Ian Faison & Brad Rinklin 35 min

What Makes a Great Marketer? Right Thing, Right Place, Right Time


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[MUSIC]

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Welcome to Pipeline Visionaries.

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I'm Ian Faiz on CEO of Cast Me In Studios.

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And today I'm joined by a special guest, Brad.

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How are you?

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I'm very well Ian.

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Thanks for having me.

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Excited to have you on the show,

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excited to chat Pipeline, chat info blocks,

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your background, everything in between.

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And today's show is always brought to you by our friends.

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I qualified, you can go to qualified.com to learn about the number one

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conversational sales marketing platform for companies, revenue teams that use

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Salesforce, head over to qualified.com to learn more.

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Brad, first question, how did you get into marketing?

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Well, I went to school for marketing.

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Ian Blayback in the late 80s, early 90s,

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did a double major marketing in economics.

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And then I went right from there, right into technology training in sales.

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Nothing to do with marketing.

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And was in that role for maybe about 15 years,

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carrying a bag, boater-bearing sales rep,

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focused in on technology, product.

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And then one day, my boss, who was then head of sales

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and then became the president of the company, told me one day,

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hey, by the way, I'm moving you to marketing.

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So I had no choice.

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I went in and focused in on a role that he wanted me to work within marketing,

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to help the sales and the marketing teams work more peaceably.

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And so obviously, something that we always face as marketers is the small

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chasm or large chasm, depending on your company between sales and marketing.

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That was my job.

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And that was my first throwaway into it.

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And I loved it and stayed in marketing ever since.

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So this was 2003, maybe, when I got that little reassignment into marketing.

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And now you carry an even bigger bag called, pipe.

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That's it.

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That's it.

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It's the burden that we all carry on the back.

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But it's a fun way.

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That's right.

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So flash forward to today.

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Tell us what it means to be CMO of Enfield Blocks.

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Listen, I've got a great team.

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It's head of a block, so we're charged with some interesting business

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challenges.

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We are a 25-year-old networking giant when it comes to DNS, the DNS management,

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the 5,000-pound gorilla, if you will, in the marketplace.

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And I have always been known as one of these pioneers in the DNS space.

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And in the last four or five years, we added a complete, separate security arm

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to the business

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where we focused in on DNS security.

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So from a marketing standpoint, we, as the total global marketing team, product

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marketing,

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digital marketing, field marketing, partner marketing, the BDR team, corporate

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marketing,

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and the ops team, we're all focused on driving the awareness and demand for our

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product, which is not well known in the security space, which is leveraging DNS

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as a security

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tool.

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And so we're constantly driving the business around security as well as

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maintaining and

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growing the networking side of the business without having a completely

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separate messaging

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platform and a demonstration platform.

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In fact, just recently, we really focused on bringing the two messages together

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and uniting

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the concept of networking security.

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And that's been working really, really well.

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So every day we wake up, we're trying to drive pipeline on both sides of the

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business

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and it's all possible to drive pipeline where we're combining the two products

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together

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and selling it as a full solution to investment.

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Let's get to our first segment, the Trust Tree, where we go and feel honest and

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trusted,

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you can share those deepest, darkest pipeline secrets.

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Tell us a little bit more about info blocks customers and who you're selling to

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It's always a great place to start the buyer themselves.

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And I think we are very, very focused on making sure that we're continually

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refreshing, updating,

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expanding our buyer persona research.

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And we really have two major buyers.

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We have a network buyer, buys our networking product in quite obvious, the

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security buyer,

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the buys our security product.

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But there's another person in there, really interesting dynamic of, I don't

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even know

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if you would call it influencer.

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I actually call it a non-buyer.

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And that is a cloud ops.

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Cloud operations is a part of it that's really obviously been growing quite a

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bit over the

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years as companies start to leverage multiple cloud service providers, AWS,

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Azure, GCP.

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And for networking, there always is a buyer that's buying the DNS system to

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manage the

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on-prem enterprise.

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But cloud architects are buying services to be able to deploy applications and

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workloads

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into the cloud.

