Executive Conversations

“It would be really painful and exhausting if I didn’t love the drill. So yeah, don’t get into marketing, especially growth marketing, if you aren’t really obsessed about it!”

Hello hello! Welcome to another episode of the Flying Cat Marketing podcast! In one of our recent podcasts, we had Nick Jordan, CEO, ContentDistribution.com talk to us and in today’s episode, I have with me, the one-man army of their marketing team, Ognjen Bošković, Growth Marketer, ContentDistribution.com. 

Watch us chat about community building & engagement through organic methods and also the importance of having an active presence on LinkedIn to grow your network. For someone who was initially a copywriter to becoming an expert growth marketer at present, Ognjen certainly has a 360° approach to content marketing. 

So if you’re interested in growing your social network organically or understanding in depth about growth & content marketing, then you’ll surely find some incredible insights in this episode.

In this episode we talk about:

• Organic social networking
• Process of community building
• Distributing content
• Importance of email marketing 
• Biggest case study at contentdistribution.com 
• “Tropi-copy”
• Content marketing as a bigger picture

Timestamps: 

0:10 - Introduction to Ognjen Bošković  

1:10 - What is ContentDistribution.com up to? 

2:38 - Active presence on digital platforms

3:58 - Building a community through organic social

6:58 - Creating a process and pushing smart content

9:30 - Rookie mistake in the world of marketing

11:20 - Converting Linkedin posts for email lists
17:46 - His team’s online presence

21:28 - Day-to-day activities as a one-man marketing team

25:02 - Potential impact of an individual’s network 

27:25 - Looking beyond content marketing 

You can connect with Ognjen Bošković on LinkedIn. You can also check out the company website ContentDistribution.com. 

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“Our main goal is to educate on the necessity of having some sort of security process in place to avoid any potential incidence of parties, fraud, or criminal activities that could be detrimental to any business.”

Hello everyone! In today’s episode, I had the pleasure of chatting with Mackenzie Kearnan, Marketing Manager at Autohost and what a delightful conversation this was.

She had some wonderful observations and insights to share with us about the working style at Autohost and their role in the industry. 

We also discuss the importance of building a personal brand. Let’s just say that if a personal brand could be defined as a car, one should aim to be a ‘Brand Rover’!   

Keeping puns aside, she also elaborates on their marketing team’s approach to increasing awareness among their audience about cyber-security. 

Also! ‘Buddy’ the flying cat makes hisr appearance very evidently once again on the podcast after being seen last on the special bucket-hat episode. 

Well, this episode has a lot to offer and you just don’t wanna miss it out! 

In this episode we talk about:

• Autohost entry into the market
• Filling a void in the property management industry
• Need for security processes and guest screening
• Personal brand building
• “Done is better than perfect”
• Finding the right balance in personality development

Timestamps 

0:12 - An introduction to Mackenzie Kearnan

1:20 - Beginning of Autohost 

3:00 - Transition from Quickstay to Autohost

6:09 - Marketing organically

7:30 - Building a brand identity 

8:15 - Role of the marketing team

10:42 - Categorizing content strategies

12:42 - Development of personal branding

15:36 - Having a dedicated routine

18:15 - Dealing with perfectionism

21:15 - Evolving your personality 

You can connect with Mackenzie Kearnan on LinkedIn for more updates and information on the cybersecurity business. You can also check out their company website here at Autohost 

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“Internally, one thing I’m trying to push is not really getting comfortable with things. Something that’s very easy to do is, you get defensive of the way you do things and your view of the world... which prevents you from evolving, especially with SEO & content!”

A big hello to all of you once again! In today’s special edition “bucket-hat episode” of the Flying Cat Marketing podcast, I chat with Nigel Stevens, CEO of OGM (Organic Growth Marketing).  He shares with us his experience of working with big start-ups, taking ownership for the right reasons, and his approach towards striking the right balance when it comes to hiring on both ends, the people he works with as well as the clients associated with OGM. 

