Ian Faison & Karin Flores 50 min

Mastering Event Engagement Through Customer Stories


Karin Flores, VP of Strategic Events at Okta, utilizes customer stories and why they are always the greatest asset in any marketing campaign.



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[MUSIC]

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Welcome to Pipeline Visionaries, live at the Pipeline Summit here at Dreamforce

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I have a very special guest, Karen, how are you?

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I'm good. How are you doing? Thanks for having me.

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Yeah, I am just great to be back.

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Great to be back. I know you were here last year.

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Yes, I was.

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On the main stage.

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It was hot, hot hot if you don't remember.

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Oh, yeah, so hot the fire alarm went off.

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Fire alarm went off.

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Yeah, the hot takes, hot content.

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Yeah.

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And now we're back.

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We are.

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A year later, obviously a lot has changed.

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Yeah.

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But a lot stays the same here in the B2B marketing world.

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Yeah.

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For listeners, tell us a little bit about your current world octa.

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Sure.

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So it's great to be here again.

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Love to be with the Qualified family.

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I run for octa, our C suite engagement.

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So our customer experience center, our executive programs globally.

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I also run our strategic events, all of our flagship portfolio and our industry

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presence.

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And, you know, obviously a lot has changed in the past year.

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Yes.

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How did that sort of, how does that work for you and in that role and,

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and it seems like executive presence and all those programs, like more

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important than ever.

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Yeah, you know, it's interesting.

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I was thinking about it this morning, because I knew we were going to be

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together.

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I think a lot has changed in a year.

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And I think a lot of that depends on where your company is sort of in its

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trajectory and its growth.

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And I remember last year we were sort of talking about, you know,

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where the industry third parties dead.

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And I remember having some conversations about, you know,

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some of the big industry events really had a hard time ramping after COVID.

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They didn't do their digital presence that well.

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But now we're sort of in this economy where, at least for us, net new leads are

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super important.

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And so we've kind of done this pivot back of let's look at it.

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Let's look at our industry presence.

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Let's look at what's going on, the watering holes and how do we kind of attack

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that space and be creative and sort of get at filling the top of the funnel

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again.

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So a lot has certainly changed there.

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And one of those things now I have to give a plug for this is that Caspian and

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Octa are now working together on the mistaken identity podcast.

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And so it has been really fun.

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Obviously Octa was a cast being customer before this.

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And now, you know, again, I'm working on the show.

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But what I have to say is working with your team and working on specifically

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identity and customer identity being so important.

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And I feel like we didn't really know our customers as well as we thought we

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did two years ago.

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And we found that out kind of the hard way.

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And so working on the show with y'all and working with product leaders were

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talking about how well they know the identities of their customers is been

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really fascinating.

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Yes.

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You know, our CEO Todd McKinnon always says identity is its own category.

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And we're really excited about identity is what think about AI.

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There is no AI without identity.

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And we all we do is identity 24 seven.

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It's more important than ever.

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It's a really exciting time to be in the identity space.

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And, you know, Octa started off in the workforce space.

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And now we're into the consumer space with our customer identity cloud.

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So really we call it better together the merging of the two worlds, but it's a

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fascinating time.

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And so we're really excited about that.

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And so we're really excited about that.

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And so we're really excited about that.

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And so we're really excited about that.

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And so we're really excited about that.

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And so we're really excited about that.

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And so we're really excited about that.

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And so we're really excited about that.

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And so we're really excited about that.

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And so we're really excited about that.

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And so we're really excited about that.

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And so we're really excited about that.

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And so we think about my portfolio, you know, when we have our customers.

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Participating with us in our flagship events and our portfolio events.

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It's really important for us to let our customers share their stories of

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success.

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So you have a workforce customer.

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I happen to be here with my head of customer marketing.

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We work very closely together on this of really allowing the customers to share

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their stories, share their struggles and see how they're solving together.

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And it makes a huge difference in the way that we market in the way that we

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engage with our customers.

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So it's not always octa talking at you.

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Right.

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It's us fostering these conversations with our executives through our executive

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programming and really to be to give a plug since we're here at Dreamforce.

