Practical Pivots

#016: During times of crisis, it's tempting for us as leaders to put all focus externally—how can we bring on more clients? How can we serve the ones we already have to keep them around? But, ignoring the critical components of organizational health and communication can be disastrous for your company. This is why we're so thrilled to talk with Jodi Grossman in this episode. Jodi has been Steve's executive coach at two different companies and at Verblio she coaches the entire leadership team too.In this conversation, we cover: The concept of backbone & heart, and why it's even more critical right now, How much information leaders should share with their teams right nowThe principle Jodi learned when studying biology that's equally applicable to companies...and much, much more.If you're in a leadership position, watching and reflecting on the concepts Jodi brings forward might be the most important thing you can do this week.https://www.verblio.com/The Verblio Show is your weekly cocktail of content marketing fun and fruitful conversation. Hear the full interview with Verblio’s CEO Steve Pockross and talk with more marketers, digital agencies, and an assortment of thought leaders anywhere you get your podcasts!

#015: Managing social media for clients can be a GIANT pain for digital marketing agencies. So much so that a lot of agencies we talk to won’t go anywhere near it—too much hassle of managing assets, managing approvals, and proving ROI. So, it was fascinating to talk with Ross Gray on Episode 15 of The Verblio Show to hear about what he’s learned by founding Cloud Campaign, which has helped hundreds of digital agencies streamline their social media logistics.Ross and Steve chat about:The biggest mistake agencies make when it comes to managing social media for clientsThe two unexpected reasons why organic social media continues to be important even in a time when platforms are ratcheting down organic reachWhat all companies should be doing on social media right nowThe controversial social media tactic that will drive engagement over and over againhttps://www.verblio.com/The Verblio Show is your weekly cocktail of content marketing fun and fruitful conversation. Hear the full interview with Verblio’s CEO Steve Pockross and talk with more marketers, digital agencies, and an assortment of thought leaders anywhere you get your podcasts!

#014: So much of the advice on the COVID crisis and business is about ... business. But, there's another hugely important thing for business leaders to think about—themselves. Specifically, how addressing the self as a foundational layer can lead to better decisions and business outcomes. We're so grateful to leading agency transformation coach Kelly Campbell for adding a new and powerful perspective to our conversation on managing and marketing through the crisis.Some key highlights from our discussion:Why this crisis is so different is that there’s a triple impact of work, health, and emotion—and all need to be taken into account to respondIt's transforming our entire action-orientation culture to one where empathy, vulnerability, compassion, and connection are the core valuesThe barrier of separate personas at work and home are also breaking down, which allows, and even requires, all of us to show up as our authentic selves all of the timehttps://www.verblio.com/The Verblio Show is your weekly cocktail of content marketing fun and fruitful conversation. Hear the full interview with Verblio’s CEO Steve Pockross and talk with more marketers, digital agencies, and an assortment of thought leaders anywhere you get your podcasts!

#013: This episode, we had the pleasure of talking with Suneet Bhatt. Suneet is on the short list of people Steve personally turns to for advice on business leadership, marketing, and strategy. In this conversation you’re going to learn why. While Suneet has held marketing & growth leadership roles at big name companies like HelpScout, Crazy Egg, LiveIntent, and Chartbeat, and is currently president of a hot social impact outsourcing company, it might be the other things on his LinkedIn profile that are the truly impressive part. These include authoring children’s books to a role he’s held from January 2014 — present titled “co-founder/dad”.In this broad-ranging conversation Suneet and I cover a whole lot, including:What LeBron James can remind all marketing leadersThe worst question to ask when asking for feedbackWhat do growth-obsessed companies get right Why growth teams need designers, engineers, and data scientistsWhere to start your marketing when you have so many options to choose fromhttps://www.verblio.com/The Verblio Show is your weekly cocktail of content marketing fun and fruitful conversation. Hear the full interview with Verblio’s CEO Steve Pockross and talk with more marketers, digital agencies, and an assortment of thought leaders anywhere you get your podcasts!

#012: Next episode is with the great Jeffrey Pease, MBA of Message Mechanics, who Steve worked with back in the Great Recession. “We’re not going to run an economy on Netflix and Purell”, but now is now is the time to help, not sell. So consider this the off-season where you get ready to win again when games resume.One of the most brilliant messaging experts we know, we had a hard time limiting the discussion with Jeffrey.https://www.verblio.com/The Verblio Show is your weekly cocktail of content marketing fun and fruitful conversation. Hear the full interview with Verblio’s CEO Steve Pockross and talk with more marketers, digital agencies, and an assortment of thought leaders anywhere you get your podcasts!

