Why B2B Marketing Teams Need To Think BRAVE

And so if you start to adopt this brave mindset, it will truly change the way that you work, the way you approach your work. And I think honestly, how fulfilled you feel about your work too. So it's one of those controls of things you can and try to be an inspiration and influence to those around you. But at the very least, like when you can see how much of an impact your day today and even the seemingly small things that you do have influence over, really can make a bigger impact over time. The B2B marketing exchange brings together B2B marketing and sales practitioners from across the country to get the latest tools and tips they need to succeed. Now, we're bringing the insights from the stage two years. I'm Claudia Tareko and I'm Kelli Wenda now and this is the B2B marketing exchange podcast. Hello everyone and welcome back to the B2B MX podcast. We have a very special finale episode for you today. Yes, it is our last episode of the season and we've got one of our rock star keynote speakers with us today. She'll be taking the stage at B2B MX in Scottsdale in literally just a few days. And that's wild to say, but I'm here with Lindsay Chepkama, founder of Human Brands Wind and a let me just say a female powerhouse with two decades of experience in global B2B marketing leadership and three time brand founder. Lindsay, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for taking the time out of your crazy busy schedule. Oh man, I'm so excited to be here and I'm so excited to be at B2B MX and like you said, just a few days. So yeah, let's do it. Yeah, and you're actually, you know, I'd say you're pretty much a veteran to B2B MX. You've attended in the past and I believe you spoke on a panel recently, right? Yeah, yeah, I think it was a panel and there was a talk. Yeah, I'm a big fan. We go way back. I love it. Yeah, so for those who may not know Lindsay, Lindsay, tell us a little bit about yourself and your journey in B2B marketing and how it all kind of led you to this spot in life right now and to start Human Brands Wind. Wonderful. Yeah, so I've been in B2B marketing forever. Like I haven't done anything else. Claudia, I've always been in B2B. So goodness, 20 plus years in B2B marketing. It's what I did right out of the gate from college after I was one of the weirdos who actually got a marketing degree and that's what I've done is I've been obsessed with B2B marketing ever since. I've always been on like the brand and content story experiential side of things, but I've worked at big companies and small companies and agencies. And like you said, I've started three businesses of my own, including casted where I was founder and CEO for a few years. I started that company because of issues that I faced as a B2B marketer trying to harness the power of things like this podcast. Yeah. And you guys, the casted was one of like the first ever to like really do it and do it right. Yeah. Yeah. To the, I was called crazy. Like you know that you're on something when people are like, air B2B podcasts, I'm really going to be a thing. And I was like, yes, they are. And look at us now. Yeah, look at us now. And so did that for a few years. Did the founder CEO thing for a while? And I actually decided to, to leave after five years and get back to my roots of brand content storytelling, which is what I'm doing now. I'm working with you. Guess it B2B brands to help their founders harness the power of a founder brand's personal brand and how that works together with your business brand all for the sake of growth on your own terms, success on your own terms. And, and to do that all in a way that's really rich and authentic to who you are and who you're serving. I love it. And of course, that is what your keynote at B2B MX will be all about. So tell me why having that right mindset to really transcend a brand. Tell me why you're so passionate about this. Okay. So think of literally any brand that has, I know, one of the themes of B2B MX this year is breakthroughs, breaking through building bridges. So when we think of a breakthrough, think of any brand literally anyone, they got to where they are by doing things differently, right? Yeah. No brand that has achieved legendary success, icon status, did it by adopting and applying other people's playbooks? Not exclusively, right? Like taking advice from others, taking processes from others, like using systems and frameworks, that's how we get to where we're going. But when we're under a lot of pressure and fear and scarcity, like we are right now and always we kind of go to this like, what are what's everybody else doing? What should I be doing? What are the playbooks, right? But the truth is all of those brands, whoever you were thinking of when you thought of like ultimate breakthrough success, they didn't get there by doing what everybody else did. They got there by thinking the way that the real legends think. And so that's what I'm here to share is this mindset that I call a thinking brave that will help people think differently about how they can achieve that breakthrough and allow themselves to think outside the box a little bit as they are adopting playbooks as they are adopting framework works because that's great. But also saying this is a tool to help me to get to where I'm going. It's a thing. It's not it's on the thing. I love it. So can you elaborate a little more on how mindset shapes a brand's long term success? And what is this breakthrough mindset, quote unquote, look like in actual practice? Sure. Okay. So as you are approaching any decision, whether you're doing your strategic brand planning or your content planning for the year ahead or you're literally working on something as seemingly small as the post Sun LinkedIn, right? Any end of the spectrum. I want you to think and we're going to talk about this in the session. I want you to think brave brand B brand are relationships A audacity V values E energy. Okay. And we're going to talk about how to do that and what that looks like in questions ask yourself. But before you write that LinkedIn post or launch that massive strategy, I want you to say, does this align with our brand? Like does it feel like it's on brand, right? There's different ways you can look at that and different things. Questions you can ask yourself. But ultimately is it? Does this feel like us are is it going to get us closer to or establish relationships or strengths and relationships with those that we really want to know us love us trust us long term? Or is it something that we're just trying to like get in front of many as people as many people as possible? Right? So that's our A is that audacious? Like are we really allowing ourselves to like hold space for creativity? Think outside the box. Be innovative. Be creative. Are we make every value in creativity or are we playing it safe? Right? V is this thing that I'm about to do? Is it an alignment with our brand values? Do you even know what your brand values are? Like do you really not what you want them to be not what they are for you? But like what is your brand? What's your business actually stand for? And then E, are you chasing the positive energy or does this thing feel like it's an uphill grind? And why? And if you can ask yourself, I mean, listen how quickly we went through those things. It's that fast and you can go, you could spend all day doing a deep dive on it or you can really quickly ask yourself those questions. And if it doesn't check every single one of those boxes, I'm telling you something's going to be off. You're either going to be like doing something really, really cool, but it's going to be off brand or you're going to be pursuing some big innovative idea, but it's not going to be for the right people or it's going to be a grind for everyone involved and it's not going to hit the mark. I have found for me building my own brands, building casted, building this company on my own, building my personal brand, those five things. If you're missing anyone, it's not going to work. It's just not going to work. And if you do have all those boxes checked, it's so much more likely to help you get that much closer to your breakthrough. So it's, again, it's not about what you're doing. It's about how you're thinking about it. Like, is it going to reach the right people? Is it going to uphold our values? Is it going to breathe energy in life into what we're doing? Or is it going to be just like everybody else? Wow. That's awesome. And you know what? It got me thinking, but obviously we may be speaking about like one specific person on the marketing team, but obviously a lot more people have to kind of all be on board with all five of those elements, right? The brand relationships, audacity values alignment is obviously an issue within a lot of organizations. It's constantly a topic of interest. So how do you see that kind of working out within like a large group of people that have their own identities? I've been there. I have been there. Okay. So in an ideal world, yeah, this would start at the top. This is why I work most often with founders and executive teams because if it starts at the top and your CEO is completely bought in and this is, you know, hey, did you think brave about this? Hey, does it meet all? Does it, you know, like just check all five boxes like in an ideal situation, you would think top down and it would be a way that the entire company thinks and communicates, right? Ideally. But as we know, ideal situations don't always don't always fit in real life. And so even if all you can control is yourself, like even if you are a marketing manager in a very large team and all you have is this one little area of work that you are working on, you can still ask yourself before you publish that blog post before you record that podcast before you propose that idea, you can ask yourself those questions because every single individual is making decisions every single day and you have more control over things than you think you have control over the way that you approach your work, which is actually going to determine not only your work at that brand, but also your career, you know, and the evolution of your career. You're going to continue to just try to ship things as fast as quickly and as efficiently as possible, or are you going to try to pursue breakthroughs for the companies that you work with and ultimately for yourself as well. And I think, honestly, how fulfilled you feel about your work, too. So it's one of those controls, the things you can try to be an inspiration and influence to those around you. But at the very least, like when you can see how much of an impact your day today and even the seemingly small things that you do have influence over, really can make a big impact over time. I love it. And it also, it's very fitting in our personal lives as well. I believe everything that you just said is you could kind of look at it in this, you know, in the same aspect and you're just personal life as well as your professional life. I love it. And so you've obviously studied a lot of iconic brands, maybe even worked with them in the past. And I wonder, what are some specific traits that these brands kind of share that really will set them apart from others like you mentioned earlier? Yeah, well, I think actually kind of building off of what we were just talking about, they know that it's not any one thing that is going to get them to where they want to go, right? It's not one campaign. It's not one person. It's not one decision. It's not one product, right? It is every decision. It's a mindset. It is a mindset shared across the organization throughout, you know, the culture of a company. And sure, they make they probably don't call it brave thinking like I do, but it is this thought process that every decision we make, every person in this company or large periods of time is actually actively contributing to the pursuit of our breakthrough, right? Everything that is published, everything that is shipped, every update that is made gets us closer to or farther from where we ultimately want to go. Every single person matters. And if you have one person that is just kind of looking to do the fast, free, cheap, easy way, it's going to actually detract from the rest of the work that those that are pursuing