Long Story Short: Recent Episodes
Sirkin Research
Long Story Short gives you a glimpse into the personal and professional journey of marketers and their brand. Through hearing the unique stories that have impacted marketer's careers we gain insight into their brand's story and how they foster meaningful audience connections.
We dig into the details from Victoria’s 40-page piece on her approach to positioning. We get into her three components of effective positioning, why you don’t choose your positioning, and why point of view (POV) rules all. Here are a few other topics discussed on this episode of the Sirkin Research Podcast:
- How Victoria first got into positioning from writing copy (1:59)
- Why most people writing website copy are also doing positioning (4:14)
- Why there is no such thing as a marketing or positioning expert (9:39)
- Why “we’re the best” is not positioning (11:07)
- The importance of clearly defining terms (12:38)
- Why boring marketing and gated content are not the problems holding B2B marketers back (14:18)
- Attribution isn’t broken, it was built this way (15:24)
- Why you don’t choose your positioning as a company (19:56)
- The fundamental questions a company needs to answer about their business to inform their positioning (22:48)
- Why Victoria didn’t touch on strategic narratives or brand stories in her piece (25:11)
- Why effective positioning requires a compelling point of view (29:37)
- The importance of defining what not to say when it comes to your messaging (37:08)
- Why effective positioning isn’t a linear process and can’t be templated (43:07)
- The risks of category creation and how to do it right (44:54)
- Why StoryBrand is not effective for B2B marketers (50:13)
- Why it’s important that whoever does your positioning has written copy plus who to be wary of taking marketing and positioning advice from (55:00)
Resources mentioned in episode:
The Three Components of Effective B2B Positioning
The Irreconcilable Differences Between B2B and B2C Marketing
Connect with the hosts:
Victoria Gamlen on LinkedIn
Jeff Sirkin on LinkedIn
Long Story Short is now the Sirkin Research Podcast. Jeff introduces Victoria Gamlen as permanent co-host of the show going forward. Victoria turns the tables and interviews Jeff about his career - what led to the founding of Sirkin Research, their positioning, and breakdowns of a few case studies. Here are a few other topics discussed:
- What is demand research and how is it different from market research?
- How to create content for the entire customer journey from original research
- Why 80% of the business value comes from the last mile of getting to know your buyers
- How a subtle change in product name led to a 5x increase in natural search traffic and a $200M exit for FamilyWize
- How Sirkin Research helped Trustpilot prove their value proposition and reach IPO
- Crafting targeted messaging to multiple personas and buyer roles
- Which 3 late 90’s/early 2000’s rap artists Jeff would invite to dinner
Connect with the hosts:
Victoria Gamlen on LinkedIn
Jeff Sirkin on LinkedIn
Eric Stockton is the Vice President of Demand Generation at SharpSpring from Constant Contact. He is an executive with proven leadership in running sales teams and creating marketing alignment within organizations, Eric specializes in creating revenue and driving pipeline for B2B, SAAS, and eCommerce. At Constant Contact, Eric focuses daily on the areas of Growth, DemandGen, Publishing and Content to help streamline processes, improve output and motivate the team to excel. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Long Story Short:
- How to modernize a legacy B2B marketing motion
- The value of amplifying content to prospects in the channels they’re already using
- How to create new marketing motions that align with how prospects want to buy
- Why you should set effective expectations with leadership — and how to do it
- How to ensure marketing is seen as a revenue engine
- The power of a test and learn approach
Resources:
Don’t Make Me Think by Steve Krug
Connect with Eric:
Connect with Jeff:
Connect with Sirkin Research:
Website
April Dunford is a consultant and author who helps companies make complicated products easy for customers to understand and love. She is a globally recognized expert in Positioning, having launched 16 products across her 25-year career running marketing, product and sales teams at a series of successful startups. She is the author of the best-selling book Obviously Awesome: How to Nail Product Positioning so Customers Get it, Buy it, Love it. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Long Story Short:
- April’s detailed product positioning framework
- The root cause of most weak positioning — and how to fix it
- How positioning is different from messaging and branding
- The misalignment that occurs across marketing, sales, and product teams within companies — and the issues that causes for buyers
- How to paint your product in the right light
- The dominant emotion for B2B buyers (and how to tap into it)
Resources:
April's Website
Obviously Awesome by April Dunford
The Challenger Sale by Brent Adamson and Matthew Dixon
The Challenger Customer by Brent Adamson, Pat Spenner, Nick Toman, and Matthew Dixon
The Four Steps to the Epiphany by Steve Blank
Positioning by Al Ries and Jack Trout
Lenny’s Newsletter
Lenny’s Podcast
Connect with April:
Connect with Jeff:
Connect with Sirkin Research:
Website
Amanda Natividad is the Vice President of Marketing for audience research startup, SparkToro. In her career, she has managed B2B and B2C marketing teams across SaaS, Consumer Packaged Goods, and on the agency side. Amanda created Fitbit’s B2B content program and helped build their B2B marketing team. She is also a contributor for Adweek, a former journalist, and for good measure, she’s also a Le Cordon Bleu-trained chef. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Long Story Short:
- Amanda’s Zero Click Content framework and how you can put it in place today
- How to leverage different use cases for audience research
- Why you need to lead with your best stuff and optimize for impressions
- How the content marketing game has changed
- The critical mindset shift for companies to win in content marketing today
- How the 3-person team at SparkToro can operate like a team of 10
Resources:
Lost and Founder by Rand Fishkin
Out on the Wire by Jessica Abel
Nonviolent Communication by Marshall Rosenburg
Doing Content Right by Steph Smith
Landing Page Copywriting Mastery by Jeremy Moser
Swipe Files
Connect with Amanda:
Connect with Jeff:
Connect with Sirkin Research:
Website
Victoria Sakal leads the development and delivery of The Vault by Refine Labs. As the world's first intellectual capital warehouse, The Vault gives members exclusive access to industry-leading research, data, insights, and validated strategies for manufacturing revenue. With a background in marketing, brand strategy, and commercial strategy, Victoria leads growth strategy, covering product, GTM, and product marketing for The Vault in preparation for commercial launch later this year. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Long Story Short:
- The levels of customer awareness and why they’re important
- How to leverage data to create hypotheses to test in the market
- Getting into the minds of your customers
- The value The Vault will bring to Refine Labs
- Victoria’s approach to applying research and measurement to optimize marketing
- What is working in real-time across dozens of SaaS clients
- The key metrics that indicate the impact of your brand
Resources:
Victoria's list of resources
The Marketing Book Podcast
Connect with Victoria:
Connect with Jeff:
Connect with Sirkin Research:
Website
Zoё Hartsfield got her start in SaaS sales 3 years ago as an SDR and pivoted into B2B marketing. She is currently the head of Community over at Spekit. In her spare time, Zoё consults with other B2B companies on personal brand, social selling, and community initiatives. She is passionate about helping others in the SaaS community and is an advocate for mental health. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Long Story Short:
- Why it’s important to normalize talking about money
- How not talking about money has held individuals down from earning what they’re worth
- Steps you can take today to ensure you are being fairly compensated for your work
- How our culture of not talking about money has only served companies, not employees
- The tools you should use for salary research
- How to measure the impact of community marketing
- Why it’s critical to translate customer language into marketing content
- The importance of qualitative data to provide context that quantitative data can’t show
- How finding why people stay is just as important as finding why people buy
Connect with Zoё:
Tiktok
Connect with Jeff:
Connect with Sirkin Research:
Website
