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What people want in your personal brand is authenticity.

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When you're building a personal brand,

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a big time-consuming part of it is engaging with your network.

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And there are tools out there, AI tools that will comment

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on your behalf.

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But at this point, it's so obvious that they're AI comments

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that I actually think it's harming your personal brand.

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I guess my message is that there are areas

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where you can take shortcuts.

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And then there are areas where, at least at this point,

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where we are in technology,

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you really need to put in the work.

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Because if people can tell that it's not you,

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you're having the opposite effect of what you're hoping for.

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[MUSIC PLAYING]

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Welcome to the Executive Connect podcast,

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a show for the new generation of leaders.

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Join Melissa R. Skog as she speaks to a wide variety of guests

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that bring new insights into leadership, prosperity,

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and personal growth.

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While no one has all the answers, by building a community

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of open-minded and engaged leaders,

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we hope to give you the tools you need

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to help you find your own path to success.

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[MUSIC PLAYING]

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Welcome to the Executive Connect podcast.

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Today we're welcoming Amy Gendon.

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She's here with us to talk about marketing

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and the age of AI.

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Amy is local to Boston and an executive leadership coach

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to women.

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Thank you so much, Amy, for being here today.

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Thanks for having me, Melissa.

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It's a true pleasure.

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Amy, let's talk about your journey from unpaid intern to CMO.

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Can you share with us your story?

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Yeah, so well, before I was an unpaid intern,

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I actually was a therapist.

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And I worked in psychiatric emergency rooms and in schools

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and crisis centers.

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And after about three years, I just felt like this isn't

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the right career path for me.

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There was too much burnout.

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It was really intense.

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And so I took a bunch of career coaching classes and tests

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and over and over again, marketing

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have coming up for me as an option.

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And I didn't know anything about marketing

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in a business background.

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And I was like, I don't know, 27, 28 at the time.

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And I thought, you know what?

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I'm just going to get an internship and try it out and see.

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I don't want to go all in if I don't love it.

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And that's what I did.

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I very humbly nannied on the side

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being a master's level professional

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and worked as an unpaid marketing intern

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and absolutely fell in love with it.

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Because for me, marketing is the psychology for business.

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And so I was working with people on the clinical side.

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And now I was thinking about it more through business lens.

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And I spent 15 years in marketing, working for agencies

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and big tech companies and public companies.

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And some of it was my own merit working hard.

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And some of it was right place, right time.

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But worked my way up to chief marketing officer

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of a public company.

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So quite a fast trajectory, I'd say.

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And I feel like I've seen it all at this point

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when it comes to marketing.

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I remember when I was in college, people don't always

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stay with the career they study in college.

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They say they switch their careers about 10 times.

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Can you share with us a little bit about your journey

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and how mental health has helped you

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become a successful marketer and leader?

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Yeah, I mean, I think that any job

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where you have to work with people,

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there is a skill in understanding mental health.

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I think that it made me a much more empathetic leader

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in understanding what people are going through

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and that life happens and that you can't really

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separate work in life.

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It's all one big messy blob that we have to navigate through

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together.

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And then in marketing, you know, it really, I think,

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helped me understand the buyer a little bit more.

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I had some clients back in my agency days

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who had some of the most boring, square products

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that you could possibly think of.

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But they're still selling to humans, right?

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And so at the end of the day, it was my job to somehow

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empathize and understand and make that emotional connection

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for them and really bring out the highlights

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of the products or the services that my clients were offering

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in a way that resonated.

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And I think that by understanding psychology

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and understanding mental health and what makes people tick,

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you're just that much better at anything

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that involves working with people.

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I hear a lot people saying how expensive marketing is

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or being on Google or using different marketing tools,

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but marketing is a must these days.

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Talk to me a little bit about how your business

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leverages marketing, either fractional or full-time

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and what marketing tools you're using

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that other successful business owners can leverage.

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Yeah, I mean, marketing looks very different

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depending on the stage of your business,

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your business model, who you're selling to.

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I don't believe that there's a one size

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fits all marketing plan for every company.

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I've done marketing for startups on a $500 budget

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and I've done marketing for companies

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with a $5 million budget.

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And so depending on where you are and what you can afford,

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there are things that companies can do.

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For me, I'm a huge believer in building a brand.

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I think that storytelling and getting your credibility

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out there is so, so, so important to cut through the noise.