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You know, that's a staple of the sales force marketing mentality to write

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everything is about your customers customers first, but your customers do the

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talking and all the goodness happens from there.

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Yeah, another thing, working with your team on the on the podcast side that has

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been really fascinating, which I think a lot of marketers are really trying to

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figure out, you know, their, their customer identity, you know, better, right?

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Like you can never have enough information.

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You can never talk to your customers enough.

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You can never do enough customer interviews, you know, from that side of things

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, but also digitally.

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It's so important to figure out what they're like what they're watching what

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they're listening to, like the types of things that they're looking to you for.

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Like, how do you think about that as a marketer?

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I mean, I know this word is used as overused over and over, but it's true. It's

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all about personalization.

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I think we as consumers, right? We as customers and we know our customers

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expect this.

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I expect you to know a little bit more about us. I want to see things served up

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to me that are relevant. Don't waste my time. I don't have that much time.

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And now I'm used to having relevant information served up to me in a meaningful

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way. And we think about that all of the time we're working on.

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I would now give a plug to octane. We have our huge customer event coming up on

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October 3rd in San Francisco.

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And we're working on our digital nurture campaigns and we call them our digital

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backpacks. You know, for those who join us online, it's important that we know

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what you're doing, what perhaps you miss so that we serve you up something and

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not waste your time personalization.

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As always, and we'll always be the most important thing that we do, especially

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now.

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Yeah, tell me more about digital backpacks. Can you unpack that? I can unpack

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that. So this year, if you attend octane online, we will serve you up a digital

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backpack with information deeper into the sessions that you took.

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And then we'll map offers and different content that is relevant to what you

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were interested in based on how much time you spend with us and what you were

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watching and participating in will also serve you up access to some of our

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experts.

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So if perhaps you're interested in our workforce, we'll match you up with some

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of our experts who can help you.

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That's really cool. So, does that. Those are for the virtual attendees. Right.

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So you sign up for to go to octane. You, you know, go to the event. Maybe you

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catch a few sessions you miss a few all that stuff.

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And then at the end, there's a, the ability to like know what you missed what

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you didn't and then you're continuing that digital journey like from a new

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content will serve up new things for you customized just based on what you

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watched and what you responded to.

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And then of course if we're lucky enough if you gave us feedback of like, Hey,

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this is really important. I want to learn more about this. Well, Taylor, a

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unique experience just for you.

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This kind of feels like a, an obvious evolution of like where we, where we used

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to be, but a bit of a, you know, changing of the guard for how content and

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events and brand were done in the past.

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Like, I've said this previous on the show that I love the definition of brand

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as like brand is your customer experience but also your buying experience.

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And, and so with all of this personalization with events being part of this

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with like being in the buying process, having it be, you know, one, two years

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now, especially with like budgets being tight.

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So, I think you might be in, in pipeline now for someone for two and a half

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years, how you get treated for those two and a half years is whether or not you

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're going to buy when it's time to buy right.

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And so yeah, how, how are you thinking about like this, the new, new world.

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Yeah.

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Events, it's been interesting like this past year I will say, we've done a lot

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of testing we've made mistakes we've done some rebounding.

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I think we are constantly in a stage of iteration, something also I'll give it

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not does sales force that I learned was test fail fast and rebound.

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And I think that events it's really interesting you said something which I

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totally agree with is that events are to me the perfect acceleration movement.

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Right. Where you really nurturing and influencing your customers. And I think

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now more than ever you kind of have to look at your programming and really

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start to ebb and flow and make the shifts that you need back to what I

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originally said like, based on where your company is

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and where your company is going. And what's the trajectory of your company and

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the needs are. And I think for us I can give you a specific example.

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We've gone out on the road with different city tours in and around all around

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identity.

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But we've had to augment that with very focused small executive programming,

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where we can really bring in our experts RC suite to talk one on one with our

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executives where they were there in a space where they can truly have peer to

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peer networking.

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And like I said earlier, listen to other customers we have incredible customers

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like New Boland from the MLB who just like takes people on this journey of what

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the MLB was facing with identity I mean think about all the stadiums

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all the fans. So we've really started to augment our portfolio to meet the

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needs of our customers so I think you always have to be in this change motion

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change motion.

