Security professionals sometimes find it hard to absorb the notion that the cloud was actually by definition designed for developers. A developer is not a regular techie. In fact, they are not a techie at all. A developer is a creative person. And if you put any constraints on a creative person, you will kill their creativity. Security pros may not be able to understand them but they have to try, listen and hear them in order to simplify their lives. Brutally honest insights from TJ Gonen, Vice President for Cloud Security of Check Point, and Dmitriy Sokolovskiy, CSO/CISO of Avid and Principal CISO Advisor, Lead Instructor of Audience 1st. In this episode, Dani Woolf had a conversation with TJ and Dmitriy about: The challenges of keeping up with the fast-paced world of cybersecurity and how vendors can help digest all the technology changes happening. The "1-3-2" and "Start-Stop-Continue" methods for strategic planning in the cybersecurity industry and how to use them to gain a deeper understanding of an organization and develop a strategic plan to keep up with the industry. The complexities that exist with the shift to the cloud and how to address them. The real purpose and value of the cloud and how security professionals can adapt to new ways of doing things to enable developers to move faster without compromising on security. The importance of simplifying developers' lives and how to approach the shift to the cloud with caution and a clear understanding of the risks and challenges associated with it. The importance of listening to developers and approaching them with empathy to work together to create a more productive environment. This episode was sponsored by Check Point Technologies, a leading provider of cybersecurity solutions to over 100,000 corporate enterprises and governments globally.  Check Point Infinity's portfolio of solutions, protects enterprises and public organizations from fifth generation cyber attacks with an industry leading catch rate of malware, ransomware, and other threats. To learn more about checkpoint and its infinity portfolio. Visit checkpoint.com.  Join Audience 1st Newsletter Today Join 1300+ cybersecurity marketers and sellers mastering security buyer research to better understand their audience and turn them into loyal customers: https://www.audience1st.fm/newsletter

There is a shift in the world. Developers are starting to use the cloud and they're starting to get a lot of power.  And with that power comes the responsibility that’s why using developer friendly tools is critical in order to have your organization protected.  We need to remember that at the end of the day, we are not in the business of eliminating risks, our goal is to do whatever we can to minimize the risk.  Brutally honest insights from Idan Didi, Head of Sales - Developer First Security of Check Point, Co-founder & COO of Spectral and Bipin Gajbhiye, Security Partner of Stripe.  In this episode, Dani Woolf had a conversation with Idan and Bipin about: Idan and Bipin’s motivations for working in cybersecurity Their bleeding-neck challenges in their roles How do application security engineers prioritize to stay ahead of potential breaches? What is developer-first security and why “first”? 3 prescriptive ways security practitioners can help developers become champions in shift left security What are the measures of success for developers focusing on developer-first security? How do application security engineers choose security tools and what are their decision criteria? Market anomalies to take advantage of in DevSecOps This episode was sponsored by Check Point Technologies, a leading provider of cybersecurity solutions to over 100,000 corporate enterprises and governments globally.  Check Point Infinity's portfolio of solutions, protects enterprises and public organizations from fifth generation cyber attacks with an industry leading catch rate of malware, ransomware, and other threats. To learn more about checkpoint and its infinity portfolio. Visit checkpoint.com.  Join Audience 1st Newsletter Today Join 1300+ cybersecurity marketers and sellers mastering security buyer research to better understand their audience and turn them into loyal customers: https://www.audience1st.fm/newsletter

Listening deeply to the market before you even put pen to paper and draw your first paper prototype is very important. In terms of the buying process, in order to be more productive and efficient as an industry you have to build relationship capital with your customers.  Don’t treat your buyer as a potential target, an account, or as a number; treat them as a person. Not every big name vendor fits every single buyer out there. “One size fits all” doesn't work in the cyberspace anymore.  We should all be more gutsy about changing the script and changing how things are done. Brutally honest insights from Victoria Germanova, Founder & CEO of Callity.  In this episode, Dani Woolf had a conversation with Victoria about: Tactics and strategies to successfully reach buyers and get them to open up. Why buyers are feeling like things are rushed from renewals or an expansion standpoint.  Challenges that vendors are experiencing in terms of the buying process with cybersecurity buyers. How  both buyers and vendors can be more productive and efficient as an industry in terms of the buying process. What Callity is and what solutions they are providing to the industry. How to bridge the gap that occurs between the human element and automation when trying to build relationship capital. Feedback points from buyers that are helping Victoria formulate next steps for Callity and the cybersecurity industry. Join Audience 1st Newsletter Today Join 1002+ cybersecurity marketers and sellers mastering security buyer research to better understand their audience and turn them into loyal customers: https://www.audience1st.fm/newsletter