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There's never been more competition online

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than there ever has been before.

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And so at the very least, without very much effort,

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you can be on social media.

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You can have a website that looks professionally designed.

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You can even grab templates from Wix and WordPress.

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I mean, you don't have to spend a lot of money

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to have a really sharp brand and message that resonates.

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And then, you know, depending on who your audience is

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and where they are, that can tailor

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the different channels where you show up.

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So, no, I'm a huge believer in everyone needs marketing

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in some way.

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It's just that it's gonna look different for every business.

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Amy, can you share with our listeners

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a little bit about some of the marketing tools you leverage

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for your business and things they can leverage

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to get real time results for their marketing spend?

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I mean, I think the best thing that anyone can do

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is really understand their target audience

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and that does not cost any money.

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And so, sitting down with your prospects

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and understanding what their pain points are,

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what solutions at your products or services

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are trying to solve and really crafting a message

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that's gonna resonate is number one, right?

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If you don't have that, then your marketing is never

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gonna get off-figure-owned.

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In terms of actual sort of tactical channels,

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I'm a big believer in content.

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We are consuming content and video, especially more than ever.

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Video can be really expensive to do well,

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but it doesn't have to be.

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There are some actually some great AI video tools out there now

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where you can feed it, for example, a blog post

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and ask it to turn it into a one or two minute

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promotional video and it does a pretty good job

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with not a lot of feedback.

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There's one tool, I mean, I'm not being sponsored by them,

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but there's one tool that I've used in the past called Flixer

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that is like $32 a month or something, it's so cheap.

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And I think getting content out there

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that really resonates with your audience,

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whether it's on social media, on email marketing,

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Google ads, Google will give you $500 free.

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The first time you start advertising with them.

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So these platforms are really trying to incentivize people

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to use their products and you can't make money

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without spending money.

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And so there has to be somewhat of an investment

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in marketing at some level.

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The industry rule of thumb is typically five to 10%

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of your revenue should go to your marketing budget.

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Amy, how do you keep your marketing scaling and growing

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and staying relevant in the world we live in today?

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Is there any unique approaches you use

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that you can share with our listeners today?

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I mean, in the last couple of years,

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a position that I have hired for that has been critical

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to my team's has been a marketing technologist

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because these days, unless you have someone on the team

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who is solely dedicated to keeping up with all the technologies

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that knows what's integrating with what,

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how much it's gonna cost, what data you're gonna get back,

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how to dashboard everything so you can bubble it up

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to the C-suite.

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I mean, you could really just get lost in a sea

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of opportunities and technologies that are out there.

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And so I see a marketing technologist

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as almost like an engineer,

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like almost like a marketing engineer in a way.

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Like someone who really understands all the tech

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and can bring that together in house

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in a way that's sophisticated,

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but still simple enough to use and understand.

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And I think that that is definitely going to be a position

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that becomes more and more in demand as AI

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becomes more and more sophisticated.

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Absolutely.

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That's a great point.

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We actually have to tell those marketing tools what to do.

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We can't just turn them on and make them work.

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We have to actually tune them and tell them what to do.

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How have you seen technology change since when you first started

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your career in marketing as an intern and CMO?

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Can you share with our listeners a little bit

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about what you're seeing now in the digital age

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and in your marketing journey?

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Yeah, I mean, it's exploding and it's continuing to explode

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and it's not gonna slow down anytime soon.

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I mean, when I was a marketing intern,

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first of all, most of the data was siloed.

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You could get your social media data,

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you could get your email data,

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you could get your website data, you could get your ad data

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and everything kind of lived in separate areas.

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One thing that I've seen is all of that has really come together

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which is really nice.

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So you can start seeing the fruits of your labor across channels

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and scale up and scale down in different places

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depending on what's working and what's not.

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But I think, you know, the other thing is that AI is really

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changing the role of marketers themselves.

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So for example, it used to be really important

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for a marketer to be a really strong writer.

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But now with things like chat GPT and Po,

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it's much more important for a marketer to be a strong copy editor,

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right? You don't have to be the one sitting down

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and writing all the words anymore.

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You need to be the visionary

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and then the person to take a big draft of copy

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and then fix it and mold it and turn it into what you want.

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Same with graphic design, same with video editing,

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same with data analysis.

