Breaking Through in Cybersecurity Marketing

In this episode, Kenneth Ellington, security consultant at Ernst & Young and the founder of Ellington Cyber Academy, joins our hosts to discuss how to foster positive engagement.    Kenneth Ellington is a security consultant at Ernst & Young and the founder of Ellington Cyber Academy and has been in the cybersecurity field for over four years. Ellington talks to Gianna and Maria about his journey into cybersecurity, from starting out as an intern at Publix to becoming a security consultant at Ernst & Young. In the age of social media, he emphasizes the importance of having your own voice and being unique to be able to stand out in the crowd when working on your personal brand.    The years in the industry have taught him the power of networking and being able to build a community that you can always rely on:   "It's not what you know, it's who knows you." - Kenneth Ellington   He also highlights diversity and is especially passionate about advocating for more people of color to get into cybersecurity doing this through his Ellington Cyber Academy. He also offers tips for content creation and personal branding in the cybersecurity industry.   The episode closes with our usual favorite game where Gianna and Maria guess what Kenneth would be doing if he was not in cybersecurity. Who wins? Listen to the episode to find out!   The ladies can be quite competitive, it’s even hilarious as Maria tries and fails to convince Kenneth to join her on her quest to add him to her list of candidates to open a food truck with!   Links:  Follow Kenneth on LinkedIn Follow Gianna on LinkedIn. Catch up with Maria on LinkedIn. Join the Cybersecurity Marketing Society on our website, and keep up with us on Twitter.

In this episode, Marc Blackmer, VP of Marketing at Corero Network Security, joins Maria and Gianna to discuss breaking through into marketing, green and red flags in companies and so much more.   Corero Network Security is a leader in real-time with high-performance DDoS defense solutions. Service providers, hosting providers, and digital enterprises rely on Corero’s award-winning technology to eliminate the DDoS threat to their environment through automatic attack detection and mitigation. This industry-leading technology delivers flexible protection that scales to tens of terabits, on-premises and in the cloud, with a dramatically lower cost of ownership than previously possible.   Marc takes us on his journey of how he moved to California after deciding to take a year off from college to pursue music. He was involved in marketing for 10-12 years,  Marc said getting the job was easy however, but the actual job wasn’t easy. He wanted to be perfect from the beginning, but you can’t be when you are starting out and still learning.   Marc also tells Maria and Gianna about some red and green flags to look out for when doing interviews with companies. He states that alignment between marketing, sales, and the product team is extremely important in a company.   The leaders in each of these areas need to: Communicate, Agree on messaging and where the product is going. While working together. He also motivates people to listen to themselves more, when things don’t feel right, they likely aren’t. If companies ask people to do things that are not okay in interviews, then imagine what would it be like working for them. When looking for green flags in leaders, he advises looking for leaders who are focused, friendly, energetic, and know what they want. Leaders who have a clear and realistic vision. While his advice to marketers is to get to know people, network, and be open to the idea that things that will change. There will be positives that come from change, and you will learn from it.   Links: Follow Marc Blackmer on LinkedIn. Keep up with Hacker Valley on our website, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter. Follow Gianna on LinkedIn. Catch up with Maria on LinkedIn. Join the Cybersecurity Marketing Society on our website, and keep up with us on Twitter.

Welcome to Breaking Through in Cybersecurity Marketing, where we explore the hottest topics in cyber marketing, interview experts and help you become a better cybersecurity marketer! In this episode, Steve LaChance, Founder and CEO of discernr, joins Maria and Gianna to discuss how to foster positive engagement.   Discernr is a consultancy centered around product market fit for product led growth. They are currently building out some digital tools to make the process even more accessible. The company helps organizations at all stages of their PLG journey. Engagement, Steve explains, is a conversation that organizations of all sizes should be having. He also shares how he deals with burnout in the workplace. All leaders should be aware of the importance of maintaining a positive team dynamic in order to steer their staff away from burnout themselves. To do this, leaders and employees alike should each share their own expectations for their role and projected growth. While burnout typically means the employee is gone for good, disengagement is when an employee tends to stick with the bare minimum.   Then, Steve shares his best tactics to inspire change within his team. Step one is around daily communication of both expectations and outcomes. Listeners are reminded that when employees feel they are just doing tedious work, they tend to build up resentment for the work. Leaders should ensure their employees feel like they matter and that their work is appreciated and useful for someone. Sometimes, an employee’s lack of engagement can also be a result of a lack of career advancement opportunities. If a leader is not providing a path towards learning and knowing how to level up their skillset, the employee will end up providing those things for themselves and will ultimately leave your team. Steve explains that career advancement does not always mean a succession of higher job titles. Many people are much happier as senior analysts or marketers than they would be in a C-suite position. Before wrapping up, our hosts and guest reiterate the necessity of career advancement for employee retention. Finally, they engage in a fun guessing game to reveal what career Steve would pursue outside of the cybersecurity marketing field.   Links:   Follow Steve LaChance on LinkedIn. Keep up with Hacker Valley on our website, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter. Follow Gianna on LinkedIn. Catch up with Maria on LinkedIn. Join the Cybersecurity Marketing Society on our website, and keep up with us on Twitter.  

