence of job hunting and applying 5 times to the same company.
Previously, Greg was a Senior Account Executive at Endeavor Global Marketing, where he managed brand partnerships, PR, and influencer marketing for clients including DICK'S Sporting Goods, Under Armour, Apothic Wine, and New Amsterdam Vodka.
Follow Greg on Twitter: @gregholtzman
Follow Greg on Insta: @nycgreg
For this 45th episode, I had the chance to chat with Dennis Consorte, digital marketing strategist & consultant. Dennis is Founder of Consorte Marketing, Snackable Solutions, and content creator for Digital.com.
In this episode, we talked about:
- Growing a company too fast and burning out
- Transitioning from the agency model to a smaller scale consultancy
- Rebooting process after a big burnout
- The importance of your relationship with others and being happy on a personal level
- What small business owners should focus on and what they should check out.
- How to build trust and loyalty with your clients
- Focusing on being 1% better every day and incremental success
Dennis believes that small businesses and entrepreneurs give people hope for a brighter future.
He has twenty years of experience as a digital marketer and sold his first e-commerce business in 2004.
He now works as a marketing consultant who helps small businesses and startups to drive traffic, conversion, and retention.
He does these using tactics like SEO, paid search, affiliate marketing, email marketing, social media marketing, and storytelling.
Dennis enjoys bringing stagnant companies on journeys where they are transformed into successful businesses with purpose and direction.
He’s ready to meet you where you are and to take you where you want to be. He’s a practicing stoic, lives in New York, and dreams of owning a plot of land in Wyoming.
He hopes to get back into snowboarding, the gym, and social interaction.
Follow Dennis on Twitter and Insta: @dennisconsorte
For this 44th episode, I had the chance to chat with Vivien Conway, Co-founder at Ace the Gram - an Instagram growth agency. Viv is an expert in Instagram growth and engagement.
In this episode, we talked about:
- Starting on Insta back in 2014
- The importance of having a paid strategy & a paid funnel
- Evaluating how much content you can post and how much value you can provide.
- How to collaborate with smaller accounts to create content
- Insta stories and how to use them
- Reels and how to use them
- Giveaways & how to rock them
- Hashtags strategies
- Taking action and testing
We published an Ebook on Instagram growth in 2021 inspired by this conversation with Viv. You can find the ebook here.
For this 43rd episode, I had the chance to chat with Fallon Paul, Founder of Paul & Léon Marketing Strategists, a boutique marketing agency.
In this episode, we talk about:
- Launching a marketing consultancy in 2020 during a global pandemic
- Launching and growing a charity
- Finding the motivation to grow a project
- Finding chemistry with your clients
- The 3 Golden Rules before picking up a new client
- Gathering resources and data to take your clients on a journey.
Having held senior positions at Britvic PLC and William Grant & Sons in the UK.
Fallon has worked on more consumer, digital, and media brands you can shake an iPhone at.
Living and breathing Marketing for over 12 years she has now launched her own Marketing Consultancy - Paul & Leon Consultants who have found their niche between classic marketing principles and the digital modern world.
Using these skills has propelled forward-thinking brands into a positive position, both online and offline for B2B and B2C clients.
Follow Fallon on Instagram here: fallon_sabrina
For this 42nd episode, I had the chance to chat with Niccolo Zapponi, Senior Manager at Salesforce Anywhere Labs, a real-time collaboration tool by Salesforce.
In this episode, we talked about:
- Stories from deploying marketing cloud for large retailers
- Fixing the fragmented customer experience
- Digital transformation and bringing teams and technology together
- The topic of Integration and Tech adoption/literacy
- The Tech Frontiers in Marketing
- Reading data and making decisions based on data
- AI for e-commerce and predictive marketing
- Killing silos with new collaboration tools
- Solving bad customer experience with technology
Nick is a senior product manager at Salesforce.
Over the past five years, he has worked with some of Europe’s largest retailers and e-commerce businesses in developing a marketing technology and CRM strategy and more recently looking after collaboration solutions in Europe.
