Brett Trainor Unplugged

By Brett TrainorBusiness Entrepreneurship Education Self-Improvement

Brett Trainor Unplugged episodes

March 30, 202196. How to Optimize Your Revenue Engine: Strategies & Tactics with Chris Walker
Marketing is no longer what it used to be.

Forget coaxing customers to attend a demo. Using education to raise buyer awareness is now key.

Chris Walker from Refine Labs joins me today as we go over their own way of helping B2B companies grow through marketing. Chris comes from a very unique background (engineering) and this gives him an advantage of looking at the entire ecosystem of revenue and not broken down into silos.

So if you’re looking into transitioning your revenue acquisition model to drive demand from digital, Chris is just the right man to help you make those crucial changes.

Tune in to this episode to grab insights from this highly disruptive demand marketer!

We’ll talk about:
How an engineering background gave Chris the advantage in marketing [01:51]
Losing his own money as a vital point in his experience [04:33]
The gap in the marketplace that Chris saw [06:13]
Removing assumptions that are no longer true [08:06]
The benefit of working with a blank slate [09:07]
Barriers preventing companies from driving demand from digital [10:26]
Attribution is not marketing against sales [12:38]
Why you shouldn’t measure social channels the same way with Google [13:27]
The first step for founders is to know what they’re good at [20:25]
Adspend is a cost of doing business [22:41]
Why buyer intent is a critical factor to sales [24:45]
The major shifts in the buying process [25:35]
Customer success should be part of your product [29:48]
Through education, you create awareness [31:51]
You don’t really need salespeople [33:46]
Companies need a recurring revenue model driven by customer acquisition [35:50]
How COVID impacted sales and marketing [38:59]
The one thing Chris recommends [41:36]
Resource Links:
Brett Trainor Website (https://bretttrainor.com/)
Download The Growth Readiness Checklist (https://bretttrainor.com/resources/)
Refine Labs Website (https://www.refinelabs.com/)
State of Demand Gen Podcast (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/state-of-demand-gen/id1511588213)

About Our Guest:

Chris Walker is the CEO at Refine Labs, a marketing consulting firm focused on growing B2B SaaS companies. Their Revenue Engine Optimization Formula combines revenue operations, growth marketing, and buyer enablement.

If you liked this episode, please don’t forget to tune in, subscribe, and share this podcast.

Connect with B2B Founder:

Subscribe on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCySoKsETeKxu-Fnf2VfE7Gg/
46 min
March 23, 202195. Eva Nahari’s Journey from Cloudera to Venture Capital & What She's Looking to Invest In
It’s an exciting time for the B2B startup world.

With so many opportunities present and probably triggered by the current climate, we’re seeing trends rising for innovative companies to get the spotlight.

What are those and what should you do to get one step ahead of the competition?

Today, I got Eva Nahari from DNX Ventures. As a Principal at DNX, we go over what’s she’s working on, her thoughts on the difference between AI and ML, the areas of her focus, and how automation & streamlining processes are key at this time.

Jump into this powerful episode to find out what this venture capitalist sees coming up next.

We’ll talk about:
The journey from Sweden to DNX Ventures in California [01:40]
Moving from angel investing to VC [09:18]
Her role and what’s she’s working on at DNX [13:44]
Key things to think about when scaling [19:00]
Select & prioritize where you put resources [21:32]
Put confidence in your pipeline [22:43]

What Eva looks for in potential investments [24:17]
Differences between machine learning & artificial intelligence [29:48]
COVID and the focus of her thesis [32:07]
We’re seeing greater automation of non-value-added tasks [33:12]
Never underestimate back-end innovation [36:13]
Expect more entrepreneurs to become more innovative [39:26]
See more migration to cloud [42:43]

The one thing Eva recommends [44:29]
Resource Links:
Brett Trainor Website (https://bretttrainor.com/)
Download The Growth Readiness Checklist (https://bretttrainor.com/resources/)
DNX Ventures Website (https://www.dnx.vc/)

About Our Guest:

Eva Nahari is a Principal at DNX Ventures, a VC fund focused on early-state B2B startups. Prior to joining DNX, she worked 9 years at Cloudera building products and go-to-market strategies and helping businesses scale.

Keen on AI, machine learning, and autonomous systems, Eva looks to invest in companies building SaaS, Cloud, ML-Enabled Enterprise Software, and DevOps that could revolutionize how IT is delivered to enterprises.

