[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":5436},["ShallowReactive",2],{"header-articles":3,"blog-category-leadership-posts":1470,"blog-category-leadership-team":4813},[4,327,591,907,1148],{"id":5,"title":6,"author":7,"authors":8,"body":10,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":316,"description":317,"extension":318,"img":319,"imgAlt":6,"meta":320,"minutes":321,"navigation":322,"path":323,"seo":324,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":325,"updated":7,"__hash__":326},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fwhy-you-should-monitor-brand-mentions-in-ai-search-results.md","Why You Should Monitor Brand Mentions in AI Search Results",null,[9],"Kerry Guard",{"type":11,"value":12,"toc":290},"minimark",[13,17,20,23,28,31,34,42,45,68,72,80,88,91,95,98,102,105,110,118,124,128,131,156,160,174,178,181,185,188,192,195,199,202,213,217,220,224,227,231,234,238,244,247,250,254],[14,15,16],"p",{},"Right now, AI search engines are talking about your software company. Whether you track it or not, platforms like ChatGPT Search, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews answer questions every single day about your product capabilities, pricing, and market reputation. B2B software buyers use these tools to build shortlists, compare technical features, and make buying decisions before ever clicking through to a vendor's website.",[14,18,19],{},"If you rely on old brand-monitoring tools, you are running blind. Traditional monitoring platforms track static web pages, social media tags, and news mentions. They cannot show you what a buyer sees inside a conversational AI search box.",[14,21,22],{},"Unlike traditional Google search, where a website's ranking and content stay relatively consistent from day to day, AI-generated responses are dynamic. They synthesize information on the fly from across the web. Without an active monitoring strategy, inaccurate product claims, outdated pricing, or heavy competitor recommendations can quietly slip into AI responses without your knowledge, pulling qualified leads out of your pipeline before you even know they exist.",[24,25,27],"h2",{"id":26},"the-dynamic-reality-of-ai-search-results","The Dynamic Reality of AI Search Results",[14,29,30],{},"To understand why monitoring AI brand mentions requires a new approach, consider how AI search engines differ from traditional search directories.",[14,32,33],{},"In a traditional search model, Google crawls a page, indexes the text, and displays a link. If your page ranks third for a keyword, it generally stays near that spot until an algorithm update or a content change occurs.",[14,35,36,37,41],{},"AI search engines work differently. When a prospective customer prompts an AI tool—asking, for example, ",[38,39,40],"em",{},"\"What are the best enterprise cloud security platforms for healthcare compliance?\"","—the underlying Large Language Model (LLM) retrieves information from dozens of real-time sources, synthesizes the facts, and writes a unique response.",[14,43,44],{},"Because these responses are generated in real time, the way an AI engine describes your brand can shift based on:",[46,47,48,56,62],"ul",{},[49,50,51,55],"li",{},[52,53,54],"strong",{},"New Web Scrapes:"," A fresh review, a Reddit discussion thread, or an updated competitor blog post can instantly alter how the AI summarizes your company.",[49,57,58,61],{},[52,59,60],{},"Prompt Variations:"," Slight changes in how a user words a query can lead the AI to pull from entirely different data sources.",[49,63,64,67],{},[52,65,66],{},"Model Updates:"," As platforms update their underlying LLMs, the sources they trust and cite shift continuously.",[24,69,71],{"id":70},"the-risks-of-unmonitored-ai-brand-mentions","The Risks of Unmonitored AI Brand Mentions",[14,73,74,79],{},[75,76],"img",{"alt":77,"src":78},"","https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002F378276c5-b933-4eed-8804-a96958aabcdf-why-you-should-monitor-image-1.webp","When you leave your AI presence to chance without monitoring what these engines say, you’re gambling with your brand equity, and small inaccuracies turn into major business risks.",[81,82,84,87],"h3",{"id":83},"_1-hallucinated-features-and-misattributed-limitations",[52,85,86],{},"1. Hallucina","ted Features and Misattributed Limitations",[14,89,90],{},"AI engines occasionally \"hallucinate\": presenting incorrect details with absolute authority. An AI search tool might state that your software lacks a key integration, charges hidden fees, or only supports small businesses when you actually target enterprise accounts. If a buyer reads that hallucinated summary, they may drop your company from their consideration set without ever contacting your sales team.",[81,92,94],{"id":93},"_2-competitor-hijacking","2. Competitor Hijacking",[14,96,97],{},"If your competitors actively optimize their web presence for generative search while your brand stays passive, AI engines will default to recommending your competitors. When buyers ask AI tools to compare your product against a competitor, an unmonitored response might highlight your rival's strengths while summarizing outdated or inaccurate criticisms of your platform.",[81,99,101],{"id":100},"_3-loss-of-narrative-control","3. Loss of Narrative Control",[14,103,104],{},"In B2B tech, your positioning is everything. If an AI search engine pulls its understanding of your brand from outdated PR releases, informal forum threads, or low-authority review sites, your core value proposition gets diluted. You lose control over how your product is framed during the buyer's research phase.",[14,106,107],{},[52,108,109],{},"Expert Insight from MKG Marketing:",[14,111,112,115,116],{},[38,113,114],{},"\"","Designers often say \"This website speaks more to LLMs than human beings.\" To that I say, \"Good. That's step one.\" Step one: be findable by answer engines. Humans will end up there after they search for the problem. Step two: optimize for the human experience once they arrive. Right now most teams are still trying to optimize for both at the same time, which means they optimize for neither.The order matters. Findable first. Usable second.",[38,117,114],{},[14,119,120,121,123],{},"— ",[52,122,9],{},", Founder & CEO at MKG Marketing",[24,125,127],{"id":126},"why-manual-spot-checks-arent-enough","Why Manual Spot-Checks Aren't Enough",[14,129,130],{},"Many marketing teams attempt to solve this problem by occasionally typing their company name into ChatGPT or Perplexity to see what comes up. While spot-checking is a natural first step, it fails as a long-term business strategy for three reasons:",[132,133,134,140,150],"ol",{},[49,135,136,139],{},[52,137,138],{},"Personalized and Location-Based Bias:"," AI search tools tailor responses based on user location, session history, and account settings. What you see on your desktop in an office is rarely identical to what a buyer sees in another region.",[49,141,142,145,146,149],{},[52,143,144],{},"Infinite Query Permutations:"," Buyers don't just type your brand name. They ask complex, long-tail questions like ",[38,147,148],{},"\"How long does it take to implement [Company Name] compared to [Competitor]?\""," Manual checks cannot cover the hundreds of ways prospects ask about your category.",[49,151,152,155],{},[52,153,154],{},"Lack of Historical Tracking:"," Spot-checks give you a single snapshot in time. They don't track trends, measure whether your citation share is growing, or alert you when an inaccurate claim enters the AI's data pool.",[24,157,159],{"id":158},"how-to-build-a-systematic-strategy-the-best-ways-to-monitor-brand-mentions-in-ai-search","How to Build a Systematic Strategy: The Best Ways to Monitor Brand Mentions in AI Search",[14,161,162,165,166,169,170,173],{},[75,163],{"alt":77,"src":164},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002F4c47ce7e-784c-46ee-bd33-f4ff8fd72368-why-you-should-monitor-image-2.webp","Protecting your company’s digital footprint requires shifting from manual testing to a structured ",[52,167,168],{},"Search Visibility Optimization (SVO)"," framework. Establishing effective ",[52,171,172],{},"brand monitoring across ai search engines"," involves four operational steps:",[81,175,177],{"id":176},"step-1-identify-high-intent-buyer-prompts","Step 1: Identify High-Intent Buyer Prompts",[14,179,180],{},"Brainstorm the exact questions your ideal prospects ask during their evaluation phase. Move beyond simple brand searches to focus on category comparisons, feature queries, and implementation questions.",[81,182,184],{"id":183},"step-2-map-your-citation-share-across-key-ai-platforms","Step 2: Map Your \"Citation Share\" Across Key AI Platforms",[14,186,187],{},"Track how frequently AI tools cite your site compared to competitors across platforms like ChatGPT Search, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews. Note which specific URLs the AI uses as references when it mentions your brand.",[81,189,191],{"id":190},"step-3-correct-the-source-data","Step 3: Correct the Source Data",[14,193,194],{},"When you identify inaccurate AI claims, trace where the model pulled the information. AI engines often pull from third-party review sites, developer documentation, or outdated press releases. Updating those primary sources corrects the data that the AI scrapes and cites.",[81,196,198],{"id":197},"step-4-measure-svo-metrics-alongside-traditional-seo","Step 4: Measure SVO Metrics Alongside Traditional SEO",[14,200,201],{},"Expand your reporting dashboard. Along with measuring traditional website traffic and organic keyword rankings, track your brand's citation growth, AI Overview inclusion rate, and direct-traffic conversions.",[14,203,204,205,212],{},"To see how modern search strategies connect directly to pipeline, explore our comprehensive",[206,207,211],"a",{"href":208,"rel":209},"https:\u002F\u002Fmkgmarketinginc.com\u002Fexpert-digital-marketing-services\u002Fsearch-visibility-optimization\u002F",[210],"nofollow"," Search Visibility Optimization (SVO) services",".",[24,214,216],{"id":215},"supporting-ai-visibility-with-paid-and-analytics-channels","Supporting AI Visibility with Paid and Analytics Channels",[14,218,219],{},"Brand monitoring in AI search provides the insights you need to protect your reputation, but driving consistent revenue requires integrating those insights across your entire marketing stack.",[81,221,223],{"id":222},"reinforcing-visibility-with-targeted-ads","Reinforcing Visibility with Targeted Ads",[14,225,226],{},"When you notice an AI search engine frequently recommending a competitor for a specific high-value query, you can immediately bridge the gap using targeted paid channels. Pairing your organic optimizations with focused digital advertising ensures your software maintains top-of-page visibility while you update and strengthen your organic source content.",[81,228,230],{"id":229},"measuring-real-world-lead-attribution","Measuring Real-World Lead Attribution",[14,232,233],{},"Because buyers often read an AI response and navigate directly to your site later, traditional click-tracking can misattribute those leads as \"Direct\" or \"Organic Brand\" search. Utilizing modern digital analytics allows you to cross-reference offline CRM data, self-reported attribution, and site activity to confirm how AI search visibility influences actual pipeline velocity.",[24,235,237],{"id":236},"summary-protecting-your-brands-digital-reputation","Summary: Protecting Your Brand's Digital Reputation",[14,239,240,243],{},[75,241],{"alt":77,"src":242},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002Fbfa7aa92-037c-4f2c-8afb-5045bf32ffbc-why-you-should-monitor-image-3.webp","Monitoring your brand in AI search results is no longer optional—it is a critical requirement to protect your reputation, maintain narrative control, and secure your lead pipeline. As conversational engines continue to replace traditional search lists, tech companies that passively ignore their AI mentions risk losing market share to competitors who actively manage their generative presence.",[14,245,246],{},"Establishing a reliable monitoring framework requires dedicated expertise, systematic tracking tools, and continuous iteration.",[14,248,249],{},"At MKG Marketing, we remove the complexity. We provide an experienced, senior-level team that builds and executes your search visibility strategy directly—with no junior handoffs or black-box reporting. We help B2B software and technology companies monitor their digital presence, correct inaccurate AI citations, and convert organic visibility into predictable revenue.",[81,251,253],{"id":252},"protect-and-scale-your-ai-search-visibility","Protect and Scale Your AI Search Visibility",[46,255,256,267,279],{},[49,257,258,261,262,266],{},[52,259,260],{},"Curious how search engines and AI models actually see your brand?"," Our senior-led team breaks down your real-time visibility across AI platforms—no black-box mysteries, just clear data.",[206,263,265],{"href":208,"rel":264},[210]," Explore our Search Visibility Optimization (SVO) Services"," or book an initial search strategy review.",[49,268,269,272,273,278],{},[52,270,271],{},"Noticing a sudden shift in your traffic or search presence?"," We’re always down to talk strategy and help you make sense of the noise. ",[206,274,277],{"href":275,"rel":276},"https:\u002F\u002Fmkgmarketinginc.com\u002Fcontact\u002F",[210],"Contact the MKG Marketing team directly"," to schedule a consultation.",[49,280,281,284,285,212],{},[52,282,283],{},"Want to peek under the hood of machine learning?"," Dive into our guide:",[206,286,289],{"href":287,"rel":288},"https:\u002F\u002Fmkgmarketinginc.com\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fai-search-visibility-ranking-factors-2026-how-machines-decide-who-to-quote\u002F",[210]," AI Search Visibility Ranking Factors 2026: How Machines Decide Who to Quote",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":292},2,[293,294,301,302,308,312],{"id":26,"depth":291,"text":27},{"id":70,"depth":291,"text":71,"children":295},[296,299,300],{"id":83,"depth":297,"text":298},3,"1. Hallucinated Features and Misattributed Limitations",{"id":93,"depth":297,"text":94},{"id":100,"depth":297,"text":101},{"id":126,"depth":291,"text":127},{"id":158,"depth":291,"text":159,"children":303},[304,305,306,307],{"id":176,"depth":297,"text":177},{"id":183,"depth":297,"text":184},{"id":190,"depth":297,"text":191},{"id":197,"depth":297,"text":198},{"id":215,"depth":291,"text":216,"children":309},[310,311],{"id":222,"depth":297,"text":223},{"id":229,"depth":297,"text":230},{"id":236,"depth":291,"text":237,"children":313},[314],{"id":252,"depth":297,"text":253},"seo","2026-08-19T16:01:29.475Z","Why track what ChatGPT and Google say about you? Learn why monitoring brand mentions in AI search results is vital to protect your software company's leads.","md","https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002F3c12c34c-ad32-459d-b38c-32bc49abb722-why-you-should-monitor-hero-image.webp",{},7,true,"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fwhy-you-should-monitor-brand-mentions-in-ai-search-results",{"title":6,"description":317},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Fwhy-you-should-monitor-brand-mentions-in-ai-search-results","5RVi7PlUuStBs0ZDnG7rVBbJjOT75Yiu-aBaCK1SW5o",{"id":328,"title":329,"author":7,"authors":330,"body":331,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":581,"description":582,"extension":318,"img":583,"imgAlt":584,"meta":585,"minutes":586,"navigation":322,"path":587,"seo":588,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":589,"updated":7,"__hash__":590},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fai-search-visibility-ranking-factors-2026-how-machines-decide-who-to-quote.md","AI Search Visibility Ranking Factors 2026 - How Machines Decide Who to Quote",[9],{"type":11,"value":332,"toc":566},[333,336,339,342,346,353,379,386,389,393,396,399,410,414,417,420,440,444,447,450,454,461,464,468,471,475,478,482,487,492,497,501,504,509,512,517,520,525,529,532,535,539],[14,334,335],{},"In 2026, the old playbook for getting found online just doesn't hit the same. Modern B2B buyers aren't scrolling through pages of blue links anymore. Instead, they’re going straight to tools like ChatGPT Search, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews to compare software features, stack up vendors, and build their shortlists in seconds.",[14,337,338],{},"Here’s the thing: AI engines don’t read websites the way traditional search crawlers used to. Old-school crawlers were all about keyword density, backlink totals, and meta tags to index pages in a directory. But large language models (LLMs) and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) systems look at the bigger picture. They care about how your information is structured, verified, and contextualized.",[14,340,341],{},"If your tech brand isn't formatted for machine readability, your website essentially becomes invisible to the very engines your buyers rely on every single day.",[24,343,345],{"id":344},"how-ai-search-engines-select-sources-in-2026","How AI Search Engines Select Sources in 2026",[14,347,348,349,352],{},"To understand how your brand gets quoted or recommended by AI, it helps to look at what happens behind the scenes. When a user enters a complex prompt, such as ",[38,350,351],{},"\"What are the top enterprise cybersecurity platforms for multi-cloud compliance?\",","  an AI search engine processes the request through four specific steps:",[132,354,355,361,367,373],{},[49,356,357,360],{},[52,358,359],{},"Deconstructing the Prompt:"," The system breaks the question down to identify the core subject, key concepts, and what the user is actually trying to accomplish.",[49,362,363,366],{},[52,364,365],{},"Retrieving Relevant Data:"," Rather than pulling up a list of web addresses based on exact keywords, the engine searches its database for content that semantically matches those underlying concepts.",[49,368,369,372],{},[52,370,371],{},"Evaluating Content Structure and Source Authority:"," The system analyzes potential sources. It checks whether the text is clearly formatted, whether the facts match other reliable references, and whether the publishing site demonstrates real-world authority on the subject.",[49,374,375,378],{},[52,376,377],{},"Synthesizing the Answer and Linking Sources:"," The engine extracts direct passages from the top-rated sources, writes a unified response, and attaches clickable links so the user can verify where the information came from.",[24,380,382,385],{"id":381},"the-core-2026-ai-search-visibility-ranking-factors",[75,383],{"alt":77,"src":384},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002Fee360449-da4d-4dfe-a8b0-4ac440db5ad4-ai-visibility-1.png","The Core 2026 AI Search Visibility Ranking Factors",[14,387,388],{},"Based on industry observations and current AI search visibility benchmarks for 2026, AI search algorithms look at six critical factors when deciding which sources deserve a quote:",[81,390,392],{"id":391},"_1-information-gain-and-uniqueness","1. Information Gain and Uniqueness",[14,394,395],{},"AI engines exist to synthesize what's already out there. If your article just repeats the same generic overview that ten other websites published, an LLM has zero reason to cite your brand. Information Gain measures how much new, non-redundant value a page brings to the table.",[14,397,398],{},"To score high here, your content needs:",[46,400,401,404,407],{},[49,402,403],{},"Proprietary research, benchmark surveys, and original data.",[49,405,406],{},"Direct commentary from verified subject matter experts.",[49,408,409],{},"Real-world implementation metrics and detailed technical breakdowns.",[81,411,413],{"id":412},"_2-machine-readable-content-formatting-semantic-chunking","2. Machine-Readable Content Formatting (Semantic Chunking)",[14,415,416],{},"LLMs process web pages in \"chunks\" rather than reading articles sequentially from start to finish. If your key insights are buried inside massive walls of text with generic subheadings, the retrieval model is going to miss the context entirely.",[14,418,419],{},"Winning sites use explicit, machine-readable formatting:",[46,421,422,428,434],{},[49,423,424,427],{},[52,425,426],{},"Question-and-Answer Headers:"," Use direct H2 and H3 subheadings that mirror natural-language user queries.",[49,429,430,433],{},[52,431,432],{},"Bottom-Line-First Declarations:"," State the direct answer or main takeaway in the very first sentence beneath a heading before diving into the details.",[49,435,436,439],{},[52,437,438],{},"Clean Data Tables and Lists:"," Present technical comparisons, feature breakdowns, and numerical data using structured HTML tables and bulleted lists.",[81,441,443],{"id":442},"_3-entity-consistency-and-schema-markup","3. Entity Consistency and Schema Markup",[14,445,446],{},"AI search engines build vast knowledge graphs of \"entities\" (companies, products, executives, and concepts). For an engine to confidently recommend your SaaS platform, it has to verify that your brand is a recognized, trusted entity in your category.",[14,448,449],{},"Implementing detailed JSON-LD Schema markup, including Organization, SoftwareApplication, Article, and FAQPage schemas, gives search engines clear, explicit data about what you offer. When your on-page Schema matches external mentions across review platforms, news outlets, and industry databases, the LLM’s confidence score goes way up.",[81,451,453],{"id":452},"_4-technical-answer-density","4. Technical Answer Density",[14,455,456,457,460],{},"Answer density is all about the concentration of real, factual value relative to your total word count. Unedited AI fluff—filled with generic intros like ",[38,458,459],{},"\"In today's fast-paced digital world...\"","—completely dilutes your message.",[14,462,463],{},"In 2026, AI retrieval systems favor high-density content that delivers precise technical facts, clear definitions, and actionable steps without any extra noise.",[81,465,467],{"id":466},"_5-multi-source-digital-co-citations","5. Multi-Source Digital Co-Citations",[14,469,470],{},"An LLM rarely relies on a single web page to build an answer, it cross-references multiple sources to verify facts. If your platform is mentioned with positive sentiment across third-party review sites, developer forums, PR releases, and partner docs, generative engines see your site as an authoritative industry reference.",[81,472,474],{"id":473},"_6-demonstrable-e-e-a-t-signals","6. Demonstrable E-E-A-T Signals",[14,476,477],{},"Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T) are as foundational as ever. AI engines actively look for proof that a real human with hands-on experience created or reviewed the content. Explicit author bios linked to verified LinkedIn profiles, direct quotes from company leaders, and clear links to primary sources all reinforce your site's trust score.",[14,479,480],{},[52,481,109],{},[14,483,484],{},[38,485,486],{},"\"Understanding these technical AI ranking factors is essential for tech brands today. AI engines don't read content for entertainment—they crawl websites looking for structured facts they can instantly trust and quote. Structuring your site for machine readability isn't just an optimization tactic; it is the only way to protect your digital footprint and ensure your software stays on your buyers' shortlists as traditional search continues to evolve.\"",[14,488,120,489,491],{},[52,490,9],{},", Founder & CEO of MKG Marketing",[14,493,494],{},[75,495],{"alt":77,"src":496},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002F76a1ca67-794d-4085-afd3-68d0afbbb963-ai-visibility-2.png",[24,498,500],{"id":499},"combining-technical-ai-formatting-with-a-full-funnel-growth-strategy","Combining Technical AI Formatting with a Full-Funnel Growth Strategy",[14,502,503],{},"Appearing in AI search answers is a critical first step, but visibility alone does not close enterprise software deals. To convert that visibility into actual sales pipeline, tech companies need to connect their organic search efforts with paid channels and accurate tracking.",[14,505,506],{},[52,507,508],{},"Combining Organic and Paid Reach",[14,510,511],{},"When an AI engine routinely quotes your brand as an industry authority, buyers build trust before they ever speak with your sales team. Companies can build on that momentum by pairing organic optimizations with targeted digital advertising. Running paid campaigns aimed at accounts searching for your software category ensures your brand stays visible in both sponsored ads and generated AI responses.",[14,513,514],{},[52,515,516],{},"Tracking Real-World Influence",[14,518,519],{},"Because AI Overviews often answer questions directly on the screen, traditional \"last-click\" measurement tools no longer tell the full story. Using modern digital analytics allows marketing teams to track direct site traffic, self-reported source data, and sales cycle speed. This gives leadership a clear view of how search visibility actually drives revenue.",[14,521,522],{},[75,523],{"alt":77,"src":524},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002F221ea7d6-aa63-4d37-a9dd-78f35fdc9bf6-ai-visibility-3.png",[24,526,528],{"id":527},"future-proofing-your-brand-for-ai-search","Future-Proofing Your Brand for AI Search",[14,530,531],{},"Winning visibility in modern AI search comes down to three practical elements: clear site structure, verified real-world expertise, and a consistent presence across the web. As AI tools change how people research software, relying solely on old keyword-stuffing tactics will cause your brand to fall behind.",[14,533,534],{},"At MKG Marketing, we specialize in helping B2B software and cybersecurity organizations navigate these complex search shifts. Our flat, senior-led structure means you work directly with experienced digital strategists, never junior handoffs. We deploy our unified Search Visibility Optimization (SVO) framework to ensure your website is structured for machine readability, citable by leading AI tools, and built to drive qualified sales pipeline.",[81,536,538],{"id":537},"take-control-of-your-ai-search-visibility","Take Control of Your AI Search Visibility",[46,540,541,550,558],{},[49,542,543,544,549],{},"Ready to see how AI search engines view your website? Explore our",[206,545,548],{"href":546,"rel":547},"https:\u002F\u002Fmkgmarketinginc.com\u002Fexpert-digital-marketing-services\u002F",[210]," Search Visibility Optimization (SVO) Services"," or schedule an initial search strategy review with our senior team.",[49,551,552,553,557],{},"Have questions about your site's technical structure or recent traffic changes?",[206,554,556],{"href":275,"rel":555},[210]," Contact MKG Marketing directly"," to speak with a digital search expert.",[49,559,560,561,212],{},"Want to learn more about the shift from traditional SEO to answer engine optimization? Read our guide on",[206,562,565],{"href":563,"rel":564},"https:\u002F\u002Fmkgmarketinginc.com\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fai-search-vs-traditional-search-navigating-the-shift-to-search-visibility-optimization-svo\u002F",[210]," AI Search vs Traditional Search: Navigating the Shift to SVO",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":567},[568,569,577,578],{"id":344,"depth":291,"text":345},{"id":381,"depth":291,"text":385,"children":570},[571,572,573,574,575,576],{"id":391,"depth":297,"text":392},{"id":412,"depth":297,"text":413},{"id":442,"depth":297,"text":443},{"id":452,"depth":297,"text":453},{"id":466,"depth":297,"text":467},{"id":473,"depth":297,"text":474},{"id":499,"depth":291,"text":500},{"id":527,"depth":291,"text":528,"children":579},[580],{"id":537,"depth":297,"text":538},"2026-08-11T17:38:25.303Z","How do AI engines choose which websites to quote? Discover the core AI search ranking factors for 2026 and how to get your brand cited.","https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002Ff37f521d-b3f6-49bb-8b34-f6ddf2fa1770-mkg-blog-ai-search-visibility-ranking-factors.webp","AI Search Visibility Factors 2026",{},6,"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fai-search-visibility-ranking-factors-2026-how-machines-decide-who-to-quote",{"title":329,"description":582},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Fai-search-visibility-ranking-factors-2026-how-machines-decide-who-to-quote","uugtYiGYIyZuZEQYrtHFmRy06Rx8hcoFT6g3C0eLqW4",{"id":592,"title":593,"author":7,"authors":594,"body":595,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":898,"description":899,"extension":318,"img":900,"imgAlt":901,"meta":902,"minutes":321,"navigation":322,"path":903,"seo":904,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":905,"updated":7,"__hash__":906},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fai-search-vs-traditional-search-navigating-the-shift-to-search-visibility-optimization-svo.md","AI Search vs Traditional Search - Navigating the Shift to Search Visibility Optimization (SVO)",[9],{"type":11,"value":596,"toc":878},[597,600,604,607,617,621,624,635,642,646,649,656,663,666,669,672,683,686,691,694,697,702,707,714,717,784,788,791,794,805,809,812,816,819,823,826,830,833,840,843,846,849,853],[14,598,599],{},"For nearly two decades, the digital playbook for B2B software and tech companies was tried and true: pick your keywords, optimize your site, build backlinks, and win the glory of a top ten spot on a page of blue links. Today… not so much. You might notice your organic website traffic dropping even though your keyword rankings haven't changed. The reason isn't that your competitors suddenly bought more backlinks—it is because the fundamental way people look for information has evolved. Users are moving away from traditional engines and turning to conversational models, leaving marketing leaders to navigate the massive operational shift between ai search vs traditional search engines. Fixing this isn't about buying more links; it’s about changing how your website presents information to be indexed by both humans and algorithms.",[24,601,603],{"id":602},"the-core-differences-ten-blue-links-vs-synthesized-answers","The Core Differences: Ten Blue Links vs. Synthesized Answers",[14,605,606],{},"To understand why traditional search engine optimization (SEO) is no longer enough on its own, we have to look at how user behavior and technology have diverged.",[14,608,609,610,613,614,212],{},"When analyzing ai-driven search engines vs traditional search engines differences, the distinction comes down to ",[38,611,612],{},"retrieval"," versus ",[38,615,616],{},"synthesis",[81,618,620],{"id":619},"traditional-search-the-index-and-click-engine","Traditional Search: The Index and Click Engine",[14,622,623],{},"Traditional search engines operate as massive directory indices. A user types a query like \"best enterprise CRM for SaaS,\" and the engine returns pages of indexed links ranked by relevance, domain authority, and technical optimization. The user must then:",[132,625,626,629,632],{},[49,627,628],{},"Click into three to five separate websites.",[49,630,631],{},"Read through intro fluff and sales copy.",[49,633,634],{},"Manually synthesize the data to make a decision.",[14,636,637,638,641],{},"This model relies on driving traffic ",[38,639,640],{},"to"," your website. Your site is the destination where the user finds the answer.",[81,643,645],{"id":644},"ai-search-the-direct-answer-engine","AI Search: The Direct Answer Engine",[14,647,648],{},"AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Claude, and Google AI Overviews bypass the directory model entirely. They do not just fetch links; they read, cross-reference, and summarize content from across the web into a single, cohesive answer right inside the search interface.",[14,650,651,652,655],{},"When comparing traditional vs ai search results rankings, the target moves from ranking #1 on a keyword list to becoming the primary ",[38,653,654],{},"cited source"," inside an LLM's generated summary. If an AI overview answers your prospect's question completely on the search page, they won't click through to your blog—even if you rank at the top of the organic list.",[24,657,659,662],{"id":658},"why-software-companies-are-losing-traffic-the-zero-click-reality",[75,660],{"alt":77,"src":661},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002Fa22194a2-19e3-4d2b-a42e-4ad5c6d95b69-click.png","Why Software Companies Are Losing Traffic (The Zero-Click Reality)",[14,664,665],{},"This structural shift explains the mysterious drop in website sessions across B2B software and tech sectors. Buyers are getting their answers without ever visiting your domain.",[14,667,668],{},"When considering ai enterprise search vs traditional enterprise search, enterprise software buyers are no longer hunting through lengthy technical documentation manually. They are asking AI engines to summarize product capabilities, compare pricing structures, and aggregate user reviews into single tables.",[14,670,671],{},"If your marketing strategy relies exclusively on legacy SEO tactics, you face three major risks:",[46,673,674,677,680],{},[49,675,676],{},"Zero-Click Erosion: Higher-funnel informational traffic evaporates as AI Overviews satisfy search intent directly on the results page.",[49,678,679],{},"Loss of Brand Mindshare: If LLMs aren't trained on or citing your content, your product simply doesn't exist during the buyer's initial research phase.",[49,681,682],{},"Vanity Metric Misalignment: Your SEO agency may report stable keyword positions, but your inbound lead forms and phone calls tell a very different story.",[81,684,109],{"id":685},"expert-insight-from-mkg-marketing",[14,687,688,690],{},[38,689,114],{},"AI is making the decision on what it's going to show the user. The system decided your content was the most trustworthy, most citable answer to that exact question for that exact person. Writing something good and checking the ‘helpful content’ boxes doesn't get you there. Those are very different bars.",[14,692,693],{},"‘Helpful’ is table stakes. It's what gets you into the building, not into the room where the AI is assembling its answer.",[14,695,696],{},"What gets you cited is specificity: The right category. Website & Page Structure. Consistent messaging across your entire footprint. A point of view that the model can actually extract and reuse with confidence.",[14,698,699,700],{},"So when Google says ‘just be helpful,’ they're not wrong. They're just leaving out about 80% of what actually matters. And the companies that take that advice at face value are going to watch their visibility collapse while their content quality stays perfectly fine.",[38,701,114],{},[14,703,120,704,706],{},[52,705,9],{},", CEO & Founder of MKG Marketing",[24,708,710,713],{"id":709},"the-evolution-moving-from-seo-to-svo-aeo-and-geo",[75,711],{"alt":77,"src":712},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002F4dd65826-2a82-444b-9693-b6845e4438c0-meeting.png","The Evolution: Moving from SEO to SVO, AEO, and GEO",[14,715,716],{},"To stay visible and continue generating qualified pipeline, marketing executives must expand their organic framework beyond traditional boundaries. This requires a modern, multi-layered approach:",[718,719,720,736],"table",{},[721,722,723],"thead",{},[724,725,726,730,733],"tr",{},[727,728,729],"th",{},"Framework",[727,731,732],{},"Full Name",[727,734,735],{},"Primary Objective",[737,738,739,751,762,773],"tbody",{},[724,740,741,745,748],{},[742,743,744],"td",{},"SEO",[742,746,747],{},"Search Engine Optimization",[742,749,750],{},"Ranking pages on traditional search engine results pages (SERPs) for targeted keywords.",[724,752,753,756,759],{},[742,754,755],{},"AEO",[742,757,758],{},"Answer Engine Optimization",[742,760,761],{},"Structuring data so voice assistants and snippet engines can pull direct, succinct answers.",[724,763,764,767,770],{},[742,765,766],{},"GEO",[742,768,769],{},"Generative Engine Optimization",[742,771,772],{},"Formatting brand narrative, statistics, and domain expertise so LLMs ingest and cite your brand.",[724,774,775,778,781],{},[742,776,777],{},"SVO",[742,779,780],{},"Search Visibility Optimization",[742,782,783],{},"The Unified Strategy: Maximizing total brand presence across both traditional links and AI answer engines.",[81,785,787],{"id":786},"how-search-visibility-optimization-svo-solves-the-gap","How Search Visibility Optimization (SVO) Solves the Gap",[14,789,790],{},"SVO doesn't discard traditional SEO; it unifies SEO, AEO, and GEO into a single operational framework.",[14,792,793],{},"Rather than chasing raw session counts, SVO focuses on Information Gain and Citations. To win citations in AI-generated answers, your web content must feature:",[132,795,796,799,802],{},[49,797,798],{},"Clear, Schema-Structured Data: Helping bots identify who you are, what your software does, and who you serve without guessing.",[49,800,801],{},"First-Party Expertise (E-E-A-T): Unique data points, proprietary benchmark reports, and expert commentary that LLMs cannot synthesize from generic web text.",[49,803,804],{},"Direct Answer Formatting: Clear, concise definitions at the top of technical pieces that allow answer engines to extract key takeaways cleanly.",[24,806,808],{"id":807},"practical-steps-to-adapt-your-search-strategy-today","Practical Steps to Adapt Your Search Strategy Today",[14,810,811],{},"Shifting your company's digital presence to capture both traditional and AI-driven search doesn't require scrapping your entire content library. It requires restructuring how your information is delivered.",[81,813,815],{"id":814},"_1-optimize-for-high-information-gain","1. Optimize for High Information Gain",[14,817,818],{},"Eliminate generic, top-of-funnel fluff articles that summarize widely available knowledge. AI engines already summarize that data effortlessly. Focus instead on deep, opinionated, original content: teardowns of real customer implementation challenges, original survey data, and niche technical workflows.",[81,820,822],{"id":821},"_2-standardize-entity-and-brand-citations","2. Standardize Entity and Brand Citations",[14,824,825],{},"Ensure your brand's core value proposition, product categories, and technical terminology are consistent across external review sites, Wikipedia entries, PR releases, and your own domain. LLMs establish trust by cross-referencing brand information across multiple authoritative sources.",[81,827,829],{"id":828},"_3-track-pipeline-impact-over-pure-clicks","3. Track Pipeline Impact over Pure Clicks",[14,831,832],{},"Recognize that a drop in informational blog clicks does not automatically mean a drop in revenue. If an AI search tool cites your software as the top recommendation for an enterprise query, the prospect may navigate directly to your pricing or contact page to initiate a call. Measure branded search volume, direct traffic, and pipeline velocity alongside traditional organic metrics.",[24,834,836,839],{"id":835},"summary-adapting-to-how-buyers-search-today",[75,837],{"alt":77,"src":838},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002F1a47aa4c-b986-4fd6-b30d-5ff622a02239-brain.png","Summary: Adapting to How Buyers Search Today",[14,841,842],{},"The debate surrounding ai search vs traditional search engines isn't about choosing one platform over the other. Traditional search engines will continue to process billions of queries, but AI-driven answer engines are rapidly capturing high-intent B2B research behavior. If software and tech companies want to keep filling their sales pipelines with new customers, they must adapt to how people search today.",[14,844,845],{},"Succeeding in this new landscape requires a refined strategy, technical precision, and continuous testing across evolving engine algorithms.",[14,847,848],{},"At MKG Marketing, we eliminate the guesswork. We provide a senior-led team of digital experts who handle your search strategy and technical execution directly—with zero handoffs to junior staff. We help growing tech organizations build future-proof organic engines that drive clear visibility, authoritative citations, and real business revenue.",[81,850,852],{"id":851},"ready-to-modernize-your-search-strategy","Ready to Modernize Your Search Strategy?",[46,854,855,863,870],{},[49,856,857,858,862],{},"Organic search is constantly shifting. Let’s figure it out together. We help tech leaders cut through the noise and build search strategies that actually drive growth. Explore our ",[206,859,861],{"href":208,"rel":860},[210],"Search Visibility Optimization (SVO) Services"," or book your initial search strategy review.",[49,864,865,866,278],{},"Skip the generic SEO agency playbook. Our senior team works alongside you to build a tailored search strategy that gets your brand seen. Ready to fix traffic drops or scale what’s already working? ",[206,867,869],{"href":275,"rel":868},[210],"Contact MKG Marketing today",[49,871,872,873,212],{},"Ready to learn more about content quality in the age of artificial intelligence? We got you covered:",[206,874,877],{"href":875,"rel":876},"https:\u002F\u002Fmkgmarketinginc.com\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fis-ai-content-bad-for-seo-how-to-scale-traffic-without-sacrificing-rankings\u002F",[210]," Is AI Content Bad for SEO? How to Scale Traffic Without Sacrificing Rankings",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":879},[880,884,887,890,895],{"id":602,"depth":291,"text":603,"children":881},[882,883],{"id":619,"depth":297,"text":620},{"id":644,"depth":297,"text":645},{"id":658,"depth":291,"text":662,"children":885},[886],{"id":685,"depth":297,"text":109},{"id":709,"depth":291,"text":713,"children":888},[889],{"id":786,"depth":297,"text":787},{"id":807,"depth":291,"text":808,"children":891},[892,893,894],{"id":814,"depth":297,"text":815},{"id":821,"depth":297,"text":822},{"id":828,"depth":297,"text":829},{"id":835,"depth":291,"text":839,"children":896},[897],{"id":851,"depth":297,"text":852},"2026-08-05T15:31:00.000Z","Traditional SEO is shifting. Learn how AI search engines are disrupting the ten blue links and how to win brand mentions in LLM responses.","https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002Ff8233c21-a553-4cdf-b08e-62ba6de46295-mkg-blog-ai-search-vs-traditional-search-hero-image.webp","Stop Chasing Clicks, Capture Direct-Answer AI",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fai-search-vs-traditional-search-navigating-the-shift-to-search-visibility-optimization-svo",{"title":593,"description":899},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Fai-search-vs-traditional-search-navigating-the-shift-to-search-visibility-optimization-svo","V9JrsiIyJkiYENE0VMv29Din97ayk4JQ9vcwSe6Flz0",{"id":908,"title":909,"author":7,"authors":7,"body":910,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":1139,"description":1140,"extension":318,"img":1141,"imgAlt":1142,"meta":1143,"minutes":297,"navigation":322,"path":1144,"seo":1145,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":1146,"updated":7,"__hash__":1147},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fsearch-visibility-optimization-svo-monthly-overview-july-2026.md","Search Visibility Optimization (SVO) Monthly Overview - July 2026",{"type":11,"value":911,"toc":1131},[912,918,967,973,1009,1015,1050,1056,1083,1089,1092,1097,1100,1103,1123],[24,913,915],{"id":914},"executive-summary-the-tldr",[52,916,917],{},"Executive Summary (The TL;DR)",[46,919,920,932,943,955],{},[49,921,922,925,926,931],{},[52,923,924],{},"Google Refines Helpful Content Systems:"," The",[206,927,930],{"href":928,"rel":929},"https:\u002F\u002Fadelev8.com\u002Fblog\u002Fgoogle-july-2026-helpful-content-update",[210]," July 2026 Helpful Content Update"," shifts evaluation metrics from blunt site-wide penalties to granular, section-level filtering, strictly penalizing synthetic, low-effort material while rewarding verified practitioner expertise.",[49,933,934,937,938,212],{},[52,935,936],{},"AI Overviews Expansion:"," Google integrated live news carousels and direct image generation inside AI Overviews, which now feature in approximately",[206,939,942],{"href":940,"rel":941},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.artificialintelligence-news.com\u002Fnews\u002Fgoogle-ai-overviews-us-searches\u002F",[210]," 43% of US searches",[49,944,945,948,949,954],{},[52,946,947],{},"Search Console Controls Updates:"," Site owners can now explicitly manage and isolate content inclusion within AI Overviews and AI Mode via",[206,950,953],{"href":951,"rel":952},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.numinix.com\u002Fblog\u002Fjuly-2026-seo-algorithm-news-update\u002F",[210]," updated Search Console controls"," without sacrificing baseline organic rankings.",[49,956,957,960,961,966],{},[52,958,959],{},"AEO and Third Party Integration:"," ChatGPT’s integration of live third-party platform data (such as",[206,962,965],{"href":963,"rel":964},"https:\u002F\u002Fsearchengineland.com\u002Fgoogle-to-update-local-services-ads-policies-in-july-479653",[210]," Yelp reviews, ratings, and photos",") forces B2B and B2C brands to optimize their multi-platform digital footprints beyond owned properties.",[24,968,970],{"id":969},"algorithm-technical-seo-updates",[52,971,972],{},"Algorithm & Technical SEO Updates",[46,974,975,987,998],{},[49,976,977,980,981,986],{},[52,978,979],{},"The July 2026 Helpful Content Update:"," Google deployed a ",[206,982,985],{"href":983,"rel":984},"https:\u002F\u002Fseovendor.co\u002Fgoogle-algorithm-updates-july-2026\u002F",[210],"targeted update"," to its Helpful Content System, tightening synthetic content detection and increasing E-E-A-T weightings. Unlike previous iterations that carried a risk of broad site-wide demotions, this update introduces granular section-level assessments, permitting well-authored pages on otherwise mixed-quality domains to retain visibility.",[49,988,989,992,993,997],{},[52,990,991],{},"Global Spam Countermeasures:"," Running alongside minor core adjustments, ",[206,994,996],{"href":951,"rel":995},[210],"a global spam update"," rolled out to refine SpamBrain heuristics, targeting systemic manipulation patterns rather than isolated link-building tactics.",[49,999,1000,1003,1004,1008],{},[52,1001,1002],{},"Search Console Shifts:"," Platform-wide properties and explicit GEO isolation controls ",[206,1005,1007],{"href":951,"rel":1006},[210],"went live",", enabling technical leaders to partition content accessibility for generative experiences without damaging classic organic indexing.",[24,1010,1012],{"id":1011},"geoaeo-updates",[52,1013,1014],{},"GEO\u002FAEO Updates",[46,1016,1017,1027,1038],{},[49,1018,1019,1022,1023,1026],{},[52,1020,1021],{},"AI Overview Saturation & Features:"," Market intelligence indicates AI Overviews now appear in roughly",[206,1024,942],{"href":940,"rel":1025},[210],", fundamentally altering click-through dynamics. July updates added real-time news carousels and native AI-generated image creation directly into query responses, shifting user engagement loops.",[49,1028,1029,1032,1033,1037],{},[52,1030,1031],{},"Cross-Platform Citation Shifts:"," ChatGPT expanded its retrieval architecture by integrating live third-party review and vector data (including",[206,1034,1036],{"href":963,"rel":1035},[210]," Yelp reviews and ratings","), illustrating that LLM engines rely heavily on aggregated ecosystem trust signals rather than just corporate web properties.",[49,1039,1040,1043,1044,1049],{},[52,1041,1042],{},"The \"Ghost Citation\" Phenomenon:"," ",[206,1045,1048],{"href":1046,"rel":1047},"https:\u002F\u002Fsearchengineland.com\u002Fai-halftime-report-h1-2026-483912",[210],"Emerging tracking data"," highlights that AI engines frequently synthesize information from third-party aggregators and forums, leaving primary creators uncredited unless structured entities are explicitly claimed and verified.",[24,1051,1053],{"id":1052},"strategic-implications-for-leaders",[52,1054,1055],{},"Strategic Implications for Leaders",[46,1057,1058,1064],{},[49,1059,1060,1063],{},[52,1061,1062],{},"What to ignore:"," Short-term ranking fluctuations and mass content deletions. High-volume, automated articles no longer hold value under current search filters, making rapid content generation counterproductive.",[49,1065,1066,1069],{},[52,1067,1068],{},"Where to pivot:",[46,1070,1071,1077],{},[49,1072,1073,1076],{},[52,1074,1075],{},"Clean up low-value content:"," Review site pages for thin or AI-generated text. Replace surface-level summaries with original research, customer case studies, and expert data that language models cannot replicate.",[49,1078,1079,1082],{},[52,1080,1081],{},"Standardize off-page brand data:"," Align Schema markup, corporate records, and third-party profiles across major directories and review platforms. Search engines and AI systems rely heavily on external sources to verify company authority.",[24,1084,1086],{"id":1085},"looking-ahead",[52,1087,1088],{},"Looking Ahead",[14,1090,1091],{},"Google historically issues a major core algorithm update in late Q3. Growth teams should focus on deepening coverage within core subject areas rather than publishing broadly across adjacent topics.",[24,1093,1095],{"id":1094},"search-visibility-optimization-svo",[52,1096,168],{},[14,1098,1099],{},"Maintaining search traffic now requires managing three distinct channels: standard web indexing, answer engine citations (AEO), and generative search layouts (GEO).",[14,1101,1102],{},"MKG assists growth-stage technology companies with:",[46,1104,1105,1111,1117],{},[49,1106,1107,1110],{},[52,1108,1109],{},"GEO and AEO Audits:"," Evaluating brand presence and citation rates across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews.",[49,1112,1113,1116],{},[52,1114,1115],{},"Structured Data Infrastructure:"," Aligning Schema markup and technical index controls to safeguard search presence.",[49,1118,1119,1122],{},[52,1120,1121],{},"Pipeline Attribution Modeling:"," Measuring how generative search visibility impacts customer acquisition costs (CAC) and deal velocity.",[14,1124,1125,1126,1130],{},"To review your domain's generative search visibility, ",[206,1127,1129],{"href":275,"rel":1128},[210],"schedule a consultation"," with an MKG search specialist.",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":1132},[1133,1134,1135,1136,1137,1138],{"id":914,"depth":291,"text":917},{"id":969,"depth":291,"text":972},{"id":1011,"depth":291,"text":1014},{"id":1052,"depth":291,"text":1055},{"id":1085,"depth":291,"text":1088},{"id":1094,"depth":291,"text":168},"2026-08-04T16:16:55.368Z","Stay updated on the July 2026 search landscape: Google’s granular Helpful Content Update, AI Overviews reaching 43% of US searches, new Search Console controls for AI Mode, and ChatGPT's integration of third-party platform data.","https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002F9bacf7c4-18eb-47f1-87fb-986cba555a73-Copy of 11766_(1920x1080) (7).png","close-up image of a blue pushpin marking a location on a detailed paper map",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fsearch-visibility-optimization-svo-monthly-overview-july-2026",{"title":909,"description":1140},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Fsearch-visibility-optimization-svo-monthly-overview-july-2026","vjZWWe3kKlLwQrZGoaeSywpxYkFiYyKtWSho-GG-CHw",{"id":1149,"title":1150,"author":7,"authors":7,"body":1151,"caption":7,"category":315,"date":1461,"description":1462,"extension":318,"img":1463,"imgAlt":1464,"meta":1465,"minutes":321,"navigation":322,"path":1466,"seo":1467,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":1468,"updated":7,"__hash__":1469},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fis-ai-content-bad-for-seo-how-to-scale-traffic-without-sacrificing-rankings.md","Is AI Content Bad for SEO? How to Scale Traffic Without Sacrificing Rankings",{"type":11,"value":1152,"toc":1445},[1153,1160,1166,1169,1184,1187,1190,1204,1211,1214,1218,1221,1227,1238,1244,1247,1253,1264,1266,1271,1274,1277,1282,1287,1294,1301,1304,1310,1313,1319,1322,1333,1339,1342,1349,1358,1365,1372,1377,1380,1395,1401,1407,1410,1417,1421],[14,1154,1155,1156,1159],{},"Let’s answer the question on every marketing leader’s mind right away: ",[52,1157,1158],{},"No, AI content is not inherently bad for SEO."," Google does not automatically penalize text simply because an artificial intelligence model generated it. In fact, Google’s official Search guidelines state that the search engine ranks content based on its helpfulness, relevance, and quality—not on who (or what) typed the words.",[14,1161,1162,1163],{},"However, there is a massive caveat that every modern CMO and VP of Marketing must understand: ",[52,1164,1165],{},"publishing unedited, mass-produced AI text is a fast track to losing traffic.",[14,1167,1168],{},"While AI can drastically accelerate your research and drafting phases, relying on raw algorithm outputs to power your organic search strategy will inevitably hurt your brand. The internet is quickly becoming flooded with synthesized, low-effort fluff. Search engines are aggressively updating their algorithms to identify and down-rank generic copy that fails to bring new value to the web.",[14,1170,1171,1172,1175,1176,1179,1180,1183],{},"So, ",[52,1173,1174],{},"does AI-generated content impact SEO?"," Absolutely—for better or for worse depending entirely on ",[38,1177,1178],{},"how"," you use it. To navigate this new era of search, B2B software and tech companies must learn how to safely leverage AI as an efficiency tool while keeping senior human strategy in full control. ",[75,1181],{"alt":77,"src":1182},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002Fe5fe90d6-da9d-42d8-8ca3-5c601eb33fc8-ai-content-bad-for-seo-1.png","What Google Actually Cites About AI-Generated Content",[14,1185,1186],{},"A widespread myth floating around boardrooms is that Google possesses a universal \"AI detector\" that immediately penalizes any site using machine learning tools. This misconception has led to two extreme behaviors: organizations either banned AI entirely out of fear, or they went all-in, firing editorial teams and pumping out hundreds of unvetted AI articles a month.",[14,1188,1189],{},"Both approaches are flawed. Google’s position on AI content is clear and consistent:",[46,1191,1192,1198],{},[49,1193,1194,1197],{},[52,1195,1196],{},"Intent matters over medium:"," If you use automation, including generative AI, primarily to manipulate search rankings, it is considered a violation of Google's spam policies.",[49,1199,1200,1203],{},[52,1201,1202],{},"Quality is the ultimate benchmark:"," If your content offers original information, insightful analysis, and clear utility to the searcher, Google will reward it—regardless of whether AI helped draft the paragraphs.",[14,1205,1206,1207,1210],{},"This distinction rests on Google’s ",[52,1208,1209],{},"E-E-A-T framework",": Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.",[14,1212,1213],{},"Generative AI models are trained on existing web data; by design, they scrape, synthesize, and regurgitate information that has already been published. They cannot draw from personal background, run proprietary benchmark studies, or conduct interviews with industry veterans. Therefore, raw AI content inherently lacks the \"First-Hand Experience\" and deep \"Expertise\" required to satisfy modern search criteria.",[24,1215,1217],{"id":1216},"why-copy-pasting-ai-copy-destroys-your-organic-traffic","Why Copy-Pasting AI Copy Destroys Your Organic Traffic",[14,1219,1220],{},"If Google doesn't penalize AI text on principle, why are so many tech sites seeing their organic impressions plummet after launching automated content initiatives? The answer lies in the subtle traps of machine-generated prose.",[81,1222,1224],{"id":1223},"_1-the-information-gain-problem",[52,1225,1226],{},"1. The Information Gain Problem",[14,1228,1229,1230,1233,1234,1237],{},"Search engine algorithms are increasingly prioritizing ",[52,1231,1232],{},"Information Gain","—a metric that measures whether a piece of content adds ",[38,1235,1236],{},"new"," facts, perspectives, or data points to a topic compared to existing index results. When an AI tool drafts an article, it simply summarizes what the top ten results on Google are already saying. It offers zero information gain. If your page is merely an average of what is already online, Google has no incentive to rank you above established competitors.",[81,1239,1241],{"id":1240},"_2-hallucinations-and-brand-risk",[52,1242,1243],{},"2. Hallucinations and Brand Risk",[14,1245,1246],{},"Large Language Models (LLMs) are predictive engines, not factual databases. They routinely invent statistics, misquote technical documentation, and present incorrect product capabilities with total confidence. Publishing hallucinated facts erodes consumer trust and signals to search crawlers that your site lacks basic editorial integrity.",[81,1248,1250],{"id":1249},"_3-the-homogenization-of-brand-voice",[52,1251,1252],{},"3. The Homogenization of Brand Voice",[14,1254,1255,1256,1259,1260,1263],{},"B2B tech buyers are sophisticated. They can spot low-effort, synthetic writing instantly. Text bloated with hollow transitions (",[38,1257,1258],{},"\"In today's fast-paced digital landscape...\""," or ",[38,1261,1262],{},"\"It is crucial to leverage...\"",") signals to prospects that your company lacks real point-of-view authority. If your content sounds identical to every competitor using the same prompts, you lose your market positioning.",[24,1265,109],{"id":685},[14,1267,1268,1270],{},[38,1269,114],{},"The AI has no reason to pick yours over theirs. It's looking for something it can confidently reuse, and if your version doesn't add anything new, you're background noise.",[14,1272,1273],{},"So instead of writing more, I'm going page by page through what already exists and asking one question: does this page say something that no other page on the internet says?",[14,1275,1276],{},"Original data. A real client pattern you documented. A first-person account of what actually happened when you tried the thing everyone recommends. ",[14,1278,1279,1280],{},"That's what AI pulls in. The generic stuff is what AI already has forty versions of. It doesn't need yours.",[38,1281,114],{},[14,1283,120,1284,1286],{},[52,1285,9],{},", CEO of MKG Marketing",[24,1288,1290,1293],{"id":1289},"how-to-safely-use-ai-as-a-marketing-assistant-not-a-lead-strategist",[75,1291],{"alt":77,"src":1292},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002Fc8d0926d-82b9-42f9-85f4-3c433da82d78-ai-content-bad-for-seo-2.png","How to Safely Use AI as a Marketing Assistant (Not a Lead Strategist)",[14,1295,1296,1297,1300],{},"To succeed in search today, modern tech companies don't need to abandon AI; they need to integrate it into a ",[52,1298,1299],{},"human-led editorial workflow",". AI should act as the junior analyst that handles heavy administrative lifting, while senior strategists serve as the editorial director.",[14,1302,1303],{},"Here is how high-growth organizations use AI tools safely without putting their search performance at risk:",[81,1305,1307],{"id":1306},"_1-accelerate-research-and-formatting",[52,1308,1309],{},"1. Accelerate Research and Formatting",[14,1311,1312],{},"Use AI to synthesize lengthy transcripts, cluster search intent, organize raw data, and draft initial structural outlines. Asking an AI tool to suggest five logical structural flows for a technical guide saves hours of brainstorming without diluting your editorial voice.",[81,1314,1316],{"id":1315},"_2-inject-proprietary-data-and-human-storytelling",[52,1317,1318],{},"2. Inject Proprietary Data and Human Storytelling",[14,1320,1321],{},"Once a rough outline or foundational draft exists, a subject matter expert (SME) must step in. Inject real-world elements that an algorithm can never produce:",[46,1323,1324,1327,1330],{},[49,1325,1326],{},"Customer case studies and real implementation metrics.",[49,1328,1329],{},"Direct quotes from internal product architects or sales engineers.",[49,1331,1332],{},"Unique takeaways or counter-intuitive opinions that challenge status-quo industry advice.",[81,1334,1336],{"id":1335},"_3-rigorous-fact-checking-and-editorial-oversight",[52,1337,1338],{},"3. Rigorous Fact-Checking and Editorial Oversight",[14,1340,1341],{},"Every claim, statistic, and technical instruction generated during the drafting phase must be verified by a human editor. Ensure the tone matches your brand guidelines and eliminate boilerplate AI phrasing.",[14,1343,1344,1345,1348],{},"Want to see how your current search strategy measures up against the latest engine updates? Explore our comprehensive",[206,1346,211],{"href":208,"rel":1347},[210]," or book an initial search strategy review with our senior team today.",[24,1350,1352,1355],{"id":1351},"beyond-traditional-seo-preparing-for-search-visibility-optimization-svo",[75,1353],{"alt":77,"src":1354},"https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002F2cd275b2-b56c-4864-b728-e18e54f45370-ai-content-bad-for-seo-3.png",[52,1356,1357],{},"Beyond Traditional SEO: Preparing for Search Visibility Optimization (SVO)",[14,1359,1360,1361,1364],{},"The debate over whether AI-generated content ",[52,1362,1363],{},"is good for seo"," is part of a much larger shift in how users find information. Search is no longer confined to a list of ten blue links on a traditional search results page.",[14,1366,1367,1368,1371],{},"With the rapid adoption of AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity, users are increasingly getting direct answers synthesized and generated right inside search interfaces. This shift means that optimizing purely for keyword clicks is no longer enough. You must optimize for ",[52,1369,1370],{},"total brand visibility"," across AI search models and traditional engines alike.",[14,1373,1374,1375,212],{},"This evolution is what we call ",[52,1376,168],{},[14,1378,1379],{},"To win in an SVO-driven ecosystem, your content must be authoritative enough that AI models choose to cite your brand as the primary source of truth. Generic, auto-generated articles will never be cited by AI search tools because those articles lack original authority. The only way to capture mindshare in both AI answers and traditional search lists is by publishing high-gain, expert-driven content that clearly demonstrates E-E-A-T.",[14,1381,1382,1383,1388,1389,1394],{},"If your organic reach is stalling due to changing algorithms, taking a holistic view of your digital presence is essential. Aligning your organic content strategy with high-intent paid acquisition via",[206,1384,1387],{"href":1385,"rel":1386},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.google.com\u002Fsearch?q=https:\u002F\u002Fmkgmarketinginc.com\u002Fservices\u002Fdigital-advertising\u002F",[210]," Digital Advertising"," and measuring true user journeys through robust",[206,1390,1393],{"href":1391,"rel":1392},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.google.com\u002Fsearch?q=https:\u002F\u002Fmkgmarketinginc.com\u002Fservices\u002Fanalytics\u002F",[210]," Digital Analytics"," ensures your marketing engine generates pipeline—not just empty clicks.",[24,1396,1398],{"id":1397},"summary-adapting-your-search-engine-strategy-for-long-term-growth",[52,1399,1400],{},"Summary: Adapting Your Search Engine Strategy for Long-Term Growth",[14,1402,1403,1404,1406],{},"To recap: ",[52,1405,1174],{}," Yes. If you treat AI as a magic shortcut to generate hundreds of unvetted blog posts, your search visibility will eventually collapse; quickly building a house out of AI sticks won’t protect you when the Big Bad Search Engine Wolf comes calling. But if you treat AI as an efficiency engine that supports a human-led, expert-driven content pipeline, you can scale output without sacrificing rankings.",[14,1408,1409],{},"As search engines adapt to the flood of synthetic content, companies must adapt how they communicate with their buyers. The brands that win over the next decade won't be those that avoid AI, nor will they be those that hand their entire marketing strategy over to algorithms. The winners will be the organizations that pair cutting-edge tools with an authentic, human-driven brand voice.",[14,1411,1412,1413,1416],{},"At ",[52,1414,1415],{},"MKG Marketing",", we don't pass your search strategy off to junior account managers or unmonitored software bots. We provide an experienced, senior-led team that handles both the high-level strategy and technical execution directly. We help B2B tech and software companies navigate complex search updates, build a sustainable organic pipeline, and maintain complete operational control over their brand narrative.",[24,1418,1420],{"id":1419},"ready-to-build-a-future-proof-search-strategy","Ready to Build a Future-Proof Search Strategy?",[46,1422,1423,1430,1437],{},[49,1424,1425,1426,212],{},"Learn how our senior-led team can audit and elevate your organic reach.",[206,1427,1429],{"href":208,"rel":1428},[210]," Explore our Search Visibility Optimization (SVO) Services & Strategy Reviews",[49,1431,1432,1433,278],{},"Have immediate questions about your traffic or upcoming search updates?",[206,1434,1436],{"href":275,"rel":1435},[210]," Contact the MKG Marketing Team directly",[49,1438,1439,1440,212],{},"Want to dive deeper into modern search trends? Read our latest guide:",[206,1441,1444],{"href":1442,"rel":1443},"https:\u002F\u002Fmkgmarketinginc.com\u002Fblog\u002F",[210]," Beyond Last-Click: How to Measure Marketing Influence in an AI-First World",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":1446},[1447,1452,1453,1458,1459,1460],{"id":1216,"depth":291,"text":1217,"children":1448},[1449,1450,1451],{"id":1223,"depth":297,"text":1226},{"id":1240,"depth":297,"text":1243},{"id":1249,"depth":297,"text":1252},{"id":685,"depth":291,"text":109},{"id":1289,"depth":291,"text":1293,"children":1454},[1455,1456,1457],{"id":1306,"depth":297,"text":1309},{"id":1315,"depth":297,"text":1318},{"id":1335,"depth":297,"text":1338},{"id":1351,"depth":291,"text":1357},{"id":1397,"depth":291,"text":1400},{"id":1419,"depth":291,"text":1420},"2026-07-31T16:42:23.391Z","Does AI-generated content impact SEO? Discover how to safely use AI tools to build traffic and why copy-pasting generic text will hurt your rankings.","https:\u002F\u002Fassets.mkgmarketinginc.com\u002Fa2137492-5860-4960-8c3b-cc662b7514b0-mkg-blog-is-ai-content-bad-for-seo.webp","Is AI Content Bad for SEO",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fseo\u002Fis-ai-content-bad-for-seo-how-to-scale-traffic-without-sacrificing-rankings",{"title":1150,"description":1462},"blog\u002Fseo\u002Fis-ai-content-bad-for-seo-how-to-scale-traffic-without-sacrificing-rankings","ysFwsXe-UHutD2vqfe9YpM1Dn_CZgi--Ors35vnm0Bc",[1471,1893,2621,2673,3447,3740,3868,4251,4555],{"id":1472,"title":1473,"author":7,"authors":1474,"body":1475,"caption":7,"category":1767,"date":1768,"description":1769,"extension":318,"img":1770,"imgAlt":1771,"meta":1772,"minutes":1774,"navigation":322,"path":1775,"seo":1776,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":1777,"updated":7,"__hash__":1778,"people":1779},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fleadership\u002Fai-agencies-and-the-future-of-expertise-with-kerry-guard.md","AI, Agencies, and the Future of Expertise with Kerry Guard",[9],{"type":11,"value":1476,"toc":1760},[1477,1481,1484,1487,1490,1492,1496,1507,1511,1514,1517,1520,1523,1526,1529,1532,1535,1538,1541,1544,1547,1550,1553,1556,1559,1562,1565,1568,1571,1574,1577,1580,1583,1586,1589,1592,1595,1598,1601,1604,1607,1610,1613,1616,1619,1622,1625,1628,1631,1634,1637,1640,1643,1646,1649,1652,1655,1658,1661,1664,1667,1670,1673,1676,1679,1682,1685,1688,1691,1694,1697,1700,1703,1706,1709,1712,1715,1718,1721,1724,1727,1730,1733,1736,1739,1742,1745,1748,1751,1754,1757],[81,1478,1480],{"id":1479},"overview","Overview",[14,1482,1483],{},"AI is reshaping how agencies operate, but it’s not a simple replacement story. In this conversation, Kerry Guard explores the tension between speed and expertise—where some companies are leaning heavily on AI, while others are realizing that tools alone can’t replace strategic thinking.",[14,1485,1486],{},"Kerry breaks down why low-quality “AI slop” is on the rise, how agencies can evolve instead of becoming obsolete, and why product–market fit still matters more than ever.",[14,1488,1489],{},"The takeaway is clear: AI will change how work gets done, but real value will come from the teams who know how to use it with clarity, depth, and purpose.",[81,1491],{"id":77},[24,1493,1495],{"id":1494},"take-a-listen","Take a listen",[1497,1498],"iframe",{"dataTestid":1499,"style":1500,"src":1501,"width":1502,"height":1503,"frameBorder":1504,"allowFullScreen":322,"allow":1505,"loading":1506},"embed-iframe","border-radius:12px","https:\u002F\u002Fopen.spotify.com\u002Fembed\u002Fepisode\u002F4wzSHptRmd4o5leirfk10l\u002Fvideo?utm_source=generator",624,351,"0","autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture","lazy",[81,1508,1510],{"id":1509},"transcript","Transcript:",[14,1512,1513],{},"Alex 0:00",[14,1515,1516],{},"It's all right, it's Alex on the highways podcast episode 61, we have with us, Jake, hello as usual. And also joining today is Kerry Guard. Nice to have you, Kerry. So we were just sort of riffing offline about how agencies are being disrupted with AI. So let's get into that, because that's kind of like a really burning topic, and we haven't really talked about that, Jake, have we? We've talked a lot about the technical side of AI and business models and related to, like, a typical kind of company situation, but we haven't talked about the agency side. So that is this",[14,1518,1519],{},"Jake 0:43",[14,1521,1522],{},"So that's the part we should do, though, because it's kind of how we both ended up here.",[14,1524,1525],{},"Alex 0:49",[14,1527,1528],{},"Yes, that is right. We've gone from we've gone from agency to product and more platform stuff. But anyway, you're an agency. You're an agency. So maybe you can sort of just give us your perspective, like where you kind of were, like, in terms of the agency world, and then take us to today, with the current AI situation.",[14,1530,1531],{},"Kerry Guard 1:15",[14,1533,1534],{},"Yeah. I mean, it's interesting and exciting. There are sort of two camps in how AI has impacted the agency world before. We were very much looked towards as the experts that we were bringing on for our expertise, that we were going to help create extra manpower and support in terms of making sure that content production is going to end up in the SERPs, so on and so forth. And now with AI, it's sort of splitting into two camps. One camp is which literally just happened to us, where we got let go because they figured the marketing manager could do everything that we were doing, thanks to the help of AI. On the flip side, we just got hired because the VP of Marketing said that their marketing manager was too dependent on AI, and she was running in circles and didn't know which way was up, and needed help, and brought us and is now bringing us off. So the AI psychosis, literally, yeah, so it's definitely impacting us, but I also feel like it's an opportunity in terms of helping people understand that AI is great for people to use it as something that makes you go faster when already having the information and knowing what it is and being an expert In the space and then having AI at your disposal makes you be able to go so much deeper and faster at the same time, which we never really had before. Either you had people very shallow but going very fast, or you had people very deep, going very slow. And now there's this, like a lovely middle ground, but you still need the expert in the seat to do the thing.",[14,1536,1537],{},"Jake 3:00",[14,1539,1540],{},"I agree. There's, you know, I think, not to, not to sound like I'm whining here, but there's a, there's a lot of people these days like running Claude code boot camps and open claw boot camps that, who knows how they're actually applying both of those technologies in their day to day, but they suddenly have a group of 1000 people that they're training, or they're getting experts in, or they're outsourcing, I'm not entirely sure. So I think that the hot there is a gold rush as well, and in that gold rush, there are still people that are shallow, but running faster than ever.",[14,1542,1543],{},"Kerry Guard 3:43",[14,1545,1546],{},"Yeah, but it's dangerous. Who's it dangerous for? Gosh, everybody, I mean, especially for the end user, right? Like the amount of slop out there that we have to sort through to get to the good information is like compounding very quickly, right? And if you don't have users, then you don't have money and opportunity to, you know, do more, right? So like, I feel like, if we ostracize them, most importantly, we're in deep trouble. But then even for ourselves, you know, doing really good work and feeling good about it and putting good out into the world. Yeah, I think it's something we're losing, and that's just kind of a bummer. In my opinion.",[14,1548,1549],{},"Jake 4:32",[14,1551,1552],{},"I would agree with that. I also think Alex likes to come back to a conversation that we had earlier, because I feel like the chicken and egg situation these days is really egg before chicken, whichever way you want to see that. But you know, growing an audience and then building the product is a new model that I think is more prevalent now because of things like AI and people being able to build MVPs very quickly. Vibe, coded tools, or even just AI content or distribution of content through automated systems that people are building an audience, such as the open core boot camp, and then they're finding a way to, like, crowbar some sort of product into it. Now that might seem a little bit unethical, but the one moat that AI doesn't have is distribution, and that's also, I guess, that's what I think is dangerous, at least, I think that is dangerous, giving people who don't know what they're doing a potential massive audience to do some real harm. I mean, we can just switch this into a different topic now, because it's very relevant. But the Louis Theroux documentary, I've not seen it, but, you know, I think that the outcome of that documentary, I'm not sure if you know what I'm talking about, Kerry about the enter the manosphere, regardless of what you think about the topic, the I think the takeaway for me was the there's a lot of people out there, just generally in the world, regardless of whatever sphere that they exist in, that have insane amounts of power, insane amounts of influence, through building audiences in a certain topic, or just sounding like an authority in something that they might not necessarily be an expert in.",[14,1554,1555],{},"Kerry Guard 6:24",[14,1557,1558],{},"Yeah, super dangerous. I Yeah. That documentary was definitely eye-opening for so many, not for others. It was sort of a no-duh. It's an interesting conversation that's sort of happening on, you know, the social media platforms. But I would agree, I the echo chamber, right? Getting caught up in that echo chamber, and then the algorithms learning what you're interested in, I'm always so afraid to click on certain things, like in LinkedIn, of like, Oh no, I'm going to comment on this, and then it's all I'm going to see for a while, right? Of like, and I don't want to be stuck in that. I want to see other points of view, and yeah, and what other people might think about it, not be just constantly served the same thing over and over again, but that's what happens, right? And now with AI, people will go have these conversations. It's like that, not, I mean, it's kind of on topic, kind of off topic. But like, you know, the school shooting that happened in canada was it a shooting or stabbing that happened in Canada because somebody was on AI and they were constantly being fed validation of their actions, of going and having the shooting, and how to do it right? So like, just that reiteration, whether it's happening through conversation with AI or coming around you from a channel perspective, totally dangerous and somewhere where we're going to be interesting to see who starts to put some guard rails up. I know Anthropic is a great company to be doing that. I hope they do continue to do that and lead the way and show what that needs to be, because, yeah, we're going to end up with some scary things that happen in those echo chambers, for sure.",[14,1560,1561],{},"Jake 8:03",[14,1563,1564],{},"I think it's a human thing, though, as well. I don't know if you're guilty of this, but having conversations with AI, and I mean in voice mode, I've had conversations with AI in voice mode, my biggest criticism, and I guess why I don't do it anymore, is because it's boring. It just goes around in a loop. It will agree with you, and then you agree with it, and then that's it. The End of the conversation. It happens after about three minutes. Really, there's no more depth after it, and you'll have forgotten what else you wanted to say, because it will have given you a 32nd answer reflecting back at you what you wanted to hear.",[14,1566,1567],{},"Kerry Guard 8:41",[14,1569,1570],{},"I push it a lot. I say, you know, stop blowing smoke. Tell me what you really think. Go look at the experts. So, I'm as an agency, one of the things I'm finding specifically in the SEO space, is that there's a lot of fragmentation happening in terms of how people are talking about showing up, whether it's in traditional SEO or the answer engines, or now generative engines, right? And so I'm trying to unify it now to just say, Listen, let's just talk about this as search visibility optimization. It doesn't matter where your audience is in terms of how they're searching for you, but you need to make sure you're showing up across the board. And in doing so, I'm talking to AI through it, and I said, What's the difference between off-page SEO and GEO? Because there's this argument happening on LinkedIn right now about, like, everybody's like, good SEO will be good AEO and good Geo. And I'm like, Ah, not really. Like, geo is a whole different beast, and you really have to think about that differently. And if we don't define it and just depend on what traditional SEO has done for us. We're never going to actually show up in the llms, and that's a problem, because the llms one day is going to take over. And so I actually asked Gemini and said, Are these two separate things? And Gemini was like, Absolutely not. They are the same thing. Saying off-page is the same as on-page. And I poked at it and worked through it, and I said, here's how I'm thinking about it. And then it came around and, like, agreed with me. And I was like, Okay, well, now it's agreeing with me, and we're stuck in a loop. And so I went over to Claude, and I had the same conversation with Claude. Claude was like, No, these are two different things. They have to stay that way. And I was like, well, here's how I'm thinking about it. And Claude was like, actually, that's really valid, and here's why. And it's like, backed up from all these different sources as to why, this makes a ton of sense. And so it's, it's interesting, of like, how these different platforms are even thinking. And then, to your point of like, yeah, the validation immediately happens. And then it's like, Okay, now what? Yeah, I agree. Even in different platforms, it's happening like, Okay, now, what do we do and where do we go from here, in terms of making sure that we're thinking beyond what the AI can give us exactly?",[14,1572,1573],{},"Jake 10:55",[14,1575,1576],{},"Yeah, I think nailed it there, thinking beyond what the AI can give us, perfect, perfect framing. Because really, the AI, we've had this conversation a couple of times. I had it last Friday. It gives an average, it gives you an average answer, literally average. So thinking beyond it is important to differentiate if you gave it to conflict in perspectives, and then you asked it to make an average of those conflicting perspectives, as long as it wasn't the typical average, then it would be slightly different. But generally, if you ask it a broad question, or for guidance, it's going to give you something very average, and it will agree with you. And I think that you know, as a human, you have a confirmation bias. You want somebody, you want something to agree with you. You don't necessarily want it. You don't want to go. Is this a good idea? And you go, No, that's a stupid.",[14,1578,1579],{},"Kerry Guard 11:54",[14,1581,1582],{},"No, but you do want something that will question you. So I do think putting in parameters, like I'll ask it to ask me, like, what gaps am I missing here? What? What are other people talking about? Is this already being talked about? Right? Go out there and tell me, I'll sort of find ways to prompt it to almost have it disagree with me in multiple to see if it can disagree with me in multiple ways. And sometimes it does. I'll write a LinkedIn post, and they'll be like, This is crap, and here's why. Like, thank you for that. That's what I needed. I'm trying to write off more than I could chew. It's way too long. It's trying to create too many points. I'm known for that on LinkedIn. But like, having it actually tell me that is super helpful, but I've had to train it to do that, which you can do. It just takes effort.",[14,1584,1585],{},"Jake 12:42",[14,1587,1588],{},"I think Alex, at this point, I know that. I'm not sure we usually ask, but I think we have to give Kerry a little bit of Kerry. Why don't you tell us what you do and tell the audience?",[14,1590,1591],{},"Kerry Guard 12:55",[14,1593,1594],{},"Sure. So I own a digital marketing agency, and have for the last 15 plus years, we've always been remote, and that's why I get to live in the UK while the rest of my team is in the US, primary, primarily work with B to B Tech, SAS, companies in the US, helping them scale and build up through SEO and digital ads, making sure that they're found and visible, and that when users can see them and understand their brand, and then they Go search for them, that they're the answer.",[14,1596,1597],{},"Jake 13:22",[14,1599,1600],{},"That was lovely. That was the best",[14,1602,1603],{},"Alex 13:25",[14,1605,1606],{},"I want to get into something. I want to get into something. Kerry, you say 15 years, so you've been, you've seen a lot in the agency space. Myself and Jake were in-house, in-house markers. So we worked in the tech industry. We worked for the same company for a while, and we also work together on projects, on agency stuff. And I feel like I would say again around chat, GPT launch, like 2022 - 23, something changed. Something changed. I think that, how can I say, like, the value of what we do change? Because suddenly people had access to all that computing for $20 a month, right? And a lot of the guys we used to work with suddenly started doing stuff themselves, as we talked about before, the pod. Then it feels like value creation. And you've seen this for the stock prices of all the big agencies, the big the blue chip ones, wpps, it's been, it's been flattened, right? You can't charge what you used to charge the business models, the billable hour. Business models are kind of broken now. So I think my question is, how do you, how do you, how do you put a price on value creation now, in this in this time when there's basically free compute and AI.",[14,1608,1609],{},"Kerry Guard 14:38",[14,1611,1612],{},"So it comes down to, I mean, for us, we do still go back into hours just to make sure we understand how much time things are generally taking. But it hasn't necessarily been that we dilute or come down in price over time. It's that now we can just do more. More and be more effective. So when I come, when I talk to clients, I'm like, Well, we have the faster we have the faster plan. So it's two plans. You can either go faster, you can go faster, because that's really what it comes down to these days, you know, we can give you in terms of SVL, we can we can give you all of the content briefs and all of the land. But can you actually implement them? Well, probably not. So let's not, if you're scaling up and you're just starting, doesn't make sense for us to be throwing, you know, 10 to 15 assets at you a month, right? So we're going to go on the fast plan, which makes more sense for the resources you have, or if you're digital ads, depending on your ads budget, right? Like we can't, it doesn't make sense for us to charge an agency fee based off of ad spend in terms of percentage when you're not really spending, you know, 25k plus, and even then, like, the percentage needs to be in relation to really, How many platforms, how many campaigns, what's actually being managed, versus just because you're spending more money? Just because you're spending more money doesn't mean it's necessarily more work for us. So in terms of how we're quantifying it, it's really, really it still comes down to hours and speed and what the client can navigate on their end, in terms of what we're giving them and our expertise, it is a premium because we hire people with 10 plus years of experience, who've done this for a long time, who know what they're doing, who can respond relatively quickly because they aren't learning it as they're doing it. And so I think that also comes down to it, as well as the account direction team that we have, the strategy team that's implemented, right? We don't just give you an SEO expert. We make sure that they're supported in the communication and in the strategic insight that's that's coming out. So it's that holistic team that is also coming to the table with that expertise, versus just that one person constantly pumping out, you know, a thing over and over again. It's based in data, it's based in the expertise. And that's really the value that we're bringing and how we're valuing it, from a from $1 standpoint.",[14,1614,1615],{},"Jake 17:15",[14,1617,1618],{},"I'm gonna push back against Alex in Kerry's team here, but I think, I think it's like this, like the value of what you're describing, in some ways, it almost shouldn't change, because it's human-related. Whereas I feel like, if you take, let's say that you're an automation agency, then the value of that service is still being figured out, you know, because people might not necessarily understand the value of it at that point. On the client side, somebody might say, Well, these guys said that they're gonna automate it, and it will whip up 100 articles every minute. You know, then how you know? You don't know the quality of that, whereas in the Kerry model, at least you have some sort of like, well, for this process, this is the predicted outcome, because we've done this and it's built on X amount of years of experience. So I think on the future side, a lot of value surrounding things using AI is still really being defined. It's still being figured out. Because it's like, imagine, back in the day when websites were new, people go, Oh, you've got to get a website. Well, how much do I pay for a website? Do I pay $100 do I pay $1,000 like, what's the website going to do? How many people are going to find it? Is it going to be SEO ready? Is there somebody that's going to take care of that? So it's like, if you don't know anything about websites, let's just say that you were a business, you know, in the late 90s, and you're not going to understand the value of it, either. And I think we're in a stage right now where everything's crashing because of AI, but we still haven't figured out what's valuable in this new landscape. But what we know is what's valuable in the old landscape, and that's, I guess, in some ways, more predictable, and something that people can trust more easily.",[14,1620,1621],{},"Kerry Guard 19:16",[14,1623,1624],{},"I will say outcomes are really important to you. To what you said, Jake, in regards to, we never want to, you know, if we're working with a company who's making an ARR of 3 million a year, right, we're not going to charge the same as somebody who's making 65 million. Again, that comes down to the resources they have, right? 