Chief Evangelist with Ethan Beute

Today’s guest is Leslie Greenwood, Founder & CEO at Chief Evangelist Consulting and Host of the People Powered Community Podcast. Leslie joins Ethan Beute to share ways to identify, activate, empower, and connect our best evangelists. They’re all around us. And they can help us scale our evangelism efforts.

Among the many helpful strategies and tactics you’ll learn from Leslie is building community with the 90-9-1 rule in mind (90% don’t participate, 9% participate some, and 1% participate constantly).

Takeaways:

• The most important role of an evangelist:
  • Be a true champion of your customers. Doing this effectively requires authenticity, sincerity, passion, and wholehearted belief in both your people and your product.
• Anyone can be an evangelist, including your customers. Consistently providing an extraordinary customer experience that surpasses their expectations is a great way to do it.
• Customers are obviously the lifeblood of any business. Prioritize their needs and feedback to deliver remarkable service. Create connections with clients by making customer-centricity part of your strategic bedrock from day one.
• A community is a purposeful group of individuals based on value exchange and reciprocity. Members both contribute and benefit.
• In-person events help build community and stoke evangelism. It doesn’t have to be expensive and it should be anchored by some facilitated conversation that serves the purpose of the gathering. By curating intentional and engaging discussions, everyone gains profound insights.

Quote of the Show:

• “Anybody can be an evangelist. If you’re talking about your community or your customers, those are the people I like to focus on.”

Links Related to This Episode:

• Leslie Greenwood’s on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/leslie-greenwood/ 
• Chief Evangelist Consulting: https://thechiefevangelist.com/ 
• People Powered Community Podcast: https://www.thechiefevangelist.com/podcast 
• Leslie Greenwood on Twitter: https://twitter.com/LeslieCEC 

See or Hear More Conversations on Chief Evangelist with Ethan Beute:

• YouTube: https://youtube.com/@chiefevangelist
• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5tEPLXnkNSYAsjpwD3O69t
• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/chief-evangelist-with-ethan-beute/id1652687400
• Chief Evangelist: https://www.podpage.com/chief-evangelist-with-ethan-beute/

Chief Evangelist is produced by Ringmaster, on a mission to create connections through B2B podcasts. Learn more at https://ringmaster.com/

Today’s guest is Paul Norford, VP of Global Enablement & Chief Evangelist at Ivanti. Paul joins Ethan Beute to share how crucial it is for an evangelist to have the ability to tell a compelling story with passion and enthusiasm. These narratives can effortlessly draw in the audience and foster a meaningful connection.

Paul also explains the profound impact that the art of communication, customer empathy, and emotional intelligence have had on him. He urges us to ask relevant questions, which creates valuable insights.

Takeaways:

• The most important part of being a Chief Evangelist:
  • Connect deeply with your audience. By embodying thought leadership and tapping into current trends, you draw people in creating lasting engagements.

  • Cultivate a persona that is not only relatable but also trustworthy. Staying true to yourself and your values, establish a solid foundation of integrity, which enhances your sphere of influence.

• By mastering the skill of EQ-driven active listening, we gain an understanding of someone else's perspective. Create a safe space that encourages authentic dialogue, enabling experiences, and emotions.

• When looking back at the lives of influential evangelists, they gained the ability to create extraordinary stories. These narratives can effortlessly draw in the audience and foster a profound connection. By following their tone, pitch, pace, and power, they transformed their words to resonate deeply with their listeners. Embracing the art of engaging storytelling, we can inspire and forge a lasting impact.

• With the rapid changes of technological advancements, Paul provokes introspection by asking, have humans truly changed? Despite the technological landscape evolving, human communication remains anchored in deep and long-standing truths. Through subtle nuances, Paul believes that we forge genuine connections and foster understanding. Chief Evangelists embrace the art of communicating by leaving an indelible mark on organizations and audiences.

• A good evangelist possesses the ability to stand out from the crowd. However, it is the exceptional evangelist who effortlessly draws people in and captivates their attention. This creates a deeper understanding of not only what lies directly in front of them but also the broader landscape of thought leadership. By immersing themselves in their surroundings, evangelists gain knowledge and insights into their customers.

• Evangelists can understand someone's passion, product, and solution, and then skillfully "solutionize" how it will address their challenges. It is crucial for evangelists to invest time and effort in learning about their client’s products and businesses. By immersing themselves, they not only demonstrate interest but also enhance their ability to present compelling solutions for their clients' needs. Offer valuable insights and customized solutions to turn prospects into loyal customers.