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There's a lot of tools out there now

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that never existed before

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and it's becoming the job of the marketer

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to both feed and prompt those tools

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but also then interpret it

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versus doing a lot of that manual labor themselves.

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And so, you know, a tool is only as good as the person

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who's using it.

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So it's going to become incredibly important

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for marketers especially to really be able to understand

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the tools themselves so that they can get the outputs

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that they're looking for.

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From your perspective, Amy, what are some pop skills

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CMOs need to have today?

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Well, for CMO, typically they're not doing a lot

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of the day to day work.

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They're much more on the management of people

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understanding the latest and greatest of, you know,

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where marketing is going,

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making sure that the strategy makes sense

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with the rest of where the business is going,

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working closely with the other departments

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to make sure that marketing is meeting

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the needs of those departments.

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But within those areas, I think A,

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it's defining and redefining your marketing org.

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I mean, these positions are changing rapidly

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because technology is changing rapidly.

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And so as a CMO, you've got to always be thinking,

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like, do I have the right people for where marketing is going?

265
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Because three years ago, we were doing X

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and now we're doing Y and in five years,

267
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we might be doing Z.

268
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And so there's a real challenge there

269
00:14:06,800 --> 00:14:09,280
when it comes to skill set and making sure

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that A, you've got the right people

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and B, you're developing the people

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that you have appropriately to be able to evolve

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with those changes.

274
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One of the biggest challenges I've had in management

275
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and in leadership is not everyone wants to evolve,

276
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not everyone wants their role to change every year.

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It's incredibly stressful.

278
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And so the people in my companies who've really outlasted

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are the ones with a lot of mental agility and flexibility

280
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who are willing to kind of roll with it

281
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and say, okay, I was a writer and now I'm an editor

282
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or I was doing email marketing

283
00:14:47,480 --> 00:14:49,480
and now I'm doing marketing automation

284
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and really just willing to continually learn.

285
00:14:53,840 --> 00:14:56,520
Let's talk a little bit about marketing yourself

286
00:14:56,520 --> 00:14:59,200
on LinkedIn and other social channels.

287
00:14:59,200 --> 00:15:01,160
I know over the last few years,

288
00:15:01,160 --> 00:15:04,440
I've started to put myself out there more on LinkedIn

289
00:15:04,440 --> 00:15:06,520
and other social channels.

290
00:15:06,520 --> 00:15:09,120
Is there anything you could share with our listeners

291
00:15:09,120 --> 00:15:11,720
who might be on a budget on ways

292
00:15:11,720 --> 00:15:14,480
they can market themselves better online?

293
00:15:14,480 --> 00:15:17,560
- Yeah, I mean, I'm a big believer

294
00:15:17,560 --> 00:15:20,240
in everyone should have a personal brand.

295
00:15:20,240 --> 00:15:23,200
You can never, I mean, I think it's a huge myth

296
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that if you're a W or two employee or safe

297
00:15:26,240 --> 00:15:28,520
and if you're an entrepreneur, you're taking a risk

298
00:15:28,520 --> 00:15:31,760
'cause at the end of the day, everyone can get fired.

299
00:15:31,760 --> 00:15:35,280
And so having a personal brand is so important

300
00:15:35,280 --> 00:15:39,320
because that is your credibility, that is your network.

301
00:15:39,320 --> 00:15:42,160
If anything were to happen or if you're not loving

302
00:15:42,160 --> 00:15:43,400
the direction of the company

303
00:15:43,400 --> 00:15:45,080
and you wanna go somewhere else,

304
00:15:45,080 --> 00:15:48,680
you have the power and the leg up to do that

305
00:15:48,680 --> 00:15:52,760
over someone who is not putting themselves out there.

306
00:15:52,760 --> 00:15:55,400
I mean, in terms of building up a brand

307
00:15:55,400 --> 00:15:58,480
whether it's on LinkedIn or somewhere else,

308
00:15:58,480 --> 00:16:01,840
I'm a huge fan of Canva.

309
00:16:01,840 --> 00:16:03,680
I'm not a strong graphic designer,

310
00:16:03,680 --> 00:16:05,640
but I have an eye for design.

311
00:16:05,640 --> 00:16:07,680
Canva is such a nice tool

312
00:16:07,680 --> 00:16:11,000
because people respond to video

313
00:16:11,000 --> 00:16:13,080
and they respond to images.