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And in that process, they're actually making a passive decision to buy the

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Amazon Microsoft

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or Google cloud DNS system.

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It just happens to be one of the things that they click on the checkbox to be

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able to get

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their workloads deployed.

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They don't care what it is.

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They just need to be able to click the button and go.

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So it's a very much a passive decision.

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But that passive decision has big implications on the growth of our product in

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the enterprise.

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And so we have to take into account that particular persona as we are thinking

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about

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messaging and positioning among the overall buyer audience, the network and

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security.

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So those are our three buyers.

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Those are the ones that we focus on the most.

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The security buyers, as you can imagine, within this space are inundated.

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It's daily with security companies who are trying to get their dollars spent

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and trying

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to add their technology to the company's security architecture.

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And there are just so many players out there.

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The market is so saturated.

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And we're bringing to market a solution that is very unique, actually, nascent

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to the security

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buyers.

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We do a lot of education, a lot of evangelization of what our security strategy

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is for what

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our solution actually does.

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On the networking side, like I said, very well done.

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For them, we're just trying to convince more and more of the companies who have

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not yet

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made the purchasing decision to move away from leveraging something like a

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Microsoft

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DNS that comes from Windows Server to move to enterprise solutions.

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That one's a little bit different of a motion.

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We're constantly looking at those two buying audiences and seeing what things

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are changing,

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the ways they're making the decision, the places they're doing their research,

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the overall

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buying center and who's involved within that process.

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One of the triggers that makes them wake up every day and say, "Okay, it makes

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up any

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day and say, 'I need to make a change here.

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I need to go buy a solution.'"

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We're looking across three major GOs that we focus in on and sell to and seeing

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if there

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are differences between the GOs, differences in between some of the trends that

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are driving

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the decisions that are out there and then adjusting, once again, going to

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market our

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messaging, our demand generation strategy.

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Yeah, and the other thoughts on the buying committee overall or how you

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approach that,

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when you know you're talking about such a complex big sale.

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Yeah, it's interesting because there's not a huge amount of data that we have

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seen where

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the networking and security team are working together in a buying committee.

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It's starting to happen.

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It's hopefully something to grasp about that's starting to happen that will

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ultimately be

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a trend because they're so intrinsically connected, that network and security.

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But for many reasons, the two departments, even though they're maybe role

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within the

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CIO, the department's almost have that chasm between those two and almost not

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adversarial,

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but this is our law and say, "Oh, our law, that's your law and security."

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That mentality.

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We have to think about how to approach that complex of a buying committee and

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either try

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to get the other team to help influence and be a part of and buy off on a

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solution like

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ours before we actually do the final sale.

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Otherwise, we'll get blocked or it'll delay and prolong the selling process.

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We have to think about that.

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Like I said before, I'm that non-buyer, that cloud architect.

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If we don't focus in on the things that they worry about the most when it comes

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to what

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our solutions do, they'll block it as well because all they want to do is go as

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fast

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as they can.

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They don't want extra process or delays or controls that are going to mess up

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what they're

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trying to do.

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As long as we can make sure that they are of the understanding our system

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targets, they'll

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not add into those challenges or friction into their process, then we should be

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okay.

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That's what we're constantly trying to do is that education, bringing them in,

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giving

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them a better understanding of how the symbiotic relationship between the two

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products can

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actually help each other, help the other team actually do their job better.

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That's really been the secret of where we're actually seeing success.

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How do you organize and structure your marketing work?

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It's relatively traditional.

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I've gone back and forth over the past 20 years on growth, marketing, is it all

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demanded

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in one area, gotten hub and spoke, I've tried everything.

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It's the size of a company where I can embrace the elegance of simplicity.

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We have a field marketing team.

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That field marketing team takes care of all field marketing, but also partner

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marketing

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within the global board.

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I have a digital marketing team that focuses on everything digital, including

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the website.

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They own the website.

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We're in the middle of looking at how we can involve the overall information

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architecture,

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the interactivity of that website, but that's that team.

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All the digital campaigns, everything rolls under them.

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I have a product marketing team, the vast majority of the content that we

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leverage as

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our quote unquote "bait" in our inbound content marketing strategy is produced

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out of that

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organization.