Quote of the Show:

• “By practicing the art and the skill of communicating, that’s when a Chief Evangelist is working at their optimum.”

Links Related to This Episode:

• Paul Norford’s on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulnorford/ 
• Ivanti Wavelink: https://www.ivanti.com/company/history/wavelink 
• Paul Norford on Twitter: https://twitter.com/PaulNorford 
• Pocket Full of Do Book: https://www.amazon.com/Pocket-Full-Do-Min-Cho/dp/0578551330 

See or Hear More Conversations on Chief Evangelist with Ethan Beute:

• YouTube: https://youtube.com/@chiefevangelist
• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5tEPLXnkNSYAsjpwD3O69t
• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/chief-evangelist-with-ethan-beute/id1652687400
• Chief Evangelist: https://www.podpage.com/chief-evangelist-with-ethan-beute/

Chief Evangelist is produced by Ringmaster, on a mission to create connections through B2B podcasts. Learn more at https://ringmaster.com/

Today’s guest is Joshua Burkhow, Chief Evangelist at Alteryx. Joshua joins Ethan Beute and shares insights into integrating storytelling into his role as an evangelist. Storytelling plays a pivotal role in the art of evangelism, enabling us to comprehend our client's unique perspectives and needs.

Joshua also explains the process of crafting and delivering compelling narratives. Joshua emphasizes the importance of ensuring your message comes across clearly and avoids anything unnecessary. This applies to evangelizing to the market, prospects, and clients, as well as to salespeople, sales engineers, and customer success managers.

Takeaways:

• One of the key aspects that set the Chief Evangelist role apart is its lack of uniformity. Each evangelist brings their own unique and distinct set of skills and perspectives. Two of Joshua's top responsibilities are to disseminate a message and to showcase and demonstrate product value.
• Even with a technical evangelist or a product evangelist, the human and emotional side of the role is key. There is an art to it. And, of course, the approach needs to be balanced with a depth of product understanding and technical aptitude.
• Joshua discovered the art of setting the stage, illuminating the value proposition, and wholeheartedly evangelizing. Joshua dedicated himself to perfecting his communication skills, presentation abilities, and structuring arguments. This enabled him to not only excel in his role but to pursue impactful evangelism.
• Joshua advises that exploring the levers in your company can assist in the extent of impact and obtaining valuable feedback. Evaluating these, you can gain insights into the effectiveness of your data and analytics practices, specifically to your organization's needs and circumstances.

Quote of the Show:

• “That combination of technical aptitude and communication skills is the ‘demanded foundation’ for a good evangelist.”

Links Related to This Episode:

• Joshua Burkhow’s on LinkedIn
• Alteryx 
• Joshua Burkhow’s book
• Joshua Burkhow on Twitter

See or Hear More Conversations on Chief Evangelist with Ethan Beute:

• YouTube
• Spotify
• Apple Podcasts
• Chief Evangelist

Chief Evangelist is produced and sponsored by Ringmaster, on a mission to create connections through B2B podcasts. Learn more at https://ringmaster.com/

Today’s guest is Ari Kaplan, Head Evangelist at Databricks. Ari joins Ethan Beute and breaks down AI, machine learning, and LLMs – and shares the unique and powerful role of lakehouses. Ari delivers a brief history of AI and predictive.

Ari also explains how the evangelism role was co-created and shaped within Databricks, as well as his priorities in his first six months in the role. Ari saw success evangelizing data science and AI at DataRobot so, he took a lot of his successes and failures and applied them at a larger scale at his current company.

Takeaways:

• The most important job of a Head Evangelist is:
  • Thought leadership (innovation, unique value, speaking, social, blogs).
  • Analysts (getting the word out to an audience that doesn’t know you, influencers, industry analysts).
  • Partnerships (partner network, getting others to talk about you jointly or solely, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Meta).
  • Customer engagement (non-sales approach, the art of the possible).
• Ari and his teams created the innovation of the lakehouse, revolutionizing the way data is managed. This company allows the use of both structured in data warehouses and unstructured data in data lakes, seamlessly consolidating them under a single and cohesive structure. The founders also developed an array of open-source solutions that attracted millions of downloads each month.
• An evangelist in a relatively new role may do well focusing internally for the first few months before shifting attention and energy externally to the ecosystem and market at large. This allows your internal stakeholders to understand the role and you to get your head and heart around the concepts and innovations you’ll be evangelizing. 
• Ari believes that a human evangelist plays an important role in simplifying tasks, saving company resources, advancing technology, developing processes, and delivering superior outcomes. Being an evangelist lies in meaningful connections with people. Prioritizing the clients becomes crucial in this people-centered role.