65 million versus 3 million, they have way more resources. But the same time, the math has to math, right? There has to be a return on what we're producing and how we're bringing in pipeline and and that that there is a return on that investment, and we make sure of that, you know through the reporting that we do, but when we're putting a scope of work together, it's hard to say we know for sure that you're going. Make this kind of revenue in this time without really digging in and wrapping our arms around the company, but we look to get there because we think that's important, to make sure that it's all compounding over time towards that pipeline. Create for sure.",[14,1626,1627],{},"Alex 20:13",[14,1629,1630],{},"Yeah. I also think the thing that people overlook with service businesses is that it's very on trend right now to focus on product, like Claude, ChatGPT, like all these AI products, right? And so we're all, all the next generation in, in, in these companies are like, Oh, I can just use ChatGPT. I guess Claude, it's product, product, product, right? But at the end of the day, like you see these companies themselves, like chat open, AI literally announced yesterday they're going to focus on enterprise. The whole team had a big meeting internally, and they said, We need to focus on enterprise, because that's where the you know that those those customers, those enterprise customers, are way more valuable than a 20 bucks a month, you know, guy so obviously, Anthropic is doing really well with enterprise and customer-focused enterprise. So I think, yeah, I think there's like, I think there's like, right now, there's just this bubble about AI products, and in the long run, it will kind of bend. The arc will bend back towards like, value, actual value creation, and service.",[14,1632,1633],{},"Kerry Guard 21:23",[14,1635,1636],{},"Industries head to this all the time, right? Cybersecurity is a great example of this, if we were to sort of mirror them. One, cyber is a bit ahead of AI. And so right now, there's a lot of consolidation happening in cyber, because people are realizing that certain features that they now need, they could just buy a company that already does that, and now bring it into their company. And so AI is going to eventually, that's just how it goes, right? All these startups pop up for all these specific features, and then they start to consolidate into specific products that do certain thing, you know, multiple features that do certain things. And so we'll see that. But right now, it's definitely that startup of everybody's creating everything. And of course, I'm not surprised, but also like banging my head against the wall a little bit, if you're all going after enterprise, which is a very small subset of how many businesses are really out there, then I think they're all going to crash into each other at some point, and they're going to have to look at where those other businesses that could grow with us, that will eventually be an enterprise or be a bigger business. Man, I hate when companies do that drives me up a wall, like it's so short-sighted to just be like, we're all going to go after enterprise. Well, you and everybody else, and yeah.",[14,1638,1639],{},"Alex 22:39",[14,1641,1642],{},"Yeah, look at the B to B. SaaS stock prices right now. They're all tagging.",[14,1644,1645],{},"Jake 22:44",[14,1647,1648],{},"I also think, though, that, you know, LinkedIn, he's driving that sort of where the traffic is going. Because, you know, one month ago it was lovable. This month, it was like Claude. Next month, I've just seen as well, it's like Claude again. I posted on Twitter, Alex, I don't know whether you saw it, but a lot of this, I just deleted ChatGPT, and now I'm on Claude. It's like, everything's gone crazy this, like last month, but next month it'll be something else, because it was open claw before. It was probably like lovable January, open claw February, and it's been the Claude month this month.",[14,1650,1651],{},"Alex 23:23",[14,1653,1654],{},"But I have another question related to product, actually, do you think so? I saw that WPP, the new lady that took over. WPP, she said, that we're going to be a product-focused agency. We're going to make our own products available to clients. So there's some influencer marketing tool, there's some SEO copywriting tool. Do you think like that is that is kind of really not the direction, like you can't just like you can't convert a service agency into a product company, right? What do you stand with that? Do you think agencies will all need to offer products at some point?",[14,1656,1657],{},"Kerry Guard 23:59",[14,1659,1660],{},"Trying to look like way down the line. My prediction is that it probably will feel and operate a bit like a product, but it's going to be internal of how you sort of set it up, and it operates, and it still needs to have humans and in the loop. But my my, my thinking is that what you'll essentially have is less people doing the work and more overseeing. So like you'll for an SEO team, I'll have one person, but then they'll have like, five agents, and each agent will have a specific job to be done in relation to that SEO person doing their work, so that they're more strategic and thinking about where the business needs to go, versus pulling the keywords down and doing a deep dive into it and seeing what competitors are doing like all this will sort of be served up to them, and then they'll be able to analyze it and then say, Okay, this is where the business needs to go. These are my recommendations. Like. Put together a presentation, and then another agent will go out and actually put together the presentation and bring it back, and then it'll be presented to the client. The client will never see these agents or never interact with them. They'll still be interacting with the humans. But the way that the agency model is going to change is that it's not going to be one person up here managing, you know, four people down here who are then mentioning four people down here. You know, as an org chart normally goes, it's going to be, at some point, an expert of, you know, five to 10 years managing a bunch of agents that are going to help them really think strategically about how to do their job. And I think that. And then the agents will connect across channels as well. So the SEO agents will be talking to digital ad agents. Hey, I'm seeing these keywords work. What are you seeing over there? How do you want to optimize? Here's how I'm thinking about optimizing, right? And they're going to be, we're sort of working together. It's going to feel like a product internally, but I don't know that we can sell it like that, because the client isn't going to be logging into a SaaS product and then telling these agents what to do. You still need a human with the expertise telling the agents and reviewing what the agents are doing and making sure that the work is still getting done to the caliber agency done at so that's and I got I got this because I went to a conference in September, and there was a company there called monks. I don't know if you've heard of them. Oh, yeah, agency, yeah. So they showed off their you know how, and they're doing exactly this. So they have an agent for every job to be done in creating a commercial. So they created a puma commercial. It took them two weeks to do end-to-end. All of the assets were still human. So that created them. The photographs came from humans, of humans, the videos, music, all of it, all the assets, came from creators, real creators of real humans within the photos and the videos. But it was the agents that went out to get those videos, that did the customer research, that stitched things together, that made there was an agent for brand continuity, making sure it was completely on brand end to end. So there, it took them months to build, but now they can pump commercials out in two weeks. That is still the output is still human, and I think that's what's interesting, and I do think that that's probably where agencies need to be thinking about and going. But calling it a product is kind of misleading. In my opinion.",[14,1662,1663],{},"Jake 27:24",[14,1665,1666],{},"I think I'm going to be devils. I'm going to play both sides here. I think it'll be a product, but I also think within that product there will be the sort of customized agentic workflow that does need to be governed by the human, so I don't think that the it's not like the end client is going to be using the product. They may plug their API's of their different stack into wpps new product, but there has to be a manager internally that understands agentic workflows, that can customize those workflows to fit with whatever the needs of that specific client are. Have I played both sides?",[14,1668,1669],{},"Kerry Guard 28:07",[14,1671,1672],{},"Marketers are going to want, I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, marketers, I'd love to hear in the comments, but I feel like you don't want to log into another thing to be dealing with a bunch of robots. Like it's like, when you call the bank with a problem, you just want to talk to a freaking human. Please, flow from God, please, just give me a human. Right. I don't want to go through this whole tree of telling you who my mother's maiden name is, you know, whatever. Like, I want a human. Give me a human. I feel like, as you know, an agency, I don't think that's going to go away. I think marketers are still going to want to be able to call up, talk to a human, and say, \" What's going on. Why is this working? Why isn't it? What are we doing about it? What are we going to be doing next? What's coming on the horizon? What are you thinking about? Not just log into a product and hope for the best.",[14,1674,1675],{},"Alex 29:01",[14,1677,1678],{},"I think also the creative piece is interesting, like we talked earlier about hallucinations and stuff. Like, I've been running this open claw for, I think, two months now, and I asked it to schedule content for my own social media as a test, and it doesn't post it, so it just sets up the drafts in my Telegram, and I trained it on all of my social media posts from LinkedIn, Twitter. I dumped all that content from when I signed up to those services into files. I dumped that into the open claw, and the output has been very disappointing from a creative perspective, bang average. And if that's a representation of the creative for all of this stuff that's coming, then the creativity is still going to be the difference.",[14,1680,1681],{},"Jake 29:49",[14,1683,1684],{},"The difference is, got it workflow design, that's the difference, like the creativity and how you design the workflows, what will effectively all. To adjust the endpoint from the average to something that's unique.",[14,1686,1687],{},"Alex 30:06",[14,1689,1690],{},"But you still need a human in the loop, essentially that, yeah, yeah. And also brainstorming and coming up with ideas and trends, jumping on trends, and humor. I mean, they can't do humor, and humor is a big part of barking like the guys are cutting through the noise online. I've got that, that edge in terms of humor, for sure.",[14,1692,1693],{},"Jake 30:29",[14,1695,1696],{},"You know, I've got Alex, when is it is it time? I'm not sure.",[14,1698,1699],{},"Alex 30:34",[14,1701,1702],{},"It's time. Is it time? You have time for one more question?",[14,1704,1705],{},"Jake 30:37",[14,1707,1708],{},"I think it's another question. Then, then it's time. Yeah, okay, yeah, I was, I was gonna say, Kerry, what do you think in the last, I mean, Alex, you said it was about it was the end of it was 2023. We really started seeing this big impact. I still remember when weird we were working with the Chat GPT and nobody else had figured it out at that point. It was just us. But what do you think's been maybe the biggest disruption that you've personally experienced in the last two, two and a bit years?",[14,1710,1711],{},"Kerry Guard 31:16",[14,1713,1714],{},"So I work on websites, my husband is an engineer, and so he taught me how to do just enough to get by with building websites using NextJS, Tailwind, and In View, and it's night and day in terms of what a the caliber of what I can produce. Like, I had one website where it was for a local moving company out in Ohio, and I was like, this is a moving company. Like, this website needs to move. So I was able to create so much thoughtful animation, right just on word, like, just having, if I'm talking about things rearranging, you know, having the words come in and rearrange to the right point, or the only thing you'll have to lift is your coffee, and having that word lift come in, right? So not having overdone it, being really thoughtful and intentional about it, but things I wouldn't have been able to do before because a I didn't know how, and to figure it out would have taken me ages. So I just didn't think it was worth it, right? But now I can add just that little bit of extra flurry to for that customer engagement, right? And that AHA and that wow moment that I wasn't able to do before. And I think that's really again, coming back to what I said earlier. That's the power of AI when you put the tool in the hands of people who have a really good foundational understanding of how things are supposed to work. The output is just so much more phenomenal than what we could have ever done before. And that's that's been the most disruptive, I think, for me personally, and what I'm looking forward to doing more of in the future.",[14,1716,1717],{},"Jake 32:58",[14,1719,1720],{},"Alex, it's a good setup. Very good step. Okay, Kerry, it's time for the final question of the show. Brace yourself. It gets everybody. It's future predictions. What are your future predictions? It could be about anything. It could be your life, your work, the world. Go. Could be agencies?",[14,1722,1723],{},"Kerry Guard 33:22",[14,1725,1726],{},"Yeah, I think, I think we're on a on a turning point with search engine optimization in particular. I think it's very disjointed right now. I think people don't know what to do about it. If I have clients showing up every day asking me, \" How do I show up in chat? GPT, right? Like, that's my traffic is dropping 40%, what do I do about it? So I think the whole marketing, how we do marketing, is about to sort of turn on its head, in regards to what we could get away with before that we can't get away with now, like we could do marketing without true product market fit, right? We could skirt the edges. We could outspend our competitors. We could just have a bigger sales team. And now, if we don't have real product market fit, meaning a problem we really solve that no one else solves, or in a different way, in a way that nobody else solves it, and talk about it in that way consistently almost everywhere, then we're going, we're never going to be found, because you can spend all the dollars and all the land to get seen, but then if people are trying to search for you, to validate what they're seeing, and they can't find you, then your brand is never going to grow and evolve. And so I think we're, we're at a turning point right now with how we show up, from, you know, in marketing, of really having to slow down for a second and understand our customers and really what they go through on a daily basis. How our products show up and support them. And I think we're going to have less products be successful, but they're going to be the better products in the long run anyway. And the marketing is going to get better in doing so and supporting that. It's going to be the next five to 10 years is gonna be really interesting in how AI search, or calling it search visibility optimization, how that really impacts what products actually make it.",[14,1728,1729],{},"Alex 35:29",[14,1731,1732],{},"So 10 blue links are dead, or, Oh yeah, they're dead.",[14,1734,1735],{},"Kerry Guard 35:35",[14,1737,1738],{},"It's, it's a leading indicator, like being knowing that you're ranking top for that keyword in validation to what people are searching for in llms is a leading indicator to the answer engines and to LLMs to say they are an authoritative voice in this space, but it's only one indicator out of many. So yes, you need that, but it's not the only thing you need.",[14,1740,1741],{},"Jake 35:57",[14,1743,1744],{},"I was actually that brings me back. I was about to say this earlier. I'm glad that you reminded me, but I do feel like when the whole LLM SEO, call it what you will, you're more of an expert in it than me. People like, Oh, you've got to hack Reddit, spam Reddit, and Quora, and you'll rank. I think that those kind of tactics are going to disappear, because I agree, I think it's going to be, is this product, or is this service, a credible product or service, not one that's just game to the system, and because we've got the LLM, you'll be able to figure out which ones are gamers and which ones are the real deal quicker.",[14,1746,1747],{},"Kerry Guard 36:39",[14,1749,1750],{},"Yeah. People are panicking right now because there's misinformation out there about their products, because people are gaming the system, but they just need to get out there and keep doing what they're doing. And white hat, black hat's always been a problem, right? So the white hat tactics are always going to win out. Google and Claude, especially, are going to lean into that user experience and always prioritize the user, and in doing so, they're going to prioritize the brands that are showing up in the most morale, the moral way, for sure, in the long run.",[14,1752,1753],{},"Alex 37:13",[14,1755,1756],{},"Oh, not Nope. Did the good guys win? Yeah, that's nice for a change. Normally, we end on like a doom I do more kind of note, so that's good, okay. All right, let's have you back on Kerry in like, a year and see how things are shaping up. Let's do it awesome. All right, guys, that was good. See you in the next one. Take care. Bye. Bye.",[1758,1759],"br",{},{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":1761},[1762,1763,1764],{"id":1479,"depth":297,"text":1480},{"id":77,"depth":297,"text":77},{"id":1494,"depth":291,"text":1495,"children":1765},[1766],{"id":1509,"depth":297,"text":1510},"leadership","2026-03-20T12:00:00Z","Kerry joins Alex and Jake on the Hypeworks Podcast to break down how AI is reshaping agencies—creating both risk and opportunity.","\u002Fimages\u002Fhypeworks.webp","Hype Works  Podcast",{"_schema":1773},"default",31,"\u002Fblog\u002Fleadership\u002Fai-agencies-and-the-future-of-expertise-with-kerry-guard",{"title":1473,"description":1769},"blog\u002Fleadership\u002Fai-agencies-and-the-future-of-expertise-with-kerry-guard","yBDUVpqNHe1mAqMhTZo4o6upZlFzj9x0Z0rqEqyKhL0",[1780,1834],{"id":1781,"title":9,"body":1782,"date":7,"description":1817,"extension":318,"images":1818,"isLeader":322,"jobTitle":1820,"linkedIn":1821,"meta":1822,"name":9,"navigation":322,"path":1824,"quote":1825,"quoteCite":1826,"ref":1827,"seo":1828,"sequence":1829,"stem":1830,"team":1831,"twitter":1821,"updated":7,"website":1832,"__hash__":1833},"team\u002Fteam\u002Fkerry-guard.md",{"type":11,"value":1783,"toc":1814},[1784,1789,1797,1805,1809],[14,1785,1788],{"className":1786},[1787],"text-lg","Kerry Guard (she\u002Fher) is a mom of twins - boy and a girl. She understands what work life balance really looks like and is on a mission to build a company that honors parents having a career and a life. She’s out to prove you really can have both with policies like ensuring 20 days of vacation each year, no client emails after 6PM or weekends, unlimited sick days, and everyday flexibility.",[14,1790,1791,1792,1796],{},"She also hosts our podcast, ",[206,1793,1795],{"href":1794},"\u002Fpodcasts\u002Fmarketing-leaders\u002F","Back on T-R-A-C-K",", which brings eight digital marketing experts to your ears every quarter.",[14,1798,1799,1800,1804],{},"Kerry is responsible for HR. If you’d like to join MKG where people are first and your expertise matter, Kerry will be with you through the entire interview process ensuring each candidate meets the necessary requirements and gets a fair shot. Want to join MKG and Kerry’s mission of bringing People First to as many people as possible? Check out our ",[206,1801,1803],{"href":1802},"\u002Fabout\u002Fjobs\u002F","Jobs page"," and see if we have a position right for you!",[81,1806,1808],{"id":1807},"fun-facts","Fun facts",[46,1810,1811],{},[49,1812,1813],{},"Kerry now lives in Guernsey — a tiny nook in the world between England and France. Come visit for a spot of tea any time!",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":1815},[1816],{"id":1807,"depth":297,"text":1808},"Meet Kerry Guard, one of MKG Marketing’s founders. She currently fills the role of CEO of MKG as well as hosting the podcast, Back on T-R-A-C-K.",{"landscape":1819},"kerry-guard.webp","Founder & CEO","kerryguard",{"imageDescription":1823},"Kerry Guard, MKG Marketing’s Owner\u002FCEO, stands on a street in Guernsey with the Town Church behind her | MKG Marketing","\u002Fteam\u002Fkerry-guard","I don’t have to chase extraordinary moments to find happiness — it’s right in front of me if I’m paying attention and practicing gratitude.","Brené Brown","kerry-guard",{"description":1817},1,"team\u002Fkerry-guard","Leadership","https:\u002F\u002Fkerryguard.com","YRwfwzeXtTw6ls2uWUIyTaK1IWSJr1nWG76vYHgqCgU",{"id":1835,"title":9,"body":1836,"date":7,"description":1883,"extension":318,"images":1884,"isLeader":1885,"jobTitle":1886,"linkedIn":1821,"meta":1887,"name":9,"navigation":322,"path":1888,"quote":1825,"quoteCite":1826,"ref":1827,"seo":1889,"sequence":1890,"stem":1891,"team":7,"twitter":1821,"updated":7,"website":7,"__hash__":1892},"team\u002Fteam\u002Fmarketing-leadership\u002Fkerry-guard.md",{"type":11,"value":1837,"toc":1880},[1838,1842,1865,1871,1874,1876],[14,1839,1841],{"className":1840},[1787],"\nKerry Guard (she\u002Fher) is the strategist founders call when they are tired of guessing. As the CEO of MKG Marketing, she doesn’t just run the agency; she steps into the trenches with clients as a Fractional Marketing Leader. She specializes in helping founders navigate the \"Growth Valley\"—building the systems, strategy, and teams required to scale from traction to expansion.",[14,1843,1844,1845,1848,1849,1852,1853,1856,1857,1860,1861,1864],{},"Her recent work focuses on bringing enterprise-level rigor to growing businesses. She serves as the strategic marketing engine for a diverse portfolio, including ",[52,1846,1847],{},"Rutkowski Law Firm",", ",[52,1850,1851],{},"Fulcrum Enterprise Group",", and ",[52,1854,1855],{},"Premier Office Movers",", where she aligns revenue goals with marketing execution. Whether she is translating complex tech into a go-to-market narrative for ",[52,1858,1859],{},"Avalanche Fusion",", or helping ",[52,1862,1863],{},"Extraordinary Advisors"," amplify their message, Kerry brings clarity and momentum to every leadership team she joins.",[14,1866,1867,1868,1870],{},"She is also the host of ",[206,1869,1795],{"href":1794},", where she interviews CMOs and Founders to uncover the human stories behind high-growth companies.",[14,1872,1873],{},"Kerry proves that high performance doesn't require burnout. As a mom of twins, she built MKG on a \"People First\" methodology—championing policies like 20 vacation days and zero after-hours emails—because she knows that rested, respected experts drive the best ROI.",[81,1875,1808],{"id":1807},[46,1877,1878],{},[49,1879,1813],{},{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":1881},[1882],{"id":1807,"depth":297,"text":1808},"Meet Kerry Guard, MKG Marketing’s CEO and Principal Strategist. She works directly with founders to build scalable marketing engines while hosting the podcast, Back on T-R-A-C-K.",{"landscape":1819},false,"Fractional Marketing Leaders",{"imageDescription":1823},"\u002Fteam\u002Fmarketing-leadership\u002Fkerry-guard",{"description":1883},5,"team\u002Fmarketing-leadership\u002Fkerry-guard","oOXvRk_JAfbvrAQoDmPize2X6zquuQG1YD5msODvKcE",{"id":1894,"title":1895,"author":7,"authors":1896,"body":1897,"caption":7,"category":1767,"date":2610,"description":2611,"extension":318,"img":2612,"imgAlt":2613,"meta":2614,"minutes":2615,"navigation":322,"path":2616,"seo":2617,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":2618,"updated":7,"__hash__":2619,"people":2620},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fleadership\u002Fhow-to-handle-stress-and-pressure-as-a-marketing-ceo-and-parent.md","How to Handle Pressure as a CEO & Parent",[9],{"type":11,"value":1898,"toc":2603},[1899,1901,1908,1912,1938,1940,1945,1947,1950,1953,1956,1959,1962,1965,1968,1971,1974,1977,1980,1983,1986,1989,1992,1995,1998,2001,2004,2007,2010,2012,2015,2018,2021,2024,2027,2030,2033,2036,2039,2042,2045,2048,2051,2054,2057,2059,2062,2065,2068,2071,2074,2077,2080,2083,2086,2089,2092,2095,2098,2101,2104,2107,2110,2113,2116,2119,2122,2125,2128,2131,2134,2137,2140,2143,2146,2148,2151,2154,2157,2160,2163,2166,2169,2172,2175,2178,2181,2184,2187,2190,2193,2196,2199,2202,2205,2208,2211,2214,2217,2220,2223,2226,2229,2232,2235,2238,2241,2244,2247,2249,2252,2255,2258,2261,2264,2267,2270,2273,2276,2279,2282,2285,2288,2291,2294,2296,2299,2302,2305,2308,2311,2314,2317,2320,2323,2326,2329,2331,2334,2337,2340,2343,2346,2349,2352,2355,2358,2361,2364,2367,2370,2373,2376,2379,2382,2385,2388,2391,2394,2397,2400,2403,2406,2409,2412,2415,2418,2421,2424,2427,2430,2433,2436,2439,2442,2445,2448,2451,2454,2457,2460,2463,2466,2469,2472,2475,2478,2481,2484,2487,2490,2493,2496,2499,2502,2505,2508,2511,2514,2517,2520,2523,2526,2529,2532,2535,2538,2541,2544,2547,2550,2553,2556,2559,2562,2565,2568,2571,2574,2577,2580,2583,2586,2589,2592,2595,2598,2601],[81,1900,1480],{"id":1479},[14,1902,1903,1904,1907],{},"Our CEO, Kerry Guard, joined Staci Gray on her podcast, ",[38,1905,1906],{},"The Rooted Founder Show",", to share her journey of balancing motherhood and entrepreneurship. Kerry discusses how MKG Marketing, a people-first remote business, navigates the challenges of managing work while raising children at home. She emphasizes the importance of psychological safety, setting boundaries, and maintaining a supportive company culture.",[81,1909,1911],{"id":1910},"key-moments","Key Moments",[132,1913,1914,1920,1926,1932],{},[49,1915,1916,1919],{},[52,1917,1918],{},"Control and Acceptance",": Kerry talks about the importance of focusing on what one can control, particularly one's own behavior and reactions, in both personal and professional life.",[49,1921,1922,1925],{},[52,1923,1924],{},"Balancing Work and Family",": Kerry shares her approach to juggling work and family responsibilities, emphasizing the need to prioritize and be present in the moment.",[49,1927,1928,1931],{},[52,1929,1930],{},"Setting Boundaries",": Kerry outlines how she sets clear markers for work communication to protect family time and ensure a healthy work-life balance.",[49,1933,1934,1937],{},[52,1935,1936],{},"Personal Growth and Therapy",": Kerry talks about her personal journey in managing stress and anxiety through cognitive behavioral therapy and mentorship.",[24,1939,1495],{"id":1494},[1497,1941],{"style":1500,"src":1942,"width":1943,"height":1944,"frameBorder":1504,"allowFullScreen":322,"allow":1505,"loading":1506},"https:\u002F\u002Fopen.spotify.com\u002Fembed\u002Fepisode\u002F314QW9k5sNix2lhk2LXxKL?utm_source=generator","100%",352,[81,1946,1510],{"id":1509},[14,1948,1949],{},"Kerry Guard [00:00:00]:",[14,1951,1952],{},"And what it came down to was all about what I can control, right? What I can and can't control. And what I can't control, as much as I would love to, is other people. And so it's all about how I behave in relation to that, right. And that's all I can control, is me. And that's really the path that's gotten us, I think, to where we are today. To say, like, okay, what could I have done differently? And mistakes happen, and we're all human. And it's not about dwelling on the mistake. It's just recognizing it happened.",[14,1954,1955],{},"Kerry Guard [00:00:37]:",[14,1957,1958],{},"And now what are we going to do about it to make it better?",[14,1960,1961],{},"Staci Gray [00:00:40]:",[14,1963,1964],{},"Well, welcome. We have another rooted founder episode today. I'm here with Carrie. She's been on once before with her business partner, but I wanted to have her back on to talk about motherhood and entrepreneurship. The journey, one I have not personally been on yet, but I do have 15 nieces and nephews. But I watch a lot of women navigate this, and I thought she would have such good words of wisdom because they have a people first business, a remote business. She works from home with kids, napping in the other room and all the things. So, Carrie, I'm happy you're back here with me today.",[14,1966,1967],{},"Kerry Guard [00:01:19]:",[14,1969,1970],{},"I'm excited to be back. Thank you so much for the invitation. Stacy, it's good to see you.",[14,1972,1973],{},"Staci Gray [00:01:24]:",[14,1975,1976],{},"You too. So, motherhood, entrepreneurship, napping, all the things. I am curious, like, people ask you, how do you balance it all? But for me, the thing that I feel like might help, folks, is the psychological burden of it all. Like, the tabs we have open in our brain as an entrepreneur, and then the tabs we have open in our brain for, like, the home life. How do you handle that side of it?",[14,1978,1979],{},"Kerry Guard [00:02:00]:",[14,1981,1982],{},"No grass growing under your feet. Stacy, buckle up. We are. We are on journey. Um, I would say the struggle is real. I like to think I'm not great at it, quite honestly. I mean, it's like a minute at a time, right? So what's on fire? The hottest right now?",[14,1984,1985],{},"Staci Gray [00:02:20]:",[14,1987,1988],{},"Yeah.",[14,1990,1991],{},"Kerry Guard [00:02:21]:",[14,1993,1994],{},"And on fire could mean just my kids asking for my attention and me being okay with that and recognizing that that's where my energy needs to be. And all these work tabs need to, you know, go on a different screen, you know? You know, we have multiple screens up sometimes, right? So it's like, okay, I'm going to slot work screen over here so that I can put mommy screen over here. And it's just reading the room, right? So a lot of times it's, it's, I mentioned it before you started recording. It's like minute, minute by minute and reading the room. Where are you right now?",[14,1996,1997],{},"Staci Gray [00:03:00]:",[14,1999,2000],{},"Last night we had our, we have a WTF family night. It's with the family and we call it WTF. And the local family comes over and we eat and we were, my significant other and I were both working all day, and then we felt like we were rushing to get to dinner. And I was like, I'm feeling like family is not the priority right now, and I'm feeling guilty about that. Like, I feel like I'd rather be working and that's not the place I really want to be in right now. Like, the family is important and it is more important to me. But it does feel at times like the urgency of certain business things or what's happening there seems more important. And I'm curious, like, how do you, I mean, I know we're not perfect and we make mistakes and, you know, the family member comes in and you're still on the computer, you're looking at your phone, but how do you, like, in those moments, drop in to be able to be present with the family?",[14,2002,2003],{},"Kerry Guard [00:04:06]:",[14,2005,2006],{},"You put it away, which I don't always do. This is a friendly reminder to myself that you don't take your phone to the dining room table.",[14,2008,2009],{},"Staci Gray [00:04:16]:",[14,2011,1988],{},[14,2013,2014],{},"Kerry Guard [00:04:17]:",[14,2016,2017],{},"And you put it away and you know that it'll be there when you get back, which is really hard because it piles on. Right. So I'm not saying this is like the perfect fix by any stretch of the imagination, but it is kind of, the only way to be present is to, is to put it away. Take off your watch. Don't get the notifications. I have very few notes, so I have my, so email is not a notification. I don't, I only get, I only get to see the notifications or know what's going on when I go into my inbox.",[14,2019,2020],{},"Staci Gray [00:04:57]:",[14,2022,2023],{},"I'm set up the same way.",[14,2025,2026],{},"Kerry Guard [00:04:59]:",[14,2028,2029],{},"Yeah, slack. Slack notifications I get because there's only a couple clients I have over there, and so if they're slacking me and you pay attention to that, and then I have my other chat channel with the team. We use zoom chat, and that's only people direct to message me and they have to tell me how urgent it is. Like red, this is on fire. I need you immediately. Yellow when the kids go to bed. If you could just pop on and just confirm this with me, that would be great. And green means I'll talk to you tomorrow about this.",[14,2031,2032],{},"Kerry Guard [00:05:34]:",[14,2034,2035],{},"But just so having those markers is really helpful in creating my own boundaries of, like, what I will and won't do. But it's a progress over perfection. Some days, the world's gonna feel on fire, and that's just where you are for right now. And you gotta be in work, and you're good. You know, it's a minute, like I said, a minute at a time of feeling like you're at a. You're at a spot where you can take a beat, go make dinner, get the kids to bed, and then resume, and you might get interrupted in that time. And that's just kind of the. How the day rolls.",[14,2037,2038],{},"Kerry Guard [00:06:07]:",[14,2040,2041],{},"And you know that tomorrow you can try and do better. But, yeah, it's. It's a struggle. I mean, I know I'm gonna. I know that my kids are gonna have memories of growing up saying, but, mom, you had all those meetings, and, mom, it felt like work was more important than me, but, mom, it's gonna be like, yeah, buddy, I appreciate that. And one day, when you have something that you've built and you feel really proud of, and you're really excited about, you're gonna be here. And I did the best I could with what I had, and it was a balancing act, I think, especially as women. You know, my husband.",[14,2043,2044],{},"Kerry Guard [00:06:43]:",[14,2046,2047],{},"My husband's older than me. He's about ten years older than me. He had the heyday of his. That's like, he's not doing well. Now he is. He's working for a really great company. He's doing really well. But the heyday of his career was before we had kids.",[14,2049,2050],{},"Kerry Guard [00:06:55]:",[14,2052,2053],{},"Right. And so now I have to have the heyday of my career while we have kids.",[14,2055,2056],{},"Staci Gray [00:06:59]:",[14,2058,1988],{},[14,2060,2061],{},"Kerry Guard [00:07:01]:",[14,2063,2064],{},"And that's partially justification for myself of, like, this was the path I chose, and I wanted to have a career, and I wanted to have kids. And I'm taking a day at a time, and I know what my values are. I say to my. I just had it to my daughter. She's so sick of me saying it. She's so sick of me saying it.",[14,2066,2067],{},"Staci Gray [00:07:21]:",[14,2069,2070],{},"How old is she?",[14,2072,2073],{},"Kerry Guard [00:07:22]:",[14,2075,2076],{},"She's eight.",[14,2078,2079],{},"Staci Gray [00:07:23]:",[14,2081,2082],{},"Eight.",[14,2084,2085],{},"Kerry Guard [00:07:25]:",[14,2087,2088],{},"She was asking for something or other, and I was like, ellie, what's my job? To make sure I'm happy, and to make sure I'm healthy, and to make sure I'm a thoughtful contributor to society. Right? Like, I know that decisions I'm making every day as it relates to work or kids has to contribute to those three things. Are they happy? Are they frustrated that I'm having a lot of meetings that are not present. Okay. I gotta make a change to that, right? I, are they healthy? Am I able to take time out of my day to go do the right food shopping and do the right planning that I need to do to make sure I have meals on the table at dinner time and breakfast and lunch? That's going to be healthy and contribute to that and am I sticking my ground? I know I'm really tired. Would I love to give her chocolate before bed because that's what she wants? Yes. Is that going to help or be a thought for contributor to society as well as be healthy and happy? Stick my grounds even though I'm exhausted from working all day and knowing I gotta walk into meetings tonight, like that's just, you know, my guiding, my guiding principles, so to speak, that help me push through.",[14,2090,2091],{},"Staci Gray [00:08:40]:",[14,2093,2094],{},"I love those. And you, I like the red, green, yellow. With your team, have you, what things have you set up with your team to protect your family life?",[14,2096,2097],{},"Kerry Guard [00:08:53]:",[14,2099,2100],{},"So that's one of them. I, I live by my words. So when they're having a family crisis or something's going on for them or they need to be, you know, with their family. Absolutely right. It's not double standard, it's 100%. And so I think leading by example is really important for both giving them the space to go take care of what they need to take care of and showcasing what it looks like for me to take care of what I need to take care of. And so my team, the way that we work remotely from an hour standpoint is very much about defining your hours and sticking to, they have to be somewhat consistent so we can plan accordingly for client meetings and to know if we're having an issue. We know when to get a hold of you internally.",[14,2102,2103],{},"Kerry Guard [00:09:42]:",[14,2105,2106],{},"Right. So I don't care what your hours are between 08:00 a.m. eastern to 08:00 p.m. western. But they have to be consistent. And it's actually 06:00 p.m. pacific. And so I see my team logging off every day at 506:00 their time, right.",[14,2108,2109],{},"Kerry Guard [00:10:02]:",[14,2111,2112],{},"Or whenever their hours are. And so that reminds me to stick to my hours, which are I take a break at five so I stop it. I'm only one in the UK so I have weird hours to my teeth, but I stop at five in theory and I go make dinner for my family and I have a nice dinner with my family. I help get the kids to bed, we have some family time in between. And then I come back on around 830 and I go to ten and so knowing what my hours are and trying to stick to those and then being clear what my hours are with the team, and I let them know. We have a channel in our Zoom chat called general, which is where you tell people where you are. So you say, when you're logging in, you say, when you're logging out, you say, if you gotta go pick up a kid, you say, we don't care. We just need to know because we're not in an office and can look over at your desk and see that you're not there.",[14,2114,2115],{},"Kerry Guard [00:10:57]:",[14,2117,2118],{},"Right. So we need to know that you're coming back. Right. So it's really important that we're open and transparent. So I try and do a. A good job, and I'm not the best at it. I take full responsibility for that, but I try and do a good job to say, hey, I'm online. It's 12:00 my time.",[14,2120,2121],{},"Kerry Guard [00:11:16]:",[14,2123,2124],{},"I'm here for the next 5 hours, and then come 05:00 it's dinner time, and I'll be back. And I let them know when I'm back, and then I let them know when I'm out for the night. So being clear and consistent about where you are and what's going on, which is really hard. Really hard. There was a phase that I went through with my team when we were a bit younger where I was being judged for my behavior because I went out in the middle of the day to go have a bar class because I had to quickly head off because my two year old was having a meltdown. Like, I was being completely judged, and I was like, okay, we're doing a terrible job culture wise to cultivate this. If I'm being judged for how I want my team to be treated. Right.",[14,2126,2127],{},"Kerry Guard [00:12:00]:",[14,2129,2130],{},"So we had to make some changes to make sure that. That. That that change was happening.",[14,2132,2133],{},"Staci Gray [00:12:06]:",[14,2135,2136],{},"I think a lot of people will find themselves in this situation because I've had personal conversations with entrepreneurs where they've even asked their team permission to work out in the morning before coming into the. To the office feeling like they were being judged, like they're not doing enough, they're not showing up the way they should be showing up. So it is a culture reset. Like, how. How would somebody do that? Like, how did you guys do that? Change it from, like, a judgment culture to an acceptance culture around standards takes time.",[14,2138,2139],{},"Kerry Guard [00:12:43]:",[14,2141,2142],{},"Nothing happens overnight.",[14,2144,2145],{},"Staci Gray [00:12:44]:",[14,2147,1988],{},[14,2149,2150],{},"Kerry Guard [00:12:45]:",[14,2152,2153],{},"Your values are your core. So our value has always been people first, but we've had to redefine that over the years to make sure that it's inclusive. So originally, when we defined the value, it was very much about Mike and I taking care of the team, and we weren't included in that. So we had to extend that to how we're all people and we all need to be taken care of, not just internally as a team, but how that translates to our clients. And then it even transformed beyond that to how we take care of our clients customers, in the messaging we build in, how we make sure that we're not advertising in a way that we wouldn't wanna be advertised to, that our emails are really thoughtful and all of those things. So it really had to look at our values and say, why aren't these working the way that they're supposed to? And redefining them that way? So that was definitely a help. I also think Mike and I, like I mentioned, I'm not great at this, but I was really bad at it. I'm not great at it now, but I was terrible at it where I didn't think the rules applied to me.",[14,2155,2156],{},"Kerry Guard [00:13:58]:",[14,2158,2159],{},"So I didn't have to put everything in Asana and put velocity behind it and say what I was doing for the day because nobody checked on I'm non billable and I'm getting stuff done and I'm just making sure your bills are paid and that's all you need to worry about. To an extent. Yeah, to an extent. Right. And also, I felt like you don't need to know where I am, you just need to know that your bills are being paid and you're cool. To an extent. Like, if they can't see that I'm logging on and logging off for the day, and when I'm trackable of when they can get a hold of me, then how can I hold them to the same standard?",[14,2161,2162],{},"Staci Gray [00:14:33]:",[14,2164,2165],{},"Right?",[14,2167,2168],{},"Kerry Guard [00:14:33]:",[14,2170,2171],{},"So I had to change my behavior too, and take accountability of that as well as holding them accountable. At the same time, it felt very much like a double standard. And the perception, the perception was a double standard, and I could have doubled down and be like, it's none of your business and I'm your boss and I am paying the bills, but is that how I want to be treated? Am I upholding the values that way? No. I'd wanted a transparent, accountable owner, and I'd want to know that they're living by the same standards that they're holding me to.",[14,2173,2174],{},"Staci Gray [00:15:07]:",[14,2176,2177],{},"Yeah. I think what you said is, like, we're all humans. Like, even if you're a CEO or you're an individual contributor, we're all human beings and we all have demons and darkness and shadow sides that trip us up and hang us up. And sometimes, like, bosses could be like, well, it's my company. I get to do what I want and not address their own shadow or their own challenges. And you did the exact opposite, which probably contributed so much to the culture change, because it gave permission for the rest of your company, all the other humans, to own their shadows and own their, their darkness and almost create, like, a healing environment for everybody. Did that happen in some way in your company?",[14,2179,2180],{},"Kerry Guard [00:16:01]:",[14,2182,2183],{},"Yeah, they call it. What do they call it? There's like, so when you join MKG, there's like a three month, I call it trial period, but it really is a two way street. We've had. We'd have plenty of people leave us as much as we've declined them.",[14,2185,2186],{},"Staci Gray [00:16:18]:",[14,2188,2189],{},"Right.",[14,2191,2192],{},"Kerry Guard [00:16:18]:",[14,2194,2195],{},"So I want to be clear on that. It's a trial period, but it's for both remote agency, we're a small company. Taking on a new employee is a huge risk for us and for them, you know, before they get into our benefits and all of that. Like, there needs to be a three month, are we good here? And what I realized in doing that and taking those three months to, like, settle into the company and to see if this is really for you is the healing process, because it's the aha. Moments through that of, oh, what they said is their values. Okay, so you are people first organization. And I said I had to go pick up a sick kid and you, and I didn't have to ask permission. And I just said, I'm going to pick up the kid.",[14,2197,2198],{},"Kerry Guard [00:17:01]:",[14,2200,2201],{},"And I was able to do that and have it held against me. Cool. You have the MKG standards, but it's not just this weird woohoo sort of black box. You have them laid out in terms of what it means to create deliverables. And then you have all the templates that go through deliverables and examples, and then you outline what professionalism is. Okay, I'm gonna be showing up on camera, and I need to look my best and like, okay, I know what that means. And so it's like this healing period in terms of sticking to our word and people being able to see that, of like, oh, you're not just pulling the wool over my eyes. You're not just promising me the world.",[14,2203,2204],{},"Kerry Guard [00:17:44]:",[14,2206,2207],{},"And then I'm gonna show up on day one and you're gonna dump everything onto my plate and expect me to figure it out. Right? I come from a generation. I just had a wonderful conversation with one of my employees about this, how we are the generation of figure it outers. Because we had to, right? Because we were those people who showed up and were promised the world and then dropped, you know, a $10 million account on our laps and told us to figure it out. And I just don't want people to have to live that way. We don't have to figure. We want people who are problem solvers, and we want people who want to figure it out because it's a problem and it's a puzzle, and, like, ugh. But we don't even have to figure out, like, the expectations and the intentions and, like, am I doing the right thing? Is this where I'm supposed to be? Like, what's supposed to be happening? Like, no.",[14,2209,2210],{},"Kerry Guard [00:18:33]:",[14,2212,2213],{},"Like, that's defined, and that's all right here, and you're cool, and you have to prove that it takes a minute. And so it's like, it's the PTSD cleansing, so to speak, of, like, all the other places you've come from. And then you show up here, and we're people of our word, and we're really buttoned up, and we have templates for everything, and we use asana and product management, but we're not micromanaging. And it's like this beautiful balance, and is this too good to be true? But, yeah, people do. They show up, they face their demons, and then they settle in.",[14,2215,2216],{},"Staci Gray [00:19:06]:",[14,2218,2219],{},"It's great. Yeah. Because their nervous system calms down. They feel like they're safe to be in an environment that they can actually work, do their best work. It's going to be recognized and rewarded.",[14,2221,2222],{},"Kerry Guard [00:19:19]:",[14,2224,2225],{},"Mm hmm. They do. And I would say the other piece to that that's really important in building a culture around being people. First is the feedback loop. So not sleeping things under the carpet or pretending they didn't happen, not being able to have crucial conversations because it's hard and it's icky. It makes everybody fidget. But building into your culture of, like, well, this is just what we do. So every day as the CEO, I show up every 