The People of Digital Marketing is a podcast made for aspiring marketing leaders. In each episode, I interview marketing experts from around the world. Marketing leaders from Fortune 500 companies, agencies, and startups share their career advice, challenges they’re facing, and roadmaps for how to keep growing every day in the world of digital marketing.
If you want to lead a marketing team one day, start your own business, or if you just need some expert perspectives on doing marketing the right way—this podcast is for you!
If you’re looking to hire expert freelance talent this year to scale your business (and impress your boss), check out MarketerHire. MarketerHire vets freelance talent so when you hire an SEO expert, Email Marketer, or even a Fractional CMO—you’re not wasting your money or your time.
You can hire your first freelancer and get a $500 credit by visiting: www.kennysoto.com/hire
“66% of websites don’t need to do SEO. There’s no reason that they should bother.” Eli Schwartz is a seasoned SEO expert and consultant with over a decade of experience, helping prominent B2B and B2C companies like WordPress, Shutterstock, and Zendesk drastically enhance their organic visibility. Formerly leading SEO at SurveyMonkey, he boosted organic search to become a major growth driver. An accomplished speaker and author of the book “Product Led SEO”, Eli’s insights...
"A good well-rounded CMO is going to be someone who understands the full buyer's journey...the full marketing-sales funnel." As a Fractional CMO and GTM Strategist, Corey brings a 25-year track record of extraordinary success as an entrepreneur, sales leader, and CMO for a $150M+ agency called Scorpion (where he was the 1st marketing hire and grew the team to 30 people before leaving). Today, he helps B2B SaaS and Agencies grow from 7 figures to 8 by doing less, not more....
“If you can understand business, it will make you a better marketer.” JC Polonia is the Head of Growth at LOOP, a car insurance company based out of Austin, Texas, that takes biased and discriminatory data out of the industry. He’s also the founder of Digitality, a New York-based performance and production marketing agency. From local small businesses to venture-backed companies, JC developed his chops for growth marketing from the grassroots. Data-driven and...
"I need content to connect dots that I didn't know were connected before...Otherwise...I could go look all this stuff up already on my own." Tracey Wallace is the Director of Content Strategy at Klaviyo. Prior to that, she was the head of marketing for two early-stage start-ups (Eterneva and MarketerHire), and the Editor-in-Chief over at BigCommerce. She has 13 years of experience in content marketing, and began her career in Journalism. She is also a content creator for...
"When you stop selling, you stop growing...If you think that you're maxed out right now...what if you lose a client?" Ali Schwanke is the CEO and Founder of Simple Strat, an agency of expert strategists in sales and content marketing for B2B tech companies. Ali and her team focus on growing businesses through technology and automations, specializing in the implementation of HubSpot. Ali is a sought-after speaker and co-host of HubSpot Hacks - the popular YouTube channel...
“If there’s not a fit between your personality and the environment that you’re in, it’s going to be difficult for you to drive impact. This is regardless of how much you know in your [marketing] domain.” Patrick Moran was most recently an Executive in Residence at Reforge where he led the Growth Marketing, Experimentation and Testing, and Brand Marketing programs which he also co-developed. Previously, he was the Head of Consumer Marketing at Houzz and held leadership...
“It doesn’t matter if you’re employed or not, it matters if you’re employable…if you learn the skills around how to grow ‘capital-efficiently’, [affecting] the growth curve in a positive way—that’s incredibly employable.” Bill Macaitis is an advisor and board member, guiding aspiring unicorns and helping build out world class teams and innovative go-to-market strategies. Over his 20 year career Bill has achieved five successful exits and powered growth at three of the...
“Take a look at your agency and if their tests keep losing and you’re like ‘oh our current ad keeps performing better’…you should have a real hard conversation…[You’re losing] every time they tested…” Samir Balwani is a marketing thought leader, out-of-the-box thinker, and an intrinsic connector. As CEO and founder of QRY (pronounced “query”), Samir has built a world-class media agency of innovative thinkers and spirited doers who help brands think strategically about...