Nick is passionate about delivering hyper-personalized customer experiences, both digitally and in-store, and loves working on cutting-edge technologies.
He has had experience working with artificial intelligence, real-time optimization, and data management platforms.
For this 41rst episode, I had the chance to chat with George Neel, Group Director of Marketing & Communications at Accsys Technologies. Accys makes high-performance wood products that are extremely durable and stable, opening new opportunities to build sustainably.
In this episode, we talked about:
- Talking about sustainability genuinely as a brand
- Sustainability as a driver for consumer decision-making
- Greenwashing
- The role of companies in educating consumers about climate change
- Moving from B2C to B2B
- The book “How Brands Grow” from Byron Sharp
- How B2B marketer should think more like B2C marketers
- Working for L’Oréal
- How to know if you have cultural fit with a company
George is an international marketing director with a background in Fast Moving Consumer Goods gained both at L'Oréal and Diageo.
Having had far too much fun working on brands such as Smirnoff, Tanqueray and Guinness, he now leads the marketing and communications function for Accsys Technologies, the world leader in sustainable, high-performance wood brands Accoya and Tricoya.
As a senior leader in a values-led organisation with a corporate purpose articulated as 'changing wood to change the world', he is an avid proponent in the circular economy and the wider sustainability movement.
In his spare time, he enjoys drinking and learning about wine, as well as taking advantage of all that London has to offer.
For this 40th episode, I had the chance to chat with Amy Flippant, Digital Marketing Director at Della AI, a London-based LegalTech startup.
In this episode, we talked about:
- LegalTech and the legal industry market
- Starting in a new marketing role
- Going from a History of Art degree; to teaching English; to a Marketing career
- How to get great first career opportunities in marketing
- Airtable and Google Data Studio
- Learning more about Google Ads/LinkedIn Ads and orchestrating marketing operations
Amy has recently joined legal technology startup, Della AI as their marketing lead.
She has previously worked both agency side and in-house in digital marketing, providing quite a broad insight into the tech sector.
Originally from the UK, she spent 5 years living and working in Madrid where she began her career in content marketing.
For this 39th episode, I had the chance to chat with Laura Roth, B2B SaaS Marketer.
In this episode, we talked about:
- The WeWork crisis
- The importance of taking risks and carving opportunities in your career
- European VS American work cultures
- The soft skills you need to succeed as a marketer
- Advice on job hunting during COVID and difficult times
- Managing your mental health during job hunting and the social stigma of job hunting
- The importance of building connections
Laura has more recently been B2B community Lead at Vodafone Business, Marketing Consultant, and Director of Growth Marketing EMEA at WeWork.
Laura is a B2B Global Marketing Leader with a proven track record of delivering growth. She has extensive international experience having lived in New York City and London, working in the B2B SaaS and publishing industries across markets in North America, Europe, and Asia.
Laura is also a seasoned judge for industry awards including the US Search Awards, Global SEMPO awards, and ClickZ awards, and has been a speaker and moderator at various industry panels and webinars including PubCon, C3, and SES.
When she's not marketing you can find her running in Regents park, supporting Spurs, cooking a new dish, or watching a beautiful sunset.
For this 38th episode, I had the chance to chat with Hannah Parvaz, Head of Growth at Curio - a mobile app to listen to audio stories from leading publications like The Wall Street Journal, FT, WIRED, The Economist, The Washington Post, and many more.
In this episode, we talked about:
- Audio journalism and the Curio app
- Starting in B2C app marketing
- How to interview customers
- Facebook Ads: creative before targeting
- Facebook Ads: All you need to know about A/B testing creatives
- Managing Ad campaigns and the budget mix between awareness, installs, and retargeting
- First marketer and leading growth to Series A.
- How to learn about growth marketing
Hannah was named App Marketer of the Year for her work at Curio. She has spoken internationally on the future of app growth, leveraging data analytics, and how to launch and grow at hyper-speed.
Hannah has mentored on Google Launchpad, is a coach for Startup Core Strengths, a program run by ex-500 Startups’ Matt Lerner, and is a 5-star rated mentor on GrowthMentor.
