HIGHLIGHTS

02:18 Executives on social: Looking for leaders whose values align with theirs

06:59 Corporate communications: Executive's personal accounts hold more weight

13:55 Sara Blakely of Spanx: A corporate event increased employee branding, talent retention and company culture 

19:13 What people want: Transparency, honesty, empowerment, mental health

25:24 3 myths about executives posting on social media

30:31 Actionable tips: Make your bio personal, engage the community, and understand content pillars

36:56 Book recommendation: Never Eat Alone by Keith Ferrazzi

QUOTES

09:08 "Whether it's employees or prospects or customers or partners, they want to hear from the leaders and the leaders are usually pretty reticent to do that. When you have someone like Ed Bastian that puts himself out there... it really stands out."

15:33 "Recording on video was again, a simple decision, but a stroke of genius because you capture the emotion a little more there because you got the pictures, you got the video of her tearing up and talking about it, and that's a lot different than writing it and showing pictures."

20:14 "You should be hitting some of the notes that Sara's hitting, which is inspiration, empowerment, right now mental health, like some of those things, transparency, honesty. I mean, think about everything that people want from executives."

32:22 "You've got to soften it up a little bit... let's take the bio and massage it and work it into the points we made before about personal details, more personal narratives, more about your passions, more about maybe even a little bit about your family... more personal details, more about you."

35:31 "That's what people want. They don't want to see you share the corporate stuff, they want to hear from. Let employees share the corporate stuff. That's fine, that's what you want. You don't want the executives doing that."

Follow the link below to learn more about Arik Hanson:

• LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/arikhanson/

This series is being put together in collaboration with AIGA Minnesota - one of the largest chapters of AIGA, that works to enhance the value and deepen the impact of design across all disciplines of business, society, and our collective future.

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Curious, a group of B2B marketers helping their clients define a conversation that is unique, relevant, and honest with their ideal customers. They then help their clients find their ideal audience to start the conversation by pushing content through the most efficient channels, whether that be traditional or digital.

HIGHLIGHTS

01:33 Social signals: Learning from the past to prepare for the future

03:59 For marketers: The metaverse, rise of NFTs, and the need for multiple channels

07:44 The "Yes, and..." approach and creating a curious culture

12:31 Metaverse: Implications on marketing and decentralized zones

23:02 NFTs and the idea of provenance is rooted in human nature

29:25 Overhaul data gathering, stay curious, and keep learning as technology changes

34:51 Focusing on emerging technologies and new consumer habits post-pandemic

QUOTES

09:46 "I'm not advocating for hustle culture. But what I am advocating for is a curious culture. Constantly learning, thinking about where are we today? Where have we been? Where are we going? that might mean that you're going to rethink how you approach work, how you lead your teams, how you engage with your client."

18:30 "The dark web... where you can still go seek out websites that are not archived in Google... unless you know the URL, you can't access it. And some of that stuff is bad. And some of that stuff is good, which is exactly as it was in the early days of the internet. It will be the same thing within metaverse."

26:15 "If you think about provenance and who owns what, you think about collectibles, you think about the history of access, and then the history of celebrity and exclusivity. This is why NFTs matter." 

32:12 "The first thing that you have to do as an executive, as a thought leader, as a modern marketer, no matter what level you are at your career is just admit you don't know everything. You're not an expert. You got a lot to learn. And the best way to learn is to be curious and to try things."

38:58 "I believe if we're not living in the center of change, we've already been left behind. We have to embrace the change and we have to run to the front and say, here is coming, where can we point it? What can we do? Because to not do that is to literally be left behind, and that's not where I want to be."

Follow the link below to learn more about Greg.

• LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregswan/
• Website (Social Signals by Greg Swam) - https://gregswan.substack.com/

This series is being put together in collaboration with AIGA Minnesota - one of the largest chapters of AIGA, that works to enhance the value and deepen the impact of design across all disciplines of business, society, and our collective future.

&

Curious, a group of B2B marketers helping their clients define a conversation that is unique, relevant, and honest with their ideal customers. They then help their clients find their ideal audience to start the conversation by pushing content through the most efficient channels, whether that be traditional or digital.

HIGHLIGHTS

02:20 Working with creative skill sets and how Greg works with his team

12:17 Passion for user experience: Understanding what they’re really trying to say

18:10 Learning behaviors and creative psyche: Knowing the risks and pain points with sales and marketing

23:39 Buyer’s journey, user experience, the in-betweens - Asking and knowing the right questions

28:23 Bridge the gap between sales stages and guide your team to understand the bigger picture

36:45 Know your role: Understand and set expectations for you and your team for success

42:36 Buyer Personas by Adele Revella, The Road Less Stupid by Keith J. Cunningham, and valuing your time by knowing when to rest

QUOTES

13:40 "Ultimately what you really realize is that salesperson wasn't literally saying 'this is what's gonna win,' they're saying 'how do we demonstrate that we understand them and their business better than the next person that comes into this room?' If we can hear what they're saying but understand what they're trying to say, which is sometimes different ... I think that's the key to our success."

