The Makeshift CMO: Marketing, Growth & Business Podcast For Early Stage Founders & Teams

I sit down with Mark Kilens, who is VP of Content and Community at Drift where he leads the content, events, community, and learning and development teams.

Text Mark at 978-226-6965

Bruce is pumped to have on Erin Blaskie, his original mentor in the world of tech startups when it comes to early-stage marketing. Erin is an incredibly astute, thoughtful storyteller of a marketer.

She's a mother, a scrappy entrepreneur and has incredible stories of how she accidentally started working with some of the world's foremost startups through Ottawa's premier startup orgs: Telfer School of Business, L-SPARK, etc.

We talk about the gritty truth of marketing and true product-revenue growth: that new acquisition channels are often overrated and most small companies are better off focusing on the foundations of their growth and marketing. You should be asking yourself:

1. Are your funnels set up properly?

2. Is your marketing website displaying the product correctly?

3. Do you know who you serve?

We also talk about what it really means to set EXPECTATIONS when it comes to startup marketing hires for CEOs and CMOs.

Follow Erin on everything at:

https://www.erinblaskie.com/

LinkedIn: https://ca.linkedin.com/in/erinblaskie

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ErinBlaskie

Insta: https://www.instagram.com/erinblaskie

In this episode, Bruce sits down with Beth Wanner, a super marketer hailing from Saskatchewan who takes her history of public education marketing and communications all the way to Uberflip, a content experience platform for B2B marketers. We joke about our shared background in Telecoms (me selling crappy cellphones, her as a VP marketing for IQMetrix LOL)

From a marketing side, we talk about how to get marketing a seat at the table, some of the latest product marketing trends that lead Uberflip to create their new tool, Sales Assist and much more on the team-building side of marketing.

Beth is an incredibly disciplined intrapreneur; with many opportunities in her time and certainly the pedigree to start something on her own, I asked her what she would start if she had the money. Without a great answer, she bowed out, showing great restraint. The world is excited, holding their breath for what Beth will do next. 

For now, she's crushing Product Marketing and Brand at Uberflip.

Discover Uberflip Academy: https://academy.uberflip.com/ and check out Sales Assist on Uberflip!

If you're a great marketer looking for their next role, give Beth a shout as she's always looking for great marketing talent for her team: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bethwanner/

In this episode, Bruce sits down with the Co-Founders of pb+j, Tom and Kyle. They are on a mission to partner with the best, bravest DTC founders to kick-a$$ and take names in e-comm. 

In this episode, we...

Like Bruce, Kyle and Tom are also podcasters of an E-Comm podcast called: https://www.commercechefs.com

Check out what PB&J are doing at: https://addpbj.com/

If you're an e-comm brand looking to up their design, brand and just overall everythingness give Tom or Kyle and shout!

In this episode, Bruce sits down for an unfiltered discussion with his first boss in the startup world, a mentor and a friend in Nishaant Sangaavi. Nishaant marks the third ex-coworker he has had on but definitely the one to offer most to founders as someone who has been in the trenches building a B2B SaaS startup for the last five years. In this pod, we go beyond the EnergyX story that I in many ways helped; we dive into the doldrums and tough parts of growing a SaaS company in a virtual world but also, what are the tough choices one must make as you go from a 2 person startup to a 20 person startup. Some burning questions we answer...

"Alright, we raised $1 million. Now what? Do we raise 5? 10?"

"If so, what do we spend it on?"

"I'm a sales focused founder, but now, my job is no longer to sell but to coach and lead. How does that work?"

Nishaant's personal growth as CEO has lead to his appointment as a coach and EIR at the Ryerson DMZ, where he now gives back to other founders who were once in his shoes.

Nishaant's CTA: https://ca.cookswhofeed.com/

In this episode, Bruce sits down with Aaron, his old coworker from EnergyX. Aaron is man who once had the stones to walk away from a big deal because he made the call that it didn't fit with the ethos of what our old company was building.

In the latest #makeshiftCMO episode, Aaron and I talk about how marketing and sales work together to...

🚴‍♀️Brave long buy cycles with enterprise clients

🔢Find the right metrics to focus on

👨‍💻How to convert in-person trust to long-lasting business relationships in a virtual world

Check out what EnergyX is doing these days at https://www.energyxsolutions.com/

In this episode, Bruce attempts to understand what IP...is. He brings on his buddy Curtis Behmann of BLG, who is recognized as one of the top 300 IP strategists in the world according to the IAM Strategy 300, Curtis is a professional engineer, registered patent agent and design expert. He has more than 20 years’ experience brings a unique combination of deep expertise and board-level strategic insights to startups, scale-ups and world-leading multinationals.

Find more about what Curtis does at: https://ipic.ca/about-us/board

In this episode, Bruce chats with his old Founders Factory pal, an experienced Head of Growth with a demonstrated history of working with SMEs and startups to enhance their growth...Kartik Krishnan. Kartik is a true startup veteran who is skilled in PPC, SEO, CRM, Hypothesis-testing, Interviewing, Business Development, Social Media, and Mobile Advertising.

He has parlayed a career in Google ads into one as a startup advisor, but also a Growth Director for Capdesk, a company focused on helping startups unlock the power of their equity.

Learn about Capdesk: https://www.capdesk.com/

In this episode, Bruce interviews his ex-colleague and amazing friend, Annie Ngu. Annie is the Lead Designer at EnergyX Solutions, but also a do-everything designer, marketer and businesswoman. She is a great writer and as this podcast learns, someone who is great at talking about the softer parts of working at a tech company. We start off by debating the Marketing Vs. UX debate, but quickly we spiral into a hilarious convo about the first time she thought she was interviewing for a UX job, but wasn't. Then, we talk about how startup benefit packages need to step up their game and have an open convo about mental health when you are somebody who hustles hard.

Learn more about what Annie does at: https://www.anniengu.com/ 

Learn more about the Women United Project: https://www.womenunitedproject.com/

In this episode, Bruce sits down with a refreshing take on B2B marketing from another energy efficiency ex-employee, Angela Ferrante of Laudable. Laudable is a fully remote way to produce video. We make it easy, fast, and affordable to leverage customer stories and other forms of video. We're out to kill dull company-centric case studies and make b2b marketing less boring. Learn more at: http://www.getlaudable.com/