Cory Young is the founder and CEO of BCC Interactive, a Digital Marketing Agency based in Philadelphia. After managing marketing teams at Fortune 50 companies at Comcast and Campbell's Soup, Cory channeled his passion and experience in a direction that could help small and mid-sized businesses increase their visibility & revenue. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Long Story Short:
- Why you need to make your content findable—and how to do it
- How SEO has evolved over time
- Why there will always be a need to help marketers get their content in front of their target audience
- What it’s like to start a company as a side hustle before making the full-time leap
- Cory’s journey to go out on his own
- The specific kinds of content companies should be creating today
Resources:
Seth Godin
Crushing It - Gary Vaynerchuk
Learningseo.io
Connect with Cory:
Tiktok
BCC Interactive
Connect with Jeff:
Connect with Sirkin Research:
Website
Liam Moroney is the founder of Suas Marketing, a demand generation consulting firm. He has more than 12 years of experience as a marketing leader in the B2B SaaS tech industry, most recently as the SVP of Revenue Marketing at Notarize. Liam is also the host of the Marketing Revisited podcast. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Long Story Short:
- The difference between demand capture and demand generation
- How to develop separate strategies and measurements for demand creation and demand capture
- Ways to put your customer at the center of your marketing
- How to break away from stale marketing playbooks
- Why you shouldn’t distribute the same piece of content across every channel
Resources:
Oglivy on Advertising by David Ogilvy
Hey Whipple, Squeeze This by Luke Sullivan
Connect with Liam:
Connect with the Host:
Jeff Sirkin on LinkedIn
Connect with Sirkin Research:
Website
Why You Need Customer Research with Ryan Paul Gibson
Ryan Paul Gibson is the Founder and CEO at Content Lift, where he helps marketers do customer research. In his career, he has interviewed over 1,600 people and accrued 20 years of marketing miles. Ryan even took a small detour in his career, working for CBC as a TV & Radio reporter - and has produced short films and documentaries. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Long Story Short:
- Common signs that your organization needs research
- How customer research will tangibly impact your business growth
- Tactics you can use today to get started with customer research
- How to understand the pain points and priorities of your target market
- The dangers of being uncertain about your ideal customer
Resources:
How to Win podcast
Nudge podcast
Connect with Ryan:
Connect with the Host:
Jeff Sirkin on LinkedIn
Connect with Sirkin Research:
Website
Kaylee Edmondson is the Director of Demand Gen at Brightwheel—the #1 platform for early education. She was formerly the first Director of Demand Gen at Chili Piper. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Long Story Short:
- The limits and benefits of using attribution data
- Why marketers shouldn’t be 100% reliant on attribution
- The reason companies should question what they see in their attribution data
- How to get close to, and connect with, your customers
- Best practices for customer calls—and 6 questions to ask
- How to effectively communicate the value of marketing
Resources:
Morning Brew
Marketing Brew
Retail Brew
The Skimm
Chris Walker
Dave Gerhardt
No Rules Rules by Reed Hastings and Erin Meyer
Connect with Kaylee:
Connect with the Host:
Jeff Sirkin on LinkedIn
Connect with Sirkin Research:
Website
Evan Patterson is the Head of Content & Community at trender.ai. Outside of that, he is a brand ambassador for a variety of B2B brands, a content creator, podcast host, and an advisor for other startups like Chili Piper and scaleMatters. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Long Story Short:
- What it means to build in public as a startup
- Why B2B marketers need to lean in more heavily to the untapped value of influencer marketing
- The parallels between personal branding and marketing a startup company
- Making social selling easier, more fun, and more approachable.
- Refining your tone and messaging through experience, realtime feedback, and conversations with customers
- Creating a startup culture that is collaborative and fosters active listening
Resources:
Zoë Hartsfield
Jorge Soto
Meryoli Arias
Violating Community Guidelines: Brand Content
Violating Community Guidelines: LinkedIn Influencers
The Financial Diet
The Bald and the Beautiful Podcast
Connect with Evan:
Evan’s Linktree
Connect with the Host:
Jeff Sirkin on LinkedIn
Connect with Sirkin Research:
Website
Katelyn Bourgoin is a 4x founder turned growth strategist and trainer. She understands the challenges business leaders face because she’s been there herself. With operational experience spanning the marketing, tech, and hospitality sectors, Katelyn has been named as an influential entrepreneur by Forbes magazine and featured in Inc., HuffPost, Bustle, CBC, CTV, Global TV and more. Katelyn is recognized as one of the "top 20 wonder women of SaaS marketing and growth” by SaaStock. Katelyn’s past clients include high-growth tech startups, SMBs, business support organizations, and Fortune 500 companies like Target and Holiday Inn. She has delivered in-person and online training with prestigious accelerators and incubators worldwide. Today Katelyn helps frustrated founders, marketers, and salespeople to focus on what really matters—their customers. After all, whoever gets closer to the customer wins. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Long Story Short:
- Using the principles of buyer psychology to get into the minds of your customers
- Why your customer’s perspective is your most valuable asset
- The power of understanding your customers’ decision-making process - and why it’s essential for marketers
- The best tactics to create messaging that resonates every single time
- How Barnum Statements are a marketer’s secret weapon, and how to use them effectively
- Why B2B purchases are MORE emotional than B2C purchases
Resources:
Competing Against Luck - Clayton Christensen
Demand-Side Sales 101 - Bob Moesta
When Coffee and Kale Compete - Alan Klement
Clarity Call Cheatsheets
Why We Buy Newsletter
The Choice Factory - Richard Shotton
What Your Customer Wants and Can't Tell You - Melina Palmer
Alchemy - Rory Sutherland
Nudge - Phill Agnew
Connect with Katelyn:
CustomerCamp
Connect with the Host:
Jeff Sirkin on LinkedIn
Connect with Sirkin Research:
Website
Phoebe Bain founded Marketing Brew, a Morning Brew vertical covering the most important news in the marketing industry, in 2020. The vertical has since expanded into original reporting and beyond the newsletter. She's now one of five reporters the Brew has since added to the fold, and primarily covers social media and influencer marketing. Before rolling out Marketing Brew, Phoebe wrote for Social Media Today under Industry Dive and worked on the social media editing desk for Business Insider. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Long Story Short:
- How to effectively keep your finger on the pulse of your industry
- Phoebe’s meta view of marketing and advertising
- The current, biggest trends of the marketing industry
- Changes in social media, engagement, and the world of influencer marketing
- The benefits of talking to, and learning from, industry experts
- Why authentic marketing strategies resonate better with audiences
- The difference between writing and reporting
Resources:
Maybe Baby - Haley Nahman
Morning Brew
Marketing Brew
Garbage Day
Trick Mirror - Jia Tolentino
Connect with Phoebe:
Connect with the Host:
Jeff Sirkin on LinkedIn
Connect with Sirkin Research:
Website
Breezy Beaumont is the Head of Growth & Marketing at Correlated and has tons of hands-on experience at multiple hyper-growth software companies. She’s always bringing in new ideas for data-driven strategies and product-led initiatives with the motto “work smarter, not harder.” Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Long Story Short:
- Tactical strategies for how to put your product at the center of everything
- The biggest misconceptions about product led growth
- How the roles of marketing and sales have shifted in product-led companies
- The key differences between PQLs and MQLs
- Making it easy for prospects to navigate their way through the sales process in a way that works for them
- How product led growth leads to a better product by putting the customer first and giving you a better understanding of your product
- The importance of being where your customers are—social platforms and communities— to answer questions
Resources:
GetCorrelated.com
The Product Led Revenue Podcast
Connect with Breezy:
Connect with the Host:
Jeff Sirkin on LinkedIn
Connect with Sirkin Research:
Website
Kevin Bobowski is the Chief Marketing Officer at Siteimprove, where he leads all of the marketing teams and operations globally. He has more than 20 years of experience leading market-defining companies and is committed to helping enterprise organizations deliver brilliant customer experiences and world-class marketing performance. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Long Story Short:
- How Kevin approached his first 90 days as CMO
- Why your outside perspective is your biggest advantage when joining a new company
- The importance of building the right processes as the most foundational part of marketing
- Why processes are far more effective than playbooks
- The role of analytics and measurement in marketing—and Kevin’s strong opinion on dashboards
- Why asking questions and testing your way into the answers leads to more success than pretending you have all the answers
- How rigid ‘playbooks’ and immediate changes can be your downfall as a new CMO
Resources:
Principles by Ray Dalio
The Storyteller by Dave Grohl
Connect with Kevin:
Connect with the Host:
Jeff Sirkin on LinkedIn
Connect with Sirkin Research:
Website
Camille Trent is the head of content at Dooly, where she helps sales teams close more deals, faster. When she's not writing, she's hanging out with her pup and two favorite redheads. Or she's trying to coach the Portland Trail Blazers to victory from her couch. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Long Story Short:
- How to develop content strategy that successfully breaks through the noise
- The value of authentic, approachable content - and how to develop it
- Showing the tangible impact of brand, both for the company and as an individual
- Using ‘method marketing’ to better relate to your audience and keep your finger on the pulse of your market
- How training to understand your audience is an ongoing process for marketers
- The best way to leverage the power of personal branding
Resources:
State of Demand Gen
The Growth Hub
SEO for the Rest of Us
Made to Stick
Never Split the Difference
Connect with Camille:
Dooly on LinkedIn
Connect with the Host:
Jeff Sirkin on LinkedIn
Connect with Sirkin Research:
Website
Nick Bennett is the Director of Field, Partner, and Community Marketing at Alyce. And, he is the host of the Rep Your Brand podcast. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Long Story Short:
- What the future of field marketing holds: Field Marketing 2.0
- How field marketing accelerates opportunities in the middle and bottom of the sales funnel
- The power of cultivating community, and how it helps align marketing and sales
- Showing the effect that marketing has throughout the entirety of the sales cycle
- Creating alignment between field marketing and sales teams
- How personal branding helps you individually, and brings value to your company
- The value of creating a community on LinkedIn and building connections with people in your niche
Resources:
Rep Your Brand
State of Demand Gen
Connect with Nick:
Connect with the Host:
Jeff Sirkin on LinkedIn
Connect with Sirkin Research:
Website
Tyler is VP Marketing at Vidyard, host of a variety of online shows and podcasts for marketing and sales professionals, co-author of The Visual Sale, and a proud father of four. He's spent the last 8 years immersed in the world of video for B2B marketing and sales, and the evolution of modern content marketing and demand generation programs. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Long Story Short:
- How the changing expectations of audiences led to the rise in video marketing
- Filling a shift in audience needs by creating educational video content
- The key to standing out in your sales strategy
- Allowing customers to self-serve into the buyer’s journey
- Creating a friction free buying and engagement experience for your customers
- Using video as an essential part of your content strategy
- Learning directly from your market to create inbound opportunities
- The importance of audience engagement to gauge how your content is working
- Having empathy for your audience and creating content that resonates with them
Resources:
The Visual Sale
SalesFeed
Content Inc.
The Catalyst
Connect with Tyler:
Connect with the Host:
Jeff Sirkin on LinkedIn
Connect with Sirkin Research:
Website
Over the course of this year, we had 35 guests on the podcast. We’ve put together a highlight reel for 2021 to showcase our favorite moments and learnings with you! In this episode, we share our best tangible tips, tricks, and takeaways. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Long Story Short:
- 0:56 - 7:00: Leadership styles and strategies
- 7:00 - 17:16: Marketing tips from the pros
- 17:16 - 27:07: The power of data and research
- 27:07 - 43:33: Being human, mental health, and DEI
- 43:33 - 51:10: Future predictions for 2022 and beyond
Resources:
Be a Better Ally
Do Your Diversity Efforts Reflect the Experiences of Women of Color?
5 Top Tips On Creating Successful Employee Resource Groups
Connect with the Hosts:
Jeff Sirkin on LinkedIn
Sophia Gordon on LinkedIn
Connect with Sirkin Research:
Website
Nancy Liberman is the Vice President of JRNI (pronounced Journey), an appointment scheduling platform with a global presence. Nancy has had the opportunity to work in all aspects of marketing for a variety of growth stage companies, and she's a stickler for good grammar and a staunch supporter of the Oxford comma. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Long Story Short:
- Recognizing when your brand, and its personality, no longer fit the target market
- Thinking of your brand’s look, feel, name, and identity as one cohesive thing
- Creating successful rebranding strategies to reach your target audience
- Knowing when (and how) to reposition your brand
- Telling a differentiated story in a crowded market
- Remaining customer-first by collecting customer feedback from an open channel
- Keeping up with the digital transformation in a rapidly evolving market
Resources:
Ogilvy on Advertising
NRF Smart Briefs
Financial Brand
Forbes
Fortune
Page Six
Pendo
Connect with Nancy:
Connect with the Hosts:
Jeff Sirkin on LinkedIn
Sophia Gordon on LinkedIn
Anshey Bhatia is the CEO & Founder at Verbal Plus Visual, an e-commerce agency that works with mission-driven retailers to design, build, & grow their ecommerce presence. The digital experiences they build allow brands that are equal parts people, product, and planet to spread their mission and showcase their product lines. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Long Story Short:
- Remaining true to both your values and your brand
- The link between better environmental outcomes and better mental health outcomes
- Shifting consumerism towards fewer, better things to create a more equitable planet
- How to inspire others to pay more attention to sustainability, since anyone can make an impact on climate change
- Emphasizing that everyone can make an impact on climate change
- Building the infrastructure necessary for intentional, thoughtful, and sustainable growth
- Prioritizing your team’s health and wellness so they have the resources they need
- Leveraging data and creating content to find effective solutions
Resources:
Climate Neutral
Harvard Business Review
Shopify Plus blog
2PML
Economist
Connect with Anshey:
Connect with the Hosts:
Jeff Sirkin on LinkedIn
Sophia Gordon on LinkedIn
Lauren Volpi is a high-growth marketing leader with 15+ years of experience building high-performance teams and driving revenue through innovative demand generation programs. She brings a metrics-driven, integrated marketing approach and persona-based messaging to educate, influence, and evangelize customers through the entire buyer journey. Lauren has guided marketing strategies at global enterprises, mid-stage companies, and tech startups, including Sigma Computing, Pivotal, VMware, and Equinix in the US and EMEA. While at Pivotal, Lauren led a rebrand initiative, was a key member of the IPO team, and contributed to the company’s subsequent acquisition by VMware less than two years later. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Long Story Short:
- Focusing on the end user at the center of your strategies
- Allowing users to experience the product before they speak to a salesperson
- Collecting qualitative and quantitative data straight from the source
- Fostering a collaborative, trusting, and creative atmosphere through humble leadership
- The value of using honest feedback to evaluate and change your strategies
- Maintaining a willingness to learn regardless of how far along you are in your career
- Creating frictionless event registration that’s user-friendly
- The importance of building professional relationships throughout your career
Resources:
The Knowledge Project by Shane Parrish
Huddle: How Women Unlock their Collective Power by Brooke Baldwin
Ask Big Questions by Bill Gates and Radisha Jones
Footnotes Resources:
Six Top Tips For Networking In The New World Of Work
Connect with Lauren:
Lauren Volpi on Chief
Connect with the Hosts:
Jeff Sirkin on LinkedIn
Sophia Gordon on LinkedIn
Janet Jaiswal is the VP of Global Marketing at Cloudbeds, the fastest growing hospitality management technology company. She has more than 20 years of high-tech B2B marketing experience. She resides in Silicon Valley, CA and has worked at companies of all sizes from start-ups to large companies and somewhere in between. Her marketing experience is based on working at companies such as eBay, PayPal, and IBM. She has a bachelors’ degree from the University of California, Berkeley and an MBA from Carnegie Mellon University. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Long Story Short:
- Balancing short and long term focus to build scalable, sustainable growth
- How to personalize your content, even when you have a global audience
- Keeping your finger on the pulse of different markets around the world
- Leveraging the power of scale of customer data to recommend optimizations
- Combining a simple user experience with scalable software to level the technological playing field
- Minimizing the impact of high turnover rates by making software quicker to learn
- Reaching your audience where they are by keeping their interests in mind
- Maintaining connection and company culture in a remote, global workforce
Resources:
Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath
2030 by Mauro Guillén
Lattice
Officevibe
Donut
Connect with Janet:
Connect with the Hosts:
Jeff Sirkin on LinkedIn
Sophia Gordon on LinkedIn
We’re thrilled to have Kathryn Frankson back on the show. Kathryn is a great friend of the show and the Director of Event Marketing at Informa, the global leader in specialized events, media, and intelligence. For this episode Kathryn turns the tables and puts Jeff in the hot seat to discuss the changes in B2B marketing as the buyer’s journey has shifted almost completely digital. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Long Story Short:
- B2B marketing’s major shifts, and how to thrive in the new landscape
- How to deeply understand and connect with your buyers’ needs and wants
- Getting the market’s attention through modern storytelling
- Taking the guesswork out of marketing to unlock growth
- The NEW most effective marketing channel for 2022
- Identifying what to test and which metrics to use to optimize your marketing
- The secret to breaking through the noise in an increasingly crowded market
Connect with Jeff and Katrhyn:
Jeff Sirkin on LinkedIn
Kathryn Frankson on LinkedIn
Banu Kannu (she/her), the Co-Founder & Chief Experience Officer of Uncommon Conferences, is a global citizen with a local soul. She's lived and worked all around the world, but loves coming home to Whadjuk Noongar land in Perth, Western Australia. Banu shares why it's important to be outcome-driven with our conferences and events, but also with life! This isn't to say we reverse-engineer everything to the point of losing the magic of spontaneity, but instead taking some time for quiet reflection with what we want to get out of our jobs, projects and yes, life itself. Beginning with the end in mind keeps us focused, intentional and means it's easier to relax and have some fun on the journey. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Long Story Short:
- Beginning with the end in mind and staying outcome-driven
- Creating a safe and inclusive space where underrepresented voices are heard
- Respecting your audience’s time, attention, energy, and resources
- Being intentional and purposeful in your event planning
- Giving your strategy time to work before reevaluating or changing it
Resources:
Seth Godin’s newsletter
Monocle newsletter
Mark Manson’s newsletter
Modern Love by The New York Times
House of Beautiful Business’s Beauty Shot
Haute Dokimazo’s Convo Series
Priya Parker’s The Art of Gathering
Oprah Winfrey’s Super Soul podcast
Glennon Doyle’s We Can Do Hard Things podcast
Myriam Hadnes’ Workshops Work podcast
Business in Colour podcast
Brené Brown’s Unlocking Us podcast
Alok Menon on the Man Enough podcast
Connect with Banu:
Banu on LinkedIn
Uncommon Conferences on LinkedIn
Uncommon Conferences on Instagram
Connect with the Hosts:
Jeff Sirkin on LinkedIn
Sophia Gordon on LinkedIn
Jeremy Collins is the Executive Vice President of Marketing at Azuga, a Bridgestone company. He has spent his career building and leading sales teams through M&A and an IPO, as well as leading marketing teams within the Martech space. Most recently, he has led the Marketing team through the acquisition by Bridgestone. Jeremy specializes in revenue marketing where the strategy is driven by data insights that produce actions, and ensuring those actions produce results. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Long Story Short:
- Focusing on consistent incremental improvement instead of big wins
- Working as a team to build a playbook for success
- The necessity of learning from failure to adjust your playbook
- Setting transparent expectations between marketing and sales teams
- The three pillars of marketing success: brand, demand, and expand
- Capturing demand in the short term while building a brand in the long term
- Leveraging your customer base to build your brand for you
Connect with Jeremy:
Connect with the Hosts:
Jeff Sirkin on LinkedIn
Sophia Gordon on LinkedIn
Monique Carayol is the Founder and Managing Director of Your New Avenue, a leadership and talent development consultancy to grow and sustain diverse leadership talent pipelines and build brave, collaborative senior leadership. She started her career in healthcare in the UK as a PA in 2001, and navigated her way to a high profile board executive director role in 2016. She won the PRECIOUS Outstanding Woman in the Public Sector award in 2017 and is a regular leadership and career progression keynote speaker and panelist. Monique launched her leadership podcast ‘Be Yourself, Back Yourself & Make it Happen with Monique Carayol’ to share her practical insights, thoughts and advice on a global scale. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Long Story Short:
- Defining brave leadership and the importance of creating safe spaces
- The power of saying ‘I don’t know’ as a leader and the example it sets for the team
- Everyone has unique talents that can be stifled by worrying about getting things wrong
- Allowing people to be their full and authentic selves at work
- The need for leaders to be honest about what they can do and what they can’t do
- Working to build a global community of brave leaders
Resources:
Talent is Never Enough
Maya Angelou Poems - Still I Rise and The Mask
Connect with Monique:
Twitter
Monique’s Podcast
Connecting with the Hosts:
Jeff Sirkin on LinkedIn
Sophia Gordon on LinkedIn
As Co-CEO of Women of Influence, Stephania Varalli leads one of North America’s largest organizations dedicated to gender equity and women's advancement in the workplace. As head of WOI’s media efforts, she and her team have built a platform that is by, for, and about women - offering inspiration, insights, and perspectives on key issues. Through this work she is able to dedicate her time to her passion: using storytelling to drive change. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Long Story Short:
- The power of storytelling to drive change in creating a fair and equitable workforce
- Shining a spotlight on women’s stories instead of putting them on a pedestal
- The importance of considering intersectionality across a wide range of identities
- Why you don’t have to be a CEO to have influence and have a story worth sharing
- The impact of representation in the media
- Why the business case for DEI is not enough to make widespread change in society
- Why unconscious bias is NOT actually a problem to be solved
Resources:
Building a Storybrand
The Bullet News Roundup
Footnotes Resources:
Undistracted Podcast - Tarana Burke Interview
Me Too - About Tarana Burke
TED - Me Too is a Movement, not a Moment
Connect with Stephania:
Women of Influence Instagram
Women of Influence Twitter
Connecting with the Hosts:
Jeff Sirkin on LinkedIn
Sophia Gordon on LinkedIn
We want to make our podcast an engaging story for YOU - this means we want your feedback! Click HERE to answer some questions about your listening experience.
Michael Bonaddio is the host of the Career Quest podcast, which centers around interviews outlining the career path of each guest, focusing on the reasons behind their decisions and putting a mythological twist on their journey. In this crossover episode, Sophia and Jeff play both interviewer and guest and they share some of their biggest lessons learned from the podcast. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Long Story Short:
- Why Long Story Short is a marketing podcast that is not actually about marketing
- The principles that effective marketers use are the same that foster human connection
- The origin story of how Sophia and Jeff first met and started working together
- Why networking is like planting seeds and how to do it the way you feel comfortable
- The power behind recognizing that there is no such thing as a linear career path
- How Career Quest dives into the reasons behind the decisions in the guest’s journey
- Why podcasting is the present day version of making friends on the internet
Connect with Michael:
Career Quest Podcast Instagram
Connecting with the Hosts:
Jeff Sirkin on LinkedIn
Sophia Gordon on LinkedIn
We want to make our podcast an engaging story for YOU - this means we want your feedback! Click HERE to answer some questions about your listening experience.