Nigel has this special gift of being chilled out and quite profound at the same time in how he expresses himself, which makes our conversation so interesting from the get-go. 

The icing on the cake in this episode is that it also features ‘Buddy’ the flying cat, who apparently agrees with Nigel’s ideas from time to time! 

In this episode we talk about:

• Tips for landing new clients
• Importance of sticking to basics
• Regular introspection of work as an agency
• “It’s not done for you, it’s done with you”; a perspective
• Setting strategic directions to review the work being done

Timestamps:

1:11 - About Nigel Stevens

3:18 - Strategy before landing a client

5:29 - Team onboarding strategy at OGM

8:46 - Relationship building with companies

12:12 - How to choose a client for your business

15:24 - OGM working style

17:23 - Delivering ‘peace of mind’ 

18:56 - Setting expectations along with the client

21:08 - Taking ownership 

22:40 - SEO or PPC, what’s better?

29:22 - Nigel’s opinion on Google ads affecting SEO

31:50 - ‘Einstellung effect’; an ideology

You can connect with Nigel Stevens on LinkedIn. You can also check out his website Organic Growth Marketing (OGM).  

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“If you look at my career, I think it looks like a guy who has just been failing upward again & again!”

In today’s episode, I chat with Nick Jordan, CEO of ContentDistribution.com. Nick walks us through his roller-coaster of a journey from being a founder of two not-so-successful start-ups, what he learnt from that experience and how that eventually led to becoming the CEO of a successful content marketing agency.

With a career span of 13 years and counting, Nick’s mantra to move forward in life despite all kinds of challenges is to believe in the idea to work with more & more people, learn new skills and move on to doing something bigger the next time, every time! At present, Nick utilises his experience in helping organisations build massive audiences through organic search with the help of his online tool known as ClusterAI, a super efficient component of contentdistribution.com. 

In this episode we talk about:

• Challenges in running a start-up and learning from setbacks.
• Process of creating a lot of content but also maintaining quality. 
• Key people involved in content strategy & execution.
• The ongoing transformation in the way people use keyword search.
• Features of ClusterAI and how it automates keyword research to simplify the overall process. 

Timestamps: 

0:10 - An introduction to Nick Jordan

1:15 - Setbacks in the initial phase of career

3:20 - The journey before starting ContentDistribution.com

4:55 - Story behind Nick's two failed start-ups 

6:10 - Key takeaways from initial failures

7:14 - Beginning of contentdistribution.com 

7:27 - Transition from Business Development to SEO specialisation 

9:20 - Succeeding in SEO with both quantity and quality content

12:20 - Finding the right people

15:36 - ClusterAI — a component for success

19:02 - Targets for 2021

21:27 - A visual demo of how ClusterAI functions

32:53 - Working with airtable 

You can connect with Nick Jordan on Facebook or LinkedIn. You can also check out his website ContentDistribution.com.   

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“If someone is truly in a bad way, you can’t just say ‘look after yourself.’ It doesn’t work like that. As a company, you need to decide what are the set of tools we are going to provide so they are better enabled to look after themselves.”

Hello hello! In today’s episode, I have Sançar Şahin, the founder of Oliva, which offers online therapy to those juggling high pressure jobs and relationships. 

He’s been in the marketing game since 2014 including working as the VP of Marketing for Hotjar and Typeform, where he scaled their marketing team from 0 - 25+. After experiencing burnout himself he recognized the importance of mental health, especially for those working high-pressure jobs, which was one of his inspirations for co-creating Oliva.  

We chat about the importance of setting boundaries in your business that allow you to balance growth and also the personal health of both you and your staff. It’s not about giving more breaks, it’s about setting realistic expectations, offering tools to support that, and providing a safe space to ask for help when it’s needed. 

We also discuss some valuable content marketing tips and insights. Content marketing isn’t just a blog post, a video, or a podcast. It’s all of the above and more. The perfect recipe for good content is mixing all available mediums together to create an interactive experience for the consumer. Each person consumes content in a different way and you could be excluding potential customers unless you cover all your bases. 