314
00:16:13,080 --> 00:16:17,360
And all of Canva is these pre-made templates.

315
00:16:17,360 --> 00:16:20,360
You throw in the colors that you want, you choose your font

316
00:16:20,360 --> 00:16:22,640
and then you've got these beautiful images

317
00:16:22,640 --> 00:16:25,400
already created for you that you can download.

318
00:16:25,400 --> 00:16:27,880
And you've already, you're already looking professional,

319
00:16:27,880 --> 00:16:30,880
but you don't have to hire a graphic designer

320
00:16:30,880 --> 00:16:34,920
or try to spend all this time designing something yourself

321
00:16:34,920 --> 00:16:39,920
in order to sort of be a cut above others

322
00:16:39,920 --> 00:16:42,640
who are putting themselves out there.

323
00:16:42,640 --> 00:16:45,280
I think coming back to content,

324
00:16:45,280 --> 00:16:48,400
the only way to build your brand is to have content.

325
00:16:48,400 --> 00:16:49,640
I mean, you know this, right?

326
00:16:49,640 --> 00:16:54,200
It's your podcast, it's your posts, it's videos,

327
00:16:54,200 --> 00:16:56,760
it's blogging, it's just putting your thoughts

328
00:16:56,760 --> 00:16:59,040
out there over and over again.

329
00:16:59,040 --> 00:17:03,040
And so that, there aren't really shortcuts for that.

330
00:17:03,040 --> 00:17:05,600
You have to be thoughtful, you have to take time

331
00:17:05,600 --> 00:17:09,320
to really think about who you are similar to marketing.

332
00:17:09,320 --> 00:17:12,720
It's, but you yourself are the target audience.

333
00:17:12,720 --> 00:17:13,560
Who are you?

334
00:17:13,560 --> 00:17:16,280
What do you wanna say to the world?

335
00:17:16,280 --> 00:17:17,800
What value do you wanna bring?

336
00:17:17,800 --> 00:17:19,720
What legacy do you wanna leave behind?

337
00:17:19,720 --> 00:17:23,160
Really kind of digging in and answering those questions.

338
00:17:23,160 --> 00:17:28,160
And then, you know, creating a content platform

339
00:17:28,160 --> 00:17:31,040
that really touches on those areas.

340
00:17:31,040 --> 00:17:34,680
So, you know, there are no shortcuts to personal branding

341
00:17:34,680 --> 00:17:35,520
in my opinion.

342
00:17:35,520 --> 00:17:38,240
I think that it's a long game and it's something

343
00:17:38,240 --> 00:17:42,280
you have to kind of continually work at over and over again,

344
00:17:42,280 --> 00:17:44,480
but it's definitely worth the effort.

345
00:17:44,480 --> 00:17:47,400
That said, you know, tools like Canva

346
00:17:47,400 --> 00:17:50,680
or social media scheduling, tools like Hootswee

347
00:17:50,680 --> 00:17:53,000
where you can schedule your posts ahead of time

348
00:17:53,000 --> 00:17:56,880
can certainly cut down on some of the manual time

349
00:17:56,880 --> 00:17:58,480
that you might be spending on it.

350
00:17:59,560 --> 00:18:02,000
One of the things I love about LinkedIn now

351
00:18:02,000 --> 00:18:06,000
that I do on the weekend is I schedule my own posts

352
00:18:06,000 --> 00:18:07,120
during the weekend.

353
00:18:07,120 --> 00:18:09,240
So while I'm working during the week,

354
00:18:09,240 --> 00:18:11,080
my posts are actually going out

355
00:18:11,080 --> 00:18:13,840
and I don't even have to think about it.

356
00:18:13,840 --> 00:18:15,840
Are there any other tools that you can share

357
00:18:15,840 --> 00:18:18,720
with our listeners that you're leveraging

358
00:18:18,720 --> 00:18:20,400
that may be useful?

359
00:18:20,400 --> 00:18:21,240
Yeah.

360
00:18:21,240 --> 00:18:25,280
So one thing that I think is becoming fairly controversial

361
00:18:25,280 --> 00:18:28,920
is actually using AI tools to build your personal brand.