Liz Einhorn is the founder and CEO of Experience Threee. She is a hospitality professional and growth strategist with 15 years’ experience in business development, national sales, and brand management. Liz spent a decade at The Boston Beer Company where she oversaw airports, concessions and on premise restaurants nationally before starting Experience Threee in 2017. She is an active member of the Airport Minority Advisory Council where she serves on their communications committee. She is an honors graduate of Muhlenberg college and an enthusiast of all things Philadelphia. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Long Story Short:
- The power of reframing boundaries and obstacles as growth opportunities
- Openness to new opportunities and not sticking to a predefined career path
- Being emotionally vulnerable and honest with yourself as an entrepreneur
- How to navigate having an external sales force that you don’t directly control
- The importance of intellectual curiosity to being more effective in sales
- Treating everyone within your company the same regardless of their job title
- How to pivot your job scope and function within your current company
Resources:
Greetabl
Postable
Adam Grant
Matt Shirley Instagram
Liz and Mollie Instagram
Drizly Insights
Connect with Liz:
Personal Instagram
Experience Threee Instagram
Connecting with the Hosts:
Jeff Sirkin on LinkedIn
Sophia Gordon on LinkedIn
We want to make our podcast an engaging story for YOU - this means we want your feedback! Click HERE to answer some questions about your listening experience.
Deepak Sivanandan is the Head of Global Marketing for Flowserve, a global leader in manufacturing flow equipment such as pumps, valves, seals and aftermarket services. Under Deepak’s leadership, Flowserve launched more than 40 products in the last 3 years including an IoT platform under the brand RedRaven. They launched their content hub, a virtual tradeshow platform under the theme “Destination Innovation,” and established their rapid response customer service center. Deepak is obsessed with the customer experience and is championing that across the entire organization at Flowserve. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Long Story Short:
- The importance of building customer trust for mutual long-term success
- Why no amount of design can replace the story for how it will serve customer needs
- Being honest about your product’s capabilities and especially for what it can’t do
- How to invite your customer to be a co-creator of your solution
- Leveraging market insights as a key input to the product development process
- Thinking about future customer problems and working to build solutions now
- How curiosity sparked Deepak’s journey from engineering to marketing
Resources:
Mindset by Dr. Carol S. Dweck
Connect with Deepak:
Connecting with the Hosts:
Jeff Sirkin on LinkedIn
Sophia Gordon on LinkedIn
We want to make our podcast an engaging story for YOU - this means we want your feedback! Click HERE to answer some questions about your listening experience.
Tameka Vasquez is a strategist, educator, and futurist with a decade of experience working with challenger brands in the technology industry. She is also a graduate school professor and a public speaker who has participated in conferences and thought leadership events globally. Tameka has been featured by Udemy for Business, IBM Think Leaders, the Content Marketing Institute, CMS Wire, and the Marketing Artificial Intelligence Institute. She is a 2020 Fortune Magazine Fellow, a 2019 nominee for the Rising Star award for Women in AI, and a 2018 recipient of the Innovators and Disruptors award. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Long Story Short:
- The role of marketers to create a narrative in the world where it isn’t already known
- How to effectively incorporate an academic approach to business
- Allowing yourself to be vulnerable enough to be a lifelong learner as a practitioner
- Rejecting the status quo and moving towards the world as it should be
- The importance of self-awareness within every pursuit in life
- Defining success as giving people tools to think about the future
- Education as finding a way of thinking, asking questions, and navigating the world
Resources:
General Magic Documentary
The Goop Podcast
Where You Are Is Not Who You Are
Connect with Tameka:
Connecting with the Hosts:
Jeff Sirkin on LinkedIn
Sophia Gordon on LinkedIn
We want to make our podcast an engaging story for YOU - this means we want your feedback! Click HERE to answer some questions about your listening experience.
Ginny Jacobs is the founder of Surprisingly Baked, the indulgent stuffed cookie company based in D.C. After a year in business and experiencing explosive growth, the company’s sales were quickly outpacing operational capacity. Ginny made the difficult decision to wind down the business. Her passions are in marketing, brand building, and customer acquisition, and not as much the day-to-day logistics of overseeing food safety or facility management of a commercial kitchen. That passion for marketing earned media coverage in many regional and national outlets. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Long Story Short:
- The crucial differences between building a brand and running a profitable company
- What led Ginny to wind down the business and go out on her own terms
- The importance of having a strong WHY to being a small business owner
- Why the perception of entrepreneurship is much more glamorous than the reality
- Creating connection with your customer base by pitching your products in a unique way
- Ginny’s advice for aspiring entrepreneurs
Resources:
How I Built This
Start with Why
Who Moved My Cheese?
Connect with Ginny:
Medium
Connecting with the Hosts:
Jeff Sirkin on LinkedIn
Sophia Gordon on LinkedIn
We want to make our podcast an engaging story for YOU - this means we want your feedback! Click HERE to answer some questions about your listening experience.
Angela Earl is the Vice President of Global Marketing at RFPIO, the industry leading software for response management. She is a leader in the technology industry passionate about empowering motivated teams and growing organizations, leveraging more than twenty years of business experience to improve outcomes through sales and marketing. She was recognized as one of the top 30 Marketing Technology Experts to Watch in 2016 and The 10 Most Impactful Women in Technology in 2020, and is a contributing author in the international best-selling book, Significant Women: Leaders Reveal What Matters Most. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Long Story Short:
- How industry leaders blaze a trail ahead based on buyer need
- Why the real competition in B2B sales is the customer’s status quo
- The importance of painting a picture of the potential future for your buyers
- Teaching customers about their world to be a true partner and not just another vendor
- The myth of work-life balance and why it needs to be a complete integration
- Finding the opportunity to feel connected and fulfilled within your work
- Why leaders need to walk the walk to set the tone for positive company culture
Resources:
Significant Women: Leaders Reveal What Matters Most
Mountain Goat Software Blog
MarTech Today
RevOps Blog
Patrick Lencioni Books
Connect with Angela:
LinkedIn
Connecting with the Hosts:
Jeff Sirkin on LinkedIn
Sophia Gordon on LinkedIn
We want to make our podcast an engaging story for YOU - this means we want your feedback! Click HERE to answer some questions about your listening experience.
Mildred Talabi is a LinkedIn Visibility Coach, who specializes in helping women build visible and profitable businesses through personal branding and social selling. She has over a decade of experience in this arena, stemming from her previous career in Journalism, PR and Communications, alongside many entrepreneurial ventures. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Long Story Short:
- The importance of knowing your target audience in order to strategically engage
- Understanding that we all have a personal brand and an audience to serve
- Developing original content for people to hear your voice and get to know your values
- Why Mildred chose to focus on the niche of women entrepreneurs
- Navigating the fear of showing up and being too salesy
- Shifting your mindset to understand that selling is a way to serve your audience
- Measuring what matters most to your target audience and not vanity metrics
Resources:
Start Being Visible
Visible Women Tribe
Connect with Mildred:
LinkedIn
Website
Connecting with the Hosts:
Jeff Sirkin on LinkedIn
Sophia Gordon on LinkedIn
We want to make our podcast an engaging story for YOU - this means we want your feedback! Click HERE to answer some questions about your listening experience.