Eva has also spent time as an angel investor and startup mentor. You can reach her via LinkedIn and Twitter.

If you liked this episode, please don’t forget to tune in, subscribe, and share this podcast.

Connect with B2B Founder:

Subscribe on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCySoKsETeKxu-Fnf2VfE7Gg/
48 min
March 16, 202194. How This Venture Capital Firm Has Pivoted and What’s Next with CoFounders Capital General Partner Tim McLoughlin
The COVID-19 pandemic certainly did a heavy number on the B2B startup space.

We’ve seen businesses reach accelerated growth. And we’ve also seen businesses shut down.

What does this mean for the venture capitalist world? And what can we expect as we push forward into 2021?

Cofounders Capital’s Tim McLoughlin comes back one-year post-pandemic. We catch up as he shares how they have shifted in the current climate, the opportunities coming out that startups should grab, and what else he sees in the tech space.

Jump into this powerful episode to find out what this venture capitalist sees coming up next.

We’ll talk about:
Cofounders Capital investments in North Carolina [01:58]
The amount of deal flow they get [04:34]
Don’t do this in your pitch email to VC funds [06:18]
Putting a COVID lens on startups [09:47]
The opportunity present in building the culture for a remote workforce [12:53]
A look ahead to 2021: Will the acceleration of certain trends continue? [16:34]
Will there be consolidation in the B2B tech space? [19:20]
Ease of buying is a competitive advantage [23:09]
Be thoughtful, purposeful about going out and building your network [26:31]
Tim’s First Check podcast launching in March 2021 [31:24]
Resource Links:
Brett Trainor Website (https://bretttrainor.com/)
Download The Growth Readiness Checklist (https://bretttrainor.com/resources/)
Cofounders Capital Website (http://cofounderscapital.com/)
Ep. 68: A Deep Dive Into the Mindset of a B2B Venture Capital General Partner: Who Gets the Money and Why with Tim McLoughlin (https://bretttrainor.com/2020/09/15/a-deep-dive-into-the-mindset-of-a-b2b-venture-capital-general-partner-who-gets-the-money-and-why-with-tim-mcloughlin/)
First Check Podcast with Tim McLoughlin (https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/first-check-with-venture-capitalist-tim-mcloughlin/id1555319334)

About Our Guest:

As a Partner at Cofounders Capital, Tim McLoughlin is very involved in the North Carolina startup ecosystem. He has served as adviser and board member to several early-stage software companies. Prior to joining CoFounders Capital, Tim was an Entrepreneur in Residence for the Idea Fund Partners.

If you liked this episode, please don’t forget to tune in, subscribe, and share this podcast.

Connect with B2B Founder:

Subscribe on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCySoKsETeKxu-Fnf2VfE7Gg/
33 min
March 09, 202193. Fast Track Revenue Growth by Prioritizing on Your Customer’s Success with Kathleen Marcell
The success of a company is dependent on its customers staying with them.

But when you’re too focused on chasing new leads, customer success often takes a back seat. Well, there’s no longer room for doing that.

In this specialized episode on customer success, Kathleen Marcell joins me as we go over what startups can do to start building that into their process.

Kathleen consults with companies helping them grow faster through increasing revenue from current customers. So this episode certainly provides a load of strategies growing companies can use.

We’ll talk about:
Kathleen’s background and work [01:55]
Kathleen’s definition of customer success [05:57]
Put yourself in your customer’s shoes [08:45]
How to get started on building in customer success [07:47]
Kathleen’s process for onboarding [12:20]
Smoothing out the transitions to another department [14:29]
Balancing customer success and revenue [19:05]
The right time to put in a Customer Success Manager [22:59]
Close the loop by having a feedback process [27:45]
Common pitfalls made by companies [31:53]
What’s next for Kathleen [36:18]
The one thing Kathleen recommends [37:41]
Resource Links:
Brett Trainor Website (https://bretttrainor.com/)
Download The Growth Readiness Checklist (https://bretttrainor.com/resources/)
Carema Consulting Website (https://caremaconsulting.com/)

About Our Guest:

With 10 years of experience building customer success teams, Kathleen Marcell has extensive experience working with enterprise software. She has worked in multiple verticals and across different departments including hiring, support, and implementation teams. She has helped companies provide a seamless onboarding experience for their customers.

You can connect with Kathleen through her LinkedIn.

If you liked this episode, please don’t forget to tune in, subscribe, and share this podcast.

