Soccer: B2B Marketing Lessons from the U.S. Women’s National Team with Former Director of Brand Strategy, Storytelling & Advocacy at Cisco, Cindy Valladares

Every person on your team has strengths and…non-strengths. 

So position them to make the most out of their top skills.

It’s like how in soccer, you position your top goal-scorer as a forward, not running defense, right? The same is true with marketing. 

In this episode, we’re drawing parallels between soccer and marketing. 

With the help of our special guest, former Director of Brand Strategy, Storytelling & Advocacy at Cisco, Cindy Valladares, we’re taking marketing lessons from the U.S. Women’s National Soccer Team. 

Together, we talk about using your talent the right way, taking calculated risks, and putting fear in the heart of your competitors.

About our guest, Cindy Valladares

Cindy Valladares is a marketing executive who recently led brand strategy, storytelling and advocacy for Cisco’s cybersecurity business unit. A product marketer at heart, she lives by the NIHITO (nothing interesting happens in the office) motto. Cindy has been a speaker at various security, risk and privacy conferences in North America, Europe and Latin America, where she focuses on topics that affect the information security industry. She is a regular contributor at the Cisco Secure blog, shares her perspective on Twitter @cindyv, and can also be found on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/in/cindyvalladares/. She holds an international MBA from the University of Ottawa in Canada, and a BBA in Marketing and International Business.

What B2B Companies Can Learn From the USWNT:

• Take calculated risks. You have to try new things and take some risks. That’s how you keep your content fresh and find the big successes. Cindy says that when Emma Hayes took over coaching the U.S. Women’s National Team, “she made some very unpopular choices, right? Alex Morgan, who everybody thought was going to be called in the roster, she was left out. And so [Emma] had new creative ideas that she wanted to try, and took some calculated risks. And like we say, nothing tried, nothing gained, and you can see the results.” And a few months later, they won the 2024 Paris Olympics.
• Use your talent the right way. Match their strengths and skills to the role. And put them on tasks they’ll perform well on. When everyone is doing work they’re good at and that utilizes their strengths, it benefits the whole team. Ian says, “ Part of the Emma Hayes thing is Trinity Rodman flying down the right side of your team is super valuable because she's like one of the best in the world and she's fast and athletic and all that. Having her spam a cross into nobody even though she's good at that too doesn't help your team. That's not a more valuable action. Whereas her trying to take on the defender one on one, if she does win, and now she's driving at the goal with nobody in between her and the goal, that's way more valuable. And like, I think that that's part of what marketing is about, is figuring out what are the more high leverage things that you can do that make a huge difference.”
• Put fear in the heart of your competitors. Or more like envy. You want your competitors to look at your content and be jealous. Ian says, “ Every team that we played in the Olympics  is absolutely terrified of the front three of our country sprinting after them  with their defenders on their heels. It's like the most terrifying thing in the world is Trinity Rodman sprinting at their backline, right? And I think about this with competitors with your content campaign. Like I talk about the edutainment graph, rated on a scale of one out of 10 educational, one out of 10 entertaining. So rank your content on the graph and before you even plan to make something, is your competitor going to see this and be like, ‘Oh, I'm so jealous, this is great,’ Or is it just something that they're gonna like, ‘All right?’”

Quotes

*”It’s  really important in marketing organizations to lead with a leadership style that creates empathy and allows others to do their best, not a culture of fear.”

*” That's an important element of a leader, understanding who you have on your team, what motivates and drives them, and how can you create an environment where they can perform and outperform?”

Time Stamps

[0:55] Meet Cindy Valladares, former Director of Brand Strategy, Storytelling & Advocacy at Cisco

[3:41] History and Achievements of the US Women's National Soccer Team

[6:38] Equal Pay and Gender Equality Advocacy

[8:09] Emma Hayes' Impact on the US Women's National Soccer Team

[13:36] Marketing Lessons from Soccer

[21:38] Emma Hayes' Coaching Strategies

[24:25] Recognizing and Utilizing Team Strengths

[25:17] Leveraging Senior Executives in Content

[26:49] Maximizing Talent and High-Value Actions

[29:11] Understanding Your Audience in Content Strategy

[32:36] Creating Impactful and Entertaining Content

[35:30] Balancing Brand Awareness and Demand Generation

[39:27] Favorite Content Campaigns and Their Impact

Links

Connect with Cindy on LinkedIn

About Remarkable!

Remarkable! is created by the team at Caspian Studios, the premier B2B Podcast-as-a-Service company. Caspian creates both nonfiction and fiction series for B2B companies. If you want a fiction series check out our new offering - The Business Thriller - Hollywood style storytelling for B2B. Learn more at CaspianStudios.com. 

In today’s episode, you heard from Ian Faison (CEO of Caspian Studios) and Meredith Gooderham (Senior Producer). Remarkable was produced this week by Meredith Gooderham, mixed by Scott Goodrich, and our theme song is “Solomon” by FALAK. 

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