Jess Weimer leads Global Revenue Marketing and is the Global PipeGen Officer at Confluent. She is a modern demand-to-revenue marketing executive with proven achievement in building and scaling global, data-driven, operationally savvy, integrated demand strategies directly resulting in pipeline attainment. Jess is passionate about inspiring and mentoring teams across the globe and heavily invests in team growth and scale. She leads with empathy while innovating with grit. Prior to Confluent, Jess held leadership positions at FinancialForce, Adobe, ServiceNow, and 8x8. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Long Story Short:
- The need for intentional process and structure in a hypergrowth environment
- Building the plane while it’s flying and why even rocket ships need marketing
- Why the status quo of leadership isn’t good enough anymore
- The value of Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) to companies and how you can advance initiatives within your own organization
- Why it is vital to truly connect and check in with your extended teams at work
- The importance of mentorship in helping advance the next generation of leaders
- Balancing an attribution model while understanding that all of the value of marketing can not be captured into a single number
- Why Jess refers to ABM as ABX - Account Based Orchestration
Footnotes Resources:
Be a Better Ally
Do Your Diversity Efforts Reflect the Experiences of Women of Color?
5 Top Tips On Creating Successful Employee Resource Groups
Connect with Jess:
LinkedIn
Connecting with the Hosts:
Jeff Sirkin on LinkedIn
Sophia Gordon on LinkedIn
We want to make our podcast an engaging story for YOU - this means we want your feedback! Click HERE to answer some questions about your listening experience.
Marketing has a Marketing Problem with Matt Hummel
Matt Hummel is the Vice President of Strategic Marketing at RealPage. He is focused on aligning marketing focus to accelerate growth by creating predictable and profitable demand through prioritized go-to-market campaigns and continuous sales engagement and enablement. Prior to RealPage, Matt has served as the head of Marketing at Social Solutions and head of Demand Gen at Thomson Reuters. Matt has a passion for all things B2B marketing, particularly helping organizations enable growth through centering all efforts around the customer. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Long Story Short:
- The importance of defining the role of marketing within an organization
- Proving the value of marketing throughout the stages of the buyer’s journey
- What a predictable and profitable demand center means to Matt
- Matt’s belief that he was destined to follow his dreams of a marketer
- How Matt’s marketing background helps him understand what matters to a sales person
- Matt’s role at RealPage and RealPage’s value proposition
- Why growth focused and customer oriented are important to Matt
- How Matt helps organizations transition from being inbound focused to a more scalable ABM strategy
Resources:
The Trusted Advisor
Greg Verdino
The Ringer Podcast Network
Connect with Matt:
LInkedIn
Connecting with the Hosts:
Jeff Sirkin on LinkedIn
Sophia Gordon on LinkedIn
We want to make our podcast an engaging story for YOU - this means we want your feedback! Click HERE to answer some questions about your listening experience.
On today’s episode we speak with Kate Athmer. Kate is the Vice President of Growth at Bombora. She is constantly looking for optimizations, testing new strategies, and finding ways to help customers extract more value from their investments in intent data - and beyond. Kate is also the author of Amazon best-selling “Millennial Reboot” - a book designed to help the go-getters of her generation overcome Millennial stereotypes and lead businesses through the digital revolution. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Long Story Short:
- What B2B marketing should be copying from B2C
- The advantages of being a target of your own marketing
- How to balance the need for attribution without turning it into a game of claiming credit
- Ensuring that you are mindful of the teams necessary to support the effort of sales
- What the impact has been to the need from a B2B perspective for intent data with Bombora
- Kate’s best performing channels when it comes to generating meetings for sales
Resources:
The Hustle
Morning Brew
Marketing Brew
Connect with Kate Athmer:
LinkedIn
Twitter
Millennial Reboot
Connecting with the hosts:
Jeff Sirkin on LinkedIn
Sophia Gordon on LinkedIn
We want to make our podcast an engaging story for YOU - this means we want your feedback! Click here to answer some questions about your listening experience.
Jake Dreyfuss is the Founder and CEO of Bright Pink Socks Strategy Partners. He has overseen over $1 Billion in real estate transactions since 2003, where he was most recently the CEO of the PhillyLiving Team at Keller Williams. Jake also the host of Sell Them With Kindness, a podcast that "has set out to prove that nice guys and gals finish first in business and in life." Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Long Story Short:
- Jake’s journey to how he started Bright Pink Socks through storytelling
- The drive behind Jake’s accountability communities
- Jake’s definition of kindness and what being nice means to him
- The value of asking customers for feedback
- Jake’s advice for aspiring entrepreneurs
Resources:
- Bright Pink Socks
- What Great Salespeople Do
- Fierce Conversations
Connect with Jake Dreyfuss:
Sell Them With Kindness
Connecting with the hosts:
Jeff Sirkin on LinkedIn
Sophia Gordon on LinkedIn
We want to make our podcast an engaging story for YOU - this means we want your feedback! Click here to answer some questions about your listening experience.
Jess Podgajny is the co-founder and CEO of LLUNA, a B2B technology platform that enables employers to offer personalized employment arrangements to employees. She has a passion for the human side of business. LLUNA was imagined as a result of almost two decades of career learnings paired with the realization that employment arrangements are ripe for disruption. Through LLUNA, Jess is challenging the status quo and encourages all businesses to reimagine the way they engage with employees.
Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Long Story Short:
- Creating an inclusive personalized employment with Lluna
- Helping HR by creating less work through employee experiences
- Being unique to each person in the job offer negotiation process
- The real cost to companies of replacing employees
- Personality in a name creates identity
- Corporate culture adapting to the new way of life
Resources:
The Morning Brew
The Founder’s Journal
Exit Interview
“Think Again” by Adam Grant
Connect with Jess Podgajny:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicapodgajny/
Company website: https://lluna.io/
Connecting with the hosts:
Jeff Sirkin on LinkedIn
Sophia Gordon on LinkedIn
Nichole Elizabeth DeMeré is the Chief Marketing Officer at Reeview.App which is an automated platform that finds collects and displays authentic user generated video reviews for e-commerce businesses. They are also a co-founders at Taggg, a top 15 Hunter at Product Hunt, moderator at Growthhackers.com, and mentor at GrowthMentor.com. Outside the SaaS world, Nichole loves music, art, photography and philosophy. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Long Story Short:
- The correlation of video reviews and purchases
- Authenticity in reviews vs staged reviews
- The importance of knowing you don’t need 1000s of clients
- Working towards turning a buyer into a hero
- Language Market Fit and why being specific with your language leads to more clients
- Scientific Method of creating hypothesis and testing them for passes of “fails”
- Activating your customer through storytelling
Research / stats mentioned
- Hubspot Stat
- Think with Google research
- Princeton study
- Data Storytelling blog post
Resources
- Strategyzer
- Sixteen Ventures
- InnerTrends
- SaaS Community
- SaaS Growth Hacks on Facebook
- Aaron Skrall on Facebook
- Start Up Product Launches on Facebook
Connect with Nichole Elizabeth DeMeré
Twitter - @NikkiElizDeMeré
Linked In: Nichole Elizabeth DeMeré
Instagram: NicholeElizabethDeMeré
Connecting with the hosts:
Jeff Sirkin on LinkedIn
Sophia Gordon on LinkedIn
Kristina Jaramillo is President of Personal ABM, where she builds strategic social programs that drive sales cycles and revenue. Her team builds top to bottom engagement, relationships, and trust with previously untouchable enterprises. Kristina has reversed “no” positions, saved at-risk accounts, and created wins with previously unresponsive accounts. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Long Story Short:
- The key differences between creating personal relevance and personalized content
- Why revenue is the only relevant success metric for a successful ABM program
- How to re-engage accounts that were active before “ghosting” you
- Why your biggest competitor is not who you think it is - it is always status quo