#011: We're deeply humbled to share this next episode of The Verblio Show. In it, we speak with Dr. Tolonda Tolbert, an expert on diversity and inclusion in the workplace. “Dr T” has a belly-laugh that fills the room, and a storied career that includes 17 years with the ADL and was an adjunct professor at NYU. Two years ago, Dr. Tolbert co-founded a truly innovative startup called Eskalera, which goes far beyond the one-off annual management trainings of the past, and uses the power of technology to integrate D&I throughout the workplace and company culture.When Steve asked her what inspired her to start Eskalera, Dr. Tolbert said, “I was talking with groups of 10, 20, 500, 1,000 people and I was like, okay, we’ve got to move faster than this."Important lessons for all business leaders in both the why and the how to bring diversity, equity, and inclusiveness to the workplace.https://www.verblio.com/The Verblio Show is your weekly cocktail of content marketing fun and fruitful conversation. Hear Verblio’s CEO Steve Pockross talk with marketers, digital agencies, and an assortment of thought leaders.

#010: Today we're joined by Nick Christou, renaissance king of the math nerds and also rock drummer. Nick is CEO of agency Helios Company LLC, which works as an "outsourced chief data scientist" for its clients, which means not only does Nick have the data of what's happening right now in real-time (across his whole client base), but he knows how to use it.We explore:What psychological reasons drove the first-wave of cost cutting?Why we're now entering a second phase with a new type of fear, and what to do about itThe unintended benefit of COVID on marketing messaging, and how to use micro-testing to get resultsThe basic math equation which is changing online advertising right now and that can lead to results for your business and customersHow businesses can avoid the analysis paralysis that is washing over us all right nowhttps://www.verblio.com/The Verblio Show is your weekly cocktail of content marketing fun and fruitful conversation. Hear Verblio’s CEO Steve Pockross talk with marketers, digital agencies, and an assortment of thought leaders.

#009: Elizabeth Giorgi is a true force. She won an Emmy at 25. She’s founded two companies. She’s unapologetic about using her voice and platform to tackle big, important issues like race and gender equity in business, and her current endeavor as the CEO of soona is reshaping what is possible for small businesses to do with video.  Our conversation covered video marketing trends, like how to massively upgrade your own videos while on a budget, and more importantly, things like social justice and equity in the business realm because, as Liz says, “the business falls in line with our values, not the other way around.”https://www.verblio.com/The Verblio Show is your weekly cocktail of content marketing fun and fruitful conversation. Hear Verblio’s CEO Steve Pockross talk with marketers, digital agencies, and an assortment of thought leaders.

#008: Ready for a unique insider view of how a major brand is navigating turbulent waters in a nimble and thoughtful way? Allison Lowrie, CMO of HomeAdvisor / Angie's List, and her team needed to figure out how to quickly adjust marketing in the complex and hard-hit home services space.We discuss:- Focusing on the product first: quick changes enabled her to quickly jump back into the market- How HomeAdvisor/Angie's changed up their advertising in the time of COVID-19- Tik Tok marketing: should you hire 13 year-olds?- Merging brands: how one merges two former competitors into one coherent brand- Two-sided marketplace business: how exactly do you match 75 million households and 250,000 service providers?https://www.verblio.com/The Verblio Show is your weekly cocktail of content marketing fun and fruitful conversation. Hear Verblio’s CEO Steve Pockross talk with marketers, digital agencies, and an assortment of thought leaders.

#007: Joey Gilkey is hyper-focused on one thing: helping digital agencies scale their sales operations. Join us on this week’s episode of The Verblio Show to hear Joey share insights into:- Why agency founders and CEOs consistently think they're the best salesperson, how they can be both right and wrong about this- What agency CEOs should be doing to support sales that's not selling- The 3 D's of creating scalable salesJoey's talking about agencies specifically, but a ton of what we talk about applies to startups in general, too.https://www.verblio.com/The Verblio Show is your weekly cocktail of content marketing fun and fruitful conversation. Hear Verblio’s CEO Steve Pockross talk with marketers, digital agencies, and an assortment of thought leaders.