In this episode, Wesley Belleman, Consulting Engineer at Colossal LLC,  joins Maria and Gianna to discuss marketing in the federal government.

Wesley began his career in the military in acquisitions, specifically as a cybersecurity operations officer. Here, he was in charge of multi-million dollar programs, acquiring cybersecurity for the space force, and more. From there, he went into Palo Alto Networks and finally Colossal LLC, a value-added reseller providing services specific to the products they sell. Because he has advertised and marketed products internally as a customer in his previous roles, Wesley has a solid understanding of the challenges marketers face. Since the Department of Defense is the country’s largest employer, there is a ton of internal business that goes on within it overall. Wesley touches on Kraken, a newly released product that the Space Force is currently leveraging for public defense.  He worked with a team of engineers and contractors to design, build and deploy the product. It required marketing to get people within the space force on board with implementing the product. Wesley also highlights the various AFCEA events coming up nationwide.

When building Kraken, Wesley also had to build consensus internally to get the product off the ground. He began this process by getting certified on the product and fully understanding it inside out.  On that, he leveraged the strength of his colleagues on his team to fulfill different operational roles. The final step was to get to know the customers and what exactly they are looking for. It is crucial to leave your opinions and ideals at the door and understand what the customer wants from a cybersecurity product. He also recommends all founders use the resources and team members they already have. Although it is still growing, Kraken officially launched in 2019. Finally, our guest and hosts engage in a fun guessing game to reveal what career Wesley would pursue outside of the cybersecurity marketing field.

Links:

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