Breaking Through in Cybersecurity Marketing

Episode Summary:

David Ebner, president and founder of Content Workshop, is back on the show to talk about AI systems.

Content Workshop just launched the AI Maturity Model, a 10-question survey that benchmarks where your marketing team sits on the AI adoption scale compared to peers. David walks through the five stages, from solo prompting to fully systematized loop factories where agents handle the work and a QA agent named Karen checks everything. He also covers the new AI marketing courses Content Workshop is offering and what he is bringing to CyberMarketingCon including MD file giveaways that replace the traditional worksheet and a mysterious third booth.

About David:

David Ebner is the President and Founder of Content Workshop, a storytelling, content, and AI studio agency, and the founder of Chatter, an AI-assisted content ideation tool. He has spent his career building content systems for brands and now focuses on helping marketing teams integrate AI into their workflows through training, governance models, and agentic systems.

Links & Resources:

CyberMarketing Con 2026:CyberMarketing Con is back November 15th through 18th in Austin, Texas, and virtually. 700+ cybersecurity marketers, 4 days of sessions, workshops, and networking built for go-to-market teams in cybersecurity. Tracks for product marketing, field marketing, CMOs, and founders and CEOs. 

👉 cybermarketingconference.com

Subscribe & Review: 👉 Enjoyed this one? Drop us a quick ⭐ rating or review; it helps more cyber marketers find the show.

📩 Questions, feedback, or want to be a guest? Email: [email protected] 

Follow the Host:

Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Breaking Through in Cybersecurity Marketing. You can join the Cybersecurity Marketing Society on our website, on our main LinkedIn page, our Instagram page, or our podcast LinkedIn page. 

See you on the next episode!

Episode Summary:

Gary Survis is an operating partner at Insight Partners who has spent years on both sides of the table, as an operator and as a board member evaluating CMOs. He joins Gianna and Charles on CyberCMO Confidential to talk about what investors want from marketing leaders and why most CMOs miss it. The conversation covers board meetings, CMO interviews, eighteen-month tenure, and why the CMO role is horizontal by nature and what happens when you treat it like it isn’t.

About Gary:

Gary Survis is an Operating Partner at Insight Partners, where he works with portfolio companies on marketing strategy and go-to-market. He has held CMO roles across multiple technology companies and brings both an operator and investor perspective to marketing leadership.

CyberMarketing Con 2026:

CyberMarketing Con is back November 15th through 18th in Austin, Texas, and virtually. 700+ cybersecurity marketers, 4 days of sessions, workshops, and networking built for go-to-market teams in cybersecurity. Tracks for product marketing, field marketing, CMOs, and founders and CEOs.

👉 cybermarketingconference.com

Subscribe & Review: 👉 Enjoyed this one? Drop us a quick ⭐ rating or review; it helps more cyber marketers find the show.

📩 Questions, feedback, or want to be a guest? Email: [email protected] 

Follow the Host:

Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Breaking Through in Cybersecurity Marketing. You can join the Cybersecurity Marketing Society on our website, on our main LinkedIn page, our Instagram page, or our podcast LinkedIn page. 

See you on the next episode!

Episode Summary:

Every year, DataTribe reviews hundreds of early-stage cybersecurity startup submissions for the DataTribe Challenge. Leo Scott, Managing Director and Chief Innovation Officer, sees the market shift before most people do.

He joins Gianna ahead of the Cyber Innovation Conference October 26th and 27th in Washington, DC, to talk through this year’s five finalists. The submissions are full of AI. Leo finds the companies one level down more interesting, solving what AI is changing about how attacks happen, how humans get tricked, and how agents get out of control. That is where the 2026 class points.

If you want to see them pitch live, the conference is October 26th and 27th in Washington, DC, at cyberinnovationconference.com. 

About Leo:

Leo Scott is the Managing Director and Chief Innovation Officer at DataTribe, a seed-stage startup foundry focused on early-stage cybersecurity and data science companies in the Washington, DC area. He began his career as a software engineer at the start of Web 1.0 and has since co-founded and built three companies, all of which have been acquired: Clara Vista by CMGI in 1999, Incando/Pickle.com by Scripps Networks in 2007, and BrightContext by WealthEngine in 2014. He holds a BS in electrical and computer engineering from Carnegie Mellon University and an MS in computer science from George Washington University.

Links & Resources:

Cyber Innovation Conference:

The Cyber Innovation Conference is happening October 26th and 27th in Washington, D.C. CISOs, founders, and active investors in one room, with sponsor slots purposefully capped. Society members get 10% off your sponsorship when you mention Cybersecurity Marketing Society or CMS at sign-up.

👉 https://www.cyberinnovationconference.com/sponsors

CyberMarketing Con 2026:

CyberMarketing Con is back November 15th through 18th in Austin, Texas, and virtually. 700+ cybersecurity marketers, 4 days of sessions, workshops, and networking built for go-to-market teams in cybersecurity. Tracks for product marketing, field marketing, CMOs, and founders and CEOs. Get your ticket before prices go up on October 26th.

👉 cybermarketingconference.com

Subscribe & Review:

👉 Enjoyed this one? Drop us a quick ⭐ rating or review; it helps more cyber marketers find the show.

📩 Questions, feedback, or want to be a guest? Email: [email protected] 

Follow the Host:

Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Breaking Through in Cybersecurity Marketing. You can join the Cybersecurity Marketing Society on our website, on our main LinkedIn page, our Instagram page, or our podcast LinkedIn page. 

See you on the next episode!

Episode Summary:

Tracey Moon is a multi-time CMO and currently leads marketing at BlackCloak, a company that protects executives and their families in their personal lives to prevent corporate breaches. She joined Gianna and Charles on CyberCMO Confidential to talk about why she inserts herself into every part of the business, how she builds credibility before she rolls out her real plan, and why she calls her approach UMA: Unsolicited Moon Advice. 

About Tracey:

Tracey Moon is the Chief Marketing Officer at BlackCloak, a digital executive protection company. She has held CMO roles at Cybersixgill, Verodin, and Mandiant, and has spent her career helping growth-stage cybersecurity companies scale through organizational alignment and go-to-market strategy. She holds an MBA from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management.

Links & Resources:

Cyber Innovation Conference:

The Cyber Innovation Conference is happening October 26th and 27th in Washington, D.C. CISOs, founders, and active investors in one room, with sponsor slots purposefully capped. Society members get 10% off your sponsorship when you mention Cybersecurity Marketing Society or CMS at sign-up.

👉 https://www.cyberinnovationconference.com/sponsors

CyberMarketing Con 2026:

CyberMarketing Con is back November 15th through 18th in Austin, Texas, and virtually. 700+ cybersecurity marketers, 4 days of sessions, workshops, and networking built for go-to-market teams in cybersecurity. Tracks for product marketing, field marketing, CMOs, and founders and CEOs.

👉 cybermarketingconference.com

Subscribe & Review:

👉 Enjoyed this one? Drop us a quick ⭐ rating or review; it helps more cyber marketers find the show.

📩 Questions, feedback, or want to be a guest? Email: [email protected] 

Follow the Host:

Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Breaking Through in Cybersecurity Marketing. You can join the Cybersecurity Marketing Society on our website, on our main LinkedIn page, our Instagram page, or our podcast LinkedIn page. 

See you on the next episode!

Episode Summary:

Gianna and Maria are together on the pod to talk about CyberMarketingCon 2026, happening November 15th through 18th in Austin, Texas.

The theme this year is Create Your Own Adventure. They talk about sessions, tracks, career stories from past conferences, the buddy program, the WhatsApp group, and why Maria is starting a petition to rename customer marketing to community building. She will have a clipboard.

There is also a sloth named Chompers. And Maria has a co-founder discount code for anyone who DMs her.

Cyber Innovation Conference:

The Cyber Innovation Conference is happening October 26th and 27th in Washington, D.C. CISOs, founders, and active investors in one room, with sponsor slots purposefully capped. Society members get 10% off your sponsorship when you mention Cybersecurity Marketing Society or CMS at sign-up.

👉 https://www.cyberinnovationconference.com/sponsors

CyberMarketing Con 2026:CyberMarketing Con is back November 15th through 18th in Austin, Texas, and virtually. 700+ cybersecurity marketers, 4 days of sessions, workshops, and networking built for go-to-market teams in cybersecurity. Tracks for product marketing, field marketing, CMOs, and founders and CEOs. Get your ticket before prices go up on October 1st.

👉 cybermarketingconference.com

Subscribe & Review:

👉 Enjoyed this one? Drop us a quick ⭐ rating or review; it helps more cyber marketers find the show.

📩 Questions, feedback, or want to be a guest? Email: [email protected] 

Follow the Host:

Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Breaking Through in Cybersecurity Marketing. You can join the Cybersecurity Marketing Society on our website, on our main LinkedIn page, our Instagram page, or our podcast LinkedIn page. 

See you on the next episode!

Episode Summary:

Lenin Alevski is an AI Security Engineer at Google who spent a week building a text-based cybersecurity survival game in his spare time. Accidental CISO puts you in the seat of the first security hire at a company where everything is on fire, and every fraught and heart-pounding decision leads to one of eight endings.

He sat down with Gianna to talk about how the game came together, why spec-driven development matters more than vibe coding alone, and what 12,000 players and zero marketing budget taught him about building indie cyber games. 

About Lenin:

Lenin Alevski is an AI Security Engineer at Google, where he focuses on threat modeling and security for AI systems and integrations. Before Google, he held security engineering roles at MinIO, OneLogin, and Websec México, where he worked across application security, cloud security, penetration testing, and identity and access management. In his spare time, he is an open-source contributor and the creator of Accidental CISO, a free text-based cybersecurity survival game.

Links & Resources:

Cyber Innovation Conference:

The Cyber Innovation Conference is happening October 26th and 27th in Washington, D.C. CISOs, founders, and active investors in one room, with sponsor slots purposefully capped. Society members get 10% off your sponsorship when you mention Cybersecurity Marketing Society or CMS at sign-up.

👉 https://www.cyberinnovationconference.com/sponsors

CyberMarketing Con 2026:

CyberMarketing Con is back November 15th through 18th in Austin, Texas, and virtually. 700+ cybersecurity marketers, 4 days of sessions, workshops, and networking built for go-to-market teams in cybersecurity. Tracks for product marketing, field marketing, CMOs, and founders and CEOs. Get your ticket before prices go up on October 1st.

👉 cybermarketingconference.com

Subscribe & Review: 👉 Enjoyed this one? Drop us a quick ⭐ rating or review; it helps more cyber marketers find the show.

📩 Questions, feedback, or want to be a guest? Email: [email protected] 

Follow the Host:

Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Breaking Through in Cybersecurity Marketing. You can join the Cybersecurity Marketing Society on our website, on our main LinkedIn page, our Instagram page, or our podcast LinkedIn page. 

See you on the next episode!

Episode Summary:

Gianna sits down with Vab Dwivedi, VP of Digital Experience at CrowdStrike, Sandra Liu, a cybersecurity creator with over 200,000 LinkedIn followers, and Eric Becker, Enterprise Account Director at LinkedIn. They covered the CrowdStrike and Sandra Liu creator campaign, why LinkedIn reaches cybersecurity buyers differently than any other platform, how Vab thinks about measurement when the buying journey isn't linear, and why content quality will always matter more than volume.

About the Panelists:

Vab Dwivedi is the VP of Digital Experience at CrowdStrike, where he leads digital marketing strategy. Before CrowdStrike, he spent nearly 20 years in consumer marketing, most recently at Yeti.

Sandra Liu is a cybersecurity creator known as WithSandra, with over 200,000 followers on LinkedIn. She creates cybersecurity education and news content for audiences ranging from beginners to senior security professionals, drawing on her background as a security analyst.

Eric Becker is an Enterprise Account Director at LinkedIn, where he works with brands on creator and video strategies, including thought leader ads, BrandLink, and creator discovery.

Links & Resources:

Cyber Innovation Conference:

The Cyber Innovation Conference is happening October 26th and 27th in Washington, D.C. CISOs, founders, and active investors in one room, with sponsor slots purposefully capped. Society members get 10% off your sponsorship when you mention Cybersecurity Marketing Society or CMS at sign-up.

👉 https://www.cyberinnovationconference.com/sponsors

CyberMarketing Con 2026:

CyberMarketing Con is back November 15th through 18th in Austin, Texas, and virtually. 700+ cybersecurity marketers, 4 days of sessions, workshops, and networking built for go-to-market teams in cybersecurity. Tracks for product marketing, field marketing, CMOs, and founders and CEOs. Get your ticket before prices go up on October 1st.