We often think that our challenges are unique to cybersecurity as opposed to pretty normal historical human ones and we don't look outside of our domain often enough for finding potential solutions. Coming from completely different backgrounds often helps people find and apply a unique solution to a problem. Don’t be afraid to ask questions, think critically. Know how to learn in order to communicate efficiently and effectively and prevent organizational silos between both sides of the industry. It’s crucial to work on your soft skills and build strong relationships in order to shift from being a transactional seller to a trusted advisor. Brutally honest insights from Dutch Schwartz, Cloud Security Strategist, Trusted Advisor and Speaker at Amazon Web Services (AWS). In this episode, Dani Woolf had a conversation with Dutch about his challenges, goals, what vendors do that piss him off, and the alternatives. Join Audience 1st Today Join 830+ cybersecurity marketers and sellers mastering security buyer research to better understand their audience and turn them into loyal customers: https://www.audience1st.fm/newsletter

In this episode of Phishy Business, we discuss how cybersecurity marketing, sales, and support are for the most part inadequate, and how there can be a big disconnect between how marketers market and how technology professionals buy.   We talk more about how marketing should consider the customer experience and how marketing departments should not only market their products and services but should also be active listeners and understand what their buyers need and want.   Our special guest is cybersecurity marketing expert and podcaster Dani Woolf, who spent the past decade running high impact marketing departments for technology startups.   She has since started Audience 1st to help cybersecurity vendors understand what CIOs and CISOs really want from them.   Dani helps cybersecurity marketers better understand their buyers so they can sell more. In ‘Marketing as Customer Experience – Be an Active Listener’, we discuss: How cybersecurity can help solve very complex problems. Vendors should have a ‘mission over money’ mindset. Some traditional demand- and lead-gen techniques that don’t work with a cybersecurity audience. Why CISOs tend to be a more cynical and less trustworthy audience, which is understandable because of the high stakes and stressful nature of the job. Co-creating with influencers who have polarizing opinions in the market is a good strategy in cybersecurity marketing. How the cybersecurity community values concise and clear content. The fact that technology leaders want marketing to be authentic and to cut through the ‘noise’. The mass over use of buzzwords that is all too common and alarming in the sector. How the cybersecurity community is open to giving feedback and taking feedback and how not a lot of vendors take advantage of this. That in order to be successful, marketing mindset needs to shift from product first to customer first. This podcast was originally published on Phishy Business Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/2D1VVBsdis20XZGQoxa6SX About Phishy Business Fed up with the same old cybersecurity stories? Come with us on a journey that explores the lesser-known side. Whether it’s social engineering, taking criminals to court or the journalists hunting down hackers — our new podcast series, Phishy Business, looks for new ways to think about cybersecurity. Mimecast’s very own Brian Pinnock and Alice Jeffery are joined by guests from a range of unique security specialisms. Each episode explores tales of risk, reward and just a dash of ridiculousness to learn how we can all improve in the fight to stay safe. For more tales of risk, reward and ridiculousness, subscribe to Phishy Business on iTunes, Spotify, Anchor or wherever you get your podcasts: www.mimecast.com

In a startup, the CISO role is far more intense and it's more intense for a whole slew of reasons.  Startups don't have a lot of money. But knowing that we're building a product, it is really important to have security built in from the ground up, because it is a priority.  So you're a CISO but you're a security architect and you're security engineer and you're analyst. And your ability was compliance and privacy.  And you're doing everything and you're trying to do it on a shoestring budget and the creativeness and your ability to squeeze the lemon for every single last piece of dues is so critical. Brutally honest insights from James J Azar, CISO/CTO and a host of Cyber Hub podcast, CISO Talk, Good by Privacy and Daily Cyber Hub podcast. In this episode, Dani Woolf had a conversation with James about his challenges, goals, what vendors do that piss him off, and the alternatives, along with: The difference between a startup CISO and a CISO within an enterprise organization Why is the maturity of security teams a real thing? Why defining security maturity in larger enterprises is difficult What is a startup CISO's bleeding neck challenge? The main factors in the decision-making process that trigger a startup CISO to buy a cybersecurity tool, product or service What are differences or anomalies in the cybersecurity market that partners can take advantage of to stand out? Why is podcasting still valuable in the cybersecurity community? Cardinal rules cybersecurity vendors are breaking in the eyes of a security practitioner Join Audience 1st Today Join 750+ cybersecurity marketers and sellers mastering security buyer research to better understand their audience and turn them into loyal customers: https://www.audience1st.fm/newsletter Whenever you're ready, there are 3 ways I can help you and your go-to-market team: 1. Conduct a one-to-one interview with an existing or ideal customer and extract the most useful insights and recommendations for action. 2. Connect you with our CISO Panel to validate an idea, trend, message, service or product. 3. Plan and facilitate a customer advisory board (CAB) with your key customers to drive loyalty for your company's brand.