Quote of the Show:

• “I’m not selling. I’m not putting a price point on. But I have to educate people on what is something, why should they do it, why should they look at it now?”

Links Related to This Episode:

• Ari Kaplan’s on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/arikaplan/   
• Databricks: https://www.databricks.com/ 
• Ari Kaplan’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/arikaplan1 

See or Hear More Conversations on Chief Evangelist with Ethan Beute:

• YouTube: https://youtube.com/@chiefevangelist
• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5tEPLXnkNSYAsjpwD3O69t
• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/chief-evangelist-with-ethan-beute/id1652687400
• Chief Evangelist: https://www.podpage.com/chief-evangelist-with-ethan-beute/

Chief Evangelist is produced and sponsored by Ringmaster, on a mission to create connections through B2B podcasts. Learn more at https://ringmaster.com/

Today’s guest is Mark Gilham, Evangelist at Enable. Mark joins Ethan Beute and shares his experiences and expertise – in both accounting and evangelism! For him, genuine self-expression and staying true to yourself are key to success in this dynamic role.

Mark explains why having integrity in your values and beliefs draws people toward your message and makes them more inclined to embrace your product or service. Though an evangelist needs both, the skills of communication may be more easily taught than the skills of authentic connection. 

Takeaways:

• Through experience, Mark has realized that your evangelist role needs to be shaped and made. He believes that there is no standard job description when it comes to adding value to the organization. Through it all, evangelists must be themselves.
• Being genuine with your clients makes them feel comfortable. That’s how people buy into you and your message. And that’s when you find yourself starting to evangelize without even realizing you're doing it.
• A key aspect of Mark’s work involves helping businesses establish precise rebate structures. That’s what his company’s software enables, but Mark – a long-time practitioner and customer – adds this service and value layer around the software experience. He’s helping people and teams get more from the product.
• What people don’t realize is that the role of accountancy goes far beyond number-crunching. The majority of the time, the work involves influencing decision-making based on the numbers people see. Mark believes that being an accountant is all about evangelizing and advocating for others. This role centers around engaging with people.

Quote of the Show:

• “Let go a little bit and trust ‘I was put into this role not just for what I said I’m capable of, but because the business trusts me.’”

Links Related to This Episode:

• Mark Gilham’s on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markgilham/  
• Enable: https://enable.com/ 
• Enable on Twitter: https://twitter.com/EnableSoftware 

See or Hear More Conversations on Chief Evangelist with Ethan Beute:

• YouTube: https://youtube.com/@chiefevangelist
• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5tEPLXnkNSYAsjpwD3O69t
• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/chief-evangelist-with-ethan-beute/id1652687400
• Chief Evangelist: https://www.podpage.com/chief-evangelist-with-ethan-beute/

Chief Evangelist is produced and sponsored by Ringmaster, on a mission to create connections through B2B podcasts. Learn more at https://ringmaster.com/

Today’s guest is Leslie Pagel, Chief Evangelist at Authenticx. Leslie joins Ethan Beute to share the mission to help humans understand humans through the true voice of the customer.

Leslie explains how she joined the team as a Chief Customer Officer, with the role of helping the team define, measure, and achieve value with customers. In the shift to Chief Evangelist, her goal shifted from delivering value to healthcare companies to delivering value to the healthcare industry.

Takeaways:

• The most important job of a Chief Evangelist is to open the eyes of business leaders to the importance of what they do. For her, eyes need to be opened to the importance of the authentic voice of customers, the capability to hear it, and to the power of conversation.
• The problem facing the industry Leslie serves is that most data is “stored and ignored.” Artificial intelligence doesn’t do the listening that humans do, but it surfaces opportunities to hear, empathize, learn, and improve. 
• The mission Leslie’s on is to help humans understand humans. She built her career in customer experience and the voice of customers before these were popular business terms. Evangelizing with Authenticx aligns well in so many ways. 
• As a Chief Customer Officer, it is always about value. The team must figure out what the client needs, what they have available, and how to unlock value together. Ideally, it’s matched with hard metrics defining success.
• After the initial confusion and even resistance to the title, Leslie finds “Chief Evangelist” the perfect fit for the role because of what it conjures in the mind’s eye when someone hears it.

Quote of the Show:

• “It’s about opening eyes - talking with business leaders to help them see a new reality.”