362
00:18:28,920 --> 00:18:32,400
So there are a number of tools out there

363
00:18:32,400 --> 00:18:35,320
that you upload a photo of yourself

364
00:18:35,320 --> 00:18:38,960
and it takes your face and changes your outfit

365
00:18:38,960 --> 00:18:40,640
and changes your background

366
00:18:40,640 --> 00:18:43,600
and then gives you 40 different photos of yourself

367
00:18:43,600 --> 00:18:48,120
without having to pay for a professional photography shoot.

368
00:18:48,120 --> 00:18:51,240
But a lot of them at this point,

369
00:18:51,240 --> 00:18:54,080
you can still tell that it's AI

370
00:18:54,080 --> 00:18:58,120
and what people want in your personal brand is authenticity.

371
00:18:58,120 --> 00:19:03,120
And so I tend to steer clear of AI tools

372
00:19:03,120 --> 00:19:08,680
that are making, you know, are basically fake versions of you.

373
00:19:08,680 --> 00:19:11,560
Similarly, when you're building a personal brand,

374
00:19:11,560 --> 00:19:15,160
a big time consuming part of it is engaging

375
00:19:15,160 --> 00:19:18,000
with your network and engaging with your community.

376
00:19:18,000 --> 00:19:20,840
And there are tools out there, AI tools

377
00:19:20,840 --> 00:19:23,520
that will comment on your behalf.

378
00:19:23,520 --> 00:19:27,760
But at this point, it's so obvious that they're AI comments

379
00:19:27,760 --> 00:19:31,160
that I actually think it's harming your personal brand.

380
00:19:31,160 --> 00:19:35,240
And so I guess my message is that there are areas

381
00:19:35,240 --> 00:19:37,760
where you can take shortcuts and then there are areas

382
00:19:37,760 --> 00:19:41,360
where at least at this point where we are in technology,

383
00:19:41,360 --> 00:19:43,480
really need to put in the work

384
00:19:43,480 --> 00:19:46,360
because if people can tell that it's not you,

385
00:19:46,360 --> 00:19:48,680
you're having the opposite effect

386
00:19:48,680 --> 00:19:50,080
of what you're hoping for.

387
00:19:50,080 --> 00:19:53,440
- I love that you said being authentic.

388
00:19:53,440 --> 00:19:56,840
I know a lot of times most of my posts in LinkedIn

389
00:19:56,840 --> 00:20:00,600
have been about business or cybersecurity,

390
00:20:00,600 --> 00:20:03,960
but lately I've been being more authentic with my posts

391
00:20:03,960 --> 00:20:08,800
and talking about my children, my family, my hobbies.

392
00:20:08,800 --> 00:20:11,080
And I think that's a really big part

393
00:20:11,080 --> 00:20:13,720
of being online social now is being authentic

394
00:20:13,720 --> 00:20:17,400
and sharing more about the other side of your life.

395
00:20:17,400 --> 00:20:20,520
I haven't thought about using AI for my headshot.

396
00:20:20,520 --> 00:20:22,920
I know headshots are thousands of dollars,

397
00:20:22,920 --> 00:20:27,200
so that's a really good idea is to use AI

398
00:20:27,200 --> 00:20:32,200
to create more unique headshots for social.

399
00:20:32,200 --> 00:20:33,160
- I don't know.

400
00:20:33,160 --> 00:20:35,520
I mean half of them you end up with like six fingers

401
00:20:35,520 --> 00:20:37,920
or three arms and it's like, okay,

402
00:20:37,920 --> 00:20:41,640
this isn't even work, but it's challenging

403
00:20:41,640 --> 00:20:45,480
because people want, you know, it's like,

404
00:20:45,480 --> 00:20:49,480
they want polish but a little bit of natural.

405
00:20:49,480 --> 00:20:52,880
It's like they don't want you to show up in your bath robe

406
00:20:52,880 --> 00:20:55,840
but they also don't want absolute perfection

407
00:20:55,840 --> 00:21:00,840
which is such a hard sort of space to fit in.

408
00:21:00,840 --> 00:21:05,000
And you don't want it to become performative either.

409
00:21:05,000 --> 00:21:07,640
I would say, you know, to your point about

410
00:21:07,640 --> 00:21:09,320
putting your personal life out there,

411
00:21:09,320 --> 00:21:12,760
I'm a big believer in everyone has a different level

412
00:21:12,760 --> 00:21:13,600
of privacy.

