116 | Aligning Your Sales with Your Marketing Efforts W/ Corrina Owens

Corrina Owens has over a decade of experience in B2B marketing with a focus on account based marketing and a great customer experiences. She has been recognized by SurveyMonkey | GetFeedback as a CX Ambassador in 2020 and spoke at Salesforce’s Dreamforce annual conference in 2019.  

I reached out to her because she ran an interesting survey on LinkedIn about the disconnect between sales and marketing departments.

We had a great conversation about that, the future of company events, and how CEOs should approach content creation and relationships.

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Transcript

Corrina: 0:00

Hey, my name is Karina Owens and if you take one thing away from this podcast, know that client experience is not just a department. It's a core value that your company should hold. And that should be communicated from the top down.

Pablo: 1:42

Welcome back to the chief executive connector podcast. I am Pablo Gonzalez, your chief executive connector. And today we have Karena Owens who has over a decade of experience in B2B marketing with a focus on account based marketing and great customer experiences. She's been recognized by survey monkey and feedback as a CX ambassador in 2020, spoke at Salesforce Dreamforce annual conference in 2019, which is a huge accomplishment in the, in, in this world. And she is also an active volunteer with a partnership against domestic violence as a member of their hearts with hope committee, Carina Owens is now the director of marketing at Profisee headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, and proud Coombe Lauder of Kennesaw state university. Welcome Karina. Thank you for

Corrina: 2:24

doing this. I thank you so much, Pablo for having me. I'm happy to be here.

Pablo: 2:27

Awesome. Awesome. You know, that that's, that's the end of my broadcaster voice, right? When I do the intro, you know, Corina, we're talking about, this is the beginning of a new iteration of my podcast, talking about the future of business development and how things are blending. And we're going to get into a bunch of interesting topics, but I'd love to hear from you just on a, on a basic level, you have awesome experience. You've, you've been, you know, very well seasoned in this world. What's been the biggest obstacle. You think that holds back the, the mindset of, of business development going into the current state that we're in right now.

Corrina: 3:03

Sure. Yeah. I mean, I think historically business development has always been seen as a numbers game. Right? So if you get X amount of people into your email cadences, or if you dial, you know, a thousand calls a day, right. That that's going to be what gets your quota? And I think we just don't really operate in an environment like that anymore. You know, we live in a digital world, we've been all forced to go remote. So we just have all these different avenues to which we can communicate and engage. And so I think really hope a lot of business development and sales development representatives have taken from this is to take the time to look at who you're prospecting to. You know, what is really in it for them versus what is in it for you, because that really shows through when you're really, truly leading with, okay, what is this individual going to get out of having this conversation with me versus me trying to just hit that number and move on to the next person.

Pablo: 3:50

Yeah relationship building one-on-one right. Like right, right. I've said it often times, but that I didn't really, I didn't realize that that was the foundation of relationship development to like my early thirties. Right. Like for, for a long time it was more like, how cool can I look until somebody, you know, figures out that I'm the coolest person in the room. Right. And it was, and I read off your, your volunteerism because that, that was the period of my life. Right. Getting really involved in nonprofits and understanding that the most influential people in the city are part of boards of nonprofits and they've grown their influence by serving others and helping others. It dawned on me, is that something, is that something that you've learned, you know, that foundation, did you learn that intuitively? Did you learn it at home? Have you learned that in business? Like kind of, how, w when did you start to realize that it's really communication and building relationships is about the other person.

Corrina: 4:44

Yeah. I mean, I'm, to be quite honest with you, I learned it very early on you know, as a means of survival right really understanding how to interact with somebody, you know, what drives them, what motivates them. And so I can really relate to a lot of the different organizations that I partnered with like, you know hearts with hope, which is partnership against domestic violence. It's, it's all about listening to your audience and understanding what really motivates them and what moves them. And that's, what's going to drive a meaningful connection for the other person and that's, what's going to make them want to engage with you. And yeah, I mean really B2B B2C it's all about relationship. And that's, what's led me to be successful in my career is, is leading with that. And ultimately that is what marketing is, is having that awareness into, you know, what really matters to your audience. And, and when, and how can you best serve. So I do think, and that's a great point. Any B2B professional, particularly marketing and sales, getting involved in something like a nonprofit organization will help that skillset to become much more intuitive and really will drive to revenue later.

Pablo: 5:42

Yeah, totally, totally cool. I'm glad we, I'm glad we touched on that. So you and me, you and I originally connected on in the peak community group, right? Like awesome, awesome group put together by Sangram and you posted something about this poll on LinkedIn about BDRs, SDR alignment. You want to kind of tell me a little bit about this post and what spurred it.