Links Related to This Episode:

• Leslie Pagel’s on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lpagel/ 
• Authenticx: https://authenticx.com/ 
• Conscious Capitalism: https://indianapolis.consciouscapitalism.org/ 
• F45 Training: https://f45training.com/ 

See or Hear More Conversations on Chief Evangelist with Ethan Beute:

• YouTube: https://youtube.com/@chiefevangelist
• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5tEPLXnkNSYAsjpwD3O69t
• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/chief-evangelist-with-ethan-beute/id1652687400
• Chief Evangelist: https://www.podpage.com/chief-evangelist-with-ethan-beute/

Chief Evangelist is produced and sponsored by Ringmaster, on a mission to create connections through B2B podcasts. Learn more at https://ringmaster.com/

Today’s guest is Bryan Stallings, Chief Evangelist at Lucid Software, providers of Lucidchart, Lucidspark, and Lucidscale. Bryan joins Ethan Beute to tell the story of the relationship and shared values that brought him to the company in this unique role, as well as how their visual collaboration suite brings these values to life.

Bryan explains the different ways he engaged other employees to both serve customers and to create more evangelists. He shares insights into what success as Chief Evangelist looks like and how we works with the CMO on it. He also shares his passions for scrum and agile and for neurodivergence.

Takeaways:

• The most important job of an evangelist is to believe in the value and impact of the product, service, idea, or practice. Bryan’s belief comes from empathy - having felt, experienced, and known what it's like not to have the solutions that are now available.
• Bryan breaks down what the Lucid Suite and how each part transforms the way people live and work:
• Lucidchart is an intelligent diagramming solution.
• Lucidspark is a collaborative whiteboard solution. It helps teams to come together, collaborate, and enjoy their work.
• Lucidscale, helps his team visualize cloud solutions, cloud applications, and their implementations. They help those others clarify what's complex and collaborate visually, no matter where they're located in the world.
• A Chief Evangelist should work with sales and customer support teams to help tell customer stories and to talk through ways to solve customer pains and challenges.
• Once Bryan understood the role, he realized he’d been evangelizing for 17 years. He found something people didn’t have that would make their lives better and helped them through the change curve.

Quote of the Show:

• “I’d been evangelizing by finding something that would make people’s lives and work better, introducing it to them, and helping them through the change curve until they could really own it.”

Links Related to This Episode:

• Bryan Stallings’s on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bstallings/  
• Byran Stallings’s Twitter: https://twitter.com/bryantics  
• Lucid: https://www.lucid.co

See or Hear More Conversations on Chief Evangelist with Ethan Beute:

• YouTube: https://youtube.com/@chiefevangelist
• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5tEPLXnkNSYAsjpwD3O69t
• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/chief-evangelist-with-ethan-beute/id1652687400
• Chief Evangelist: https://www.podpage.com/chief-evangelist-with-ethan-beute/

Chief Evangelist is produced and sponsored by Ringmaster, on a mission to create connections through B2B podcasts. Learn more at https://ringmaster.com/

Today’s guest is Jonathan Stephens, Chief Evangelist at EveryPoint. Jonathan joins Ethan Beute to share how his journey into marketing, content, and live streaming resulted in organizations like NVIDIA inviting him onto their platforms. Jonathan realized that his reach widened as he shifted from a corporate logo and voice to leading with his personal name and face.

Jonathan explains how his live, unedited videos were key to creating understanding and awareness of EveryPoint’s technology. It’s honest. It’s raw. It’s being applied to real problems. And it creates conversation. But he also explains why some of his most popular content isn’t always the most effective.

Takeaways:

• The most important job as an evangelist is to humanize your company and its brand. Welcome people to engage with it on a personal level. Become that person your customers can reach out to and connect with.
• Hyper-edited content about emerging technology can feel corporately mass-produced and manipulated compared to the flaws and human mistakes throughout an unedited live stream. This builds credibility and authority.
• Jonathan believes that there is no point in technology if it is not solving a problem. His goal is to convert companies to become more involved with technology to help solve issues.
• Jonathan’s job is to show people what’s possible and invite the problems it solves to emerge. He doesn’t have all of the answers, but he’s an approachable person who’s capturing and sharing the voice of the client and serving as their advocate internally and externally.

Quote of the Show:

• “The answers are not in your office. The answers are outside with your clients. You have to get out there.”

