Marcus is a partner, father of two with a third on the way, son, brother, organizer, and Director of Social Equity over at Cinder. I joked with Marcus after this episode that he might’ve been the quickest person to bring value to this show, it’s literally within the first 5 seconds that he starts talking that you’ll be hooked. He has such an infectious, positive energy about him and I hope you all enjoy listening to this episode as much as I enjoyed putting it together. Lots of great topics were discussed in this episode including how your personal life can influence your professional life, where diversity equity and inclusion is at in the workplace today, why thinking of "best practices" can be a problematic approach, and so so much more.

So without further ado, here’s Marcus!

My guest today is the Chief Marketing Officer at Uptime.com, Yoni Solomon. In this episode, Yoni chats with us about his journey from a generalist to the C-suite, and he also touches on the importance of bringing your whole self to work, as well as the dangers of assumption when it comes to new product launches and marketing.

Yoni checks all the boxes for a How to Lead guest. He’s literally been there, done that, and now sits in a highly coveted leadership role. I’m super excited for y’all to hear this conversation.

Ryan is an Enterprise Account Executive at Google and we had an awesome conversation that touched on the importance of making mistakes, the Portland tech scene, investing, and more. If you like the conversation then I’m sure you’ll also love Ryan’s podcast, the Digital Native. 

A masterclass example of the "when everybody goes right, go left" concept that so many marketers still leverage today.

Brooklin Nash is the Head of Content at Sales Hacker, one of the leading communities for today’s top salespeople. In addition to that, Brooklin advises other notable B2B organizations with their content marketing strategies, as well, like Metadata, Bizzabo, and Swipely just to name a few. We dive deep into best practices for getting started freelancing, the best companies and resources to look at if you want to up-level your own writing, and the difference between when you want to niche down or go broad with your career.

Blaire Hervey is the Field Productivity & Readiness Lead at Amazon Web Services, but you may also know her as The Corporate Strategist. As The Corporate Strategist, Blaire personally helps train organizations in areas of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging, as well as individuals with career coaching and business building strategies. I’ve had the pleasure of working with Blaire in the past - she’s one of those leaders that lights up a room and can get the best out of everybody she works with. She breaks down some great enablement and coaching best practices that I can’t wait to share with you here.

Jonah is the co-founder and CEO of Crayon - an organization that specializes in providing competitive intelligence for businesses to stand out and win. Jonah is the first CEO that we’ve had on the podcast and we had a really great conversation that touched on how to lead a growing company, when to consider raising capital, his favorite resources for learning, and a lot more.

Aubyn is a Principal Product Marketing Manager at G2 - a powerhouse organization that enables users of thousands of products to share and rate their experiences. I’ve been following Aubyn on LinkedIn for a while and I’ve come to really look forward to seeing her share her perspective on not just all things G2, but Product Marketing as a whole, leadership, and empathy, amongst other topics.

Phill is the Product Marketing leader that I first rolled up to when I started my career at ZoomInfo. I’ve learned a lot from him on a professional and personal level over the years, and I’m grateful that we’ve kept in touch. We chat through how you can make an impact in your organization even if you’re a department of one, how you can make yourself visible when we all return to the office, lessons he learned from his first direct reports, and more!

This episode’s guest is Bryony Pierce, the Head of Content at the Product Marketing Alliance, or “PMA” for short. Two years ago, Bryony was a department of one and worked alongside the PMA’s cofounder. Now, she has a team of eight reporting up to her as the PMA community has skyrocketed in popularity. In our conversation, she shares the biggest differences between her role two years ago and her role today, how she "managed up" to strategically handle the PMA’s growth, and of course, advice to new people managers. Let’s jump in.