Turning Events Into a Revenue Channel, plus Employee Advocacy, and Personal Brand (with Colin Kendall, CMO at SC&H)

Hey, it's Dave. So zoom webinars and events has made our recent exit five live sessions way more pro lately. But don't just take my word for it. Check this out. This is what Kelly B said. She said, I compare all other webinars now against exit five. I love that. And look, in a world of AI slop, we just want to make something that's actually worth going to. It's not easy to get an hour out of your day. I'm just the on air talent, though. So I'm going to kick it over to Marissa and Maria. This is our exit five live production team, our content team here at exit five, since they're the ones actually making this all happen, Marissa. I've been doing B2B content a long time. I know it's hard to hold attention for more than 30 seconds. Let alone a whole webinar, but zoom webinars helps recently. We've had nearly 2000 registrants over 500 live and hundreds of hours of watch time on our sessions. Maria, what would you say is driving that? It all starts with prep. We do up to seven hours per session, choosing a topic, prep calls, building the run of show, and so much more. We zoom webinars and events, everything's in one place. Integration, emails, polls and analytics. So it's simple to run that cycle every two weeks. At showtime, I handed back to Marissa in Zoom's production studio. With Zoom's production studio, I can set the scenes in advance. So on the big day, I just send them live with speakers and content already in place. Lean transitions, crystal clear audio and video. I feel like I'm running a big game back there. So this is why our webinars have been crushing it lately. Look, they just said we're spending seven hours per session on this and don't just take our word for it. The first hand, we run these every other Friday. It's called exit five live, now powered by Zoom webinars and events. So come and check us out. See this whole thing live. And if you want to learn more about using Zoom at your company, check out zoom.com/exit5. That's zoom.com/exit5. Hey, it's me, Dave. Today's episode is brought to you by Convertive, a B2B marketing agency that helps enterprise teams build an AI-powered go-to-market strategy. View 4 is the time of year when having a great agency partner matters more than ever. If you're shopping for a new agency, Convertive is worth looking into. They work with marketing and operations leaders to help grow revenue across the business and AEO. One of the things I know you're thinking about right now is one of their specialties. Trusted by companies like DocuSign, DataBank, and Constructor, Convertive builds on the search and marketing work you're already doing and helps optimize your site. So more of your buyers find you and turn it into pipeline. Right now, they're offering exit five listeners a free AI search review. They'll run the questions your buyers are actually asking through your Google and AI tools. Show you how you stack up against competitors and tell you what's worth fixing. If you're looking for a refresh of your AEO strategy in 2027, this AI search review with Convertive is a great place to start. Check it out. It's convertiv.com/exit5. That's convertiv.com/exit5. And you can also see the link in the show notes. Hey, the conversation you're about to listen to is one that was recorded live in Vermont for exit five's drive event. I sat down with Colin Kendall. He's the CMO of SCNH. They are a consulting and financial services company that is entirely employee owned. And if you are a frequent listener of the show, you'll know that a lot of the guests that we have on the market and database SaaS. So I was extra excited to record with Colin to figure out what actually happens when you're not slaying SaaS and you're selling expertise instead. We talk about what has worked for Colin's team in 2026, how they get their SMEs on stage at events, and bets that him and his team are making for 2027. I hope you enjoy the conversation. Enjoy. We're rolling. What's up? I'm with Colin Kendall. First, I love a person with two first names. Oh, yes. Kendall, there was a friend of mine who had a sister named Kendall growing up and everyone always showed that we would get married and her name would be Kendall Kendall. But it didn't happen. It didn't happen. No, no, I met someone different, but it would have been pretty funny. They also now have two first names. Okay. Introduce yourself. Colin Kendall. Colin Kendall, chief marketing officer, SCNH, consulting and financial services firm, professional services. It's like a more boutique deloitte. Just put down deloitte a little bit, like we're a deloitte, but cute and small. Yeah. We're hands on, like we care about what we're doing, no shade of deloitte. This is not going to go over very well for them. No, deloitte's great. They do really good work, but it's kind of a cool model just because we do compete with them in some services, but we're also, we rely on a lot of their recruitment, their development, like their training because a lot of people will come from Deloitte, PWC, they'll come from a big four firm, which they do great work. Obviously, their growth is incredible, but it's a grind. SCNH is a firm where we can offer a little bit more of a work-life balance. It's still a very much work-hard environment, but it's a very good culture. It feels a little bit like a family-owned business, but it's actually an employee-owned business. That's cool. We're an eSOP, so that's incredibly rare in the, we're still kind of identifying the accounting space. So I think in the top 100 accounting firms, we're in that, I think there's one or two of their eSops. Cool. A lot of them now. That's a draw, I feel like that's a draw. Actually, in today's day and age where private equity is taking over that space. It's definitely a unique piece, but it also has its uphill battles and challenges that we have to deal with, but it helps make a really good culture and give everyone a little bit more purpose. We met last year at Drive. Was that your second drive or your first drive? First drive. Okay, so this is your second drive. What brought you back to drive this year? I tell people all the time, Drive was easily the best B2B marketing conference I've ever attended. I've been to a lot, I was at an agency for seven years before S&H. I've been an S&H for nine and a half. So I've seen a lot and I think the drive did a really good job at marrying really good speakers who have notoriety and have a little bit of cache and fame to them. But then you come to drive and they're so approachable, their takeaways are very actionable. It's not, it wasn't pie in the sky stuff. You could really get back to the team and the other part of it was I bring it back to the team and a team that also follows exit five. So it was a lot, like they were excited to hear what happened and then just met awesome people, including yourself and now here we are one year later, right? You're hosting a pod. I'm joining you on it. So it's crazy what happens when you just meet really good people that like to do really good marketing and it was just sort of like an infectious environment. And so also we're in stone. It's beautiful. Yeah, not a bad first time podcasting outside, I would imagine. Definitely. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. My outdoor, yeah, you can't see, but Collins actually on a leash right now. Yes. Yes. There's a little bowl of milk next to Tasha. Okay. What is the CMO like yourself when you reflect back on 2026, everything you've done in your team's done so far this year. What is, would you say is the team's biggest win here? Biggest win. Our growth as a team is a very easy one and one that at an organization like professional services like a marketing team, it's tough. You can be seen as a cost center. You can be seen as overhead, but we've done a phenomenal job at building a team that really cares about marketing, really passionate and spent so much time with customers with clients and with our subject matter experts getting in the minds of clients. And the biggest win for this year is translating that into revenue from events. We've really leaned in over the past few years, particularly since COVID. Once events started coming back, we've really been doubling down on that and it's been something that each year we've been able to attribute a lot of revenue to those events. It's an investment in time, it's an investment in resources, but what's been really effective for us is we've been able to take, go beyond just the sponsorship. How do you make sure that you get your people an opportunity to speak at these events? And a lot of our events, a lot of the ones that we attend are more of the decision-makers and finance technology and they start to stack these events and they start to really, just like the way you guys do it, you start to have people that are speaking at multiple different events in front of similar crowds, different people, but you start to accumulate a lot of credibility and a lot of thought leadership. And so what we've found is that has helped really create more of a magnet at the booth, more of a magnet in our events. And I think that we are very scrappy in how we approach that. And so where it used to be, you sponsor an event, you have an exhibit booth, people stop by, you just hope that the right person, you start to have speaking events, you start to have events with clients and prospects. And next thing you know, you have four to five touch points with folks that never knew you before that are now seeing you at an event in February, seeing you at an event in March. And what's been great is the team has done a really great job at being able to take that speaking event, that content we're creating for it and then repurpose it and distribute it after the fact. So it gives you a little bit more purpose, a little bit more meaning and it's not just a one-off event. It can really start to layer on it and create an experience where for a firm like SCNH where we're not a household name, we really have to fight tooth and nail to establish a brand and to become memorable. And so when you start to see that really big companies are starting to include us in RFP's, they're starting to reach out to us directly, they're starting to connect with our thought leaders on LinkedIn, that's big for us. Whether we win that first opportunity or not, it's something where the SCNH brand continues to grow. And for my team to be able to see the revenue dollars that come in because of that, it's huge for confidence, it's huge for, you know, inspiring what do we do next to really kind of build on that campaign or build on that experience that event. Brand has been such a big topic of conversation at this conference specifically, I feel like that's like the biggest thing that I've noticed from last year to this year is how many more marketers are talking about brand and I think part of that comes from the explosion [BLANK_AUDIO] AI and AI slot. For someone watching or listening who's like, you know, I want to get my CEO or my thought leader on a stage at an event and maybe we're not like a household name. Yeah. What tactical advice do you have? How do you get someone from your company to be seen as a credible thought leader in a potential speaker for an event? Hey, it's Dave. Today's episode is brought to you by Optimizely. If you want to know what AI agents can actually do for a marketing team, Optimizely is where I'd point you to right now for a real example. Last month, we ran an X to 5 live session where a bunch of our members showed off their best AI agent use cases and McKeele, director of AI innovation that Optimizely actually won the whole session. He showed us how he used Optimizely's AI agent platform to run an ABM campaign that gave 2000 accounts their own landing pages built from signals like job postings, press releases, and leadership changes. That's like the holy grail of ABM, by the way. Optimizely's agent platform is built specifically for you, the B2B marketer. You can build your own agents like McKeele did or pull from a directory of 50 plus pre-built ones made just for marketing use cases all in one place. They also just launch virtual teammates. These are digital members of the team that learn over time and can join meetings, complete tasks, support campaigns, and keep your website optimized. If you're being asked to look into AI agents right now, Optimizely should be at the top of your list. Go and see how they can help you reclaim your time and build cool stuff just like McKeele did. Check them out at optimizely.com/exit5. That's optimizely.com/exit5. Hey, Steve. Today's episode is brought to you by compound growth marketing. They're a full funnel, demand-gen agency that I've personally hired twice. Yep. Before I was just a thought leader, I was a real marketer, and CGM was one of the best agencies that I worked with. They help high growth software companies show up earlier in the buying journey where potential customers are forming opinions about which product to use. They've helped an enterprise cybersecurity company grow pipeline 168% year over year with full funnel media, and an HR tech company grow 48% through paid search, and they can do the same for you. They offer a combination of full funnel paid advertising strategy and execution, AEO, and a dedicated go-to-market engineering team. Everything CGM does gets tracked, measured, and improved over time. That means more pipeline for you and this works because they were started by an actual former VP of marketing who really gets this space that you work in in B2B. Visit compoundgrowthmarketing.com/exit5 to see how they can help you meet your 2027 revenue goals. That's compoundgrowthmarketing.com/exit5. I think the biggest thing that has worked for us is really working with those thought leaders to help them embrace the power of social media, the power of LinkedIn. You need to be where your audience is, but we've really found a lot of success and resonance and impact on LinkedIn. It's not a walk in the park. Clay had a really good article that came out in the past couple of days that talked about how much they're investing in personal branding. Executives, folks that are out in front of clients, they don't always have time. Even if they're really good at it and have a really good way with words, they don't always have time to invest in that. But once they start to see their colleagues have success, when they start to see others really get out there, oh boy, hold the tent. It's happening. Hopefully you can still hear. The audio is the, as long as you're here and we don't blow away, the show will go on. All right, well, you know, like Twister 3 here on the patio. I think it's really powerful when you start to see your colleagues have success and everyone likes to feel like what they're doing and what they're saying is making an impact. Seth Goten said it yesterday, like people like us do things like this. And when you see others, it becomes really infectious. But it's not easy. Kudos to my team. They spend a lot of time with people, we call our service lines, our practices. They spend a lot of time with the leaders of those practices, understanding who within their practice has a really good point of view, has a really good perspective and we'll put themself out there. And sometimes that's the leader of the practice. And sometimes it's a first or second year employee. And so that kind of goes into the AI slot. And it goes into the fact that you really do need to have a point of view. You need to have a perspective and a take. And it's not always going to be unique, but it needs to be uniquely yours. I mean, it needs to have your voice. And I think what has been really cool this year for our organization is I've seen the pendulum swing on AI. At first, it was like, oh my god, it's the greatest things in sliced bread. I'm not a writer. I don't need to be a writer because I can just put into Claude and I sound brilliant. But then you start to see everyone else putting the exact same things out there. Every single post starts with an honestly. Every single one. And unfortunately, folks that use really good grammar are being crucified because Claude and all the AI's use really good grammar. I'm literally wearing a bracelet that says M dash forever. There you go. See, you're in M dash OG. And unfortunately, those of us who know that you use those appropriately, we're getting dragged a little bit, but yeah, it's been cool to see folks figure out how to use it, but not have it become you and use it as an advantage. And so our organization and my team has been really grateful for this is we leaned in and we embraced using AI to help us, but we were not believers that it was going to just be the end all be all. And I think that those of us that really stood strong and embraced that mentality have benefited from that. So it'll be interesting to see what happens next, but events getting people out there in order to get those speaking experiences and those engagements, you need to have something out there. And your LinkedIn profile is just one of the most approachable, easiest ways to get started. I feel like it's the modern day blog, right? Like everyone had a personal blog. People have sub-stacks and anything like that. But you need something that you own and that when folks are seeking out expertise like yours, you're one of the first people to come to mind. And then you build partnerships, you build connections, you network, and next thing you know, you're the one that is being referred into these opportunities because of what you've been comfortable putting out there. It's