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And I think you can't build your portfolio anymore build your event, leave it

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and be like this works and then just let it go you can't constantly constantly

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have to be poking at it and have to be making changes.

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Yeah, you know to the identity piece there.

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It's part of customer experience is part of like hey I give you my money and

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you don't know who I am obviously one of the interesting things again working

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on the show with y'all is sort of how product people are now building like

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starting with identity.

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I'm like we're going to build identity outward from there because like if we're

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not, if we don't know exactly who you are when you come to us like every single

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time, then, then what what good, what are you what are you going to do from

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there right why are you going to want to do anything else with us if we don't

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even know who you are. And I kind of feel the same way with marketing. Yeah, where it's like if you're

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starting with the persona of like we're making this thing for you whether it's

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a piece of content or an event or whatever, we know that you want in the case

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you're saying certain

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prospects want to talk with exactly their use case, a customer, unfiltered with

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without sales in the room.

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And then we just said someone reach out wants to talk to more a shot of some

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more.

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CIOs will want to talk to other CIOs and it doesn't mean that there's not cross

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pollination and they're not learning and learning from a CMO or learning from a

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COO.

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But there's a specific role in the specific we know this we go through this in

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our own jobs of the troubles that you have the struggles that you have and CIO

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to CIO.

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And all the goodness happens. Yeah, that's why I, I, the show CIO classified,

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literally that started because of that exact thing is I had the CIO of Octa and

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two other CIOs in the room.

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And after we finished recording they were talking shop and I was like, this

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needs to be a podcast recording because all the stuff that you're sharing now

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is like amazing.

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And so true and then you get them together and and also well sorts of other

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issues came up. You know, one thing that came up in when we did that CIO series

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So classified was one thing that one of the CIOs always got asked from his

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peers was, how do you get a seat on a public board.

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That was like the most common question that they got asked. So we made a

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podcast episode with a CIO who's on a bunch of public boards a former CIO.

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And that's like one of the most popular episodes that we ever did. And, and it

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was stemmed from like real, you know, conversations that were being had that

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were being asked, and then we made content for it.

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And like we got feedback that's like, Oh yeah, I feel seen right like I really

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wanted to know this information and like who better to know it from that person

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and that person she had never talked about what it takes to be on a public

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board before. And like again that goes back to personalization it goes back to creating

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something, creating like content or an experience that your customers like

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really couldn't get anywhere else.

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Right.

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I think this also speaks to the power of events or the experience portfolio.

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And when you think about marketing, there is no other channel that brings your

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customers together seated next to each other and allows them to foster and have

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those conversations.

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And as a team, if you're not paying attention and listening and taking little n

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uggets like that and creating content for them. And I think about some of the

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goodness that's coming out of Okta right now, you know, we are at the forefront

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of the identity space trying to make it its own category.

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And from the events and peer to peer networking and these executive programs,

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we know how important it is to continually position ourselves as a thought

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leader, and giving our sweet and our customers the opportunity to speak and

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share in that realm.

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And again, I don't think across the marketing channels.

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There is another portfolio that allows you to do that in the powerful way that

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events can or CC scan.

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It's that person to person connection that a lot of the goodness comes from.

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Yeah, we, we interviewed Melissa the CMO of ClickUp and we were talking about

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her strategy for that and she's like, we are putting all of the leaders in our

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team and other employees that are team, like front center in our content.

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And we're amplifying their stories and, and that is like a core strategy for

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them. And it's so obvious in retrospect because I think a lot of C level

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content and events had not always been managed appropriately for a lot of

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companies.

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And so I don't want to dig into like your strategy for this. But like, I think

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it's an absolute winning strategy. And at its core.

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And we did an episode of pipeline visionaries with any nester of first up and

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like two of his uncuttable budget items were basically like customer stories

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and C suite, essentially, you know, thought leadership and like how do you get

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those out in digital content form and

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events form as much as you possibly can and evangelize the service is so

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obvious in retrospect. But if you go look at how people spend their actual

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dollars, like, yeah, no, I'd just rather dump another million dollars into

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Facebook ads.

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You're like, I hear you.