Welcome to Breaking Through in Cybersecurity Marketing, where we explore the hottest topics in cyber marketing, interview experts and help you become a better cybersecurity marketer! In this episode, Shlomi Ashkenazy, Head of Brand at Cybellum, joins Maria and Gianna to discuss how to maximize your branding potential.   To begin, Shlomi defines branding as the core narrative and story your organization wants to tell. This narrative can be uncovered by asking customers key driving questions to determine how their perception grows over time. These questions may include things like How well do you know our company? Who do you see us as? and What do we do? Brand momentum is typically generated from a combination of what you do as a founder and the work of the sales team. Next, Shlomi shares his story of tying brand into a venture capital investment. It all comes down to convincing investors that something big is in store for your idea. Shlomi sees branding as an engineering discipline as if you are building out a product scientifically. It requires less intuition and more customer feedback.   Next, Shlomi speaks to how companies can stand out in such a crowded market like cybersecurity. The first thing to do is try to simplify things as much as possible to help people better understand what you do. Then, try to find a niche and really stick with it. He also shares about the efforts he has made which didn’t work out as planned. As long as you remain agile and can afford to make mistakes, there is always something to be learned when things don’t work out. He also shares his discovery that a CEO is not important for a brand, but rather the CEO is the brand. The best way to know when your company’s story is not working is when the sales team is unhappy. If, after trying it out and it still isn’t sticking, it’s time to change direction. In the first few years of operations, around 30-40% of a brand’s budget should go to marketing. Finally, they engage in a fun guessing game to reveal what career Shlomi would pursue outside of the cybersecurity marketing field.   Links:   Follow Shlomi Ashkenazy on LinkedIn. Keep up with Hacker Valley on our website, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter. Follow Gianna on LinkedIn. Catch up with Maria on LinkedIn. Join the Cybersecurity Marketing Society on our website, and keep up with us on Twitter.

Welcome to Breaking Through in Cybersecurity Marketing, where we explore the hottest topics in cyber marketing, interview experts, and help you become a better cybersecurity marketer! In this episode, Emily Cadwallader, Partner Marketing Manager at Binary Defense, shares her expertise with Gianna and Maria.   Emily first joined Binary Defense as a marketing specialist wearing lots of hats. Once the company found its footing in channel strategy, Emily was able to focus all her efforts on that specific area. Channel marketing differs slightly from more traditional marketing, she explains, because it requires a more strategy-focused approach. When it comes to making things exciting, Emily believes that consistent contact with partners is super important. In terms of being there for marketing and collaboration, your partners can almost serve as an extension of your sales team.  Emily and her team at Binary Defense work closely with their partners to ensure they are involved in quarterly training and staying up to date with the latest offerings.    Among Binary Defense’s partners include one tenure, several who are currently onboarding, and both regional and national partners. The first step of their most recent portal revamps was understanding what their ideal partner profile looked like. Next, Emily shares some of the company’s most successful field events. If a partner already has their year of marketing strategy planned out for the year, it can be a great opportunity to tie in with them. Many partners have a cyber-specific day in which they come to evaluate their clients and prospects. Then, she elaborated on centralizing communications and activities and why it is so important for a successful partner program. These come in two forms: centralizing your communications internally and keeping consistent, open communication with your partners.     Emily received the Star Performer Award at Binary for her work as a partner marketer. She unpacks some of the qualities of someone who excels in partner marketing. First and foremost, you need to be a good communicator and have prior experience in the different avenues of marketing. This role can’t be done alone, so the ability to collaborate with others is key. Finally, they engage in a fun guessing game to reveal what career Jennifer would pursue outside of the cybersecurity marketing field.   Links:   Follow Emily Cadwallader on LinkedIn. Keep up with Hacker Valley on our website, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter. Follow Gianna on LinkedIn. Catch up with Maria on LinkedIn. Join the Cybersecurity Marketing Society on our website, and keep up with us on Twitter.  

