marketing Archives

Mastering Virtual Meetings with Melanie Fox, Founder, Speech Fox

Mollie Ring / December 15, 2021

Link to podcast found HERE Transcript to podcast found below: Bill : Hi and good morning Bill Kenny here from meet and this is the belly2belly podcast today we have a fantastic guest, Melanie Fox from Speech Fox, and Melanie, welcome today. Melanie : Thank you so much. Good morning. Bill : Good morning. And so you know one of the really interesting things about kind of where we are right now we’re you know, a year into roughly a year into this COVID crisis and you’re just so used to meeting online now but it it clearly, some are really good at it. Some are less good at it. And you’ve been working with folks about sort of optimizing their use of the Zoom platform, both from a technical standpoint, but also from a functional standpoint and what you know, what do they do and how do they do it? And, you know, I think this is a really interesting area to dive into, because we now have I mean, you see, you know, certainly there’s a lot less or almost no in-person meeting going on. Everything is virtualized, whether it’s trade shows, or people are doing more webinars and podcasts and all that, to try to find ways to interact. There are more virtual meetups, all different types of ways to use these virtual platforms. And but yet, you know, I think there’s still maybe it’s a variety of etiquette issues or, or, or technique issues that are opportunities for all of us that are using these platforms. So today, I’m hoping that we can talk through not just where the challenges are but maybe where some of the best practices are. Before we get into that, though, let’s take a minute and learn more about you. And do you want to just give us a few minutes on your background and your work and what you do at speech, Fox? Melanie : Sure. So, again, I’m Melanie Fox. I founded Speech Fox, about 20 years ago, it a little bit informally at first and then more formally and my specialty is coaching speech. So I’m a speech coach, but I specialize in a few things, accent production for folks from all over the world, including folks with regional accents in the United States that they feel like might get in the way and then folks who are second language learners or maybe, maybe it’s their third or fourth language, so folks who speak English as a new language that they learned right away as a teenager or older and so English is not a native tongue for them. So folks that need work on their accents are one of the primary sectors of my client base. And another function of what I do with my clients is work on presentation skills, which now is heavily virtual. I help folks with their presentation skills both on site and online. But of course, due to COVID. My work currently is exclusively online for everyone’s safety and it’s a lot of fun to coach people to use this not so new medium anymore, to really do their best work and be really engaging. So that’s part of what I do some other facets of what I do. I am a dialect coach, so I help actors change their accent. Maybe they want to speak Standard American English and maybe they want to sound like they’re from somewhere else in the world. So I do that as well. And most recently, I started work with a company called Mango Languages. It’s the language app that I’ve loved the most for years. And I was a fan of it. I met some folks at a conference got so excited about their product that a few years later turned out I wound up trying to spread the love of world language learning. And they have a we have an app and also light language lessons. So I’m the coach for English accent reduction and when I meet people who need coaching on other languages, I do that through my partnership with Mango Languages. So that’s sort of what I do in a nutshell and it covers everything from communication in English to presenting online to communicating and presenting in another language on in any medium. So I hope that sums it up. Bill : That’s fantastic. Now thank you so much, Melanie. So I’m thinking that it would be good for us to do it. Obviously there are a few different personas who are using the virtual platforms. And you know that maybe the first one that comes to mind is that person who’s hosting a webinar or some type of event like that, maybe an executive briefing or something of that nature. You know, let’s talk through some of the things that you’re seeing are important for that individual to consider maybe some of the challenges that you see people having in facilitating those types of meetings. Melanie : Sure. So one of the first things if somebody can ask me for my help in consulting on a presentation, the first thing I usually ask is, how big is the audience? What’s the goal? And you know, what, what do you envision this meeting or presentation to look like? And what the reason I’m asking this is to make sure they’re choosing the right tool or a tool that works well for that type of that type of online meeting or event. For example, Zoom is, I think, far and away I would guess, the most popular these days. And there are different flavors of zoom. There’s the regular Zoom meeting like the one we’re on now, which I think is very conducive for you know, up to could be up to 50 100 people if you’re really really skilled at manipulating zoom. And if you’re having a town hall or an event that’s large, it has people coming and going