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But like, go, go get like 50 more customer stories and I guarantee you that's

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going to work better.

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To me, customer stories are the one of the most powerful tools. I mean, I think

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about it. I love reading customer stories. They're inspirational. I mean, they

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just, it's, it's, it just goes back to what we were just talking about.

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You have to be willing to make changes. You have to look at what you're doing.

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And I say like, look at what you're doing. Change 50%.

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You know, listen, the times are changing. We change the way we do business is

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changing. Our priorities are changing. And if you're not making those changes,

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you're behind.

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In the format of customer stories, I think that like back in the day when Sales

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force started pioneering like the customer story telling the way that they did

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obviously a true force with the massive banners putting someone's face that's

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like 80 feet high, all that sort of stuff.

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The killer quotes, the banners everywhere, obviously putting them in keynotes,

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which is really cool. All of that. But I think that now, if you look at the

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best companies that are doing this, they're telling customer stories in like a

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bunch of different formats, a bunch of different channels.

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They're telling it in short form video. They're telling it in long form audio.

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They're telling it in podcasts, of course, in visual formats. It looks very

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visually stimulating. They're doing Q and A's.

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They're doing small batch events. They're doing larger events and activations

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like they are putting their customers as many places as they can possibly get

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them. And another thing that we're seeing is that a lot of times they can't get

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customer testimonials

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because the customer, they can't get the agreements there, but they'll still

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put them into things like podcasts or other digital channels. So at least their

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customers are talking.

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At least from their platform, their customers are talking. They might not be

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talking about their product, but at least they're starting conversations and

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that those accelerate into those like, "Hey, could you just get on a call and

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just tell me how it is? Tell me how it is. Tell me how it really is."

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And that stuff I think is absolutely a winning strategy.

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Yeah, I do too. I love that you call that, especially because we're sitting

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here at Dreamforce. I remember those years. I worked on Dreamforce with the

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giant customer heroes.

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Again, that's a testament to Mark and his true love of customers and what your

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customers tell the stories, our customer heroes, trailblazers, trailblazers.

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And now it just feels a little bit par for the course. When we go into an

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industry, for a Gartner, for RSA, we do not do a session without a customer.

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Unless it's a very specific, this is Octo and Octa. And we're going to explain

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to you the way that we're deploying Octa internally. You need a customer there.

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Not only is it validating, but it brings the whole story to life. And you want

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a customer to talk about, "Hey, this is where we..."

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"This was tough. This is where we fell down. But this is how we rebounded. That

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's where it's at."

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Let's go back to the program building piece. For someone who's listening or

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watching and has not built the type of program that you have, how would you

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think about building an events program and a C-suite engagement program

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together as one joint effort rather than trying to make it disparate?

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Because I feel like a lot of companies, that stuff gets pretty siloed.

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Yeah, that's a great question. I think first of all, when you're thinking about

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your C-suite strategy and your executive strategy, there's two things.

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I have found over the years through trial and error, you need very, very close

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alignment with product marketing and your CRO. You need to understand what are

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our top goals, our top initiatives.

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And then you need a throughput and a throughline to your customer marketing

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team to really start. You are sort of like on this mission to find all the best

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stories.

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You've got to kind of understand what we're trying to move forward as a company

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. And then you need to take a step back and listen and understand what are the

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needs of this persona.

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So, like, let's start with the CIO. I've learned a lot about CIOs in the past

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two years. And you need to start to build your program around what is going to

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move the needle for them.

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It's like, you understand what your initiatives are, what you're trying to

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accomplish as an a company, trying to make identity its own category.

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We're trying to introduce the world of workforce into CIC. This is great. Now,

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let's understand what the CIO needs. And that comes first.

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Right. We need to understand that. And then we augment that with our

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initiatives. And then in true program building, I think you have to, as a

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marketer, you need to ask yourself, what am I trying to accomplish? Is this an

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influence move?

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Am I trying to be top of the funnel? If I'm trying to be top of the funnel, C

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Suite is probably not where I would start. You need to really ask yourself as a

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marketer what you're trying to accomplish.