15:44 "There needs to be a shared understanding of trust that each person is bringing their superpower to the table with the goal of building a user experience that is good for the customer, and good for the organization."

29:13 "One of the things that worked really well for us was to show the power of the brand holistically through its pieces ... because each individual piece, whether it be for a sales pitch, marketing campaign, support for thought leadership ... each piece always looks good.”

34:58 "That mentality of leaders, setting divisions and organization. Trusting their leadership team to make the calls that their area of expertise but then coming together to say, 'does this get closer to that vision?'

41:55 "No creative team has ever said, 'here's the one golden ticket or one silver bullet.' Oftentimes they challenge themselves by playing around with 5, 10, 15 versions. Boil them down to 3 that they feel good presenting to a peer and then saying 'give me your feedback.'"

Follow the link below to learn more about Greg.

• LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregtucker/

This series is being put together in collaboration with AIGA Minnesota - one of the largest chapters of AIGA, that works to enhance the value and deepen the impact of design across all disciplines of business, society, and our collective future.

&

Curious, a group of B2B marketers helping their clients define a conversation that is unique, relevant, and honest with their ideal customers. They then help their clients find their ideal audience to start the conversation by pushing content through the most efficient channels, whether that be traditional or digital.

HIGHLIGHTS

02:08 Tiffany first started off in law as her background and how it was able to help shape her to what she ultimately is now today, being a leader in innovation in a legacy company

08:18 The start of a solution to the inefficiencies of the construction industry in terms of changing how it's been over the years in regards to its methods to address concerns that were widely accepted

14:50 Tiffany's motivation towards her challenges in the construction industry

17:17 Your setbacks are interrupted by successes and why motivating and believing in yourself in those dark moments is what drives you to continue on your path

20:17 The customer you thought you have is not the customer you're looking for and how to identify that

24:16 The first or next step to approach a challenge about disrupting the status quo of a massive industry

QUOTES

06:24 "The contractors that were under us who were more experienced, I asked them 'why don't you challenge this more and isn't this a problem for you and how have you dealt with this?' And they just said this is baked into the business model across the board. These inefficiencies, these assumptions, these subjective opinions ... and everybody just accepted it over the years."

07:43 "If there was software or a method that was widely adopted across the industry to sort of address these concerns. Then I'd really wanted to understand it, and study it, and figure out how do I improve on it. But then what I discovered was there was nothing, it was a void."

15:46 "People who are of a stature who are subject matter experts, who know the industry, see what I created and tell me, 'this is special and you just need to hold on because your break is coming.' And that's what kept me going."

20:56 "You need a seat at the table at the people who own the projects because they are losing money. And if you can help save them money, they control everything down ... that's the value of having a diversity of advisors with different backgrounds to help you see the forest for the trees."

27:00 "The best advice I can offer is for me the big thing is transparency. And if you are transparent with the people who work for you and transparent with your customer. Then I think you building a very healthy environment where there's little room for surprises."

32:29 "In all bad things there's opportunity. And I am a firm believer that when it's the dark, dark times, there is an opportunity if you just have the clarity of mind and willingness to see it. The other thing is, and I've already said it is 'if it was easy, everybody would be doing it.' So find some solace that you're doing something that a lot of people aren't willing to do the work to accomplish. And lastly is ... follow the money."

Follow the link below to learn more about Tiffany.

• LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/tiffanyhosey

This series is being put together in collaboration with AIGA Minnesota - one of the largest chapters of AIGA, that works to enhance the value and deepen the impact of design across all disciplines of business, society, and our collective future.

&

Curious, a group of B2B marketers helping their clients define a conversation that is unique, relevant, and honest with their ideal customers. They then help their clients find their ideal audience to start the conversation by pushing content through the most efficient channels, whether that be traditional or digital.

HIGHLIGHTS

02:14 Workplace conflict not a gender issue as it is a communication and personality issues

08:34 Performativity: Taking on traditional masculine traits to advance professionally 

13:38 Work-life balance: Mothers are viewed differently in the workplace

19:02 Queen Bee Syndrome and maintaining the status quo on diversity and inclusivity

24:49 Authentic communication keeps the conversation of inequality alive

27:01 The pandemic has revealed that working mothers are burnt out

31:26 Organizations need to address pay gap to truly move forward

34:44 Effective communication is the first step to healing inequality

39:28 Book recommendation: Find Your Fierce by Teresa Sande

QUOTES

05:30 "What my interview participants articulated was that personality traits and communication styles of men and women is what actually influences conflict in the workplace. It's not so much about someone's gender."