a slow drip too. Like it's not overnight. I found our company, our CEO's name is Ben, and we have this Hashtag Scale Benj initiative, which is like scaling his likeness because he's known in the space that we sell into. So he's credible, but he doesn't always have time to post, but he has opinions and he shares them all the time, but he might not think to share them specifically on LinkedIn. But I'll share them on Slack. Like last week, he shared something in our Hashtag random Slack channel. I pointed my Claude agent towards it and I said, "Hey, can you just turn this exact thought in his words into a LinkedIn post?" And it was live the next day. The folks at your company, they have opinions. They just are not always thinking, like they're not marketers. They're not thinking, "Oh, this opinion, like let me post that on LinkedIn." But that's our job is to say, like, "Oh, this thought, like let me just package it up and get it out there." Okay, before we run to our next session, what are you betting on in 2027? Perfect transition. I am betting on employee advocacy and personal branding for our leaders. We absolutely took a step on the right direction. And by the way, this is not like I'm putting myself out there on some crazy bet, but in our world, it is still something that is a little bit less familiar and comfortable. Obviously, in the marketing world, I think we all understand and we all are comfortable putting ourselves out there. We're thinking like marketers, but we are still seeing a lot of people embracing it, adopting it, and what we're going to do next year is make bigger bets, not just in the time that we're spending and the budget that we're spending, but how we're helping them put themselves out there. But one of the things that we really believe very strongly is that we need it to be theirs. How can we help you gain confidence, inspire you, come up with ideas, but you have to be the one that's crafting this. Because when folks meet you in person, you want to make sure that the online persona matches the in real life persona. Totally. And figuring out how you make it easier for thought leaders that are strapped for time is something that is just not a perfect science, but the more that we can invest in time, in training and in dollars. That's a bet that we're going to make next year because that's going to lead to more speaking events. It's going to lead to more prospects and clients knowing who we are. And also it's going to help with clients understanding, like, and being proud of the people that they're working with and understanding their perspective and that it transcends just their engagement. And I think that that's something that we're going to double down on and triple down on next year. And I think we could take a lot of playbooks from the exit five team too, right? Like what you guys are doing right now. I know you're not on the exit five team, but like you are absolutely an extension in the face of that in some ways now. But the challenge that they're going through to really like become more comfortable putting themselves out there and being the thought leaders they are. That's what I want to see SCNH do. Yes. If you're listening and you don't know what Colin's talking about, the exit five team currently has this competition called the Cloud Competition or Cloud Cup. Everyone's encouraged to post. And then there's going to be a winner. And that winner is determined based on who grows their following by the highest percentage. So it's fun. And everyone is thinking making things a competition. I feel like as marketers, we're like kind of like all competitive. Yeah. So if you can tap into that. If you can gamify it, it just makes it more fun. Anything. Yes. Everyone, it just, it kind of gets the juices flowing a little bit. Right. You know, and I think that it is some friendly competition at the end of the day. Like we all win. Right. Everyone will win in that. Yes. No matter who kicks home the Cloud Cup. Everyone's following is growing. Yeah. And they're helping to kind of grow the overall brand. And that's the name of the game. Love it. Cool. Well, thanks for coming on the show. I wish we had more. I feel like I could talk to you forever. I was telling you offline. Yeah. I love seeing you at events. Ironically, we talked the least about marketing at events because you just have like such a great personality. And I can talk to you forever. Right back at you. This was fun. Thanks for inviting me on. I'm dash forever. I'm dash forever. All right. Thanks. And that's a wrap. Hey, thanks for listening to this. podcasts. If you like this episode, you know what? I'm not even going to ask you to subscribe and leave a review because I don't really care about that. I have something better for you. So, we've built the number one private community for B2B marketers at exit 5 and you can go and check that out. Instead of leaving a rating or review, go check it out right now on our website exit5.com. Our mission at exit 5 is to help you grow your career in B2B marketing and there's no better place to do that than with us at exit 5. There's nearly 5,000 members now in our community. People are in there posting every day asking questions about things like marketing, planning, ideas, inspiration, asking questions and getting feedback from your peers, building your own network of marketers who are doing the same thing you are so you can have a peer group or maybe just venting about your boss when you need to get in there and get something off your chest. It's 100% free to join for seven days so you can go and check it out risk-free and then there's a small annual fee to pay if you want to become a member for the year. Go check it out learn more exit5.com and I will see you over there in the community. Hey, it's me Dave. Today's episode is brought to you by Customer I/O. 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