Corrina: 6:02

Yeah, absolutely. I think marketers for probably the past two to three years, I mean, probably historically much longer, but it's been much more relevant with the rise of account-based marketing. You know, that is a very strategic approach for marketers about how they're engaging their audience So much of that matters that you're carrying that experience in, in the ad or the website that you're serving to the individual that transfers into the first conversation that they actually have with your company, with your brand. And a lot of times when marketing and sales are really siloed that connection gets lost you know no matter how many emails you send or how many internal meetings you have, if sales is not really ingrained and align with your marketing campaigns, then that experience is often for not for the prospect and that disconnect shows. So I've been hearing so many marketers in the past year, fighting with their executive team should really get their BDRs or SDRs underneath the marketing function because of just that. So they don't have to go through all the hoops and the hurdles and deal with the silos. I mean, they are the first interaction that most prospective customers have with your brand. So I was curious based on the rise of ABM, how many teams, particularly in the B2B enterprise software sales world had actually been able to successfully migrate their teams or migrate the BDRs into the marketing function. And the data was really a delightfully surprising that even though it is still largely falling underneath the sales function, BDRs have made the move to fall into the marketing function. And you did see that a lot of companies like manufacturers, insurance, they stayed with the BDRs and the sales team, but the software, you know, high-tech internet media companies were pushing that alignment to BDR. So I think that that really does show that that trend is continuing.

Pablo: 7:47

That is, that is interesting to see that it moved so quickly, right? Do you think that that was a COVID speeding up the economy? Like it sped up a bunch of trends thing

Corrina: 7:55

a hundred percent. I mean, you took away so many foundational marketing and sales elements, like in-person trade shows, you just rip that out from people. And I know a lot of businesses you know, peers of mine, they suffered from that because they did not have that backup model of that quick pivot to a webinar or a virtual event or a digital strategy where they had a Google ad words campaign up and running that they could optimize or display advertising. That just was, it was not there. So the strategies and the framework of account-based marketing, particularly through the lens of a lens of digital, I mean that those companies have had so much success just be hit because of COVID out of the force need.

Pablo: 8:33

So talk to me about about manufacturers. You're talking about a couple of different verticals. You you are right now in the B2B tech world. Right. And how big is Profisee just to get a, just to get a scope.

Corrina: 8:45

Sure. So we're a master data management company and we are global. So I mean, we're competing with things like the Informatica. You know, one of our most strategic partners is Microsoft. So a very large you know, software company we're still you know, growing and growing rapidly. But yeah, I mean, we, we definitely serve a global audience in our need is it's all about clean data for us. So the need is really cross vertical industry agnostic. We, we serve everyone.

Pablo: 9:10

Okay. And what is so in the class? So I S I assume that you have a decent amount of insight, not just in the Profisee in your past companies, but since you're serving in this role, I guess you're getting insight into your clients as well as is what's informing these opinions.

Corrina: 9:25

A hundred percent. Yeah. I mean, any marketing campaign that I spin up I do not like to do so in a silo myself, I do make sure that we do have a customer voice that is very present. And I rely on their feedback and how they're actually using our solution heavily, because I think often there is a, at many companies a disconnect between what we think the problem is that we're solving versus what we actually are solving for our customers. So yeah, the voice of our customer is ever present in any kind of blog webinar event. And you really do see a deeper connection with your customers when you involve them in such a deep and meaningful way really translates to the rest of your audience as well.

Pablo: 10:05

Talk to me about, talk to me about understanding that disconnect. Like how do you, how do you get a sense for that, that disconnect between like, this is what I'm selling you versus this was what you're buying.

Corrina: 10:15

Yeah. You know, I think in many ways it starts when, anytime, anytime I'm entering a new company, I often just, you know, take a seat back. And I, I take a look at Google and see what's actually trending and searching for what we're saying. We solved the problem for, and a lot of times you'll find even verbiage is just massively different. And just making that alignment and adjustment right. There leads to a lot of awareness initially, and, you know, it'll show great, great initial success at your current company. But another thing is really if your company is a client centric and they really do care about you know, how your clients are using your product or services, Then you should be incorporating a feedback loop at any stage in the buyer's journey. Even before they raise their hand and say, Hey, I'd like to talk to you about your solution or, Hey, I'd like to see your demo, you should always be kind of listening in your social channels throughout your email campaigns and your live events. And when you do that, you're often going to find some similarity in the types of questions that get asked in those live events or you know, the type of feedback. And when you, when you hone in on that and create content by just listening through those different channels and those different signals, you're really able to attract a much wider and more precise audience. So even if you think that you're the most sophisticated solution or service out there you know, it may be that simple, simple problem that you're solving for your prospective clients that really gets them hooked. And then maybe they can elevate to the. The problem that your company thinks they're solving. So for me, it really is about making sure that before anybody raises their hand saying, Hey, I'm ready to speak, or, Hey, I'm ready to buy your product. If you're listening through the different channels that you're serving your content through, for some key, common themes or questions or feedback that they're sharing, craft your, your events or your messaging as a response to what you were hearing,

Pablo: 12:05

That's a profound truth. Cool. So real quick, just on specifics on that, how do you, how do you listen? Is that a, like a MarTech stack thing that you put together? Or do you have like simple ways of listening to that type of stuff? Is it a spreadsheet? Is it intuitive? Yeah.