90 days with my team.",[14,2227,2228],{},"Kerry Guard [00:19:50]:",[14,2230,2231],{},"I meet with each person individually, and I hear about one thing they're super passionate and proud of that they did in the last 90 days and something that maybe didn't go quite as well or got in their way, or if they could have a magic wand and me as CEO could fix it, what would that be? Then my third question is always, do you have feedback from me? Do you have questions for me? How can I help? Right. So, in showing up as a leader of, like, I'm not afraid to hear what you got from me or to hear what's hard for you, or to hear that this thing, this perception I created or this promise you feel like I made, that I didn't pan out. Like, no, I can't fix what I don't know. So let's have it right? And then we're able to do that on a flip side. Right. So every month they meet with their manager, our people and communities leader, and she gives them feedback. Hey, here's what I heard from the team of what's going on. Here's the stuff that's going really well.",[14,2233,2234],{},"Kerry Guard [00:20:51]:",[14,2236,2237],{},"And by the way, here are some things that have caused some friction that we need to work through. So let's put together a plan and let's talk about how we're going to do that. Right. So you have to be able to create a culture where feedback doesn't feel like you're in trouble. And that also takes time to create that trust of, I'm getting feedback. That means I'm gonna get fired. No, not necessarily. Now, if you create the same mistake over and over again, I'm still having this conversation.",[14,2239,2240],{},"Kerry Guard [00:21:21]:",[14,2242,2243],{},"Three months later, that's a different conversation. But if this is the first time giving it to you, and we're gonna talk about a plan and make it better, then no one's getting fired, no one's in trouble. Right. And so I think that's really important to helping people feel that psychological safety of building into the culture this thing that just always happens.",[14,2245,2246],{},"Staci Gray [00:21:43]:",[14,2248,1988],{},[14,2250,2251],{},"Kerry Guard [00:21:43]:",[14,2253,2254],{},"We give each other feedback. It's just what we do.",[14,2256,2257],{},"Staci Gray [00:21:46]:",[14,2259,2260],{},"Yeah. Have you ever had an experience with yourself or your team where feedback, maybe how it was presented or how it was received was a little clunky and it created more tension and friction and how do you guys navigate that always? Yeah.",[14,2262,2263],{},"Kerry Guard [00:22:07]:",[14,2265,2266],{},"It's so hard to give feedback. It's so hard. And I've plenty of stories where I've done it really, really poorly. I don't have great examples or mentors where I was given feedback really well. And so you take what you know based off of what happened for you. Right. And so it's an iterative process to figure out how to do it better. I'm still working on it, but at the end of the day, it is about creating that psychological safety of first understanding where somebody is.",[14,2268,2269],{},"Kerry Guard [00:22:37]:",[14,2271,2272],{},"Right. So before I give this feedback to you, I need to understand where you're at that even caused this thing to happen. So I asked some questions like, how's it going, how are you? How'd this meeting go? That meeting was really hard. What was really hard about it? The client just came at me like 1000 miles an hour with all of these questions and I didn't feel like I have the answers. Oh, yeah, that sounds really hard to not have the answers skills. Really hard. How do you feel like you handled it? I had to do so good. Yeah, I could see that.",[14,2274,2275],{},"Kerry Guard [00:23:08]:",[14,2277,2278],{},"You know what? I watched the video and I have to agree with you. That feel, that felt really hard. That felt really hard to watch. That felt like you had a really tough time. And I'd like to figure out how we can make you feel more prepared for when that happens, because that's gonna happen again. That's just gonna happen again. So how do we prepare you for helping that not feel like you're caught off guard? Right. And so when you approach the conversation with first creating that psychological safety through validation and mirroring, then you can give the feedback in a way that they've already acknowledged that it happened.",[14,2280,2281],{},"Kerry Guard [00:23:44]:",[14,2283,2284],{},"Right. They've tripped over their own truth. Didn't go so well. Or maybe they think it went splendidly. Oh, yeah. That meeting was awesome. I nailed it. Right.",[14,2286,2287],{},"Kerry Guard [00:23:54]:",[14,2289,2290],{},"It's like I rewatched that meeting and I rewatched that meeting because I got feedback from the team that they didn't feel like it went so well. And so here's how we saw that going. Right. So there's a way to approach it from either side, whether they feel like it went really well or it didn't, but it leaves gives you a way to have them paint the picture first versus you just dumping on them.",[14,2292,2293],{},"Staci Gray [00:24:19]:",[14,2295,1988],{},[14,2297,2298],{},"Kerry Guard [00:24:19]:",[14,2300,2301],{},"Right. Showing up and being like, I have tough feedback to give you and this is how this went. That give yourself an hour. If you got to deliver tough feedback.",[14,2303,2304],{},"Staci Gray [00:24:31]:",[14,2306,2307],{},"That's such a good point.",[14,2309,2310],{},"Kerry Guard [00:24:32]:",[14,2312,2313],{},"Give yourself an hour.",[14,2315,2316],{},"Staci Gray [00:24:33]:",[14,2318,2319],{},"I was going to ask you, because that when you're over capacity as a leader or any of your leaders on your team are over capacity, I find one of the things that suffers is the patience to have the long enough meetings to handle them well. So when you guys are stressed, or maybe you do it preventatively, but like when, when the pressure's on, like the pipeline's full, it's coming, you got a full book of business, you got the whole team going, you're working on improving processes, you're maybe even hiring. And then you have like some, some infrastructure struggles or a client meeting doesn't go well. How do you maybe as a leader or even within your company calm everybody down to get back to a place of psychological safety and then have the emotional capacity or even the logistical capacity to show up in that way.",[14,2321,2322],{},"Kerry Guard [00:25:30]:",[14,2324,2325],{},"Well, again, it's not something that you do in one swoop, and then it's done.",[14,2327,2328],{},"Staci Gray [00:25:36]:",[14,2330,2165],{},[14,2332,2333],{},"Kerry Guard [00:25:37]:",[14,2335,2336],{},"Right. It's an interval of process where you show up every day to create that. So a great example is during COVID right? Talk about stress and feeling stretched thin and our clients asking for the moon and our team having kids underfoot for the first time and dogs running around and, you know, the world basically feeling like it's on fire at the same time. And so I showed up every day. I did a daily video, and I said, you already know this, but I'm just going to recap. Here's what's happening in the world. Here's the COVID numbers. Remember, here's how we manage this on a day to day process at MKG, right? So we know you have kids at home.",[14,2338,2339],{},"Kerry Guard [00:26:22]:",[14,2341,2342],{},"We know you're doing your best, and we just need to know what's going on. So you need to tell. You need to raise your hand and let us know how to help you, because we can't see you. We don't know what your personal situation is. So it's constantly reminding them that, like, we are here and giving examples ourselves of, like, how we've actually. This just happened. It's a great example. So this just happened to me.",[14,2344,2345],{},"Kerry Guard [00:26:48]:",[14,2347,2348],{},"I really missed marketing. I missed being a marketer. And so I got back into the marketing seat and I took on my own clients, and I became billable, which also helped our bottom line. And so I knew the team needed it. I was like, okay, we can't hire, but our margins are stretched in where are we going to get more billable? So I took on a few clients, and I'm about to take on a third, and I raised my hand and said, what I've been doing for these last two clients isn't sustainable. I'm just holding it together, and I can do so much better if I just had a little help. I said, here's what I'm thinking about, and here's what I need. And I didn't even problem solve it.",[14,2350,2351],{},"Kerry Guard [00:27:33]:",[14,2353,2354],{},"I just said, here's what I like. Here's where I'm at in terms of the problem I'm having, and here's what I think I need. And then I let the team come to me and say, okay, we think you need a project manager. We think Avery would be really great. I think you two would work really well together. And then you get this accountability person every day. That's like working with you on your schedule. This sounds amazing.",[14,2356,2357],{},"Kerry Guard [00:27:53]:",[14,2359,2360],{},"And so today, every Monday, I send out a team newsletter that is a reminder of what our rocks are, any hot new deals we have in the pipe, any team updates, and then important dates. Right. The CEO weekly one pager. It's from one of the scale up books that we've all read. And when I send the newsletter, I told the story about how part of our values of the MKG standard is that no person's an island, not even me. And it comes from a place of where I was. I held a $10 million account when I was an assistant media planner, reporting to a VP with nobody in between, nobody checking my work, and the stress and anxiety that caused. And so, as part of our values that went in there, no person is an island.",[14,2362,2363],{},"Kerry Guard [00:28:43]:",[14,2365,2366],{},"And recently, I found myself to be an island. And, of course, correct. And I told this story. And then today in our. In a meeting with the team, somebody raised their hand and said, I don't normally talk about myself. It's kind of super hard. But I'm structurally thin, and I'm really nervous about anything that's going on. So I'm going to be calling on people for some backup.",[14,2368,2369],{},"Staci Gray [00:29:05]:",[14,2371,2372],{},"Yes.",[14,2374,2375],{},"Kerry Guard [00:29:06]:",[14,2377,2378],{},"Right? Like, okay. Yes. I'm so glad that I gave you the voice to feel like you could do that. Maybe she, you know, they would have done that regardless of whether I said anything. But there was sort of these correlation elements that happened, and then they were able to raise their hand and say, actually. And so I think that's really important when you're structurally thin and to give yourself space to say, hey, I need some help up here, and to lead as a leader. And I'm not sure I answered your question, but it just felt like, you know, when you're stretched really thin, the best thing you do is ask for help.",[14,2380,2381],{},"Staci Gray [00:29:41]:",[14,2383,2384],{},"Yes. And I think also, I love. I love that value of not being an island, especially being a remote team. You're already isolated and you're working from home, and maybe you go to a coffee shop or maybe you go to sit someplace at the library, but you're still alone. And when you do, are working on things. I know my team. They love just the thought partnership. Even if it's nothing tactical help.",[14,2386,2387],{},"Staci Gray [00:30:09]:",[14,2389,2390],{},"Like, it's. It's the thought partnership, the emotional support. And if we can do that inside of our companies and teach people how to ask for help, because it's not happening, people feel like they have to be alone and do things on their own and just gird theirselves up and be strong. Figure it outers. But it creates anxiety and it creates stress. And so I'm curious also, if all this work that you've been doing inside of your organization and the team culture, if any of it has impacted not just your family life, because I'm sure it's changed you as who you are at home, but your team, like, how they show up for their spouses or their kids at home, you know, I.",[14,2392,2393],{},"Kerry Guard [00:30:59]:",[14,2395,2396],{},"Don'T know the full extent of that, and I can't speak for them. What I can speak to is the fact that they know that it's okay to raise their hand when this happened. I have multiple people who have kids who are at that driving age, right? And they're like, my kid was just in the car accident, I gotta go. And all it is is heart emojis everywhere, right? All we can give them in that moment is 100%. Like, I had one person be like, I gotta go put on outside clothes and, like, go attend to my daughter. Like, absolutely. We got this, right? When they want to take a day off to go celebrate their kid's birthday, right? We have a policy of PTO, where it's a certain amount of days a year, use it or lose it by design, once you take PTO, we want you to go spend that birthday with your child. Yes.",[14,2398,2399],{},"Kerry Guard [00:31:57]:",[14,2401,2402],{},"Go have that slip and slide party. Yes. Right? Like, even though it's on a summer weekday. Go do that, please. That sounds awesome. The fact that they share pictures and we have a random channel, and people will post pictures of their vacation while they'll be on vacation away from work, but then they'll post pictures in the work channel about the great time they're having. Right? Like, so I don't know exactly how this is impacting their families. I don't have that information, but I have this anecdotal data that I have people who've been with us for anywhere from three to eight years.",[14,2404,2405],{},"Kerry Guard [00:32:35]:",[14,2407,2408],{},"Right. When you have that stickiness of an organization, you have to believe it's because of the values and the culture you create that, you know, people will slog through the toughest moments with you because they know when we come out the other side, you know, we'll take care of them through the slog as best we can, and we come out the other side. Yeah, it's. It's a wonderful place to be because they experienced it before the slack, and we'll get through the slog together, and we'll come out stronger for it. Right.",[14,2410,2411],{},"Staci Gray [00:33:10]:",[14,2413,2414],{},"I feel like that those seasons of hard forge teams, though, good teams, it's where you know who your ride or dies are, you know, who's in it with you, who's committed to growth, like, versus sitting out when it gets hard versus leaning in. It sounds like you guys have created such a beautiful culture. I curious for you, what do you think has been your own personal biggest growth?",[14,2416,2417],{},"Kerry Guard [00:33:40]:",[14,2419,2420],{},"So in 2019, I would say was probably one of my toughest years as mom and entrepreneur. I didn't have a good balance of either. I still don't, but I create the perception that it's going better. But I didn't have any patience with my family specifically, and so I had a momentous where, you know, rock bottom for whatever. Everybody has their different rock bottom. For me, it was. It was a Halloween night, and I yelled at my family pretty hard, and I was like, yeah, I'd like to stop doing that. Really like to stop yelling at people.",[14,2422,2423],{},"Kerry Guard [00:34:22]:",[14,2425,2426],{},"That would be good. And I started therapy, and I specifically wanted cognitive behavioral therapy. I didn't want drugs. I didn't want somebody to just numb namit. And I'm not saying that's what it is for people. That's just what it felt like for me. There's a million reasons why these drugs exist and the brilliance that they bring to the table for people who need it. And I don't want to dismiss that.",[14,2428,2429],{},"Kerry Guard [00:34:49]:",[14,2431,2432],{},"It just wasn't right for me in my own anxiety. And so I sought out somebody who could basically rewire my brain. That's what cognitive behavior is. It's basically rewiring your brain. And there's a couple things that come with that, and one is letting your brain know you're not in actual danger. The world is not on fire. I am not in trouble. I don't need to run away.",[14,2434,2435],{},"Kerry Guard [00:35:18]:",[14,2437,2438],{},"I just need to breathe. Now to your nervous system. It's gonna be okay. Just ride the wave for the next 90 seconds, and it'll pass. Right. And the other thing that was really key to that, that then I worked on for many years with multiple, two different therapists having moved. And then my coach. I have a business coach.",[14,2440,2441],{},"Kerry Guard [00:35:41]:",[14,2443,2444],{},"And what it came down to was all about what I can control, right? What I can and can't control, and what I can't control, as much as I would love to, is other people. As much as I would tell people how to do and behave and be even my own eight year old daughter, that is just not how people work. And so it's all about how I behave in relation to that. Right? And that's all I can control, is me. And so as I worked on rewiring my brain to control that side of, like, okay, I'm frustrated and I'm mad at this person right now. What could I have done differently that may have produced a different outcome? Right. And that's really the path that's gotten us, I think, to where we are today. To say, like, okay, what could I have done differently? And mistakes happen, and we're all human.",[14,2446,2447],{},"Kerry Guard [00:36:42]:",[14,2449,2450],{},"And it's not about dwelling on the mistake, it's just recognizing it happened. And now what are we going to do about it to make it better?",[14,2452,2453],{},"Staci Gray [00:36:50]:",[14,2455,2456],{},"Thank you for being so vulnerable. And I can relate to all of it. I think my life lesson is patience. I think this is what I'm supposed to learn in this loop around. I also can totally relate to trying to control outcomes. I've witnessed this, too, in a lot of entrepreneurs. And there's other leaders that talk about it, about how building and scaling a business puts you face to face with your trauma. And there's another guy who has this quote that says, you spend the first 50 years of your life recovering from the first five from Brian Tracy.",[14,2458,2459],{},"Staci Gray [00:37:30]:",[14,2461,2462],{},"And it really. I think building a business just accelerates the character growth. It just accelerates the growth journey. And so you hit these moments where the pressure is on so much, and it's hard to manage your human when the pressure is just, like, suffocating. And it's easy to yell or blame or take it out on other people, but to really sit with ourselves and say, what am I really in control of? What I'm not? And how can I either manage my nervous system better so that if I am in these high conflict situations, I can diffuse it instead of pour gasoline on it? And also just the grace. Like, to go through life just wrapping yourself in a bubble of grace, knowing that you're gonna make mistakes and you're not gonna be perfect, and you're gonna have that moment where the pressure is on, and you might say that thing that you didn't mean. And we can give and receive that grace, then we can really grow. Which is full circle testament to what you created inside of your organization with that psychological safety, where people can bring their cringy moments, their mistakes, their, I wish I didn't do it this way.",[14,2464,2465],{},"Staci Gray [00:38:51]:",[14,2467,2468],{},"And it to be held in a container of let's all learn and grow versus you did something wrong, or you're bad, or I did something wrong, and I'm bad, because neither of those are true. It's just. It's just an opportunity to evolve, and you're doing it so beautifully.",[14,2470,2471],{},"Kerry Guard [00:39:10]:",[14,2473,2474],{},"Yeah. You know, it's definitely not easy. I would say. Don't go at it alone. I got a mentor in about 2017, which was awesome. He taught me the importance of what he called MRI. Most respectable interpretation of, like, is this really about you or how is it really about them? And how can you separate yourself from taking this so personally? And so that was really the start of the journey for me. And I think it's really important that you find your.",[14,2476,2477],{},"Kerry Guard [00:39:43]:",[14,2479,2480],{},"Scott Galloway, who is an entrepreneur himself, hosts many podcasts, and one of the things he talks about is having your cabinet. So who are the people you can go to that will give you honesty and give you true advice in the face of whatever it is you're facing? And who are those people? And it's not always. It's gonna be really hard to hear from people. It's not always your partner. And what I mean by partners, I mean your husband or your wife or your significant other. It's not. It's not. Do not make it them, because you muddy the waters and you put so much pressure on them to have the answers to your problems that they don't have full context to.",[14,2482,2483],{},"Kerry Guard [00:40:26]:",[14,2485,2486],{},"And while they own a part of your business and live and help you grow it from just being in a relationship together, it is not their responsibility to solve your business problems. Go find other people who have built businesses. Coaches, mentors, whether it's, you know, I joined yec for a moment. My business partner joined EO. We both have a coach that we work together with. I've mentioned mentors. Right? So go create a cabinet of people you can go to to say, this is what we're up against. What have you gone through? Is this.",[14,2488,2489],{},"Kerry Guard [00:41:06]:",[14,2491,2492],{},"Chances are I went to school for photography, and while this drove me nuts that my professors would say this, they're like, you're not reinventing the wheel. That photograph you're making isn't anything particularly new. It just has your. Your vision on it. And so go look at the greats to figure out, like, what they did, right. And then just recreate it with your viewpoint. And that's really what we're doing as businesses. Right.",[14,2494,2495],{},"Kerry Guard [00:41:30]:",[14,2497,2498],{},"Like, so many businesses have been built before us, and so we're thinking we're doing something new and exciting. Gents are. We're not. Go find your cabinet.",[14,2500,2501],{},"Staci Gray [00:41:39]:",[14,2503,2504],{},"So say what MRI is again, because I thought that that was very good.",[14,2506,2507],{},"Kerry Guard [00:41:45]:",[14,2509,2510],{},"Most respectable interpretation. So somebody's coming at you with a lot of shame and blame. It's not about you. It's their shame and blame. And so how do you create the psychological safety to unpack that for them, to help them understand that this. This isn't really about me, and you're part of the problem for sure. Don't just think you don't have any ownership in the situation. You do.",[14,2512,2513],{},"Kerry Guard [00:42:10]:",[14,2515,2516],{},"But understanding the core, at the root of. Of what it is they're feeling right now. And if something goes wrong and they don't own that and they put the blame immediately on you, it's not being frustrated and angry about that, but it's understanding why they can't take their own ownership and figuring out the root cause of, like, what actually happened and then how you both can come to terms with it. But you can't do that if you're in fight or flight, if little brain isn't. Is activated and somebody's coming at you like, you can't, so you can't help them unpack it, and you can't unpack it for yourself. So MRI was a nice trigger for me to be like, wait, this isn't. What is the most respectful interpretation about this? It's okay to take a minute. It's okay to be like, I hear you, and that sounds really hard.",[14,2518,2519],{},"Kerry Guard [00:43:00]:",[14,2521,2522],{},"And I appreciate why you're frustrated with me right now. We're gonna go to our opposite corners, and we're gonna come back when we're both cooled off and have a honest conversation about what's going on. Right. So I think that's okay, too. But having these, like, moments. MRI is a great trigger. Why is this happening? Just asking why a bunch of times. Why? Why? Why? Right? And unspiraling yourself is really good.",[14,2524,2525],{},"Kerry Guard [00:43:24]:",[14,2527,2528],{},"I watched a video about somebody saying, go have a banana. Like, say, hey, listen, this seems really amped, and, like, we just need a minute. Like, go have some. Let's both take a minute. Let's go have some food. Sometimes hangry is a thing, right. And come back to the table when we're both in better places. You know, that's.",[14,2530,2531],{},"Kerry Guard [00:43:42]:",[14,2533,2534],{},"That's okay. That's good. That's healthy. Yelling at each other, trying to problem solve when you're not in a healthy place, not a good idea. MRI, misrespectful interpretation situation.",[14,2536,2537],{},"Staci Gray [00:43:55]:",[14,2539,2540],{},"I love that. And the cabinet thing is so great. I have a list of these people in my life that I. And it goes in a couple ways. One is it goes in the way where they have permission to tell me hard truths. And I know they're going to tell me hard truths, but they're also the ones that have a right to have an opinion in my life. So if somebody posts something on the Internet or does something like I. They're the ones that get to validate or reject it versus.",[14,2542,2543],{},"Staci Gray [00:44:26]:",[14,2545,2546],{},"And I do, too, but versus it being. Everyone has this free right to speak in. Into my life hard or kind things because you can, you know, believe your own press sometimes. So both things. Both things are true. You know, you need someone to tell you the hard truths, but also tell you when you do get beat up, like you're actually a good person. These are great things about you. So that's such good little tidbits.",[14,2548,2549],{},"Kerry Guard [00:44:57]:",[14,2551,2552],{},"Yes. Yeah. You do need that person in your corner who knows how to build you up as much as they know how to let you know what's really going on. It helps you believe both sides, right? Because if they can't tell you, if they only build you up and they're not willing to have to tell you what's actually going on, then it's really hard to ever believe the good stuff, too. So, yes. Yes. You need both sides for sure.",[14,2554,2555],{},"Staci Gray [00:45:22]:",[14,2557,2558],{},"Yeah. One of my favorite lines that they'll say to me is like, okay, I'm gonna play devil's advocate. Advocate. And I'm like, great. That's what I want you to play here because that gives you a real conversation. Wow, this has been so delightful. And you have just shared so much wisdom on building teams that have psychological safety, becoming a leader that can create an environment like that. What are projects that you guys are excited about that are coming up?",[14,2560,2561],{},"Kerry Guard [00:45:55]:",[14,2563,2564],{},"So we have three rocks this year, and I love them all. One is, we created an agency leadership committee. I didn't want a COo or I had a managing director. And she was wonderful. Absolutely loved her. Loved having her. The challenge was that when she left, I didn't really understand all the ins and outs of everything that was happening, because it was one person, and it was her whole responsibility to know all of these things. And while she did an amazing job breaking it down and trying to delegate before she left, I still felt like I don't know what's going on.",[14,2566,2567],{},"Kerry Guard [00:46:40]:",[14,2569,2570],{},"And so I had to basically have the whole team report to me for the last two years while I got the lay of the land and, like, figured it out. And so what I realized is that I need multiple checkpoints, and it can't just be one person. It's just too big. It's just too big. And really, what ended up taking up most of her time was managing the team when they had a tough day or they needed something or they needed a vet. Right? Like, she was the person they went to, and everybody needs that, but she couldn't get anything else done. And so by spreading the load across an agency leadership committee, I have one person who's dedicated to that. I have another person who ultimately makes, like, if push came to shove and a decision needed to be made and nobody could figure out which way to move forward, she's it.",[14,2572,2573],{},"Kerry Guard [00:47:30]:",[14,2575,2576],{},"She gets to say, okay, here's how be. So if everything I've heard you say, this is where we're going to start, and then we'll iterate and we'll figure it out, but, like, we gotta start somewhere. So she's that person, and then she also runs it. She's like, well, the committee all reports to me at the end. She runs the committee. And then our third person, as the strategist, is responsible for client relationships and making sure those are going well, as well as our second project that I'm really excited about, which is called the coordinator program. I don't believe a company can really grow sustainably in a longevity term without having a way for people to come in and grow. And so if you're only ever hiring people with expertise and, like, ten plus years of experience, then you're going to run into a wall.",[14,2578,2579],{},"Kerry Guard [00:48:24]:",[14,2581,2582],{},"At least we did. We ran into a wall where it became really hard to hire and find these quote unquote unicorns. Right? And so we have to cultivate them. And so we have had two people go through the program, and now we're figuring out how to scale it. We have a third person right now who's, like, starting on that journey, and Nathan's leading the charge on bringing her up through the program based off of a framework that a previous employee built. And so that's my other sort of baby that I've held near and dear to my heart for a long time. I've been saying it for years of, we can't just rely. I know you want people to come in here and immediately take client work and immediately be client facing, and how are we building the next generation of marketers? Because they've been left behind, and we're part of that problem.",[14,2584,2585],{},"Staci Gray [00:49:09]:",[14,2587,2588],{},"I love both of those. And they go very well with being people first, they're both leadership and development, which is just right up the alley of your culture there. I love it. Where can people find you if they're interested in connecting?",[14,2590,2591],{},"Kerry Guard [00:49:26]:",[14,2593,2594],{},"Oh, LinkedIn yeah, I live on LinkedIn. You can also go to MkG marketing. That is a URL. And you'll get to our website. You can find me there, too. But yeah, just connect me on LinkedIn. Love to have you.",[14,2596,2597],{},"Staci Gray [00:49:41]:",[14,2599,2600],{},"We'll put that in the show notes. But this conversation has been so wonderful, and I can see the transformation and growth even in just how you talk, because the ownership of the things that you've evolved from and what you've created inside of your company is so beautiful. And I think a lot of companies could benefit from hearing you talk about just the specific things that you do to make people feel safe, to make people feel like they're developing. And so everyone listening, go follow her and maybe get some marketing tips, too. She has a podcast as well, which we will link in the show notes. And just remember, when you're building and scaling your business, stay rooted in your values while you get shit done, because that will be the path to sustainable growth. Cheers, y'all.",[1758,2602],{},{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":2604},[2605,2606,2607],{"id":1479,"depth":297,"text":1480},{"id":1910,"depth":297,"text":1911},{"id":1494,"depth":291,"text":1495,"children":2608},[2609],{"id":1509,"depth":297,"text":1510},"2024-07-24T19:51:26Z","Kerry Guard joins Staci Gray on \"The Rooted Founder Show\" to discuss managing a work-life harmony between motherhood and entrepreneurship in her remote work.","\u002Fimages\u002Frooted-founder-show.webp","Staci Gray's The Rooted Founder Podcast",{"_schema":1773},42,"\u002Fblog\u002Fleadership\u002Fhow-to-handle-stress-and-pressure-as-a-marketing-ceo-and-parent",{"title":1895,"description":2611},"blog\u002Fleadership\u002Fhow-to-handle-stress-and-pressure-as-a-marketing-ceo-and-parent","a132Fn-gLxIdEOjN3zpndtOjFSdUF1G58HHJ_YzL2QU",[1780,1834],{"id":2622,"title":2623,"author":7,"authors":2624,"body":2625,"caption":7,"category":1767,"date":2664,"description":2665,"extension":318,"img":2666,"imgAlt":77,"meta":2667,"minutes":291,"navigation":322,"path":2668,"seo":2669,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":2670,"updated":7,"__hash__":2671,"people":2672},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fleadership\u002Fa-deep-dive-into-the-b2b-marketing-landscape-w-kerry-guard.md","A Deep Dive Into the B2B Marketing Landscape w\u002F Kerry Guard",[9],{"type":11,"value":2626,"toc":2661},[2627,2633,2636,2642,2645,2648,2654],[24,2628,2630],{"id":2629},"key-takeaways-from-the-cold-calling-podcast-with-kerry-guard",[52,2631,2632],{},"Key Takeaways from The Cold Calling Podcast with Kerry Guard",[14,2634,2635],{},"Our CEO Kerry Guard joined Larry Long Jr, on the latest episode of 'The Cold Calling Podcast', to dive deep into the evolving landscape of B2B marketing. In a thought-provoking discussion, they deconstructed the traditional approach to sales and marketing, advocating for a paradigm shift towards relationship-building and value provision.",[14,2637,2638,2641],{},[52,2639,2640],{},"One of the key insights"," emphasized is the distinction between sales and marketing. Sales focus on guiding customers through their purchase decisions, whereas marketing is about constructing a pathway between the brand and the customer. However, the art of cold outreach isn't obsolete, but it requires a strategic and well-executed plan to forge meaningful connections and deals.",[14,2643,2644],{},"Particularly for CMOs of cybersecurity agencies, there's a spotlight on intentional sales strategies. Guard points out that with a finite audience, it's crucial to pivot from cold outreach, which is losing effectiveness, to methods that revolve around active listening and understanding buyer needs. This human-centered approach not only resonates more with clients but also contributes to a more robust, trust-based relationship.",[14,2646,2647],{},"In the rapidly evolving digital age, the utilization of AI and data analysis stands out as a significant advantage. Speaker A draws parallels between revolutionary tech like iPhones and AI's potential to reshape our work, not as a replacement but as an enhancement of our capabilities. This is particularly relevant in content creation and SEO strategies.",[14,2649,2650,2653],{},[52,2651,2652],{},"As actionable tips,"," the podcast experts recommend that business owners looking to elevate their B2B tech brand should remain true to their core mission and actively spread their message through events, networking, and community engagement. The emphasis is on leveraging personal strengths and creating genuine interactions as a powerful catalyst for business growth.",[14,2655,2656,2657],{},"Lastly, the episode is a reminder that the journey to exceptional marketing is continuous. Embrace the data, engage with technology, and above all, prioritize human connection. Stay tuned for the next episode for more invaluable insights.",[52,2658,2659],{},[1758,2660],{},{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":2662},[2663],{"id":2629,"depth":291,"text":2632},"2024-04-11T15:16:04Z","During a discussion on \"The Cold Calling Podcast\", Kerry Guard emphasizes relationship building during sales and marketing in the B2B cybersecurity space.","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fcold-calling-podacst.png",{"_schema":1773},"\u002Fblog\u002Fleadership\u002Fa-deep-dive-into-the-b2b-marketing-landscape-w-kerry-guard",{"title":2623,"description":2665},"blog\u002Fleadership\u002Fa-deep-dive-into-the-b2b-marketing-landscape-w-kerry-guard","qiOFAzeFUDRYo2IuHNuzW48gw1PkcDGwRaeqksptZFU",[1780,1834],{"id":2674,"title":2675,"author":7,"authors":2676,"body":2677,"caption":7,"category":1767,"date":3436,"description":3437,"extension":318,"img":3438,"imgAlt":3439,"meta":3440,"minutes":3441,"navigation":322,"path":3442,"seo":3443,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":3444,"updated":7,"__hash__":3445,"people":3446},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fleadership\u002Fprioritizing-people-in-a-b2b-world-with-kerry-guard.md","Prioritizing People in a B2B World with Kerry Guard",[9],{"type":11,"value":2678,"toc":3429},[2679,2683,2686,2690,2693,2696,2699,2702,2708,2720,2724,2727,2730,2733,2736,2739,2742,2745,2748,2751,2754,2757,2760,2763,2766,2769,2772,2775,2778,2781,2784,2787,2790,2793,2796,2799,2802,2805,2808,2811,2814,2817,2820,2823,2826,2829,2831,2834,2837,2840,2843,2846,2849,2852,2855,2858,2861,2864,2867,2870,2873,2876,2879,2882,2885,2888,2891,2894,2897,2900,2903,2906,2909,2912,2915,2918,2921,2924,2927,2930,2933,2936,2939,2942,2945,2948,2951,2954,2957,2960,2963,2966,2969,2972,2975,2978,2981,2984,2987,2990,2993,2996,2999,3002,3005,3008,3011,3014,3017,3020,3023,3026,3029,3032,3035,3038,3041,3044,3047,3050,3053,3056,3059,3062,3065,3068,3070,3073,3076,3079,3082,3085,3088,3091,3094,3097,3100,3103,3106,3109,3112,3115,3118,3121,3124,3127,3130,3133,3136,3139,3142,3145,3148,3151,3154,3157,3160,3163,3166,3169,3172,3175,3178,3181,3184,3187,3190,3193,3196,3199,3202,3205,3208,3211,3214,3217,3219,3222,3225,3228,3231,3234,3237,3240,3243,3246,3249,3252,3255,3258,3261,3264,3267,3270,3273,3276,3279,3282,3285,3288,3291,3293,3296,3299,3302,3305,3308,3311,3314,3317,3320,3323,3326,3329,3332,3335,3338,3341,3344,3347,3350,3353,3356,3359,3362,3365,3368,3371,3374,3377,3380,3383,3386,3389,3392,3395,3398,3401,3404,3407,3410,3412,3415,3418,3421,3427],[24,2680,2681],{"id":1479},[52,2682,1480],{},[14,2684,2685],{},"Kerry Guard, our CEO, joined Lee Moskowitz on the podcast to share her innovative approach to work-life balance in the digital marketing world. Kerry, a proponent of flexible working environments, discusses how MKG thrives by blending success with employee well-being. The episode delves into MKG's specialization in SEO and digital advertising for B2B sectors, emphasizing authentic content and strategic SEO to engage technical audiences. Kerry's insights into evolving client-agency dynamics and the critique of traditional marketing tactics highlight her forward-thinking leadership at MKG Marketing.",[24,2687,2688],{"id":1910},[52,2689,1911],{},[14,2691,2692],{},"Cyber Marketing Maneuvers – Challenging the norms of marketing to the tech-genius skeptics – we crack the code on making authentic connections in an armory of software and systems.",[14,2694,2695],{},"SEO Frontiers – Unearthing the treasure of long-tail keywords and pillar pages to elevate our stance in the digital realm, it's not just about being seen, it's about being sought after.",[24,2697,2698],{"id":1494},"Take a listen:",[1497,2700],{"style":1500,"src":2701,"width":1943,"height":1944,"frameBorder":1504,"allowFullScreen":322,"allow":1505,"loading":1506},"https:\u002F\u002Fopen.spotify.com\u002Fembed\u002Fepisode\u002F2JXXOJzBMg6WeTdJIrnufZ?utm_source=generator",[24,2703,2705],{"id":2704},"learn-more",[52,2706,2707],{},"Learn More",[14,2709,2710,2711,2719],{},"Discover more about MKG's ",[206,2712,2718],{"href":2713,"title":2714,"target":2715,"rel":2716},"\u002Fexpert-digital-marketing-services\u002Fsearch-engine-optimization\u002F","MKG B2B Search Engine Optimization","_blank",[2717],"noopener","B2B SEO Services"," and how our expert deliver strategic recommendations to solve complex challenges in cybersecurity.",[24,2721,2722],{"id":1509},[52,2723,1510],{},[14,2725,2726],{},"Lee Moskowitz [00:00:00]:",[14,2728,2729],{},"Welcome back to Lee two B, the sassiest podcast for B two B and beyond, and your goto place for fun and actionable conversations with industry leaders. I'm your growth marketing host, Lee Moskowitz. Today I'm speaking with Kerry Guard, CEO of MKG Marketing. With a fierce dedication to reshaping work life balance, Kerry's driving philosophy is turning heads in digital marketing sphere. As a mother of twins and a true believer in the art of balance, Kerry is on a mission to redefine company culture by proving that flexibility and success go hand in hand. She is also the host of tea time with tech marketing leaders where she interviews digital experts such as yours truly. I had a great time talking with Carrie on her show, and I can't wait to spill some more tea on this episode of Lee to be.Kerry Guard [00:00:53]:",[14,2731,2732],{},"I'm excited to be here. Thanks for the invite. It was wonderful having you on my show. So I'm excited to turn the tables here.",[14,2734,2735],{},"Lee Moskowitz [00:01:01]:",[14,2737,2738],{},"Yes. Well, as soon as I saw it was tea time, I'm like, I can't wait to talk with you. So we had a lot to say last time because I'm all over the place, but we're going to spill even more tea here, if that's possible.",[14,2740,2741],{},"Kerry Guard [00:01:13]:",[14,2743,2744],{},"Let's do it.",[14,2746,2747],{},"Lee Moskowitz [00:01:15]:",[14,2749,2750],{},"So first question for you is you live in Guernsey. Is that how you say it?",[14,2752,2753],{},"Kerry Guard [00:01:20]:",[14,2755,2756],{},"That's right. Yes.",[14,2758,2759],{},"Lee Moskowitz [00:01:21]:",[14,2761,2762],{},"Okay, so what is Guernsey? Is this an island? A town? Is it in France? Is it in England? Tell us about this.",[14,2764,2765],{},"Kerry Guard [00:01:31]:",[14,2767,2768],{},"You're going to go to Google Maps and you're going to type in Guernsey, and then you're going to scroll for a really long time because it's basically a teeny tiny sec of an island in the Channel between England and France. It's interesting because it acknowledges the monarchy. The english monarchy. All hail king Charles. King Charles. Yes. Although I missed the queen, she was wonderful. But because we're so close to France, all of the road names are in French.",[14,2770,2771],{},"Kerry Guard [00:02:01]:",[14,2773,2774],{},"So typical american British, as we do, everybody pronounces the french names with a very thick british accent. It's really glorious. Yeah.",[14,2776,2777],{},"Lee Moskowitz [00:02:13]:",[14,2779,2780],{},"So do you speak French?",[14,2782,2783],{},"Kerry Guard [00:02:15]:",[14,2785,2786],{},"I took French in middle school, high school, and then I've been hanging out on Duolingo pretty hard, so I'm trying to freshen up. But you don't really speak French unless you grow up speaking French.",[14,2788,2789],{},"Lee Moskowitz [00:02:29]:",[14,2791,2792],{},"But can you read it or do you still have trouble with the street signs?",[14,2794,2795],{},"Kerry Guard [00:02:34]:",[14,2797,2798],{},"The funny thing is that I pronounce it in French, and so everybody sort of looks at me and then doesn't know what I'm saying. And then they pronounce. Sure, yeah, that place. The funny thing about it is that to get around the island, people don't give directions by names of roads because nobody can pronounce it the same way. Instead, it's all by landmarks. So you have to know where the red lion is and where Jeffrey's is.",[14,2800,2801],{},"Lee Moskowitz [00:02:59]:",[14,2803,2804],{},"The hospital, honestly, that's better for me because I use my GPS. If somebody asks me for directions and I can actually tell them, I'm so proud of myself. So that's better for people like me who rely on GPS to live.",[14,2806,2807],{},"Kerry Guard [00:03:15]:",[14,2809,2810],{},"Sure.",[14,2812,2813],{},"Lee Moskowitz [00:03:16]:",[14,2815,2816],{},"Other questions. Are you around french toddlers ever? Because I've been around just in a store and I'll hear a toddler talking sheer nonsense, and then their mother will respond to them in French. And I'm like, oh, that child was not speaking nonsense. That child was speaking French. So it's a very fun thing for an idiot like.",[14,2818,2819],{},"Kerry Guard [00:03:41]:",[14,2821,2822],{},"Have. It's interesting because even though we live so close to France, we don't really hear a lot of French until tourist season when the giant, gross big boats show up, the cruise ships. But yeah, I don't actually hear a lot of French here until sometimes we're working on trying to go to France. I'm looking forward to that this summer. But no, would run across the street.",[14,2824,2825],{},"Lee Moskowitz [00:04:04]:",[14,2827,2828],{},"Or what does that look like?",[14,2830,2003],{},[14,2832,2833],{},"It's just a boat for like 2 hours. So, yeah, you just take a boat and you're there in 2 hours. So it's close. It's weird. Yeah. I don't know why we haven't done it yet, but we're going to do it this summer. It's going to be great. But my kids did pick up british accents pretty quickly, so that was kind of like hilarious.",[14,2835,2836],{},"Kerry Guard [00:04:22]:",[14,2838,2839],{},"After being here for two weeks, they were full on Brits. I was.",[14,2841,2842],{},"Lee Moskowitz [00:04:27]:",[14,2844,2845],{},"Did you. I don't detect a.",[14,2847,2848],{},"Kerry Guard [00:04:32]:",[14,2850,2851],{},"Was it.",[14,2853,2854],{},"Lee Moskowitz [00:04:33]:",[14,2856,2857],{},"Did you marry into this? Because this is a new place for me that I learned. How did you get there?",[14,2859,2860],{},"Kerry Guard [00:04:38]:",[14,2862,2863],{},"Yeah. So my husband, he grew up here. His mom is from Guernsey. She was born and raised here. She actually remembers. I love hearing her stories. So Guernsey was part of the german occupation