413
00:21:13,600 --> 00:21:16,320
I know people who would never, ever, ever post

414
00:21:16,320 --> 00:21:19,240
about their family or post a picture of their child,

415
00:21:19,240 --> 00:21:23,720
I tend to be a little bit more open for better,

416
00:21:23,720 --> 00:21:26,160
for worse about those things.

417
00:21:26,160 --> 00:21:28,680
So I would never give people the advice

418
00:21:28,680 --> 00:21:30,640
like, you know, put your family out there

419
00:21:30,640 --> 00:21:32,640
if that's not something that you and your family

420
00:21:32,640 --> 00:21:34,240
are comfortable with.

421
00:21:34,240 --> 00:21:36,120
But I think there's a way to be personal

422
00:21:36,120 --> 00:21:40,320
without necessarily giving it all away either.

423
00:21:40,320 --> 00:21:41,880
It's an art for sure.

424
00:21:41,880 --> 00:21:46,360
I love the idea of using HootSuite across all the apps.

425
00:21:46,360 --> 00:21:49,000
I know one of the things I struggle with personally

426
00:21:49,000 --> 00:21:52,200
is trying to post on all these channels.

427
00:21:52,200 --> 00:21:54,600
The beautiful thing about Instagram is if you post

428
00:21:54,600 --> 00:21:57,960
on Instagram, it also posts on Facebook.

429
00:21:57,960 --> 00:22:00,160
But I think HootSuite's a great idea

430
00:22:00,160 --> 00:22:02,520
and I'm definitely gonna check it out

431
00:22:02,520 --> 00:22:07,200
and consider using it across my social media profiles.

432
00:22:07,200 --> 00:22:11,680
- Yes, but the caveat being that you don't necessarily

433
00:22:11,680 --> 00:22:15,880
want to have a copy/paste message across all of those apps

434
00:22:15,880 --> 00:22:20,880
because each app has its own sort of criteria, right?

435
00:22:20,880 --> 00:22:24,480
Like Twitter has a certain number of characters

436
00:22:24,480 --> 00:22:26,720
and, or I guess it's X now,

437
00:22:26,720 --> 00:22:28,680
has a certain number of characters

438
00:22:28,680 --> 00:22:32,360
and hashtags work better there versus Instagram,

439
00:22:32,360 --> 00:22:35,000
versus LinkedIn, and also your audiences

440
00:22:35,000 --> 00:22:36,760
might be different too.

441
00:22:36,760 --> 00:22:39,480
So especially depending on your business model,

442
00:22:39,480 --> 00:22:42,160
you might have like a B2B2C business model

443
00:22:42,160 --> 00:22:45,240
and in those cases, you're talking to the consumer

444
00:22:45,240 --> 00:22:48,160
on one app, but you're talking to the buyer on another app

445
00:22:48,160 --> 00:22:52,200
and so your message might be different some of the time too.

446
00:22:52,200 --> 00:22:54,920
So even though it's more time consuming,

447
00:22:54,920 --> 00:22:59,920
I think it's better to really craft for the platform.

448
00:22:59,920 --> 00:23:03,760
And like in my case, for example,

449
00:23:03,760 --> 00:23:06,320
I am on every single platform,

450
00:23:06,320 --> 00:23:08,560
but I spend the majority of my time on LinkedIn

451
00:23:08,560 --> 00:23:11,800
because I know that's where my target audience is.

452
00:23:11,800 --> 00:23:15,640
And so if you wanna be everywhere,

453
00:23:15,640 --> 00:23:17,000
but you don't have a lot of time,

454
00:23:17,000 --> 00:23:20,880
my recommendation would be to choose one social media platform

455
00:23:20,880 --> 00:23:22,880
where you can really go all in,

456
00:23:22,880 --> 00:23:24,640
you can engage with your target audience,

457
00:23:24,640 --> 00:23:28,440
you can understand the best way to optimize your content

458
00:23:28,440 --> 00:23:31,080
and your profile and be there,

459
00:23:31,080 --> 00:23:34,400
versus doing kind of a crappy job everywhere,

460
00:23:34,400 --> 00:23:36,840
it's not gonna get you what you're looking for.

461
00:23:36,840 --> 00:23:40,160
- That's so funny and I really agree with it.