In this episode, Christophe Foulon, cybersecurity manager at a Fortune 500 company and Founder of CPF Coaching, joins Maria and Gianna.   To begin, Christophe shares that his idea for CPF Coaching came from the pandemic when many cybersecurity employees moved from in-office to remote work. He noticed they struggled with communication, collaboration, and influence in the new setting. His marketing experience comes into play here as he must convince leaders that cybersecurity is crucial to their business. He would sum up his entire career as the connection between the people and the technical side. In addition, Christophe also hosts the Breaking Into Cybersecurity podcast, which stems from his own experience and challenges of breaking into cybersecurity. He is also the author of two books about cybersecurity.   Next, Christophe unpacks how marketers already have the skills needed to break into the cybersecurity field. These skills include communication, collaboration, influence, and prior knowledge of your industry. Together, all these skills can work together to help the business solve solutions in a different way than those from a purely technical standpoint. Today, Christophe’s clients as a consultant include different lines of business within a large credit card division, each looking to deliver solutions for their different types of clients. His job is to deliver solutions and ensure that their data is protected. Looking towards the future, his following vision is to lead a security program for a mid-large size organization to help influence the development of a great cybersecurity pipeline and help implement planned growth.   Christophe offers his best advice for navigating these tricky waters. Figure out what problems you want to solve, how you can solve them, and what might set you apart from the competition, and then work with leaders to see where they might be in their program and how your solution can help. Finally, they engage in a fun guessing game to reveal what career Christophe would pursue outside of the cybersecurity marketing field.   Links: Follow Christophe Foulon on LinkedIn. Keep up with Hacker Valley on our website, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter. Follow Gianna on LinkedIn. Catch up with Maria on LinkedIn. Join the Cybersecurity Marketing Society on our website, and keep up with us on Twitter.   Christophe’s books: Develop Your Cybersecurity Career Path: How to Break into Cybersecurity at any Level Hack the Cybersecurity Interview: A complete interview preparation guide for jumpstarting your cybersecurity career    

Welcome to Breaking Through in Cybersecurity Marketing, where we explore the hottest topics in cyber marketing, interview experts and help you become a better cybersecurity marketer! In this episode, Ashish Kuthiala, CMO of Traceable AI joins Maria and Gianna.   To begin, Ashish shares his path to his current role. He was raised in several different countries and was able to experience different cultures, countries and schooling systems firsthand. He moved to the U.S. for his studies 25 years ago and now calls the country home. He has since worked in computer science, computer engineering, code writing product development and in various roles on the business side. His introduction to marketing was in product marketing, where he was able to merge his engineering background and his love for connecting people. Traceable is Ashish’s fifth startup, which he came to in the very beginning stages of the launch.   Each company Asish has worked for has taught him value lessons and skills which he has brought on to the next. With the mindset of experimenting a lot, learning from your experiments and reiterating a lot to find out what does and doesn't work, he believes you will be successful in any role. As a leader, it is crucial to build a culture in which employees feel free to experiment and learn from their failures. A key goal of marketing is to build a sales pipeline, which takes time and patience. Each quarter, he and his team look at all of the data to determine where they are on their trajectory.   Next, Ashish unpacks his fundamental approach to marketing. Today, most IT buyers educate themselves before deciding on a software. They already know what problems they want to solve, who can do it best and how much they should be paying for the service. From a marketing perspective, the most critical pieces are to be transparent, trustworthy and know your stakeholders. Employees and customers alike should be passionate about what they are building and eager to talk about it. He also addresses the common privacy concerns that transparency entails. This all comes down to velocity and moving faster than our competitors. Finally, our hosts and guest engage in a fun guessing game to reveal what career Ashish would pursue outside of the cybersecurity marketing field.   Links:   Follow Ashish Kuthiala on LinkedIn. Keep up with Hacker Valley on our website, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter. Follow Gianna on LinkedIn. Catch up with Maria on LinkedIn. Join the Cybersecurity Marketing Society on our website, and keep up with us on Twitter.

Welcome to Breaking Through in Cybersecurity Marketing, where we explore the hottest topics in cyber marketing, interview experts, and help you become a better cybersecurity marketer! In this episode, Jennifer Leggio, CMO at Netography, joins Maria and Gianna to discuss the changes she has seen in marketing throughout her career.   To begin, Jennifer shares that she began her career in journalism. In 2000, she decided to make a change and moved to Silicon Valley. She first worked for a small PR agency specializing in cybersecurity for clients. Here, she was able to spin her journalism background into PR. She fell in love with working at startups. Then, Jennifer shares her perspective that comm is separate from marketing before unpacking her perspective of the current market shift. Marketing and the economy come and go in cycles. Throughout her career so far, Jennifer has found that security is very resilient and an always-needed market.    After unpacking how the journey of buyers and marketers has changed, hear what marketers can do to make sure our heads are above water with these changes. Jennifer shares that, sadly, many companies have had to make major cutbacks for their marketing teams, and there will likely be even more to come. Some leaders are making these decisions based on 2008 principles of how marketing is done. Jennifer talks a lot about the importance of doing “outside-in” programs, meaning going where the buyers are. While a sales force is important to build a business, it can’t be the only area companies rely on for growth and scale. Cutting off the resources which are more difficult to track right away will nearly always backfire.     The best communications, Jennifer explains, include industry analysts. This all comes back to go where your buyers are rather than waiting for them to come to you. Getting the right type of content that ties into your values and will move a buyer persona in the right direction requires a strong communication team. Before wrapping up, Jennifer shares her best advice for sales and marketing alignment and tips for marketers who want to become CMOs one day. Finally, they engage in a fun guessing game to reveal what career Jennifer would pursue outside of the cybersecurity marketing field.    Links:   Follow Jennifer Leggio on LinkedIn. Keep up with Hacker Valley on our website, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter. Follow Gianna on LinkedIn. Catch up with Maria on LinkedIn. Join the Cybersecurity Marketing Society on our website, and keep up with us on Twitter.