in the 40s, so when the Germans showed up and most of the children were actually shipped off to England, but some family stayed behind and her family was one of them. So I get to hear these really lovely stories.",[14,2865,2866],{},"Kerry Guard [00:05:06]:",[14,2868,2869],{},"It's not lovely. It was a really hard time, but it's just to hear a real know. Growing up in America, we were so disconnected from it. Right. Unless you had a war veteran in your family. We didn't really have firsthand stories of this huge event that happened in the world. So to be in a place that has so much of that history and then to know people who lived through it just brings it to so much life. She grew up here.",[14,2871,2872],{},"Kerry Guard [00:05:37]:",[14,2874,2875],{},"And my husband left Guernsey when he was in his twenty s and headed to America, where he worked for Microsoft. And we met on vacation in Hawaii, as you do. And I then moved from New York to Seattle to be with him. And after we had kids during the pandemic, we realized that Guernsey had been COVID free for 30 days, because being an island, they were just like, do not enter. And if you do, you have to quarantine for two weeks. Congratulations. And so we could send our kids to school as normal and live normal lives. And we're like, we should really just go do that",[14,2877,2878],{},"Kerry Guard [00:06:11]:",[14,2880,2881],{},"So we sold everything, and within six weeks, we relocated halfway around the world.",[14,2883,2884],{},"Lee Moskowitz [00:06:17]:",[14,2886,2887],{},"Did you have to? Was it like big tents and everyone was wearing quarantine outfits? What was that period like?",[14,2889,2890],{},"Kerry Guard [00:06:25]:",[14,2892,2893],{},"It was wild. We had to take a flight. There was barely any flights flying to anywhere, right? So we had to take a flight from Seattle to Chicago. And that flight was fully booked. It was actually terrifying. This was July of 2020, so early days of COVID we were all masked. You had to mask up. We had masks, hats, glasses on, even for our kids.",[14,2895,2896],{},"Kerry Guard [00:06:48]:",[14,2898,2899],{},"We got them hats and everything. Sanitizer sanitized everything every step of the way. And then the flight from Chicago to Heathrow was empty. So we had plenty of space on that flight, which was great. The airports were empty, and so we went through customs with a breeze. So that was nice. And then we got to Guernsey and we had a quarantine for they were doing this. The reason why we moved in such a short amount of time in six weeks was because Guernsey decided to do a test run with only making you quarantine for one week.",[14,2901,2902],{},"Kerry Guard [00:07:27]:",[14,2904,2905],{},"And then you could at least. They recommended and advised and request that you didn't go to really busy places, but that you could at least go outside and have some fresh air. And so we only had a quarantine for a week, thank goodness, because we were in this small apartment with no garden or anything. So we were literally inside for a whole week with no fresh. We were, like, trying to open. Every once in a while, we would just open the door just to get a breeze, something to feel like we had some fresh air. And then after that, we went outside. And then after the full two weeks.",[14,2907,2908],{},"Kerry Guard [00:08:04]:",[14,2910,2911],{},"It was normal. Nobody was masking, nobody was social distancing. It was bizarre because my whole family back in the US was still not really going out anywhere yet.",[14,2913,2914],{},"Lee Moskowitz [00:08:18]:",[14,2916,2917],{},"Yeah. Wow. I just have a knack to getting into interesting things like that. This is a B, two B podcast mostly, I promise. Or just marketing. But that's so interesting also. So glad we're done with that part of our lives for now, until the next pandemic. But let's get into MKG marketing.",[14,2919,2920],{},"Lee Moskowitz [00:08:40]:",[14,2922,2923],{},"And I'm pretty sure I know what the KNG stand for. I'm not quite sure what the M stands for, though. But tell us about MkG marketing.",[14,2925,2926],{},"Kerry Guard [00:08:49]:",[14,2928,2929],{},"So when MKG started, it was just me and my business partner, and we pitched a piece of business before we were even a company to see if we could do a thing. And so we needed a logo, we needed a name. And so we were originally MKKG, which is Mike Krass, my business partner, and Kerry Guard. And then we realized that the double K is stupid because we're marketers and we like to optimize. So we merged the KS, which is why it has a double line in the logo, and we became MKG. And little did we know, people actually thought the MKG stood for marketing. So that was a happy accident.",[14,2931,2932],{},"Lee Moskowitz [00:09:26]:",[14,2934,2935],{},"It kind of sounds like the short, like marketing marketing. Almost.",[14,2937,2938],{},"Kerry Guard [00:09:32]:",[14,2940,2941],{},"Lovely little accident there. We are a digital marketing agency specialing in SEO and digital ads for B. Two B companies, primarily in SaaS and cybersecurity, really measuring business outcomes. At the end of the day, we want to make sure that we're helping those businesses grow. That's what we're supposed to be doing, right? That's what we're all here for.",[14,2943,2944],{},"Lee Moskowitz [00:09:55]:",[14,2946,2947],{},"Yes. Cybersecurity, it's a very competitive space. Just in general, it too. There's a lot of saturation. Of course, there's the same thing with SaaS tools, but that's a bit broader. How do you go about differentiating and really owning that organic presence? And we can just talk about SEO for a while, but you'll see everyone in the same space in cybersecurity will have a similar tagline, or the page title is the same, or their blog posts are just the same. How do you really go about differentiating and standing out",[14,2949,2950],{},"Kerry Guard [00:10:36]:",[14,2952,2953],{},"Yeah, it really comes down to the core audience of who's buying and what pain. I always like to ask the question of the founder, right? Like, why did you start this thing? What was the pain you were feeling that you felt like you needed a product to solve that issue, right? Because at the end of the day, features get added and the product gets kind of watered down. But there was a core why. And so it's got to, in my mind, come back to that. And then from an SEO standpoint, it's really what is the audience searching for? What questions do they have? What do you need to answer? And how can you show up in a really valuable way to help them get the answer as quickly as possible, really authentically to what your product really does right and why you're different than other people. And a lot of times the differentiation comes down to the way the product operates and what other products it syncs with and the terms in terms of month to month, subscription based, or is it more of an enterprise annual? Do you need a tech team to come in and set something up? Those sort of things are those different types of differentiators. At the end of the day, they're all trying to do the same thing of stopping cybercrime. How they go about it is slightly different product to product, and it's just helping an audience decide what product is right for them and showing up in a really valuable way to make that decision really easy for them.",[14,2955,2956],{},"Kerry Guard [00:12:03]:",[14,2958,2959],{},"And accepting that you're not always going to be the answer and know a no is just as good as yes.",[14,2961,2962],{},"Lee Moskowitz [00:12:11]:",[14,2964,2965],{},"So in addition to being the most super competitive, super saturated, I've marketed to cybersecurity people before and companies I know. So I know this cybersecurity people are some of the most skeptical people out there, and they're just really hard to market to. They don't trust anything. They're not going to click a link. They have ad blocker on. Let's just talk about that.",[14,2967,2968],{},"Kerry Guard [00:12:39]:",[14,2970,2971],{},"Yes to all of those things.",[14,2973,2974],{},"Lee Moskowitz [00:12:40]:",[14,2976,2977],{},"That's why organic, that's, to me, part of why organic is so important for this audience. But it's also like, it's super technical a lot of the time. So you can't just go and write a blog post and be like, all right, SEO is done, guys, because again, they are skeptical. They don't like a lot of the standard marketing stuff.",[14,2979,2980],{},"Kerry Guard [00:13:02]:",[14,2982,2983],{},"Marketing is a necessary evil. That's how we're.",[14,2985,2986],{},"Lee Moskowitz [00:13:06]:",[14,2988,2989],{},"Because you also do SaaS and SaaS, again, it depends on the industry, but it's a bit more like people are a bit more open to the marketing stuff and it's a bit more depends too, right?",[14,2991,2992],{},"Kerry Guard [00:13:19]:",[14,2994,2995],{},"Because if you're talking to a CEO versus a practitioner, it's always going to be easier to talk to a CEO than anybody who's actually doing the work, whether that's in finance or in cyber or even us marketers are some of the biggest skeptics when it comes to our own.",[14,2997,2998],{},"Lee Moskowitz [00:13:36]:",[14,3000,3001],{},"Us too. I don't pick up a phone.",[14,3003,3004],{},"Kerry Guard [00:13:39]:",[14,3006,3007],{},"Me neither. So I think it really comes down to, again, that technical content is absolutely key. It's actually one of the things I really advise companies to do in house. I'm a big proponent of owning your website, owning your content, owning your CRM and newsletter stuff in house, because you got to know what you're talking about. And while you could outsource that to a vendor, you still need people internally to triple check that it's technically correct and you're not saying anything wrong because it is very easy to lose this audience and to lose their trust by being just simply incorrect on anything at all. So I'm a big proponent of that. How we show up for our clients who have that capability in house is really about the strategy of it. Making sure their website is technically sound, that they have all of your page load speed, their images are webp, those normal things, doing a big audit that way, and then really comes down to the keywords and about the signals to Google at this point, right, of making sure that Google knows where your expertise stands so that you could help the whole website rise up for those very particular keywords.",[14,3009,3010],{},"Kerry Guard [00:15:04]:",[14,3012,3013],{},"And I mean particular. Like, if you're in cybersecurity and you're going after cloud security, you got to have more attached to it than cloud security, otherwise, good luck. So what is it inside cloud that you do in particular? And go after those long tail keywords, go after the questions, what are people asking? What do they want to know? Start high level, right? Glossaries are wonderful for that to tell Google, like what glossaries aren't for the end user. It's very rare that you're going to get the right end user in a glossary and they're going to come through your website with swimming colors and sign up for your product. Probably not going to happen, but it's a really great indicator to Google to say, these are the keywords I care about. Here's what I know them to mean, here's the pages I want to link off to. And let's help raise that website for us. It's less about, we don't want to do any of the writing, we want to provide those teletags and those meta descriptions and some page recommendations based off of what competitors are doing, making sure that they are differentiated in their core offering.",[14,3015,3016],{},"Kerry Guard [00:16:11]:",[14,3018,3019],{},"Going after those long tail keywords, of course. And like I said, building those pillar pages to really help the whole page, the whole website rise to the top in terms of how you help your audience. SEO is definitely a cornerstone to a marketing go to market strategy in the cyber world because there are researchers at the core of what this audience does is they research. So you got to be there first and then they're going to go to their network and they're going to ask their network what's going on and who they're using and why, and that referral piece. So those are the two big opportunities in terms of making sure you have good customer success and you got a good SEO strategy.",[14,3021,3022],{},"Lee Moskowitz [00:16:53]:",[14,3024,3025],{},"Two very important things. So one, I want to just talk about how big of a deal it is. So you heard this here, people, we have an agency owner saying you should do that stuff in house. So I just wanted to hit on that. Love hearing that. So you talk a lot about how the content should be in house. What is that proper workflow for you? Are you giving them SEO briefs? Are they giving you content? What is this successful relationship that people could either come to you for or maybe try to do themselves? How are you getting the best of both worlds?",[14,3027,3028],{},"Kerry Guard [00:17:26]:",[14,3030,3031],{},"It's collaborative, right? It's got to be collaborative. You can't just chuck stuff over the fence. If you go to our website and you look on the homepage, our tagline is meaningful relationships, measurable results. Because at the end of the day, when it comes down to these technical clients and these technical products and these complex audiences, you have to be in step with one another from a vendor and client perspective. And so it's really important to us that you have content in house and that we can work together. We love to give briefs out of the gate so that you're not spinning your wheel. So we know that these are the keywords you want to rank for. Here are some topic ideas based off of what people are searching for.",[14,3033,3034],{},"Kerry Guard [00:18:06]:",[14,3036,3037],{},"But you're the technical expert. So you tell us, what do you think makes the most sense in terms of approaching this piece of content? They'll go off and write it, they'll throw it back to us. We'll say, okay, here's what we recommend in terms of title tags, meta descriptions. Here's where we think some keywords could be really handy and then they will publish it and we'll get into a really good workflow that way of these things being passed and forth, back and forth to each other and not just chucking it over and saying, see you later.",[14,3039,3040],{},"Lee Moskowitz [00:18:35]:",[14,3042,3043],{},"Collaborative yeah. So let's give our listeners here like a mini playbook of either a good template for a brief or what absolutely should go into a brief. I'm a big fan of SEO briefs. I mean, I have my own template and stuff. What's your playbook or advice for people on a good SEO brief?",[14,3045,3046],{},"Kerry Guard [00:18:58]:",[14,3048,3049],{},"Yeah, so it's got to be, again, based in research. Really digging into now that we have this beautiful thing called chat GBT. From a research standpoint, do not let chat GBT write your content. I want to be very clear on that. Chat GBT is great for an initial. Sometimes we'll do that for an initial draft for clients because it's hard for them to start from a blank page. But we'll never publish the straight up Chachi BT. But it's really helpful in getting content ideas and understanding what users are searching for, the questions that they have.",[14,3051,3052],{},"Kerry Guard [00:19:30]:",[14,3054,3055],{},"And so a brief for us will really be baked in that research of like, here's some questions we're seeing pop around this topic. We'll write an initial title tag and meta description just to give them some ideas. We keep it pretty high level because we want, again, it's that collaborative piece of sitting down with a technician who can say, okay, here's how I would approach this. To really give value back to the audience, to be able to go really do a thing right. At the end of the day, when you're writing a piece of content, it can be all leadership and high level. Sure. But really, when you're talking about the cybersecurity audience, you got to give them something they can go do. It's got to be actionable.",[14,3057,3058],{},"Kerry Guard [00:20:09]:",[14,3060,3061],{},"And that's why it's so important to be working with somebody in house who can write from that POV. So for us, our briefs are pretty high level, pretty just directional in terms of what's happening in the space from a competitive standpoint, from what people are searching for standpoint, getting that first draft done and then really coming in over top and working it from an SEO perspective.",[14,3063,3064],{},"Lee Moskowitz [00:20:32]:",[14,3066,3067],{},"Yeah. So shifting gears to maybe a less technical topic, but something that you're very passionate about, and I mentioned it in your bio, and that is work life balance. So before I go any further, what's your definition of work life balance? What does that mean to you?",[14,3069,2234],{},[14,3071,3072],{},"Well, I'm still working on it. When you're a business owner, when you're an entrepreneur, it definitely has its own definition. And so I just want to be really clear.",[14,3074,3075],{},"Lee Moskowitz [00:21:04]:",[14,3077,3078],{},"That's a great point. Let's go on. You're the owner here. And then let's give what that means for your employees.",[14,3080,3081],{},"Kerry Guard [00:21:11]:",[14,3083,3084],{},"Yeah, because it's different.",[14,3086,3087],{},"Lee Moskowitz [00:21:12]:",[14,3089,3090],{},"It's different.",[14,3092,3093],{},"Kerry Guard [00:21:13]:",[14,3095,3096],{},"And I have to be so careful about how I show up for my employees because I don't want them to show up the way that I do. Please don't. Don't do what I do because I work pretty much all the time. Why? Because it's my life. I've built this thing. It's a joy, it's my career, what I have to show for the last twelve years. Right? So I try and be very thoughtful when it comes to my family and making sure that when I'm with them, I'm with them. So between I try and work from twelve to five, take a good break with my family from five to eight, and then I'll come back online from eight to ten, and then the weekends, I try very hard not to work.",[14,3098,3099],{},"Kerry Guard [00:22:03]:",[14,3101,3102],{},"And then I'm with my kids. And now if my kids go off and go do their own thing and I have a minute, then I'll go knock something. I definitely fill the space with work, but I do try and carve out for me as an entrepreneur, I do try and say these times are sacred, and if my kids want to spend time with me, I will drop everything to make that happen. I do. I'm a workaholic, but I love it. My husband says that he's like, I feel like you're always working. I should start working at twelve. I start working at nine because I'm trying to solve problems.",[14,3104,3105],{},"Kerry Guard [00:22:33]:",[14,3107,3108],{},"I'm trying to keep a company going.",[14,3110,3111],{},"Lee Moskowitz [00:22:34]:",[14,3113,3114],{},"You're an agency owner?",[14,3116,3117],{},"Kerry Guard [00:22:35]:",[14,3119,3120],{},"Yeah, I'm an agency owner. Welcome to the show. Right. I want to be really clear. That's how I show up. I do not expect my employees to show up that way. I do not want them to show up that way. I am very clear from the onset with my team of the way that we do this is we have something called velocity.",[14,3122,3123],{},"Kerry Guard [00:22:50]:",[14,3125,3126],{},"So we know that you have 7 hours a day, five days a week, and we plan accordingly in that and only about, for most of our folks, 80% of their time. Of those 7 hours is billable. So the other 20% is admin time, internal meetings, coffee chats, growth time. So if they want to dig in and learn something new, so I want to make sure that we give them that space and then, so we plan accordingly. And then the other thing we do is their hours are their hours. So you're not tied to a standard nine to five if you're not a morning person. I'm not a morning person. Then you showing up at ten and working till six is your prerogative.",[14,3128,3129],{},"Kerry Guard [00:23:32]:",[14,3131,3132],{},"It just has to be consistent because we have to be able to have meetings on a regular basis. We have standing client meetings every week, two weeks, a month, each month. So we have to know when you're going to be consistently available to be able to make those planning decisions. Right. But in the day, whatever you want your hours to be is what your hours are. And people sign off like at their 05:00 or whatever, their day ends, they're out and we don't hear from them again until they sign on in the morning. It's actually quite glorious. I am very proud of my team for really holding true to what their hours are and sticking to it and not.",[14,3134,3135],{},"Kerry Guard [00:24:12]:",[14,3137,3138],{},"Sometimes they'll pop online in the evenings, but they'll piece out early. They're like, you know what, I'm going to go. It's a beautiful, sunshiny day. I don't have any meetings today. I'm going to head on out and enjoy it and then I'll be back on in the evening. And we use Zoom chat and we have a general channel and we just keep each other up to date on where we are throughout the day. So it's all about accountability, right? Your time is your time. You're consistent with your hours.",[14,3140,3141],{},"Kerry Guard [00:24:37]:",[14,3143,3144],{},"You make sure you show up for meetings, you make sure your work gets done and just let us know where you are. Because if somebody's trying to get something done and they're blocked and they need it and they have a question and they think you're there when you're not, then they're waiting around. Right. But if you've said you've headed out for lunch or whatever, then they know you're going to come back and they can move on to the next thing. So it's that accountability piece that's really important when it comes to that flexibility. But, yeah, I'm a true believer in work life balance, and if one more person tries to tell me that remote work can't work, I'm like, no, you're just trying to operate in a remote environment as if you're in an office and you can't do that either. So stop that. But yeah, I'm a true believer in treating your people like humans and adults and holding them accountable, but also giving them the work life balance we all deserve.",[14,3146,3147],{},"Lee Moskowitz [00:25:25]:",[14,3149,3150],{},"Yeah. So one thing you said was about, like, they sign off at 05:00 I had ptsd flashbacks to one of my early jobs where the agency owner would call that banking hours. It was like a joke. Not joke. He'd be like, oh, guess this person is on banking hours if they leave at 05:00. Toxic to me. I have a simple definition of work life balance. It's like I need to feel like I have energy to do something else after the workday or during the day, thinking about it, just that work isn't the sole thing, the sole thing for that day.",[14,3152,3153],{},"Lee Moskowitz [00:26:13]:",[14,3155,3156],{},"And I think that looks like a lot of different to a lot of people. To me, I have a hard time seeing how commuting into the city and taking an hour, hour and a half train ride and waking up early and then taking a train ride, but I can't see how commuting when I don't have to, to be something that really is work life balance. Obviously it can be, but to me, that's something in my boundary where I'm like, my entire day is going to be around work if I'm literally going there every day. The other thing is, but literally, I need to be able to. I am done with work. I can go and do something else, and I'm not thinking about in my mind how much work I have to do when I come back or something like that. So that's what that is to me.",[14,3158,3159],{},"Kerry Guard [00:27:06]:",[14,3161,3162],{},"Yes, I think that's exactly what I'm striving for. And I'm a system, process oriented person, so I got right into the weeds of how I make that happen. But yes, I think that's a beautiful way of thinking about it, of being able to have the energy to go, you should work to live, not live to work. So that's exactly energy to do other things.",[14,3164,3165],{},"Lee Moskowitz [00:27:33]:",[14,3167,3168],{},"So these would be two questions. And again, I really like how you made the distinction of, there's the owner and then maybe the average employee question. For other bosses or owners out there, how can they help roll out either work life balance initiatives or just make sure that their team feels that they have proper work life balance?",[14,3170,3171],{},"Kerry Guard [00:27:55]:",[14,3173,3174],{},"I think it comes back to the policies and the systems and processes that you put in place. Right. So if you're at your core, a people first organization where you believe in work life balance, then all the decisions you make and the policies you put in place need to ladder up to that. So it makes your decision making our value one of our values. We have four. One of our values is people first. Right. Point of values is so that it makes decision making really easy.",[14,3176,3177],{},"Kerry Guard [00:28:20]:",[14,3179,3180],{},"So just think about if you're asking somebody to stay late, well, how does that fit into your values? And do they absolutely need to stay late, or can you assign it to them in Asana and ask them to get it done tomorrow and move something else off their plate? Because you can't push them over their capacity either. Right. So it's just having some of those clear. We live in Asana. Everything happens and dies in that place for that reason, so that we can make sure we are measuring people's capacity, not because we want to make sure that they're getting their work done, although that's helpful. The accountability piece is for sure, key when you're in a remote environment. But it's more to make sure on our side, the leadership side, accountability side for us is that we're not putting too much work on people, that they can't actually get it done. So, yeah, I think it comes down to defining your values, baking work life balance into them, and then holding yourself accountable to all the decisions you make.",[14,3182,3183],{},"Lee Moskowitz [00:29:25]:",[14,3185,3186],{},"To actually live up to that one. That's great advice for the owners, the bosses. On the flip side, what would you say to just an employee who might be struggling with their work life balance and they don't know what to do?",[14,3188,3189],{},"Kerry Guard [00:29:41]:",[14,3191,3192],{},"Own your calendar. Own your calendar. Block off when you are not available or don't want to be available, or need to be heads down on something. Block off your calendar. That is where you have the most control of your day. Yeah, own it.",[14,3194,3195],{},"Lee Moskowitz [00:30:01]:",[14,3197,3198],{},"Yeah, just own your calendar. Manage it. Obviously, be flexible. Don't be like, no, I can't every single time. But you need to carve out the non meeting time for yourself. You also don't need to respond to every slack message right away or zoom message, especially if it's after. So one more advice question for you is there's so many people looking for jobs these days. What is something that as an agency owner, you'd give advice for people who are trying to get jobs at agencies?",[14,3200,3201],{},"Kerry Guard [00:30:38]:",[14,3203,3204],{},"That's a tricky one. It really comes down for us. I'll speak from experience. Right. So for us, it really comes down to two things, and it depends on the role. Right. So if we're hiring somebody who's only got a few years of experience or straight out of college, it's generally about the culture fit and the hunger. Do you want to learn? Are you ready to learn? And can you learn? Can you soak it in? Can you take it on quickly? And can you pivot with it? When you're in an agency, you got to be able to learn on your feet.",[14,3206,3207],{},"Kerry Guard [00:31:14]:",[14,3209,3210],{},"And that's not for everybody, and that's okay. And that doesn't make you a failure. That just means you got to look elsewhere, probably within a bigger company that has more structure that can really allow you to take the time that you need to learn. Agencies don't have that luxury. So I would say if you're a fast learner and you're hungry for it, show up and show that. And then on the expertise side, if you're somebody who's got ten years or more of experience, for us, it's really the technical piece. Right. So we want somebody who can come into the culture, who's going to be.",[14,3212,3213],{},"Kerry Guard [00:31:47]:",[14,3215,3216],{},"One of the big things with us is to over communicate. Right. When you're a remote company, you got to be able to say and not be worried. There's a little, like, we sort of joke about it, that there's a ptsd period where you got to shake off your previous agency life and realize that we're not asking you questions because we're trying to micromanage you. It's just a remote life of needing to know what's going on and where you are and make sure you're okay. If you're not saying hi on Zoom, our first instinct is, has anybody heard from this person? Are they okay? It's weird that they're not here, and that's hard for people. Normally, they're in trouble, right? So they have to sort of go through that ptsd period. But at the end of the day, you're an over communicator again.",[14,3218,2405],{},[14,3220,3221],{},"Learning is still really important. You want to work with people who are experts and you're willing to take feedback. Right. Feedback is also really hard. We're a feedback oriented organization. We want to make sure people can come in and learn and learn from others and learn from each other. You got to be able to take feedback and that you have the technical chops. Right.",[14,3223,3224],{},"Kerry Guard [00:32:54]:",[14,3226,3227],{},"So, so many times I found people to fake it till they make it, and you can't do that in any agency. I'm really sorry. If you don't have the chops, it's going to show up real quick, and then we're going to realize we hired the wrong person and you're going to be out of a job again. So be honest with what you can do with what you want to do and what you love to do. Right. And lean into that.",[14,3229,3230],{},"Lee Moskowitz [00:33:21]:",[14,3232,3233],{},"Yeah. Fake it till you make it is just like, bad advice. Literally. If you don't know something, ask, and then you'll learn it. And if you're too afraid to ask in that environment. Get out of that.",[14,3235,3236],{},"Kerry Guard [00:33:37]:",[14,3238,3239],{},"Agree.",[14,3241,3242],{},"Lee Moskowitz [00:33:38]:",[14,3244,3245],{},"It's time for our next segment, which is fill the tea with Lee. That's right. This is the sassiest podcast for B to B and beyond, and we are going to get juicy. All right, Carrie, so I wanted to have some time for this because I know it's a very passionate topic of yours. What is your hot take on cold outreach?",[14,3247,3248],{},"Kerry Guard [00:33:59]:",[14,3250,3251],{},"Oh, man, I am getting this everywhere now. I'm sorry.",[14,3253,3254],{},"Lee Moskowitz [00:34:03]:",[14,3256,3257],{},"You've made it your thing. We talked it about on our episode, so we had to continue it here.",[14,3259,3260],{},"Kerry Guard [00:34:08]:",[14,3262,3263],{},"And I totally just was on another show, so I'm sorry. If you've already listened to some of my other podcasts, you're tired of me talking about it. Feel free to skip ahead. No, I believe that for our industry, for cyber, in particular, for SaaS, that our audience, as we've already mentioned, a very technical audience who really hates sales and marketing begin with, do not want cold outreach. They don't. And especially. Oh, my gosh, between phone and email, they're such skeptics. As you mentioned, Lee, they're not going to click on links.",[14,3265,3266],{},"Kerry Guard [00:34:37]:",[14,3268,3269],{},"They're not going to open emails from people they don't know. It's just they've been burned way too many times from both scams as well as pitch slaps. They're over it. So we need to get with the times. We need to listen to our audience, and we need to move with it. And, yeah, I think marketing needs to pull their weight in getting the right information to the right people to help them make a decision, and then they'll raise their hand when they're ready to talk to sales.",[14,3271,3272],{},"Lee Moskowitz [00:35:04]:",[14,3274,3275],{},"That's my hot take. And we'll go into kind of a meaning session of what we did on your show. But the demand gen growth marketing part of that is all about making sure that when you are selling and reaching out to the person that it's not the first time they've heard of the brand. Exactly where all that comes in and plays. But, yeah, let's get into a really quick one here. Arfs or semrush?",[14,3277,3278],{},"Kerry Guard [00:35:33]:",[14,3280,3281],{},"Semrush.",[14,3283,3284],{},"Lee Moskowitz [00:35:34]:",[14,3286,3287],{},"Or a different one? Okay.",[14,3289,3290],{},"Kerry Guard [00:35:36]:",[14,3292,3281],{},[14,3294,3295],{},"Lee Moskowitz [00:35:37]:",[14,3297,3298],{},"Do you say semrush like they want you to, or Semrush?",[14,3300,3301],{},"Kerry Guard [00:35:40]:",[14,3303,3304],{},"I say semrush.",[14,3306,3307],{},"Lee Moskowitz [00:35:41]:",[14,3309,3310],{},"It's just faster. I refuse to. I refuse to. I refuse to call it SEM.",[14,3312,3313],{},"Kerry Guard [00:35:48]:",[14,3315,3316],{},"You. Do you?",[14,3318,3319],{},"Lee Moskowitz [00:35:49]:",[14,3321,3322],{},"It just doesn't make sense to me. It's search engine.",[14,3324,3325],{},"Kerry Guard [00:35:51]:",[14,3327,3328],{},"Whatever it is, it's SEM.",[14,3330,3331],{},"Lee Moskowitz [00:35:54]:",[14,3333,3334],{},"We don't say co, we say SEO.",[14,3336,3337],{},"Kerry Guard [00:35:56]:",[14,3339,3340],{},"It's true. It's true. But that's good branding on their end that we're calling it the thing they want us to call it. So there's that.",[14,3342,3343],{},"Lee Moskowitz [00:36:04]:",[14,3345,3346],{},"Well, I am not. I'm still a detractor.",[14,3348,3349],{},"Kerry Guard [00:36:08]:",[14,3351,3352],{},"You do. You. You got your thing going on. I love it. Own it. All right.",[14,3354,3355],{},"Lee Moskowitz [00:36:12]:",[14,3357,3358],{},"Yeah. So not asking to violate any NDAs or name anybody, obviously, but we are spilling tea here. So you are an agency owner. Have you ever fired a client? When I say this, what's a spill? The tea story that comes to mind, what happened and why?",[14,3360,3361],{},"Kerry Guard [00:36:30]:",[14,3363,3364],{},"Yeah, so we did fire a client. I'm not going to say who. Big brand, big tech brand. They had a lot of turnover and the new VP that came in wasn't a values fit for us. The expectations were out of alignment. Right. And no matter how hard we pushed for our boundaries and what our expectations were in terms of the initial agreement, he wanted things when he wanted them. And that's just not who we are.",[14,3366,3367],{},"Kerry Guard [00:36:54]:",[14,3369,3370],{},"We have SLAs and we sprint plan and we have systems and processes to, again, protect our team and our people. First culture. And so when clients push on that and as thoughtful as we push back to say we want to work with you, we understand things are really tough. Where's the give and take? Like, okay, this is really important to you right now. What can we move then and deprioritize to get this thing to you? They want it all and they want it all now. Okay, well, we're willing to do that every once in a while, but we haven't even built a rapport here and you're just stomping all over the relationship we have and you're not using us. Like, if you're coming in as a new person, whether you're VP down to practitioner, your agency is like a gold mine of information. If they've been there a while, which we had, we'd been there for over three years.",[14,3372,3373],{},"Kerry Guard [00:37:46]:",[14,3375,3376],{},"We've worked with the company for over three years. So in terms of helping them get up to speed, we could have absolutely been a 100% wonderful ally. And they didn't see us that way. They saw us as the vendor and they treated us like one, and that doesn't fit for us. So we parted ways.",[14,3378,3379],{},"Lee Moskowitz [00:38:06]:",[14,3381,3382],{},"That is. Again, I don't want to say it's good to hear, because it's not. But it's like we're talking about work life balance before that's part of it. That is identifying that these people are not the right fit and or they're making your team's life miserable, and it's not worth that retainer cost or whatever it is, it's more worth it to keep your employees happy. And, yes, that's just part of it.",[14,3384,3385],{},"Kerry Guard [00:38:33]:",[14,3387,3388],{},"I will say when you're a small agency, you sometimes run into the fact that you don't have the luxury of always letting clients go right away. And so if you're on the employee side, you're working with a really tough client and you've let leadership know, and they have these values like we do. Like for us, we run into this and we can't let a client go right away. We work our butts off to figure out how we can offset those costs or get right on the right side or figure out the client relationship and get it right. So just know that if you're in that situation and you've talked to leadership and they're telling you they're working on it, believe them, they probably are.Lee Moskowitz [00:39:09]:",[14,3390,3391],{},"It's tough. Well, I don't mean to end on a sour note, but I'm sorry. No. Here, let me ask you another spill of tea question. This one will be more fun. So we mentioned how you're a mother of twins. I am curious, what is similar between being an agency owner and being a mother of twins?",[14,3393,3394],{},"Kerry Guard [00:39:32]:",[14,3396,3397],{},"I don't want to say master, but I've become a pretty good negotiator. Yeah. When you have twins and you have children in general, you are constantly negotiating. So try to hold firm boundaries, but trying to find the balance of that give and take, and that's what you're doing with clients all day long, is trying to make sure that you're meeting their needs while also holding your boundaries. No different being a mother.",[14,3399,3400],{},"Lee Moskowitz [00:39:58]:",[14,3402,3403],{},"I love it. Well, this was such a good episode. I always like to give our guests a chance to shout things out. Let's shout out tea time again. Let's shout out your website. Anything else you want to say?",[14,3405,3406],{},"Kerry Guard [00:40:08]:",[14,3408,3409],{},"Thanks. All the things. So, yes, tea time with tech marketing leaders is live on LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube on Thursdays at. Well, it's normally 03:00 p.m., Eastern, but we got daylight savings happening right now. So I believe it's 02:00 p.m. Or maybe it's four. I don't know which way it goes. Anyway.",[14,3411,2483],{},[14,3413,3414],{},"Yeah, Thursday. Thursday evenings, you can check me out on LinkedIn to find out what time it is for you in particular. It also comes out across Spotify and all of the channels if you want to listen on the go and you can't make it live. That's cool too. Our website is mkgmarketinginc.com and you can find me on LinkedIn. I live, live and breathe it.",[14,3416,3417],{},"Lee Moskowitz [00:40:46]:",[14,3419,3420],{},"Yes, everybody go connect and follow. Go listen to my episode of Tea time if you haven't already. And yes, thank you so much again, and I will see everybody for another episode of Lead to B next time. Enjoying lead to B. Please rate and review us wherever you get your podcast. Your reviews go a long way in supporting me. Thank you so much.",[14,3422,3423,3425],{},[1758,3424],{},[1758,3426],{},[1758,3428],{},{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":3430},[3431,3432,3433,3434,3435],{"id":1479,"depth":291,"text":1480},{"id":1910,"depth":291,"text":1911},{"id":1494,"depth":291,"text":2698},{"id":2704,"depth":291,"text":2707},{"id":1509,"depth":291,"text":1510},"2024-03-19T20:01:00Z","During a discussion on the \"Lee2B\" podcast, Kerry Guard emphasizes work-life balance in remote digital marketing organizations & creating authentic content.","\u002Fimages\u002Flee2b-podcast.webp","The Lee2B Podcast",{"_schema":1773},35,"\u002Fblog\u002Fleadership\u002Fprioritizing-people-in-a-b2b-world-with-kerry-guard",{"title":2675,"description":3437},"blog\u002Fleadership\u002Fprioritizing-people-in-a-b2b-world-with-kerry-guard","7ASahEHdMx2X7mEcslkZOx23W1gbi7pZqJ99nfgYaik",[1780,1834],{"id":3448,"title":3449,"author":7,"authors":3450,"body":3451,"caption":7,"category":1767,"date":3730,"description":3731,"extension":318,"img":3732,"imgAlt":3731,"meta":3733,"minutes":3734,"navigation":322,"path":3735,"seo":3736,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":3737,"updated":7,"__hash__":3738,"people":3739},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fleadership\u002Fthe-changemakers-how-to-optimize-your-digital-marketing-strategy-with-shaped-by.md","The Changemakers: How to Optimize Your Digital Marketing Strategy with Shaped By",[9],{"type":11,"value":3452,"toc":3725},[3453,3455,3458,3461,3464,3466,3469,3472,3475,3478,3480,3484,3490,3496,3501,3506,3511,3516,3521,3526,3529,3532,3535,3538,3541,3544,3547,3550,3555,3560,3565,3570,3575,3580,3585,3590,3595,3600,3605,3610,3615,3620,3625,3630,3635,3640,3645,3650,3655,3660,3665,3670,3675,3680,3685,3690,3695,3700,3705,3710,3715,3720],[24,3454,1480],{"id":1479},[14,3456,3457],{},"Our CEO, Kerry Guard, joined Dave Corlett on his podcast, The Changemakers where she shares her story and how we, at MKG Marketing, help tech startups–expecially in cybsersecurity–scale and impact growth and cutting through the noise.",[14,3459,3460],{},"ShapedBy is a branding agency, focused on enaging content through. They challenge their clients to unleash creativity across their marketing. To come up with memorable ways to build brands and land sales.",[14,3462,3463],{},"Dave is the business development respresentative and podcast host of The Changemakers.",[24,3465,1911],{"id":1910},[14,3467,3468],{},"GA4 – The impact from UA and how we need to shift how we think about user behevaior and the data to go with it.",[14,3470,3471],{},"3rd Party Cookies – Soon to be a thing of the past pushing us back to a time where first party data is the primary data that we'll need to cultivate then navigate to move users through the customer journey without always knowing who they are.",[14,3473,3474],{},"Building value – Don't just capture 1st party data to turn around and immediately sell to your customer. Bring value by educating them, giving them tools to make their lives easier, and\u002For connecting them with the right people that are going to help them right now.",[14,3476,3477],{},"Creative problem solving – Creativity doesn't always mean painting a picture. It means stepping outside of the problem, pulling it apart, and viewing it from new angles so you can see a new way to approach something that hasent' been working.",[24,3479,1495],{"id":1494},[1497,3481,3483],{"style":1500,"src":3482,"width":1943,"height":1944,"frameBorder":1504,"allowFullScreen":322,"allow":1505,"loading":1506},"https:\u002F\u002Fopen.spotify.com\u002Fembed\u002Fepisode\u002F2ykW5swnR2b8oocjEu3Fft?utm\\_source=generator","\nTranscript",[14,3485,3486,3489],{},[52,3487,3488],{},"Dave Corlett:"," Hey, Kerry, welcome to the changemakers How you doing today?",[14,3491,3492,3495],{},[52,3493,3494],{},"Kerry Guard:"," I'm good. Thank you, Dave, thank you so much for having me.",[14,3497,3498,3500],{},[52,3499,3488],{}," Happy Friday.",[14,3502,3503,3505],{},[52,3504,3494],{}," It's Friday. Yes. And last day, the last working day of April. So",[14,3507,3508,3510],{},[52,3509,3488],{}," Yeah. And the long weekend on the horizon. I think we'll both be feeling pretty chirpy today. And you're on Guernsey? Right, the lovely island of Guernsey, can you tell our listeners a little bit about Guernsey who for those who don't know?",[14,3512,3513,3515],{},[52,3514,3494],{}," Yes, so, Guernsey is in the channel between England and France little closer to France, but it acknowledges the monarchy and so it's got a British accents mixed in with French roadsides.",[14,3517,3518,3520],{},[52,3519,3488],{}," Eagle as listeners will notice that your accent isn't so British. Well, I'll tell you why a great place to start will be how you came to be where you are today and actually how you came to found MKG marketing.",[14,3522,3523,3525],{},[52,3524,3494],{}," Sure. So I found my way to Guernsey specifically, I'll just get that out of the way because my husband grew up here and in the middle of a pandemic. Because Guernsey is a nine mile wide island. They figured out how to get COVID under control. And so with our children about to turn four at the time and send them off to school we thought now we're never and we made the leap in the middle of a pandemic, which I don't recommend.",[14,3527,3528],{},"But I am very grateful we're here absolutely love it. I am originally from Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, on the east coast where I went to school at Drexel University and studied photography, which clearly I did not do anymore, but it was a great start. And I absolutely loved it for a while it lasted but I really wanted to move to New York. That was my mission in life was to get to the Big Apple and my uncle who worked in marketing at the time in sales, he sold People Magazine, you throw authority back to the good old days of magazines, and he said he could get me a media planning job.",[14,3530,3531],{},"And