Corrina: 12:21

You know, it can be as sophisticated as you want. You can lose, I'll use all the solutions out there. You know, there's many that I've used in the past, even like something like a survey monkey or get feedback, there's very obvious solutions to get the feedback, but it's also just being present and being active where, you know, your target audience is consuming content. So whatever that, you know, third-party new site is where your individuals are going to, you know, read the latest and greatest news and blogs. Go there, pay attention to the comments, comment yourself, you know, see what they respond in response to something that you, you know, you, you wrote a upon go to your social channels, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, just pay attention to the different trending topics that relate to your business and just be active yourself. I think there's also this misconception, I think with marketers that maybe that's not their job that maybe that's where sales should be operating and they should be doing that. But. If you're again, wanting to provide meaningful content that you know is going to resonate with your audience, you should be where your audience is consuming that content, and you should be an active participant, so you can stay in the know. So it doesn't have to be sophisticated at all. It's just more about making a intentional effort to be living and breathing where your, you know, your audience is living and breathing content. And that really is just about being mindful about it, in my opinion.

Pablo: 13:41

Yeah. Be a part of the community that makes perfect. Yes. Okay. So you landed the plane there beautifully because you brought us back to this like SDR, BDR sales alignment. Right. So talk to me about what it was, and then, you know, describe to me kind of the structure of alignment that you've seen in the past. And describe to me in, in your opinion, what you think is the optimal, give me like a, from, to kind of have it.

Corrina: 14:01

Yeah. So I think, you know and I think a lot of sales leaders still think this way and even marketing leaders too. I mean, historically I think sales was really viewed as owning the entire buyer's journey or the entire funnel of a sales cycle. And that's just really not true. I mean, when you peel back the layers, oftentimes somebody, somebody is researching, you know, your solution or topic. Well in advance again, of them saying, Hey, I'm ready to talk. So marketing really is responsible for a massive chunk of the actual sales cycle. And again, that to me means that it's not necessarily time for sales to come in and have that hard sell or hard pitch yet about why you need to talk to, you know, your solution to your provider right now. So it is very important. I think for marketing too, to know that, you know, they are ever present, they're always showcasing your brand and your value proposition. And oftentimes it's just, you know, it's going to take time for those prospective clients to reach the stage where it is a sales qualified lead, or a sales accepted lead. So take ownership and know that, you know, a business development representative can be that first touch point, that first individual contact that a person has. And if they are that they need to be very aligned with your marketing content. They really need to speak it as if they wrote it themselves. So for me, I think that that means that it's very important that those, those team members are actually. You know, key stakeholders in the different campaigns that you're launching so that when that person is, you know, kind of tiptoeing in and showing additional interest, you know, they can be prepared to come in and be that, that mouthpiece, that voice for all the content and campaigns and beautiful infographics that you've developed to gauge and nurture that interest, they are, they're really are that first touch point. So to me, I think it's crucial that they are living and breathing in a marketing world versus solely just a sales focused lens.

Pablo: 15:55

Yeah. Yeah. And what do you, when you call it a sales focus lens, what's the difference between what's the difference between those two worlds in your, like, what's the marketing lens? What's the sales focus lens.

Corrina: 16:05

The marketing one should always be focused on educational. So you're, you're, you're there to serve your purpose, your prospective client. I think the sales lens is much more about you know, nurturing that relationship to ultimately a buy. I mean, it's, it is, it is very much with a dollar sign around that relationship. A lot of the times, and for marketing, I don't think it should be that way. I think we should be, we are best serving ourselves and the ultimate ROI of our campaigns, if we're constantly thinking through the lens of, okay, why would, why would this person care about this piece of content? What are they going to get out of it? And I just think that it is, you know, this is no disrespect to the sales function, but it is a lot more about you know, what is sales going to get out of that engagement and that relationship? So I think separating those two is, is, is crucial. And it, it, it does help, I

Pablo: 16:55

think. Yeah. Sounds like you're. I'm a big Jim Collins guy, right? Like I'm like, he talks about being relationship driven versus transactional driven. Right. And sounds like your positioning to you and your, in your opinion, marketing is generally relationship driven and sales is transactional driven, right?

Corrina: 17:13

Yes, and, and, and no disrespect to the amazing sales leaders out there. But you know, I just don't have that same quota that they have on their head, so I can carry myself a lot differently. And it really is why I advocate to a lot in, you know, anytime anybody's thinking about building out a you know, a CX program that they are in blue, looping and marketing as much as possible. I want to be able to, as a marketing leader, reach out to my, one of my clients you know, just to see if they might have interest in joining me for a thought leadership event, or if they're okay with me submitting their success story to a publication for an award that is very crucial, so that if there is God forbid, some kind of issue with you know, their, their client success manager or the product that we have that separate separation, and they can look at Profisee or any company in a more. In a less siloed way. Right. They can see that there's multiple facets into the organization. So I think it's very important that you know anybody looking to build out a CX strategy from scratch really thinks about it from that perspective, but it's not just the CSMs, it's not just the, the account representatives. There are many people in the organization that should be involved with shaping the client's experience with your brand.

