“There’s no dictionary for marketings strategies…when you work in a marketing team, if you’re going to keep trying what other people are doing—it’s not going to be productive. You have to do is be open to your market and your customers and talk to your customers.” Julian is the Co-Founder & Head of Growth at TheSecretCompany.co 🗝 a crew of serial entrepreneurs, with a pirate mindset, and secret co-founders of over 10 startups. Julian fell into entrepreneurship by selling computer scripts online at the impressive age of 14 years old. Over time he quickly developed a digital side-business studio, called SideFounders. He’s also co-founded an import-export company with a Chinese partner, exported machines to Africa and Europe, and sold thousands of masks during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic last year. His main focus right now is managing growth at The Secret Company. Questions we covered: What is “Pirate Marketing”? How do you define a “North Star” metric? What are some of the growth secrets he’s learned from starting several businesses? Can you describe Human Market Fit and how it differs from Product market fit? What makes for a good growth marketer? Why he looks for marketing experts who aren’t marketers? And more! LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/byjulian/ Medium: julianivaldy.medium.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/julianivaldy Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/julianivaldy Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/PirateMarketer If you’re interested you can join the Pirate Marketing movement by joining Julian’s community group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/piratemarketingcommunity

Agata is a growth mentor and a marketing leader with +10 years of experience in developing and executing growth strategies at companies like Google, Groove, and Piktochart. Currently, as a VP of Growth at Piktochart, she is leading a 100% remote marketing, sales, and product team. Together with her team, Agata is on the mission of empowering people to tell great visual stories that stick. Questions: Lessons she learned from her 7 years working at Google. Why is it hard to become an SEO expert? What is one of the hardest parts of managing a 100% remote team? How can managers measure the performance of their remote teammates? What should a content marketer focus on first—finding the right channels or discovering the right content format? What is an often overlooked metric that content marketers need to pay more attention to? What makes for a great Instagram ad in 2021? Should social media marketers have some sort of experience using Google Analytics? What does Agata look for when she is hiring new team members? Why is Product Hunt important? For any businesses launching on Product Hunt, what advice would she give them? Why are mentors essential to a marketer’s career growth? You can say hi to Agata via Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/agatakrzysztofik/ Resources mentioned⬇️ Backlinko (a great SEO learning resource): https://backlinko.com For a deeper dive into how OKRs help marketing teams, check out episode #56 of the podcast with Sarah Bond: https://anchor.fm/kennysoto/episodes/Interview-with-Sarah-Bond---Lessons-in-B2B-SaaS-Marketing-and-CRO----Episode-56-e17ldnb/a-a68tnmh Agata’s blog post on the CUTENESS ad formula for Instagram: https://piktochart.com/blog/create-winning-instagram-ads-with-cuteness-ad-formula/ If you need a Growth Mentor: https://www.growthmentor.com

David J.P. Fisher (D. Fish) is an internationally recognized keynote speaker, sales trainer, and business coach focused on bringing empathy and the human touch back into sales, social media, networking, and entrepreneurship. He is also the author of 9 books including the best-sellers “Hyper-Connected Selling” and "Networking in the 21st Century". And lastly, he is the host of "Beer, Beats, and Business", a podcast that shares his casual conversations with leaders in sales, marketing, and entrepreneurship. Questions I asked David include: How does David grow his personal brand as a “soloprenuer”? What are the benefits of being a published author? Any tips on how to market a book in 2021? What are the biggest mistakes sales professionals and marketers are making on LinkedIn? What strategies and tactics have you used to grow your personal brand? How has public speaking changed in 2021? What is a Sales Sherpa? You can learn more about David and say hello via LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/iamdfish And his website - https://davidjpfisher.com/about

Forrest Dombrow is a sales consultant at Solve Sales, a marketing and sales consultancy firm helping agencies get new leads and more clients. What makes them different is that they’ve walked the walk and have been contracted by brands like Amazon and Costco. Forrest was also named one of the Online Marketing Institute’s Top 40 Digital Strategists in Marketing and has over 17 years of experience as a sales consultant in this space. Questions we covered: How would he describe lean generation to a 10-year-old? Why inbound strategies and tactics work better than outbound (e.g. cold emails)? Does someone need to be an extrovert to be successful at sales? What are some changes that have occurred in the world of lead gen this year? What are some pitfalls businesses make when trying to coordinate a sales team and marketing team to work together? Why should B2B marketers attend sales calls? How does someone scale their agency from their 1st client to their 20th? You can learn more about Forrest at Solvesales.com or Forrest@solvesales.com Or via LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/forrest-dombrow/

“The most valuable skill that I’ve ever picked up is the ability to learn.” Moe Abbas is the Co-Founder and CEO of Acadium, a revolutionary company that enables just about anybody to launch a career in digital marketing - for free. Acadium has raised $1M from top angel investors like the ex-CEO of Expedia, and it has launched more careers in digital marketing than any other learning platform (which is saying something, let me tell y’all). Questions we discussed: Why is having some understanding in sales and buyer behavior useful for marketers? How did he come up with the idea for Acadium? How does someone launch a career as a freelancer or independent digital marketer? How can a marketer identify their strengths? What are the most in-demand skills marketers should know in 2022? What is the main difference between a digital marketer and a growth marketer? Where is the best place for marketers to learn more about unit economics? What are some of the challenges in marketing an EdTech business? You can connect with Moe via: Twitter: https://twitter.com/realmoeabbas And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/realmoeabbas