Welcome to the last episode of Audience 1st for 2022! Wow, when I first started the show back in March, I created it as a tool for myself to better learn about the audiences that I wanted to engage and persuade. Little did I know it would resonate so well with the cybersecurity community - both from the practitioner side and the go-to-market and business side. So, I want to THANK all of my loyal followers, 700 strong and growing within the A1 community, and my awesoem guests, who took time out of their busy schedules to tell me the brutally honest truth. Why? So that I and WE can get better at how we engage, persuade, and acquire and retain customers in this complex industry. Alright, what’s this episode about? Well, these past 9 months have been one large curation exercise. I compiled the best nuggets from all 23 interviews with cybersecurity buyers. They did not hold back. And neither did I. SO, enjoy this show. Thanks for a successful and fruitful 2022 and…..here’s to an even better '23! Join Audience 1st Today Join 700+ cybersecurity marketers and sellers mastering security buyer research to better understand their audience and turn them into loyal customers: https://www.audience1st.fm/ Whenever you're ready, there are 3 ways I can help you and your go-to-market team: 1. Conduct a one-to-one interview with an existing or ideal customer and extract the most useful insights and recommendations for action. 2. Connect you with our CISO Panel to validate an idea, trend, message, service or product. 3. Plan and facilitate a customer advisory board (CAB) with your key customers to drive loyalty for your company's brand.

Vendors need to start building relationships. Instead of looking at lead filters or lead generation. They need to start integrating with the community a bit more. And they need to start learning from the people on the ground, just building communities, essentially, because those communities are going to be filled with potential leaders of the future. And if you can get really good relationships with them now, that's going to influence buying decisions in the future. Brutally honest insights from Jay Jay Davey, SOC Client Lead, Chief Educational Support Officer, and Advisor. In this episode, I had a conversation with Jay Jay about his challenges, goals, what vendors do that piss him off, and the alternatives. Join Audience 1st Today Join 700+ cybersecurity marketers and sellers mastering security buyer research to better understand their audience and turn them into loyal customers: https://www.audience1st.fm/ Whenever you're ready, there are 3 ways I can help you and your go-to-market team: 1. Conduct a one-to-one interview with an existing or ideal customer and extract the most useful insights and recommendations for action. 2. Connect you with our CISO Panel to validate an idea, trend, message, service or product. 3. Plan and facilitate a customer advisory board (CAB) with your key customers to drive loyalty for your company's brand.

Every time a vendor comes through the door, what they're looking at is just a closure of a deal. After a project is delivered, feedback is something which is missing and which I think vendors can take advantage of. Having frequent service evaluation calls or catch up calls with us so that they can serve us better is not only beneficial to security practitioners, but for the vendors themselves. The industry moving in that direction, but currently this service-based mindset is largely missing in cybersecurity. Rich insights from Dheeraj Pandey, CISO & Head of Organization at Crédit Agricole Corporate & Investment Bank, India. In this episode, I had a brutally honest conversation with Dheeraj about his challenges, goals, the value of community and peer to peer engagement, how to best leverage community as a vendor, what vendors do that piss him off, and the alternatives. Join Audience 1st Today Join 700+ cybersecurity marketers and sellers mastering security buyer research to better understand their audience and turn them into loyal customers: https://www.audience1st.fm/ Whenever you're ready, there are 3 ways I can help you and your go-to-market team: 1. Conduct a one-to-one interview with an existing or ideal customer and extract the most useful insights and recommendations for action. 2. Connect you with our CISO Panel to validate an idea, trend, message, service or product. 3. Plan and facilitate a customer advisory board (CAB) with your key customers to drive loyalty for your company's brand.

Customer advocacy and loyalty. Lots of people talk about how important it is. Not many talk about how to actually successfully achieve it in the cybersecurity industry. In this third (and last) session of the CISO + Sellers Mashup Series: Building Relationship Capital, we're going to uncover the methods to turn CISOs into loyal customers, not just within your organization, but throughout your entire career. Join Audience 1st Today Join 650+ cybersecurity marketers and sellers mastering security buyer research to better understand their audience and turn them into loyal customers: https://www.audience1st.fm/ Whenever you're ready, there are 3 ways I can help you and your go-to-market team: 1. Conduct a one-to-one interview with an existing or ideal customer and extract the most useful insights and recommendations for action. 2. Connect you with our CISO Panel to validate an idea, trend, message, service or product. 3. Plan and facilitate a customer advisory board (CAB) with your key customers to drive loyalty for your company's brand.