- Developing content for the middle and bottom of the funnel, not just the top
- The counterintuitive benefit of focusing on accounts that are not showing intent
- Why effective content is deeper than generalized role-based pain points
Resources:
- Stop the Sales Drop Podcast
- Friday Reboot Series
- The Challenger Sale
- The Challenger Customer
- B2B Revenue Executive Experience Podcast
- Revenue Growth Engine
Connecting with Kristina Jaramillo:
Connecting with the hosts:
- Jeff Sirkin on LinkedIn
- Sophia Gordon on LinkedIn
Melissa Sargeant is the Chief Marketing Officer at Litmus, where she runs worldwide marketing initiatives including corporate and product branding, demand generation, product marketing, public relations, and event management. She brings more than 30 years of marketing experience in the tech sector, including previous roles as CMO at SugarCRM and ChannelAdvisor (ECOM). Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Long Story Short:
- Why effective personalization means much more than just first and last name
- Balancing the goal of 1:1 marketing without intrusive tracking tactics
- The demise of the 3rd party cookie and its impact on multi-touch attribution
- How to increase emphasis on 1st party data in your marketing strategy going forward
- The ROI of email marketing and its resurgence as a part of a company’s marketing mix
- Why it is important to celebrate and focus on outcomes - not activities
- Leveraging data to understand what is driving revenue to optimize marketing strategy
Resources:
- Pivot Podcast
- Strengths Finder
- Think Again
- The Demise of the 3rd Party Cookie
Footnotes Resources:
- Litmus 2020 State of Email Engagement
- Hubspot’s Ultimate List of Marketing Statistics for 2021
Connecting with Melissa Sargeant:
- Peloton - @mhsargeant
Connecting with the hosts:
- Jeff Sirkin on LinkedIn
- Sophia Gordon on LinkedIn
With the dramatic shifts in the business landscape over the last year, what was successful in 2019 is unlikely to work in 2021. The most common pain points felt by marketers are all symptoms of a deeper problem around understanding their target buyer. The key to unlocking growth and fueling demand is to build your marketing with audience insights. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Long Story Short:
- Why understanding your audience is the key to unlocking organizational growth
- How to stand out when everyone has access to the same audiences and channels
- The most common pain points felt across marketing and product departments
- The impact of effective product positioning and creating relevant content
- Why you can’t volume your way out of an efficiency problem
- The importance of adopting a growth mindset in your business
- Why what worked in 2019 is unlikely to be effective in 2021
Resources:
- Mindset: The New Psychology of Success
- Sirkin Research
Connecting with the hosts:
- Jeff Sirkin on LinkedIn
- Sophia Gordon on LinkedIn
Chris is the proprietor of the Harris Football podcast, which has been honored with several awards, including Best Fantasy Podcast by the Fantasy Sports Writers Association. Prior to launching Harris Football, he spent 8 years as an analyst at ESPN. In addition, Chris is a fiction writer, having authored 4 novels. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Long Story Short:
- What led Chris to launch Harris Football in 2015
- The value in understanding your audience and the value you provide to them
- Succeeding by doing things differently than your competition
- How Chris reveals more of himself in his fiction writing than on his solo podcast
- Cultivating a community and the special relationship Chris has with his audience
- Identifying what you can bootstrap for your business and what should be outsourced
- The limitations of leaning too heavily on data in analyzing football
- Honing your communication and storytelling skills through reading fiction
Resources:
- Chris’ Books
- Chris’ GoodReads Page
- Chris’ Top 10 Novels of All Time (podcast)
Connecting with Chris Harris:
Connecting with the hosts:
- Jeff Sirkin on LinkedIn
- Sophia Gordon on LinkedIn
Scott Vaughan is the Chief Growth Officer at Integrate, a B2B demand orchestration company. He brings passion and experience to develop and execute go-to-market strategies that drive relevance, relationship and revenue. In his career, Scott has operated as an executive leader, board member, marketing practitioner, industry speaker and prolific writer on all things marketing, technology and business. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Long Story Short:
- How to orchestrate your customer acquisition to be focused on the buyer
- Why marketing’s job is to partner with sales to scale and drive engagement
- Being aware of how reliance on attribution can create a game of claiming credit
- Defining thought leadership and how to lead with a unique point of view
- How driving demand starts with building a strong and authentic brand
- Why having data isn’t enough - you need actionable insights
- The role of a Chief Growth Officer and how it intersects with marketing and sales
Resources:
- Everybody Writes
- Play Bigger
- Total Annarchy
Connecting with Scott Vaughan:
Connecting with the hosts:
- Jeff Sirkin on LinkedIn
- Sophia Gordon on LinkedIn
Kyle Lacy is the Chief Marketing Officer at Lessonly, a training and enablement software company. He serves the marketing team and believes that marketing should be responsible for generating revenue. Kyle has authored three books and is a renowned marketing and digital trends speaker at events globally. He loves the color grey, hates onions, and has an unhealthy obsession with his weighted blanket. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Long Story Short:
- Aligning marketing goals and objectives directly to revenue
- Taking a portion of budget for brand building and intentionally NOT measure the impact
- How to scale company culture in a remote work environment
- Focusing creative energy on how to surprise and delight your customers
- Leading with empathy within a high-growth software company
- How to be a servant leader and gain energy by giving to your network
- The importance of asking for help and building a community of peers and mentors
- Being empathetic to yourself to help avoid burnout
Resources:
- Give and Take
- Do Better Work
- Lessons from the Hanoi Hilton
- Revenue Diaries Podcast
- Kyle’s Books
Connecting with Kyle Lacy:
Connecting with the hosts:
- Jeff Sirkin on LinkedIn
- Sophia Gordon on LinkedIn
Beatrice Ngalula Kabutakapua is a Storytelling Business Coach who helps organizations to create authentic and effective company culture. Her core values are listening, storytelling, and diversity. She was once a silent, undiscovered leader who found her way through storytelling. Her work is about helping Black and Brown leaders, foundations, and purpose-driven organizations to communicate more effectively. Beatrice shares her passion for storytelling and demonstrates its impact for leaders. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Long Story Short:
- The power of listening to understand and not just to plan a response
- Being intentionally visible in the way you want to be seen
- Why sharing your story is an act of kindness and not only for extroverts
- Identifying the nuances of communication that go far beyond what was said
- The importance of sharing all stories to be representative of the world we live in
- Why being authentically human does not mean being free of making mistakes
- The role of sharing your story with employees to foster a positive company culture
Resources:
- The Other
- Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can’t Stop Talking
Connecting with Beatrice Ngalula Kabutakapua:
- Website
Connecting with the hosts:
- Jeff Sirkin on LinkedIn
- Sophia Gordon on LinkedIn
Rachel is the Director of Product Marketing for Cisco Webex where she leads product marketing for the platform and collaboration devices. Over the past 20 years, Rachel has led teams to support every stage of the customer journey, including graphic design, demand generation, account-based marketing, solutions marketing, and customer success. Her guiding principles for building successful teams are curiosity and empathy. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Long Story Short:
- Why having more meetings does not necessarily mean more productivity
- How to shift our mindset as a society of needing to be busy and always “on”
- The next-generation ability to capture personal productivity data
- What it means to be a Product Marketer at Webex with the world working remotely
- The importance of fostering a culture of inclusivity within workplace communication
- Why Webex is focused on integrating across toolsets instead of trying to replace them
- How the presentation of data and insights will continue to evolve over time
Episode Resources:
- Nancy Duarte - Communications Strategy
- Ardath Albee - Content Strategy
- Sirius Decisions
Footnotes Resource:
- What if Working From Home Goes on… Forever?