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Corporate marketing team has your PR and your AR, creative team, editorial, it

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's all under

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that group.

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I have a BDR team.

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It's obviously in between the demand that we're creating and ultimately the

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meetings

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that we're studying for the reps.

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I have an excellent operation team that I rely on more and more every single

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day.

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There's advanced marketing operation team that I've ever had, which is amazing

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to be

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allowed.

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I have an evangelist, something that I have had in years past with a little bit

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larger

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of a team, but this evangelist happens to be kind of the rock star of DNS.

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I wrote the book, quite literally, back, remember that rep roll I talked about

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back

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of the day when I was a sales rep.

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I had to read this person's book before we could actually start selling.

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Just fast forward 20-some-mind years later, and this person happens to be on

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the team.

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It's a great intricate loo.

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You put them in front of a customer or prospect and they're all struck.

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It's great to have that kind of secret weapon.

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That's the group.

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Product marketing, our digital demand generation, the field marketing team, ops

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, corporate

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marketing, VDR team and the best.

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Modern marketing team.

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There you go.

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Any other thoughts on your overall marketing strategy or how you think about

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things?

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Sure.

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When I think about modern marketing, it really focuses on trying to maximize

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the amount

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of inbound demand.

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Where the ultimate goal we're trying to achieve is to do that.

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I always think about it analogous to flyfish.

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You're a flyfish.

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Oh, of course.

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Of course.

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Right.

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I love fishing.

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Right.

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It's funny because I always use bait fishing and fly fishing very different but

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very similar.

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But I always like the concept of flyfish because there's this concept of

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matching the hatch.

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You've mastered the hatch.

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Oh, yeah.

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Right?

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Can I interrupt you?

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Yes, please.

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I have a blog post that I wrote on this.

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Probably, I think almost 10 years ago at this point, that probably is the exact

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thing that

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you're saying.

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That is like the fly fishing event that went fly fishing in Montana.

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And I was in sales at the time and I laughed and I was like, "Wait a second.

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There's this analogy there."

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Absolutely.

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Well, that's it.

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That's the way I look at it is you've got to figure out what is a fish you're

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fishing for.

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You've got to figure out one of the flies that are actually flying around at

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that particular

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point in time that the fish expects to be sitting on the surface of the water

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or some

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cases under the water.

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And you've got to be able to match that hatch.

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You've got to be able to match the fly to the fish at that particular stream.

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And I think about it the exact same way.

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That buyer persona, understanding the buyer and all the research that you do is

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through

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the research of that fish and where they are on that journey is kind of where

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the seasons

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are.

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It's sometimes that same exact fish and that same exact stream separated by

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five months,

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completely different fly.

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It's the same concept of if the buyer is early in the journey versus the buyer

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is late in

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New Jersey, the content has to change.

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It has to adapt to what they're trying to do in the decision making process.

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Are they trying to de-risk the decision or are they trying to just simply

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research and

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see what's out there?

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And so very, very focused on that concept where content is the bait and making

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sure that we

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can get the most effective content in front of the buyer.

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It's a one-to-one relationship, one piece of content for one buyer at whatever,

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at one

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point in time, there would be in that journey.

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So we're actually trying to do a lot of advancements in our tracking and

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understanding of how

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the content is actually working and be effective within that process and

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tweaking things and

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figuring out if we need to refresh something or accidentally new, but it's all

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part of

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our belief that the right content, the right to the right buyer is going to

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generate.

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And once again, that interest, that demand and engagement.

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So we're always trying to measure overall engagement across the personas that

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we're

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looking at.

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And so that drives our in-depth, that drives that engagement.

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And once we get them engaged, then it comes down to keeping them along until we

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can get

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them that point of wanting to talk to our BDR.

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And so that content can be in the form of actual content, PDFs, eBooks, video,

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interactive

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or it could be field marketing events.

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And we have been experimenting a great deal on trying to find creative

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engagements, content

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or events, owned events where we can get those prospects as buyers truly

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engaged with our

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product, with our people.