Sarah is the Senior Director of Marketing Strategy at Lucky Orange, a software company that helps businesses around the world improve website conversion rates. She is responsible for leading all aspects of marketing and communications including product marketing, brand positioning, market research, pricing strategies, and communications. Prior to joining Lucky Orange, Sarah grew her knowledge of marketing, communications, and brand strategy through roles with a Fortune 1000 health care information technology company, a marketing agency focused on higher education, and an Air Force public affairs office. In this episode we talked about: How often should a marketing team review their strategy documents? How should a marketing team use OKRs (Objects and Key Results) and goal-setting frameworks to leverage their strategy documents? What is Lucky Orange? How does Lucky Orange (the team) use Lucky Orange (the tool) for conversion rate optimization? How often should a business leverage giving out a free trial? What’s the difference between product-led growth and sales-led growth? How can B2B SaaS companies optimize their onboarding funnel? What’s the best way to build out experiments? What is a Product-Qualified Lead (PQL)? How often should a marketer experiment? And more! You can say Hi to Sarah via email - Sarah@LuckyOrange.com Resources Mentioned: Measure What Matters: How Google, Bono, and the Gates Foundation Rock the World with OKRs by John Doerr - https://amzn.to/2XIMIjn

“Write playbooks, don’t follow them.” Michael Wieder is Co-Founder, President and CMO at Lalo, and most importantly, dad to 18-month old Jemma. Utilizing his diverse experience helping build world-class brands, Michael oversees all of Lalo’s marketing and consumer engagement efforts. Prior to founding Lalo, Michael held various leadership positions, including Head of Brand Marketing and Partnerships at WayUp. He also gained valuable entrepreneurial experience, having founded a fitness-tech brand and a music management and event production firm. Michael graduated from the University of Michigan and currently lives in Brooklyn with his wife, daughter, and dog. In this episode we covered: The unique challenges involved when marketing to parents. How are the decision cycle and customer journey different? How has Lalo achieved product-market fit? How Lalo provides the emotional benefit their customers are looking for? The first year of Lalo’s growth and how they went about testing acquisition channels. The importance of creating a council of power users/power customers. Why creative > audience targeting is the way to go and is the best unlock to great marketing performance. Why a low-CAC or high ROAS isn’t necessarily a good thing. What Michael looks for when hiring marketing talent. Why’d focus more on organic growth vs paid growth in the early years of operating Lalo. And more! You can say hello to Michael via Twitter - https://twitter.com/mwieder

“People are more emotionally attached to people than they are to entities…when nonprofit leaders share their stories, it humanizes the nonprofit’s brand.” Maria Bryan helps founders create thriving nonprofits by marketing on purpose. She provides practical strategies and empathetic coaching to nonprofits ready to amplify their mission and their message. Maria is a firm believer that storytellers make the world a healthier, safer, cleaner, and happier place. Maria gave a lot of great answers to questions like: 1️⃣ How would you describe your role as a Nonprofit Marketing Strategist? 2️⃣ What are some of the unique marketing challenges nonprofit orgs face that other businesses don’t? 3️⃣ What makes up a good story? 4️⃣ Why should nonprofit leaders tell their own stories on social media? 5️⃣ If a marketer wanted to volunteer their time for a nonprofit, where should they search? And more… Connect with Maria through her website: https://www.mariabryan.com Or through⬇️ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mariabryancrtv/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/MariaBryanCrtv The Digital Marketing Hive | For Small Nonprofits & Businesses: https://www.facebook.com/groups/digitalmarketinghive

With over 12 years of digital marketing experience, Nicholas runs a conversion-focused growth marketing agency specializing in landing page optimization and marketing automation. He’s also the host of a top-rated podcast called Growth Marketing Toolbox and he writes a weekly marketing newsletter read by over 4,200 subscribers. In this episode we talked about how Nicholas manages his content marketing for two brands, the core differences between webpages and landing pages, how businesses can leverage a newsletter to grow community, the best certifications to get as a budding marketer, how businesses can vet Martech tools before purchasing them, and more! If you want to say “Hello” you can find Nicholas on LinkedIn, Tiktok, Twitter, and through his website: Growthmarketer.co Other resources mentioned: Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion, Revised Edition by Robert by Robert B. Cialdini (book on psychology every marketer should read) https://mymind.com (marketing swipe file) http://notion.so (marketing swipe file) https://evernote.com (marketing swipe file) https://www.leadpages.com (landing page software) http://clickfunnels.com (landing page software) https://unbounce.com (landing page software)

Cara Meiselman is the Director of Strategic Content & Performance at Slice. She is a seasoned marketing leader with 10+ years of experience working at high-growth startups. Cara has experience leading brand strategy for several large companies as well as creating custom training for corporate clients and their employees. Cara is a frequent speaker at conferences including INBOUND and Social Media Week and has featured blog posts on sites such as Mashable, Inc. and Forbes. In this episode we talked about Cara’s journey from law school to the marketing world, the unique challenges from marketing a B2B2C business, the hardest part about managing a content calendar, how to major a brand strategy’s impact, how to reach out to journalists and influencers, how marketers can get their writing featured on major publications, and much more! You can say Hello by visiting her website or her LinkedIn profile.