Exhibitor Tips

Trade Show Exhibitor Preparation with Joel Roy, Creative Dimensions

Mollie Ring / December 15, 2021

Link to Podcast Available HERE Transcript to podcast found below: Bill : Hi and welcome to the next episode of belly2belly Bill Kenny here and today we have a really cool topic and it’s all about trade show exhibitor preparation, and I’m joined by Joel Roy from Creative Dimensions. Hi, Joel. Joel : Hey, Bill, how are you today? Bill : Fantastic. It’s great to have you with us and you know this topic. It’s something that it just seems like such an amazing issue. I think I’ve when I think about preparation, I think of what did Woody Allen say said 80% of life is showing up. And if you think about, you know, I actually was talking to a very big exhibitor large enterprise company that exhibits all the time. Not that long ago, and I asked them, you know, how do they define success and just to give context, in this company, there’s no sort of event department and, you know, sort of people have other functions and then they, you know, they also sort of manage the trade show presence, but they bring 30 people to a trade show, so they invest tons and tons and tons of money into this. But, you know, they really struggled with how do they measure success, which I thought was amazing. And I said, Do you is, you know, do you feel relief, when you actually just arrive? Is that just the fact that you got there with all the materials, and you got the printing done at the end and all that kind of stuff? Is that is that some measure of success? And they said yes, which seems like you know, you’ve totally missed the, the whole opportunity and I guess, when you start thinking about, you know, preparation for trade shows, what are some of the things that come to mind for you, when you think about you know, that the keys for an exhibitor? Joel : Oh, as a trade show organizer, slash designer slash builder. There’s a lot of parts involved. I mean, our job is to make the process as painless as possible. I, it comes with the client vision, really, I mean, we need to do a discovery process, go through a whole discovery process with them learn what it is that they’re trying to achieve. What is their look? How are they going to go through the process? How are they measuring that show? And, you know, understand what the end game is going in. You know, typically, we’re going to have what we call a discovery meeting. And it’s going to talk about all of those things. And our job is to do as much or as little as that client wants us. To do. Some people are savvy, and they want hands on and they’re going to go there and they’re going to take on the world and set it up and be ready for that show. And some people want to sleep in and show up at the booth that day, and everything’s all set for them. So I will say in COVID right now. Though, coming out of it. A lot of companies have lost their staff. And so they’re going to probably be relying on us a lot more. We have We also are short of staff. However, you know, that’s something that we’ve been talking about in the industry. In some of our calls and our you know, meetings with everybody comparing notes, and they’re just saying that people need to expect it to be different than it used to be. So I don’t know if that answers your question, Bill. Bill : Yeah, I guess I’m thinking about the individual exhibitor. And so I think a little bit of what you talked about was sort of how, how you prepare them, but what are from the exhibitors perspective, when you think about, you know, what are the what are they the keys, you know, for example, how important is it to consider who the customer is, and sort of designing things around as you said the outcome, but quite often it’s a business development related outcome. So what is the I guess when you think about you know, the preparation you know, are there some specific things around sort of Prospect identification and whatnot that that you consider in terms of preparing for a trade show? Joel : Yeah, I think there’s a lot of shows out there. You can be at a show that’s the perfect target or you can be at one that might not hit it, right. So I think it’s incumbent on them to understand their product and go out and research the best show for them. That gives them a fighting chance going in. They have to also decide how they want to measure what they’re doing. I mean, obviously, with social media these days, and everything else, some, some pre-event touches are maybe a lot easier than they used to be. So knowing identifying those customers knowing who they are reaching out to them ahead of time, I think if you are if they plan to set up meetings, at the show or in the booth, it’s going to raise their level of success versus just kind of sitting and hoping. But being in that target market is going to help that happen. You know, what we’re seeing is that a lot of people going to the shows are more of the decision makers than they used to be used to be a lot more of a party, everyone to go and is like hey, went to the show and let’s go to the pool. But I think the people are going now people are spending the money. They’re taking their people offline. They’re either Manning their booth, or and, or going in hunting for people at shows. And those people are more specific than ever, I