in my very first interview at Universal McCann, I remember my who became my boss persecute my boss asked me if he knew if I knew what media plan He was. And I said, No, tell me more. I couldn't lie. When we put me on the spot and started asking me questions. I was like, Oh, you're gonna teach me it's gonna be great. And so from that point on, I fell in love with media planning. It was just lovely dichotomy of, you know, I love photography, but it was a lot of, you know, go through university with it.",[14,3533,3534],{},"There's a lot of gray area in terms of what people liked and didn't like, and media planning was, was very cut and dry. Your audience is here, this is the product you sell. You need to get your product in front of your audience, the number of sales, the number, say, negotiate some pricing, and there you go. Like it was just like, Oh, yes, it knows binary, yay. And so I absolutely fell in love with media planning. I started on the Verizon Wireless account, planning, TV print, and at home. And then after Verizon. I went on Bacardi for like a hot second as a promotion. But it was all at home. And it was super boring. And it wasn't creative at all. I still needed even though like binary I do. I do have a creative bone.",[14,3536,3537],{},"And so I called up my uncle and said, \"What do you got who's who's looking,\" and he recommended publicist modem had just won the General Mills account. And I was able to leap into digital from there.",[14,3539,3540],{},"I started as a assistant media planner on the Yoplait account. And I basically owned it $10 million that I planned and executed on end to end for just about two years, year and a half. And then I met my now husband, on the lovely island, the islands seem to run in our in our story, but on the island of Hawaii, and he lists me off to Seattle, where I then joined MEC on the Microsoft account. So that was my leap into tech. And I absolutely loved it.",[14,3542,3543],{},"And I had Seattle was sort of a culture shock. It wasn't sort of a culture shock was absolutely a culture shock. People were leaving the office at four, the office lights went off at 5:30 is very confusing, because in New York, you you work you start work around 738. And you don't stop until around 7:30. Right. And, and people believe the opposite for going home to see their families and tuck them into bed that was going up. And they had these things called SLA service level agreements. And it was like, well, the email comes in and you just take care of it, right? They're like, No, no, like, you have other things you need to get done. So like, you'll get that done in a few days. And I was like, that's weird. So this whole work life balance thing was very new for me, and I didn't quite understand it.",[14,3545,3546],{},"But my husband and I moved around a bit. And I grew to really, and then we had kids and stuff really grown to appreciate what work life balance can mean. And that's really why, you know, I went from NBC to a smaller company called Block duty, I got picked up by a headhunter. And I went to a boutique shop in Seattle. And it was somewhere between because it was a smaller shop. And it was NBC is huge. It was a smaller shop. But somewhere between like the Seattle lifestyle, work life balance, but with the pressure of New York. And I was like how this doesn't work. This is weird. And one of the challenges that my business partner, my now business partner and I were facing at the time he him and I worked together, what duty was that?",[14,3548,3549],{},"We were working on big accounts like Western Digital. And at the time, back in the day, 2008 here, taking you all back, I guess it was 2011. By then, these products were sold in store, mostly, Amazon was just sort of ramping up. They were still mostly books. And so everything was really sold in store. And so when we'd run these big brand campaigns with impressions and clicks, they'd be like, so how did we do be like? Well, here, here's your share. Here's why people clicked on your ad. So people visit your website, they're like, Yeah, but like, How much money did we make? Or like, ya know, we we can't measure that. And we were really tired of having conversations. I was about to move down to California with my husband who got a job at Netflix. And I turned to my class one day and said, What if we went and like, did this thing and started a company around measurable media, this idea of actually being able to measure our impact and to end and we had the time I had picked up a very small RFP that our existing company won't do to get turned down because it was small peanuts. But it was a travel company was an online travel company like oh my gosh, we can actually measure, like, how many rooms we booked, this would be amazing. And so that's really what kicked off our initial excitement over the idea. And then when I was moving down to San Francisco was like, we could really do this thing. And that's how Tom, could you started. We are now almost 12 years old. We got about 16 people and we've primarily focus on complex tech companies. We've worked with anybody from a container online trainers to cybersecurity to data management. And we really want to help those companies for their mission.",[14,3551,3552,3554],{},[52,3553,3488],{}," Wow, that really is quite a story. And you mentioned began for 12 years now. Um, how's that journey been for you? Has it been kind of smooth sailing ups and downs",[14,3556,3557,3559],{},[52,3558,3494],{}," I've been any company right has, especially with the throw drop pandemic in the middle there for kicks, has there has struggled for sure. But mostly, it's just been this lovely rhythm of organic growth. So we're not looking to be the next universal McCann or or MEC, like the big companies I mentioned, we're really looking to be a very people first oriented organization. And with that comes growing really intentionally and slowly so that, you know, because if you have fast growth, it's really hard to keep your culture packed. And that's just really important to us. So it's been this lovely, slow and steady build over time. And I don't know how big we'll get, but we're just enjoying the ride for now. Nice. And you fully remote, fully 100%. Yeah, we have people I'm in the UK, obviously, we have people from the East Coast to the West Coast, in all the time zones. So yeah, fully remote have been since since 2011.",[14,3561,3562,3564],{},[52,3563,3488],{}," Since before it was fashionable. And in terms of the common challenges that you help, MKG's clients to tackle, what are some of those at the moment.",[14,3566,3567,3569],{},[52,3568,3494],{}," It's really around scaling. So companies get funding, and they need to all of a sudden get customers. And they need fast, impactful growth. And so we come in with recommendations around search engine optimization, making sure that search compounds so the quicker you can get your search optimization in place, the faster you can get a content system up and running to deliver consistent ongoing content that really speaks to the pain of your customers, and the keywords that they're searching for around that pain, that that takes time to grow. But when it does, it compounds it has huge impact over time. And then digital advertising is that more that faucet that off on. But again, like if you can start really small and intentional, right out of the gate, you get that funding, you're ready to grow, you activate your pain, search, then you grow into display, and then you get fancier with things like Account Based Marketing in the long run, you can, you know, look to compound that growth between those channels, measuring it measurement, like I said, very important. So we have analytics that is built in and ensures that we can optimize from a micro standpoint, you know, every day making adjustments to a macro standpoint of saying what's the big picture? Where are the trends? Where do we want to take these accounts and help them with that impact. But it's really about that scale they're looking to, they got this lovely on this lovely funding, and now they need to add something with it and be grow relatively quickly.",[14,3571,3572,3574],{},[52,3573,3488],{}," Yeah, so in terms of funding, what kind of businesses typically we're looking at it kind of like North sort of seed and series A are a bit further along than that.",[14,3576,3577,3579],{},[52,3578,3494],{}," So we it really depends on how much funding they get. I mean, I've had anywhere, you know, we've had series, a company show up where they got 30 million in funding, right, we can, we can get some good initial budgets out of that and start that journey, right, we don't need hundreds of 1000s of dollars to activate SEO and digital ads. That's the beauty of these channels, you can start them at a really intentional budget size of you know, six to 8k a month and get going. And so we can we can do that we've worked with more than, you know, companies who've have hundreds of millions of dollars in funding to actually being sustained on their own with their sort of through that they're like now actually making revenue and they want to make more move into that enterprise stage or that exit, right, whether that's getting bought, or whether it's going public. And so that's that real activated growth stage of they have a lot of money, and they need to use it and really grow their audience. So both, it's just two very different strategies of how we activate and help out those companies.",[14,3581,3582,3584],{},[52,3583,3488],{}," Yeah, and I know from our initial conversations around working together, in partnership, that you've got quite a lot of cybersecurity clients as well. Is that a particularly unique industry would you say? I mean, I think it's something that we've certainly found particularly in terms of recent, you know, I say market forces that have kind of negatively impacted some kind of categories and some areas but not cybersecurity in in a huge way. Because obviously, it's so, so important. What's that looking like for you at the moment?",[14,3586,3587,3589],{},[52,3588,3494],{}," Yes, so we've worked with companies in cybersecurity for over seven years, and we're growing the category we're looking to really hone in on it. It's very specific audience both in who we work with directly as marketers, as you know, and also the audience that they're trying to market to the seaso audience is a very tricky sort of folks you got to get in front of and build trust with over a long period of time. That's why sales cycles for cyber companies tend to be anywhere from eight plus months, right? Because you got to really build trust with those that you know, as a vendor to those CISOs. And we're finding that too, even on the marketing side, like the marketers, as well, having lived in the cybersecurity world, you got to build that trust, and it takes it takes time. And so when we do that, and we have landed clients in the cyberspace, that we ended up really working with them for a long period of time, because, you know, once you really build that relationship, then it's a great place to build on. So we're all about long term. I think that's why several makes so much sense for us is because not only we worked in it, we have case studies to prove that we can get in front of the seaso audience and be really intentional and thoughtful about it. But also, we're in it for the long game with them with the cybersecurity companies, we're not just in it for a project here or there. We really want to come to understand your product, what pain it solves, what your audience really needs, and how to cultivate a relationship between them and their potential customers over time.",[14,3591,3592,3594],{},[52,3593,3488],{}," Yeah, absolutely. It's such a crowded market, though, isn't it? It's so so cluttered, you know, and there's often, you know, radio listeners will know that we've talked about this time and time again, on the podcast. But I think for good reason. You know, there is often a difficulty in cutting through with a not necessarily even a unique but a distinct message, what the value is and what the benefit is of one cyber solution over another. I'm being a bit generalist there. But I think on the whole it kind of, because it's so cluttered, it kind of it rings true, is that what you're seeing is, is it difficult to cut through with something that's unique and kind of indistinct?",[14,3596,3597,3599],{},[52,3598,3494],{}," I think at the end of the day, it really comes down to a couple things. One is there's lots of verticals within cyber, right, in terms of the different from endpoints to MDR, to XDR, to, you know, insert acronym here. And so I think from that standpoint, there's a lot of verticals that are popping up, right, a lot of new categories that are emerging, based off of the different threats that are arising and showing up every single day. And then within those categories, different solutions are showing up, depending on the audience, you have companies anywhere from trying to work with enterprise write to even small enterprise to medium sized businesses and an even smaller. So I think, yes, it's very crowded, but I think each company is really distinguishable depending on who they're trying to help and in what category and what you know, kind of which solutions fit together also matters. So I think it really comes down to and you know, this better than me, Dave being more in the content space, but it really comes down to the education piece of really building out the brand of what they do and what's unique about who they are terms to the audience that they're trying to support. And then getting that information in front of the right folks, which is where we come in, and then allowing customers to make the decision themselves, right. But if you keep showing up, it's just being really supportive and helpful saying I understand your pain, I understand what you're going through. Here's how this product will help that, well, here's things that are that we have learned that you can go off into yourself without our product and just continue to show up with that value over and over and over and over again. And building that trust while people are passively looking for solutions than when something happens in a trigger happens. Oh, no, I need insurance. Oh, no, I need training, oh, no, I got hacked, and I need to you know, threat detection. Then when they go into active searching or active finding and buying, then they'll gonna remember you because you've constantly showed up and said, I know about you, I know about your pain, and I understand what you need. And that right time, right fit sort of happens through that constant, you know, showing up? So yeah, it's crowded, but I think it really depends on how you show up in the marketplace that it doesn't need to feel that way.",[14,3601,3602,3604],{},[52,3603,3488],{}," Yeah, absolutely. And I suppose it's no different to any other kind of sector or category really, you know, Value Trust, playing the long game being consistent. And again, in our world, that's that's very much from a kind of look and feel and a visual point of view and a brand point of view. On your side. It's that getting in front of the right people consistently with the right message. You know, I think cybersecurity in some ways, I guess it's no different to to other sectors as well. But I'm also a little bit conscious of boring our audience that aren't in cybersecurity, with this constant talk about this industry that's fascinating to us, but may not be sharp people. So we'll move on now and just talk a little bit about digital marketing in general, really, from shapers point of view. It's something that we dip our toes in every now and then and certainly take an interest in what's happening in terms of the wider marketing sphere, I suppose but it'd be great to hear from your point of view, what some of the more sort of prevalent Pressing trends are within the world of digital marketing right now that maybe our audience might need to be aware of.",[14,3606,3607,3609],{},[52,3608,3494],{}," I'm trying to think of where to begin, the trends are endless, I think there's a couple of things we need to be aware of. Right. So some big changes that are, have been coming our way for a long time. And Google will at some point, actually pull the cord on this. And we all need to be ready on two things, right? We need to make sure that your GA for a setup and you are away from Universal Analytics, I know change is hard, you all I get it. It's Universal Analytics has been the crutch for so long, we all know how to use it. And GA four is entirely different. And it's very much around engagement versus sessions. So we need to not only make the shift into the platform, but we need to make the mental shift of how to use it, as well. And July is upon us. So if you haven't made the shift, please, please, please make it now just and you can have them both running in parallel, right. So you can still have your your UA ball back as you get comfortable with GA four. But the sooner you get that set up, and you make sure that it's wired into all of your systems, and you can measure and you're not duplicating content, and it's clean data, the better. Because July is going to show up and Universal Analytics is gonna go away. It's gonna be really, really sad day for a lot of us. So that's one thing I would say the other thing that Google is doing helpful, not helpful is getting rid of third party cookies. While this is really hard from it, from an advertising standpoint, it's really necessary when it comes to people's privacy and how that data is used. And it's been long over abused. And so the government's been cracking down, it's getting harder and harder to regulate. And so Google just made the decision that third party cookies are going away, which means we sort of need to like backtrack a little and figure out how we're going to get back to first party data, which is making your site incredibly valuable to your audience so that they'll want to subscribe that they'll want to show up on a regular basis, making sure that your social media systems are up and running, and that you have a good cadence of sharing content. You know, from a LinkedIn standpoint, and even activating your employees or people within your organization who really love your company and what you're doing and want to share it and having them share on LinkedIn too, so that you're feeding both the company page and then feeding back into the website. So really looking to how you can capture first party information. And and the only way to do that is to, people are very skeptical of giving away their email address. So if they're going to give your email address, and then you're just going to show up the next day with a salesperson, this is not the strategy for you do not that is not a best practice. If you're going to capture somebody's email address, you better have a really good nurture system behind it to really cool again, cultivate a relationship with these folks, they will tell you when they are ready to buy, the market has changed, call emailing a cold calling is slowly slipping away. Nobody wants it ourselves included. Marketers are the hardest people to market to why? Because we don't want any of it. Because we know how it all works. So don't do to others what you don't even want done to yourself, essentially, if you're going to capture somebody's email and start building that first party database, do with incredible intention and integrity. But we have to make that shift because third party cookies are going away. And we're not going to be able to market to these folks unless they've been to our site and unless we've captured their information over time.",[14,3611,3612,3614],{},[52,3613,3488],{}," Yeah, it's fascinating episode 33 of the change makers, which was released as we're talking just last week was with Meghan bar, who's the VP of brand content and communications at zoominfo. Now ironically enough, zoominfo started out as as essentially a database where you could buy email addresses and contact data to run your your email campaigns, however spammy or annoying, they might be now zoominfo themselves. So I've actually poached Megan, from the world of journalism to build an internal newsroom, essentially, to build a content machine that is all about what you've just talked about. building an audience showing them value time and time again, playing the long game and getting them to come to your to you and your platform. Because the content that you're producing and sharing is so interesting to them that you're building that first party audience, I think what each it's just really, really interesting, and how does that impact on on the work that you do and the kind of the conversations that you have with your client.",[14,3616,3617,3619],{},[52,3618,3494],{}," It really comes down to again that that value and thinking about demand gen versus demand capture or lead gen or whatever you want to call it. You know, a lot of times especially in this more smaller startup arena, we tend to fall back on the lead gen and demand capture side of things because we feel like it's low hanging fruit it feels like it's going to get us results instantly and that sucks. clearly not the case, especially if you have an audience that doesn't know about you. So really, the way it's impacted us is is trying to help our clients shift with the times and get in the long game, right? We know you need leads yesterday, we know you need revenue tomorrow, we're just kicking off here. So the way we need to approach this is to really build a relationship with your audience through really intentional marketing, and SEO and digital ads, and bring that value showing up with them consistently. And so it's this conversation change that's really impacted us and trying to take control of a very frantic audience who's getting a lot of pressure from up top, and trying to calm everybody's nerves to say this is going to take time. But the sooner you start, it's why I'm trying to say like, yes, we want to work with companies who are a bit more established, who have a marketing team who are ready to go, obviously, right, that's the dream. But then the day, the sooner you get started this, the minute that seed money hits, and you can say, You know what, I can carve out a little bit of this for SEO or digital ads and get ahead in the demand gen piece, start building that audience, now we've got having a product or not even having a product yet, you could be prototyping, but what you could be doing is so exciting, that you could build an audience now, right? And so the sooner you do that, then when you do have a practice ready are you do have that new feature ready to go Are you are you are in, you know, past beta, and you're ready to do go to proper go to market launch, you have an audience that you've already cultivated. So it's this, the really big shift is this conversation around, moving away from lead gen and more into that demand gen and helping folks understand it's not, it takes time, and it takes intention. And if you stick with it, it will pay off.",[14,3621,3622,3624],{},[52,3623,3488],{}," I think that's really, really good advice for founders in particular, you know, of early stage companies, because, you know, I mean, all of the advice seems to be when you're getting your your business off the ground and your product off the ground, it's product product product, then all of a sudden, you need people to sell it to and then it's leads, leads, leads, and then you get to a certain size and all of a sudden you realize, actually, we need a brand here, we need something to build a company around and a story and a vision that we that we don't have, and we can't kind of, you know, trying their best to retrofit that and make that something that people want to buy into and believe in. Whereas I think that's really, really good advice to actually, the sooner that you can start to not even just think about these things, but start to seed them into what you're doing, then, you know, the groundwork is there, the foundations and the framework are there to build pretty much so that to build on when you have when you need them. ",[14,3626,3627,3629],{},[52,3628,3494],{}," And I have a great example. Yeah, I have a really good example, we worked with a client for over seven years, and we got on the ground floor with them when they were going after category, they were trying to create a category around wire data. And it wasn't anything that was real. And so trying to convince an audience to use something that they had never heard of and, and getting out in front of people who aren't even searching for this problem was really, really hard. And so we were able to help them make the shift into cybersecurity, which was a huge game changer. But it had everything I just shift. It wasn't just our SEO strategy, it was their entire brand awareness of how they showed up. And so we started with them when they were really early stage and worked with them over seven years until they got bought out by vein. But the the thing that the real shift that happened for them is when they brought in a team around demand generation there, they literally brought in somebody who was the VP of demand generation, and she was all about Account Based Marketing. And that was a huge shift for them in their growth. And we went from like an 8x ROI to a 17x ROI. And, and really when she got to the long game, right, that didn't happen overnight. It took us time, but it was about building those benchmarks every month to say, Okay, here's, we're at 8x. next quarter, we want to be at nine, right and those micro adjustments towards and figuring out what's working and what's not. We knew SEO was like 30% of their your revenue. And we needed to grow that and make that even more impactful. And then I'm the IBM on top of that in relation to to search and display. And then we added in we even got fancier down the road when they got closer to actually wanting to sell the company than we did direct site buys were like, Okay, let's show up on Bloomberg and New York Times. And let's build that awareness. Right, we were able to go from just SEO, then adding in display and Account Based Marketing, to then building out their huge page search and we just built the building blocks on top of it and in six years they went from startup to buy out right start soon build that to bands, and the capture will happen.",[14,3631,3632,3634],{},[52,3633,3488],{}," Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. And I think obviously, you know, demand generations so well versed within business of certain sizes, but I think again, you know having that vision to say, you know, this is something that we're going to build into our into our organization from from almost day one, really make sure that actually those foundations being laid is a bold move. But yeah, I'd love to see more and more startups kind of adopt that approach. And something just touched on there was was ABM really interested to know what your involvement is with your clients? And also, has that changed or increased or kind of that role bigger over the last few years as IBM has become such a talking point on such hot topic?",[14,3636,3637,3639],{},[52,3638,3494],{}," Yeah, it's absolutely increased for sure. When we were working with this company and building and you know, when they initially started ABM, we actually kicked the program off with them. So we were using terminus, we got our campaigns up and running, we set the initial campaigns, and then when the demand gen hire came in, the VP of demand gen, she said, this is working, this is awesome. I'm gonna go build an internal team to this. I want somebody on this every minute of every day. And so that was her plan and doing that. And she could do it because it was a very controlled audience that she was going after. And it made a lot of sense for the size of company that they were now we're working with a we're working with the same VP, she left that company, she's gone to another one. And they're 10 times the size, they're huge. And they're ABM programs too big. They have too many products, too many campaigns, they need extra support. And so actually we're helping out on very specific, they're working on their core business there. So they said, Okay, we're going to focus on our core business, and then we do all these acquisitions all the time. So we're gonna have you manage the ABM on these acquisitions using either LinkedIn specific, you know, on its own or a tool, like sixth sense to make it happen. And so it really depends on the size of the company and where they are and how much dedication they want to put towards ABM, as well as how big the budgets and things are. But yeah, we are definitely we have another client in the cybersecurity space who is also doing ABM and we're just kicking the program off. And so they want to use us to get it going. And then we'll see where they take it, whether they take it in house or whether they keep us managing it. Yeah.",[14,3641,3642,3644],{},[52,3643,3488],{}," Yeah, no, I suppose to the point about ABM, obviously, becoming more and more prevalent every single day. And the tools like Terminus and Sixth Sense, obviously a massive part of that, you know, smoothing that that that process and giving the real kind of that the platform and the data to be able to put together some really impactful campaigns. How'd you do you guys have a way of constantly moving with the times and being able to integrate and embed and test new technology as far as your side of things is concerned?",[14,3646,3647,3649],{},[52,3648,3494],{}," Yeah, I mean, Terminus and and success are the biggies. So those are the two we mostly use. And really, it comes down to the client side too, because it'll depend on the beautiful thing about ABM platforms like sixth sense and Terminus is that they plug in on top of your tech stack and directly into your Salesforce and your email solution. And so you really want to find the right tool that's going to fit your tech stack, I don't know that one's any really better than the other, it's just a matter of marrying market information, you know, like on LinkedIn, with your database of who your ideal customer profile is, and what account and then figuring out what accounts you want to go after, and building campaigns and messaging to hit not just the accounts themselves in terms of the people that work there just holistically, but to say then, okay, what are the roles or responsibilities of these folks and what pain do each of these folks feel and think being able to deliver a very specific message to those people with in the account you're really going after. So I don't know that one tool is necessarily better than the other, I just think it matters around your specific tech stack, they all work very similarly. They have their nuances of what makes one different over another. So it's just doing the research to figure out what makes sense for you. But usually, it's client directed.",[14,3651,3652,3654],{},[52,3653,3488],{}," This and we're half an hour into our conversation on this wonderful podcast about creativity in tech marketing, and something that we haven't kind of touched on, which I'd really like to is, what kind of creativity means to you in your world, and how you encourage the team at MKG to spark an embrace a culture of creativity, if that's something that you that you do.",[14,3656,3657,3659],{},[52,3658,3494],{}," It is I absolutely believe in creativity. And, and really, it starts in brainstorming. I think creativity comes from having multiple people in the same room ideating. and problem solving, creative problem solving, right? Like we had a client show up in Q4. And they were very much like we don't work with enterprises, we're going after small businesses. These are who we want to work with. But we were having a really tough time from a search standpoint were like but their messaging is saying this, but they're saying our audiences this and there's a disconnect here and we just can't quite put our finger on what it is. And so got the team, no room, there was a lot of brainstorming a lot of pulling apart that data to say what's happening. Building up dashboards is always a very creative process because it's like how do you visually want to take something like numbers which is, you know, very mathematical and raw and actually build a visual for it to tell you a story of what's actually happening. And then from there to say, and then to dig into the marketplace and do the research and then cultivate a creative solution to say, what, what are we going to do about this really tricky, this really tricky problem. And we landed on the fact that it's actually not small business. It's small enterprise. So there's this whole new sort of audience that's opened up, and what a small enterprise means. And then we get to go on this creative journey to understand and build personas and really, like lean into the audience. And so while we're not actually building creative asset, one of the creative ways we do when we I think creativity functions isn't coming up with creative solutions, or going about a problem in a creative way to get to the actual right issue that's happening. The other thing that's been really creative for us and really fun, and my strategist is all about it right now is chat, GBT. He has leaned into it so hard, and actually our sales team as as well. And I know that our SEO team has really been playing around to figure out what can this thing do. And it's definitely a creative muscle because you have to test and learn every which possible way that you can really activate the system to give you content in a really meaningful way. It's, it's the right queries, it's figuring out the right voice, like my husband did a query the other day about, right this marketing speak as if it was Don Draper. Right? And, and that's a huge creative outlet for my team. Rather than just straight up writing title tags and meta descriptions, they can actually use this new chat system to get an initial idea down in a way that they may not have thought about writing it, and then being able to hone it to then fit the right audience. So it's been a huge creative outlet that way to be testing this this system as it relates to what we do from an ad copy standpoint, and title tags and meta descriptions and copy for landing pages. Yeah, it's been fun.",[14,3661,3662,3664],{},[52,3663,3488],{}," Excellent. Yeah. I don't think we could have possibly got through this conversation without talking about AI in some capacity. But yeah, I think, I mean, I think everybody's trying to wrap their heads around, really, you know, how whatever you do, AI can use, it can be used to either make efficiencies or help you in that journey. And the whole prompting side of things is an industry itself. Really, I think I'm hearing about a very lucrative one and imagined for some people that are taking it to new heights, because that's, as you said, you know, it's an area where you have to get creative. And you have to learn how to get creative as well. It's a muscle that we don't kind of use very often. From that point of view, I'm sure that we will be is there anything else from an AI standpoint that you guys are looking at, besides chat GPT.",[14,3666,3667,3669],{},[52,3668,3494],{}," We use for podcasting and the like, we tend to use transcripting a lot, testing a bunch of tools, I use otter, which does have okay job. But my team's really leaning into Fathom right now they're really enjoying fathom, which has been a huge help from a content generation standpoint, we'll host I have a podcast, obviously, my business partner has a podcast called What's the problem. And then we just launched a new one called, whom, and yet the initials are CEO, which makes me giggle. But it's essentially our sales guy sitting down with our team internally and asking them questions as it relates to what they do to really understand to be able to really showcase the, their expertise on a more regular basis. But you know, even then, we're using transcription to then help us produce the blog posts. And then also then dropping I actually took all my podcasts. One of the questions I ask is, what's the challenge you're currently facing. And so we actually took that chunk out of, you know, the last like, 15 episodes, I did, and drop that into chat GPT. And then found themes, and hash happy, like, sort of sort through ways of that. So there's a bunch of different ways to use check GPT in conjunction with transcripts, I know people who are building out courses, to say, I've done all of these interviews that I've had to do for my job. And now let me use my transcripts, and chat GPT to create content around course material to teach you this thing. Whatever it might be. So there's, not only are there other AI tools, but then it's interesting to start thinking about how they fit together to help us find go through just enormous amounts of data and find trends.",[14,3671,3672,3674],{},[52,3673,3488],{}," It's exciting. It's a little bit nerve wracking, it's a little bit daunting, but ultimately, it really, really is changing everything. We're exactly the same way. Auditing pretty much everything we do at the moment to find where our AI can help us be better. You just mentioned your podcast. Am I right? So you've been doing it for four years. 2019 a pretty long time in podcast world.",[14,3676,3677,3679],{},[52,3678,3494],{}," It is. Yeah, I'm pretty proud of it. I you know, it started out as a hobby. I guess. I just wanna have some conversations and record them. See what happens. And it's really turned into a wonderful learning tool, it really gives me a chance to sit down with my ideal customer and hear what they got going on and hear how they're approaching challenges. And then more importantly, sharing that out to the community to say, you know, that's one of those one of the things I love about the shift that sort of happened in our industries, whether it's cyber, or other complex tech, like you know, FinTech or SAS is this openness of sharing information, I feel like it's less about used to be very much like, I don't want to share my secret sauce, and I don't want to share how I do things. And it's, it's really opened up where people are like, you can go find this information anywhere. So I'm just gonna tell you how I do it. And you could do that with that as you will. And we could all just sort of learn from each other. And that has really been the joy of why just keep going with the podcast. Yeah. 135- 138 episodes published.",[14,3681,3682,3684],{},[52,3683,3488],{}," That's pretty impressive. What's it called in case our audience want to go and hunt it out, which I thoroughly recommend you do?",[14,3686,3687,3689],{},[52,3688,3494],{}," Well, inspired by moving to the UK, I had to put tea in there somewhere. So it's called Tea Time with tech marketing leaders.",[14,3691,3692,3694],{},[52,3693,3488],{}," Excellent. Excellent. I'm not a tea drinker. People find that weird, especially as a Brit. Don't like it? That's fair. As simple as that really?",[14,3696,3697,3699],{},[52,3698,3494],{}," Were of a coffee person. ",[14,3701,3702,3704],{},[52,3703,3488],{}," I don't know if it is, though. I really don't know if it is, but I think I'm going to lose listeners. But you know, it's a hill I'm gonna die on. That's fair enough.",[14,3706,3707,3709],{},[52,3708,3494],{}," Got to like what you like.",[14,3711,3712,3714],{},[52,3713,3488],{}," Exactly. Listen, Kerry, thank you so much for joining me, it's been a really, really great conversation. We've covered so much in such a short space of time. It's been fantastic. But there's a question that we end with on the podcast, which is, from your illustrious career so far, is there one particular campaign or project or initiative that you are more proud of than any other?",[14,3716,3717,3719],{},[52,3718,3494],{}," You gave me his question ahead of time to think that I would have off the cuff and put people on the spot. Oh, there's, there's a couple of cycles by fine. Okay, so my very first campaign that I ever did that I was so proud of was with yo play, and it was around Breast Cancer Awareness. They do this thing every year, I don't know if they're still doing it. But back in the day, they did this thing every year where if you click the lids off of the yogurts, you could raise money, like every for every lead you sent in, they would give five cents to breast cancer research. And so we sort of flipped what we call flipping the funnel. So instead of trying to fill up the funnel, as much as possible to get to a small audience, we activated a very small audience to go spread our word, essentially, what we're trying to do, because what we did was we actually took the marketing the media budget, and said, Let's try and save as much of the media budget as possible and donate that it's that became the message. And so the strategy behind that, which was the the creative team came up with the fact that they want to use me a budget. And I said, Well, we still need, you can't just build it, and they will come and keep mine. I was like 24 at the time, and I'm in front of all these creative bigwigs. So, my my shining moment, so to speak early in my career was we do need some budgets to activate a very small audience, but we'll find the loudest and they will go seat it for us because social media was just like Facebook was just really becoming a very used thing at the time. It was huge. And so it was a very easy thing to do. And it was huge, a huge success. I think we donated over a million dollars and it was really fun. Fun to do. And it's sticks with me to this day. Yeah.",[14,3721,3722,3724],{},[52,3723,3488],{}," Yeah, I can see. Brilliant. That's fantastic. What a great note to end on. Listen Kerry, thank you so much again, really, really appreciate your time today. Happy Friday once again and a big thank you yeah.",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":3726},[3727,3728,3729],{"id":1479,"depth":291,"text":1480},{"id":1910,"depth":291,"text":1911},{"id":1494,"depth":291,"text":1495},"2023-09-06T00:00:00Z","The Creative agency Shaped By speaks with MKG's CEO Kerry Guard to uncover significant challenges in the world of digital marketing","\u002Fimages\u002Fpodcast\u002Fkerry-guard-shaped-by-interview-image.jpeg",{"_schema":1773},37,"\u002Fblog\u002Fleadership\u002Fthe-changemakers-how-to-optimize-your-digital-marketing-strategy-with-shaped-by",{"title":3449,"description":3731},"blog\u002Fleadership\u002Fthe-changemakers-how-to-optimize-your-digital-marketing-strategy-with-shaped-by","0R12RUiDqTGStkSxsO5-SKChH-UUxsiaVlV-6KX1IbQ",[1780,1834],{"id":3741,"title":3742,"author":7,"authors":3743,"body":3745,"caption":7,"category":1767,"date":3859,"description":3860,"extension":318,"img":3861,"imgAlt":7,"meta":3862,"minutes":586,"navigation":322,"path":3863,"seo":3864,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":3865,"updated":7,"__hash__":3866,"people":3867},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fleadership\u002Fpersonal-user-manual-for-work.md","Creating a Personal User Manual for Work ",[3744],"Jenna Hasenkampf",{"type":11,"value":3746,"toc":3855},[3747,3750,3753,3756,3759,3763,3769,3772,3775,3779,3782,3785,3788,3796,3805,3808,3811,3814,3817,3825,3828,3837,3844,3847],[14,3748,3749],{},"I have what I consider a “Thumper speech” and I give it annually in Q4.",[14,3751,3752],{},"I find that Q4 is consistently when things get rough with frustration, stress, and short tempers, but we’re in a client servicing business so these feelings get directed inward. I’ve given the “Thumper speech” throughout my career, in small meetings, over email, and even in front of about 75 people at an all-agency meeting. “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say nothing at all”:  I’ve quoted it directly or spruced it up, depending on who I was talking to. Unfortunately, stress just does not tend to bring out the best in people.",[14,3754,3755],{},"As I was staring down the start of Q4 2021, I was tired. Year two of Covid leading an agency, mom of two young kids: I had been through it and was still going through it. I thought to myself, “There has got to be a better way. I just can’t give the ‘Thumper speech’ this year.”",[14,3757,3758],{},"So I took a deep breath and I took a step back and considered the real problem I was trying to solve. It wasn’t to get people to be nicer; it was to build empathy. People can be salty and still be compassionate, empathetic team members.  