Follow Hannah on Twitter: hannahparvaz
Follow her on Instagram: hnpvz
For this 37th episode, I had the chance to chat with Joshua Hodge, Director at The Audio Programmer, a community and YouTube channel for audio developers with 20k subscribers.
In this episode, we talked about:
- Building an organic audience on YouTube
- Choosing a platform to host a community
- Building content: the Clinical Approach VS Focusing on Value
- What audio programming is
- Leveraging audio to build experiences for your audience
- Audio tech for marketers
Josh is the founder and director of The Audio Programmer - a community for software developers who want to learn how to create music apps.
Since its start in 2017, it's grown into a hub for this type of development and spawned various business models, including recruiting, developing, licensing, educating, and consulting.
Follow Josh in Twitter: audioprogrammer
Follow Josh on Instagram: theaudioprogrammer
For this 36th episode, I had the chance to chat Andrei Tiu, Co-founder of Marketiu, a London-based digital marketing agency, specializing in online marketing strategy, implementation, and automation.
In this episode, we talked about:
- Marketing Trends in 2021
- Developing TikTok content
- The demand for entertainment content on 2021
- Building an agency
- Building trust and a close relationship with your clients
- Where to follow macro trends and marketing trends
For this 35th episode, I had the chance to chat with Louise Tullin, Marketing Director at Enthuse, a digital fundraising software for charities.
In this episode, we talked about:
- Marketing to charities
- How to leverage Facebook groups
- Going from a 0 to 6 marketing team in one year.
- Advice on recruitment and onboarding remotely
- Structuring teams between branding and direct response
- PR tips and how to strengthen your PR game.
- How to handle pressure as a CMO
- Learning psychology and behavioral science to become a better marketer.
Louise has 15 years of experience in marketing and communications for tech start-ups and scale-ups.
She was previously Global CMO at Unruly, which was acquired by News Corp in 2015. Louise has featured in both PR Week’s 29 under 29, and Management Today’s 35 under 35, as well as being interviewed by the likes of the BBC, the Evening Standard, and various best practice marketing and leadership books.
For this 34th episode, I had the chance to chat with Charlotte Humphries, Brand & Communications Manager at Karma, an app that lets you buy at a discount unsold food from restaurants, cafes, and grocery stores.
In this episode, we talked about:
- Transferring agency experience to in-house marketing
- Starting a branding exercise in a startup/scaleup
- Lessons on referral marketing
- Lessons on segmenting your base and content
- Structuring a marketing team between Data-led & Retention operations on one side & Creative on the other side
- Building foundations and feeling part of something
- Learning the tech & data side of marketing
- The importance of being embedded in the culture.
After 6 years in a Creative Agency, Charlie joined Karma in 2019 to lead all marketing across the UK market.
She is now Global Brand & Communication Lead, shaping the marketing team and business growth.
She is passionate about creating brands with the power to change how people behave and improve society for the better.
For this 33rd episode, I had the chance to chat with Tamana Faizi, Marketing Consultant for the Events Industry.
In this episode, we talked about:
- Starting a career in the events industry
- Building a powerful value proposition for your event
- Attracting great speakers
- Gathering an audience before launching an event
- The dollar cost of events and how to manage your budget
- Managing PPC campaigns for events
- Virtual events VS physical events
For this 32nd episode, I had the chance to chat with Amanda Baker, co-founder at Make Us Care, a branding and creative agency for startups and scaleups.
In this episode, we talked about:
- Moving from the startup world to building an agency
- Building something that people care about
- How building brands is about getting closer to people
- The 5-Stories Framework
- The practice & day-to-day of brand building
- Managing long-term branding VS short-term growth
Here is Amanda's 5-Stories Framework applied to herself 😊:
"🚀 Origin Story: At 23, I raised £150k investment for my fashion startup, Fashionably Skint. The short story is that I spent four years hustling, building, learning and very nearly burning out (more than once). The long story is something I’ll tell you over a BIG glass of wine.