Connect with B2B Founder:

Subscribe on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCySoKsETeKxu-Fnf2VfE7Gg/
41 min
March 02, 202192. From Startup to Scale Up: How Patrick Comer Was Able to Grow Lucid to a $100 Million Business
Resource Links:
Brett Trainor Website (https://bretttrainor.com/)
Download The Growth Readiness Checklist (https://bretttrainor.com/resources/)
Lucid Website (https://luc.id/)
Check out Patrick Comer’s Podcast (https://luc.id/lookingglass/)
In today’s data-focused, consumer-driven market, having insights into the customer mind is priceless.

Getting access to that data though is another thing. But this is where innovation steps in.

A pioneer of the restech or research technology landscape, Patrick Comer combines research, data analysis, and technology in his company, Lucid. We talk about their startup to scale-up story, the learnings they’ve picked up on, the shifts they’ve made, plus more.

Don’t miss this episode on this extraordinary startup making waves in the industry.

We’ll talk about:
Lucid and the work they do in the research tech space [01:33]
Why insights are now part of an enterprise’ competitive advantage [03:46]
Patrick’s reason for starting Lucid [06:40]
The innovative business model of Lucid [10:08]
Key learnings in growing to $100M [13:26]
Competition can help you grow [17:53]
There’s a lot of value in giving away all your good stuff [21:50]
The creation of the restech industry is for all companies [23:25]
When you are in the scaling process, documentation matters [24:28]
How Patrick shifted from the startup CEO to the scaling CEO [26:49]
Realizing the importance of culture and values [30:38]
The switch to a decentralized office [33:11]
The competition for talent is now global [35:06]
What’s next for Lucid [37:48]
The one thing Patrick recommends [40:38]

About Our Guest:

As the Founder and CEO of Lucid, Patrick Comer pioneered the restech or research technology landscape. Lucid provides access to first-party survey data in over 100 countries. A successful growth story that shows how innovation is a key driver, their mission is to change how the world’s answers are accessed.

Patrick welcomes anyone to reach out to him through his Twitter.

If you liked this episode, please don’t forget to tune in, subscribe, and share this podcast.

Connect with B2B Founder:

Subscribe on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCySoKsETeKxu-Fnf2VfE7Gg/
45 min
February 23, 202191. Why Your Personal Brand Matters for Founders with Brand Strategist Claire Bahn
With today’s CEOs being like celebrities and coming out as the face of their brand, personal branding is now even more important for startups.

Thus, founders need to understand that it is in the best interest of their company for them to get out there and get loud.

Personal brand strategist, Claire Bahn, joins me in today’s episode on branding. Find out what you need to do to get started, the common pitfalls people make, and lots of tips for building your personal brand.

The right time to build your personal brand is now, so don’t miss this valuable episode!

We’ll talk about:
Claire’s journey to becoming a personal brand strategist [01:38]
What exactly is personal branding [02:54]
The move from features and benefits to the face behind the brand [05:15]
Your brand is already out there [06:16]
The first step is to plan it out [08:14]
You are your biggest advocate [11:20]
Niche down first and own your space [14:19]
You’re not just selling your name but the overall business [16:10]
Founders act as the face while the business backs him up [18:20]
Having a personal connection helps businesses take off [21:14]
Get over imposter syndrome: Be loud & proud [22:46]
Give your employees a reason to go that extra mile [28:45]
You don’t have to be an extrovert: Practice makes perfect [31:26]
Common pitfalls when starting to build a brand [33:16]
What’s next for Claire [35:48]
Those who solidify their place as industry leaders get the job [37:09]
The one thing Claire recommends [39:38]
Resource Links:
Brett Trainor Website (https://bretttrainor.com/)
Download The Growth Readiness Checklist (https://bretttrainor.com/resources/)
Claire Bahn Website (https://clairebahn.com/)

About Our Guest:

A former model and actress, Claire Bahn later delved into personal branding and co-founded the Claire Bahn Group. With over 70K followers on her social media, Claire knows the importance of building your own personal brand.

An advocate for ditching the model of corporations as faceless entities, she helps entrepreneurs, investors, founders, and executives create their best personal brand to develop their authority, influence, and trust. With that said, Claire’s work for over 10 years has enabled companies to achieve their business goals.

If you liked this episode, please don’t forget to tune in, subscribe, and share this podcast.

Connect with B2B Founder:

Subscribe on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCySoKsETeKxu-Fnf2VfE7Gg/
43 min
February 16, 202190. Founder Led Selling- A Process for Founders to Land New Business Consistently with Faheem Moosa
Landing a new customer outside of a founder’s network is one of the biggest hurdles faced by B2B companies looking to scale.