462
00:23:40,160 --> 00:23:45,160
I am new myself to X and I just got my own profile recently

463
00:23:45,160 --> 00:23:48,360
and you're right, it is so different

464
00:23:48,360 --> 00:23:50,120
than the other social channels.

465
00:23:50,120 --> 00:23:53,720
LinkedIn's been my primary social media that I use

466
00:23:53,720 --> 00:23:57,360
and it's a whole different language now on X.

467
00:23:57,360 --> 00:24:00,960
So for our listeners, can you share with them

468
00:24:00,960 --> 00:24:04,560
the top three things that they need to know

469
00:24:04,560 --> 00:24:06,840
when building their own brand online?

470
00:24:06,840 --> 00:24:09,320
- That's a great question.

471
00:24:09,320 --> 00:24:14,320
I think number one is know your story.

472
00:24:14,320 --> 00:24:19,160
People just intuitively respond to a story.

473
00:24:19,160 --> 00:24:21,360
They wanna see themselves and other people,

474
00:24:21,360 --> 00:24:24,200
they wanna connect, they wanna feel normal.

475
00:24:24,200 --> 00:24:28,320
And so if you know your own story and you know how to tell that

476
00:24:28,320 --> 00:24:32,080
and you know how to tell it in 10 seconds and 30 seconds

477
00:24:32,080 --> 00:24:34,880
and two minutes and 10 minutes, even better,

478
00:24:34,880 --> 00:24:38,760
but I think knowing your story is probably the most important

479
00:24:38,760 --> 00:24:42,920
thing because that is what's going to drive all of your content

480
00:24:42,920 --> 00:24:46,200
and your voice and your tone and who you are

481
00:24:46,200 --> 00:24:47,120
and where you're going.

482
00:24:47,120 --> 00:24:49,200
I think that's number one.

483
00:24:49,200 --> 00:24:55,240
I think number two is get out there.

484
00:24:55,240 --> 00:24:57,640
It's so uncomfortable.

485
00:24:57,640 --> 00:25:02,480
A lot of people don't want to be creating a digital footprint

486
00:25:02,480 --> 00:25:05,480
for themselves, but these days you have to.

487
00:25:05,480 --> 00:25:09,160
And so even if it's awkward, I promise you,

488
00:25:09,160 --> 00:25:11,560
no one is cringing except for you.

489
00:25:11,560 --> 00:25:16,280
No one cares as much about you as you do about yourself.

490
00:25:16,280 --> 00:25:19,520
And so taking the step to put yourself out there

491
00:25:19,520 --> 00:25:23,920
on social media to maybe it's build a personal website,

492
00:25:23,920 --> 00:25:27,000
maybe you've got a passion project on the side,

493
00:25:27,000 --> 00:25:30,320
but put it out there and share it with people,

494
00:25:30,320 --> 00:25:32,480
I think is huge.

495
00:25:32,480 --> 00:25:36,800
And then I think the third thing is know your audience

496
00:25:36,800 --> 00:25:39,520
and know where they are online and be where they are

497
00:25:39,520 --> 00:25:41,840
and meet them and talk to them and get to know them

498
00:25:41,840 --> 00:25:46,440
because you just will never be effective unless you know

499
00:25:46,440 --> 00:25:50,080
not only yourself, but who you're talking to

500
00:25:50,080 --> 00:25:53,880
and whether what you're saying is resonating for them.

501
00:25:53,880 --> 00:25:56,280
At the end of the day, we all have value

502
00:25:56,280 --> 00:25:59,680
that we want to add to individuals or to companies

503
00:25:59,680 --> 00:26:04,440
or to whomever and without having those critical conversations,

504
00:26:04,440 --> 00:26:06,280
we just, we won't know our value.

505
00:26:06,280 --> 00:26:09,680
So to me in a lot of ways, I think the future of marketing

506
00:26:09,680 --> 00:26:14,320
is getting back in touch with marketing foundations

507
00:26:14,320 --> 00:26:16,760
and making sure that you're doing a lot of the things

508
00:26:16,760 --> 00:26:21,520
that they teach in MBA schools.

509
00:26:21,520 --> 00:26:24,160
Now the same question for businesses,

510
00:26:24,160 --> 00:26:27,840
what are the top three things that businesses need to know

511
00:26:27,840 --> 00:26:29,320
when branding themselves?

512
00:26:29,320 --> 00:26:32,720
Yeah, I mean number one is don't cut your marketing budget.

