Friends of Dave

On this edition of the podcast, I have a fun time catching up with longtime friend and college classmate, Monica Wright.  

Monica is a growth marketing guru and thought leader, devoting pretty much her entire career understanding how media and content drives engagement and conversion.  She spent a good chunk of this time at Third Door Media, publisher of global known and respected marketing news, information and resource sites such as Marketing Land, Search Engine Land and MarTech Today.  As she considers her next move, Monica is now engaged in solving a variety of company growth challenges by freelancing as a fractional marketing strategist.

During our chat, we cover some interesting topics such as:

• Her unique journey from thinking she wanted to be a doctor when she went to college into the media space
• How online media and publishing has evolved over the last two decades
• Overcoming challenges in managing her career while battling (and beating) cancer
• What's up next in social media and marketing
• Her involvement in the new organization Women Of MarTech.

Monica's story is both unique and inspiring -- I think you will enjoy it.

Monica Wright is a growth marketing guru and marketing technology thought leader.  For a long time she was an executive at Third Door Media, publisher of global known and respected marketing news, information and resource sites such as Marketing Land, Search Engine Land and MarTech Today.  Today she is contributing to company growth by tackling marketing challenges as a freelance marketing strategist.

Monica is a cancer survivor.  Here she talks about how allowing herself to be vulnerable throughout her fight helped her maintain balance and success in her personal and professional life.

Monica Wright is a growth marketing guru and marketing technology thought leader.  For a long time she was an executive at Third Door Media, publisher of global known and respected marketing news, information and resource sites such as Marketing Land, Search Engine Land and MarTech Today.  Today she is contributing to company growth by tackling marketing challenges as a freelance marketing strategist.

In this clip, Monica shares her thoughts on how she saw early the importance of putting the customer at the center of the equation in order to build the best customer experience.

Monica Wright is a growth marketing guru and marketing technology thought leader.  For a long time she was an executive at Third Door Media, publisher of global known and respected marketing news, information and resource sites such as Marketing Land, Search Engine Land and MarTech Today.  Today she is contributing to company growth by tackling marketing challenges as a freelance marketing strategist.

Here she shares the three most important things that have contributed to her career success.

On this edition, time flies by as I chat with friend and colleague Jean Donnelly.  Through her work as founding Executive Director for FinTech Sandbox, a Boston based non-profit focused on supporting innovation amongst data oriented startups, Jean has become well known and respected in the FinTech and data and analytics spaces.

Jean has a fascinating backstory and during our time together we talk about:

• Her early days and the challenges she faced as a woman at a primarily male engineering college and in technology
• Her stints at GE and Fidelity, where, among other things, she teaches us the operational significance of the term "suck, squeeze, bang, blow"
• What it was like during her 6 years at FinTech Sandbox working with startups, entrepreneurs and large partner companies
• The post COVID environment and opportunities for innovation in FinTech
• What she is looking to do in her next chapter

I'm sincerely grateful to have gotten to know Jean and consider her as a Friend of Dave in many regards.  She's a wonderful person, and I really think you will enjoy getting to know her better during this episode.

Jean Donnelly is an operational leader, entrepreneur and a widely respected FinTech executive.  Until recently she served as the founding Executive Director for FinTech Sandbox, a Boston based non-profit focused on supporting innovation amongst data oriented startups.

In this preview she reflects on what she learned from her role at FinTech Sandbox and what she is seeking from her next challenge.

Jean Donnelly is an operational leader, entrepreneur and a widely respected FinTech executive.  Until recently she served as the founding Executive Director for FinTech Sandbox, a Boston based non-profit focused on supporting innovation amongst data oriented startups.

In this preview she shares her thoughts on acknowledging personal success and being content with your results, even if that contentment may be fleeting.

Jean Donnelly is an operational leader, entrepreneur and a widely respected FinTech executive.  Until recently she served as the founding Executive Director for FinTech Sandbox, a Boston based non-profit focused on supporting innovation amongst data oriented startups. 

In this preview she shares her thoughts on effective leadership, and the important role that empathy plays.

This time I had the great pleasure of speaking with serial entrepreneur, senior sales and business growth leader and advisor Jonathan Brickman.  He is currently running his own consulting firm called Brickseller. 

During this fast moving discussion, we get into Jonathan's unique path that interestingly began at a nuclear power plant in Upstate NY.  From there his journey included a detour to Chicago and subsequently into the data sales leadership arena.

We talked about the many personal and professional challenges that go along with growing a startup to scale, selling to private equity and ultimately being rolled into a corporate parent that eventually became Ipreo.   

Additionally, Jonathan shares his insights on the importance of grit, communication and what it takes to be a great leader.

If you are interested, please follow Jonathan on Twitter as well.