💡Empathy Story: My first startup failed and it hurt. The experience gave me some incredible learnings to share with people building their businesses, AND it was the springboard into my fascination with understanding the stories behind businesses. I learned that a lot of businesses struggle to communicate their stories. So, I vowed to help them.
🌍 Purpose Story: I’m here for the founders fighting for what they believe in and building a fairer, freer and kinder world. I’m here to help them find their stories and tell them in different, creative ways. It’s my job to give people a bloody good reason to care about my clients because the world really is a better place with them in it.
🥁 Product Story: I spend my time running workshops, advising growing businesses and building brands with
5 Stories. My company, Make Us Care, is a creative partner for businesses doing good in the world. We work on strategic copywriting, visual identity and brand campaigns. The 5 Stories is my secret sauce. It’s a communication methodology that helps businesses get really clear on the people they exist for – and how to connect with them.
🔮 Vision Story: I’m building a world where purpose-driven businesses become the brands people care about most. To me, making people care starts by caring more about people. Building a business is hard. But building a brand that people care about is soooo much HARDER. The work I do helps to make the brand-building journey simple, clear and fun. The ride is short. Let’s enjoy it."
For this 31rst episode, I had the chance to chat with Alfie Lambert, Marketing Director at Lix, an industry-leading LinkedIn data exporter, and lead-gen platform.
In this episode, we talked about:
- The Bullseye Framework for Getting Traction
- The Growth Hacker's relevance in 2021
- Alfie's fantastic story about starting in bitcoin in 2008
- Lessons on bootstrapping a software product
- Crossing the chasm
- Curiosity and challenge to drive motivation
Alfie's marketing journey began at Futurecoin, providers of the UK's very first Bitcoin ATM, way back in 2013 whilst he was still studying at Cambridge University.
From there, he worked in growth marketing for startups across the UK and US - including a period of 2 years remote working as a digital nomad.
Now he is fully guiding LIX through the investment process as they seek to capitalize on the resurgence of LinkedIn.
For this 30th episode, I had the chance to chat with Nigel Hawthorn, EMEA Marketing Director at McAfee.
In this episode, we talked about:
- Translating technology and features into something customers understand.
- Marketing complex technology
- How to be successful in B2B marketing
- Tips on Copywriting
- Staying curious to stay motivated
- Books recommendations for tech and B2B marketing
Nigel has many years experience of IT B2B marketing - always trying to convert complex systems into simple messages.
His messages often try to close gaps between silos in large enterprises and bring different audiences together.
He writes articles, blogs, and presents at industry conferences, and has written one book.
In technology, his experience has mirrored many of the most innovative areas of computing; Apple and PCs in the 1980s, storage and networking in the 1990s, Internet performance and web security in the 2000s, and mobility and cloud enablement in the 2010s.
You can follow Nigel on Twitter: @wheresnigel
For this 29th episode, I had the chance to chat with Charlotte Kelly, Head of Marketing at GO!, a startup that helps brands find their ideal agency partners.
In this episode, we talked about:
- What are the most in-demand marketing services out there
- What makes a great agency partner
- Why brands pick certain agencies and not others
- Starting a career in marketing and the skills you need to succeed
- How to avoid tunnel-vision and how to gain self-confidence.
For this 28th episode, I had the chance to chat with Graham Smith. Graham is a B2B Marketing Director with 25 years of experience. He currently heads marketing at Backup Systems.
In this episode, we talked about:
- Doing Telemarketing right
- The excessive confidence of marketers in Marketing Technology
- What’s next in B2B marketing
- The comeback of Direct Mail
- How to trigger human interaction in B2B marketing
- Being a great marketer in smaller companies.
Graham is an award-winning Marketing Consultant with over 25 years of experience in both online and offline marketing.
He is currently focusing on content-driven marketing programs, lead generation, and data quality/compliance (GDPR and ePrivacy).
Graham is a qualified marketer and Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), he also served on the ‘GDPR Working Party’ at the Data Marketing Association (DMA) and was a Council member at the DMA for 3 years.
Follow Graham on Twitter: @MarketingGraham
For this 27th episode, I had the chance to chat with Rory McEntee, Brand & Marketing Director at Gymbox. In this episode, we talked about:
- What it is to be a Challenger Brand
- Transitioning from brick and mortar to digital overnight
- How to make it in the competitive fitness industry
- Where to get inspiration to build a disruptive brand
Rory is responsible for all aspects of the brand's marketing and leads the digital, brand & social strategy with an emphasis on building irreverent and thought-provoking marketing.
His early background included marketing roles at Everyman Cinema and Paddy Power where he focused on creating disruptive and engaging content.
Prior to being marketing lead at Gymbox, he worked for brands including Cineworld, Pizza Express & Benugo.
His passion has always been to work for challenger or rebel brands who like to create disruption and challenge the norm.
His marketing and career approach has always been taking risks and avoiding the norm.
Follow Rory on Twitter and Instagram: @rorymcentee
For this 26th episode, I had the chance to chat with Lauren Saving, Marketing Director at SpotX, a leading AdTech company.
In this episode, we talked about:
- Adapting to different cultures and markets.
- Adtech innovations and trends
- Working in the programmatic industry
- Successful marketing channels for an Adtech company
- Tips on working with a PR agency
As Marketing Director, EMEA, Lauren Saving leads SpotX’s marketing strategy across the region.
She helps develop insights and experiences which educate and advance the advertising and publishing industries.
Lauren has a master’s degree in journalism and before joining SpotX, was a Junior Editor at a trade magazine.
Outside of work, Lauren loves to travel and read as much as she can, while also continuing to write for her own website.
Follow Lauren on Twitter: @LSaving
For this 25th episode, I had the chance to chat with Daniel O’Hara, Marketing Director at Demica, a high-growth FinTech company.
In this episode, we talked about building a FinTech brand and marketing in the financial services industry.
We talked about the importance of knowing which rules to follow and which ones to break if you want to build an innovative brand.
We talked about how to leverage proprietary and unique content that adds something to the conversation.
Dan is a passionate, results-driven marketer with a depth of experience in marketing and communications within financial services.
For this 24th episode, I had the chance to chat with Mick Smyth, Senior Marketing and Communications Manager at Siegel+Gale, a worldwide branding agency.
In this episode, we talked about leveraging your sales skills to get into a new industry and your art skills to become a better marketer.
We talked about building an agency brand and getting new high-level clients.
We talked about what CMOs are worried about and the best way to help them today.
Mick has been involved in Creative Industries for over ten years, in many areas including production, performance, advertising/marketing, and management.
Beginning with Dublin-based band Junah as the singer/songwriter, his role consisted of looking after the day-to-day management of the band, coordinating record releases, and ensuring the brand, image and social media of the band were cohesive.
He completed a Masters in Advertising & the Creative Economy with distinction at Kingston University with modules in areas such as innovation, collaboration, creativity, design thinking, and marketing & advertising.
After two great years working with manc&dandy - the client sourcing agency, he moved to The BIO Agency to focus on Marketing and Digital Transformation, where he sat as the bridge between the sales and marketing departments.
In July 2019, he joined Siegel+Gale as the Senior Marketing and Communications Manager for EMEA.
For this 23rd episode, I had the chance to chat with Georgina Fotopoulou, Senior Brand Manager at the Kraft Heinz Company one of the largest food and beverage companies in the world.
In this episode, we talked about brand management and marketing to parents.
We talked about trying to fit in the workplace VS the concept of "owning yourself".
We talked about how to become better at stakeholder management.
Georgina is a self-motivated marketer with a positive attitude, and willing to take risks to deliver amazing results.
She is an outgoing person who enjoys working with passion and driving teamwork.
For this 22nd episode, I had the chance to chat with Elena Bersadschi, Global Marketing Strategy Manager at Deliveroo, the world-famous food delivery company.
In this episode, we talked about designing and orchestrating at the same time acquisition campaigns in 10 different markets.