Pablo: 18:22

I love that we naturally went from relationship to transaction, to experience and brand. Right. Cause I, you know, like that, that to me kind of sums it up, right? Like the idea that your brand is the experience that people can expect, the experience you're giving people is this way that you build a relationship with them. And then transaction is the last piece, right? Like, is that, is that kinda how you, is that kinda how you structure? How do you. You know, this, this term CX new to me also. Right. How do you, what is, what is the origin of this like belief of customer experience and like how, how long has this been in the market?

Corrina: 18:58

You know, I would say that it's PR it's getting more and more broadly or there's built a lot more awareness in the last, honestly, just several months. I think that ABM was leading the charge for a while. And that was really the alignment between marketing and sales. Now they're incorporating you know, client success team members into the equation as well, because I think it's just taking, it's just constantly is taking a step back and a step back and a step back broadening that picture, you know, looking at the whole puzzle versus just little puzzle pieces here and there. And it's, it's looking at the customer journey holistically versus just stage by stage. Again, your, your, your customer's experience with you often is interpreted or perceived long before they ever. Get on a video conference with you. And it's going to be perceived long after they sign that dotted line. So you need to make sure that it's not just a, a silo tunnel vision view of, Hey, it matters only at this stage, how they perceive our product or a company it's, it's an entire life cycle of a customer before they even know they're going to be a customer. And long after they say that they will be as well

Pablo: 20:02

in your, in your experience with customer experience. If I can say that um, should that be a title? Is that a core value? Is that a department? Like, it sounds like, you know, I compare it to life cycle analysis and you know, like it's like, to me, it seems like one of these things where. Obviously the right way to measure stuff, but it should be so holistic. Is that, is that a C level thing? I, you know, w what do you, what have you seen, what do you think would be a best practice

Corrina: 20:30

And yet, you know, you're asking really great questions, but I feel like we're all still developing our hypothesis around, but I think to your point, it is a core value. If that is not something that is cared about from your CEO down, it's not going to be translated across your entire business. So even just hiring a CX team if, if it's not, if it's not really fully bought in across the entire organization, it's going to fall flat. It takes every single member of your company because they're all interacting with your clients directly or across the web. I mean that the digital world is so vast that it, it matters your support team, your, your product team, your it team. I mean, you are every single member of your organization is representing your brand. And every client that you interact with is going to have some level of perception based on, on how those different members are. So, yeah, I think it's really, it, it, it can't be department and it can be very specialized, but I do think to your point that it has to be something that is communicated and really believed as a core value from the top down.

Pablo: 21:33

Have you seen any like, really successful implementations of that? Like any kind of like methodologies to do that? Right. Like, I, I have, I have one client and I love sharing this cause I a, I love these. I love my client and I have like a super like man crush with them. But, you know, it's just really impressive. They do this, they have this Tuesday morning meeting, right. Where it's 85, their whole staff, it's 85 people. Right. And. And they're just glued to each other for an hour. And the first time I walked into that, it blew my mind to like, see an entire staff paying attention to each other. Right. Like, and they start with this thing called core values. Call-out where anybody's allowed to stand up and compliment somebody else in the organization based on them executing on one of the core values. And I've implemented that into my business. Right. So like, is there anything, is there any kind of like lever mechanism like that, that you've seen that works well to really embed customer and experience anything like

Corrina: 22:26

that? I think that's a really great story. It's, it's when I can connect to as well. That's something we do here at Profisee too. We have a weekly PPI Profisee plugged in where we not only do we bring on our entire company based to do things just like that, but we bring on our clients too. And it's a really great way for our clients to see, oh my gosh. Again like that. The whole view of a company outside of just our client success manager that yes, everything that we preach, like it, it is, it exists across the entire organization. And I think opening up that visibility, that transparency will go a long way for organizations. I mean, even just communicating in LinkedIn, right? Hey, you know, so-and-so on my team did such a great job at implementing and, you know, helping out this client really shows that, you know, client first value is, you know, ever present. Yeah, it, it, it goes a long way. I think, recognition especially, you know, in these days where everybody is just, you know, the, the blur between personal and professional is just, you know, ever present still. I think it's really good for people to just stop, take a moment and, you know, recognize all the accomplishments of the different individuals in their organization.

Pablo: 23:34

Yeah. Can you can you share with me more about that PPR P PPI policy plugged in? Like what's the structure of that? What does that,

Corrina: 23:40

yeah. You know, it came as a result of the pandemic. Actually our CEO, Len Finkle is a huge culture first CEO. And you really get that no matter who you are when you talk to him. I mean, he is a very genuine relationship driven guy and he was crushed by the, by seeing his you know, organization less and less. So he wanted to put a weekly. meeting on the calendar for just the entire organization. Again, we work global too, right? So it really helped connect remote people that are used to just being kind of remote in general. But the purpose really is to just do just that like take a moment, reflect on the accomplishments of the week or the quarter or the month give recognition where it's due. And, and just take a time as a company to reflect and appreciate, you know, all the hard work that we've put in. What I think is really, really great, and I love that we're putting our clients or involving our clients in this is that we, we bring them on to hear their story. You know, how has our software really helped you? What are things that, you know, you'd like improved upon? What would you like to see? How can we Profisee as a company help you better solve the data challenges in your day-to-day life? And some of them are really meaningful. We work with clients like MD Anderson cancer society center. And I mean, we really hear how our solution is. Saving lives by giving these, these members clean, consistent, trusted data. So it's really powerful. And I think it resonates with clients. It resonates internally with our different employees that, you know, Hey, we're, we're all here for a shared purpose and let's just make sure that we stop and take a moment to recognize that in various ways each week

Pablo: 25:12

that's brilliant. What's what is, what does the ask look like for the client? It's like, Hey, can you come present to us? Or is it just like, Hey, can our whole staff pick your brain?