Lots of great stuff here -- enjoy!

Jonathan Brickman is a serial entrepreneur, senior sales and business growth leader and advisor.  He is currently running his own consulting firm called Brickseller.

In this preview he discusses what got him started him on his career path and the importance of sticking to your strengths and strong communication, particularly when you are scaling a startup.

Jonathan Brickman is a serial entrepreneur, senior sales and business growth leader and advisor.  He is currently running his own consulting firm called Brickseller.

In this preview he discusses his philosophy on grit, leadership, giving space while coaching and leading teams and some personal views on success.

I had such a great time catching up with my old friend, Ed McDonnell on this podcast.

Ed is a commercial leader, and as executive vice president currently heads all distribution & go-to-market functions for the US National Enterprise & Canada business for Salesforce.com.

On this episode, we talk about Ed's interesting journey to his current role -- a journey that has included it's share of success, setbacks, innovation, entrepreneurship, networking and perseverance.

We also discuss the importance of cultural alignment between your company and your role and who you are, and how it is "okay to not be okay" sometimes.  Additionally, Ed shares his philosophies for hiring and what he believes makes a great salesperson.

This conversation flows quickly and is filled with lots of great nuggets of knowledge and insight.  

I encourage you to follow Ed on Twitter as well.

Enjoy!

Ed McDonnell is a commercial leader, and as executive vice president currently heads all distribution & go-to-market functions for the US National Enterprise & Canada business for Salesforce.com.

Here he digs into the three main characteristics he targets when hiring, particularly sales people.

Highly recommend following Ed on Twitter.

Ed McDonnell is a commercial leader, and as executive vice president currently heads all distribution & go-to-market functions for the US National Enterprise & Canada business for Salesforce.com.

Here he talks about dealing with a career setback, leaning on your network, and showing vulnerability in order to get yourself back on track.

Highly recommend following Ed on Twitter.

On this edition of the podcast, I speak with Joe Meyer, founder and CEO of crowdsourced executive job opportunity marketplace ExecThread.

Joe is a serial entrepreneur with a track record of leading teams to positive results throughout his career.  His journey has included key executive roles at eBay, Quigo Technologies (acquired by AOL), and HopStop (acquired by Apple).  

During our conversation, Joe shares some of his backstory and the key lessons he learned along the way that lead him to found his current venture.  He also discusses his thoughts on how executive job search has evolved and will be affected by a slowing economy.

Through it all, Joe highlights grit, entrepreneurial spirit, innovation and a little bit of well timed, good fortune thrown in as keys to leading a successful effort.   

"Luck is the residue of hard work."

On this episode of the podcast, we get back together with old colleague and pal, Jamil Sheppard.

Two years ago, you may recall we recorded Part 1 of our discussion and discussed what it was like to leave a company he had been at for 16 years, FactSet Research Systems, and venture into startup land.

I caught up with him recently, almost exactly two years to the day since we had that chat, and things have changed pretty dramatically for him since then.

Jamil shares his insights on what he learned over that time, and how he came to understand what was really important to him both personally and in his career. 

If you enjoyed the first podcast with Jamil, you will absolutely like hearing this update.

On this episode of the Friends of Dave podcast, we catch up with Meg Murphy.  

Meg is an expert marketer originally from the East Coast but took a risk and moved to Chicago with a career move.  

After a recent job elimination, Meg decided to do something radical:  she started her own network and support group for similarly displaced professionals in her area.  

Called "Chicago Superstars,"  Meg's efforts and website quickly gained traction and garnered national attention from online publications like Crunchbase and Business Insider.  

We caught up with Meg and talked about her career, about the challenges she faced that lead to starting Chicago Superstars, and her insights into what she believes it will take for she and others to continue their career growth in the months ahead.

Bill O'Herron is currently Director of Capital Markets at Cygnus Capital Real Estate Advisors.  Perhaps more interesting, his passion is his side gig as a licensed therapist and counselor.   

I've known Bill for a long time and it's never a dull discussion. Not surprisingly, we had a pretty wide ranging conversation, covering topics such as making a big lifestyle move mid career stream, the role of emotional intelligence (EQ) in business and the power of vulnerability.  Lots of book references as well -- links provided below.   

I think you will find Bill to be a pretty cool, enthusiastic, relatable guy on a number of levels. 

Hope you will take some time to listen to his story and get to know him.

Also, check out Bill's book out October 22, 2020 called  "Waking Up Marriage: Finding Truth Inside Your Partnership"

Books mentioned in this episode:

• 1776 by David McCullough
• Alexander Hamilton by Ron Chernow (I mistakenly reference it as a McCullough book)
• Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin
• The Plot Against America by Phillip Roth
• Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda
• Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle