The People of Digital Marketing

Alex is a former professional soccer player turned growth marketer and now works as a community growth manager at Funnel, a marketing data platform with over 1500 customers including Adidas, Samsung, and Havas. Prior to Funnel, Alex worked agency-side at Brainlabs building cross-channel digital growth strategies for brands such as Digicel & MARS. Questions and topics covered: The story on how...

Aazar Ali Shad is a Growth Marketing Lead at Synthesis.is , an online games-based academy started by Elon Musk and Chrisman Frank. He has a podcast called Growth Marketing Stories where he tells unconventional growth stories. He also has more than 10 years of marketing and sales experience. Questions we covered: Why did he make the transition from sales to marketing? What’s been the hardest c...

Foti graduated with a degree in finance in 2007 but, quickly pivoted into digital marketing a year later as the first non-engineer hire at the managed hosting provider, EuroVPS. Fast forward a decade and in 2018 he launched his startup called GrowthMentor which helps founders and marketers connect with vetted mentors. Questions we covered include: Why did he create GrowthMentor? How woul...

“You want to make sure your survey questions result in stories.” Michele Linn is the founder of Mantis Research where she helps content and community managers conduct surveys so they can learn about their audience and publish compelling, original research findings. Prior to Mantis, Michele was head of editorial at Content Marketing Institute, where she led the company's editorial strategy and...

“[E-commerce marketing] is so difficult now because anyone can open up a Shopify store, you collaborate with other brands and sell [their products], you can drop-ship, there are just so many stores and everybody is just trying to make it…” Jimmy Zona is the Director of E-Commerce & Digital Marketing for Turbie Twist. At Turbie Twist, he created and scaled the company's digital presence in...

“You should be speaking truth and focusing on honesty in marketing…” Maddy Martin is the VP of Marketing for Smith.ai, which provides 24/7 communication & intake services for businesses, by phone, website chat, text, and Facebook Messenger. She has spent the last decade growing tech startups from New York to California, and has expertise in digital marketing, small business communications...

“When you are a business owner—you’re a digital marketer. That’s the bottom-line.” Deirdre is the creator of The Viralocity Formula, author of The Traffic Formula and founder of Growth Boss, a leading mentorship and Virtual CMO program for e-commerce business owners wanting to scale to multiple- 6 and 7 figures using the power of tribe-building, virality and human connection. Questions I asked her...

Kathleen Booth is the VP of Marketing at Clean.io, the market leader in digital engagement security solutions used by businesses looking to optimize their revenue and buyer experience by taking back control over third-party code on their websites. Prior to joining clean.io, she spent 13 years in the digital marketing agency world, first as Owner and CEO of Quintain Marketing and then as VP of Mark...

“The adventure starts when things go wrong.” Mary is a designer, brand strategist, and founder of Vitality Creative Studio. She believes in the triple bottom line (people, planet, and profit) and that creativity can be the catalyst for change. From her mobile studio, she collaborates with social and environmental change-makers on projects from sustainable design to digital media and everything in...

“The average company spends 25% of their operating budget on technology, they spend 24% of their budget on advertising.” Dan McGaw is an award-winning entrepreneur, speaker, and the CEO of McGaw.io, an analytics and marketing technology consultancy and SaaS platform, UTM.io. In addition, Dan also finds time to be a 500 Startups Mentor, and has previously started the first...

“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 secre...

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. Question...

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 Bus...

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...

“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...

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 m...

“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...

“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 m...

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 market...

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 Me...

"Being data-led is core to becoming product-led…” Arpit is a non-engineer who loves data and APIs and believes that everybody, irrespective of their technical chops, should gain data literacy to stay relevant. He likes to spend his days thinking, writing in simple terms, and answering questions about data. He also firmly believes in the power of delayed gratification. In this episode we talke...

“Digital marketing is a blessing and a curse…” Maurice Bretzfield has been a lifelong Dodger fan, a raconteur, traveler, and a connoisseur of matters of the tongue, ear, and eye. He's also a blue water sailor, dad, granddad, Digital Marketing geek, consultant, mentor, and teacher. Maurice has been practicing Digital Marketing since the release of the first Web browser, Netscape, in 1994. This epis...

"It has to be true to you—it has to be real." Heather H. Bennett is a marketing strategist and personal brand coach that lives and works in Chicago, Illinois. Drawing from over 20 years of experience in brand marketing, research & development, and personal branding, Heather brings a unique spin to understanding how a personal brand can impact business and personal goals. Her social media strat...

“At the end of the day, your business is your database.” Tracy Sheen is recognized as a Certified Practicing Marketer by the Australian Marketing Institute. She is a speaker, small business digital coach, and the author of “ The End of Technophobia: a practical guide to digitizing your business ”. With over 30 years of experience in marketing, sales & small business technology, Tracy works wit...

“No one on social follows a brand to be advertised to.” As Director of Public Relations and Enterprise Social Media, Jen is responsible for protecting and improving John Deere’s reputation by leading an enterprise social media and public relations strategy for the company. Jen has over 25 years of experience in public relations, communications, and marketing with 12 of those years at John Deere. I...