“Failure is the best way to learn…You have to try new methods and new things to surprise your audience and surpass your competitors.” Keren Pakes is the Chief Brand & Communications Officer at Bright Data and the General Manager of The Bright Initiative. After 14 impressive years as an award-winning BBC News journalist (she won an Emmy?!), Keren left the field of journalism to pursue marketing senior leadership roles in the B2B tech space. Today, Keren focuses...
“Video is great, and audio is better.” Nora Sudduth, Co-founder of Hello Audio is a leading marketing & conversion strategist who has helped businesses sell over $500M of products & services online. She’s also designed several courses, coaching, and certification programs that have generated millions more. Nora has over 20 years of experience working with startups to Fortune 500 companies and everything in between. From market positioning and messaging, to...
“When someone interacts with your brand for the first time, it’s literally a first impression.” Sydney Michuda is the owner and creative lead behind Super Creative, a design and branding studio based in Milwaukee. With a nearly decade of design experience under her belt, most of which has been focused on branding small businesses, she's most at home when working with passionate, like-minded creative entrepreneurs. Whether it's designing for brands large and small or...
“Take your top priorities and cut them in half, and then focus on doing fewer things exceedingly well.” Chad is the VP of Marketing & Communications at Jotform, a leading online form and productivity software company. He holds a master’s degree in communication and resides with his wife and cats in Oakland, California. Hiring for skills that matter and why writing is one to master! How to build a marketing team from the ground up. When to hire an employee vs...
“A podcast is like a Swiss army knife, it can accomplish so many objectives…” Dan Sanchez is the Director of Audience Growth for Sweet Fish, a podcast agency for B2B brands. Equipped with his MBA and a career that has crossed design, technology, marketing and education, Dan is ready to teach others how to grow their audience in a digital age. He contributes regularly to the B2B Growth podcast, Linkedin, and his own blog at danchez.com. Dan's also an avid runner,...
“[For] some clients who have not necessarily reinvented themselves yet–the experiences that we’ve experienced in the past need a facelift…” Ashley Cline is a Digital Marketing Consultant and Freelancing Expert. As the VP & Co-Founder at Ice Cream Social, Ashley has over 17 years of experience specializing in marketing strategy, execution, and collaborative efforts. She is a proponent of the importance of word-of-mouth marketing in today's digital age. Across her tenure...
“…This just provides more flexibility for really top-notch marketers to live the life that they want.” Arlyn Davich is an entrepreneurial executive with a proven track record of building and scaling consumer-tech businesses as a startup Founder/CEO (PayPerks...Allswell...ShopShops) and Fortune 50 Intrapreneur at companies like Walmart. She specializes in direct-to-consumer strategy, brand building, demand generation and digital acceleration. She's currently building her...
“Assuming timing exists, you [have to have] people, process, and technology…” Zac Litwack is a partner at Savage Ventures, a venture operator with HQ in Nashville, TN which has created $450M in enterprise value so far. He recently led marketing for Savage portfolio company OutKick, which scaled to 7 figures per month in revenue and sold to FOX less than 1 year after its launch. He is currently Chief Marketing Officer / Partner of American Songwriter, Savage Sports, Rare,...
“Relationships are what turn into opportunities.” Rachel B. Lee is a fearless marketing #ladyboss and the wife of Joshua B. Lee. Together they have formed a powerful business relationship that connects with audiences across the world. Rachel leads the marketing and branding strategy for Standout Authority and its clients and can help you find your voice and create influence like you’ve never imagined. She’s passionate about helping students navigate their careers, so In...
“I really only have about two tips: one is read more than your peers. The other one is do side projects.” Justin Watkins is the Founder and CEO of Native Digital, a brand and marketing firm acquiring customers where they live: online. In 2020, AdWeek ranked Native Digital as the 4th fastest growing agency in the Midwest. Questions and topics we covered include: How Justin bridges the skills gap between performance and brand marketing for himself and with his team. The old...