Corrina: 25:19

Yeah, it's, it's really the latter. Right? So I mean it gives the client to an opportunity to interact with our CEO. And I think that they find a lot of interest in that. And, and it's a very, you know, low pressure come if you'd like you know, nothing is expected of them other than we would just love to hear, you know, how your experience is going with Profisee. And, you know, you'll have every team member on the line to see, Hey, what can we do to continue to optimize that for you learn from you so we can help other clients like you, or how can we, you know, look to make the next release, you know, address some of those issues that maybe we aren't exactly addressing for you today.

Pablo: 25:54

So it's like a fireside chat with the CEO online. That's right. Why doesn't every single company do that, right? Like, is that not the lowest hanging fruit of all time?

Corrina: 26:04

Pandemic or not. I mean, what, what a value add for your CEO too, right? I mean, to just get back into the weeds of, Hey, I created the thought of this awesome product to solve. This problem is it's still doing that. If you were passionate enough to create this business in the first place. I mean, I can't imagine any CEO that wouldn't want to just sit down for 15 minutes, a coffee with a client and see, Hey, like, is this working for you? How is this going?

Pablo: 26:28

Yeah. And in front of your whole staff and allow them to, you know, like, and allow them to feel the impact of what they're doing. Like, are you recording that and making any kind of

Corrina: 26:37

content out of it? So we are really great story actually with Domino's is we're going to do a a virtual event that we have a data after dark series. And it's a great way again, to tee up future conversations and, and you'd be surprised. I mean, our clients, I think we do a really good job on nurturing that relationship and always showcasing them as like a data hero right. So they're so happy. To come and talk with their peers in these types of environments. And it really is less about, Hey, creating this event and you know, how many leads are we going to generate? And it's really about, Hey, is there something special here in the story that's going to resonate with our core audience? I don't care if it's only, you know, 20, 20 people that show if it's actually resonating with people that we want to do business with that we know we can help. That's what I would rather focus on than a, a very broad catch all. Let's see where the sticks kind of event

Pablo: 27:31

Yes. Yes that's. Okay. So now we're into virtual events. This is, you're like an expert at this, right?

Corrina: 27:38

Thank you. Now you're, you're guiding me the whole way. Awesome.

Pablo: 27:41

Virtual events. You know, when in the, in the online entrepreneurship world, virtual events is like, you know, like in the click funnels, world virtual events, or like a, like an online summit, that's like a data grab that then like tries to upsell you a bunch of stuff. I think in the corporate and the corporate culture, virtual events is a much looser terminology. What do you, you know, when, what do you think people think of from your company or your colleagues when they hear it, when they hear a virtual event?

Corrina: 28:09

Yeah, I think it's really how you described it. And I've tried really hard to change that perception. Just even internally to virtual experience. One of the things that I did with our sales team was, you know, obviously during this time they are just removed from all that personal one-on-one interaction, taking their prospects out to dinner, grabbing them a drink, meeting them at their office and. I know that that hit them really hard. And so when I was thinking of, okay, well, how can we kind of bring that into this virtual landscape? Now that was my guiding principle of, again, that just relationship building connection, building aspect. And of course that still means that I'm thinking about, okay, what content really matters, what is going to be in it for them. But also I want our prospective clients to understand who we are as a company. I want them to experience our personality. I mean, we've got, we've got such a great sales team. They literally will have you cracking up all day long. I want our prospective clients to feel that and see that. So we've done a lot of different virtual events that focus on that. So really the community building in addition to showing them all of the latest and greatest to what are, you know, what we're doing in the market from a master data management perspective. But I didn't want to keep doing that behind a. A screen where it's just me, other presenters, just talking at you. I wanted people to feel like they were a part of this, you know, community with us and let them, you know, no holds barred, like ask us the questions. Like let's, let's, let's get down to it. It doesn't mean we have to have the perfect answer. Maybe we don't have the perfect answer for you, but now we both know that. And I think the authenticity in the way we approach our virtual events really shines through at least in the feedback that I've been receiving. Awesome.

Pablo: 29:50

Yeah. So I'm hearing a lot of the stuff that I really, really believe in too, right? Like. The authenticity driven by open interaction, not just like a one-way conversation. Talk to me about how you approach your virtual events and what you're and what you're doing, or at least what you, what you like that you're doing. Sure.

Corrina: 30:06

Yeah. So for us, again, I like opening up to be an experience where I miss I'm imitating as much as I can at what we would do if we were in person, which would involve some fun activities, like you know, wine tastings or you know providing them a meal. So all of our events have some kind of component of. Yes, we're all behind a little video box here, but we're all actually tasting the same wine and we're all actually eating the same food right now. And we're having that collective experience together. And I mean, we've gone so far. Sometimes it's even just send a candle to all have the same scent and just really kind of build that experience. There's ways to do that with things like direct mail and different vendors where you're still bringing that experience to them. So we, we approach events like that too. And, and every event whether that just be a scheduled zoom call or whether that's a scheduled on 24 webinar event we do have the chat. It is visible. It is open, you know, people can see if they're not comfortable to come on camera or come on their microphone. They can see the questions we're getting asked. And every single one of them gets addressed. And you know, that, I think that goes to show that it's not. It's a planned event, but it's not canned. We are here to serve and we are here to openly address all of your questions and it's great. You see, people loosen up, you see people not just talk with us but can communicate with one another. And that's the experience we want our prospects to have because we, when you do sign up to be a client, we have a whole Profisee community where that's exactly what they're doing in the community. So again, it's translating that experience that you don't have to be a client yet to experience what it's like to be a client.

Pablo: 31:43

I love that my, my, my head was somewhere else. And then you said something that, that totally made me want to go there, but real quick, are you, do you take those events and do you already repurposing that content? Is that stuff that you're making into like LinkedIn posts and things of the sort in smaller form? Yes.

Corrina: 31:59

A hundred percent. Yeah. Case study blogs eBooks. Yes, no, I nothing really gets creative without you know, recycling and using in other meaningful ways as well. Yeah.

Pablo: 32:10

Yeah. Cause that, that, that to me was the big, you know, I've had two big aha moments in this, in, in kind of like this subject matter. Number one. Is Gary V and seeing how all of his are you familiar with him? Of course. I got like, I don't know how much he's in, like fortune 500. Yeah. In marketing. Yes. The guy, I always, since I, since I come into marketing from studying Gary V not I've found Gary V because I'm a marketer. I always wonder if real marketers respect them. Right. Right. Like 100%. Yeah. I hope so. You know, seeing, seeing his stuff and seeing that. His format of small amount of keynote, large amount of Q and a, and then re-purposing and how that lands, right? Like the idea that if you can, and now I've experienced it, right? Like I've met him a couple of times. I've been, I've gone to his conference where he speaks. And I know that if he's talking, I can show up, grab a mic, ask them an intelligent question, and I might end up on his Instagram. I'm definitely gonna be on his podcast. I'm gonna write like that, that kind of like sharing of the stage, I found really brilliant. And also the idea that he has people of all shapes, sizes and colors, asking him different questions that he has one answer to makes you really feel like he's got the answer for you too. I like that content and hustle was the answer for me too. Right, right, right. And then the other one was like a conference fanatic, right? Like I love getting into a room full of people. I don't know. And making as many friends as possible. And because of that, when I go to conferences, I never watched keynotes. I'm always in the hallway trying to make a buddy. Right. The first well-executed virtual event that I want to. Being Mr. Super-fan and the chat wall while getting the keynote presentation allowed me to connect with the people in the chat. It allowed me to connect with a keynote speaker. It allowed me to connect with a keynote organizer all at the same time, I thought it was really, really, really efficient. Is that, you know, is, is that something I don't know, are those realizations you had, are you driving that stuff on purpose? Can you talk me through how you

Corrina: 34:07

enable that a hundred percent? And I really do hope that that is a trend that is here to stay. I mean, imagine, I mean, everything you're just describing the difference of being in a, you know, thousand crowded room, listening to somebody versus being in your own space, consuming the content and interacting with everybody else. It might be having similar dialogue and thoughts in their own head and be able to share that. I mean, that is inclusivity. And that I hope that we can keep with things like the virtual events or even hybrid events. It's just, it's opening up the accessibility for everybody to feel comfortable, to speak their mind, have the ability to speak their mind. They don't have to be two places at once anymore. I mean, I'm, I'm just like you, I have gotten more I've had, I've been able to attend more of these conferences and gain more knowledge and interact with my peers more now because of this push to virtual. So I, I really do hope that that's here to stay because I think it really allows for inclusivity and diversity of different thoughts, backgrounds, ideas.

Pablo: 35:07

Yeah, totally man, that like, that's when it hit me, that virtual events are here to stay. Right. Like that it's no longer going to be okay. When we open up, this is over, it's going to be like, it's going to be either or ant. Right. Right. So have you thought through, have you thought through when, when we opened back, I just got my second shot two days ago, right? Yeah. I'm super happy. Have you, have you thought through. How to combine the two nowadays, right? Like, like moving forward. You're also, you're also an events production, right? Like you've had that, you've had that, that background as well. Do you have any kind of ideas around that? Are you executing on anything around that yet? Like tell me some of your thoughts on that.