Stress forces us inward and our unpleasant interactions are driven by the focus on ourselves and our stress. We get stress blinders on and the world does not look like a nice place with stress blinders on. My efforts needed to focus on how to strengthen the team connection to offset that inward spiral. So I researched activities around how to build empathy in the workplace.",[24,3760,3762],{"id":3761},"how-to-build-empathy-in-the-workplace","How To Build Empathy In The Workplace",[14,3764,3765,3766,212],{},"It doesn’t work to tell people to be more empathetic. It doesn’t work to ask people to be nice to each other. You have to give people support and tools to do that. You need understanding, agreement, and personal investment to succeed. There are a lot of interesting approaches to building empathy out there, but I was also approaching this puzzle looking for a tool that would be successful with a remote team. What I settled on is the ",[52,3767,3768],{},"Personal User Manual",[14,3770,3771],{},"In my experience leading a remote team and many years working in offices, team friction is usually caused by miscommunication and misaligned perceptions. At MKG one of our core values is People First, so we’re all starting with an atmosphere that aims to value team members. We encourage MRI (Most Respectful Interpretation) and really that just means giving people the benefit of the doubt, believing their intent was not to impact you negatively.",[14,3773,3774],{},"But that only goes so far. How do we build stronger understanding and connections to better navigate different communication styles at work? How do you get team members to invest empathy and interest in each other in a deeper way?",[24,3776,3778],{"id":3777},"personal-user-manuals","Personal User Manuals",[14,3780,3781],{},"I admit that I am a nerd who reads user manuals. I read my kids’ school handbooks, and I have read MKG’s handbook (and helped write some of it) multiple times. I like understanding what is expected of me, what my options are, and what my options are for approaching things.",[14,3783,3784],{},"Why do we make it harder to do this with people than the set of outdoor lights I just got from Amazon?",[14,3786,3787],{},"Relationships don’t need to be such a guessing game or minefield. Clear communication and boundaries have already been established as integral to successful relationships, so why don’t we invest more in this at work?\nPersonal user manuals are tools to build a deeper understanding of individuals and what drives them.",[14,3789,3790,3791,212],{},"They start with each person answering a set of questions about themselves in a document. The questions provide everyone with the opportunity to share what they need to succeed, what shuts them down, and what they expect from their team members. This is essential with a remote team, where you don’t have the casual in-person run-ins that you can have in the office. Professional relationships should also be intentional and thoughtful since this is how you build inclusive and high-performing teams. Strong teams establish trust and ",[206,3792,3795],{"href":3793,"rel":3794},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.betterup.com\u002Fblog\u002Fwhy-psychological-safety-at-work-matters",[210],"emotional safety",[14,3797,3798,3799,3804],{},"I never like to start from a blank page if I don’t have to. Reading how others have tackled the same issue can be a brainstorming exercise and the personal user manual research led me to ",[206,3800,3803],{"href":3801,"rel":3802},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.atlassian.com\u002Fteam-playbook\u002Fplays\u002Fmy-user-manual",[210],"Atlassian",". However, I changed the structure to better fit our values and tone.",[14,3806,3807],{},"For example, “What Are Three Things You’d Want This Team To Say About You At Your Funeral (If You Were Hit By A Car Tomorrow)?” felt overly dramatic and negative. Do we really need to imagine getting killed by a car to build empathy? I also shortened from four pages of questions to one. Ideally, this is a document that will continue to get updated as people grow and learn more about what helps them bring their best selves to the table. I also wanted it short enough that people would actually take the time to read it.",[14,3809,3810],{},"I introduced the personal user manual at the start of Q4 and each person in MKG filled it out and then shared it in small groups that work together regularly.  I asked groups to be no more than four people so there would be plenty of time to share and listen.  This also creates a more intimate setting to help towards the greater goal of empathy building.",[14,3812,3813],{},"The sharing is a key part:  it creates space to ask questions and offer experiences and stories that connect. We had a couple of fun questions to provide some insights into personality, but the questions are really focused on building a “how to work with me” document. The questions in our MKG User Manual don’t shy away from negative triggers (for example,  “What makes you shut down and\u002For irritates you in a professional setting?”) , but they balance those with how to build up (for example, “What are the best ways to communicate with you?”",[14,3815,3816],{},"My personal favorite is, “What’s the best professional advice\u002Ffeedback you’ve ever received?” I get to hear about what guides a person, as well as someone who greatly impacted their career since people always share when\u002Fwhere they got that advice.",[14,3818,3819,3820,3824],{},"I tasked out the questionnaire and started with the ",[206,3821,3823],{"href":3822},"\u002Fabout\u002Fteam\u002F","Account Directors"," since they’re both a small team that works together and team leaders who would be doing this with their own small groups. I knew I was on the right track when I had a team member ask if they could add a question to the list.",[14,3826,3827],{},"I’m happy to report it was the best Q4 I have ever experienced with a team. It’s not a magic fix to building team empathy, but if you invest in it, it can be a strong foundation. Personal user manuals are actionable and each person can make it their own. We now have our filled-out manuals in our knowledge base so anyone can access and assess how to improve their engagement with team members. I think this tool is especially great for new team members.",[14,3829,3830,3831,3836],{},"I think these are a great tool to use, period. Are you a freelancer looking to set some boundaries and communication style expectations? Adapt the format and use it with engagements. I’ve also used them when  I’ve done ",[206,3832,3835],{"href":3833,"rel":3834},"https:\u002F\u002Flunchclub.com\u002F",[210],"Lunchclub"," meetups or industry interviews to break the ice.",[14,3838,3839,3840,212],{},"Interested in up-leveling your communication and empathy for your team? Try out the ",[206,3841,3843],{"href":3842},"\u002Fresources\u002Fuser-manual\u002F","MKG Personal User Manual Template",[14,3845,3846],{},"Interested in more remote leadership recommendations? Check out:\nThe Importance of Retrospective Meetings and How to Run Them\nManaging Meetings Thoughtfully & Improving Workflow for Your Team",[14,3848,3849,3850],{},"Looking to join the MKG team? ",[206,3851,3852],{"href":1802},[38,3853,3854],{},"Visit our Jobs page.",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":3856},[3857,3858],{"id":3761,"depth":291,"text":3762},{"id":3777,"depth":291,"text":3778},"2022-08-05T12:05:00.000+00:00","Discover MKG Marketing’s guide to creating a personal user manual for work and an introduction on building empathy in the workplace. Get started today!","\u002Fimages\u002Fuser-manual-blog.webp",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fleadership\u002Fpersonal-user-manual-for-work",{"title":3742,"description":3860},"blog\u002Fleadership\u002Fpersonal-user-manual-for-work","--K2aKiBh7Y83uK8gaWP3NBr8vQdbp7jC8ibTazfFGc",[],{"id":3869,"title":3870,"author":7,"authors":3871,"body":3872,"caption":7,"category":1767,"date":4241,"description":4242,"extension":318,"img":4243,"imgAlt":7,"meta":4244,"minutes":4245,"navigation":322,"path":4246,"seo":4247,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":4248,"updated":7,"__hash__":4249,"people":4250},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fleadership\u002Fdigital-marketing-inhouse-vs-outsource.md","Hiring for Cybersecurity Digital Marketing Roles In-House vs Outsource",[9],{"type":11,"value":3873,"toc":4220},[3874,3877,3880,3887,3890,3892,3895,3898,3901,3906,3928,3933,3944,3949,3960,3967,3970,3974,3977,3980,3984,3990,3993,3999,4003,4012,4017,4020,4025,4030,4034,4039,4044,4048,4053,4058,4064,4069,4074,4077,4082,4092,4096,4099,4102,4110,4118,4121,4124,4128,4146,4149,4152,4156,4159,4162,4165,4169,4172,4175,4179,4182,4185,4189,4196,4201,4205,4208,4211],[14,3875,3876],{},"Here at MKG Marketing, we have worked with multiple cybersecurity brands since 2014, from startup to enterprise.",[14,3878,3879],{},"As a small or midsize cybersecurity brand with lofty pipeline and sales goals, how you spend your budget is critical to performance. You must ensure there is little to no waste of resources.",[14,3881,3882,3883,212],{},"I will lead with ",[206,3884,3886],{"href":3885},"\u002Fabout\u002Fvalues\u002F","transparency",[14,3888,3889],{},"Yes. I represent an agency. Yes, I'll point out why you should hire an agency. I’m offering you an outside perspective from someone who has worked with multiple cybersecurity marketers for over six years and helped them scale from startup to enterprise. I’m speaking from hands-on experience in terms of what roles they prioritized in-house and how we became an extension of their team.",[24,3891,1480],{"id":1479},[14,3893,3894],{},"This isn't me telling you what to do. This is another perspective. As the marketing director of a cybersecurity organization, you have experience growing teams. You know what you're doing. Take what’s helpful and leave the rest.",[14,3896,3897],{},"Digital Marketing teams have exploded in recent years. As the user journey becomes more complex, marketing departments need more roles to support each piece of the journey from brand awareness to nurture to purchase and all the moments in between.",[14,3899,3900],{},"Some of the digital marketing roles needed are:",[14,3902,3903],{},[52,3904,3905],{},"Planning and execution",[46,3907,3908,3911,3914,3917,3920,3922,3925],{},[49,3909,3910],{},"Digital marketing strategy",[49,3912,3913],{},"Digital channel experts",[49,3915,3916],{},"Digital advertising",[49,3918,3919],{},"Email",[49,3921,744],{},[49,3923,3924],{},"Social media",[49,3926,3927],{},"Public relations (PR)",[14,3929,3930],{},[52,3931,3932],{},"Production",[46,3934,3935,3938,3941],{},[49,3936,3937],{},"Graphic design",[49,3939,3940],{},"Web development",[49,3942,3943],{},"Content creation",[14,3945,3946],{},[52,3947,3948],{},"Management and operations",[46,3950,3951,3954,3957],{},[49,3952,3953],{},"Account-based marketing (ABM)",[49,3955,3956],{},"Marketing analyst",[49,3958,3959],{},"RevOps",[14,3961,3962,3963,212],{},"As a cybersecurity marketing leader you’re responsible in making sure your brand is everywhere your customers are. Your job is to surround them with your product and the problem you solve, so when they run into that problem your brand comes to mind and is easy to find. Ideally, the easiest to find. As a single person you can’t be everywhere at once, though at first you may try, especially if you’re ",[206,3964,3966],{"href":3965},"\u002Fpodcasts\u002Fmarketing-leaders\u002Fa-delicate-balancing-act\u002F","the first hire",[14,3968,3969],{},"To build your digital marketing team you need to do it quickly and thoughtfully as to not waste the limited budget you’ve been given. But where do you start? Below is a list of all the different customer touch-points in the journey broken down by how I see cybersecurity brands hire in-house versus what they outsource. You’ll have to consider time, then money. Allow me to explain…",[24,3971,3973],{"id":3972},"in-house-digital-marketing-team","In-House Digital Marketing Team",[14,3975,3976],{},"No one, agency or contractor, will know your brand as well as you. We'll damn well try, but we're not in the meetings with product, sales, and marketing that you are day in and day out. We'll request demos. Read white papers. Research your competitors and your ideal customer profile. But only those working inside your company can know your product and its value as well as you. We only get the Cliff notes.",[14,3978,3979],{},"Hire people in-house who HAVE to know your company and brand. Who HAVE to be in those meetings. Who will 100% be impacted by decisions product and sales make. Here are the top resources I've found cybersecurity growth companies to hire first, in no particular order (I’ll explain why further down):",[81,3981,3983],{"id":3982},"front-end-web-development","Front-end web development",[14,3985,3986,3989],{},[52,3987,3988],{},"In-house:"," Someone who can implement website design changes. Who can tweak the user experience on a dime. Who can drop in code from your marketing technology systems. Who can update your technical SEO.",[14,3991,3992],{},"As a startup, you have to move, and waiting for product developers\u002Fengineers to make small website tweaks can slow you down. Front-end developers also make great collaborators on the insights provided to them to improve website health.",[14,3994,3995,3998],{},[52,3996,3997],{},"Outsource:"," We have seen this out-sourced. Given the security measures, our partner wrote the code and tested it in their own environment, then passed the HTML, javascript, etc over to the client to then implement. However, the in-house developer still had to implement it, QA, and push to production. It saved some time, but not enough to warrant the cost.",[81,4000,4002],{"id":4001},"content-production","Content production",[14,4004,4005,1043,4007,4011],{},[52,4006,3988],{},[206,4008,4010],{"href":4009},"\u002Fpodcasts\u002Fmarketing-leaders\u002Fsustainable-content\u002F","Good writers are hard to come by",", especially niche ones. One option is to invest in someone with awesome writing skills and then train them up on your product, your voice, and the industry. Having them in-house also gives them access to the product, sales team, and current customers for interviews. Fewer hoops. Less friction. More writing.",[14,4013,4014,4016],{},[52,4015,3997],{}," Content can be outsourced, although it takes a lot of leg work to find the right partner who knows the industry. Then you'll need clear systems and process across vendors to keep the machine in motion. We've helped build these systems which allows us to create immediate SEO impact.",[81,4018,3937],{"id":4019},"graphic-design",[14,4021,4022,4024],{},[52,4023,3988],{}," Having a dedicated resource in-house who can mock up paid landing page layouts and design imagery for content, digital ad banners, and social media will save you time. As you produce more content, having the right imagery to complement it, tailored to the correct sizes of each network you share it on, will keep your content moving while keeping the design on brand.",[14,4026,4027,4029],{},[52,4028,3997],{}," If you have a creative agency doing a full website refresh among other design elements, then having them take this on too makes sense as they already have resources dedicated to you. If not, hire in-house.",[81,4031,4033],{"id":4032},"social-media-management","Social media management",[14,4035,4036,4038],{},[52,4037,3988],{}," By having a team in-house they’ll need less approval and oversight so they can act genuinely on behalf of the brand and comment on the fly on trending topics, allowing your brand to build trust and credibility.",[14,4040,4041,4043],{},[52,4042,3997],{}," There are elements of social media that can be outsourced, especially the paid aspect, but having someone in-house driving vision and voice for each network as well as being actively engaged is what will bring your social presence to life.",[81,4045,4047],{"id":4046},"marketing-analyst","Marketing Analyst",[14,4049,4050,4052],{},[52,4051,3988],{}," Data is proprietary. Especially as a cybersecurity company. Having an analytics person in-house removes that friction and gives you access to someone who can pull reporting ad hoc. They have better visibility across the organization to report beyond just marketing for sales, product, and the C-suite. They are more in tune to all your systems and how they’re moving to more quickly catch when things break.",[14,4054,4055,4057],{},[52,4056,3997],{}," While you can have an agency, like ourselves, access the data and help you aggregate and streamline systems to measure the user journey end to end, that comes with a lot of paperwork and hoops, which we are happy to jump through. Regardless, all agencies should provide analytics to the performance they’re driving. But an additional, dedicated person in-house allows for more speed and better visibility all around.",[81,4059,4061],{"id":4060},"revops",[206,4062,3959],{"href":4063},"\u002Fpodcasts\u002Fmarketing-leaders\u002Frevenue-operations-lean-into-automation\u002F",[14,4065,4066,4068],{},[52,4067,3988],{}," This role works primarily in your CRM. They also work across teams to help automate more than just nurture emails. This person is going to help the organization create efficiencies.",[14,4070,4071,4073],{},[52,4072,3997],{}," You could outsource this in a pinch. We have partners that can provide you a dedicate resource to manage your existing systems. But you need someone internally who can wire up nurture campaigns, see opportunities, and ensure all your automations are running smoothly.",[81,4075,3953],{"id":4076},"account-based-marketing-abm",[14,4078,4079,4081],{},[52,4080,3988],{}," Ideally this function would be in-house because again you're dealing with lead data, which is so closely connected to sales and business development. ABM will also show which content is resonating given most of it is probably ungated.",[14,4083,4084,4086,4087,4091],{},[52,4085,3997],{}," We have run ABM campaigns on behalf of our clients. It's usually been out of the gate to test platforms and prove to show upper management it's worth investing in. You'll move faster if you build a team dedicated to a system or tool like ",[206,4088,4090],{"href":4089},"\u002Fpodcasts\u002Fmarketing-leaders\u002Feducating-the-account-based-masses\u002F","6sense"," or Terminus and can work closely with the sales team.",[24,4093,4095],{"id":4094},"outsourcing-digital-marketing-enhancing-your-in-house-marketing-team","Outsourcing digital marketing: Enhancing your in-house marketing team",[14,4097,4098],{},"Once you have your in-house roles in place and your foundational systems and processes wired, it's time to scale. It's time to GO! No time to waste!",[14,4100,4101],{},"It's an agency's job to not only know your industry and dive into your brand, but also to know your digital marketing channels. REALLY know them—Google, LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, demand-side platforms (DSPs), and even Bing. What algorithm updates are coming? How will they impact your brand? What new tech can help streamline and reduce display advertising waste? And because we work mostly with cybersecurity brands what we've tested and learned from one company we can apply to yours for faster results.",[14,4103,4104,4105,4109],{},"As an agency, we can bring you a holistic digital marketing strategy that we iterate on thanks to new data. How can we ensure a successful cross-channel customer experience? We dig into your brand through demos, data, and research. We get to know your ideal customer through our ",[206,4106,4108],{"href":4107},"\u002Fpodcasts\u002Fwhats-the-problem\u002F","own conducted interviews",". We research your competitors and continue to dig into the cybersecurity industry as a whole by attending events, listening to podcasts, and building a network of cybersecurity practitioners on LinkedIn. Then we layer those findings into our channels and provide feedback on how they'll impact your website, email, social, and PR.",[14,4111,4112,4113,4117],{},"In terms of roles to outsource, it should be less about the role and more about the impact. You've been given lofty goals by your C-suite and you need to hit an ",[206,4114,4116],{"href":4115},"\u002Fcase-studies\u002Fextrahop-digital-advertising-growth\u002F","8 - 10x ROI",". You need a demand generation plan that can scale and you need it yesterday.",[81,4119,3910],{"id":4120},"digital-marketing-strategy",[14,4122,4123],{},"Someone who knows the ins and outs of digital marketing channels, how they connect and feed one another, and can get in deep with your brand. It's their job to know your brand almost as well as you. Then deliver a holistic strategy that the channel experts can contribute to and enhance.",[81,4125,4127],{"id":4126},"digital-channel-planning-and-optimization","Digital channel planning and optimization",[46,4129,4130,4136,4140],{},[49,4131,4132],{},[206,4133,4135],{"href":4134},"\u002Fexpert-digital-marketing-services\u002Fdigital-advertising\u002F","Digital ads",[49,4137,4138],{},[206,4139,744],{"href":2713},[49,4141,4142],{},[206,4143,4145],{"href":4144},"\u002Fexpert-digital-marketing-services\u002Fmarketing-analytics\u002F","Analytics",[14,4147,4148],{},"It's the channel experts’ job to know their channels, then partner with strategy to ensure a bespoke plan meets the needs of your customer. No one security brand is the same. No audience for those security brands is the same. Nor should channel plans be treated as such.",[14,4150,4151],{},"I mentioned hiring an analyst in-house. This isn’t instead of. This is an and. Agencies should always have an analytics expert on staff who is looking at how their channels are impacting your pipeline and help the team lean into what’s performing. They should also forecast performance for channels and provide that to your in-house analytics team.",[81,4153,4155],{"id":4154},"digital-marketing-execution","Digital marketing execution",[14,4157,4158],{},"This is a job for straight-up doers. They ensure your digital ads campaigns are constantly being optimized. They can support your web developer with on-page changes. They pull daily, weekly, and monthly reports to help you, our experts, and our strategists make informed decisions.",[14,4160,4161],{},"They also help with turnover. Agencies are known for turnover (although people stay with us for an average of 3+ years). Having specialists who have worked in the weeds on your account while learning the ropes of the channels allows for easy promotions and back-filling.",[14,4163,4164],{},"They ensure your campaigns keep running and there’s little to no disruption.",[81,4166,4168],{"id":4167},"conversion-rate-optimization-cro-and-user-experience-ux","Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) and User experience (UX)",[14,4170,4171],{},"A strategist can absolutely support this, especially if they have the experience like our strategist. They’re already building the customer journey across channels and since your website is the gravity of that experience, it should be a huge consideration in terms of what’s driving pipeline.",[14,4173,4174],{},"This doesn’t have to be handled by a strategist. There are lots of different UX roles. It needs to be handled by someone who can analyze the customer journey and help architect the website to keep people engaged and help them decide to purchase your product.",[81,4176,4178],{"id":4177},"website-and-ad-creative","Website and ad creative",[14,4180,4181],{},"It’s important to have a designer on staff who can create imagery on a regular basis. We’re visual creatures who crave stories so the more visual you can make your content the better results you’ll get.",[14,4183,4184],{},"However, having an agency drive the initial website build may be faster because again, they have the staff ready and you won’t need them forever, just for the initial build. An agency is also around for backup if your designer is swamped—which they will be.",[81,4186,4188],{"id":4187},"public-relations-pr","Public Relations (PR)",[14,4190,4191,4195],{},[206,4192,4194],{"href":4193},"\u002Fpodcasts\u002Fmarketing-leaders\u002Fpr-done-right\u002F","PR is all about who you know",", and agencies have built strong relationships with their journalists (at least they should have). It’s important to get your name out there, especially if you’re raising money. Finding a PR agency with specific cybersecurity contacts will build credibility as well as impact your SEO with high authority backlinks.",[14,4197,4198],{},[38,4199,4200],{},"Note, we do not provide PR as a service. But we have great partners. We're happy to connect you.",[24,4202,4204],{"id":4203},"in-closing","In closing",[14,4206,4207],{},"This is what I’ve seen work across multiple cybersecurity brands in terms of the responsibilities they hire in-house. That’s not to say they hire all these roles. Certainly not all at once. These aren’t necessarily in order or priority either. You’ll need to balance what you need with your budget and your own skill set. What superpowers do you have? What do you love to do? Build your team around offsetting your own skills. Or if you're a jack\u002Fjane of all trades do it first, then hire and train. Think of these lists less like roles and more like outcomes\u002Fresponsibilities.",[14,4209,4210],{},"Based on our experience in the cybersecurity industry, hiring those who need access to proprietary data and deep knowledge should be the priority. Then outsource support to help you scale fast and efficiently, ideally with partners who are niche to your industry.",[14,4212,4213,4214,4219],{},"What’s the one responsibility you need to outsource right now? ",[206,4215,4218],{"href":4216,"rel":4217},"https:\u002F\u002Fforms.gle\u002FG8kc15PivjQAs8VZ6",[210],"Here’s a quick survey to help us add to our research",", allowing us to iterate and keep this up to date based on your feedback. We look forward to hearing from you.",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":4221},[4222,4223,4232,4240],{"id":1479,"depth":291,"text":1480},{"id":3972,"depth":291,"text":3973,"children":4224},[4225,4226,4227,4228,4229,4230,4231],{"id":3982,"depth":297,"text":3983},{"id":4001,"depth":297,"text":4002},{"id":4019,"depth":297,"text":3937},{"id":4032,"depth":297,"text":4033},{"id":4046,"depth":297,"text":4047},{"id":4060,"depth":297,"text":3959},{"id":4076,"depth":297,"text":3953},{"id":4094,"depth":291,"text":4095,"children":4233},[4234,4235,4236,4237,4238,4239],{"id":4120,"depth":297,"text":3910},{"id":4126,"depth":297,"text":4127},{"id":4154,"depth":297,"text":4155},{"id":4167,"depth":297,"text":4168},{"id":4177,"depth":297,"text":4178},{"id":4187,"depth":297,"text":4188},{"id":4203,"depth":291,"text":4204},"2022-06-28T04:00:00+00:00","MKG’s CEO, Kerry Guard, dives into what cybersecurity marketing directors should keep in-house vs outsource when building a strong digital marketing team.","\u002Fimages\u002Fblog\u002Fleadership-in-house-outsource.webp",{},10,"\u002Fblog\u002Fleadership\u002Fdigital-marketing-inhouse-vs-outsource",{"title":3870,"description":4242},"blog\u002Fleadership\u002Fdigital-marketing-inhouse-vs-outsource","YCmBkh3aUmv3idpf5fHWX9Y7gp3gEOdAbyE0VvuoXBk",[1780,1834],{"id":4252,"title":4253,"author":7,"authors":4254,"body":4255,"caption":7,"category":1767,"date":4546,"description":4547,"extension":318,"img":4548,"imgAlt":7,"meta":4549,"minutes":321,"navigation":322,"path":4550,"seo":4551,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":4552,"updated":7,"__hash__":4553,"people":4554},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fleadership\u002Fthe-importance-of-retrospective-meetings-and-how-to-run-them-mkg-marketing.md","The Importance of Retrospective Meetings and How to Run Them",[3744],{"type":11,"value":4256,"toc":4535},[4257,4261,4270,4274,4277,4281,4284,4287,4291,4294,4339,4343,4348,4351,4355,4358,4362,4365,4388,4399,4403,4408,4426,4431,4456,4520,4528],[24,4258,4260],{"id":4259},"the-importance-of-retrospective-meetings-and-how-to-run-them-for-remote-teams","The Importance of Retrospective Meetings and How to Run Them for Remote Teams",[14,4262,4263,4264,4269],{},"Retrospective meetings are an incredibly effective tool in company and team growth. By properly deploying retrospective meetings you can unlock efficiencies and clear roadblocks. Also, continuing in the same cycle of issues without resolution or improvement will negatively impact morale and productivity. At MKG, we manage work based on the ",[206,4265,4268],{"href":4266,"rel":4267},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.atlassian.com\u002Fagile",[210],"agile project management"," approach so retrospective meetings are key to improving as we go.",[81,4271,4273],{"id":4272},"what-is-a-retrospective","What is a retrospective?",[14,4275,4276],{},"Retrospectives, aka sprint retrospectives or agile retrospectives, are meetings that use the power of multiple perspectives to uncover ideas and opportunities in a way that purely top-down decision making limits. Regularly using retrospectives empowers teams by bringing to light shared experiences, encouraging problem solving that builds on ideas and highlighting success\u002Fpositives to invest in.",[81,4278,4280],{"id":4279},"what-is-the-purpose-of-a-retrospective","What is the purpose of a retrospective?",[14,4282,4283],{},"The purpose of a retrospective is to bring in stakeholders on a project\u002Fprocess\u002Fengagement and explore what happened, why it happened, what should have happened, and what can happen next time. By including multiple stakeholders you expand your view through different perspectives and give you the most opportunity to deeply understand a situation\u002Fproject and find opportunities.",[14,4285,4286],{},"Let’s start with the basics. Do you trust your team? If you don’t trust your team this is not going to work with you and your time would be better spent digging into the’ why’ of that. The first requirement for a successful retrospective process is: TRUST YOUR TEAM. Retrospectives require investing in other people’s experiences and perceptions if you don’t trust that there’s no point. You’re going to need to come into this with curiosity, looking to understand rather than invalidate. You’re looking for patterns, things you missed, validation through shared experience, and opportunities you wouldn’t have thought of on your own. Come with the appetite to learn.",[81,4288,4290],{"id":4289},"when-should-a-retrospective-meeting-be-held","When should a retrospective meeting be held?",[14,4292,4293],{},"Retrospectives should be held anytime you want to have a deeper understanding of why something happened and be able to apply learnings to future occurrences. Here are three scenarios I have found retrospectives add value to:",[132,4295,4296,4313,4326],{},[49,4297,4298,4301],{},[52,4299,4300],{},"Something went really wrong.",[46,4302,4303,4310],{},[49,4304,4305,4309],{},[206,4306,4308],{"href":4307},"\u002Fblog\u002Fleadership\u002Fmanaging-meetings-thoughtfully-improving-workflow-for-your-team\u002F","Time is valuable"," so whatever you’re looking to improve needs to be significant enough to spend that time. Look for repeating issues (time adding up) or something that had a big impact on a deliverable or project that is costly enough to invest in this solution.",[49,4311,4312],{},"Another lens is did this make a significant impact on team members' relationships? Retrospectives are an opportunity to clear the air by providing perspective, intention, and impact through individuals' lenses. Building empathy and understanding rather than letting frustration grow into bias is absolutely a valuable use of time.",[49,4314,4315,4318],{},[52,4316,4317],{},"Something went really well.",[46,4319,4320,4323],{},[49,4321,4322],{},"A common misconception is that retrospectives should only happen when things go wrong. Just like we seek to recoup future valuable time by resolving problems, we can spread valuable knowledge to improve output and efficiency from positive outcomes and experiences. Did something go really well with a big impact? Seek to understand it thoroughly so you can make it happen again and\u002For share it with other team members to incorporate into their own efforts.",[49,4324,4325],{},"A secondary benefit of this is celebrating your team’s success and recognizing it through a larger platform by using it not only as an example of success but the deeper individual contributions that created the success.",[49,4327,4328,4331],{},[52,4329,4330],{},"You get stuck.",[46,4332,4333,4336],{},[49,4334,4335],{},"We like to say at MKG “no one is an island” and retrospectives are a tool you can use to activate this. You can use the right retrospective format to better understand the wall you’ve hit and by digging into other perspectives and ideas you can tap into collective brainpower to get moving again.",[49,4337,4338],{},"In this scenario, you’re digging into the “why” and “how we got here” vs the “what happened” to hopefully find your way forward.",[81,4340,4342],{"id":4341},"what-happens-if-you-dont-regularly-use-retrospectives-as-part-of-your-process","What happens if you don’t regularly use retrospectives as part of your process?",[14,4344,4345],{},[75,4346],{"alt":77,"src":4347},"\u002Fimages\u002Funnamed.gif",[14,4349,4350],{},"You can look forward to repeating the same mistakes, not being able to replicate success in an efficient way, and your team getting saltier and saltier as they deal with the same challenges without improvement or opportunity for constructive input.",[81,4352,4354],{"id":4353},"who-should-attend-the-sprint-retrospective","Who should attend the sprint retrospective?",[14,4356,4357],{},"Anyone who has significant involvement or impact on the project should participate in the retrospective. Team members who were preferably involved can be included in the takeaways but you want to make sure that everyone attending had a strong involvement or experienced a significant impact to support that accountability and valuable perspective gathering. You’ll also need a team member who can lead the retrospective, this person should not have a personal investment in what’s being discussed and can be a neutral moderator that the rest of the team respects and trusts since they will be asking clarifying questions and moving things forward.",[81,4359,4361],{"id":4360},"how-do-you-run-a-retrospective-meeting","How do you run a retrospective meeting?",[14,4363,4364],{},"There are a few key rules to follow with setting up your retrospective:",[46,4366,4367],{},[49,4368,4369,4370,4375,4376,4381,4382,4387],{},"Give all attendees a task ahead of the meeting that lays out the questions you’ll be exploring in the retrospective. This gives people time to think about the project, look at references, and bring everything to the meeting that they need to address. I like to use a task program like ",[206,4371,4374],{"href":4372,"rel":4373},"http:\u002F\u002Fasana.com",[210],"Asana",", a collaborative doc program like ",[206,4377,4380],{"href":4378,"rel":4379},"http:\u002F\u002Fdocs.google.com",[210],"Google Docs",", or ",[206,4383,4386],{"href":4384,"rel":4385},"https:\u002F\u002Fmiro.com\u002F",[210],"miro"," (depending on the complexity, you may find value in using all three).",[46,4389,4390,4393,4396],{},[49,4391,4392],{},"Consolidate the information ahead of the meeting from your team if possible. You can get away with doing this in-person in a room, but if you’re doing this remotely it’s crucial to have either the project lead or moderator consolidate the team input ahead of time. You don’t want to spend your retrospective gathering information, you want to spend it digging in and building on to get the most value out of your team’s time.",[49,4394,4395],{},"Have a clear owner of the next steps. Whether this is the moderator or someone on the project, someone needs to own how this information will be shared out and what the next steps are.",[49,4397,4398],{},"Consider if this would be beneficial to share with a wider audience. Sometimes this can be very helpful to share with clients a project that didn’t go well. It can be a big trust builder to show the thought and time put into understanding something that didn’t go well and the changes your team is making for the future. It also can be helpful or necessary to share with more people in your company. It can be something other teams can grow from or it can address an issue that provides clarity to the rest of the team what went wrong and how the stakeholder team is addressing it. It can be an important tool to control the narrative.",[24,4400,4402],{"id":4401},"sprint-retrospective-examples","Sprint Retrospective Examples",[4404,4405,4407],"h4",{"id":4406},"here-are-my-favorite-retrospective-meeting-formats","Here are my favorite retrospective meeting formats:",[132,4409,4410],{},[49,4411,4412,4415,4417,4418],{},[52,4413,4414],{},"Structure #1 LOVED, LOATHED, LONGED FOR, LEARNED, and Actions.",[1758,4416],{},"This is a great structure for exploring project flow or a more complex project. It is more time consuming to prepare for and conduct.",[46,4419,4420],{},[49,4421,4422,4423,4425],{},"LOVED: what you loved about your work over the time period.",[1758,4424],{},"This is what you want to keep doing or do more of, in the future.",[46,4427,4428],{},[49,4429,4430],{},"LONGED FOR: what you wish you’d had.\nIt could be more people, more time, more coffee. Nothing is off the table.",[46,4432,4433,4436,4439,4442],{},[49,4434,4435],{},"LOATHED: what made life worse back then.\nWhat do you hope will never happen again?",[49,4437,4438],{},"LEARNED: what you learned from your successes and your mistakes.",[49,4440,4441],{},"Set a timer for 10 minutes for everyone to add their own thoughts to each list.",[49,4443,4444,4445],{},"Give everyone 10 minutes, as a team or in breakout groups, to discuss:\n",[132,4446,4447,4450,4453],{},[49,4448,4449],{},"One action you’ll take to remove something from your LOATHED list.",[49,4451,4452],{},"One action you’ll take to amplify something from your LOVED list.",[49,4454,4455],{},"Use your LONGED FOR and LEARNED lists to help shape your ideas for what actions to take.",[132,4457,4458,4492],{"start":291},[49,4459,4460,4463,4465,4466],{},[52,4461,4462],{},"Structure #2 Good, Bad, Better, Best",[1758,4464],{},"This is a good structure for a smaller to medium project or larger meeting that didn’t go well to explore the different elements.",[46,4467,4468,4474,4480,4486],{},[49,4469,4470,4471,4473],{},"Good",[1758,4472],{},"Things that went well, i.e. areas where the team met or exceeded expectations",[49,4475,4476,4477,4479],{},"Bad",[1758,4478],{},"Things that didn’t work well, i.e. areas where the team didn’t meet expectations or where unexpected problems occurred",[49,4481,4482,4483,4485],{},"Better",[1758,4484],{},"Opportunities for improvement, i.e. suggestions on how to do something better",[49,4487,4488,4489,4491],{},"Best",[1758,4490],{},"Things that deserve recognition, i.e. outstanding performances and people who went above-and-beyond",[49,4493,4494,4497,4499,4500],{},[52,4495,4496],{},"Structure #3 What? So what? Now what?",[1758,4498],{},"This is a great structure to explore a specific issue or a smaller process that there is room for improvement on or an opportunity to share out for more teams.",[46,4501,4502,4508,4514],{},[49,4503,4504,4505,4507],{},"What?",[1758,4506],{},"Describe what happened",[49,4509,4510,4511,4513],{},"So what?",[1758,4512],{},"Describe why it mattered",[49,4515,4516,4517,4519],{},"Now what?",[1758,4518],{},"Describe or collaborate on what we should do moving forward",[14,4521,4522,4523,212],{},"Now it’s time for you to jump in and start having your own retrospectives. Your goal should be to start using these formats and getting your team comfortable with the process and setting expectations of the outputs and then to train team members to be able to run these themselves. Empowering your team to be able to press pause and address an issue or an opportunity with retrospectives will build leadership skills, bigger picture thinking, and accountability in a very impactful way. If you’re not sure how to bring this into practice, ",[206,4524,4527],{"href":4525,"rel":4526},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.linkedin.com\u002Fin\u002Fjhasenkampf\u002F",[210],"don’t hesitate to reach out",[14,4529,4530],{},[206,4531,4534],{"href":4532,"rel":4533},"https:\u002F\u002Fdocs.google.com\u002Fdocument\u002Fd\u002F1lFTjz6U0tPVGUQ2ZalcnJAmChVt3V67VMaUD6gSh06A\u002Fedit#",[210],"Don’t forget to bookmark my retrospectives guide which includes three formats to use.",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":4536},[4537,4545],{"id":4259,"depth":291,"text":4260,"children":4538},[4539,4540,4541,4542,4543,4544],{"id":4272,"depth":297,"text":4273},{"id":4279,"depth":297,"text":4280},{"id":4289,"depth":297,"text":4290},{"id":4341,"depth":297,"text":4342},{"id":4353,"depth":297,"text":4354},{"id":4360,"depth":297,"text":4361},{"id":4401,"depth":291,"text":4402},"2022-05-10T04:00:00+00:00","Discover the absolute importance of retrospective meetings and how to effectively run them when working with a remote team. Let’s go!","\u002Fimages\u002Fscreen-shot-2022-05-10-at-3-41-06-pm.png",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fleadership\u002Fthe-importance-of-retrospective-meetings-and-how-to-run-them-mkg-marketing",{"title":4253,"description":4547},"blog\u002Fleadership\u002Fthe-importance-of-retrospective-meetings-and-how-to-run-them-mkg-marketing","MarTm0mbALLrGLRgo_ms5QYJBwXd3xsGQcUqAogoHwQ",[],{"id":4556,"title":4557,"author":7,"authors":4558,"body":4559,"caption":7,"category":1767,"date":4804,"description":4805,"extension":318,"img":4806,"imgAlt":7,"meta":4807,"minutes":4245,"navigation":322,"path":4808,"seo":4809,"seodescription":7,"seotitle":7,"stem":4810,"updated":7,"__hash__":4811,"people":4812},"blog\u002Fblog\u002Fleadership\u002Fmanaging-meetings-thoughtfully-improving-workflow-for-your-team.md","Managing Meetings Thoughtfully & Improving Workflow for Your Team",[3744],{"type":11,"value":4560,"toc":4791},[4561,4564,4571,4575,4578,4585,4596,4600,4603,4617,4620,4623,4627,4630,4633,4636,4640,4643,4646,4649,4660,4663,4667,4672,4676,4687,4691,4699,4707,4711,4714,4739,4742,4751,4754,4760,4764],[14,4562,4563],{},"What causes “good enough” work to happen instead of quality work? For me, this usually occurs when I’m rushing because of either too much work or too many interruptions. When we asked our team at  MKG  to reflect on what gets in their way of larger thinking and fulfilling work, unsurprisingly, “meetings” were consistently mentioned. Meetings are a chance to connect and collaborate, but they also can make us feel exhausted and contribute to burnout and dissociation. Hearing the team loud and clear, I set out in 2021 to address the negative impact our current meeting structure was having on productivity and morale. I found some references that resonated with me that I’ve listed at the end of this (lots of smart people have written about this subject), and created my own approach and takeaways on how to cut down on meetings in a strategic way.",[14,4565,4566,4570],{},[206,4567,4569],{"href":4568},"\u002Fabout\u002F","We’re remote at MKG"," so most of our client interactions and a lot of our team interactions are meetings and as we’ve grown, our meetings have grown in size and frequency. Sprinkle some global pandemic in the mix and meetings continued to balloon as our in-person social interactions dwindled and we relied more on work to engage with people. There were good things that came from our team coming together and spending time supporting each other and collaborating for sure, but holistically workdays started to feel draining and tasks focused based on time limitations rather than strategic and fulfilling.",[24,4572,4574],{"id":4573},"meetings-should-serve-a-purpose-and-not-be-a-default","Meetings should serve a purpose and not be a default",[14,4576,4577],{},"Too often meetings are the default for making decisions or getting things done as a group.  