that bold breakthrough, it's going to take away from it. So I have found that businesses that share that what I call brave thinking that where they think they hold space for creativity, they're bold, they know who they are serving and they know why they exist and they make decisions over and over again, accordingly. Those are the ones that ultimately are most likely to make it. Awesome. I want to touch on just like one or two elements of the framework today. I don't want to kind of reveal too much prior to your keynote, but obviously relationships are one of the key pillars of the framework. So how do you see strong relationships contributing to a brand's growth and what strategies can a company use to kind of build more authentic and meaningful relationships with their customers? Yeah, oh my goodness. You know, like you get it, relationships are everything, they're literally everything. And that, yes, that means your network, but it's also, I mean, people have heard me say many, many times, who is it for and why are you doing it? That's where everything begins. Who is it for? Who are you serving? What is this product for? Who are you serving? Who are you trying to reach? Everything begins there. Everything. And you build relationships accordingly. You don't seek to convert people. You don't seek to sell. You seek to build relationships with the right people. And what does that mean? That means building awareness, building affinity, establishing trust, maintaining and upholding trust, staying true to your values and like knowing, again, with every single decision that you make, that hopefully those that you want to build those relationships with are watching. And we'll be continuing to watch over time and that they will see it and they'll say, yes, that's for me. I feel seen, I feel heard, I feel valued. And now I'm going to reciprocate that empathy with my trust and my loyalty. And so everything now and always with business begins with relationships. Do you know who it's for? Do you know why you're doing it? And therefore, act accordingly. Awesome. So how can a brand stay true to these values while also pursuing growth? And is it even possible for a brand to grow rapidly without compromising on the values that made it successful in the first place? Oh, absolutely. Okay, so the first step is just to go saying knowing who you serve right there, you know, next to that is knowing why are you doing it? And a big part of your why is your values, right? And why you exist in the first place. So once you have that clarity, then you're not thinking so tactically about, I mean, everybody's talking about AI. We've been talking about AI for a while now. It's not going anywhere. As we talk about in our businesses, how are we adopting AI? Where does AI fit in with our marketing strategy and with our brand? Those questions become a lot easier to talk through when you and your team have a shared understanding of what your business stands for and who you're serving, right? So you can make decisions about what are we going to do? What are we going to build? What kind of technology are we going to adopt? What does creativity look like here? What does audacity look like here? What kind of mergers and acquisitions and product launches are we going to do? All of those decisions absolutely should go back to and become a lot easier when you know who it's for and why you're doing it. When you're missing the why, and I think that people so often skip over the values because they've just so quickly become something that you put up on the wall in an office and we don't even work in offices anymore. And so we skip over it. But when you know like this is why our business exists, this is what we're actually here to do. Then what you adopt, what you don't adopt, how you approach things becomes a whole lot easier because it's like it's like a compass that guides you. So yeah, the companies that understand and have teams that understand their values growth actually becomes a lot easier to pursue because everybody's pointed in the same direction. That's great. I want to touch on one more piece of the framework energy. How would you define energy in the context of a brand and why is it so essential to its success? Okay, so I'm sure you've been here before. Have you ever worked on a project that just drained you? I mean, that's a dumb question, right? Like how many of every day of my life? Right? Yeah. I mean, there's some like I don't like doing my expenses. Okay, but that's not like a strategic part of my brand. When you're in a position where you're making decisions, right? This is all about every single decision you make big, small, everything in between. When you're making a decision about your brand that you just know, this is the gut check where it's like, okay, I have to do this thing. We have to start this podcast, right? Like let's use that as an example. You know that I love podcasts, obviously, but when there's a mandate that's like we need to do a podcast or we need to be on this platform, when we skip over that energy gut check of like, yeah, but why are we doing it because it's the shiny thing? Are we doing it because our competitors are doing it? Are we not doing it because our competitors are doing it? That's the energy gut check. Are we going against like are we like neglecting this gut check around asking ourselves like, is this driving positive energy like for me for my team, for everybody involved, for our audience? Like, does this feel right? Like, are we chasing the positive energy here? Because you can't just start a podcast without knowing if your audience is actually going to listen to it, right? Like your audience doesn't like podcasts. They prefer video, you know what I mean? Yeah, and I mean exactly. And how often you said you can't do it, but how many times have people do it? Why are you doing it? Well, because my boss told me to, well, do you even want to know? Like, I hate it. It's totally draining my energy. And does that mean that every single time you do you ask to do something that drains your energy? You just say, no, no, but it means you ask questions because if you don't understand the why and buy into the why, or if you're leading a team and your team doesn't understand the why or buy into the why. If there's not this shared like good juju around what it is that you're doing, it's going to be a slog and it's going to at minimum, even if it's successful, it's not going to the reach the ultimate potential that it could. If you had just paused and said, are we aligned here? Is there positive energy here? If not, let's fix that before we move forward. It's so important. And that's where we get, I mean, I've run a company, I've run teams, I've been on teams and we so often skip over this part because it's like, well, you don't have to like it, you just have to do it. Well, right. We should at least pause and make sure that everybody's bought in so that we can make sure that we're reaching our fullest potential. Awesome. So what is the most exciting trend that you're currently seeing in the world of B2B branding today? And how do you think the mindset behind successful brands will evolve in the coming years? I love all of the talk about storytelling. I mean, we've seen it, it's been a, it's been building, but I think that I've seen AI came onto the scene a couple of years ago. It's obviously it's been around for a very long time, but I explode it a couple of years ago. And then we saw this over saturation of just like, oh, let the AI be creative for you. And that just crushed me and so many others. And now I think that we're starting to see the pendulum swing the other way, which is like, wait, what if instead of having AI be creative for us? we can have creative help us be we can have AI help us be more creative and I'm really excited about that where it's unlocking like I work with with founders and some marketing leaders that have had this real or perceived just wall in front of them about like well I can't I'm not a writer I don't like public speaking because I never know what to talk about I don't like posting to LinkedIn because I don't know what to say and using AI not to write for them not to create for them but to help them get outside of just get out of their head about that like staring at a blank page or staring at like that blinking cursor in you know any social media platform yeah exactly and so I think that it's it's helping more people be be brave and audacious about about creating and I'm really excited about that I hope we see see more people kind of get out of their own way and be more creative awesome and obviously like we said you founded three brands help scale three companies what is one lesson that you wish you had learned earlier in your career about brand building or just as being a businesswoman in B2B marketing in general well yeah and as I mentioned yeah I've been having been in B2B for a very very very long time and especially on the creative side of things brand content story we all buy into and in some degree fuel this this myth that it was inaccurate thought that brand and content and story are somehow the arts and crafts of marketing and that they are extra or that they are nice to have and that the real meat the real muscle is in demand and anything that can be measured in pipeline attribution or or revenue and the fact of the matter is they go hand in hand and it's fun because they rhyme brand and demand go hand in hand and I've known that for a while now I've seen that for a while now but especially like you asked going way way back in my career I wish that I had stood up for that more because the talking about brands that break through and the ones that become legends the ones and I think we all I think we all actually know that Claudia I think we actually know that the ones that break through are the ones that get it that say nope it's not just brand brand on its own is not enough but it's also not just about these demand you know go to market strategy it's both you have to be so strong in who it's for why it's doing it and how you tell your story the stories that only you can tell and then you have to have the entire infrastructure about how you turn that into a money making model of the business you have to have both and so if you are on the demand side of things awesome the world needs you but if you're also on the this creative story brand side of things that matters every bit as much and I hope that we see more businesses giving like equal opportunity equal resourcing equal leadership opportunities to both because they matter so much love it this is such a even just the way you're speaking is very therapeutic I feel like this is a very thing I love it I love it I can fire that you know that's great if you had to choose one emerging brand or any brand today that could actually you know let's say one emerging brand today that could potentially become the next like iconic brand and it doesn't even have to be a B2B brand it could literally be any kind of brand which one would it be and why oh man that's one just one oh goodness let's see I love it's so funny one of these days she's gonna realize that I keep calling her out Kristina Brady is so amazing at Luster she CEO of Luster and what she did you know she's speaking at B2B MX I did okay okay and she's so great I'm so excited here I'm such a fan right yeah I just met her literally just like literally over the phone on zoom when I first that wanted to bring her on and yeah oh my gosh she's she's so great and here's why I say her so Luster's very cool Luster as a product is very very cool it's what she's doing matters the way that she's approaching it matters they understand their why their team is very great Kristina in particular and I talked to her on my podcast too about like her story I've got this show called actually I can and it's founders talking about times that they were told they couldn't do something and they do it anyway and she's got this great back story where she brings improv comedy like training and in experience into her role as a CEO and like it's just again your story matters how you show up matters and how you authentically show up as a human when you are leading a business that's where there is magic and I think because of the way that she's approaching her role as CEO and co-founder