In this episode we talk about:

• The elements of a content marketing team
• Creating effective content marketing strategies
• The importance of prioritizing your mental health as a business owner
• How to hire staff who prioritize mental health

Timestamps: 

0:42 - Intro to Sançar

3:45 - Building a team without experience

6:20 - The essential pieces of a content marketing team 

9:00 - How to align content writing with creative design 

10:50 - High-quality content over quantity 

14:45 - Mixing content formats 

16:28 - Businesses need to become media companies 

20:44 - Transitioning through Hotjar

24:31 - Sançar’s introduction to mental health

28:02 - Prioritizing your mental health as a business owner

32:00 - Providing tools to support the mental health of your team

35:40 - How to hire those who prioritize mental health

Connect with Sançar on LinkedIn and be sure to check out Oliva for mental health support. 

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In today’s episode, I chat with Tawni Sattler at Hotjar. Though Tawni holds the title of content writer, her role has transformed into a manager of a growing remote team. She works on the performance side of their content marketing strategy, which targets their audience at the middle and bottom of the funnel. Hotjar’s team operates 100% remotely as we do here at Flying Cat, and we talk about what that looks like and strategies for doing so effectively. 

When you operate remotely, you need to be more strategic with your content marketing process. You aren’t sitting across the desk from your colleagues, so being as thorough and explanatory as possible with each task is essential. I talk with Tawni about using tools like Loom to record video briefs and what to include in content briefs to eliminate the back-and-forth.

In this episode we talk about:

• Creating effective content briefs
• Working with a 100% remote team
• Overcoming imposter syndrome 

Timestamps: 

0:10 - Intro to Tawni Sattler

2:40 - What does demand generation mean to you?

4:35 - How Hotjar breaks up their content team

7:21 - The process of creating briefs for content

12:04 - The goal of customer and product marketing

12:40 - How to move your audience from TOFU brand marketing to MOFU performance marketing

15:16 - Highest performing channels in the current market 

18:20 - Working with a growing team that operates 100% remotely

21:37 - Getting started in the marketing industry 

25:35 - Overcoming imposter syndrome 

Connect with Tawni Sattler on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tawnisattler/

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In today’s episode, I chat with Josh Spilker, a B2B content marketing consultant and founder of Growthcontent.io. He just launched his own consultancy but has been working in content marketing with companies like ClickUp, Toptal, and Workzone for years.

Josh says that in content marketing, there are three main genres: brand, thought leadership, and education/search. They all play together but are usually not very well coordinated. There are also different expectations for how the different genres should perform. Each type of content is essential but understanding the jobs of each type, and what goals they can help your business reach, is essential to the success of your strategy. 

In this episode we talk about:

• Growth hacking vs. content marketing
• The balance between the technical side of SEO and having good content
• Balancing topic clusters in your content calendar

Timestamps: 

0:58 - Josh Spilker and his journey into content marketing

4:50 - How does content marketing drive companies with a long sales cycle

6:32 - The three genres of content and their role in strategy 

9:40 - The first step when setting up content marketing for a startup

10:58 - Growth hacking vs content marketing

13:00 - Growth hacking experiments

16:00 - Finding balance between technical SEO aspects and quality content

18:25 - What’s next for Growthcontent.io?

22:52 - How do you balance out topic clusters in your content calendar?

25:45 - Are you building a publication or are you building a library?

27:45 - Is the word blog becoming outdated?

30:18 - Making changes to evergreen content because of COVID

Connect with Josh Spilker on LinkedIn and check out his website Growthcontent.io.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Ryan Holiday - Growth Hacker Marketing

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Damian Sheridan joins me on today’s episode. He’s the director of The Book Direct Show, an event for property managers who want to learn how to generate more direct bookings. He’s also an SEO consultant for short-term rental and property management companies and has nearly two decades of experience in the industry. 