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And then start to build your program from there. And I think you need in a C

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Suite program, you need to balance that with, I have my own internal flagship C

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Suite, but leadership program.

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But I'm also augmenting that with an industry presence. Where am I going in our

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case? Am I a gartner? Am I at RSA? What's our presence there? Who's on stage?

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Who are we meeting?

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Etc. To kind of balance out the portfolio. You know, one thing that we've

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learned with working with specifically CEOs and C Suite, like hosts of our

20:31

series, because we basically our series either have like a C Suite executive

20:37

from that team, or a third party host that's like an industry leader, an expert

20:41

of some kind that hosts the different shows.

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And so, or like a deep subject matter expert expert in that field that works at

20:50

the company as well. And what we have found is they are so nervous to create

20:57

anything that they say that could be wrong.

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And to sound silly, which like 99.9% of the time they're not going to say

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anything silly. You're like, just relax. That's fine.

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That in their soul. So it's that. And then they're so worried about their time

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that they want to be really protective of your time. Yes.

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And then they're like, I'm not sure if they're going to be able to do that. And

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then they're going to be able to do that.

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And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

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to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

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to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

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to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

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And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

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to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

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And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

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to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

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And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

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to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

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And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

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to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

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And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

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to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

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And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

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to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

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And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

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to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

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And then they break off into table topics. And it's just peer to peer

22:54

networking. And funny enough, last year we did a round table on sustainability.

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And it was one of the most well attended for the C-suite. They wanted to

23:03

understand what different companies were doing from their sustainability off

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topic from identity.

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But from a company perspective, they don't have those moments like, "Why about

23:12

35 minutes to understand what GE is doing about sustainability or sales versus

23:17

doing about sustainability?"

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And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

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to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

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And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

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to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

23:33

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

23:36

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

23:41

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

23:48

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

23:51

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

23:58

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

24:00

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

24:11

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

24:14

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

24:26

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

24:28

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

24:30

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

24:33

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

24:45

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

24:48

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

24:52

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

24:53

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

25:07

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

25:13

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

25:18

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

25:22

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

25:26

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

25:29

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

25:34

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

25:39

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

25:43

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

25:46

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

25:53

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

25:59

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

26:00

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

26:04

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

26:06

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

26:10

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

26:17

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

26:22

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

26:24

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

26:28

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

26:31

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

26:37

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

26:41

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

26:44

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

26:46

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

26:50

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

26:52

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

26:55

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

26:57

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

27:02

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

27:04

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

27:09

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

27:11

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

27:15

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

27:17

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

27:29

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

27:31

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

27:35

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

27:36

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

27:40

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

27:41

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

27:46

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

27:48

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

27:54

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

27:55

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

27:59

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

28:02

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

28:11

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

28:16

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

28:20

to do that.

28:21

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

28:25

to do that.

28:26

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

28:33

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

28:38

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

28:42

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

28:45

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

28:50

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

28:56

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

28:57

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

29:02

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

29:06

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

29:09

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

29:13

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

29:19

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

29:23

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

29:26

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

29:29

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

29:32

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

29:36

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

29:42

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

29:46

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

29:50

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

29:53

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

29:57

to do that.