Corrina: 35:40

Yeah. You know, personally, nothing yet, as far as executing hybrid on my own, but I have seen, you know, for an example, you know, so many of us have become accustomed now I think to virtual lines in the steams. And it has been just a game changer for a lot of these smaller vineyards. I mean, they were hit really hard by the pandemic. And there has been thankfully, a lot of great creative vendors. Purple quirk is one that I love dearly that have partnered with these vineyards to do virtual tastings, get their product out there across the world. And they are, as you know, you got your second shot. I'm totally vaccinated as well. People are opening things up more and more. They are now having two streams of revenue because of this push. So they're back to their original model, but they also have this virtual model that has worked so well for them that they're not even stepping away from it or shying away from any more because they see, Hey, I grew my wine subscription actually by, you know, 10% because of this. You know, I'm able to get smaller quantities out the door and also still sell these larger quantities. It's just, it's, it's really opened up. I think the game for how people are actually viewing their. They're they're models. And I think it's, it's ultimately gonna lead to greater revenue for any kind of you know, events, production company looking to, to still do both, even with the country opening

Pablo: 36:55

back up. Yeah. Yeah. I'm like, I think anything that reduces friction is good for business, right? Like, so it doesn't have to be one or the other, as long as it's reducing friction in some way. And people that get this are really gonna, I think they're going to succeed instead of being beholden to like these old pillars of whatever, just kind of see it for what it is. It's just a reduction of friction, right?

Corrina: 37:18

Yeah. A hundred percent. Yes. Yeah.

Pablo: 37:20

Cool. You said that, you know, my, my, my favorite keyword, right? Like my whole journey is, is based on community creation, being the future of business development. And you said that Profisee has a community that you bring people into despite them being clients or not. Can you describe that to me?

Corrina: 37:36

Sure. Profisee academy is what we call it. And it's really, if there is one thing, this company does really well. It's content creation. I've never been so blessed to be at a company that just has anything you can think of up. Yep. We got content that speaks to that. And they've, they've operated their business like that, which really lends itself to be very community centric. So it's a community where of course you can submit support tickets, feature requests, but we also just have a different data leaders just chatting with each other all the time about you know, different data polls or reports that they're doing and how it's, you know, solving these business problems with problems for them. And then we also just have a ton of educational resources, everything from how you should be thinking about master data management as a concept all the way to, okay, here. Here's what this very specific feature means for Profisee. So it really covers the whole landscape of what is MDM and what is Profisee. And that's why we're very easily able to serve people who aren't. Clients yet. And then now that they have had that experience, it's very easy for them to then become a client and interact with those, those resources that of course are reserved just for customers.

Pablo: 38:44

That's so awesome. Um, is, is there a, that sounds like a web interface or somewhere that you can go and see all this content. Is there, am I right on that? Is that correct? Is there also a space in there that is an interaction point between the clients that are learning

Corrina: 39:01

themselves? Yes. A hundred percent. Yeah. There's chat functionality. We have, we have webinars every month that of course allows us to all come together. Face-to-face or virtually face-to-face as well. But yeah, it's, it's what we would call essentially, just a portal where you can log in, you have access to some things or everything. And yeah, it's just chock full of resources, but also to your point, it gives you the opportunity to just communicate in real time with different users. That's awesome.

Pablo: 39:26

Is there any, is there any direct revenue from that? Like, is that like a portal that has like a freemium piece? Anything

Corrina: 39:31

like that? Yes. There definitely is. There's also like a partner aspect of it as well. You know, should serve that channel too. So it's you know, that was not necessarily the idea in mind, but it has kind of led to that as well.

Pablo: 39:44

Yeah. Yeah. Like I just, I, I just see, so no downside to everything that you're describing, right? Like, like the, the idea of online interaction that generates content, that content generation is an educational platform. The educational platform is a community tool. A community tool is something that you can directly monetize. Like there's just no doubt, you know, like it goes to, I guess, I guess the guy that's describing this really well as Chris Walker, this idea of this old game to new game of, you know, we're, we're going from the space where. You know, 10 years ago, we were, we were used to the idea that if you want to find out about a company, you gotta, you gotta talk to a salesperson. And nowadays we're in this world where it's like, no, I want to know, 90 to 95% of the deal here and only get on when it's transaction time. And the more reduced friction, the better you're going to do. So is this, where did the strategy come from at Profisee was this like, did your CEO know from the beginning that content is the move is he a Gary V fan? Like what, like, how is the, how, how do you know, do you have any insight into how this strategy came out to be so good

Corrina: 40:46

not the origin? But I can say that our CEO is I'm a firm believer in marketing being one of the most strategic departments that an organization can have. And so he is very content centric and driven. And I mean, you know, to that point too, about something like that, think about how you're also using that as a way to educate your employees about your product. Like there's just to your point, there's no downside, there's just ROI all the way through and through not just from a searchability for your perspective clients, but not just for educating your clients either. I mean, you should be educating your people as well. I've definitely been at organizations where you had different members, whether they're in sales and marketing a lot were some weren't that really didn't know what the solution was doing for clients or how it worked and maybe they haven't even logged in and it's like, that's, that's gonna hurt you in the long run. You know, your people should really know your product inside and out. It's really that content doesn't just serve you know, that lead generation purpose. It's, it's really serving a lot more than just that it's.