12:22 "For so long, women have viewed behavior of men being able to make these decisions and behave in a certain way, it gets them that seat at the executive table. So now, as a woman, I'm going to mimic that because I view that as being successful."

22:54 "Men are aware that these challenges exist. But again, it doesn't impact them in the same way as it does women. And then, at least from my study, from an organizational perspective, in some cases there didn't necessarily seem to be any actionable desire to make change."

25:06 "Literally using our voice through communication, we have to be authentic, confident communicators in order to make change happen. So from that gender inequality perspective, keeping those conversations going."

35:29 "Effective communication in the workplace is absolutely critical... It all links to corporate culture, employee engagement, business operations. If your employees aren't happy and they're not engaged, there's going to be issues. So offering that two-way dialogue."

Follow the link below to learn more about Amelia.

• LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/ameliareigstad/

Get your copy of Find Your Fierce by Teresa Sande below

• Amazon - https://www.amazon.com/Find-Your-Fierce-Interrupt-Imposter/dp/1634894103

This series is being put together in collaboration with AIGA Minnesota - one of the largest chapters of AIGA, that works to enhance the value and deepen the impact of design across all disciplines of business, society, and our collective future.

&

Curious, a group of B2B marketers helping their clients define a conversation that is unique, relevant, and honest with their ideal customers. They then help their clients find their ideal audience to start the conversation by pushing content through the most efficient channels, whether that be traditional or digital.

HIGHLIGHTS

01:51 Defining the voice of the customer

06:17 Reconciling marketing and sales and elevating both to be more effective

11:06 Flash points in the marketing and sales relationship

15:04 Case study: Marketing launches a misaligned product for the market

22:29 Understand the voice of the customer to reveal the real target market

28:10 Strategies to champion the voice of the customer as a priority

32:42 Know the voice of the customer by asking them authentic questions

35:17 Define who you are and who you are not

36:55 Book you should read now: Ikigai: The Japanese Secret to a Long and Happy Life

QUOTES

11:31 "Marketing in general tends to be more of a long game. You have to be planful in order for things to really do well. The lead time on that and the planning affiliated with that is much more significant in comparison to sales."

12:46 "I think the piece that (sales teams) don't really understand or think about is kind of more, and this is I think what really elevates the marketing side of things is defining the customer, figuring out the customer journey."

19:59 "I think the sooner that marketing can kind of get in and that ideation phase of things and earlier on in the gate process, I think the better off those projects tend to be versus, hey, we're getting in at gate three or even gate four."

24:11 "Understand what is your addressable and kind of what is your sweet spot and not feeling bad around, we're not going to do this right now, I think really enables you to penetrate deeper and better and to establish those partnerships."

33:05 "I think asking questions in a way that are not leading the witness I think are really important and asking very open-ended questions and not directing it toward you specifically... but rather, who is your favorite business partner that you work with?"

Follow the link below to learn more about Jessica.

• LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicalynnmarshall/

This series is being put together in collaboration with AIGA Minnesota - one of the largest chapters of AIGA, that works to enhance the value and deepen the impact of design across all disciplines of business, society, and our collective future.

&

Curious, a group of B2B marketers helping their clients define a conversation that is unique, relevant, and honest with their ideal customers. They then help their clients find their ideal audience to start the conversation by pushing content through the most efficient channels, whether that be traditional or digital.

HIGHLIGHTS

01:45 What exactly is a product designer?

06:14 Important questions to answer in the discovery phase

12:49 The cupcake analogy

14:50 Product designer roles in the growth phase

22:36 Advocacy to empower users and ethical design 

26:01 Working together with sales and marketing 

33:16 Creating a customer-centric product begins with leadership vision 

37:45 Books your should be reading about product design

QUOTES

02:20 "It's important that they help make those products look good. Make them beautiful. But they're thinking about it on a much deeper level. They also know how to make something intuitive, easy to use, familiar and, more importantly, make it useful."

04:39 "After you have a great understanding of the problem through research, you can iterate quickly, you can prototype quickly, and you can validate the solutions with customers to find that product market fit."

07:18 "We either have a market here that has a problem that we can solve and they're willing to pay us for a solution, or maybe it's not exactly what we thought, it's something related, or there's actually not a problem here that's worth solving."