29:58

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

30:06

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

30:08

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

30:13

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

30:15

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

30:19

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

30:22

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

30:28

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

30:32

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

30:36

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

30:39

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

30:43

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

30:45

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

30:53

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

30:55

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

30:58

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

31:02

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

31:04

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

31:08

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

31:14

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

31:18

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

31:23

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

31:24

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

31:26

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

31:31

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

31:39

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

31:41

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

31:46

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

31:50

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

32:01

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

32:03

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

32:08

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

32:09

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

32:21

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

32:23

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

32:27

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

32:28

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

32:31

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

32:33

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

32:39

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

32:40

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

32:45

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

32:47

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

32:51

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

32:54

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

33:08

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

33:12

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

33:13

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

33:17

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

33:18

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

33:25

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

33:28

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

33:32

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

33:36

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

33:39

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

33:45

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

33:49

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

33:52

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

33:56

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

33:58

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

34:02

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

34:10

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

34:12

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

34:19

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

34:21

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

34:35

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

34:39

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

34:40

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

34:54

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

34:58

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

35:00

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

35:08

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

35:14

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

35:16

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

35:19

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

35:33

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

35:38

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

35:42

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

35:51

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

35:56

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

36:00

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

36:03

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

36:14

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're

36:16

going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

36:19

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

36:22

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

36:25

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

36:29

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

36:34

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

36:36

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

36:41

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

36:43

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

36:47

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

36:49

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

36:52

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

36:54

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

37:00

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

37:04

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

37:09

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

37:13

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

37:17

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

37:19

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

37:26

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

37:29

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

37:32

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

37:36

And then they're going to be able to do that. And then they're going to be able

37:38

to do that. And then they're going to be able to do that.

37:42

And then they leave that company. Oh, that's why you're saying no. Yeah, it's

37:46

true. They get exhausted by it.

37:48

Any other thoughts on the C-suite engagement or program building or anything

37:55

there?

37:56

I mean, for me, to me, it's like C-suite engagement is probably one of the most

38:04

important parts of our portfolio.

38:07

Because that relationship with the C-suite, it's so crucial. It's crucial in

38:13

furthering your endeavors in the thought leadership realm.

38:18

It's important. It's very important because the C-suite moves around. We talk

38:23

about this a lot of the CIO at the MLB and then left.

38:27

And now as a CIO at Kaiser and I brought Octa with me. So I think just like

38:31

thinking about and nurturing those relationships is very, very important.

38:36

So I would just encourage people to think through that strategy and lean in on

38:42

your own internal experts to make sure that you're listening to their needs and

38:47

creating benefit for the C-suite.

38:50

Can I tell you that I love that you use the term portfolio because I also use

38:54

that term? I love that term.

38:57

I love that term. I love that term. I love that term. I love that term.

39:00

I love that term. I love that term. I love that term.

39:05

I love that. I know. So that's how I think about it too. And I've sort of asked

39:10

different people like how they feel about the term portfolio or not.

39:13

And I have an ROI and to have a term and like different parts of the portfolio

39:17

are supposed to do different things. So I also call it a portfolio.

39:20

Yes. I look at my portfolio and this part of the portfolio not performing well

39:24

need to make changes. This part of the portfolio performing very well.

39:27

Let's like ramp up on this. Yeah. I think about because I also think about my

39:32

portfolio is also sort of a total journey of the way that I interact with

39:35

customers, you know, different touch points from a C-suite, which is super

39:40

important. Right. If you have a customer or a C-suite who is willing to invest, there's an

39:43

investment where they're going to come in and spend half a day and talk about

39:46

the future and talk about a vision or maybe we're going to have them

39:49

participate in a roadmap with us, you know, to how we're interacting outside of

39:55

our own comfort zone right out of our own flagship events and into the industry

39:59

You know, what are we saying? How are people responding to us to our C-suite

40:02

engagement? So I do. I think about this portfolio that I am like, it's like a

40:07

puzzle piece that you're moving and changing all the time based on the needs of

40:10

the company.

40:11

Yeah. And it's like if you if you had a stock portfolio, which I know

40:16

absolutely next to nothing about the portfolio, where there's, you know,

40:21

different stocks that are different types of companies or things like that.

40:26

They're like, oh, this, this type of company has been doing really well or this

40:30

type of content has been doing well.

40:32

I wonder if there's like a similar type of bet that we could make be making in

40:36

another place, right?

40:38

For a different persona, you know, for Octa, we're, we're just kind of forging

40:43

out into the CMO persona.

40:45

Right.

40:46

And which is a lot of fun for me, right? I know marketers. I am a marketer and

40:49

spent my life working for CMOs.

40:51

So it's, it's a lot of funds. You can kind of look at your portfolio across

40:54

like the total journey. And then you can look at the different, you know, what

40:57

I would do for CMO radically different than what I would do for CIO.

41:01

Well, of course. Yeah. You know, it's like, you've got to look at your

41:04

portfolio like that and be smart about it.

41:06

Yeah. Can you explain CIC a little bit and sort of like what, what this next

41:10

evolution is and like how your go to market is slightly different for that than

41:15

it has been in the past for Octa?