513
00:26:32,720 --> 00:26:34,120
(laughs)

514
00:26:34,120 --> 00:26:36,920
I, there's so many companies out there

515
00:26:36,920 --> 00:26:41,120
they think marketing is a nice to have and not a must have.

516
00:26:41,120 --> 00:26:44,240
But the truth is that if you have great marketing,

517
00:26:44,240 --> 00:26:46,600
it's going to shorten your sales cycles.

518
00:26:46,600 --> 00:26:49,280
It's going to create demand.

519
00:26:49,280 --> 00:26:51,840
People are gonna want what you have.

520
00:26:51,840 --> 00:26:57,000
So I stand by my five to 10% of revenue

521
00:26:57,000 --> 00:26:59,960
should go into your marketing budget,

522
00:26:59,960 --> 00:27:04,960
no matter if you're B to C or B to B or B to C.

523
00:27:04,960 --> 00:27:07,520
That's, that's key for sure.

524
00:27:07,520 --> 00:27:10,000
And then I think, you know,

525
00:27:10,000 --> 00:27:12,880
higher the marketing technologist be smart

526
00:27:12,880 --> 00:27:15,480
about the tools that you're using.

527
00:27:15,480 --> 00:27:20,080
It's so easy to just have this overly complicated tech stack

528
00:27:20,080 --> 00:27:21,880
where you don't know how the tools are using.

529
00:27:21,880 --> 00:27:23,960
They don't communicate with each other

530
00:27:23,960 --> 00:27:26,080
and you're creating way more work.

531
00:27:26,080 --> 00:27:28,200
So make sure you have someone on the team

532
00:27:28,200 --> 00:27:31,440
who is really on the up and up with what's happening

533
00:27:31,440 --> 00:27:35,360
technologically and can figure out what your company needs

534
00:27:35,360 --> 00:27:37,640
based on your strategy.

535
00:27:37,640 --> 00:27:40,120
And then I think the third thing is like,

536
00:27:40,120 --> 00:27:42,520
to me, like marketing is such a great department

537
00:27:42,520 --> 00:27:45,160
because it sits at the intersection

538
00:27:45,160 --> 00:27:47,120
of all the other departments, right?

539
00:27:47,120 --> 00:27:49,840
It works closely with products, it works closely with sales,

540
00:27:49,840 --> 00:27:52,280
it works closely with customer success.

541
00:27:52,280 --> 00:27:57,280
And so, you know, really understand what the other departments

542
00:27:57,280 --> 00:28:03,160
need to be successful and be that support system for them.

543
00:28:03,160 --> 00:28:06,720
So many people in my career have had complaints that,

544
00:28:06,720 --> 00:28:09,240
you know, markers say they don't have time for me,

545
00:28:09,240 --> 00:28:10,240
they don't have time for me.

546
00:28:10,240 --> 00:28:14,520
So build a team that can support the rest of the organization

547
00:28:14,520 --> 00:28:16,440
and then everybody succeeds.

548
00:28:16,440 --> 00:28:19,880
I love that those were both great things

549
00:28:19,880 --> 00:28:23,800
to share personally and professionally on how people

550
00:28:23,800 --> 00:28:27,000
can build their personal brand online.

551
00:28:27,000 --> 00:28:30,000
I wanna thank you for being here today, Amy,

552
00:28:30,000 --> 00:28:33,160
and being on the Executive Connect podcast.

553
00:28:33,160 --> 00:28:34,440
That's all for us.

554
00:28:34,440 --> 00:28:35,520
Thanks for joining.

555
00:28:35,520 --> 00:28:40,720
- You've been listening to the Executive Connect podcast.

556
00:28:40,720 --> 00:28:43,800
If you have questions or ideas on how to bring leadership

557
00:28:43,800 --> 00:28:48,320
to the next level, email us at Executive Connect podcast

558
00:28:48,320 --> 00:28:50,200
at gmail.com.

559
00:28:50,200 --> 00:28:51,600
And don't forget to subscribe

560
00:28:51,600 --> 00:28:54,200
so you can catch every new episode.

561
00:28:54,200 --> 00:28:55,360
Until next time.

562
00:28:55,360 --> 00:28:57,940
(upbeat music)

563
00:28:57,940 --> 00:29:00,520
(upbeat music)