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We believe that the people we have selling, we have marketing are sharp and we

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're going

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to give the customer confidence in the company they're going to be working with

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, hopefully.

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And so whatever we can do to be creative and stand out from the crowd.

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There's no such saying as a one-size-fits-all.

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Unfortunately, there's not.

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That'd be so awesome if it was.

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But even the United States, right now, East Coast in-person field marketing

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events, killing

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it.

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West Coast, nobody wants to show up.

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So we're now like, it's just so weird.

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And so we're like, okay, well, we don't want to just fight it.

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We'll go along.

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So we were doing more virtual on the West Coast.

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And it's working, we're getting a great deal, more engagement that way.

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But we just always have to be looking at the data to see what it's telling us.

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And to once again, the needs of the prospects and the audience.

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Well, I'm going to have to spruce up my match, the hatch, the blog post.

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And maybe Brad, we can work on it.

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I'd love to.

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I can co-author.

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Yeah, I'll give a super quick version of my take on that.

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So I went fishing with three friends and we, there were three different guides.

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And one was very aggressive, one was very like very professional.

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And the other one was like, not the best guide.

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One guide, basically the whole day, fished one single fly and the guy didn't

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catch anything.

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The second guy fished a few different flies, but was very like, was work every

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single

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part of the stream.

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Very meticulous.

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And he caught one fish.

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And my guide, like we trudged up the river, you know, like a quarter mile, went

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right to

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the spot where he's like, I know they're here through like five times with one

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fly, didn't

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work, switched out.

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We switched like five or six times.

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And then finally found the fly that was, was the right one.

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And then we caught like 10.

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That's it.

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And then we trudged up the river and like go find a new spot and go trudged up

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the river

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and find a new spot.

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And it was just like the ultimate marketing sort of sales analogy where it's

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like, you

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have to be in the right place.

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You have to have the right thing that they wanted that particular time.

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And then you got it.

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You got to just do it over and over and over and over again once you once you

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know that

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that's the right thing.

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And, and you know, if you just take all day trying the same thing, it's just

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that you

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can beat your head up against the wall.

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And in marketing terms through a good money over bad, you know, the movie, the

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river runs

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through it.

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And like Brad Pitt as a young actor, remember he was, he was out is, you know,

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his brother

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was just, you know, false casting, looking at him, you know, looking at his

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brother,

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looking at Brad Pitt and walk around trying to catch, you know, flies with a

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net.

18:56

What the hell are you doing?

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You know, open it up and looking at the flies in his hand.

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That was really doing.

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He's looking, said, all right, let's see here.

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What's what's working?

19:04

Yeah.

19:05

Yeah.

19:06

We did.

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I'm sure all everyone's like, okay, enough.

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Yeah.

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But, but this is, I think this stuff is really, it's really interesting because

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I think it

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speaks to a broader, broader, just like a way of thinking about things.

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So yeah, our, our guide is like the super famous guide and does my buddy's dad.

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But he's like a very, very well renowned guy to Montana.

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And he had this like big, it was like a big metal screen and we walk out and he

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's like,

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he shows it in the ground.

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And then he's like, all right, guys, just kick up a, kick up as many rocks,

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walk through

19:38

the river and kick up as many rocks as you can get.

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And then, and then we're like, what is he talking about?

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And then, you know, we do that and he picks up the screen and then all the

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little bugs

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that were all kicked up from all those rocks are sitting in this screen.

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And then he lays each of his different flies on there and you're like, and you

19:54

're such

19:55

it.

19:56

I mean, this, he's, yeah, but that's what you mean, right?

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It's like, whatever is, is happening at that given time, he's like, oh, well,

20:03

this, the

20:04

caddis fly is, is in, yeah, it's in larvae.

20:07

So yeah, exactly.

20:08

Do what I do.

20:09

That's exactly.

20:10

Yeah, it's a large stage.

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And then, yeah.

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And then once it, once it hatches, it's going to look like this and it's going

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to land

20:16

on the water like this.

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And you're like, I never knew that there was so many intricate.

20:19

That's it.

20:20

But I think it's a great analogy for marketing as you say.