of this company she's thinking brave and she doesn't even know it I love it I'm so excited for her session and just to have her be a part of our B to B M X community now that's awesome all right I think you might have alluded to it a little bit earlier but you've built multiple successful brands so how do you approach your own personal brand and how much of your own personal values and mindset play into the brands that you've created well this whole thinking brave thing came together when I started when I left casted and I knew more than anything else that I wanted to take all the the highs and lows the lessons learned as a CEO and founder of SaaS startup and I wanted to turn around and help other founders and other like brand leaders and as I did that I was like okay but what does that look like like how do I actually take all these lessons learned and turn around and say here's how I can help you in a way that makes sense to other people and I started to think about I was like well I've built a lot of brands everything from years and years ago as a marketing manager and as marketing director and his VP of marketing like what was different what did I do differently and I started to think about it was always who was it for and why are we doing it and then I always made sure like being on brand with things was really important to me and not just going and abiding by trends and so I started to break it down and you know values are really important until I got to some bullet points and then because marketing and I like across six I was like well I think brave I think I can use the word brave here because being brave is what it's all about and then that comes the other is the across that it is brand relationships audacity values energy and honestly that's how I've done it since before I knew that what I was doing and why my approach was different as a marketer and then as a founder and CEO this is what I did differently it was very much about building a brand from day one using my own personal brand what we know now is like personal brands and founder brands and using those two together to build a brand and build a business that's how I've done it and how I'm turning around and teaching others to do it as well and I'm using it every day like I'm I'm building my own little start up all over again and I'm doing the exact same things that I've done for 20 years and that I'm helping my clients today do also so I'm right there with my clients I love it you practice what you preach and that's awesome all right so you've attended B2B MX many times in the past so what keeps you wanting to come back what keeps you coming back and what are you looking forward to at this specific event coming up this year well you and I style because I like seeing what you're wearing um god it's always the pressure is on I love it and I I'm trying because when I come see you I have to dress for the occasion so yeah oh you know you kind of got to like change the vibe you know what I mean like we're in a professional setting and I get it and we know we obviously want to dress professionally but why not have a little fun why not stand out you know yeah see so many you know just very suited up and simple situation so you got to have a little fun with it B2B doesn't have to be boring that B2B does not mean boring that's right if I'm gonna see you and I'm gonna see people in real life and I'm gonna lead a talk that is about being brave I feel like I need to show up with like an outfit so oh I can't wait to see it and then yeah I think just I feel like it's such a cop out of answer but it's the truth is the people the people and the learnings you know having been in B2B for decades more than two decades I know a lot of people I'm being able to see people in real life and and learn from them it's what keeps us sharp it's what keeps us open to new and different ideas and you know we talked a lot about relationships in this conversation it's it's a way to keep relationships strong yeah totally and the only so much networking you could do on LinkedIn and virtually right we're all craving that in-person connection so I'm really excited for that as well all right final question for you Lindsay any final thoughts and you know go for it give me not that this episode wasn't an amazing elevator pitch for for your session but give us a little elevator pitch for your session and any final thoughts before we head out okay no matter what your role is whether you are I've been there whether you're CEO whether you are an intern everything in between whether you're in sales whether you're in product regardless of your role you are making decisions every single day every day each one you have a choice you can do the thing that is cheap fast easy you can do the things that you're under pressure to do that feel safe or you can take a hot minute and you can run through this brave framework that you just learned and that you're gonna learn more in my session I even have a little note card you can use that will help you I guarantee be more fulfilled and will help you get closer and closer with each and every decision to that ultimate breakthrough that you're looking for that's wonderful well I'll make that the mic drop moment of the day Lindsay thank you so much for joining me today I'm so excited to see you and Scott still in just a few days. And of course, everyone, thank you all for tuning in today and all season long. This is our final episode of the season. And we'll obviously be in touch about next season's kickoff. We've got a lot of fun things in store. Sure, I'm going to be reporting plenty of great interviews at the Phoenician and Scottsdale during B2BMX as well. So please stay in touch on LinkedIn and be sure to subscribe so you don't miss any of those new episodes coming up. And of course, everyone, it is not too late to register for B2BMX and join us in sunny Scottsdale. So take advantage of our discount code in the show notes so you could save a little bit of money on your ticket and come hang out with Lindsey and I in Scottsdale. All right, that is a wrap. Lindsey, thanks again and thank you again, everyone. Please take care and see you soon.