41:17

Yeah. So CIC, our customer identity cloud has really exploded with the, we

41:23

purchased Auth0, which was a big competitor to Octa.

41:28

So for us workforce was our bread and butter for many, many years. And now with

41:34

the sort of our emergence into the CIC platform.

41:38

If you think about it the simplest way that I like people to think about it is

41:42

think about your personas and your identity.

41:45

I'm Karen dot floor is a doctor. I have one workforce identity. That is my

41:49

identity. But now think about Karen Flores out in the world. There is Karen

41:53

Flores at Nordstroms.com Karen Flores said,

41:57

"Yes, like Karen Flores, all the different ways that I am out in my consumer

42:01

world. And what Octa is trying to do is simplify that identity and how so

42:07

making it a seamless not only for the consumer, but for all of the companies

42:15

that are have access to and are managing my identity.

42:18

So you think about, you know, us work, us consumer. It's huge.

42:24

And when we are marketing to people and they have all of these different person

42:30

as.

42:32

Hundreds. I mean, think about it hundreds.

42:35

And they also behave very differently. And you're, you know, you have your

42:40

burner accounts on, on, you know, whatever. And you behave very differently.

42:46

One part of Karen likes to, you know, do karaoke and correct. And, you know,

42:53

and then business Karen likes to do also karaoke. But, but it's so funny that

42:59

we only market to business Karen.

43:02

Yes.

43:03

And then there's all these other versions of that person. And I think that that

43:06

's also part of it. That's really exciting too. That we can start to expand on

43:10

marketing efforts to get someone more interested in.

43:14

You know, we're talking about a show murder and HR that before this, but like

43:18

that was one of the impetus is for creating that show is if you looked. Yeah.

43:22

If you look at the Venn diagram of like how many people are in HR that also are

43:26

interested in murder mysteries or true crime event diagram has a huge, huge

43:30

overlay.

43:32

And so you say, maybe we should create something that's that's for them that's

43:36

in that genre. And like, that is the sort of stuff that like customer identity

43:40

cloud getting towards that, that future.

43:43

Or it's like not only to your, it's easier for you to, you know, makes more

43:47

sense of your customers. It's easier for them to come on, but also you can

43:50

learn more information about your customers in order to provide a better

43:53

customer.

43:54

Yeah. I mean, think about the totality of how you would understand Karen. If

43:58

you had a glimpse of you into all of my different identities and then myself as

44:02

a user when I'm using customer identity cloud it's a, it's a seamless

44:05

experience, right?

44:07

Simple.

44:08

I don't have to remember 10,000 passwords anymore. Any takeaways of sort of

44:12

like launching such an initiative, like pushing into a category when you are

44:16

running the portfolio that you that you are running where it's something that

44:21

is a different persona for y'all.

44:23

Yeah, that's a great question.

44:26

I think that I'll use the CMO as a good example. It's a little bit of a cheat

44:31

because I do understand CMOs, but you know, it's, it's really tough. You have

44:37

to spend the time and do the research.

44:40

When you are, you know, when I started off to, I mean, a lot of people are like

44:44

, I don't even know what identity is. I'm building my own stack. What's identity

44:47

? What are you talking about?

44:49

So not only are you trying to educate on a fairly technical product, you know,

44:53

let's be honest. And then it's like, we'll use this example. Then you're trying

44:57

to teach identity to marketers.

45:01

It's like, you just have to really, this goes back to what we were talking

45:04

about. You have to take your time. You have to do the research. You have to

45:07

listen and you have to test, test, test.

45:10

And you, it's like, we call it moving the rock. You've got to move the rock. It

45:15

is one. It's winning over one customer at a time. It goes back to customers

45:19

telling stories. Right. We had an incredible customer, actually an ex sales

45:24

force.

45:25

Marketer Sarah Patterson, who's the CEO of Samsara, who's a huge advocate for

45:33

Octa. And she was really the first CMO that was like, you know what, I love

45:37

what you guys are doing.

45:39

They're a CIC and a workforce customer. And she came on and we did an

45:42

incredible conversation with her and Todd, our CEO. That was such a win and

45:47

such a great step for us and direction to be able to sit down with other

45:51

marketers and other CMOs.