Market-Entry

Internationalization Strategy: The Difference between Nimble and Random

Mollie Ring / December 15, 2021

Link to podcast found HERE Podcast transcript found below: Bill : Hey, and welcome to the belly to belly podcast. In this episode I’m really looking forward to this is a topic that we see quite a bit. And it’s all around the difference between being nimble and random and your internationalization strategy. And we’re privileged today to welcome Karina Sotnik from World Upstart to help us to kind of dive into this topic. Welcome, Karina Karina : Thank you so much, Bill. I’m looking forward to this conversation as well. It’s near and dear to my heart. Bill : Well, yeah, let’s dive into it. So when you think about, you know, companies that you work with, and that you’ve worked with, over time, that are either nimble or random, or both, what kinds of things come to mind for you, as you sort of think about this topic? Karina : Yeah. So, you know, I worked over decades, on and off with helping companies come to different markets. And I see this, a lot of companies just take a really opportunistic approach. You know, they might be successful where they are, they start enjoying success in revenue, maybe in sort of scaling up their companies, maybe they’re well established companies have been in their country for 20 plus years. And they suddenly had a really good conversation with someone from us at the trade show, right? Or they might even have a first client in the US. And that usually triggers this, oh, there’s a big market, let me try to expand. And so without any sort of strategy, or any preparedness, they dive in. And we see not great results from that. Because US market is big and desirable. But really difficult. As we know, in almost any industry, I cannot think of industry where it would be easy. And so to have a fleshed out strategy becomes really important if you really want to scale here and not just have one more client to your to your belt. Bill : Yeah, so when you just talk about sort of the random approach, we just sort of are drawn in, and you’re looking at the shiny objects, and you say, oh, there’s, there’s an interesting opportunity. Let’s go there. And then the next week, you see another opportunity over here, and, and you just go, yeah. Karina : And the client that you might get first might not even be the client that you will end up serving in a larger scale in the US. So having strategy, and you can still be very nimble. But having strategy in what I called four buckets, is really important. You need to have your legal strategy. How do you incorporate that will affect you later, right? How do you bring people here from your country that has no how it will affect you later? How do you deal with your IP rights, all of this falls into this legal bucket, and then your industry specific bucket, you really need to have a strategy on regulatory, and we can talk a little bit about that later. But without that strategy, oh, my God, you can lose that one client pretty quickly and you cannot obtain others. And the thing to understand about us when it comes, for example, to regulatory is it’s not one country, it’s 50 different countries, right? And when it comes to packaging, when it comes to taxes, when it comes to regulatory, I deal a lot with med tech companies, when it comes to telemedicine, there’s still many states that don’t allow it legally. Right? So understanding that you’re dealing with 50 different regulations is important than your strategy. And then the third bucket is operations. And that falls into how do you hire people here because there’s so many mistakes in not bringing the right team to actually execute on that nimble strategy, right. And finally, you know, a lot of companies think that they don’t, they’re not going to fundraise in the US. They have revenue and where they are, and they’ve just like, naturally will expand to us. And then they understand that that expansion actually is expensive. And so they, most of the companies that I deal with, ended up trying to fundraise in the US, or companies come here, thinking that money will flow because us is so incredibly welcoming and rich. And that’s just not the case. Fundraising is difficult, no matter where you are, but it’s very difficult in the US because you face really stiff competition with so many other companies coming from all over the world. So those are the four buckets that companies need to think about and they can do very well. then vote and ah, but they need to address all for Bill : It. So I have legal regulatory operations funding, where does sales fit in? Karina : Oh, that’s really good question. So I think sales fit into operations when you start thinking, who to hire, and who is going to be in your team. And there you have your sales, your marketing, your people that know your product from your own country, plus people who know us market from this country. Plus, I always tell people to start thinking of adding to their advisory board with local key opinion leaders, because they can open doors. So it has to be a comprehensive strategy, strategy. You know, hiring one US person, and hoping that that person will bring sales, that never happens, it might be one client, but you know, in the larger scheme of things, you really need a combination, you need the team. And more often than not, the senior management person needs to be here, at least for the first few years, in order for the company to succeed. So thinking how to do that, while you still have your company in your own home country? It’s all