Connect with Rachel Macik:
Connect with the hosts:
- Jeff Sirkin on LinkedIn
- Sophia Gordon on LinkedIn
Nick Kremer is the president of Driven Leads, a conversion consulting firm that specializes in the Real Estate industry. His focus is on improving the customer experience while achieving maximum ROI for his clients. The core solution of Driven Leads is built around generating leads through Google AdWords and Facebook marketing campaigns. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Long Story Short:
- The ability to better understand your clients by specializing in a niche for your business
- How to develop repeatable processes that create efficiencies
- The clear benefit of having an ROI-based marketing model
- How to do big things with a small team
- Developing meaningful client partnerships with transparency and clear communication
- The best ways to test hypotheses and turn theories into facts
- The importance of context with metrics throughout your marketing funnel
Episode Resources:
- Obviously Awesome
- 80/20 Book
Footnotes Resource:
- The Research Is Clear: Long Hours Backfire for People and for Companies
Connecting with Nick Kremer:
Connecting with the hosts:
- Jeff Sirkin on LinkedIn
- Sophia Gordon on LinkedIn
Jen Holtvluwer is the Chief Marketing Officer at Spirion, where she is responsible for global go-to-market strategy, brand, demand generation, and business development. Spirion exists to protect what matters most – the sensitive personal data of colleagues, customers, and communities. Jen is an award-winning marketer known for taking the time to understand gaps in process and technology that most impact Information Technology and Information Security professionals. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Long Story Short:
- The rise in remote work and how it has impacted the need for cyber security and data privacy
- The importance of listening to your market and leading with data
- Balancing art and science to develop effective marketing strategies
- Taking calculated risks, as long as you win more than you lose
- Being more open and honest as an empathetic leader
- Why speaking up and being confident is possible without being an extrovert
Resources:
- StrengthsFinder
- What’s Essential Podcast
- Deep Work
Connecting with Jen Holtvluwer:
Connecting with the hosts:
- Jeff Sirkin on LinkedIn
- Sophia Gordon on LinkedIn
Kathryn Frankson is passionate about getting the market’s attention and creating thumb-stopping content through modern storytelling. She is the Director of Event Marketing at Informa, a global leader in specialized events, media, and intelligence. Kathryn thrives on helping companies effectively position themselves through effective marketing with an emphasis on growing revenue. She is also a tea enthusiast, former D1 rower, and avid reader. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Long Story Short:
- The extreme shifts in event marketing and how to respond
- How marketing IS sales - just at a greater scale
- The importance of an open mind when assessing your market needs
- How to break through the noise and connect with your audience in a saturated market
- The importance of a strengths-based leadership approach
- The best ways to keep people's attention, and turn leads into revenue
- How to best balance data points in your creative marketing process
- The role alcohol plays in events
Resources:
- Strengths Finder
- Business Made Simple Daily Tips
- DG’s Marketing Group
- Fun in the Sales Funnel
Connecting with Kathryn Frankson:
Connecting with the Hosts:
- Jeff Sirkin on LinkedIn
- Sophia Gordon on LinkedIn
Jeffrey Mack thrives at the intersection of business, technology, and design. He is the Senior Director of Demand Generation at iCIMS, a global leader in recruiting technology. Having previously led LinkedIn’s marketing efforts for their largest and most important global strategic accounts, Jeff has extensive experience transforming traditional marketing departments, both strategically & operationally, towards a digital future. Jeff is an empathetic leader and has a strong belief that employees are the most important part of any organization. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Long Story Short:
- How people are the most valuable asset of any organization
- The importance of recruiting the right talent and placing them in the right teams
- Why talent is a true competitive advantage
- How working remotely is changing the landscape of talent acquisition and management
- How to develop marketing that stands out in a crowded digital space
- Balancing his creative side with the analytical strength of his team
- Effective marketing techniques and what a W-shaped marketer is
- What success means and the problem with thinking of a ‘work/life balance’
- The importance of employee satisfaction and how it links to workplace relationships
Resources:
- Positioning
- Pivot Podcast
- Notion
- Circle
Connecting with Jeffrey Mack:
Connecting with the Hosts:
- Jeff Sirkin on LinkedIn
- Sophia Gordon on LinkedIn
Scott Brinker lives at the intersection of marketing, technology, and management. He is the VP of Platform Ecosystem at Hubspot, where he shapes the company's platform strategy and leads business programs for its global technology partner ecosystem. He runs the Chief Marketing Technologist blog (chiefmartec.com), that has over 50,000 readers. Scott launched the MarTech Conference in 2014 and currently serves as the event’s program chair. He is the author of the best-selling book “Hacking Marketing.” Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Long Story Short:
- Where Scott sees the martech landscape trending over the next decade towards 2030
- How the barriers of technology have been lowered to allow citizen creators to leverage the power of experts
- As the role of AI expands, how it can help tame new technology
- The importance of experimentation and testing hypotheses for developing marketing strategies
- How to think about marketing attribution with the potential for bias and error
- The advantages of being a newcomer
- How his success is directly correlated to telling dad jokes on Twitter
Resources:
- Chief Marketing Technologist Blog
- Antifragile: Things That Gain from Disorder
- MarTech Conference
- Hacking Marketing
Connecting with Scott Brinker:
Connecting with the Hosts:
- Jeff Sirkin on LinkedIn
- Sophia Gordon on LinkedIn
AJ Dopwell has over 15 years of pharmaceutical, marketing and advertising experience. He’s proven his talent time and time again in developing cross-channel marketing & communications strategies and is skilled in the art (and science) of crafting innovative marketing solutions in complex and highly regulated industries. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of the Long Story Short:
- Why AJ chose to work in pharma and how he became firmly established in this world
- How it’s possible to craft innovative marketing solutions in highly regulated industries such as pharma
- The importance of providing value and to work backwards from your audience
- How best to identify end-users' needs and desires
- The differences between working at an agency and on the client side
- How global teams work within the pharma industry
- The positive effects COVID-19 has had on the way business is done
- AJ’s advice on how to break into the advertising and marketing industry
Connecting with AJ:
Connecting with the Hosts:
- Jeff Sirkin on LinkedIn
- Sophia Gordon on LinkedIn
2020 has been a year of unimaginable change, but have the pain points and priorities of marketers changed with it? The results of our survey have just come in and Jeff and Sophia are here to talk us through the results and see what marketers are looking for going into 2021.
Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Long Story Short:
- The biggest bottlenecks slowing down marketing execution
- How the pain points and priorities for marketers have changed over the last year
- New difficulties that are emerging in the marketing world
- The need for marketers to prove their impact to the business and measure ROI
- How the definition of success changes by role within marketing
- Why collaboration and coordination have become bigger priorities in the last year
Connecting with the Hosts:
- Jeff Sirkin on LinkedIn
- Sophia Gordon on LinkedIn
Robyn Duda, CEO of RDC, is a growth strategist focused on events & integrated experiences. With a passion for fixing problems, navigating ambiguity and thinking big, Robyn takes seeming impossible tasks and turns them into reality. She is known for her revenue-driving mentality in the live, virtual event and digital experience space. Here are a few of the topics we’ll discuss on this episode of Long Story Short:
- How the event industry is changing because of the pandemic
- Why the event industry needs to better understand their customers
- Why event organizers need to rethink driving engagement
- The 5 keys to driving an excellent experience for consumers
- Historically events have been a high margin business (up to 70%)
- Inspiring people with the ‘goosebump factor’
Resources:
- How I Built This Podcast with Guy Raz
- Cal Newport-Deep Work
- Productivity Planner
Connecting with Robyn:
Connecting with the Hosts:
- Jeff Sirkin on LinkedIn
- Sophia Gordon on LinkedIn
Welcome to Long Story Short. Co-hosts Jeff Sirkin and Sophia Gordon introduce themselves and explain what the podcast Long Story Short is all about.