We talked about tapping into large amounts of marketing data and learning from it to design campaigns.
We talked about how to approach experts, learn from them and grow as a growth marketer.
Elena is a results-driven growth manager with extensive experience in a variety of marketing, communication, and product levers.
For this 21rst episode, I had the chance to chat with Matthew de la Hey, CEO and co-founder at inploi, an HR startup offering a recruitment marketing platform.
In this episode, we talked about innovation in the recruitment industry
We talked about how an MBA can actually help you build a startup :)
We talked about how to build resilience.
inploi is a recruitment technology services provider offering clients a full suite of technology, branding, and marketing solutions that enable employers to reach and engage the future of their workforce.
From content creation for employer branding through job distribution, programmatic media buying, social media recruiting, applicant tracking, HR process automation, and more – all delivered through a bespoke online platform - inploi works with leading enterprises across diverse markets and geographies ensuring they stay ahead of the curve.
For this 20th episode, I had the chance to chat with Pritesh Chauhan. Pritesh is a Creative Marketing Strategist and Storyteller.
[DISCLAIMER: When recorded, Pritesh was Senior Marketing Manager at GSMA, a trade organization representing the interests of mobile operators worldwide. So we mention his work at GSMA :)].
In this episode, we talked about what makes a great video campaign and video storytelling.
We talked about the massive transition in video production
We talked about how to learn video marketing and best practices.
Pritesh is a storyteller and strategic content creator with a passion for helping people and businesses tell their stories.
For over the last fifteen years, he has been in the business-to-business world across various industries, building marketing divisions, defining brands, delivering impactful events, creating dynamic content, producing engaging video, and developing an integrated environment that blends traditional marketing with experiential, digital and social.
For the last 6 years, Pritesh has been working on promoting the impact connectivity and the mobile industry is having on the world.
He has built and delivered campaigns, teams, and events that have span the globe, generating content that has reached millions online.
Pritesh also works hard on maintaining a work-life balance. With his young family, they are always planning or going on the next adventure, seeing as much of the world as possible, watching the latest Disney masterpiece, or getting covered in paint, play-doh, or glitter.
For this 19th episode, I had the chance to chat with Sara Cherradi, Social Media Engager at the Lego Group, the inventors of the world-famous LEGO brick.
In this episode, we talked about innovation in the toy industry through the fan base community.
We talked about building a career in social media marketing.
We talked about social media and the importance of design skills in social media marketing.
Sara is a highly ambitious digital marketer with expertise in social media and a strong international experience.
For this 18th episode, I had the chance to chat with Lavinia Saggese, Inbound Marketing Manager at Worldline Global, the European leader in the payments and transactional services industry.
In this episode, we talked about marketing internships and what makes them great.
We talked about the work environment you need to thrive as a junior marketer.
We talked about the skills and values you need to start a marketing career today.
Lavinia is a young marketing professional, passionate about innovation and technology. She specializes in content marketing and customer engagement activities to successfully complement the sales life cycle.
For this 17th episode, I had the chance to chat with Alex Kington, Head of Global Marketing and Communications at TAG, a leading global travel and event management company.
In this episode, we talked about adapting to COVID as a travel/event management company.
We talked about adapting communication and acquisition during a major crisis.
We talked about how to stay hands-on and operational when you lead a team.
We talked about succeeding in the travel industry.
Alex is a senior marketing leader who excels at cross-functional management, unifying all internal and external stakeholders and delivering the highest possible ROI through collaboration and strong teamwork.
For this 16th episode, I had the chance to chat Ed Duncan, Head of Brand & Communications at Mytutor.co.uk, a platform on a mission to democratize tutoring.
In this episode, we talked about the branding challenges of marketing to students and their parents.
We talked about building a leading EdTech brand.
We talked about how to build better leadership skills as a marketer.
Ed previously led brand, creative, and advertising at Smart Energy GB.
He worked with a variety of clients within the Publicis family of advertising and media agencies.
For this 15th episode, I had the chance to chat with John Williams, Head of Marketing at The Instant Group, a workspace innovation company.