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Well, I think, you know, what makes a great marketer, you know, even better

20:27

than an average

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market, it's the same concept.

20:30

What makes the two, two fishermen go on the, on the lake, they have both have

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the exact

20:34

same rod, the same reel.

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You might even have the same same bait.

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What makes the one just ripping fish out left and right?

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The other one doesn't catch anything at all.

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It's the same concept.

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You've got to, you've got to understand the behaviors of the buyers that you're

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selling

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to and the market that's out there and what else is out there trying to steal

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their attention.

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So it's always a good note.

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Well, yeah.

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And I think one of the other things, one of the things that was most

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interesting to me

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about that was that he was explaining and he's like, a fish is only going to

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waste calories

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to go eat something that it is worthy of eating calories.

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So if it's grasshopper season, they're not going to want to go waste calories

21:16

on some

21:16

other stuff because they know that there's a bunch of grasshoppers around.

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That's what they're going to, you know, the bigger fish are going to, you know,

21:22

you know,

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do that sort of stuff.

21:23

And I always think about that from a marketing perspective of like in the sort

21:28

of calorie

21:29

intake way of like it's wasting someone's time, right?

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It's like that person's not going to go schedule a demo with sales.

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If they are ready to get harassed by sales for the next six months, right, they

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're just

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not going to do it.

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So like it's going to be huge pain.

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What are the things that you can give them that are the right amount of

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calories at the

21:45

right time where it's like they don't want to have this like huge commitment to

21:49

go, you

21:50

know, to so they get hounded by a sales rep for a long time.

21:53

What is the easy drinking beer that you can give them that they can just have

21:57

every month

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or so or every week, hopefully, over the course of the next six months and then

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once

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they're ready to hit the sales button, then they're ready to talk.

22:05

Talk Turkey is this.

22:07

And that's, you know, and that's one of the other aspects is, is those little,

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you know,

22:11

in your analogy, the beers, right?

22:13

Every time they take a sip and they like, you know, this is an ambient beer and

22:16

every

22:16

time, but that every other week or whatever, the, the frequencies, like every

22:20

time they

22:20

take a sip of that beer, they'll be like, yeah, it's a really good beer.

22:23

At the end of it, they're going to be like, Hey, when I go on and buy a case of

22:25

this

22:26

stuff, I'm going to go to this company.

22:27

I know it.

22:28

I've interacted with it.

22:29

I know I like it.

22:31

And there's that concept of a marketing standpoint, don't underestimate the

22:35

small interactions

22:36

with your brand.

22:37

Even if it's just one visit to the website to get an answer to that, I need to

22:42

give to

22:42

their boss.

22:43

And if you can get that answer into the right answer that's helping them at

22:47

that time, then

22:47

then they build this little, little bit of trust and they keep doing that, like

22:51

building

22:51

that trust and building that trust up.

22:53

You know, pretty soon when it comes to a buying decision, they're going to,

22:56

they're going

22:56

to trust you.

22:57

They're going to trust you.

22:58

They're going to, there's congruence, right?

22:59

This congruence in the interactions.

23:02

It's the same way with, uh, with your social interactions.

23:05

And this is, I see this all wrong all the time.

23:07

Everyone is always trying to pull people off of social instead of creating

23:11

things that are

23:13

meant to be engaged on social.

23:15

We make all these podcasts.

23:17

And whenever the video clips, you probably is like, oh, that's a good teaser to

23:19

try to

23:20

get them to listen to the episode.

23:21

I'm like, I literally don't care if they listen to the episode ever.

23:25

But if they can just get the information in that little video clip in that

23:27

minute and

23:28

30 second and go on with their day, like that's what I would way rather have

23:32

like, take a

23:33

sip rather than be like, come and subscribe and do all this stuff.

23:36

Like, I really don't care if all they consume is just the newsletter.

23:39

Like that's right.

23:40

And I think that just so many people want to like suck them back into the

23:43

vortex instead

23:44

of just like deliver the value right there, right then and, uh, and just be

23:49

happy with

23:50

that small engagement rather than just like making every single thing push

23:54

towards a

23:55

demo.