So in our first Tactical Tuesday episode, we take a look at this problem from a management consultant’s perspective.

Faheem Mossa and I go through his process for getting high-paying clients. Faheem shares a ton of insights on what selling is all about, dealing with multiple buyers in a company, and much more. Don’t miss out on this strategic episode by tuning in now!

We’ll talk about:
Faheem’s background and the value of a management consultant’s expertise [02:10]
Sales is about understanding the problem & empathizing with the prospect [04:24]
There are multiple buyers within a company with different things they care about [06:13]
Faheem’s recommended approach for dealing with multiple buyers [09:49]
You have to speak your customer’s language [13:15]
Start slightly broad, understand the market, then pick one vertical [14:41]
Don’t pitch, but talk about the value can give [18:17]
How to ask for the sale [20:39]
Don’t pressure the buyer to decide before they’re ready [23:29]
There’s no point in endlessly following up [26:01]
Make sure you are top of mind [27:23]
Resource Links:
Brett Trainor Website (https://bretttrainor.com/)
Download The Growth Readiness Checklist (https://bretttrainor.com/resources/)

About Our Guest:

As a former management consultant, Faheem Moosa knows how to consistently get clients into his pipeline and build a profitable business. Now, he helps business consultants land 2-4 high-paying clients in 90 Days without using advertising or getting referrals.

You can connect with Faheem through his LinkedIn.

If you liked this episode, please don’t forget to tune in, subscribe, and share this podcast.

Connect with B2B Founder:

Subscribe on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCySoKsETeKxu-Fnf2VfE7Gg/
36 min
February 09, 202189. This Startup Just May Be the Blueprint on How to Build & Scale a B2B Business in 2021 with Johnathan Grzybowski
The future of B2B startups is going to be fascinating. I’ve seen how companies have risen and transformed the traditional strategies already set in place in the industry.

One such example is Penji. This on-demand graphic design service as a service company catering to businesses has shown what is possible when you instigate change.

In today’s episode, I get to pick the brain of Penji’s Co-founder, Johnathan Grzybowski. We talk about the need to trust the process, growing without using sales reps, how they built customer success into their culture, the importance of putting processes in place to expand, and so much more.

Listen to this very special episode as we dissect the blueprint to the future of B2B!

We’ll talk about:
The mistake that led to Penji [02:05]
There’s no overnight success: Be resilient and trust the process [05:38]
The 4 stages to growing beyond your network [11:23]
Growing without using sales reps [16:50]
Building customer success early on in their culture [23:26]
Penji’s way of treating employees the way they want customers to be treated [27:23]
The hardest thing is being able to translate the process [32:32]
Employee role specialization allows the company to expand [34:26]
If you can’t do it yourself, why expect others to do it for you? [35:44]
Content is critical to being able to scale [36:51]
Penji as the blueprint of future B2B companies [39:48]
The one thing that Johnathan recommends [40:48]
What’s next for Penji [43:06]
Resource Links:
Brett Trainor Website (https://bretttrainor.com/)
Download The Growth Readiness Checklist (https://bretttrainor.com/resources/)
Penji Website (https://penji.co/)
Get 15% off on your first month with Penji. Just input the coupon code: B2BFounder15
Content Fuel Website (https://contentfuel.co/)

About Our Guest:

Johnathan Grzybowski is the Chief Marketing Officer of Penji. The on-demand graphic design service company was started by Johnathan with his co-founder Khai in 2017 after they experienced the difficulty of finding talented designers. Penji is now touted as a simple, fast, and affordable solution for business owners, entrepreneurs, and leaders.

Johnathan also hosts the podcast Blind Entrepreneurship, which has been downloaded over 100,000 times and is considered a top business podcast on Apple Podcasts. He uses his podcast and business to help entrepreneurs execute their vision and be profitable.

If you liked this episode, please don’t forget to tune in, subscribe, and share this podcast.

Connect with B2B Founder:

Subscribe on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCySoKsETeKxu-Fnf2VfE7Gg/
46 min
February 02, 202188. Rev Up Your Revenue: Why Process is Key to Scaling Your Growth with Andrew Millet
As a business grows, the ability to do things more efficiently is key to scaling up successfully. But oftentimes, the plan to automate processes gets little priority.