In this episode, we talked about reinventing the workspace and what going to the office should mean after COVID.
We talked about transitioning from journalism to the marketing world.
We talked about the importance of sector knowledge to be successful in marketing.
John is a former journalist, a marketing and PR expert with more than 15 years of experience. He has worked in the property sector for a variety of companies including Knight Frank, Land Securities, Brookfield, Sotheby’s International Real Estate, and OnTheMarket.com.
For this 14th episode, I had the chance to chat with Emma Williamson, Global Senior Marketing Manager at Sage, a global market leader in the technology sector.
In this episode, we talked about what an agency experience can teach you as a marketer.
We talked about keeping a simple personal development plan.
We talked about how great marketing results are accomplished by great teams and how to build those great teams.
Emma has worked in marketing and communications for over 12 years.
She started in the public sector leading local health campaigns. Then moved to Brother International where she secured a European communications role.
She then moved to an international agency, building their brand.
She is now Senior Marketing Manager at Sage in the global channel marketing team.
She loves hot yoga, prosecco, and leading a balanced life ;-)
For this 13th episode, I had the chance to chat Alexis Amitrano, Global Marketing Manager at Beam Suntory, a beverage industry leader and world leader in premium spirits.
In this episode, we talked about how a passion for the product and the industry should drive you as a marketer.
We talked about marketing premium spirits.
We talked about how digging deeper into data can enable you to do innovative marketing.
Alexis is a commercially savvy Marketeer with +10 years’ experience in Food & Beverages and Media which spans UK, SPAIN, JAPAN & LATAM. (Pernod Ricard, Gruppo Campari, Beam Suntory).
He had a passion for crafting disruptive brand strategies creating profitable growth at a local level that aligns with Global brand guidelines.
He has vast experience acting as a bridge between Marketing, Trade, and Sales.
For this 12th episode, I had the chance to chat with Maygen Jacques, marketing manager at Code Enigma, a web design and development agency.
In this episode, we talked about how to differentiate a web agency from the competition.
We talked about how she transitioned from a career in headhunting to marketing.
We talked about learning marketing skills on the job.
Maygen loves all things content.
She loves creating high-quality, valuable, and personalized content.
Maygen has been a marketing leader for 10 years now.
For this 11th episode, I had the chance to chat with Babak Daemi. Head of Marketing and Communications at Pavegen, a global leader in harvesting energy and analytics from footsteps.
In this episode, we talked about marketing planning and the SOSTAC model.
We talked about how to set up creative clinics and how useful they can be.
We talked about the importance of taking the time to realign yourself.
Babak (@brdaemi) strengths are brand building, marketing strategy, and campaign delivery.
He has over 12 years of experience in executing content marketing to engage audiences and build thought leaders.
For this 10th episode, I had the chance to chat with Nimrod Priell. Nimrod is the CEO and founder of Cord.com, a software startup bringing collaboration directly into any SaaS tool.
In this episode, we talked about transitioning from product manager at Facebook to startup CEO.
We talked about the importance of drive and belief when it comes to managing your career.
We talked about learning by talking, networking with smart people, and absorbing knowledge.
Nimrod (@nimrodpriell) is the founder & CEO of Radical, the company behind Cord (cord.com) - a horizontal collaboration product, that turns all tools you use multi-player, so you can collaborate with your team inside any SaaS application.
Before then, he was a PM at Facebook, was an advisor to founders and CPOs of $1B+ startups, and worked at various startups and orgs as a data scientist and software engineer all the way back to 2002.
From building and managing teams to running over 1,000 interviews, Nimrod is deeply interested in motivation and personal growth, in productivity and how teams communicate and work effectively.
For this 9th episode, I had the chance to chat with Bogdan Manea. Bogdan Founder of Recolta - a marketing consultancy focused on Growth Marketing, Paid Ads & Conversion Optimization.
In this episode, we talked about learning leadership at a young age by taking responsibilities.
We talked about building an open-source movement for the marketing world.