23:56

It's the concept, you know, the funnel of the funnel is so, you know, so tall

23:59

that you,

24:00

we got to be, um, valuing the people that are just coming in the tip, tip top

24:05

of that funnel,

24:06

uh, as much as, you know, the middle and the bottom of that funnel, because,

24:10

you know,

24:10

if we do our, we are to a job to raise marketers, the right percentage will

24:14

actually end up

24:15

down at the bottom when it comes time to make that, that buying decision and

24:19

forcing, you

24:20

know, part part of what we're trying to do is obviously maybe, you know, expose

24:25

pain

24:25

that they may not, you know, realize they have or, or educate them on value

24:30

that they

24:31

could be realizing if they bought our services better.

24:33

That's just part of the marketing process, but to accelerate somebody who says,

24:36

you know,

24:37

what, I kind of make a decision.

24:38

Like I need, I need to buy a solution to help me with this particular pain

24:42

point.

24:42

And if the very first interaction that happened to your company user, you're

24:45

like, Hey, what

24:46

can I do to get you in this car today?

24:47

You're just going to turn, turn off, you're just going to turn off.

24:50

No, they need their time.

24:52

They need to percolate.

24:53

They need to, they need to kind of really interact and truly understand and,

24:56

and, and feel ownership

24:58

and the ultimate decision instead of feeling like bombarded with mess.

25:03

Okay, let's get to our next segment.

25:05

The playbook.

25:06

This is where you talk about the tactics that help you win.

25:09

What are your three channels or tactics that you're uncuttable budgeted.

25:13

When it comes to overall, um, marketing mix, when I look at, you know, look at

25:17

what we're

25:17

doing, we truly do have a mix and it does change a little bit, depending on

25:22

where we

25:23

are in, in our company stage.

25:26

For instance, a year and a half ago, we didn't spend a lot on, on brand and

25:30

brand awareness,

25:31

because when I was three, it was the same brand that had been for the last 20,

25:34

some ideas.

25:35

Did it refresh?

25:36

And we need to spend a little bit more on that, on that brand.

25:39

So we do have some brand, uh, brand market, not a large number.

25:42

It's not worth, we're not out there.

25:43

Um, but it billboards up one at one or, or not, but we certainly are spending

25:48

more time

25:49

and, and thoughtfulness around the words we're using and where we show up right

25:54

now digital

25:55

inbound.

25:56

Um, that's what we're trying to drive.

25:57

Our digital marketing budget can't change.

25:59

I can't cut that if, uh, if, if we were, you know, you know, just keep the

26:04

lights on,

26:05

mentality.

26:06

Um, digital would be the last place I, I cut.

26:10

It is the most scalable and cost effective means for us to be able to get

26:14

interactions

26:16

and engagements into the model.

26:18

And once again, there's varying levels of cost, depending on that channel.

26:22

Um, you know, syndication, you know, cut us.

26:25

And, and audience aggregation and things like that.

26:27

But at the end of the day, that's one that we, that we really want to, uh,

26:31

continue to

26:32

push up.

26:33

Number two are, are field owned events.

26:37

That's an area where, uh, I wouldn't want to move because that is getting most

26:42

of the

26:43

time face to face, uh, intimate engagement with buyers, um, as well as

26:49

customers and,

26:50

and the more I can bring those two audiences together so they can talk to each

26:54

other.

26:54

Uh, because we have a product that our customers are rating fans of, or they

27:00

could be my, my

27:02

marketers, they can actually help sell the product for them.

27:05

And so that would be, you know, another area that, uh, that I wouldn't want to,

27:09

what I

27:10

cut the last channel would be, um, the work that we do with our partners.

27:15

Uh, partners give us a force multiplier.

27:19

There's also sometimes give us, um, credibility in audiences that we don't have

27:23

, you know,

27:25

either credibility or, uh, a reputation in front of, right?

27:31

Sometimes those partners are value resellers, sometimes they're just, they have

27:33

disties,

27:34

distribution distributors, or, um, in more recent times, we're working more and

27:38

more with

27:39

cloud service providers and the sellers at those cloud service providers.