Links Related to This Episode:

• Jonathan Stephens’s on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jonathanstephens/ 
• EveryPoint: https://everypoint.io/ 
• Stockpile Reports: https://www.stockpilereports.com/ 
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/jonstephens85 
• Jonathan Stephens’s LinkTree: https://linktr.ee/jonstephens 

See or Hear More Conversations on Chief Evangelist with Ethan Beute:

• YouTube: https://youtube.com/@chiefevangelist
• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5tEPLXnkNSYAsjpwD3O69t
• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/chief-evangelist-with-ethan-beute/id1652687400
• Chief Evangelist: https://www.podpage.com/chief-evangelist-with-ethan-beute/

Chief Evangelist is produced and sponsored by Ringmaster, on a mission to create connections through B2B podcasts. Learn more at https://ringmaster.com/

Today’s guest is Anthony Kennada, Co-Founder & CEO at AudiencePlus and author of Category Creation. Anthony joins Ethan Beute to share why leading companies champion an idea, not just provide a product. They engage, educate, entertain, and host conversation. They wrap products with valuable content and a meaningful community. And evangelism is key to all of this.

Anthony explains why our reliance on rented channels drives so much of the struggle with tracking and measuring an evangelist’s impact, as well as how thinking more like a media company can resolve much of it. He also shares the differences between a creator and an evangelist – and the benefits of both in a changing B2B sales and marketing environment.

Takeaways:

• The most important job as an evangelist is not just to create content, speak, and leverage a network, but to do it all with authenticity and subject matter expertise.
• We’ve underappreciated and underinvested in the ideas that people want to buy from people and that people want to buy more than just a product.
• Category creation is when you're positioning more than just your products. You position a problem that people may or may not recognize that they have. 
• Ultimately companies don’t create categories, customers do. Evangelism helps carry the torch for the idea or the movement, but a category isn’t created unless the community rallies around it.

Quote of the Show:

• “There’s a responsibility for companies to carry the torch for a new idea – and evangelism plays a massive role in that.”

Links Related to This Episode:

• Anthony Kennada on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/akennada/ 
• AudiencePlus: https://www.audienceplus.com/ 
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/akennada 
• Category Creation Book: https://www.amazon.com/Category-Creation-Customers-Employees-Investors/dp/1119611563 

See or Hear More Conversations on Chief Evangelist with Ethan Beute:

• YouTube: https://youtube.com/@chiefevangelist
• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5tEPLXnkNSYAsjpwD3O69t
• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/chief-evangelist-with-ethan-beute/id1652687400
• Chief Evangelist: https://www.podpage.com/chief-evangelist-with-ethan-beute/

Chief Evangelist is produced and sponsored by Ringmaster, on a mission to create connections through B2B podcasts. Learn more at https://ringmaster.com/

Today’s guest is Justin Robbins, Founder and Principal Analyst at Metric Sherpa. Justin joins Ethan Beute to share the importance of real-world experience serving as the foundation for effective evangelism.

Justin explains why many companies need a savvy, strategic evangelist, not just a spokesperson. Evangelism isn’t just about telling a story or addressing a here-and-now problem or opportunity. It’s about creating meaning and impact in a bigger and longer-term way. He does this by walking through his service as a Chief Evangelist and as a Senior Director of Corporate Communications and Evangelism.

Takeaways:

• An evangelist's most important job is to get people excited, tell stories, and share the impact, meaning, and value that a solution can provide.
• Effective evangelism comes from true experience and the ability of people to recognize that the evangelist has faced some of the same things you have.
• Measuring efficacy involves tracking activities, but also the impact of those activities. The impact is what matters and the basis for measurement is the problem you’re trying to solve.
• There are multiple paths to an evangelist role; Justin shares two of them. One started through his background in training and consulting and the other through fractional work for a CMO.
• An evangelist must be a student of the spaces in which they’re serving – doing research and reading it, joining sales calls and listening in, developing and substantiating ideas and beliefs, advising the organization and its stakeholders, and thinking through what’s happening now and what’s coming in the future.

Quote of the Show:

• “A spokesperson delivers a message. An evangelist cultivates a movement.”

Links Related to This Episode:

• Justin Robbins on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/justinmrobbins/ 
• Metric Sherpa: https://metricsherpa.com/ 
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/justinmrobbins 

See or Hear More Conversations on Chief Evangelist with Ethan Beute:

• YouTube: https://youtube.com/@chiefevangelist
• Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5tEPLXnkNSYAsjpwD3O69t
• Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/chief-evangelist-with-ethan-beute/id1652687400
• Chief Evangelist: https://www.podpage.com/chief-evangelist-with-ethan-beute/

Chief Evangelist is produced and sponsored by Ringmaster, on a mission to create connections through B2B podcasts. Learn more at https://ringmaster.com/