We talked about outgrowing your role in a company and what to do from there.
Bogdan defines himself as a Growth Marketing and Product person.
He's aiming to be a "full-stack marketer with entrepreneurial tendencies".
In a previous lifetime, he was Country Manager for the largest NGO in Romania, responsible for directly managing a team of 11 people.
For this 8th episode, I had the chance to chat with Kayleeann Maritz. Kayleeann is the Chief Marketing Officer at Momenta Group Global - an on-demand professional resource and services company.
In this episode, we talked about what it is to be a nomad marketer.
We talked about the importance of focusing on the target customer rather than the tactics.
We talked about the importance of vulnerability when managing teams.
Kayleeann has a broad-based background encompassing B2C, B2B, B2B2C, and FMCG experience working in markets worldwide.
For this 7th episode, I had the chance to chat with Simon Allison. Simon is the Head of Marketing at the Inception Group - a hospitality group behind many award-winning bars, restaurants, and clubs in London.
In this episode, we talked about how the covid crisis has led to unexpected learning.
We talked about learning on the job and how important it is to personalize the learning experience for professionals.
We talked about what it takes to build a career promoting nightclubs and bars.
Simon has over ten years of experience working in hospitality, originally in a nightclub environment. For the last six years, he has led venues in London.
Over the years Simon has worked for three companies: Eclectic Clubs and Bars, Virgin Limited Edition, and now Inception Group.
The Inception Group has five brands (Mr Fogg's, Cahoots, Bunga Bunga, Barts, and Maggie's).
These brands are spread across 13 venues.
However, when Simon joined, none of these brands were across multiple venues.
A large part of his role has been building brands that can be opened in slightly different iterations.
Over the years Inception has become known for headline-grabbing and viral spreading activations such as sending a cocktail into space, sending a couple around the world to make a truly global cocktail, and offering ownership to one of their new bars.
For this 6th episode, I had the chance to chat with Sam Evans. Sam is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of Gather Social, a digital marketing agency based in Nottingham, UK.
In this episode, we talked about quitting a comfortable job to start something new.
We talked about how much you can learn when you believe in a project and work hard for it.
We talked about how important it is that managers often ask themselves “What is my job?”.
He is passionate about managing people in a disruptive manner, smashing social media results, and is also a big advocate of mental health.
Sam has an interesting story about using kindness as a currency and will inspire many leaders with his advice.
Jeff is the Co-Founder and CEO of Coinpass a startup in the crypto-finance industry.
In this episode, we talked about finding the motivation to launch a startup and building it up through the first few years.
We talked about the dangers of not developing, growing, learning on the job.
We talked about how happiness at work is at the crossroad of enjoying what you do, delivering value to others, and being able to walk away.
Trifon is a Freelance Content Marketer specialized in SaaS companies.
With Trifon, we talked about how you can build motivation with journaling.
We talked about how the best way to overcome a challenge is by doing one simple thing repeatedly.
We talked about how friends, peers, books, podcasts can lift you up when you are working alone.
Trifon is based in Edinburgh, Scotland.
Lyndsay is a Marketing Manager at amBX, a software startup in the smart building industry. With Lyndsay, we talked about building a career as a woman in a male-dominated industry. We also explored what mentorship is and how to build a great mentor relationship at work. We also talked about the everlasting tension between learning a new skill versus outsourcing.
Lyndsay is based in Newcastle upon Tyne, England, UK.
Vincent Lebunetel is the co-founder and CEO of Boostrs, an HR tech company that helps HR departments and managers anticipate and accompany the transformation of their organization. Boostrs takes Strategic Workforce Planning out of the dust by making it simple and dynamic. He previously led Corporate Innovation and the EMEA consulting division at CWT. Vincent is based in Paris, France.
Simão Saco is the Growth Lead at Birdie Homecare Software, a fast-growing startup. Simão is responsible for demand generation. He defines himself as a data-driven marketer, with an appetite for thinking, conceptualizing, and executing growth hacks for ambitious organizations. Simão is based in London, UK.