27:43

So aligning to their sales plays.

27:45

What are the most important things in their list of sales plays that they're

27:48

doing, you

27:49

know, going out there and what can we do to help them with those numbers,

27:52

bringing our

27:53

two value propositions together.

27:55

And even though we're, we're the big gorilla in our space, you know, in the

28:00

grand scheme

28:01

of things, we're, we're, we're not even a billion dollar company sitting next

28:05

to Microsoft,

28:06

Amazon, Google, and others.

28:07

I mean, we're, we're, we're getting pull gravitational pull from their brand.

28:13

And that's a, that activity is extremely important.

28:15

So, um, the part, the partner marketing and partner motions are, are always

28:21

extremely

28:21

important and have been my entire career with them tomorrow.

28:24

Yeah, it's so important.

28:26

It's so, so important.

28:27

I love that you brought up partner marketing as part of this.

28:30

I think there's just so many ways to do it right and so many ways to do it

28:32

wrong that

28:33

I think it's just a lot more challenging, but finding those really good

28:37

partners that

28:38

are selling to the same person that can cut your, cut your stuff in half, your

28:43

costs

28:43

in half for a campaign is, is brilliant.

28:46

You touched on digital, you know, for the first one, how do you break down

28:49

digital?

28:50

What is digital to you and what are the different components?

28:53

Well, digital campaign, you know, obviously webinars is a big, a big means for

28:57

us to,

28:58

to get out there in front of our customers.

28:59

And we do a pretty regularly scheduled process.

29:03

We do our version of podcasting for the security marketplace and do a great

29:08

deal of that.

29:09

We have another video, our blog that we produce that brings to the great

29:14

audience and the

29:15

work that you're nurturing them.

29:16

We do a lot of content, so the case on third party sites that are, are the

29:23

fishing holes

29:24

for, for our customers to do research, right?

29:26

The trusted areas for them to work on their, you know, the research for our

29:30

type of solution.

29:31

So we're doing a lot of, a lot of work that way.

29:33

We still do, you know, obviously a great deal of always on campaigns and, and

29:38

in nurture

29:39

campaigns that are very effective.

29:41

And we've been getting some good luck with, with an ABM, a kind of a cross-

29:46

channel ABM

29:46

program where digital takes a portion, field takes a portion, BDR takes a

29:50

portion, sales

29:51

takes a portion, and then we, then we stay very, very connected through the

29:55

process to

29:56

drive engagement with those, those identified accounts that we want to target.

30:00

Yeah, and, and how do you think about your website?

30:02

Well, you know, I think first of all, the site itself is, is the front-door map

30:08

of our

30:08

company.

30:09

It is generally the first impression.

30:10

I mean, this kind of, the world is flat world.

30:13

People, you go to website and interact with our brand for the first time,

30:17

generally, right

30:18

there on the website.

30:19

So we want to make sure that we're always putting our best foot forward.

30:22

Looking at what content is on there, what are the words, what are the, how

30:26

fresh is

30:26

it, you know, there was a point in time where it wasn't being freshened.

30:31

Are you in our homepage?

30:33

So you go to a homepage, you know, five weeks and a row, it's exactly the same

30:36

homepage.

30:37

And we started seeing engagement, but of course, we imagine that.

30:40

We're out of full on this.

30:41

So we, you know, so now we have a constant decision to always be creating kind

30:45

of that

30:45

fresh and new piece of reason why people want to come back.

30:48

We think about the site in the concept of journey as well, right?

30:52

We have two buyers, the security, the network.

30:54

What is the hook on the main page for the security buyer that's in, in that

30:59

kind of awareness

31:00

stage of the buyer and buy and journey?

31:02

And what is, you know, the piece and hook that's going to be focused on the

31:06

networking

31:07

buyer and their awareness portion of the journey?

31:10

Where is that driving them?

31:11

And then also what, what about in the consideration phase?

31:14

What are we doing, you know, for those, those same two buyers independently on

31:18

the, on that

31:19

base?

31:20

And so we're, we're looking at those journeys.

31:21

When all those journeys working over the way we mapped out the journey within

31:25

the website

31:26

is it working?