12:51 "If you wanted to eventually build a wedding cake, you won't start by giving everyone a pile of frosting, you would first assemble all the key ingredients on a much smaller scale, requiring less time, requiring less money."

22:12 "More isn't always better. I would say more of what each user needs right at their fingertips is better. And that comes through constant curation."

32:17 "The product team should be creating value by solving customer problems, which makes sales and marketing's job really easy because then they just have to talk about the value that's already been created."

Follow the links below to learn more about Nick.

• LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/nickwellner/

This series is being put together in collaboration with AIGA Minnesota - one of the largest chapters of AIGA, that works to enhance the value and deepen the impact of design across all disciplines of business, society, and our collective future.

&

Curious, a group of B2B marketers helping their clients define a conversation that is unique, relevant, and honest with their ideal customers. They then help their clients find their ideal audience to start the conversation by pushing content through the most efficient channels, whether that be traditional or digital.

HIGHLIGHTS

01:42 Aligning sales and marketing departments with company goals

07:01 The features of a good sales team: Curiosity, Competition, and Chemistry

18:56 Action plans to align sales and marketing teams

23:35 Recommendations to leaders: Create covenants and use scorecards

31:11 Nigel's book recommendations

37:17 How to connect with Nigel

QUOTES

02:53 "When I come in and do these assessments with executive teams that struggle with misalignment between sales and marketing, the first thing we do is we pull out the stated goals of the company."

04:59 "A good sales team is driven by revenue attainment. So where they tend to get frustrated with marketing is when the materials, whether it be messaging, collateral, ads, don't have any implication on revenue attainment."

09:18 "Any reason that you could assert or assume a customer might need your product is never going to be as strong as any reason that already exists. So any motivation that I already have to use your product is always going to be stronger than any clever copy."

16:05 "It doesn't matter if the sales team is competent. Competent is curiosity in a competitive streak. If they don't match the company values, if you don't enjoy hanging out with them, it's not going to work."

28:34 "For your leadership, okay so for the folks that manage a department's outcome, they have a PNL, they have people that report to them, get rid of job descriptions and start having scorecards."

Follow the links below to learn more about Nigel Green.

• LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/revenueharvest/
• Website - https://therevenueharvest.com/

This series is being put together in collaboration with AIGA Minnesota - one of the largest chapters of AIGA, that works to enhance the value and deepen the impact of design across all disciplines of business, society, and our collective future.

&

Curious, a group of B2B marketers helping their clients define a conversation that is unique, relevant, and honest with their ideal customers. They then help their clients find their ideal audience to start the conversation by pushing content through the most efficient channels, whether that be traditional or digital.

Heather Polivka is CEO, Advisor, Speaker at HeatherPSolutions. Heather works with progressive leaders of small and mid-sized businesses to accelerate revenue growth by creating work environments where people thrive. Her proven methodology focuses on driving business performance through employee performance. Heather does this by addressing workplace culture, breaking down silos, optimizing ways of working, empowering front-line managers, and improving employee engagement.

Heather is a proven global leader, she understands the power of a purposeful brand experience that reaches customers, communities, employees, and stakeholders alike. She has seen the impact because she’s led these initiatives for some of the world’s most recognized brands.

To learn more about Heather Polivka through the following links below.

• LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/heatherpolivka/
• Webiste - https://www.heatherpsolutions.com/

This series is being put together in collaboration with AIGA Minnesota - one of the largest chapters of AIGA, that works to enhance the value and deepen the impact of design across all disciplines of business, society, and our collective future.

&

Curious, a group of B2B marketers helping their clients define a conversation that is unique, relevant, and honest with their ideal customers. They then help their clients find their ideal audience to start the conversation by pushing content through the most efficient channels, whether that be traditional or digital.

Dave Koerner is an award-winning marketing leader with a background in international business development and building revenue-based marketing teams. His natural habitat consists of early to mid-stage, fast-growing tech companies or challenger brands.

Dave is also the VP of Global Marketing at 75F - a global market leader in smart building automation. They’re on a mission to make buildings smarter — and in doing so, save energy and our environment.

To learn more about Dave Koerner through the following links below.

• Website - https://www.75f.io/
• Webiste - http://www.davekoerner.com/
• LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/dckoerner/

This series is being put together in collaboration with AIGA Minnesota - one of the largest chapters of AIGA, that works to enhance the value and deepen the impact of design across all disciplines of business, society, and our collective future.

&

Curious, a group of B2B marketers helping their clients define a conversation that is unique, relevant, and honest with their ideal customers. They then help their clients find their ideal audience to start the conversation by pushing content through the most efficient channels, whether that be traditional or digital.