Practical Pivots

#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.

#006: Studying under the tutelage of visionary tech leader Jim Franklin kept us on our toes! The former CEO of SendGrid, multiple other venture-backed companies, investor and mentor hits maximum velocity of guidance per minute from his ample experience guiding companies through all market conditions.Some highlight guidance:· Keen marketers should compete on convenience!· Creating new growth markets is really hard work. Look to draft off of the growth already happening from new markets.· Rethink every aspect of your business – not just the obvious ones. Does your product even make sense anymore? Can you align your comp plan more closely to your company goals or your cost structure to your client’s financial needs?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.

#005: Mark Organ, founder & CEO of category-creating companies Eloqua & Influitive as well as a CEO coach, shares invaluable insights from steering his marketing technology companies through the last two great recessions. We learned a ridiculous amount in a short discussion.Some highlights:· Removing risk is one of the highest value messages to clients that most marketers miss· The more of the CEO’s job you can take on, the more budget will open up· Content marketing is like an annuity that keeps paying off, and he increased his spend in the Great Recessionhttps://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.

#004: Natalie Henley is CEO of leading digital agency Volume Nine and on a mission to save as many small businesses right now through the COVID-19 crisis as possible. She also holds a VERY contrarian view about what digital agencies should be focused on—and it's helping drive results for her clients.In Steve's interview with Natalie, she unpacks why she's so passionate about the need to be a broad marketer, how her agency achieves this challenging goal, and just why her approach on digital agencies have boosted Volume Nine in its efforts to respond to the current crisis.If you're an agency leader, you're passionate about small business America, or you're a CEO, you need to listen to this interview. As Natalie put it, we all were playing cards with a good hand and then the world shuffled the whole deck. We're learning how to play the hand we have today, and wondering when the world is going to reshuffle the deck again.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.

#003: Our guest today is John Winsor. To say John has had a storied career is a serious understatement. He's currently the founder/CEO of Open Assembly and a visiting executive at Harvard Business School. He also founded the open talent creative agency startup Victors & Spoils—which sold to global agency Havas, where he then served as Chief Innovation Officer. He has served in more cool jobs than we have time for.Want to guess what % of an FTE's salary is spent on training vs. what freelancers invest in training themselves?Did you guess only .3% for FTE training vs. 15% for a freelancer?! We sure didn't. John Winsor reels off these metrics, plus a fascinating barrage of anecdotes and trends to emphasize why the adoption of Open Talent platforms should be a critical part of every company's ecosystem in the near future. And why the COVID-19 crisis just put that adoption trend on steroids.If you are interested in the future of work and/or the future of marketing, or just great storytelling in general, tune into to this discussion with John.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.