Return on Investment

A Conversation with Marketing Guru, David Berkowitz, Serial Marketer

Mollie Ring / December 15, 2021

Podcast link available HERE. Podcast Transcript below: Bill : Hey and welcome to the belly2belly podcast. This is the podcast that’s focused on Confessions of an in person marketer. So, today it’s a real privilege to welcome David Berkowitz from serial marketer. Welcome David. David : So much. Great to be here, Bill. Bill : It’s, it’s super to be with you today and you know, so our audience are our b2b companies who are either entering the US or already in the US and and expanding so these are international companies that again are either on their way here or are already here and and really working hard to develop a strong base of customers so they’re, they’re always super concerned about making sure their marketing is is spot on and very focused on the US customer and you know how to engage and enroll those customers most efficiently. So I’d love to dive into a variety of topics today that would really help those, our audience and those customers. And I guess you’re probably the best place to start is really to learn a little bit more about you and serial marketer. But do you want to just take a minute or two and share kind of a little of your background and serial marketer? David : Yeah, sure. Thanks. So, I’ve had a mix of roles over the past 20 years where I spent most of my career so far on the agency side working on working at 360 i Under Densu and Mri under publicis group and in strategy and marketing leadership roles. Then when on past five years I’ve been focused on working with a lot of tech and product companies and trying to help them figure out how to generate demand and work with expanding their presence in the US. We’re work with a number of international companies that that that were either overseas initially or or had already come here, but then yeah, but this was still a very new market for them in the States and, and helping out with positioning and strategy, some outright business development. And along the way a few years ago, I started this marketing community Serial marketers, that’s just been a lot of fun to build out and so so now we have more than 2000 marketers in the community and it’s just been a great way to go and, and connect a lot of talented folks with each other and source ideas. And gigs and opportunities, recommendations, things like that. Bill : That’s fantastic. Well, and you know, I think besides that you’re very modest. For the audience. You should know that David is one of the most sought after mentors in the New York ecosystem to help companies entering the US with marketing. So, you know, we’re very fortunate to have you here with us today, David. And so, you know, with that, you know, let’s talk about, you know, the, obviously they’re an ever expanding array of tools that a marketer has sort of at their disposal to help create awareness and create opportunity with with various markets, but when you you sort of survey the current landscape of tools that are available for, for marketers, and particularly, you know, companies coming into the US what are what are the kind of the top tools that are top modes that you would point to as as where maybe companies should look first to begin creating connection into the US market? David : Well, yeah, so, so a lot of what I see is that companies either try to get a lot of their marketing in place and then but then not have a great way to distribute that and get that in front of the right buyers. Or on the flip side, is a lot of companies that right? They start with getting a salesperson on the ground but then don’t have any kind of presence. And, and so I think one of the things that that a lot especially a lot of newer businesses to this to the states, and this is true more broadly, that they don’t always appreciate is that people like to buy from someone they’ve heard of, and so so so it’s like when you’re just a lot of it is just finding that right balance. And so you do it, you do need relationships, I mean that that like like, that’s just the best shortcut if there is any where you can get directly in front of the target buyer. But if you don’t have great messaging, if you don’t have any friends, if you’re not doing anything to say, calm mind beyond that, then that’s going to fizzle really quickly. You’re gonna max out on typically those low hanging fruit and then it’s like, what are you doing with the rest of that time? And then and also, a lot of the work on the marketing front isn’t going to immediately bear fruit, but it’s stuff that kind of like you have that compound interest over time and so so the more content you put out there, for instance, then the more materials you have for sales team when they’re following up with folks, the more hooks you have out there for marketers who are looking for something related to what you do to actually find you and so the more opportunities you have to have that third or fifth third, or 10th touchpoint with a prospect All of this adds up and and it’s and the one thing I really appreciate as a business owner and and someone worked with a lot of companies like this is that it’s it’s tough to juggle all that especially when you have limited resources. We’re new to a market. Bill : Right so so in terms of the modes, I heard content so you’re talking about either online content, or, or offline content, things

marketing

Mastering Virtual Meetings with Melanie Fox, Founder, Speech Fox

Trade Show Exhibitor Preparation with Joel Roy, Creative Dimensions

Internationalization Strategy: The Difference between Nimble and Random

A Conversation with Marketing Guru, David Berkowitz, Serial Marketer

bill@meetroi.com

+1 (860) 573-4821

+1 (860) 573-4821

bill@meetroi.com

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