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Focus Is Your Friend: How to double down on marketing that matters

Marketing matters, but some marketing efforts matter a lot more for your business than other efforts. If you want to learn the secrets of doubling down on what matters for your business, this is the podcast for you. Get advice from experts on how to focus on the marketing, events, PR, social media and email marketing that will move the needle for your business and brand. Stop trying to hope your resources are going to the right places and decide to focus on what matters, with Focus Is Your Friend.
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Focus Is Your Friend: How to double down on marketing that matters
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Now displaying: October, 2016
Oct 31, 2016

Janet Ball is a strategic growth director at PayPal. In this role she manages a portfolio of large enterprise clients which represents more than $600 million in sales. Janet is a Silicon Valley veteran who survived the dot com bust and went on to leadership and strategic consulting roles with many early-stage internet companies prior to joining PayPal 7 years ago. She discovered her passion for the customer and honed her strategic marketing skills early in her career while working for world-class ad agencies in Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Janet earned a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration and Marketing from the University of Kentucky and is an avid fan of the Kentucky Wildcats. She also has taken several leadership classes in pursuit of a Certificate of Business Excellence at the Haas School of Business at UC Berkeley. Janet lives in San Mateo, CA where she is mom to two boys and two golden retrievers.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

  • Marketing mistakes to avoid in both startups and established companies
  • Looking at data for organic growth opportunities
  • How Janet found a market that turned into $6 million in revenue in 2015
  • Knowing customers inside and out — and actually listening to them
  • Reaching customers when they’re most perceptive to your message
  • Why you have to be a great negotiator
  • What does success look like for your company?
  • Avoiding analysis paralysis

Ways to contact Janet:

Oct 28, 2016

Lee Caraher, the founder and CEO of Double Forte PR & Digital Marketing, is an acclaimed communication strategist known for her practical solutions to big problems. She started Double Forte Public Relations and Digital Marketing in 2002 to work with great people doing great work for great clients. Lee and her companies have worked with some of America’s top consumer and technology brands. She holds a bachelor’s degree in medieval history, which she finds useful every day. Active in the community, she lives with her husband and two sons in the San Francisco Bay Area.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

  • Why you need to pitch the information your audience wants to know first — no matter who the audience is
  • Tips for getting physical this weekend — even if you don’t normally get much exercise
  • The many benefits of going for a walk
  • Nilofer Merchant’s walk and talk strategy

Resources:

Oct 24, 2016

Rebekah Wu founded Right-Hand Partners based on her own experiences as an entrepreneur seeking start-up capital. During those years, she attended and presented at venture conferences, built out a team, developed the products, and hired consultants and professional service providers. Even after spending thousands of dollars and hours, she was often unsatisfied with the results for her money and time. She found very few providers that produced deliverables that proved they could see through the eyes of the entrepreneur.

Therefore, Rebekah decided to be THE “solution” for entrepreneurs… someone that could be counted upon as a “right-hand partner”: to often make the first move on behalf of her clients, to facilitate critical introductions, and to catalyze business transactions that will catapult them to the next level. Right-Hand Partners has done just that, working selectively with cutting-edge startup companies and leading venture capital and angel groups throughout the SF Bay Area.

Since founding RHP in 2001, Rebekah has coached 50+ companies that raised over $250M of venture capital. 25 of those companies have been acquired totaling ~$1B. She has produced over 150 events bringing together active VCs and quality entrepreneurs. Because of Rebekah’s vast network of venture capitalists, strategic investors and serial entrepreneurs, she has expanded their services to include executive recruiting for emerging technology companies.

Rebekah was not only an experienced Founder and CEO of a software startup, but she was previously the E-Commerce Strategy Mgr. at a Fireman’s Fund Insurance Company, and a Regional Mgr. of Internet Solutions at AT&T. Rebekah’s passion is singing sacred medieval and early music and is currently a soprano in the Cathedral Schola and Chalice Consort.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

  • Why Rebekah started Right-Hand Partners and what it is that they do
  • The number one mistake early-stage startups make
  • How Rebekah helps startups identify the right investors
  • The four priorities of venture capitalists
  • What to do when making the pitch
  • Mistakes people make in due diligence
  • What you need to know about having a board advisors
  • Rebekah’s view of the women in Silicon Valley topic
  • Rebekah’s one piece of advice for startups ready for funding

Ways to contact Rebekah:

Oct 21, 2016

Lee Caraher, the founder and CEO of Double Forte PR & Digital Marketing, is an acclaimed communication strategist known for her practical solutions to big problems. She started Double Forte Public Relations and Digital Marketing in 2002 to work with great people doing great work for great clients. Lee and her companies have worked with some of America’s top consumer and technology brands. She holds a bachelor’s degree in medieval history, which she finds useful every day. Active in the community, she lives with her husband and two sons in the San Francisco Bay Area.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

  • Making a difference through small steps
  • What to do this weekend to give yourself some calm
  • Some of the meditation apps that I love
  • Another book recommendation

Resources:

Oct 5, 2016

Andrea Meyer has worked on both the agency and client side of PR with internal communications and marketing in the mix. Most recently, she was the PR Lead for the IL/WI Region of Verizon Wireless. She was part of the team which opened Verizon’s largest store in the U.S. in November 2014 for which she received the 2014 Midwest Area PR Award. In the area of Corporate Social Responsibility, Andrea worked in conjunction with the HopeLine (domestic violence) program and the Verizon Foundation (STEM & healthcare) which resulted in more than $1M in grants being distributed from 2011 through 2015 in the Region.

Before Verizon, Andrea has had the privilege to work on a host of stellar brands including Cartier, Lucasfilm (THX sound division), Montblanc, Sony (the North American launch of the PlayStation), Toyota and Weber.

Andrea graduated from Stanford University with a B.A. in Sociology.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

  • What is corporate social responsibility and why does it matter?
  • Why your first audience is your employees and the importance of engaging with them
  • Why over delivering on one thing is better than under delivering on two things
  • Examples of businesses that do prioritization well
  • The biggest mistakes people make with CSR programs
  • How to measure success in CSR programs
  • Why millennials require CSR programs
  • What you can do right now to get started on CSR if you aren’t already

Ways to contact Andrea:

Resources:

Tips:

Company mission:

  • If one exists, does it provide a natural fit for community outreach?
  • Is there a central theme to align with publicly? (economic empowerment, education, etc.)
  • If one does not exist, then create it.

Start small:

  • Take a survey of employees to determine areas of interest (animals, children, education, environment, etc.)
  • Identify local non-profits that have established programs for volunteers.
  • Schedule monthly activities with first-come, first-served involvement.
  • Identify team leaders for each event.

Tax Exemption Requirements

Oct 5, 2016

Lee Caraher, the founder and CEO of Double Forte PR & Digital Marketing, is an acclaimed communication strategist known for her practical solutions to big problems. She started Double Forte Public Relations and Digital Marketing in 2002 to work with great people doing great work for great clients. Lee and her companies have worked with some of America’s top consumer and technology brands. She holds a bachelor’s degree in medieval history, which she finds useful every day. Active in the community, she lives with her husband and two sons in the San Francisco Bay Area.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

  • Building out a full content library
  • Things to do to sharpen your mental acuity this weekend
  • Why you should do puzzles
  • Why reading classic literature is something you should do
  • A couple of book recommendations

Resources:

Oct 5, 2016

Adam Stein has more than 25 years of marketing and public affairs leadership at enterprise software, semiconductor, networking, security and marketing service firms. He has helped four different early-stage innovators grow to either IPO or achieve a highly-profitable acquisition exit. His most recent role as VP Mobile Product Marketing at SAP helped the company build a cohesive mobile portfolio approach with the SAP HANA Cloud to boost mindshare for its 300,000 customers, 1,000s of partners and Global 2000 prospects. Adam began his marketing career in Boston (working alongside Double Forte founder Lee Caraher) leading marketing services agencies and holds a Master’s degree in Marketing from Emerson College and a Bachelor’s degree in Science from the University of Colorado in Boulder.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

  • Why businesses must start by focusing on what their customers’ problems are
  • How to hone in on an audience once you know what the problem is that you’re solving
  • Testing through Product Messaging Documents
  • Why your product/service doesn’t need to be perfect the first time
  • Strategies Adam uses to reach his audience
  • Information channels Adam recommends for people in the B2B space
  • What Adam learned when putting an old product in new box failed badly
  • Need more money? Find more money!
  • What Adam measures in a campaign to make sure he’s on track to deliver ROI
  • What people can do today to improve their website programs
  • How to blend the old and the new with online marketing

Ways to contact Adam:

Adam’s upcoming events:

Resources:

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