31:27

Do we see that actually playing out in the, the click stream analysis of the

31:31

website?

31:32

So doing a lot of work on, on, on that aspect.

31:35

And then, you know, recently we're really considering other, other things, like

31:39

looking

31:40

at how do we step back and go, okay, our website, you know, is, it looks modern

31:45

It feels modern.

31:46

It isn't like we have, we haven't thought about it with the fresh eyes of 20,

31:51

23 or 2024.

31:53

We certainly haven't leveraged, you know, concept like AI to play around with.

31:58

How can we make sure the website morphs based on customer, you know, industry

32:03

or the, or

32:04

the visitors industry or the geo that they're coming in.

32:07

And can we have information if they are a registered user that we can make sure

32:11

that we're

32:12

trying to present?

32:13

Ideally, what we believe they want to see in the very first page and then

32:18

engagement.

32:18

So we're always trying to figure out ways to make sure, not just keep an eye,

32:22

you know,

32:23

selfishly as a market, you say, we want to keep them on our website as long as

32:26

they can.

32:26

It's a B2B website.

32:27

They're not going to spend nine hours on our website.

32:29

But we want to make sure that the maximum, right, he's like, it's not going to

32:33

happen.

32:34

But we want to maximize the value and the effectiveness of the website visit to

32:40

whatever

32:40

visitor that comes in and make sure they could, you know, get the information

32:44

to the content

32:44

or the answers they need within the most minimal amount of clicks that they

32:48

lost.

32:48

It is the biggest driver of engagement and demand out of all of our channels.

32:54

And therefore the most cost effective overall, cost relief.

32:59

All right, let's get to our last segment.

33:01

Quick hits.

33:02

These are quick questions and quick answers just like how quickly qualified

33:05

helps generate

33:06

pipeline, could a qualified dot cardinal or more quick hits?

33:10

Bratter you ready?

33:11

Let's go.

33:12

Lighten you around.

33:13

Hidden talent or skill.

33:15

It's not on your own.

33:17

Uh, fine woodworking.

33:19

You have a favorite book podcast or TV show you, you recommend being brought up

33:27

in a

33:27

military family.

33:28

I gravitate toward a lot of the special forces books and whatnot.

33:34

I love Goggins, big fan of his, but all the way down to Jocko Willink and I

33:41

just got

33:42

through reading Avril McRade and wisdom of the bullfrog.

33:46

Fantastic book.

33:47

Highly recommended.

33:48

Great leadership.

33:50

If you weren't in marketing or business at all, what do you think you do?

33:56

Something outdoors or something in the woodshop?

33:59

What is your best advice for a first time CMO?

34:03

Don't be afraid to fail.

34:04

Don't always assume people are questioning you and wondering why you're in the

34:11

role.

34:11

Everybody has imposter syndrome, that first assignment.

34:17

Have confidence and to say, this is what I know and this is what I don't know.

34:22

And be very open to show the data and your stakeholders.

34:26

Brad, so awesome having you on the show.

34:29

Thanks again for joining for listeners.

34:31

Bradinfoblocks.com to learn more.

34:34

Check out their marketing and net your teams to go try a demo.

34:38

Brad, any final thoughts?

34:41

Last thing, we didn't really cover it, but I talked a little bit about our

34:43

marketing

34:44

apps scene, but we're getting a lot of value out of empowering all the way down

34:48

to our

34:49

individual contributors.

34:50

Build marketers or BDRs when I'm with their own personal dashboards.

34:53

I know exactly how they're doing and the impact they're having on the marketing

34:57

engine as

34:58

well as even marketing source bookings.

35:02

They can see everything from version rates in between sales stages and

35:06

marketing stages

35:07

all the way down to they wrote a piece of content and this is how it's

35:10

performing and

35:11

it's been really impactful.

35:12

It's very empowering.

35:13

Oh, that's awesome.

35:15

Brad, great having you on the show.

35:17

Thanks again and talk to you.

35:18

Hey, my pleasure again.

35:19

Thanks a lot for having me on.

35:20

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35:23

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35:25

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