Dear FIFY Listeners This is our final episode of Focus Is Your Friend. Thank you for listening for the past 67 episodes! I’ve really enjoyed bringing the podcast to you and talking with so many smart marketers about how to make traction in this crazy world. I appreciate all your feedback and emails – hopefully they helped us produce an increasingly better show. We’ve decided that we’re going to put our time into a more entertaining, storytelling format. So we’re ending Focus Is Your Friend so th...
Sep 14, 2017•10 min
Erin Dwyer is a marketing guru with a passion and enthusiasm for the digital world. Erin is currently the SVP of Ecommerce, Social and Digital Marketing for a cosmetics company in Orange County, CA. Erin started her career in the advertising side of the business and has worked at prestigious agencies throughout her career including J Walter Thompson, DDB, Wong Doody and TBWA/Chiat/ Day. She's worked in gaming, software technology and entertainment categories. With digital’s impact on all industr...
Aug 31, 2017•33 min
Glenn Mattson is the president of Mattson Enterprises, a consulting and training firm which specializes in helping you put those plans you’ve spent so much time creating into action. Learn what it takes to connect the dots and ensure success. “I think that's the number one challenge that business owners have is they assume that they know their audience when in reality they know very little about them.” – Chris Dayley What you’ll learn about in this episode: How to implement the plans you’ve spen...
Aug 17, 2017•32 min
Drew Neisser, is the founder and CEO of Renegade, an award-winning agency that helps CMOs find innovative ways to break through. He is a true renegade thinker, and he has helped dozens and dozens of CMOs create marketing programs worth writing about, and he has told the story of over 200 of his CMO friends via his Ad Age column and his first book, The CMO’s Periodic Table: A Renegade’s Guide to Marketing “I think that's the number one challenge that business owners have is they assume that they ...
Aug 03, 2017•35 min
Drew Neisser, is the founder and CEO of Renegade, an award-winning agency that helps CMOs find innovative ways to break through. He is a true renegade thinker, and he has helped dozens and dozens of CMOs create marketing programs worth writing about, and he has told the story of over 200 of his CMO friends via his Ad Age column and his first book, The CMO’s Periodic Table: A Renegade’s Guide to Marketing “Awareness erodes at about a 50 percent a month rate, so if you can’ t create something that...
Jul 27, 2017•47 min
Brandon Laws is the Director of Marketing at Xenium HR. He has helped companies go from twenty people to ninety people with just himself, a coordinator and a very small budget. Learn how to target an audience effectively with small money and big ideas that translate. “One of our taglines [at Xenium] is ‘developing great employers’ and I think how you do that is you educate them and you continue to provide best practice advice and provide value always.” - Brandon Laws What you’ll learn about in t...
Jul 13, 2017•33 min
AJ Wilcox is a digital marketing fanatic who found early success with LinkedIn Ads. He started B2Linked, a niche agency, and LinkedIn Certified Partner. He's a ginger & triathlete. He & his wife live in Utah with their 4 kids, and his company car is a go-kart. “The most beautiful part about LinkedIn is the targeting. It’s scalable access to professionals at a really granular level.” - AJ Wilcox What you’ll learn about in this episode: The right-sized approach to using LinkedIn and Facebo...
Jun 20, 2017•31 min
Building and growing businesses, from category creation to global expansion, is a passion of Mike Porcaro’s and it's a through-line in his career. He believes that there are few things more satisfying than the sense of accomplishment a team feels when they've achieved what may have seemed impossible just a few months prior. “A great idea wasn’t great only one time.” - Mike Porcaro What you’ll learn about in this episode: Boomi: the world’s leading integration platform (the software that connects...
Jun 15, 2017•51 min
Entrepreneur, speaker, and writer Pia Silva is a partner and brand strategist at Worstofall Design where they build "Badass Brands without the BS" for 1-3 person service businesses in 1-3 day intensives. She is a Forbes contributor and has spoken at a host of entrepreneurial organizations including Goldman Sach's 10,000 Small Businesses, Million Dollar Women’s Summit, Squarespace, and We Work. Her company was named top "10 Design Firms Lead By Young People That Are Changing the Way We Look at th...
Jun 08, 2017•29 min
Joe Stradinger began his career as a CPA with Arthur Andersen. His first assignment was in Budapest, Hungary, where he performed business valuations to support the privatization effort of former Iron Curtain countries. Joe eventually transferred to Arthur Andersen Business Consulting where he supported major telecommunications clients such as GTE and MCIWorldCom. In October of 1998, he co-founded Musicforce.com, the Internet's largest retailer focused exclusively on one of the fastest growing ge...
Jun 01, 2017•31 min
Ken helps B2B growth company executives in sales, marketing, and the C-Suite to breakthrough, achieve, and grow market leadership in new and existing markets. His clients not only lead, they improve key sales and marketing metrics like leads to revenue and opportunities to close. Ken has spent 20+ years in B2B marketing roles, launching the Intel Inside broadcast co-op program in 1991 and the Internet’s first affiliate marketing program, Netscape Now, at Netscape from 1995-99; has been CMO at se...
May 30, 2017•27 min
John Brubaker is a nationally renowned business performance consultant, speaker, and award-winning author. John teaches audiences how to obtain better results in business with straightforward tools that turbo charge performance. Using a multidisciplinary approach, “Coach Bru” helps organizations and individuals develop their competitive edge. John is the author of two award-winning books: “The Coach Approach: Success Strategies From The Locker Room To The Board Room,” and “Seeds of Success: A Le...
May 18, 2017•40 min
Robert (Bob) Glazer is the founder and Managing Director of Acceleration Partners, and the founder and Chairman of BrandCycle. He is a serial entrepreneur with an exceptional track record and passion for growing revenue and profits for B2C-based companies. In demand by top brands and investment firms, he has extensive experience in the consumer, e-commerce, retail, online marketing, and ad-tech industries partnering with brands such as Adidas, ModCloth, Reebok, Target, Tiny Prints, Gymboree, and...
May 16, 2017•33 min
Liz O’Donnell is Double Forte’s Chief Content Officer, responsible for the firm’s and its clients' digital marketing and social media strategies. She blogs regularly for the agency on the dynamic world of social media, digital communication and being heard in a very loud world. Active in her community, Liz is a member of her town’s warrant and finance committee and co-founded Women in Democracy, a non-partisan organization that encourages women to run for local office. When you lead with the cre...
May 11, 2017•25 min
Liz O’Donnell is Double Forte’s Chief Content Officer, responsible for the firm’s and its client’s digital marketing and social media strategies. She blogs regularly for the agency on the dynamic world of social media, digital communication and being heard in a very loud world. Active in her community, Liz is a member of her town’s warrant and finance committee and co-founded Women in Democracy, a non-partisan organization that encourages women to run for local office. “Make sure your content is...
May 09, 2017•25 min
Liz O’Donnell is Double Forte’s Chief Content Officer, responsible for the firm’s and its client’s digital marketing and social media strategies. She blogs regularly for the agency on the dynamic world of social media, digital communication and being heard in a very loud world. Liz is the author of Mogul, Mom & Maid: The Balancing Act of the Modern Woman , a book that picks up where other business books leave off – understanding the impact women’s personal lives have on their careers and the...
May 04, 2017•30 min
Nav Athwal is the Founder and CEO of RealtyShares, a curated online marketplace for real estate investing. His platform connects individual and institutional investors to private U.S. real estate investments, raising $200 million across more than 400 deals in 31 states. Prior to founding RealtyShares, Nav was a real estate and land use attorney in San Francisco, representing developers, fund managers, nonprofits and public and private REIT's on some of the largest US real estate and renewable en...
Apr 25, 2017•37 min
Tara-Nicholle Nelson is the Founder and CEO of Transformational Consumer Insights, Inc., a data, insight, and strategy firm. TCI helps brands understand, reach, and engage Transformational Consumers: a hyper-growth segment of consumers that view all of life as a series of campaigns to change their behavior in order to live healthier, wealthier, wiser lives. Formerly, Tara was the first and only VP, Marketing for MyFitnessPal, now part of Under Armour Connected Fitness. Over 160 million people wo...
Apr 20, 2017•29 min
Digital marketing and online customer service are broken, and Jay Baer brings the repair kit. Jay has created five multi-million dollar companies and was recently inducted into the Word of Mouth Marketing Hall of Fame. He is the President of Convince & Convert, a consulting firm that helps the world’s most iconic brands like The United Nations, Nike, 3M, and Oracle use technology to gain an unfair competitive advantage. A New York Times best-selling author of five books, Jay is also the host...
Apr 18, 2017•44 min
Renee Wilson is the president of the PR Council, the professional trade association for agencies practicing public relations, within the world of marketing and communications. The PR Council has 110+ members representing more than 11,000 employees in the US. PR Council advocates for and advances the business of communications firms by building the market and the value of firms as strategic business partners. Previously, Renee spent 11 years at MSLGROUP most recently as a member of the global boa...
Apr 13, 2017•34 min
With more than 20 years of experience in technology, SaaS, and B2B offerings, Jay Krishnan, Automile’s Vice President of Marketing, brings deep expertise in small business and enterprise marketing to the rapidly growing company. Prior to joining Automile, she led product marketing at fast-growing startups, accelerating growth and market leadership. She also drove go to market strategy for mobile and was an innovation catalyst during her tenure with Intuit. An accomplished change agent and though...
Apr 11, 2017•33 min
Described by Bella NYC Magazine as being passionate, energetic, and full of life, K2s founder and CEO, Heidi Krupp-Lisiten, is right at home in the world of marketing, promotion, and media. With over 25 years in the field, Heidi has become recognized as an industry leader who works closely with her clients to develop innovative 360-degree brand platforms designed to engage consumers, excite media, drive awareness, and most importantly, deliver quantifiable business outcomes. As the head of K2, H...
Apr 06, 2017•45 min
Jen McClure is one of the original authorities on digital and social media. More than a decade ago, she anticipated the significant impact that these technologies would have on business, media, culture and society. This led her to cofound the Society for New Communications Research in 2005, a think tank focused on these technologies, which merged with The Conference Board in 2016. She now serves as a Program Director and Advisory Board Chair for The Conference Board. Jen is CEO of JEM Consulting...
Apr 04, 2017•44 min
David Wisnom III is the founder & Chief Strategist of SightCast Inc., a brand strategy and marketing consultancy. David's background in developing brand strategies covers the spectrum of brands such as UCSF, Huntington Hospital, Stanford Hospital & Clinics, Varian Medical Systems, Mechanics Bank, Wells Fargo Advisors, McDonald's, and Coca-Cola. David's accomplishments include co-authoring the book Before the Brand: Creating the Unique DNA of an Enduring Brand Identity, (published by McGr...
Mar 30, 2017•34 min
It may be an overused word but Mimi is truly passionate about helping create truly outstanding workplaces. Throughout her career, she has taken many business and personality assessments. With very few exceptions she weighs heavily towards creativity plus organization a combination that is highly unique she's been told. Due to this combination of strengths, she's had a very well-rounded background and experienced success as a strategist, a creative problem solver, a designer, a writer, a leader a...
Mar 28, 2017•29 min
Kevin Craine is a professional writer and editor, an internationally respected business analyst, and an award-winning podcast producer. Kevin's podcasts have been heard around the world, including the award-winning "Everyday-MBA.com" where he interviews best-selling authors about success tips and techniques that you don't learn in business school. He is the host and producer of "Bizcast" on C-Suite Radio and his interviews feature today's best thought leaders. He is the producer behind podcasts ...
Mar 23, 2017•35 min
In spite of starting her career in accounting, failing IBM’s entry level sales exam, being given a territory that had never bought anything, and being told she couldn't sell without an engineering background, Kendra Lee entered the sales profession and proved those naysayers wrong. She turned her knowledge of numbers into her own approach to lead generation taking her to the top 1% of sales professionals in each IT company she sold for. She founded KLA Group, a sales and marketing agency, to con...
Mar 21, 2017•37 min
Libby leads the client services team at IDMLOCO, a digital strategy agency at the intersection of public affairs and marketing. With more than ten years of digital agency experience, Libby understands not just how to develop and implement successful campaigns, but also how to deliver exceptional communication and service to her clients. A native Midwesterner, Libby has previously built and led digital agency teams for Campbell Mithun, AdFarm, and Flint Group, where her work for Blue Cross Blue S...
Mar 16, 2017•31 min
Today we’re going to talk about #Hashtags. How do you use them -- and how do you use them well? “Make sure you know what your hashtag means before you use it.” - Lee Caraher What you’ll learn about in this episode: Where the hashtag came from How to use hashtags to get into the flow of a conversation How to create a great hashtag Why you need to know the hashtag rules for each platform How to make sure your hashtag means what you think it means Making sure the hashtags you use match the kind of ...
Mar 14, 2017•24 min
So many books, so little time! We’ve taken the guesswork away by highlighting the best books you need to read this quarter. “Each of these books has five nuggets that you can apply to your programs today that can help you have better results by next quarter.” - Lee Caraher What you’ll learn about in this episode: Why you and your team should read books together “Pre-Suasion” Robert Cialdini’s book about why the moment before you deliver your message is so crucial “Influence” Robert Cialdini’s es...
Mar 09, 2017•18 min