MKG’s approach has often been that if you’re working on something, you should be in the meeting. A benefit of that is it puts everyone on equal footing and also does away with the game of telephone between an account person, their client, and their team. But at MKG our team is client-facing and we have a lot of options, like Asana, and zoom chat, and google docs, so keeping people in the loop or getting input that doesn’t require a meeting.",[14,4579,4580,4581,4584],{},"We also record every client call and a lot of internal calls and those recordings can be watched at 1.5x the speed (faster if you’re really ambitious and you don’t have a fast talker like me on the call). You can also skip around in recordings to find applicable discussion rather than sit through it all. Having every person on every call by default doesn't always value their time and smaller calls also provide more personal connection opportunities which are important in remote relationships. I asked our team to start considering who is “optional” to encourage people to make choices with their time, ideally empowering the individual participant by including them in the decision of attendance. A true benefit of this is reminding ",[52,4582,4583],{},"every team member that their time is valuable"," and we want to treat it that way.",[14,4586,114,4587,4590,4591],{},[38,4588,4589],{},"Time is, hands down, our most coveted, most unrenewable resource. If being on the receiving end of one of life's most valuable gifts fails to leave you with a lump in your throat or butterflies in your stomach, then you're not paying attention.","\" - ",[206,4592,4595],{"href":4593,"rel":4594},"https:\u002F\u002Fbrenebrown.com\u002Fbook\u002Fdare-to-lead\u002F",[210],"Brené Brown, Dare To Lead",[24,4597,4599],{"id":4598},"non-meeting-time-is-essential-and-needs-to-be-protected","Non-meeting time is essential and needs to be protected",[14,4601,4602],{},"MKG used to have a \"no-meeting day\", but as we grew, it wasn’t maintained because there was so much overlap on teams. A \"no-meeting\" day is exactly what it sounds like, no scheduled meetings on a predetermined day. Besides providing space to work on larger projects, “no-meetings day” has two other important benefits:",[132,4604,4605,4611],{},[49,4606,4607,4610],{},[52,4608,4609],{},"More uninterrupted work time to free up brain space."," Being able to really focus requires time. Ideally, we want our team to be able to focus enough to consider beyond the immediate ‘ask’. Time management is really distracting, when you're hopping from meeting to meeting you’re always watching the clock as you work. Fewer meeting interruptions open up thought space that is essential to agency growth and quality of work. More time to focus is more likely to provide the chance to discover whether that work has larger opportunities or implications for that client, for other clients, or even agency innovation.",[49,4612,4613,4616],{},[52,4614,4615],{},"Limiting meeting availability forces prioritization and encourages problem-solving."," By having to schedule around a “no-meeting day”, it can help weed out unnecessary meetings and encourage independent or creative problem-solving. If your go-to person to solve an issue isn’t available and it’s time-sensitive, that’s your next move? Ultimately this should encourage growth, as well as cut down on the infamous 'this could have been an email' situation, or more likely in our case, this could have been tackled asynchronously.",[14,4618,4619],{},"MKG schedules recurring client calls Tuesdays-Thursdays and we use Mondays and Fridays as “catch up” from\u002Fbefore the weekend days. Using the existing framework, we moved the majority of recurring internal meetings to Mondays and Fridays. This frees up more time Tuesday - Thursday and one of these days becomes the “no-meetings day”. I also like the “no-meetings day” being on Tues-Thurs because it’s less likely to fall on a holiday or PTO and more likely to be consistently available to the team.",[14,4621,4622],{},"Unfortunately, it’s not feasible for us to schedule the same no-meeting day for all of MKG on the same day due to different time zones and client availability, so our work around is doing it by client teams. Some teams may even differ days on alternating weeks, depending on their client meeting schedules. A good rule of thumb I try to follow is don’t be overly rigid or complicated about something that is meant to be helpful. If you can pick and follow a company-wide “no-meetings day” it sets a standard that’s easier to support, but it does come at the cost of individual or team-based flexibility.",[24,4624,4626],{"id":4625},"meetings-are-costly-both-in-time-and-the-energy","Meetings are costly, both in time and the energy",[14,4628,4629],{},"Chopped-up schedules interrupt deep thinking and negatively impact work quality and output. If you also start thinking in terms of cost impact, the larger the list of attendees— the more expensive a meeting becomes—especially if it is recurring.",[14,4631,4632],{},"When I have a heavy meeting day on a day that I’m mentally “in the zone” and could dive in and get a lot of work done, it’s frustrating and demoralizing. It creates a clear cost to my time in meetings, and begs the question ‘are these meetings more valuable than the to-dos on my plate that support operations, team growth, and client support?’ Sometimes the answer is a clear YES, but sometimes it’s a clear NO.  I’m not unique in this, all of my team works on larger strategic projects.",[14,4634,4635],{},"A last point to remember with the cost of meetings, it’s not only the time and energy it takes for the actual meeting, it’s also the preparation and the next steps they typically require from the organizer and attendees. Rarely do we have a meaningful meeting without preparation and next steps.",[24,4637,4639],{"id":4638},"meetings-add-value-so-you-need-a-strategy-to-cut-down-on-meetings","Meetings add value so you need a strategy to cut down on meetings",[14,4641,4642],{},"Live collaboration is still valuable. Creativity can feed off of energy from other people, questions can come up from hearing other points of view and ideas, and there can be magic in those meetings. There’s also the fact that when working remotely we need to intentionally create connections with each other and interactions, and meetings are a necessary part of that. We also need to be able to connect with our clients and working sessions can produce great work. So it’s essential to strategically find that balance of meetings vs work time to not lose the values that meetings can produce while also not losing the value of interrupted work time.",[14,4644,4645],{},"Fortunately, approaching meetings systemically rather than individually actually makes it easier to find your balance.",[14,4647,4648],{},"To create a list of “essential recurring meetings” I considered:",[46,4650,4651,4654,4657],{},[49,4652,4653],{},"What meetings contribute to our client relationships?",[49,4655,4656],{},"What meetings are important to work flow?",[49,4658,4659],{},"What meetings support our company values and culture?",[14,4661,4662],{},"Critically reviewing our meetings against these three categories, I created this list:",[81,4664,4666],{"id":4665},"client-relationship-meetings-to-keep","Client Relationship Meetings to Keep:",[46,4668,4669],{},[49,4670,4671],{},"Client Calls: We have weekly and bi-weekly work sessions for clients that are essential to those relationships and collaboration.",[81,4673,4675],{"id":4674},"workflow-meetings-to-keep","Workflow Meetings to Keep:",[46,4677,4678,4681,4684],{},[49,4679,4680],{},"Expert Team Meetings: These support our team's growth, collaboration, and connections",[49,4682,4683],{},"Stand-ups: These allow the team to quickly connect on in-progress priorities to troubleshoot efficiently and are directly owned by the client circle and up them to determine the frequency and attendee list",[49,4685,4686],{},"Weekly AD sprint planning: This meeting maps the next week’s work schedule and supports real-time prioritization with team members working across multiple ADs",[81,4688,4690],{"id":4689},"company-valuesculture-meetings-to-keep","Company Values\u002FCulture Meetings to Keep:",[46,4692,4693,4696],{},[49,4694,4695],{},"1-on-1s: The meetings where team members check in on how things are going, get and give feedback, and are supported on growth.",[49,4697,4698],{},"Retrospective: Our weekly all-agency to share work retrospectives, brainstorm on clients, and each shares professional and personal “thankful” moments from our week. This meeting is a way we stay connected as a larger whole.",[14,4700,4701,4702,4706],{},"I worked with the team to move internal meetings to Mondays and Fridays as much as possible, delete any recurring meetings that didn’t make this list, and consider the frequency of these recurring meetings against valuing their work time. One of our team members, ",[206,4703,4705],{"href":4704},"\u002Fabout\u002Fteam\u002Fnathan-stenberg\u002F","Nathan Stenberg",", also suggested adding an indicator of “internal” meetings for better visibility in prioritizing time so we added “IN” at the beginning of all internal meetings. I then asked the ADs to work with the 1:1s and client circles and make sure that everyone, including them, have a clearly indicated “no-meetings day” on their weekly calendar.",[24,4708,4710],{"id":4709},"having-the-right-tools-for-asynchronous-work-structure-for-impactful-meetings","Having the Right Tools for Asynchronous work & structure for impactful meetings",[14,4712,4713],{},"MKG was a remote-first agency from the beginning and has over ten years of experience building infrastructure to support this. I don’t want to take that for granted that everyone has this so here are some examples of tools that support our collaborations, reviews, and approvals without meeting.",[132,4715,4716,4723,4731],{},[49,4717,4718,4722],{},[206,4719,4374],{"href":4720,"rel":4721},"https:\u002F\u002Fasana.com",[210],": A digital project management system that allows us to easily see what someone is working on, request feedback or information, store a change log and references, and now it even allows video comments through Vimeo",[49,4724,4725,4730],{},[206,4726,4729],{"href":4727,"rel":4728},"https:\u002F\u002Fzoom.us\u002F",[210],"Zoom Chat",": Zoom is our video conferencing program, but we also use the chat so it’s easy to go to video if we need to, and it shows if someone is already on a call. Everyone on our team is on during their working hours and it’s easy to quickly ask a question or share ideas and thoughts in short form.",[49,4732,4733,4738],{},[206,4734,4737],{"href":4735,"rel":4736},"https:\u002F\u002Fworkspace.google.com\u002F",[210],"Google Workspace",": Rather than using a server, we use Google for almost everything. It’s our email, calendars, storage, and document\u002Ffile creating tool. The docs\u002Fsheets\u002Fslides allow you to work on documents at the same time and easily be able to see who revised what and be able to go back to previous file versions if you need to.",[14,4740,4741],{},"When meetings do add value it’s important to structure them for success ahead of time. This means clearly communicating roles and expectations so everyone attending knows how they should show up and what we’re working towards. It’s not just a way to create purposeful, efficient meetings, this also shows you value each other’s time with the prep and clear expectations.",[14,4743,4744,4745,4750],{},"I made this ",[206,4746,4749],{"href":4747,"rel":4748},"https:\u002F\u002Fdocs.google.com\u002Fdocument\u002Fd\u002F1PgM-FdRVuoADIRxhouO4cv4df141s_0B3XS8imfv5vc\u002Fedit#heading=h.ayqea9ltzagi",[210],"cheat sheet"," for our team to help guide whether to have a meeting and how to structure them for maximum value.",[14,4752,4753],{},"Ultimately I want our team empowered to make their own decisions with their time and priorities wherever they can. I trust them to know what they need to create great work and by providing some more structure and open time-space we can support this as an organization and hopefully lead to some further improvements inspired by this.",[14,4755,4756,4757],{},"Looking for more insights from Marketing Leaders?\n",[206,4758,4759],{"href":1794},"Check out our Tea Time with Tech Marketing Leaders podcast",[81,4761,4763],{"id":4762},"additional-resources-on-the-topic","Additional Resources on the Topic:",[46,4765,4766,4774,4782,4785,4788],{},[49,4767,4768,4773],{},[206,4769,4772],{"href":4770,"rel":4771},"https:\u002F\u002Fwww.themuse.com\u002Fadvice\u002Fhow-4-leaders-reduce-meetings-at-their-company",[210],"This Is How 4 Leaders Fixed Their Company's Meeting Overload Problem"," - The Muse - by Alyse Kalish",[49,4775,4776,4781],{},[206,4777,4780],{"href":4778,"rel":4779},"https:\u002F\u002Fhbr.org\u002F2017\u002F07\u002Fstop-the-meeting-madness",[210],"Stop the Meeting Madness"," - HBR - by Leslie A. Perlow, Constance Noonan Hadley, and Eunice Eun",[49,4783,4784],{},"4 Ways to Have Fewer Meetings at Work - Zapier - by Ben Johnson",[49,4786,4787],{},"Why You Need an Untouchable Day Every Week - HBR - by Neil Pasricha",[49,4789,4790],{},"MKG Best Practices: Meetings (1-pager) - MKG - by Jenna Hasenkampf",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":4792},[4793,4794,4795,4796,4801],{"id":4573,"depth":291,"text":4574},{"id":4598,"depth":291,"text":4599},{"id":4625,"depth":291,"text":4626},{"id":4638,"depth":291,"text":4639,"children":4797},[4798,4799,4800],{"id":4665,"depth":297,"text":4666},{"id":4674,"depth":297,"text":4675},{"id":4689,"depth":297,"text":4690},{"id":4709,"depth":291,"text":4710,"children":4802},[4803],{"id":4762,"depth":297,"text":4763},"2022-04-11T04:00:00+00:00","Improve workflow for your team by managing your meeting schedule. Meetings should serve a purpose and non-meeting time should be protected.","\u002Fimages\u002Fjenna_cropped.jpg",{},"\u002Fblog\u002Fleadership\u002Fmanaging-meetings-thoughtfully-improving-workflow-for-your-team",{"title":4557,"description":4805},"blog\u002Fleadership\u002Fmanaging-meetings-thoughtfully-improving-workflow-for-your-team","cWZumqsfotWPjP6WT0KIOrp7-gRgt8xK73DseINC5BM",[],[4814,4861,4915,4962,5010,1780,5060,5108,1834,5170,5237,5282,5319,5362,5406],{"id":4815,"title":4816,"body":4817,"date":7,"description":4848,"extension":318,"images":4849,"isLeader":322,"jobTitle":4851,"linkedIn":4852,"meta":4853,"name":4854,"navigation":322,"path":4855,"quote":4856,"quoteCite":4857,"ref":4852,"seo":4858,"sequence":297,"stem":4859,"team":1831,"twitter":7,"updated":7,"website":7,"__hash__":4860},"team\u002Fteam\u002Falanna-moman-rawden.md","Alanna Moman Rawden",{"type":11,"value":4818,"toc":4845},[4819,4823,4826,4829,4832,4834],[14,4820,4822],{"className":4821},[1787],"Alanna graduated from the University of Alabama in 2004. She started her career at an advertising agency in Birmingham, AL, and has spent most of her career in Account Leadership roles working on consumer brands like Verizon Wireless, Books-A-Million, Toys ‘R’ Us, and Hard Rock Hotel & Casinos. In 2015, she left the agency world with a desire to gain more digital advertising experience, which led to her running a one-person digital department for a regional credit union.",[14,4824,4825],{},"Account Direction has always been a natural fit for Alanna because she enjoys managing projects, big picture strategy, and building relationships. She chose to come back to the agency world when she learned about MKG and our People First values.",[14,4827,4828],{},"She is most proud of the impact she had on her previous company by creating a positive and supportive environment for those she managed. ",[14,4830,4831],{},"Alanna enjoys spending time with her husband and two teenage daughters, has a very eclectic taste in music, and is an obsessive Hamilfan.",[81,4833,1808],{"id":1807},[46,4835,4836,4839,4842],{},[49,4837,4838],{},"In college, she won a radio contest for her youngest brother to have dinner with Nickelback. The band spent the entire evening trying to convince her, then 15-year-old, brother to drop out of school.",[49,4840,4841],{},"She once spent 3 hours convincing a famous country singer to get off his tour bus to shoot a commercial that her client had contracted him to be in.",[49,4843,4844],{},"Her family is a big fan of True Crime, and they binge Crime Junkie on every road trip.",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":4846},[4847],{"id":1807,"depth":297,"text":1808},"Meet Alanna Moman-Rawden, one of MKG Marketing’s amazing Account Directors, bringing 15+ years of account leadership and direction to the table.",{"landscape":4850},"alanna-moman-rawden.webp","Director, People & Culture","alanna-moman-rawden",{},"Alanna Moman-Rawden","\u002Fteam\u002Falanna-moman-rawden","I am the one thing in life I can control. I am inimitable. I am an original.","Aaron Burr, Hamilton",{"description":4848},"team\u002Falanna-moman-rawden","WPmQvGfbA7GjEpvcVEps9YUFm4Ihb7jAlxEbp7tr3IA",{"id":4862,"title":4863,"body":4864,"date":7,"description":4903,"extension":318,"images":4904,"isLeader":1885,"jobTitle":4906,"linkedIn":4907,"meta":4908,"name":4863,"navigation":322,"path":4909,"quote":7,"quoteCite":4857,"ref":4910,"seo":4911,"sequence":4912,"stem":4913,"team":4906,"twitter":7,"updated":7,"website":7,"__hash__":4914},"team\u002Fteam\u002Falicia-antonow.md","Alicia Antonow",{"type":11,"value":4865,"toc":4901},[4866,4871,4874,4879,4882,4887,4890,4895,4898],[14,4867,4868],{},[52,4869,4870],{},"How I Got Into Digital Advertising",[14,4872,4873],{},"With a background as a nurse, my journey into digital advertising began unexpectedly when I back to Ann Arbor, Michigan. A Google Partner approached me to assist with healthcare content and ads. I quickly discovered a passion for the field, and with Google Ads sales training followed by SEM training, I was hooked.",[14,4875,4876],{},[52,4877,4878],{},"What I Love About Paid Search",[14,4880,4881],{},"Every campaign is like a unique puzzle, even within the same industry. Variations in geography, audiences, and keywords make each project different. I enjoy leveraging the full suite of Google products—Search, Display, Demand Gen, and YouTube—because they work best when integrated. The ever-evolving nature of the work keeps me inspired and challenged.",[14,4883,4884],{},[52,4885,4886],{},"Why I Chose MKG Marketing",[14,4888,4889],{},"I was drawn to MKG Marketing for its people-first culture. The company recognizes that we are all human, with lives outside of work, and fosters a supportive environment that values balance and well-being.",[14,4891,4892],{},[52,4893,4894],{},"Fun Facts About Me",[14,4896,4897],{},"I’m an avid traveler and love immersing myself in different cultures. Before having kids, my husband and I spent at least three months each year exploring the world.",[14,4899,4900],{},"I take cooking classes with locals wherever I go and love scuba diving whenever there’s water nearby.\nMy kids are my world—seeing their faces light up when experiencing something new brings me the greatest joy.",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":4902},[],"Meet Alicia Antonow, one of MKG Marketing’s saavy digital ads experts, bringing 15+ years of hands on execution and strategy to the table.",{"landscape":4905},"alicia-antonow.webp","Digital Advertising Experts","alicia-a-36459bb5",{},"\u002Fteam\u002Falicia-antonow","alicia-antonow",{"description":4903},54,"team\u002Falicia-antonow","dX6MgSjdInEGV2mLfl0Uv4cjJ2Si5idzNXLe33_xMZY",{"id":4916,"title":4917,"body":4918,"date":7,"description":4949,"extension":318,"images":4950,"isLeader":1885,"jobTitle":4952,"linkedIn":4953,"meta":4954,"name":4917,"navigation":322,"path":4955,"quote":7,"quoteCite":7,"ref":4956,"seo":4957,"sequence":4958,"stem":4959,"team":4960,"twitter":7,"updated":7,"website":7,"__hash__":4961},"team\u002Fteam\u002Favery-davis.md","Avery Davis",{"type":11,"value":4919,"toc":4946},[4920,4924,4927,4930,4933,4935],[14,4921,4923],{"className":4922},[1787],"\nAvery began his digital marketing career at a tech startup focused on ID scanning and facial recognition software. In addition to gaining a deep understanding of paid media and analytics, this peaked his interest in cybersecurity and tech in general. He then transitioned to agency life where he specialized in SaaS marketing.\n",[14,4925,4926],{},"Over the years, Avery has touched a variety of verticals including health and beauty, eCommerce, medical\u002Fpharma, education, and more. He is drawn to agency life because of the variety of clients he is able to work with and, in turn, learn from.",[14,4928,4929],{},"Although he’s touched several areas of digital marketing, Avery feels most at home when doing Account\u002F Project Management as well as Copywriting.",[14,4931,4932],{},"As is the theme with many of our staff, Avery was drawn to MKG because of our culture. In Avery’s words “MKG shares the same values as I do in both my professional and my personal life. When I saw that we meshed so well, this was an opportunity I couldn’t refuse!”",[81,4934,1808],{"id":1807},[46,4936,4937,4940,4943],{},[49,4938,4939],{},"Avery is an avid racquetball player. Having first gotten into the sport in college, he’s had lots of fun playing over the years. He tries to get to the court at least once a week.",[49,4941,4942],{},"Avery is a hobby bartender and enjoys making, tasting, and learning about different drinks. He’s mainly a Kentucky bourbon guy but also loves Japanese whisky!",[49,4944,4945],{},"Avery is a black belt in Pasaryu. This is a Korean mixed martial art which includes karate, kung fu, and Taekwondo. He has also trained and competed with weapons: nunchucks and samurai sword just to name a couple!",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":4947},[4948],{"id":1807,"depth":297,"text":1808},"Avery Davis is an Account Superivor here at MKG Marketing.",{"landscape":4951},"avery-davis.webp","Account Supervisor","avery-davis-114055191",{},"\u002Fteam\u002Favery-davis","avery-davis",{"description":4949},59,"team\u002Favery-davis","Account Services","ysXkJK5t3F27trCgdjC7IRHXNs-Qxp9YxjH9QT3gDqQ",{"id":4963,"title":4964,"body":4965,"date":7,"description":4995,"extension":318,"images":4996,"isLeader":1885,"jobTitle":4998,"linkedIn":4999,"meta":5000,"name":4964,"navigation":322,"path":5001,"quote":5002,"quoteCite":5003,"ref":5004,"seo":5005,"sequence":5006,"stem":5007,"team":5008,"twitter":7,"updated":7,"website":7,"__hash__":5009},"team\u002Fteam\u002Fjared-gerling.md","Jared Gerling",{"type":11,"value":4966,"toc":4993},[4967,4970,4973,4976,4979,4982],[14,4968,4969],{},"Jared's journey into digital marketing started with answering a classified ad for a company looking for people with writing backgrounds for a position in SEO. As a graduate of Michigan State University with a degree in Creative Writing, this sounded like the perfect opportunity.",[14,4971,4972],{},"This small agency taught him SEO from the ground up, and, after taking a break from digital marketing to receive his MA from DePaul University, Jared jumped back into the field at a medium-sized agency out of Chicago as an SEO analyst.",[14,4974,4975],{},"Since then, Jared has worked for large and small marketing agencies for over a decade, providing expert SEO services in almost every industry that has a website on the internet. And with his background in writing, Jared feels most at home in the content and customer facing side of SEO and digital marketing.",[14,4977,4978],{},"It was first and foremost the people that drew Jared to MKG. Everyone at MKG has been so in tune with his values and his personality, and they've made his time at MKG easily the best experience of his career.",[14,4980,4981],{},"Fun Facts:",[46,4983,4984,4987,4990],{},[49,4985,4986],{},"I love to travel with my wife. We've been to many incredible places over the years, and are always on the lookout for our next destination.",[49,4988,4989],{},"I was a college rower in my younger days. I rowed mostly eights as a port, and competed against some of the best schools in the nation...and lost to most of them.",[49,4991,4992],{},"I love a really good French Martini.",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":4994},[],"Meet Jared Gerling, one of MKG Marketing’s thoughtful SEO Experts, bringing 10+ years of experience, intentionality, and creativity to the team.",{"landscape":4997},"jared-gerling.webp","SEO Expert","jaredgerling",{},"\u002Fteam\u002Fjared-gerling","The truth is, most of us discover where we are heading when we arrive.","Calvin (Calvin and Hobbes)","jared-gerling",{"description":4995},55,"team\u002Fjared-gerling","SEO Experts","1TbRdjbaY8GvD4YbpM3Pm85IGECKXrMtdVY8OquXFkg",{"id":5011,"title":5012,"body":5013,"date":7,"description":5047,"extension":318,"images":5048,"isLeader":1885,"jobTitle":5050,"linkedIn":7,"meta":5051,"name":5053,"navigation":322,"path":5054,"quote":7,"quoteCite":7,"ref":5055,"seo":5056,"sequence":5057,"stem":5058,"team":7,"twitter":7,"updated":7,"website":7,"__hash__":5059},"team\u002Fteam\u002Fkathy-obrien.md","Kathy Obrien",{"type":11,"value":5014,"toc":5044},[5015,5019,5022,5028,5031,5033],[14,5016,5018],{"className":5017},[1787],"\nKathy loves details and has managed the finer details of business her entire career.  She started her career in Center City, Philadelphia working for several law firms.  After she was married and had her first son, she left the bustling city to work closer to home at an international publishing company.  In 1994, Kathy and her husband Bill moved with their two sons to Charlotte, North Carolina.  They eventually completed their family with two more boys born in Charlotte.\n",[14,5020,5021],{},"In 2000 they relocated to Chester County, a suburb of Philadelphia. After a hiatus and four sons, Kathy returned to work in Chester County. This time, she gave retail a whirl so that she could be home when her school age boys were home. She quickly found out Ann Taylor was employing one of their best customers. Kathy then spent the following 10+ years in the Non-Profit arena where she did whatever needed to be done to further the mission. No job was too big, small, or unimportant to tackle.",[5023,5024,5025],"blockquote",{},[14,5026,5027],{},"Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.\nMother Teresa",[14,5029,5030],{},"By February 2020, Kathy was eager to build something for herself and her family. She set off on a new adventure of starting her own business when she was connected with Kerry, Mike, and MKG. Having commuted and worked outside of the home for 10+ years, she was ready to work from home and have a better life balance. She followed the rainbow and found MKG in her pot of gold. MKG is like no other firm or organization for which Kathy has worked. Their standard of people first is evident in every team member, every decision, every meeting, every interaction. They live their standard.",[81,5032,1808],{"id":1807},[46,5034,5035,5038,5041],{},[49,5036,5037],{},"Kathy’s dislikes: fruit & chocolate together and Tuesday.",[49,5039,5040],{},"Family: Kathy met her husband Bill in Wildwood, New Jersey after their high school graduations during “Senior Week”. They have 4 sons and 2 grandsons. There hasn’t been a girl born in the O’Brien family in 32 years! You will often hear Kathy saying her boys are the best 4 gifts she’s ever been given.",[49,5042,5043],{},"Special talent: Baking. Her boys’ (Bill included) favorites are Spritz Cookies and Chocolate Chip Cookies. There is a running family debate as to whether Ricotta Cookies are cookies or biscuits. At Christmas time, Kathy has been known to hide cookies to save some for guests.",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":5045},[5046],{"id":1807,"depth":297,"text":1808},"Meet Kathy O’Brien, MKG Marketing’s amazing executive assistant who consistently supports all of MKG across the many needs of the company.",{"landscape":5049},"kathy-obrien.webp","Executive Assistant",{"imageDescription":5052},"Kathy O’Brien, MKG Marketing’s Executive Assistant, in front of a gray background | MKG Marketing","Kathy O'Brien","\u002Fteam\u002Fkathy-obrien","kathy-obrien",{"description":5047},80,"team\u002Fkathy-obrien","lRwZA7wCSBsHC6ufODo6kKfYgfp9Nf-RTYoTK1zEMo0",{"id":5061,"title":5062,"body":5063,"date":7,"description":5096,"extension":318,"images":5097,"isLeader":1885,"jobTitle":5099,"linkedIn":5100,"meta":5101,"name":5062,"navigation":322,"path":5102,"quote":7,"quoteCite":7,"ref":5103,"seo":5104,"sequence":5105,"stem":5106,"team":4906,"twitter":7,"updated":7,"website":7,"__hash__":5107},"team\u002Fteam\u002Fleigh-snyder.md","Leigh Snyder",{"type":11,"value":5064,"toc":5093},[5065,5069,5072,5075,5078,5081,5084,5087,5090],[14,5066,5068],{"className":5067},[1787],"\nLeigh has over 15 years of experience of managing Paid Search campaigns. She started her career at Solid Cactus, a full service eCommerce agency in Wilkes Barre Pennsylvania. Having no experience in Paid Search, she learned as she went, starting out in the earlier days of Google Adwords, when Adwords Editor wasn't even being used yet.\n",[14,5070,5071],{},"Leigh loves to create accounts and watch them grow, even more she loves to take a poorly performing account and turn it around. Watching the KPIs increase from changes she has made or new ideas she implements, keeps her career exciting.",[14,5073,5074],{},"Managing a wide variety of accounts that include local car dealerships, worldwide clothing stores, online supplement shops to plastic surgeons and much much more, Leigh brings a vast knowledge of creative ways in managing accounts.",[14,5076,5077],{},"While working the majority of her career in local offices, the options for expanding her career were becoming less and less. She decided to apply for a remote job (before it was the norm) and was able to get experience that wasn't as prevalent in the smaller area in which she resides.",[14,5079,5080],{},"After working from home for the past 6 years the opportunities kept coming and when MKG reached out to her, she knew that there was something special about them and decided to take the leap. The people first environment is not just talked about here, but it is practiced everyday. MKG Marketing is unlike anywhere she has ever worked.",[14,5082,5083],{},"Outside of work, Leigh enjoys spending time with her husband Dustin, their blended family (Emma, Casey, Jake & Brayden) and their dog Millie.",[14,5085,5086],{},"The kitchen is where you will always find her, she loves to cook and bake all things Gluten Free and no one ever knows. When they are not at a swim meet or a baseball game they love swimming in their pool, long walks on the local trails, renovating their house and binging shows.",[81,5088,5089],{"id":1807},"Fun Facts",[14,5091,5092],{},"Although it was just was a short time, at age 19 Leigh drove cross country from a small town in PA and moved to Hollywood Hills, CA. Her view from her kitchen window was the Hollywood sign. Not a bad first apartment.",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":5094},[5095],{"id":1807,"depth":297,"text":5089},"Meet Leigh Snyder, one of MKG Marketing’s amazing digital advertising experts, bringing 15 plus years of experience to the team",{"landscape":5098},"leigh-snyder.webp","Digital Advertising Expert","leighasnyder",{},"\u002Fteam\u002Fleigh-snyder","leigh-snyder",{"description":5096},50,"team\u002Fleigh-snyder","tY2JnqulQK9AU4TGRfATRnob3Thk9e9yAPu6iKBPA_s",{"id":5109,"title":5110,"body":5111,"date":7,"description":5158,"extension":318,"images":5159,"isLeader":1885,"jobTitle":5161,"linkedIn":5162,"meta":5163,"name":5110,"navigation":322,"path":5165,"quote":5166,"quoteCite":5110,"ref":5162,"seo":5167,"sequence":321,"stem":5168,"team":7,"twitter":7,"updated":7,"website":7,"__hash__":5169},"team\u002Fteam\u002Fmarketing-leadership\u002Fceleste-jacroux.md","Celeste Jacroux",{"type":11,"value":5112,"toc":5155},[5113,5121,5124,5131,5135],[14,5114,5116,5117,5120],{"className":5115},[1787],"\nCeleste Jacroux is a Go-to-Market architect for companies ready to graduate from \"random acts of marketing\" to a predictable revenue engine. As the Founder of ",[52,5118,5119],{},"Swell Marketing Advisors"," and a strategic partner to MKG, she brings deep expertise in aligning product, sales, and marketing into a cohesive GTM strategy.",[14,5122,5123],{},"Celeste understands that for founders, the hardest phase is often bridging the gap between a great product and the market that needs it. She specializes in clarifying positioning, defining ideal customer profiles (ICPs), and building the strategic roadmap that turns vision into traction.",[14,5125,5126,5127,5130],{},"At MKG, Celeste steps in as a Marketing Leader for our ",[52,5128,5129],{},"Marketing Leadership + Activation"," clients. She provides the senior-level direction and GTM rigor, working hand-in-hand with MKG’s activation teams to ensure that strategy doesn't just sit in a deck—it gets executed, measured, and optimized for growth.",[81,5132,5134],{"id":5133},"expertise","Expertise",[46,5136,5137,5143,5149],{},[49,5138,5139,5142],{},[52,5140,5141],{},"Go-to-Market Strategy:"," Launching new products and entering new markets with precision.",[49,5144,5145,5148],{},[52,5146,5147],{},"Positioning & Messaging:"," Translating complex tech into clear customer value.",[49,5150,5151,5154],{},[52,5152,5153],{},"Sales & Marketing Alignment:"," Ensuring the revenue team is fighting the same battle.",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":5156},[5157],{"id":5133,"depth":297,"text":5134},"Meet Celeste Jacroux, a strategic GTM partner to MKG and Founder of Sweel Marketing Advisors. She leads Go-to-Market strategy for high-growth companies.",{"landscape":5160},"celeste-jacroux.webp","Fractional GTM Leader | Founder, Swell Marketing Advisors","celeste-jacroux",{"imageDescription":5164},"Celeste Jacroux, Founder of Swell Marketing Advisors and MKG Partner","\u002Fteam\u002Fmarketing-leadership\u002Fceleste-jacroux","A great product doesn't win on its own. It wins when the story, the strategy, and the sales motion all pull in the exact same direction.",{"description":5158},"team\u002Fmarketing-leadership\u002Fceleste-jacroux","xCdtcFdNV4sp78oidUDMCvxluqrG5iEdRJkxxEAOYq0",{"id":5171,"title":5172,"body":5173,"date":7,"description":5224,"extension":318,"images":5225,"isLeader":1885,"jobTitle":5227,"linkedIn":5228,"meta":5229,"name":5231,"navigation":322,"path":5232,"quote":5233,"quoteCite":5231,"ref":5228,"seo":5234,"sequence":586,"stem":5235,"team":7,"twitter":7,"updated":7,"website":7,"__hash__":5236},"team\u002Fteam\u002Fmarketing-leadership\u002Flaura-mcaliley.md","Laura Mcaliley",{"type":11,"value":5174,"toc":5221},[5175,5179,5190,5193,5199,5201],[14,5176,5178],{"className":5177},[1787],"\nLaura McAliley is the growth strategist founders call when they are ready to turn early traction into sustainable momentum. As the Founder of Pebble Marketing and a key Marketing Leadership partner for MKG, Laura bridges the gap between high-level vision and the gritty execution required to scale.",[14,5180,5181,5182,5185,5186,5189],{},"Her track record speaks the language of investors and boards. She has successfully scaled SaaS startups from seed stage through to exit, most notably orchestrating a ",[52,5183,5184],{},"3x revenue lift"," at ",[52,5187,5188],{},"Security Journey"," that led to a successful acquisition.",[14,5191,5192],{},"Laura thrives in the \"messy middle\" of growth. Whether she is navigating the complexities of a Fortune 100 account or launching a scrappy go-to-market strategy for a new startup, her approach is the same: build the brand, unlock the revenue, and get the business investor-ready.",[14,5194,5195,5196,5198],{},"At MKG, Laura acts as a Fractional CMO for our ",[52,5197,5129],{}," clients, bringing the senior firepower needed to professionalize your marketing function without the full-time executive headcount.",[81,5200,5134],{"id":5133},[46,5202,5203,5209,5215],{},[49,5204,5205,5208],{},[52,5206,5207],{},"SaaS Scaling:"," From Seed to Exit",[49,5210,5211,5214],{},[52,5212,5213],{},"Revenue Operations:"," Aligning marketing spend with sales outcomes",[49,5216,5217,5220],{},[52,5218,5219],{},"Brand Strategy:"," Positioning startups for acquisition and investment",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":5222},[5223],{"id":5133,"depth":297,"text":5134},"Meet Laura McAliley, a strategic partner to MKG and Founder of Pebble Marketing. She serves as a Fractional CMO, helping founders scale from seed to exit.",{"landscape":5226},"laura-mcaliley.webp","Fractional CMO | Founder, Pebble Marketing","laura-mcaliley",{"imageDescription":5230},"Laura McAliley, Fractional CMO and Founder of Pebble Marketing","Laura McAliley","\u002Fteam\u002Fmarketing-leadership\u002Flaura-mcaliley","Founders don't need another slide deck. They need a roadmap to revenue and a partner willing to get their hands dirty to build it.",{"description":5224},"team\u002Fmarketing-leadership\u002Flaura-mcaliley","ke5GsAQwur6LBbt6guZUCgKQT6MJJm8UL5XCaXjVnZM",{"id":5238,"title":5239,"body":5240,"date":7,"description":5268,"extension":318,"images":5269,"isLeader":1885,"jobTitle":5271,"linkedIn":5272,"meta":5273,"name":5239,"navigation":322,"path":5275,"quote":5276,"quoteCite":5277,"ref":5278,"seo":5279,"sequence":4245,"stem":5280,"team":7,"twitter":5272,"updated":7,"website":7,"__hash__":5281},"team\u002Fteam\u002Fmike-krass.md","Mike Krass",{"type":11,"value":5241,"toc":5266},[5242,5246,5249,5252],[14,5243,5245],{"className":5244},[1787],"A proud Washington State University alum — Go Cougs! — who grew up on the west coast of the United States, Mike has lived on three continents during his lifetime.",[14,5247,5248],{},"Over the past decade Mike has led MKG Marketing in becoming a 7-figure business, joined the global Entrepreneurs Organization (EO) as a member as well as holds a seat on their Board of Directors and mentored other business owners through organizations like Idea Village, EO and General Assembly.",[14,5250,5251],{},"When he’s not at work, Mike enjoys:",[46,5253,5254,5257,5260,5263],{},[49,5255,5256],{},"Riding his beach cruiser bike in the park.",[49,5258,5259],{},"Reading business and spy novels (often at the same time — ask him how many half finished books he’s currently reading on his Kindle!)",[49,5261,5262],{},"Traveling the world.",[49,5264,5265],{},"Flying N5478N — his trusty 1981 Cessna 182.",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":5267},[],"Meet Mike Krass, one of MKG Marketing’s founders. He currently drives the big picture vision for the agency and supports biz dev and sales efforts.",{"landscape":5270},"mike-krass.webp","Owner\u002FVisionary","mikekrass",{"imageDescription":5274},"Mike Krass, MKG Marketing’s Owner\u002FVisionary, standing in front of St. Louis Cathedral in the French Quarter of New Orleans | MKG Marketing","\u002Fteam\u002Fmike-krass","Focus on the road, not the wall.","Alvin Alexander","mike-krass",{"description":5268},"team\u002Fmike-krass","WCJwOrpm4HOYHMODFwHdEILqPkcZwTSZUakkr3-n3rs",{"id":5283,"title":4705,"body":5284,"date":7,"description":5304,"extension":318,"images":5305,"isLeader":322,"jobTitle":5307,"linkedIn":5308,"meta":5309,"name":4705,"navigation":322,"path":5310,"quote":5311,"quoteCite":5312,"ref":5308,"seo":5313,"sequence":5314,"stem":5315,"team":5316,"twitter":5317,"updated":7,"website":7,"__hash__":5318},"team\u002Fteam\u002Fnathan-stenberg.md",{"type":11,"value":5285,"toc":5302},[5286,5290,5293,5296,5299],[14,5287,5289],{"className":5288},[1787],"Our SEO Expert, Nathan, comes to MKG with an extensive background in digital marketing from front-end development to omni-channel marketing strategy.",[14,5291,5292],{},"He discovered SEO as part of a tech support job with a template website company where he was supporting clients with their websites. There he defined and developed the standards and processes that the SEO team would use for keyword research as well as the writing and implementation of the optimization. He then leveraged these standards to create an add-on subscription-based SEO product called “SEO Boost” which provided clients with a more proactive SEO service for their websites. This resulted in him providing keyword research and optimization recommendations for close to 1,500 websites during his tenure.",[14,5294,5295],{},"From there Nathan moved into the agency world, staring with a small boutique firm in Portland, OR, providing SEO audits and recommendations for clients ranging from small businesses to enterprise e-commerce companies.",[14,5297,5298],{},"He then moved to a larger agency and, once again, developed the SEO Team processes as the agency transitioned from an email-focused agency to a full-service digital marketing agency. During this time, Nathan was able to explore different areas of digital marketing strategy and really developed an understanding and passion for omni-channel marketing.",[14,5300,5301],{},"When Nathan is not working, he enjoys spending time with his partner and two children. You can find him playing casual sports, music, and Overwatch as well as snowboarding and cooking.",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":5303},[],"Meet Nathan Stenberg, one of MKG Marketing’s Digital Marketing Strategist, with an extensive background in digital marketing from front-end development to omni-channel strategy. ",{"landscape":5306},"nathan-stenberg.webp","Director, Strategy","nathan-stenberg",{},"\u002Fteam\u002Fnathan-stenberg","Repetition is the path to mastery.","Zenyatta",{"description":5304},4,"team\u002Fnathan-stenberg","Marketing Strategists","natestenberg23","1moy0e42nEoQgH0weNaASdQ6FTDWXwC5TDftv5YS3tU",{"id":5320,"title":5321,"body":5322,"date":7,"description":5350,"extension":318,"images":5351,"isLeader":1885,"jobTitle":5099,"linkedIn":5353,"meta":5354,"name":5321,"navigation":322,"path":5355,"quote":5356,"quoteCite":1826,"ref":5357,"seo":5358,"sequence":5359,"stem":5360,"team":4906,"twitter":7,"updated":7,"website":7,"__hash__":5361},"team\u002Fteam\u002Fnick-bare.md","Nick Bare",{"type":11,"value":5323,"toc":5348},[5324,5328,5331,5334,5337],[14,5325,5327],{"className":5326},[1787],"Nick Bare's college offered a digital technology and culture degree and heI ended up taking some communications and marketing classes as well and liked the thought of them all lining up with each other. Once he graduated, he landed a role in paid search and has been doing it for nine+ years now.",[14,5329,5330],{},"He loves that there's always a challenge to tackle. He enjoys taking on new accounts and getting into the weeds to see what can help them turn around and start driving more efficient leads.",[14,5332,5333],{},"He's most proud of being a dad.",[14,5335,5336],{},"Interesting facts:",[46,5338,5339,5342,5345],{},[49,5340,5341],{},"Born with a cleft lip and palate and has had seven surgeries in his life",[49,5343,5344],{},"Watched the Seahawks win Super Bowl 48 with his dad in New York",[49,5346,5347],{},"Travels around the country to visit all the MLB stadiums with his son",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":5349},[],"Meet Nick Bare, one of MKG Marketing’s Digital Advertising Expert, bringing 15 plus years of experience to the team. ",{"landscape":5352},"nick-bare.webp","nickbare",{},"\u002Fteam\u002Fnick-bare","We can choose courage or we can choose comfort, but we can't have both.","nick-bare",{"description":5350},52,"team\u002Fnick-bare","yVusNcEIbiAvdPE02qyDKE_aINcQ0QMXSeyOKv9x5PE",{"id":5363,"title":5364,"body":5365,"date":7,"description":5350,"extension":318,"images":5392,"isLeader":1885,"jobTitle":5394,"linkedIn":5395,"meta":5396,"name":5364,"navigation":322,"path":5397,"quote":5398,"quoteCite":5399,"ref":5400,"seo":5401,"sequence":5402,"stem":5403,"team":5404,"twitter":7,"updated":7,"website":7,"__hash__":5405},"team\u002Fteam\u002Fprachi-sarin.md","Prachi Sarin",{"type":11,"value":5366,"toc":5390},[5367,5370,5373,5376],[14,5368,5369],{},"Prachi has worked in marketing for over 10 years across various industries, but digital marketing has always been her true interest. She finally got the opportunity to pursue it when she moved to the United States and joined MKG as an apprentice, embarking on her digital marketing journey.​",[14,5371,5372],{},"Why I Joined MKG Marketing:\nI joined MKG Marketing because of its people-first culture, transparency, and commitment to growth. It’s a place where I can learn, contribute, and work with a team that genuinely cares.",[14,5374,5375],{},"Fun Facts About Me:",[46,5377,5378,5381,5384,5387],{},[49,5379,5380],{},"I love to read detective, thriller, and mystery books and watch shows in the same genre.",[49,5382,5383],{},"I’m a mom to twin girls—they are my world! Watching them grow, learn, and explore life brings me joy.",[49,5385,5386],{},"I love cooking for my family. It started with my husband, who’s a foodie, and now we cook together for our daughters.",[49,5388,5389],{},"Our family also enjoys playing video games—it’s our way to unwind and have fun together.",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":5391},[],{"landscape":5393},"prachi-sarin.webp","Digital Marketing Coordinator","prachisarin",{},"\u002Fteam\u002Fprachi-sarin","We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things because we're curious, and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.","Walt Disney","prachi-sarin",{"description":5350},75,"team\u002Fprachi-sarin","Digital Marketing","LjXpVTmZn-XwzExAyq2igbw_fHhrVcf4nOLoEmURbEQ",{"id":5407,"title":5408,"body":5409,"date":7,"description":5423,"extension":318,"images":5424,"isLeader":322,"jobTitle":5426,"linkedIn":5427,"meta":5428,"name":5408,"navigation":322,"path":5429,"quote":5430,"quoteCite":5431,"ref":5432,"seo":5433,"sequence":291,"stem":5434,"team":1831,"twitter":7,"updated":7,"website":7,"__hash__":5435},"team\u002Fteam\u002Fsam-ellsworth.md","Sam Ellsworth",{"type":11,"value":5410,"toc":5421},[5411,5415,5418],[14,5412,5414],{"className":5413},[1787],"Sam has over 15 years of experience managing the development of marketing campaigns for national and global brands. She started her career in San Francisco, working in account management at ad agencies, where she managed a range of successful marketing campaigns from Super Bowl TV spots and fully-integrated product launches to social media campaigns and events.",[14,5416,5417],{},"After 12 years in San Francisco, Sam and her husband decided it was time to leave the big city and find a slower pace of life, settling down outside of Burlington, Vermont. Sam spent her first couple years in Vermont working remotely for a San Francisco agency and then as the Marketing Director at a local craft brewery before joining the MKG team. She was drawn to MKG due to our people first value and the opportunity to get to focus on a few specific, results driven marketing tactics.",[14,5419,5420],{},"Outside of work, Sam spends her time with her husband, 4-year-old daughter and chocolate lab exploring Vermont and all it has to offer — from hiking, skiing and enjoying all the local food to growing their backyard garden and working on a never-ending list of house renovations.",{"title":77,"searchDepth":291,"depth":291,"links":5422},[],"Meet Sam Ellsworth, one of MKG Marketing’s amazing Account Directors, who brings over 15 years experience managing marketing campaign development. ",{"landscape":5425},"sam-ellsworth.webp","Director, Client Services","samantha-ellsworth-40875866",{},"\u002Fteam\u002Fsam-ellsworth","Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple.","Dr. Seuss","sam-ellsworth",{"description":5423},"team\u002Fsam-ellsworth","Xb0ljkUHaVzTObdBxfiOxIpE5jcK9HSfgiMlBhd8fuc",1787835217003]