In the short-term rental industry, business owners know that SEO is something they need to do but don’t know how to do it. It’s a long, ongoing process involving optimizing content, recycling it, link-building, and data-driven decision-making.

In today’s chat, we talk about setting achievable goals with SEO, how to approach your content depending on those goals, and what a healthy approach to content-driven SEO looks like.

In this episode we talk about:

• What “good SEO results” actually look like
• The best type of content to start with (BOFU!)
• Vacation rentals and email marketing

Timestamps: 

0:50 - An intro to Damian Sheridan

3:30 - The SEO process in the short-term rental industry

5:05 - Content quality vs content quantity 

6:45 - What’s the definition of “good SEO results” with content?

9:03 - Email marketing in the short-term rental industry and where people go wrong

10:40 - How to balance SEO between TOFU, MOFU and BOFU content

14:00 - Diversifying from OTAs in the short-term rental industry

17:37 - How Damian gets experts to speak at The Book Direct Show

Connect with Damian Sheridan on LinkedIn or find him at seoconnect.co.uk.

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In today’s episode, I have Chris Maughan, founder of I-PRAC, a verification platform for the short-term rental industry. I-PRAC was born from the need for a reputable way to certify rentals to prevent consumers from becoming victims of fraud. They are now the leading global certification for the short-term rental industry. Chris is also the CEO of AES events group in Cannes, providing accommodation and event management for corporate clients like Twitter, Spotify, Microsoft, FOX and Disney. 

Building I-PRAC was no walk in the park for Chris. He made mistakes, as all business owners do, but stresses the importance of learning from those mistakes and moving forward. As his mother always said, “don’t make the same mistake twice”. Continuous learning, whether from mistakes made or still stacking is the key to becoming a successful business owner. Chris walks us through his journey in building his business, and the lessons he learned along the way. 

In this episode we talk about:

• The importance of outsourcing when building a startup
• Biggest lessons learned in the beginning stages of your business
• Why skill stacking is so important as a business owner

Timestamps 

1:30 - An intro to Chris Maughn and I-PRAC

5:00 - Fraud in the short-term rental industry

8:10 - Marketing & fraud-prevention 

11:27 - Challenges and lessons in starting I-PRAC

15:57 - How to identify whether your outsourcing is the problem or your own systems

21:05 - Choosing what components to outsource 

23:30 - I-PRAC - Skillshare partnership

26:35 - Importance of skill stacking and consistent learning 

Connect with Chris Maughn on LinkedIn or reach out via email at [email protected]. 

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In today’s episode, I talk to Oren Greenburg, the Chief Growth Officer for Kurve, a marketing consultancy helping enterprises and startups navigate growth through digital marketing. They’ve worked with many big names like Canon, Investec and Lifecake, plus have been featured in publications by HubSpot, Zapier and Adweek. Digital marketing is, in Oren’s word, “his cup of tea”

Almost every channel can be validated in a shorter time frame by using paid advertising. It allows you to quickly identify whether a channel is the appropriate one for your audience based on the results. If your ad campaign flops, then likely your audience isn’t using that specific channel. There are a few levels of where things can go wrong: the channel level, the audience level, the message and the conversion funnel. Oren talks deeper about each level and how to avoid the most common mistakes. 

In this episode we talk about:

• How to find the right marketing channel for your business
• How to identify if you’ve picked the wrong channel
• How to start marketing once you’ve chosen an effective channel

Timestamps 

0:35 - Fun facts about Oren Greenburg 

3:09 - About Kurve 

4:27 - Finding the right marketing channels

7:15 - Did you pick the wrong channel? Or are you just using it wrong?

11:15 - The 4 areas where things can go wrong

11:38 - Writing a good CTA

13:50 - Mistakes that SaaS companies make 

20:07 - What’s the RIGHT way to start?

24:25 - Funnels vs channels

27:00 - Restructure your concept of brand building

31:34 - Identifying if your marketing sucks, or your product does

To connect with Oren Greenburg follow him on LinkedIn, and be sure to check out his consultancy, Kurve. 

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