Content as a service, with Mike Ebbers

WEBVTT 1 00:00:08.199 --> 00:00:12.880 Conversations from the front lines and marketing. This is B two B growth. 2 00:00:16.120 --> 00:00:21.559 Today I am thrilled to have Mike Evers with me, account executive from Monte 3 00:00:21.640 --> 00:00:25.800 Carlo, and we're pumped to get to share some time with him. Mike, 4 00:00:25.879 --> 00:00:28.280 Welcome to the show. Thanks for having me. Excited to be here 5 00:00:28.839 --> 00:00:31.960 yes. So I want to talk about your journey a little bit. It's 6 00:00:32.000 --> 00:00:36.679 kind of actually your videos on Linkedin. It's what first introduced me to you. 7 00:00:37.560 --> 00:00:41.320 Kind of traditional. Traditionally people might be like, oh, videos, 8 00:00:41.359 --> 00:00:45.280 maybe he's in marketing, but this is not the truth. You were in 9 00:00:45.359 --> 00:00:50.679 traditional sales right and then decided to play it big on Linkedin. Get into 10 00:00:50.679 --> 00:00:53.280 some of this video. I want to hear some of that journey in your 11 00:00:53.320 --> 00:00:57.600 own words. So let's just start right there, firsthand from you. What's 12 00:00:57.640 --> 00:01:00.439 this journey been like, as you've start it to go heavier on on Linkedin 13 00:01:00.600 --> 00:01:06.560 from a sales perspective? It's a good question. So it originally started when 14 00:01:06.560 --> 00:01:12.079 I first transitioned to software sales in general several years ago, and the general 15 00:01:12.879 --> 00:01:17.239 kind of rule a thumb that I guess was just kind of accepted by everybody 16 00:01:17.319 --> 00:01:19.680 was that technical people are just gonna hate salespeople and that's just how it is 17 00:01:21.560 --> 00:01:25.400 and I didn't accept that. I didn't like that truth, or perceived truth 18 00:01:26.079 --> 00:01:27.799 at the time. So I thought, you know, why don't I go 19 00:01:29.040 --> 00:01:32.480 connect with people just on a personal level on Linkedin? At the time it 20 00:01:32.560 --> 00:01:34.719 was it was real strong, like cold calling culture, and not to say 21 00:01:34.719 --> 00:01:38.599 that cold calling doesn't have his plates Um, but we never sourced the deal 22 00:01:38.640 --> 00:01:42.680 at that time through Col Collin. I'm gonna try something different. You know, 23 00:01:42.760 --> 00:01:47.319 I think about the definition of insanity just trying something over and over with 24 00:01:47.439 --> 00:01:51.159 no, with with, you know, no success, doesn't really throw me. 25 00:01:51.760 --> 00:01:55.560 So my journey kind of came in a couple of different segments, right 26 00:01:55.640 --> 00:01:57.040 or chapter as if you will. So at first it was just posting content 27 00:01:57.120 --> 00:02:01.879 and just getting people connected on Linkedin. That was that was pretty impactful for 28 00:02:01.920 --> 00:02:05.480 me. At the time. I started connected with people that were technical, 29 00:02:06.120 --> 00:02:07.759 Um, you know, at the time. I have to give a shout 30 00:02:07.800 --> 00:02:12.159 out to Brandon floory because I kind of mentioned him like, you know, 31 00:02:12.280 --> 00:02:14.520 hey, this is my hypothesis, and he allowed me to do it and 32 00:02:14.520 --> 00:02:17.319 he encouraged that kind of innovation. So I started kind of building my brand, 33 00:02:17.319 --> 00:02:21.080 if you will, just from a personal standpoint. And then I realized 34 00:02:21.120 --> 00:02:23.240 that I can, I can amp it up a notch if I if I 35 00:02:23.280 --> 00:02:28.400 deliver like both perspectives, like the buyer perspective is I'm now getting to know 36 00:02:28.439 --> 00:02:30.840 them, and then also my own right, and so so I think it's 37 00:02:30.879 --> 00:02:35.719 a missing element and a lot of the buyer seller relationships. So, you 38 00:02:35.759 --> 00:02:38.800 know, I just really double down on that and it was mostly written content. 39 00:02:38.840 --> 00:02:43.199 And then when I transition to another company, I started with linked video 40 00:02:43.199 --> 00:02:46.280 when that first came out and I had this hypothesis at the time. That's 41 00:02:46.360 --> 00:02:50.759 very interesting to see a playout, but basically what Tiktok is today. You 42 00:02:50.759 --> 00:02:52.680 know, and someone disagree with me. I don't I don't know. I'm 43 00:02:52.680 --> 00:02:55.840 not a big TIKTOK guy, but like authentic raw content. It's not overly 44 00:02:57.919 --> 00:03:02.319 like edited. See used to be where people should go. But my perspective 45 00:03:02.360 --> 00:03:06.400 was B two, b needs to get there. So I started doing just 46 00:03:06.439 --> 00:03:08.639 one day I was like, let me do a linkedin video. I'm just 47 00:03:08.680 --> 00:03:10.960 gonna throw a skin out there. I'M gonna try to, like I said, 48 00:03:12.000 --> 00:03:14.919 like for set both sides, the buyer and the seller, and it's 49 00:03:14.919 --> 00:03:17.240 been history ever since, right. So that's kind of how I've arrived to 50 00:03:17.280 --> 00:03:22.400 what I'm at and doing today. I want to talk about a couple of 51 00:03:22.479 --> 00:03:24.520 key points in that, one being and the love that you gave the shout 52 00:03:24.560 --> 00:03:29.759 out. But being equipped to move in that direction is a big deal because 53 00:03:29.759 --> 00:03:32.680 a lot of times, from a sales perspective, I know you're you're moving 54 00:03:32.719 --> 00:03:36.199 so fast, you're trying to hit a number or something and you're going, 55 00:03:36.199 --> 00:03:38.599 all right, well, I don't really have time to like explore this other 56 00:03:38.639 --> 00:03:42.639 avenue that might be productive in the long run, but, like I I 57 00:03:42.680 --> 00:03:45.439 can't prove it out yet and I would need someone to like back me up. 58 00:03:45.840 --> 00:03:47.400 So talk about that. How did you get equipped to move in that 59 00:03:47.439 --> 00:03:52.199 direction, and was it like a twenty at first and like this crawl, 60 00:03:52.280 --> 00:03:54.159 walk, run, or how does it move to like no, we're gonna, 61 00:03:54.240 --> 00:03:58.240 we're gonna go pretty heavy in that direction. That was a journey of 62 00:03:58.319 --> 00:04:00.960 itself and that's that's a really good point. So I still have to get 63 00:04:00.960 --> 00:04:02.520 my number right. Even today, like I do more content than ever, 64 00:04:02.599 --> 00:04:08.240 but I also focus on actual selling more than ever, funnily enough. So 65 00:04:08.400 --> 00:04:12.280 it's been a journey in the sense that I've made some mistakes and probably over 66 00:04:12.319 --> 00:04:16.199 indexed on certain areas versus the other. I was inconsistent in times like my 67 00:04:16.240 --> 00:04:20.079 most important objective professionally when I'm working as a sales professional is to go hit 68 00:04:20.079 --> 00:04:23.959 my number. And you know, at the time, like when I first 69 00:04:23.959 --> 00:04:26.720 started this, it really didn't take a whole lot of time. Um, 70 00:04:26.759 --> 00:04:30.360 and of course there were people that question and both in sales leadership and then 71 00:04:30.399 --> 00:04:31.800 also, you know, even in marketing too. To your point, this 72 00:04:31.879 --> 00:04:34.800 is that's the majority of our our audience. Some of the marketing folks were 73 00:04:34.839 --> 00:04:38.519 like, Hey, this is a technical audience to really think this is gonna 74 00:04:38.519 --> 00:04:41.879 make a difference. But it did take long to create those connections right. 75 00:04:41.879 --> 00:04:45.720 So people started seeing, Oh, okay, you're getting meetings with these people 76 00:04:45.759 --> 00:04:48.000 that you're trying to go get meetings with, right, like these are like 77 00:04:48.879 --> 00:04:53.120 or or at least having conversations. And a lot of times that's that's the 78 00:04:53.160 --> 00:04:56.360 missing element. We have either Yes, I'm interested, let me take a 79 00:04:56.360 --> 00:05:00.399 meeting with you from a pipeline generation perspective, or complete utter silence, like 80 00:05:00.480 --> 00:05:03.560 whatever you're saying, and then it just goes into some abyss somewhere. But 81 00:05:03.600 --> 00:05:08.000 there was a medium step that I started tapping into, and then that allowed 82 00:05:08.000 --> 00:05:12.560 me to create more meetings for myself with the accounts and the people that I 83 00:05:12.639 --> 00:05:15.079 was I felt convicted I could go help, legitimately help right, because I 84 00:05:15.120 --> 00:05:20.000 showed that empathy. So, you know, still balance, right. I'm 85 00:05:20.040 --> 00:05:24.560 not perfect at it, but I think leveraging my content in a way that 86 00:05:24.680 --> 00:05:29.560 resonates with my target audience opens up avenues for me to have real, genuine, 87 00:05:29.680 --> 00:05:33.279 genuine conversations and and and differentiate myself as a seller, you know, 88 00:05:33.399 --> 00:05:38.160 to to maybe earn the right to have the conversations about their actual business. 89 00:05:39.120 --> 00:05:43.079 What's interesting, too, is that you decided to go when talking video specifically, 90 00:05:43.079 --> 00:05:46.360 here, you went with like a sketch model. There's comedy in there, 91 00:05:46.879 --> 00:05:48.920 and what people think of when they think of you mentioned Tiktok, this 92 00:05:49.160 --> 00:05:54.800 raw, authentic video idea. We sometimes in B two B specifically, I 93 00:05:54.839 --> 00:05:58.040 know people are guilty of. Oh well, I need to be more authentic, 94 00:05:58.040 --> 00:06:00.360 so I'm gonna pull out the video and do like a you know, 95 00:06:00.519 --> 00:06:04.879 just got off this call, just did this work thing, and so I 96 00:06:04.959 --> 00:06:09.319 guess you could say that that's authentic in a certain way. I had this 97 00:06:09.439 --> 00:06:14.160 leadership idea whatever, but it's different than what you're talking about when you're saying 98 00:06:14.720 --> 00:06:16.680 I'm gonna show both sides. Right, I'M gonna show buy or in seller. 99 00:06:17.160 --> 00:06:24.720 So authenticity doesn't just mean like this raw video of me after a sales 100 00:06:24.759 --> 00:06:28.920 call. You knew that intuitively? Or did you see other people and go 101 00:06:29.120 --> 00:06:30.240 all right, they're going left, I'm gonna go right. What was the 102 00:06:30.279 --> 00:06:35.680 thinking? Yeah, it's when, when video was first launched on Linkedin, 103 00:06:36.720 --> 00:06:41.480 almost everybody, like cent of my timeline, was just people trying out this 104 00:06:41.519 --> 00:06:44.000 whole thing. You know you're not, because you know this. You would 105 00:06:44.000 --> 00:06:47.279 do one of two things predominantly. Predominantly, they would either hop in their 106 00:06:47.319 --> 00:06:49.959 car and think, you know what, I'm driving somewhere. It is a 107 00:06:50.000 --> 00:06:53.680 great time to do a linked video. Let me just let me just like 108 00:06:53.800 --> 00:06:57.040 drop some wisdom in my in my freaking car, right. So that's one. 109 00:06:57.600 --> 00:07:01.319 The other was it was maybe even I don't know which was more unforgivable, 110 00:07:01.319 --> 00:07:03.839 but they were both really bad. People would just sit there with their 111 00:07:03.839 --> 00:07:08.879 phone like right in their face and then they would they would go through this 112 00:07:08.920 --> 00:07:12.600 monologue for three or four minutes about we just need to be like strong and 113 00:07:12.720 --> 00:07:16.800 confident, and it was all like self help advice and very vapid and vain 114 00:07:16.959 --> 00:07:20.560 and it just didn't have a lot of substance. But then they add subtitles 115 00:07:20.600 --> 00:07:25.079 to it, so they had to put some thought into it, because the 116 00:07:25.120 --> 00:07:28.199 either had to find a tool to do it or pay somebody to add subtitles, 117 00:07:28.199 --> 00:07:32.680 because they were pretty clean and I thought this just does not inspire anybody. 118 00:07:33.000 --> 00:07:36.480 Right, like why do we think linkedin is different, in that people 119 00:07:38.279 --> 00:07:40.959 they want to laugh and they want to learn something and they want to feel 120 00:07:41.000 --> 00:07:44.759 something and you're not. You're making them feel some type of way when you're 121 00:07:44.759 --> 00:07:46.800 in your car, but it's not necessarily positive. Put you in a positive 122 00:07:46.879 --> 00:07:51.439 light, right. So we take our tips right from like the top point 123 00:07:51.519 --> 00:07:55.680 one percent of like thought leaders, and the reason that those people are listening 124 00:07:55.680 --> 00:07:58.879 to is also because they've built something of meaning. And we go, Oh, 125 00:07:58.879 --> 00:08:01.319 well, it's working for Gary v because he's in a car and he's 126 00:08:01.319 --> 00:08:03.759 talking going for meeting, the meeting. But it's like yeah, but he 127 00:08:03.800 --> 00:08:07.160 can talk about soft skills and these things because he's also built an empire. 128 00:08:07.600 --> 00:08:11.319 So there's impact behind his words, and that's where I think so much of 129 00:08:11.360 --> 00:08:16.000 that goes awry. It's like you kind of gotta pack a punch and in 130 00:08:16.000 --> 00:08:20.839 a real way before you can just jump on and say seemingly fluffy things right. 131 00:08:20.240 --> 00:08:24.319 You can make the fluffy things mean something if you build something. There 132 00:08:24.360 --> 00:08:28.160 was something that say. There was something you said to me offline that I 133 00:08:28.240 --> 00:08:31.160 just thought really resonated and it flows right from what we're talking about. You 134 00:08:31.199 --> 00:08:35.120 said focus on content that makes people feel seen, heard and understood. That's 135 00:08:35.159 --> 00:08:41.320 been like the focus of these comedy sketches, and that's the buyer and seller 136 00:08:41.759 --> 00:08:46.120 showing both sides. What is part of that? Also for you, was 137 00:08:46.200 --> 00:08:50.759 not giving an explicit call to action, like I'm just gonna showcase this, 138 00:08:50.840 --> 00:08:54.840 it's gonna be funny, it's gonna make people laugh, relationship will be built 139 00:08:54.399 --> 00:08:58.720 because of it. Talk about that being a key point, the need to 140 00:09:00.039 --> 00:09:05.799 stray away intentionally from call to actions and and and stuff like this. Yeah, 141 00:09:05.840 --> 00:09:09.759 I I don't think this is unique to the audience to which I sell 142 00:09:11.399 --> 00:09:15.320 predominantly, which is technical folks. Okay, and this has been anywhere from 143 00:09:15.360 --> 00:09:20.720 like the networking side of things and like sis admins and it toartsely difficult people 144 00:09:20.799 --> 00:09:24.519 to to sell too, because their skeptics, two devops and they want to 145 00:09:24.519 --> 00:09:26.519 build everything. And then now you know data engineering leaders who have a very 146 00:09:26.559 --> 00:09:31.000 strong engineering or software background a lot of cases, or data science right where. 147 00:09:31.000 --> 00:09:33.440 They're just there. They need to be skeptical to be good at their 148 00:09:33.519 --> 00:09:39.480 jobs. But people don't like being sold to in general, and the second 149 00:09:39.519 --> 00:09:41.919 that you add any sort of call to action, there's a place, by 150 00:09:41.919 --> 00:09:43.200 the way, for this. So I'm not saying like you should never do 151 00:09:43.240 --> 00:09:46.039 a call to action. That's not like a prescription. I would recommend, 152 00:09:46.080 --> 00:09:48.320 but and if you take a look at my videos, you'll see that, 153 00:09:48.399 --> 00:09:54.159 like I do that sometimes in Vermonte Carlo. But when people watch something and 154 00:09:54.399 --> 00:10:00.080 they just like they can go yes, yeah, I I absolutely feel that 155 00:10:00.200 --> 00:10:03.159 crap, like when I get on a call and it feels like I'm just 156 00:10:03.200 --> 00:10:07.639 being interrogated by a salesperson and they don't provide any context where they fit in 157 00:10:07.639 --> 00:10:11.440 the ecosystem or whatever. Like those kind of types of situations are what bring 158 00:10:11.519 --> 00:10:16.559 people out of the woodworks, if if you will, and and really like 159 00:10:16.919 --> 00:10:22.279 start to engage with people who, you know, seem like they understand where 160 00:10:22.279 --> 00:10:26.279 they're coming from. So that empathy is very powerful and it took a little 161 00:10:26.279 --> 00:10:28.559 bit of like, okay, should I just focus on my product? Should 162 00:10:28.559 --> 00:10:33.360 I do skits of like real world scenarios just exaggerated, or whatever? It 163 00:10:33.399 --> 00:10:35.840 so like it's it's been a journey to get there. I'm still trying to 164 00:10:35.879 --> 00:10:39.000 figure it out. Like you said, helping them feel seen and understood is 165 00:10:39.840 --> 00:10:45.799 very, very powerful, a very powerful tool that I think people underutilize when 166 00:10:45.799 --> 00:10:50.320 they produce content because they're they're so focused on how can I get as many 167 00:10:50.399 --> 00:10:54.519 leads as possible right now? Lead attribution, pipeline attribution, deal attribution, 168 00:10:54.600 --> 00:10:58.200 it's everything, and then you forget the actual people that you're trying to sell 169 00:10:58.279 --> 00:11:01.000 to in the first place. So true, and it's true in sales and 170 00:11:01.080 --> 00:11:05.960 it's true in marketing. Like just having that level of empathy, it builds 171 00:11:05.039 --> 00:11:09.559 really like genuine relationship over when we know, okay, even if they're not 172 00:11:09.600 --> 00:11:13.480 selling me right now, it's probably coming in. Like there's just like this 173 00:11:13.080 --> 00:11:16.440 feeling that it just comes along with it, which I'm I feel that on 174 00:11:16.480 --> 00:11:20.159 Linkedin all the time and it's it's it's also natural, though. You're kind 175 00:11:20.159 --> 00:11:22.200 of like, okay, I'm here, I'm in this space where people are 176 00:11:22.240 --> 00:11:26.200 doing business. Like be aware of it and then also show up in your 177 00:11:26.200 --> 00:11:30.799 own genuine way. What has building relationships looked like for you, Mike, 178 00:11:30.960 --> 00:11:33.360 on Linkedin? How do you how do you go about telling connections like the 179 00:11:33.360 --> 00:11:41.200 problem you actually are trying to solve and walking that line? Yeah, that's 180 00:11:41.240 --> 00:11:45.200 another journey. I will say this. This is this is not conventional wisdom 181 00:11:45.200 --> 00:11:50.240 and this is probably not popular in sales circles, I wouldn't imagine. I've 182 00:11:50.320 --> 00:11:56.639 never once regretted waiting just another week, another month to just pop the question 183 00:11:56.679 --> 00:11:58.720 like Hey, can we meet? Can we talk? Like it looks like 184 00:11:58.759 --> 00:12:01.039 you're focused on something fed I might be able to help with. I'll never 185 00:12:01.080 --> 00:12:07.519 regretted it once ever. Just have it is countuitive. But and so my 186 00:12:07.519 --> 00:12:11.240 sales leaders have traditionally like, if they listen to this, they'll they'll start 187 00:12:11.279 --> 00:12:13.120 laughing because they're like, yeah, I could totally see that. But I 188 00:12:13.200 --> 00:12:18.080 have regretted on dozens of occasions jumping in way too early, because you can't 189 00:12:18.080 --> 00:12:22.279 go back. You can't go back. Like my my goal is is to 190 00:12:22.000 --> 00:12:24.559 just be a good, like citizen. I'm there for a purpose. People 191 00:12:24.639 --> 00:12:28.000 understand that. They see account executive. They know like, okay, Monty 192 00:12:28.080 --> 00:12:31.919 Carlo, I'm in data engineering at some point. It's going to come, 193 00:12:31.200 --> 00:12:33.679 but doing it in the right way, when you've done enough research and built 194 00:12:33.720 --> 00:12:39.240 the right to earn that it's been powerful. So I can give you some 195 00:12:39.279 --> 00:12:43.639 specific examples. Right. So, just content driven. Here's one. So 196 00:12:43.480 --> 00:12:48.559 and it's horrious, skeptic, however you want to what it like. He's 197 00:12:48.600 --> 00:12:52.240 he's kind of rough around it. They just a good Bundy of mine now, 198 00:12:52.279 --> 00:12:54.679 but actually a VP of debops. At the time I was I was 199 00:12:56.080 --> 00:12:58.200 really want to get to meet with him. Um, he started interacting with 200 00:12:58.240 --> 00:13:01.679 my content because I added him on Linkedin. Um, I was doing a 201 00:13:01.679 --> 00:13:05.759 lot of videos that related to devops workflows. He started clicking, like we 202 00:13:05.879 --> 00:13:11.080 just had conversations about life, like real estate and kids and just a bunch 203 00:13:11.120 --> 00:13:16.279 of stuff, and I remember when I did finally ask him to meet with 204 00:13:16.279 --> 00:13:18.919 me about his company and his devop strategy, he was like yeah, I 205 00:13:18.919 --> 00:13:22.440 love your videos, like I should at least give you. That's one example. 206 00:13:24.480 --> 00:13:26.799 You know, I also met. This was on my last day at 207 00:13:26.799 --> 00:13:31.679 the company, but I met with a CTO of a pretty hot profile software 208 00:13:31.679 --> 00:13:35.440 company who I had been talking with and not really about my product for for 209 00:13:35.480 --> 00:13:39.720 several months. I think there's probably some sort of timeline or time scale that 210 00:13:39.759 --> 00:13:43.759 you can inject based on like a title. In general, it takes a 211 00:13:43.799 --> 00:13:48.000 little bit longer to convince a CTO to look at their busy calendar with zero 212 00:13:48.080 --> 00:13:52.440 to like double booked for an entire week a month in advance, to go 213 00:13:52.480 --> 00:13:58.639 meet with you for thirty minutes. But he finally did say okay, yes, 214 00:13:58.000 --> 00:14:01.960 let's let's do this, and it was after videos and like personalized notes 215 00:14:03.000 --> 00:14:05.440 on what he was doing at the company and and just him personally. He 216 00:14:05.559 --> 00:14:09.240 documented a lot of his like in vlog style, kind of like what he 217 00:14:09.279 --> 00:14:13.200 was doing outside of work, and I thought it was super richesting. I 218 00:14:13.279 --> 00:14:16.039 loved it. I just I love his parenting philosophy, all these different things. 219 00:14:16.120 --> 00:14:18.279 Right. So it's just happened like the conversation and finally got that meeting, 220 00:14:18.879 --> 00:14:22.919 and so that was awesome. Right, Um, and there's a dozen 221 00:14:22.919 --> 00:14:26.360 of other examples I could probably provide to you. Um, the key point, 222 00:14:26.399 --> 00:14:30.360 though, and this is where a skeptic like in myself, if I'm 223 00:14:30.480 --> 00:14:31.519 listening to this, I'm going, oh, but there's no way you can 224 00:14:31.559 --> 00:14:37.879 scale it right, like yeah, right, so maybe that's where you're going 225 00:14:37.919 --> 00:14:41.720 next. So I can I can speak to that. You can't scale this 226 00:14:41.799 --> 00:14:46.120 in the in the traditional sense of find a person, find their email or 227 00:14:46.120 --> 00:14:48.960 phone number, put them in a sequence and I'm gonna hit five new people 228 00:14:50.000 --> 00:14:52.879 each week per person. That's not that's not at all what I'm after. 229 00:14:54.000 --> 00:14:58.480 That's I think that method burns more relationships and companies than people realize. So 230 00:14:58.519 --> 00:15:01.360 you can go to read it and search your your company name and see that 231 00:15:01.440 --> 00:15:07.679 people will in whatever technicals are. You know subpreddit is on there, that 232 00:15:07.799 --> 00:15:11.519 your brand actually is impacted by this stuff, like the product looks cool but 233 00:15:11.559 --> 00:15:15.159 I will never talk to them because they just keep emailing me right like that 234 00:15:15.200 --> 00:15:20.039 actually happened at a company that I worked and and so I'm not after that 235 00:15:20.120 --> 00:15:24.799 kind of scale. I'm after scalable, meaningful business relationships and it's never once 236 00:15:24.879 --> 00:15:30.799 impacted my my pipeline or opportunities. It has impacted my meeting count because I 237 00:15:30.799 --> 00:15:35.480 have less meetings because I put more focus on building the right relationships with right 238 00:15:35.559 --> 00:15:39.000 people and that takes a lot more effort, a ton more effort. It's 239 00:15:39.000 --> 00:15:43.279 not easy, it's a lot harder, but it's less meetings overall. And 240 00:15:43.320 --> 00:15:46.759 I've gone through qprs where that's been called out explicitly. I go back to 241 00:15:46.840 --> 00:15:50.720 do I have enough meaningful pipeline and opportunities for me to go hit my number? 242 00:15:52.039 --> 00:15:56.639 And to this point it's proved favorable. It hasn't been like, Oh, 243 00:15:56.720 --> 00:15:58.840 Mike's got like, you know, one meeting a month or whatever and 244 00:16:00.200 --> 00:16:03.639 he has no pipeline and so this just isn't working right, like quantifiably. 245 00:16:03.720 --> 00:16:10.600 So I this is had a far more positive, meaningful impact on my career 246 00:16:10.799 --> 00:16:14.639 than if I were just doing it the traditionally. You had mentioned off the 247 00:16:14.679 --> 00:16:17.759 top that you feel like there is still a place for cold calling. I 248 00:16:17.840 --> 00:16:22.679 wonder what you feel like that place is because, granted, my experience is 249 00:16:22.759 --> 00:16:26.480 very limited in cold calling, but I did do it for a solid eight, 250 00:16:26.600 --> 00:16:30.159 nine months and I just felt like we are, to use your language, 251 00:16:30.159 --> 00:16:33.960 like there's so many bridges that we were burning without sometimes without knowing it, 252 00:16:33.000 --> 00:16:36.279 but it's like all right, well, I'm a sales rep in the 253 00:16:36.279 --> 00:16:40.320 sales rep before me also called the same place and you know the one before 254 00:16:40.360 --> 00:16:42.639 that, and we got notes all in salesforce and like we're four deep and 255 00:16:42.639 --> 00:16:45.759 they're nervous when we call him because they've called him so many times so then 256 00:16:45.799 --> 00:16:49.399 like just getting back to zero, not even to get to a place where 257 00:16:49.399 --> 00:16:52.960 you're building relationship, but just to get back to flat, is going to 258 00:16:52.080 --> 00:16:57.159 take time. So I wonder like what your thoughts there on like when cold 259 00:16:57.200 --> 00:17:00.879 calling actually might be effect of. And this is a rabbit trail, but 260 00:17:00.919 --> 00:17:04.960 I'd just be interested to hear your answer. I give you a couple of 261 00:17:04.960 --> 00:17:07.960 bullpoints. So I have my perspective and then I have like, like what 262 00:17:08.960 --> 00:17:12.279 sales leaders and and and more maybe more importantly, SCR leaders who are in 263 00:17:12.279 --> 00:17:17.039 the industry selling too, technical folks, and what their feedback is. So 264 00:17:17.319 --> 00:17:22.119 I'll start there with the data. Cold calling works really well and and it's 265 00:17:22.160 --> 00:17:26.119 probably working better than cold email by response rate and in like meetings actually, 266 00:17:26.319 --> 00:17:30.359 and people put trash amount of time into cold email too. So like the 267 00:17:30.440 --> 00:17:33.119 way, if you're good on the phone, you're probably gonna win over a 268 00:17:33.119 --> 00:17:36.480 cold email with just like text and people are staring out a screen like I'm 269 00:17:36.519 --> 00:17:37.640 just going to delete this, but yeah, okay, sorry, keep going. 270 00:17:38.119 --> 00:17:41.440 Agreed. No, that's a great point. That is a very good 271 00:17:41.480 --> 00:17:44.720 call out. You know where I where I traditionally I don't. I don't 272 00:17:44.759 --> 00:17:48.680 look at cold calling the same like where you have the modern version of yellow 273 00:17:48.720 --> 00:17:52.359 pages, you know what I mean, like just going through numbers and just 274 00:17:52.359 --> 00:17:56.279 hoping that they do so they even relevant to you're like that's that's, I 275 00:17:56.319 --> 00:18:00.480 think, completely gone. What I use cold calling just because it's easy to 276 00:18:00.559 --> 00:18:03.519 understand. It's like you're calling somebody when they're not expecting you to get a 277 00:18:03.559 --> 00:18:07.440 meeting to talk about your product. And you know, I see it work 278 00:18:07.519 --> 00:18:11.880 when people are disarming and when they have a reason to call Um. It 279 00:18:11.920 --> 00:18:15.440 can work outside of that, but those are the two things that are really 280 00:18:15.480 --> 00:18:18.200 primary drivers to make it it like, really work. The Way I co 281 00:18:18.400 --> 00:18:22.279 call is I won't call unless I have a various specific reason and it's generally 282 00:18:22.319 --> 00:18:27.000 at the end of like my PG process. Okay, so they want I 283 00:18:27.039 --> 00:18:32.240 want them to know who I am first, and part of the reason for 284 00:18:32.279 --> 00:18:34.599 this is, I'll never forget this. I had a meeting with Um, 285 00:18:34.640 --> 00:18:37.119 with the guy who had never heard of Monty Carlo before. This is recent, 286 00:18:37.720 --> 00:18:41.160 and we had a meeting. Wasn't gonna it wasn't going to be a 287 00:18:41.160 --> 00:18:44.400 good fit to meet their use cases, which is fine, but he said 288 00:18:44.440 --> 00:18:48.400 something when we got when we got off the call, that I hadn't heard 289 00:18:48.400 --> 00:18:51.960 anybody like. I've heard people say this from time to time, but he's 290 00:18:52.000 --> 00:18:53.119 like, he's like, Hey, thanks for the chat. By the way, 291 00:18:53.160 --> 00:18:56.720 I love your videos. Keep making a man. have been watching them 292 00:18:56.799 --> 00:19:00.519 and I was like, I didn't fully catch that until I hit leave meeting 293 00:19:00.720 --> 00:19:03.880 right on the zoom. I was like, what's it? What it is? 294 00:19:06.519 --> 00:19:10.160 Yeah, so apparently he had. He had been following my videos for 295 00:19:10.240 --> 00:19:11.759 a long time and I don't know if that's how the connection with it was 296 00:19:11.799 --> 00:19:15.279 made or not. Like again, like I don't care about the attribution as 297 00:19:15.319 --> 00:19:18.599 much. I want to build awareness for my entire company. We all win. 298 00:19:18.519 --> 00:19:23.839 But like that's the power of doing content first and showing the world like 299 00:19:23.920 --> 00:19:26.799 kind of who you are and then going and saying, Hey, I know 300 00:19:26.839 --> 00:19:30.839 you weren't expecting my quality. Have a second this bike. Evers, would 301 00:19:30.160 --> 00:19:33.640 you know you liked my linked in video. By the way, I'm so 302 00:19:33.680 --> 00:19:37.319 sorry to see that you support my video. My content is obviously terrible, 303 00:19:37.640 --> 00:19:41.519 but nonetheless I'm calling because you know I'd like this. I hear out, 304 00:19:41.519 --> 00:19:44.440 you know, a data serveability or whatever, like, like, like those 305 00:19:44.519 --> 00:19:47.640 kinds of things I think are very powerful. Um, I also am a 306 00:19:47.680 --> 00:19:52.160 big believer, huge believer. I follow Kyle Coleman like crazy on prospecting. 307 00:19:52.279 --> 00:19:56.039 I think he's my favorite voice on Linkedin by far Um in that regard. 308 00:19:56.440 --> 00:20:00.640 I'm a big believer. Right, just like on the research decide, but 309 00:20:00.680 --> 00:20:06.839 then also just having a like a great opener and just practicing, that is, 310 00:20:06.880 --> 00:20:10.880 if you don't really care if you get the median or not, and 311 00:20:10.960 --> 00:20:14.440 just being a good person. I think that's that's that's a big differentiator, 312 00:20:14.720 --> 00:20:18.079 right, but very hard to actually execute. So those are some thoughts. 313 00:20:18.079 --> 00:20:22.359 IDE BY COL kin. So in a lot of ways, I think as 314 00:20:22.920 --> 00:20:26.640 marketers are listening to your story and we're just diving into some of this on 315 00:20:26.680 --> 00:20:32.400 the episode, you would be viewed as like, because you're good at video, 316 00:20:32.480 --> 00:20:37.440 you're like a marketer's dream. You're you're being this public, consistent, 317 00:20:37.799 --> 00:20:42.680 quality content machine. You're doing this, you're able to drive meetings from it, 318 00:20:42.720 --> 00:20:47.480 but you're also building genuine relationship. Anyone in content marketing is going to 319 00:20:47.559 --> 00:20:51.559 be excited about that. But you don't go the marketing route when you could 320 00:20:51.599 --> 00:20:53.519 have, because then once this starts working, there's got to be people that 321 00:20:53.759 --> 00:20:56.720 are on the marketing team going all right, well, maybe we can pull 322 00:20:56.759 --> 00:21:02.000 Mike over to this side of things. I want to know, as we 323 00:21:02.039 --> 00:21:04.119 start to kind of come up from air in this episode, are there specific 324 00:21:04.160 --> 00:21:10.640 ways that you'd encourage our audience as marketers that we could like equip sales teams 325 00:21:10.680 --> 00:21:12.839 better? Maybe sales teams where they're not, you know, a mic where 326 00:21:12.839 --> 00:21:18.319 they're not going to be all over video, but like trying to take away 327 00:21:18.359 --> 00:21:21.880 because again, you can't scale this, and I'm glad that you said it 328 00:21:21.920 --> 00:21:23.200 that way. You'RE NOT gonna. It's just not gonna be prescriptive and the 329 00:21:23.240 --> 00:21:27.720 same and everybody does this and great, awesome. A lot of it it 330 00:21:27.759 --> 00:21:33.759 comes down to mindset and personality and actually like laying out your strategy. Are 331 00:21:33.799 --> 00:21:38.160 there some tactical things that you would encourage marketers to do to better equip sales 332 00:21:38.519 --> 00:21:45.640 and the ways that we even think about content? So it's a great question, 333 00:21:45.039 --> 00:21:48.680 and I know you and I are talking about this off offline quite a 334 00:21:48.680 --> 00:21:52.359 bit, this concept of like content as a service, and I think that's 335 00:21:52.359 --> 00:21:56.720 the next fronts here. Honestly, Um, I'm living that out right now 336 00:21:56.839 --> 00:21:59.359 in my company, like I'm trying to be part of the solution. To 337 00:21:59.440 --> 00:22:03.480 your point, not on the marketing team, although I have it is funny 338 00:22:03.519 --> 00:22:06.880 like because I do try, people do try to pull me onto the marketing 339 00:22:06.880 --> 00:22:08.839 side, but there is a lot of power and just like having the full 340 00:22:08.920 --> 00:22:14.640 circle kind of feedback loop feeding my content because it's the missing piece. A 341 00:22:14.720 --> 00:22:18.200 lot of marketing focus is so up here they forget like, okay, customers 342 00:22:18.200 --> 00:22:21.559 spend with you for two years, what do they think? And so I 343 00:22:21.680 --> 00:22:23.759 I pulled a lot of that in there. Um. So that leads to 344 00:22:23.799 --> 00:22:27.720 content as service. So people are starting to get there with like memes and 345 00:22:27.759 --> 00:22:32.799 gifts and hey, everybody get on Linkedin, on Linkedin at eleven o'clock and 346 00:22:32.839 --> 00:22:36.279 we're just going to share this gift that we made. That's fine, I 347 00:22:36.279 --> 00:22:38.400 think. I think there certainly is a place for that. It doesn't like 348 00:22:40.039 --> 00:22:42.839 maybe a use case I would look at is how how does that convert on 349 00:22:42.920 --> 00:22:47.079 Reddit? Because reddit that's what everybody does. They just do gifts and memes 350 00:22:47.200 --> 00:22:48.680 and they throw it in the ads on Reddit. And I know the AD 351 00:22:48.720 --> 00:22:51.880 services and all that great, but like, I don't know how much of 352 00:22:51.880 --> 00:22:55.880 a yield that's had, based on some conversations I've had with marketing executives. 353 00:22:56.440 --> 00:23:00.440 So I just encourage marketers, marketing executives. Number one, find the creative 354 00:23:00.440 --> 00:23:04.279 minds that want to take this on. Like I love doing this stuff. 355 00:23:04.319 --> 00:23:07.440 I just I repped one one time asked me. He's like why do you 356 00:23:07.440 --> 00:23:12.680 do this? and My inservice two parts. The first once it works right, 357 00:23:12.720 --> 00:23:15.960 and then number two, it's more strategic. He went on to add 358 00:23:15.960 --> 00:23:18.480 a third one that I didn't really considered, but he could. He called 359 00:23:18.519 --> 00:23:21.319 me out in a good way. He's like, I think he just loved 360 00:23:21.359 --> 00:23:22.880 doing it. I was like, yeah, that's actually, that's true, 361 00:23:23.400 --> 00:23:26.240 like I'm kind of creative mind. I want to do it. So find 362 00:23:26.240 --> 00:23:30.440 those people that will take a momentument just right. Dana, a blue cat, 363 00:23:30.440 --> 00:23:33.480 was a great example of this. Like she she's so creative. She 364 00:23:33.480 --> 00:23:37.359 just want to try stuff and it worked like it. She was just phenomenal. 365 00:23:37.759 --> 00:23:38.759 So find those people on your team. They are great at that. 366 00:23:38.880 --> 00:23:42.160 And then, and then, and then, empower them to to go work 367 00:23:42.200 --> 00:23:45.319 with the team, to get feedback, listen to gone calls, you know, 368 00:23:45.480 --> 00:23:48.759 like get in the mind of the customer and then just start trying stuff. 369 00:23:48.799 --> 00:23:52.559 That's really simple. Just try it, just try it right. Authenticity, 370 00:23:52.599 --> 00:23:55.799 to your point, doesn't have to be sitting in your car. It 371 00:23:55.839 --> 00:24:00.440 can be thoughtful and strategic. Let's take a skit of a I'm in use 372 00:24:00.480 --> 00:24:04.200 case or scenario that our customers find ourselves in. And then, you know 373 00:24:04.200 --> 00:24:07.799 what I mean, like let's create a little script. And then you've got 374 00:24:07.839 --> 00:24:10.920 a couple of people in the marketing team. That's fine, you'll you'll inevitably 375 00:24:10.960 --> 00:24:12.160 if you open this up, if you have a good culture, right, 376 00:24:12.200 --> 00:24:15.599 but plays into it as well. But assuming you have, um, a 377 00:24:15.720 --> 00:24:21.119 kind of a startup, like agile kind of culture, you'll find engineers that 378 00:24:21.200 --> 00:24:23.119 want to jump into this stuff. You'll find folks in different parts of the 379 00:24:23.200 --> 00:24:26.640 organization that want to get involved. So do the hard work. Figure out, 380 00:24:26.720 --> 00:24:32.240 like, the content that you want to create via video, create the 381 00:24:32.279 --> 00:24:36.400 script, give everybody assignments and then just like go. And then you can 382 00:24:36.680 --> 00:24:38.039 you can snip the content, like your if he likes to do this right, 383 00:24:38.039 --> 00:24:41.640 he takes a big piece of content, he slices it up and then 384 00:24:42.400 --> 00:24:45.400 it distributes it to all all different sources. You can do that with this. 385 00:24:45.519 --> 00:24:48.079 So you can do it in sequences, you can do it right and 386 00:24:48.160 --> 00:24:52.160 outreach. You can do this on Linkedin, you could do this on twitter, 387 00:24:52.400 --> 00:24:59.759 like the possibilities are endless. But find somebody that is creative, understands 388 00:24:59.799 --> 00:25:02.880 God, summers and can and can really drive this right and maybe it's your 389 00:25:02.920 --> 00:25:07.359 community leader, maybe it's your social media leader. Just find somebody to do 390 00:25:07.400 --> 00:25:10.400 this and take it off, because I think it's really, really powerful. 391 00:25:10.799 --> 00:25:15.680 I like the almost looking for volunteers from across the organization as part of this, 392 00:25:17.160 --> 00:25:19.599 to just go who can, who's already passionate about it, instead of 393 00:25:19.640 --> 00:25:23.559 it like from the top hey, mandating it down and thinking that that's gonna 394 00:25:23.559 --> 00:25:27.799 work. Because, yeah, good luck getting actual creativity out of anybody when 395 00:25:27.799 --> 00:25:32.400 you try to mandate it like that. But again, if you're hiring is 396 00:25:32.480 --> 00:25:36.039 right and your culture is right, there are people in your org right now 397 00:25:36.279 --> 00:25:38.559 that would be perfect for this. And for the marketers listening, this is 398 00:25:38.599 --> 00:25:44.000 great for us to be thinking about from a content perspective, because other sometimes 399 00:25:44.039 --> 00:25:48.279 marketing. I always say this, but it's like so shiny that we won't 400 00:25:48.279 --> 00:25:52.039 be trusted in the same way as other people in our organization and their voices, 401 00:25:52.119 --> 00:25:56.000 especially if we're really prevalent on Linkedin or whatever our social choices. If 402 00:25:56.039 --> 00:26:00.880 other people start showing up, it just creates a different a different vibe, 403 00:26:00.920 --> 00:26:04.000 and that's not a bad thing. UH, there's there's such a thing as 404 00:26:04.359 --> 00:26:07.799 feeling fatigued from seeing the same person there the same type of thing over and 405 00:26:07.839 --> 00:26:11.440 over again. So I think this gives us some fresh ideas. I wanted 406 00:26:11.480 --> 00:26:14.559 to ask you about how you source your ideas. You you started going there 407 00:26:14.599 --> 00:26:18.720 a little bit, but as far as thinking for new creative videos, you're 408 00:26:18.759 --> 00:26:21.839 listening to Gong calls, you're I mean clearly from a sales perspective, you're 409 00:26:21.920 --> 00:26:25.319 in a lot of uh situations that then can become videos. But are you 410 00:26:25.400 --> 00:26:29.960 just constantly keeping a list Mike kind of I should be better with this. 411 00:26:30.319 --> 00:26:33.559 A lot of it is like like Comedians, for example, datories for this, 412 00:26:33.599 --> 00:26:36.839 and I'm not funny, but I do like this concept. They just 413 00:26:36.880 --> 00:26:41.079 like live life and then they take these ordinary life situations that happen a lot 414 00:26:41.119 --> 00:26:44.680 of times and then they build their flow around that. Jerry Seinfeldt was the 415 00:26:44.680 --> 00:26:47.559 best at this, wasn't it's the best at this. So I do a 416 00:26:47.559 --> 00:26:49.519 lot of that. Right, I'll get off a call. Somebody didn't like 417 00:26:49.599 --> 00:26:52.119 that, you know, we started asking questions or whatever, and it's like 418 00:26:52.160 --> 00:26:55.240 no, y'all should have started with a dollar or something like that. Like, 419 00:26:55.319 --> 00:26:56.640 okay, cool, like I have a skin and I'm actually I have 420 00:26:56.759 --> 00:27:00.880 this schedule with one of my friends who is tech and cool, who I've 421 00:27:00.920 --> 00:27:03.119 sold too now twice, and we're actually going to record this out. Like 422 00:27:03.160 --> 00:27:07.160 that is scenario. So that's one. Just live in life too, is 423 00:27:07.400 --> 00:27:11.559 you know, I crowdsourced with Um, with our team, our content team, 424 00:27:11.559 --> 00:27:14.680 our marketing team at mind, Carl is phenomenal, Somali and Michael, 425 00:27:14.720 --> 00:27:15.799 for example. You know, they helped down a call with me and they're 426 00:27:15.839 --> 00:27:18.440 like here's a couple of ideas, like they sent me a script. They 427 00:27:18.440 --> 00:27:21.680 did some of the hard work for me. Um, so that's in the 428 00:27:21.720 --> 00:27:23.960 queue for me as well. People do send me ideas. The one calveaut 429 00:27:23.960 --> 00:27:26.920 to give everybody is, Hey, if you come with like really strong ideas, 430 00:27:27.240 --> 00:27:30.160 you gotta be in the video. So you gotta be ready to get 431 00:27:30.160 --> 00:27:33.240 in the vote, and people are generally good about that stuff, you know. 432 00:27:33.319 --> 00:27:37.920 And then like buyers. Also, like, because I do this pretty 433 00:27:37.920 --> 00:27:42.000 often, people start becoming I wouldn't say fans, but like they get involved, 434 00:27:42.119 --> 00:27:45.799 right, and they get familiar, it's a probably a better way to 435 00:27:45.839 --> 00:27:48.559 say it, with my content. So then they'll reach out and say, 436 00:27:48.599 --> 00:27:52.039 Hey, you should do a video about this thing if you considered that. 437 00:27:52.559 --> 00:27:55.599 So I source a lot of it from the people I'm ultimately trying to build 438 00:27:55.599 --> 00:27:59.359 a connection with which it has been maybe one of the more powerful things. 439 00:27:59.759 --> 00:28:02.759 But in the last bucket, and I hate to admit this, this is 440 00:28:02.799 --> 00:28:04.799 probably the majority of where I get my ideas, but one day I'll just 441 00:28:06.119 --> 00:28:07.319 walk up to the computer, I'll have like an hour, hour and a 442 00:28:07.359 --> 00:28:11.200 half, and I'm like, let me just let me just do this thing 443 00:28:11.319 --> 00:28:15.160 right. Like a great example of this. My most popular content piece concept 444 00:28:15.240 --> 00:28:19.519 that I've had so far over three thousand likes on Linkedin, which tiktok probably 445 00:28:19.519 --> 00:28:22.079 had a big deal linkedin. That's a big deal. It was over court. 446 00:28:22.160 --> 00:28:26.640 It was it was I think it was like a quarter million impressions that 447 00:28:26.680 --> 00:28:29.240 I made on that video, and video doesn't get a whole lot of like 448 00:28:29.640 --> 00:28:33.519 viral impressions in it was it was me just being like, you know what, 449 00:28:33.559 --> 00:28:36.200 I need to do a video. I haven't done one in a while. 450 00:28:36.279 --> 00:28:40.599 Let me just do salespeople talking like and chairs, and it was like 451 00:28:40.720 --> 00:28:44.200 I thought the stupidest idea. I'm like, this is dumb. I'm not 452 00:28:44.240 --> 00:28:47.880 doing this, but but I ended up doing it and it took me like 453 00:28:48.039 --> 00:28:52.000 ten minutes to record in like fifteen minutes at it. It was by far 454 00:28:52.039 --> 00:28:56.200 the lowest, lowest barrier to entry piece content I've ever ever done and it 455 00:28:56.240 --> 00:29:00.640 was most popular m you know. So those are those are kind of the 456 00:29:00.640 --> 00:29:02.680 buckets. Right. I do have a structure in place, but a lot 457 00:29:02.680 --> 00:29:04.200 of it just comes from and maybe this is the creative mind to me, 458 00:29:04.480 --> 00:29:07.680 but a lot of it I can't like force creativity. To your point. 459 00:29:07.720 --> 00:29:11.119 I think it's a spot on Um. So I allow myself to just kind 460 00:29:11.119 --> 00:29:15.599 of like wander and then that creates a lot of what what resus? One 461 00:29:15.640 --> 00:29:18.240 small piece of that story that I love, that you mentioned, though, 462 00:29:18.359 --> 00:29:21.880 is that you had time. You said you had like an hour or an 463 00:29:21.880 --> 00:29:22.519 hour and hal and you're like, all right, let me just think of 464 00:29:22.559 --> 00:29:27.519 this, and that's where, for many of us we lacked to like either 465 00:29:27.799 --> 00:29:30.960 you could schedule time. That's like really simple takeaway even, but if you 466 00:29:32.000 --> 00:29:36.119 want your any sort of creativity to have time to surface, you gotta put 467 00:29:36.160 --> 00:29:40.359 it somewhere right, like you've got to come back to when would I do 468 00:29:40.400 --> 00:29:44.759 this in my my schedule? In my calendar. I This quarter I've gotten 469 00:29:44.759 --> 00:29:47.680 more intentional about the goals that we set, the rocks that we set for 470 00:29:47.720 --> 00:29:51.480 the quarter, having like a morning every week where people can't set meetings with 471 00:29:51.519 --> 00:29:53.240 me. We're all I'm not working on any other task except my rocks. 472 00:29:53.799 --> 00:29:59.839 Talk about effective. I have been able to just like man, my pro 473 00:30:00.000 --> 00:30:02.599 activity has gone through the roof because, again, it's like scheduled time for 474 00:30:02.680 --> 00:30:06.319 that. Same with creativity and something like this. When would you record a 475 00:30:06.400 --> 00:30:07.519 video? Well, now I have to show up to record a video because 476 00:30:07.559 --> 00:30:11.039 it's part of my my schedule, it's part of my calendar. So that's 477 00:30:11.319 --> 00:30:15.440 an easy way to up your creativity and I love that. I want to 478 00:30:15.480 --> 00:30:21.720 give you a chance, Mike. Any mindset shift thing you would invite us, 479 00:30:21.720 --> 00:30:26.039 and our audience too, as we leave this episode? Maybe a takeaway 480 00:30:26.519 --> 00:30:30.079 coming out of your experience and your story that we've we've highlighted here on on 481 00:30:30.160 --> 00:30:33.079 B two B growth today. Yeah, I definitely have a couple, I 482 00:30:33.119 --> 00:30:37.680 think at first is is I think it's more of a summary of some things 483 00:30:37.720 --> 00:30:41.480 that I said, just packaged stuff of the first to find the creativity of 484 00:30:41.519 --> 00:30:45.839 the creative minds in your company and let them run wild right within reason. 485 00:30:45.000 --> 00:30:49.319 I can't Miss Represent the company and you've gotta be mindful about but empower them. 486 00:30:49.400 --> 00:30:55.960 Number two, don't think that your audience doesn't take note when you put 487 00:30:56.119 --> 00:31:00.519 really great, again, empathetic content that helps and be seen and understood, 488 00:31:00.599 --> 00:31:04.799 even if they don't engage. So a lot of times, if I'm as 489 00:31:04.799 --> 00:31:10.240 a marketer, the intuitive direction I would go is just looking at numbers. 490 00:31:10.240 --> 00:31:14.039 It's almost like a data scientist, if you if you will right, but 491 00:31:14.119 --> 00:31:17.200 you're trying to build a brand. So, like we've we've over indexed on 492 00:31:17.400 --> 00:31:19.400 the numbers. How many lights, How many impressions? How many leads? 493 00:31:19.480 --> 00:31:22.680 How much revenue has been sourced? Like like, get outside the numbers a 494 00:31:22.720 --> 00:31:26.119 little bit and just remember the person. There are companies are really good at 495 00:31:26.119 --> 00:31:30.119 doing this and they balance both, and you have to have both. If 496 00:31:30.160 --> 00:31:33.000 you if you do one of the other, then you either lose your humanity 497 00:31:33.160 --> 00:31:36.759 or your humanity or you lose your effectiveness. Um, so you have to 498 00:31:36.759 --> 00:31:41.079 have both, but don't forget, right, the creative side, like don't 499 00:31:41.079 --> 00:31:48.000 forget that content that speaks to people matters. I think three is just like 500 00:31:48.240 --> 00:31:51.519 offer some of what you do. Like I think a lot of times marketing 501 00:31:51.559 --> 00:31:55.519 teams. This happened in the in the pandemic. Mostly a lot of marketing 502 00:31:55.519 --> 00:32:00.839 teams who are banking on the big events to drive up like center the pipeline, 503 00:32:00.920 --> 00:32:02.400 but probably not that that much, but like a majority of their pipeline 504 00:32:02.440 --> 00:32:07.279 for the year from in pursuit events. So like a BS reinvent or you 505 00:32:07.319 --> 00:32:10.359 know, some event like that. It got canceled, right. It would 506 00:32:10.359 --> 00:32:14.519 otherwise generate a lot of pipeline. Find some of those scrappy, like guerrilla 507 00:32:14.599 --> 00:32:20.400 marketing ways to Um, to go get new meetings and and and as part 508 00:32:20.400 --> 00:32:23.240 of that, get the team involved, to get the get the executives involved, 509 00:32:23.279 --> 00:32:27.440 like the founder led sales. Motion is so huge now. It's the 510 00:32:27.480 --> 00:32:30.279 difference a lot of times between whether or not people actually like your company. 511 00:32:31.160 --> 00:32:35.839 And there are there are companies that do this really well. So I think 512 00:32:35.839 --> 00:32:37.680 outreach is a good exact. A lot of our market more tech right. 513 00:32:37.839 --> 00:32:40.680 So like outreach is a good example at this as Clary, I'm a big 514 00:32:40.720 --> 00:32:45.000 fan of them. Gong, sales, bloft Um, those are kind of 515 00:32:45.039 --> 00:32:47.480 the ones that have have done this really well. Go do that in B 516 00:32:47.559 --> 00:32:51.039 two B A few sell the technology people as well, because I have to 517 00:32:51.079 --> 00:32:58.279 imagine some of your audiences selling to like people that marketing people might assume that, 518 00:32:58.680 --> 00:33:00.839 no, they're not on linked in in and no, they don't care 519 00:33:00.880 --> 00:33:04.160 about this kind of stuff. They just care about the details and it's black 520 00:33:04.200 --> 00:33:07.119 and white. No, like, they are people too, and they like 521 00:33:07.240 --> 00:33:10.480 laughing. You know, it's still satter to them and you'll be a different 522 00:33:10.599 --> 00:33:14.559 and that's leads me maybe to my last point. This is a key differentiator. 523 00:33:15.160 --> 00:33:17.720 It really is a key differentiator between your competition, because everybody, everybody 524 00:33:17.720 --> 00:33:22.759 at this point has a Google ads budget and they're and they're like, you 525 00:33:22.799 --> 00:33:24.599 know, maybe we'll do facebook ads, maybe non, depending, you know, 526 00:33:24.599 --> 00:33:30.599 if it's a big ASP and large like legacy solution. You know, 527 00:33:30.640 --> 00:33:35.240 maybe not. But like they allocate all those these funds to like the traditional 528 00:33:35.839 --> 00:33:40.160 kind of buckets of marketing ads and and and tooling and like all these different 529 00:33:40.160 --> 00:33:45.079 things, like get into the guerrilla marketing mindset, especially now because efficiency. 530 00:33:45.079 --> 00:33:50.000 We didn't talk about this, but efficiency is gonna be huge marketing teams and 531 00:33:50.079 --> 00:33:54.400 this is a really good way to organically build that audience for basically no money. 532 00:33:54.799 --> 00:33:58.640 You might you might get it to like somebody is going to have adobe, 533 00:33:59.039 --> 00:34:00.359 right, the adobe suite on their on their laptop. Right, you 534 00:34:00.359 --> 00:34:04.680 already or pain for that, or like Camp Tajia or something. You can 535 00:34:04.720 --> 00:34:07.239 outsource this stuff to fiber, right. Is Someone on fiber like you want 536 00:34:07.280 --> 00:34:09.679 to do the video editing and you don't have somebody like me that just does 537 00:34:09.719 --> 00:34:12.920 it? Well, what's that gonna cost? You? Like fifty bucks of 538 00:34:13.000 --> 00:34:15.079 video? Okay, that's worth it. You can use that in sequences. 539 00:34:15.119 --> 00:34:19.119 So get efficient, right. This is a really efficient way to do it. 540 00:34:19.719 --> 00:34:22.400 Last thing, content is a service. I'm huge. I'm huge on 541 00:34:22.440 --> 00:34:27.480 this. Use outreach, go in and put templates or snippets. Right, 542 00:34:27.639 --> 00:34:30.800 create this content, but then serve it up to where your strs and the 543 00:34:30.920 --> 00:34:34.599 ease can just pull it down and and use it in their sequences. If 544 00:34:34.599 --> 00:34:37.719 you're gonna keep doing that, you might as well make it enjoyable for the 545 00:34:37.760 --> 00:34:40.119 customer, right. And so that's I think those are some I probably missed 546 00:34:40.159 --> 00:34:44.679 some stuff, but those would be my big takeaways. I love that summary. 547 00:34:44.840 --> 00:34:49.679 I went through and just wrote those down because I think that goes back 548 00:34:49.679 --> 00:34:52.719 through everything we've we've outlined in a pretty sustinct way. Let the creative mind 549 00:34:52.800 --> 00:34:57.840 run wild, create content. That makes people feel known and understood. Get 550 00:34:57.880 --> 00:35:02.039 you your team, your team and involved in your marketing, and creativity and 551 00:35:02.079 --> 00:35:07.719 authenticity can be your differentiator. Content as a service. All really good stuff 552 00:35:07.719 --> 00:35:10.840 here, Mike, for people that want to check out your videos, want 553 00:35:10.840 --> 00:35:14.719 to stay connected with you, with Monty Carlo. Tell us a little bit 554 00:35:14.719 --> 00:35:17.719 about about that up on Linkedin, man, this is a place to uh 555 00:35:17.880 --> 00:35:21.480 to get involved in me, semi connect to our class. Send me a 556 00:35:21.480 --> 00:35:24.880 message you have video ideas. Happy to happy to collaborate with you on that 557 00:35:25.320 --> 00:35:30.440 and always restopted to it. and Uh yeah, from a Monte Carlo perspective, 558 00:35:30.440 --> 00:35:32.360 we're pretty pretty all over the place. It's hard to hard to uh 559 00:35:32.639 --> 00:35:37.440 miss us on the linkedin decide because we do such a good job just being 560 00:35:37.480 --> 00:35:39.400 present right and applying a lot of the practices that we talked about today so 561 00:35:39.920 --> 00:35:43.719 perfect well, thank you for spending some time with us, Mike. We 562 00:35:43.760 --> 00:35:46.360 really appreciate you from a sales perspective, talking to our marketing audience. I 563 00:35:46.400 --> 00:35:51.639 know that it's going to be a really valuable conversation for so many. Thanks 564 00:35:51.679 --> 00:35:54.400 for having man, this is fun. We're having insightful conversations like this on 565 00:35:54.480 --> 00:35:58.320 B two, b growth so that we can help you continue to innovate, 566 00:35:58.719 --> 00:36:02.159 continue to think through how you want to grow in your context. So if 567 00:36:02.199 --> 00:36:06.599 you haven't yet followed the show and you're listening to this right now, go 568 00:36:06.639 --> 00:36:09.199 ahead and do that so you can stay connected. If you want to chat 569 00:36:09.280 --> 00:36:13.719 with me, I would love to talk to you over on Linkedin about marketing, 570 00:36:13.760 --> 00:36:17.480 business life and uh so feel free keep doing work that matters. We'll 571 00:36:17.480 --> 00:36:34.039 be back real soon with another episode. For B Two B marketing leaders, 572 00:36:34.079 --> 00:36:36.679 it can sometimes feel like you're on an island. Now more than ever, 573 00:36:36.800 --> 00:36:40.360 it's important for us to be connected with our peers. Enter Marketing Squad. 574 00:36:40.559 --> 00:36:44.639 It's the sweet fish take on community, and it offers B two B marketing 575 00:36:44.719 --> 00:36:49.079 leaders an opportunity to share and grow. Learn more by reaching out to our 576 00:36:49.119 --> 00:36:53.599 community manager, Diana Mitchell, at Diana dot Mitchell at sweet fish media dot 577 00:36:53.679 --> 00:37:00.880 com. Four