45:53

And to have them hear from their own kind, right? The one Sarah talks about it

45:58

's like, I get it. Right. And she gives these incredible tangible examples. So I

46:03

think it's really about digging in there, doing the research and just like

46:08

going once and you've got to get those small wins and you've got a breakthrough

46:12

You have to talk to people the way they want to be spoken to and with the

46:15

information that resonates with them.

46:18

Yeah, I, when we were learning about customer identity cloud and sort of how

46:25

transform transformation transformative it is. And it's going to be for

46:30

everyone.

46:31

And it's one of those things that I think you just close your eyes and you

46:34

think about the future is going to be like, of course, this is how every

46:37

company is going to behave like, of course, you would want to be able to build

46:43

identity into your products.

46:44

Of course, marketing, which now owns post sale more than ever before, like how

46:48

much of marketing is involved in this post sale and cross sale and all that,

46:53

all that sort of stuff which I didn't necessarily always used to be the case.

46:58

You look at like what qualified is done in the, in the way that someone comes

47:02

to your website and you know exactly who they are and they can talk to their

47:06

sales rep in real time.

47:08

And it's how important that is and transformative it is in the pre sales

47:11

process in the post sales process to know exactly who your customers when they

47:15

come to your website every single time, know what they've bought, know the

47:20

information that they've consumed,

47:21

all those things like again it's all going to be personalized.

47:24

And so like I, I could sexually got it, like right away but then, but as a

47:29

marketer, I was sort of like, sitting there like, wait, but what is sort of

47:34

possible how does this fit into my organization were tiny.

47:37

But you know like how does this fit in. And so, and it is so different from the

47:41

workforce product that you have that it's, it's a completely different side of

47:45

the business so it's really interesting.

47:47

Yeah, it's a completely different side and a new side right like we are, it

47:53

does it feels like we are, we're forging or was it blazing new paths for sure

48:00

to steal a dream force slogan.

48:03

And blazing blazing it is. Yeah, sure.

48:08

Any thoughts before we get out of here on on any your uncuttable budget items I

48:12

know we kind of talked through your your whole portfolio but we got to touch on

48:16

uncutables.

48:17

You have to erase what I said last year because a lot has changed.

48:20

That's what I'm saying.

48:21

You know what this is the way I would answer it this year and this is really

48:23

the truth. I think you have to be willing to cut anything like I think budgets

48:27

are tight like this has been this has been a tough year from like a macro

48:30

economic standpoint I think we've all.

48:32

Felt it. And I think the best thing you can do is be agile. Like to me there is

48:38

nothing that there's no such thing as a sacred cow. You have to be more method

48:43

ical and more prescriptive and more creative with your budgets.

48:47

You know you really do you have to be willing to do more with less.

48:52

But if I was going to say uncuttable I would never stop nurturing our top

48:57

customers and providing a platform be that a live event or through my partners

49:02

and digital or through our CC's for them to tell their stories.

49:07

Customer stories.

49:08

I love it.

49:09

Untouchable.

49:10

Indeed.

49:11

Our listeners especially for marketers go check out octa's CIC customer

49:15

identity cloud.

49:17

Yeah.

49:18

Come see us at octane.

49:20

Yes.

49:21

Come to octa.com register for octane.

49:25

Hit me up for free pass.

49:26

Yeah, that's right.

49:27

We already know your email.

49:29

Turn any final thoughts anything to plug.

49:32

You know I just thank you for having me here once again I love it.

49:36

I love talking to marketers I love talking about marketing and it's great to be

49:39

with some old family qualified I'm looking out at the audience and seeing them.

49:44

But always a pleasure to be here.

49:46

Yeah.

49:47

Congrats on all the podcast success.

49:49

Thank you so much.

49:50

I love it.

49:51

Thank you.

49:52

And thanks so much for coming on the show again for the second time we got to

49:55

bring you back no fire alarm this year.

49:58

I know I'm a little disappointed.

49:59

I like the fire alarm.

50:00

But the takes were just as hot.

50:02

Thanks again.

50:03

Thank you.

50:04

Thank you.

50:05

Thank you.

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