! In this episode, Ashish Malpani, the head of global product marketing for DX, joins Maria and Gianna to discuss the journey into cyber security and digital experience for AR programs.   Ashish shares his thoughts on digital experience, how they provide the right tools to maintain good cyber hygiene, and how to improve the cyber security program. They also try to see what the customer experience is like. He goes on and explains how DX team is spread out in different parts, the types of content Ashish sees resonating so well with developers and technical customers. There are things you can do to reach out to the practitioner developer audience but still reach a high level of management in the IT space. Ashish explains that in the space of cyber security, we are either victims of it or itself serving the narrative.   Ashish further explains how he dealt with analyst relation programs in the past, He explains the different analyst firms and their categorization. Foresters spend a lot of the time in research doing analyst experience, which is the experience of your product to cybersecurity analyst within the company. He shares the tips to get the most out of your product analyst. Ashish shares his opinion on the employee-to-analyst ratio and why marketers need to know employee to analyst ratio. Ashish also tells us how many people are at his firm vs. employees. Market studies can be future looking, but it’s a challenge for product marketers to talk about the future and address today's reality. People need to evolve their cyber security programs to address the needs of tomorrow.   Before wrapping up, Ashish is engaged by our hosts in a fun guessing game to reveal what career he would pursue outside of the cybersecurity marketing field.   Follow Ashish Malponi on LinkedIn, Twitter, and  Website Follow Gianna on LinkedIn. Catch up with Maria on LinkedIn. Join the Cybersecurity Marketing Society on our website, and keep up with us on Twitter.

Welcome to Breaking Through in Cybersecurity Marketing, where we explore the hottest topics in cyber marketing, interview experts, and help you become a better cybersecurity marketer! In this episode, Gianna and Maria share some powerful insights into cybersecurity marketing society, what they do, and what other cybersecurity marketing societies are doing. Gianna and Mariana shed more light on the cyber security marketing society. It is the world’s largest community for cybersecurity marketers built by cybersecurity marketers for cybersecurity marketers. The cybersecurity community has created an opportunity to get together for those working hard in cybersecurity. They have provided an all-day marketer launch for people and also did a marketer party which was completely sold out. There were around 800 people on the waitlist. The party felt like a reunion where all marketers were coming together. Mariana and Gianna continue to talk more about the changes in cybersecurity since the previous year. They say that the cybersecurity industry lacks creativity. It is great to see vendors stepping up and thinking outside the box, pushing the envelope to get creative, and having fun doing what they are doing. This year there were a lot fewer outside activities than last year. The vibe overall, from the security perspective, feels normal and big again. Maria and Gianna also discussed their favorite booths they had seen. There are fully immersive booths with screens on the ceiling above people’s heads. Nowadays, things are moving to screening and lighting. Games are also taking the floor. Multiple people are doing comic superheroes, which is appealing to the audience. Magicians are back, and they are also drawing the crowd. There are so many ways to do things to grab attention. Some other security vendors even use sneakers for everyone to wear. There is also a continuation of the axonious campaign, controlling complexity and more. Even No name security provides rides to go to places around the city. In the marketing community industry, we do not want to lead with fear, uncertainty, and doubt, this industry is stressed enough, and we do not need to add stress from our messaging and marketing perspective. Selling, educating, and helping is a way to market, and the cybersecurity marketing society is here to help you stand out. Finally, Gianna and Maria conclude with conferences for more cybersecurity marketers where they say cybersecurity marketing will host an annual cyber marketing conference in Texas. Cybersecurity is ready to open opportunities for marketers in cybersecurity, cybersecurity agencies, and more. If you work with cybersecurity customers and have references for all customers who are happy with your services, members can find a free and open vendor directory. Follow Gianna on LinkedIn. Catch up with Maria on LinkedIn. Join the Cybersecurity Marketing Society on our website, and keep up with us on Twitter.