👉 cybermarketingconference.com

Subscribe & Review:

👉 Enjoyed this one? Drop us a quick ⭐ rating or review; it helps more cyber marketers find the show.

📩 Questions, feedback, or want to be a guest? Email: [email protected] 

Follow the Host:

Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Breaking Through in Cybersecurity Marketing. You can join the Cybersecurity Marketing Society on our website, on our main LinkedIn page, our Instagram page, or our podcast LinkedIn page. 

See you on the next episode!

Episode Summary:

When David Politis sits down with Gianna and Charles on CyberCMO Confidential, you’re getting something rare: A CEO who loves marketing telling you exactly what he thinks when he watches CMOs operate. Why the CRO wins if you let them, why he stops listening the moment someone says they have a playbook, why the best CMOs he ever wanted to hire became CEOs. And what one engineer just built for 2,000 accounts that made him realize most companies are nowhere near what is now possible.

About David:

David Politis is the Multi-time Founder, Current CEO Coach, Founder, Not Another CEO Podcast. He founded and led BetterCloud, sold it to Vista Equity Partners for about $750 million, and was part of the early team at Cloud Sherpas, which Accenture acquired. He now advises founders and executives on go-to-market, fundraising, and company building.

Links & Resources:

Subscribe & Review:

👉 Enjoyed this one? Drop us a quick ⭐ rating or review; it helps more cyber marketers find the show.

📩 Questions, feedback, or want to be a guest? Email: [email protected] 

Follow the Host:

Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Breaking Through in Cybersecurity Marketing. You can join the Cybersecurity Marketing Society on our website, on our main LinkedIn page, our Instagram page, or our podcast LinkedIn page. 

See you on the next episode!

Episode Summary:

Yael Grauer won a Pulitzer and got laid off in the same year. She is a freelance investigative reporter covering cybersecurity, privacy, and surveillance. She sat down with Gianna to talk about what companies get wrong when journalists come knocking, why lying in that moment makes everything worse, and what it looks like from the other side of every pitch, every breach response, and every "no comment" that ends up in a story anyway.

About Yael:

Yael Grauer is a freelance investigative reporter covering cybersecurity, privacy, surveillance, and tech accountability. She has written for Wired, Ars Technica, The Atlantic, The Intercept, The Verge, and others. She previously worked at Consumer Reports as Program Manager for Cybersecurity Research, where she managed Security Planner, a free digital safety guide. She is part of the team behind a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation into global surveillance technology conducted with The Associated Press.

Links & Resources:

Subscribe & Review:

👉 Enjoyed this one? Drop us a quick ⭐ rating or review; it helps more cyber marketers find the show.

📩 Questions, feedback, or want to be a guest? Email: [email protected] 

Follow the Host:

Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Breaking Through in Cybersecurity Marketing. You can join the Cybersecurity Marketing Society on our website, on our main LinkedIn page, our Instagram page, or our podcast LinkedIn page. 

See you on the next episode!

Episode Summary:

Brian Reed has been a CMO six times. He's also watched AI flatten marketing for the past two years and has said so out loud, including in a manifesto he published called AI is Flattening Marketing: Cue the Return of Mad Men.

On this CyberCMO Confidential episode, Brian, Gianna, and Charles Gold get into why storytelling and community are the two things AI cannot commoditize. Brian also talks about how he built a “crusty OT guy” persona to validate messaging authenticity, and what community-driven marketing looks like when your buyers wear steel-toe boots and aren’t online very often.

About Brian:

Brian Reed is the Chief Marketing Officer at Corsha, an early-stage OT security company focused on securing machine-to-machine communications in industrial environments. He is a six-time CMO and CPO with over 30 years of experience in enterprise software and cybersecurity, with a background spanning mobile security, DevSecOps, and now operational technology. Before Corsha, Brian served as CMO at Appdome and NowSecure.

Links & Resources:

Subscribe & Review:

👉 Enjoyed this one? Drop us a quick ⭐ rating or review; it helps more cyber marketers find the show.

📩 Questions, feedback, or want to be a guest? Email: [email protected] 

Follow the Host:

Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Breaking Through in Cybersecurity Marketing. You can join the Cybersecurity Marketing Society on our website, on our main LinkedIn page, our Instagram page, or our podcast LinkedIn page. 

See you on the next episode!