Pablo: 41:46

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I find that. I find that when done well, right. So this company JWB, the ones that I tell you with a Tuesday morning meeting, like our, our content program that we've positioned as their show is now driving culture. Right? Like it's like what they talk about in the lunch room and, and, you know, like it's, it's such, it's so much upside. This was awesome. All right. You ready for the lightning round? All right. Okay. All right. What is your favorite restaurant? Where is it? And what do you order?

Corrina: 42:13

Okay, so little alleys. It is in downtown historic Roswell here in Georgia, and they just consistently deliver the best flaming on it ever had.

Pablo: 42:23

Hmm. Okay. Delicious. What, what kind of content are you most into right now? Like this can be Netflix and chill series. It could be book, it could be podcasts. Like, what is, what are you, what are you most interested?

Corrina: 42:34

Okay. This sounds crazy to admit, but as a marketer, I think a lot of other marketers would get this. I'm really obsessed with the Netflix show. The circle right now, I've heard a lot of other investigative journalists come out. Say that too. And I'm like, oh, okay. All right. It's not just some weird fad. There's some weird social science to this show. But I'm also very guilty. I love podcasts and particularly I love true crime. True. Uh, True crime podcasts.

Pablo: 42:58

Cool. Good data point for me. Cause I see the circle and I'm like, oh my God, is this going to be below my understanding to like show audience? Or is it good for marketers? I'm in now? I'm like you got it. Yes. Good. I didn't realize that the crew to cram project podcasting would be so big until I started going to podcasting conferences and it's like a whole sub genre of like the whole conference man. Like that's yes,

Corrina: 43:22

I would potentially, if I do a career change ever, that's going to be my career change.

Pablo: 43:29

Awesome. By the way, highly recommend podcasting conferences, amazing people, right? Like everybody has a voice. Everybody has a platform. I like, I started. I, and I think businesses should think of it this way, but like, I started going to podcasting conferences like two years ago. Cause I knew that if I build a network of podcasters, I can do my own press releases. Right. Like I can, I can go to my own radio row or inter or introduce anybody to attend podcasters. Right. Yeah. That makes sense. Yeah. Okay. Enough about me. What is a, what, what is something that you were sure about in your twenties that you no longer believe?

Corrina: 44:02

Good question. Almost everything. Um, but probably that you somehow have to mold yourself, I think, to fit in somewhere. And I think you just need to just consistently be you, even if that's not even perceived by the masses in POS in a positive light just be yourself. There's, there's nothing that you must do or have to do in order to be happy or successful.

Pablo: 44:27

Great insight. Great insight. Okay. Before I ask you my last question, I'm gonna I'll link to your LinkedIn, right? LinkedIn, somebody connects with you, but what is, this is your, this is your stage right now, promote whatever you want to promote. It that's your charity or to connect with you on LinkedIn or Profisee or whatever. What, you know, talk to talk to a friend that's been hanging out with you thinking you're awesome for the

Corrina: 44:44

last 45 minutes. Yeah. I would love to connect with anybody on LinkedIn. I mean, I am living and breathing there as if it's my social cooler hangout. So please feel free to reach out to me Karena Owens on LinkedIn. If you have any data challenges whatsoever. It doesn't matter how small or big you think they are. I'd also be loved to nerd out with you about that or connect you with somebody that's much smarter than me. I Profisee data challenges. If you have that, just let me know. And yeah, hearts with our, sorry partnership against domestic violence, super passionate about the charity here in Atlanta. If you're looking to get involved in any way or just like to learn a little bit more about it, or if you think it could be helpful to somebody you notice in that situation in need, also happy to connect about that privately on LinkedIn as well. Awesome.

Pablo: 45:22

Awesome. Quick question. What is I like to tell people when giving referrals is not like, don't tell me what you do, but tell me when you do it. When w when does somebody have a data channel? Like what, like, what is, what is, how do I identify a data challenge? Like what, what is happening around someone?

Corrina: 45:37

Very simple. If you can not address a question that gets asked of you within a matter of two minutes or less, you have a data challenge.

Pablo: 45:45

Okay. All right. I got a lot of data that we got to talk about that. All right. Cool. Last question. I ask everybody, where do you find community?

Corrina: 45:54

Yeah. So in a lot of different ways you know, for professionally marketing peak community, which is where we connected, I can not speak highly enough about it. It is where marketers sales leaders go to just talk, shop and share war stories with one another. And I have built so many authentic connections across the, across the globe that way. And then in my spare time, I'm actually in a aerial silks artists. So if you've ever been to circus LA and you see those two ribbon looking things you really, really, really there's nothing quite like a circus community. So I definitely build a lot of really authentic artistic connections that keep me. Keep me fueled. So yeah, that, those are the two places I go.

Pablo: 46:29

I love it. The circus community. I want it. All right, Karina, thank you so much for doing this. This was awesome. Like I really, you know, you're my first version of this kind of new direction that I'm taking it. You're the first person that I have from the peak community on my podcast. This has been a great experience. It's a, it's a little bit of a different feeling for me doing it, but you made it super easy and I really appreciate it. I hope we hope we get to be friends.

Corrina: 46:51

I'm honor. Pablo, thank you so much for having me. I've enjoyed every bit of this conversation. Thank you so

Pablo: 46:56

much.