When is the right time to adopt technology to get rid of those manual processes? And how do you go about updating your internal infrastructure?

These are just some of the questions we cover today as process consultant Andrew Millet joins me today to help founders who may have found themselves stuck and in need of ways to streamline their process to meet buyer preferences, improve the customer experience, and improve retention and profitability.

Jump into this episode to grab valuable insights on process and automation.

We’ll talk about:
Andrew’s background and the start of Process Pro Consulting [01:19]
What led them to the B2B space [02:12]
The reason for automating your processes [04:33]
Setting up your infrastructure to scale [10:56]
Don’t forget onboarding and organization of process after technology adoption [16:19]
Successful technology implementations are aligned with your goals [20:17]
Don’t just sell then forget about the customer [24:37]
The handoff process is miserable for the customer [29:32]
Make sure the data follows the customer [33:33]
How a business delivers customer value is different for every company [35:36]
Find the things that are taking a lot of time then try to automate it [39:25]
When’s the right time to be thinking about efficiency and automation [43:15]
What Andrew plans to focus on this 2021 [45:20]
The one thing that Andrew recommends [47:04]
Resource Links:
Brett Trainor Website (https://bretttrainor.com/)
Download The Growth Readiness Checklist (https://bretttrainor.com/resources/)
Process Pro Consulting Website (https://processproconsulting.com/)
No Man's Land: Where Growing Companies Fail by Doug Tatum (https://www.amazon.com/No-Mans-Land-Growing-Companies/dp/1591842492)

About Our Guest:

Andrew is the Founder and Principal Adviser at Process Pro Consulting. As a process-oriented consultant with a passion for growing businesses, he has spent the beginning of his career providing services to Fortune 500 companies. He later became the Director of Solutions & Customer Experience ScaleFactor, where he helped accelerate the startup’s growth from seed investment through multiple funding rounds. Now through his own company, he dedicated to helping businesses succeed through the optimization of their processes.

You can connect with Andrew through his LinkedIn or just send him an email at [email protected].

If you liked this episode, please don’t forget to tune in, subscribe, and share this podcast.

Connect with B2B Founder:

Subscribe on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCySoKsETeKxu-Fnf2VfE7Gg/
52 min
January 26, 202187. Why a Fractional CMO Could be the Key to Unlocking Your Startup’s Growth with Mark Coronna
Startups looking to scale face challenges on every side of the business. How do you grow beyond your network? Where do you find the people you need to help you reach that goal?

If you do things without a plan, you won’t get the maximum results you could have gotten. But insights from someone with years of experience might help you get there faster.

In today’s episode with a fractional CMO, Mark Coronna gives his own views on buyer enablement, building diversified revenue streams, and much more. With his storied background, his perspectives on growth, planning, and execution are lessons startups wouldn’t want to miss.

Tune in as I pick the brain of this very practical CMO!

We’ll talk about:
Mark’s storied background that led to him becoming a fractional CMO [01:36]
Should startups consider getting a fractional CMO? [03:31]
Insights on how growth has changed since the COVID pandemic [06:03]
Long-term growth planning shouldn’t take a backseat [08:58]
The 3 Ps investors look at [19:00]
The move towards more digital activities and programs [22:28]
Buyer enablement is about taking an outside in view of customers [25:13]
Marketing needs to take the role of growth champion [28:00]
Plan for acquisition, retention, and expansion [32:54]
Changes are happening fast, so take advantage [36:32]
What’s next for Mark [40:29]
The one thing that Mark recommends [42:27]
Resource Links:
Brett Trainor Website (https://bretttrainor.com/)
Download The Growth Readiness Checklist (https://bretttrainor.com/resources/)
Chief Outsiders Website (https://www.chiefoutsiders.com/)
GET MOVING! - The Two Most Important Words You Need to Know by The Practical CMO Podcast (https://thepracticalcmo.com/category/guest-kyle-arneson/)

About Our Guest:

With a passion of helping leadership teams reach success, Mark Coronna is uniquely qualified to guide businesses during their growth stages. As a Fractional CMO Officer and Area Managing Partner for Chief Outsiders, he focuses mainly on growth planning and execution, building diversified revenue and profit streams, sales pipeline improvements, strategic marketing planning, and digital transformation.

You can reach out to Mark through his LinkedIn.

If you liked this episode, please don’t forget to tune in, subscribe, and share this podcast.

Connect with B2B Founder:

Subscribe on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCySoKsETeKxu-Fnf2VfE7Gg/
46 min