Here is a transcript generated by Otter.ai of The Content Mix podcast interview with VeraContent’s Kyler Canastra and Rob McGlanaghy, global marketing campaigns manager at TIBCO:

Kyler Canastra 0:13
So, hi everyone, I’m Kyler from The Content Mix, and I’m excited to be here today with Rob McGlanaghy, global marketing campaigns program manager of TIBCO’s analytics portfolio, which is a global software company which specializes in big data and software integrations. TIBCO is headquartered in Silicon Valley, situated alongside Google, Apple, Facebook, Netflix, Tesla, HP, and many other famous companies we know and use every day. However, today, Rob is joining us from Dublin. So welcome, Rob. And thank you so much for joining us today on The Content Mix.

Rob McGlanaghy 0:45
Hi, Kyler! Thanks a lot for having me.

Kyler Canastra 0:47
It’s great to have you. So I guess we’ll get the ball rolling with this interview and just dive right in. So I kind of want to start by asking you a bit more about your background and your experience. And essentially, how did you get into marketing? Where did it all begin?

Rob McGlanaghy 1:01
Perfect. Sounds good. I’m so I started my marketing career at a small IT reseller here in Ireland, I worked there in multiple roles, primarily in sales and marketing—soon realized that I was more aligned to marketing. And I was lucky enough to work with the head of marketing there. And over time, it gave me the appetite to work for some of the larger companies that we have based here in Dublin. It was very lucky to have the support of the team at the time, too… to really get involved in some of the marketing projects. And ultimately, then in 2016, I was lucky enough to join LogMeIn where I worked primarily in field marketing and events, marketing. I was there for three years, and in 2019 the opportunity to join TIBCO came up and that’s where I am since.

Kyler Canastra 1:46
And Dublin’s like a great hub, no? For like international headquarters for companies. It’s a big headquarters for all European operations in many companies. So I’m sure like being there also helped you kind of do new things and experience new, I don’t know, markets and different opportunities. So what do you think? Dublin is a great place for that, no?

Rob McGlanaghy 2:04
Definitely. I know you mentioned Silicon Valley there at the start to and that’s where TIBCO’s HQ is but we actually have our “Silicon Docks” here in Dublin. I’m where we have the likes of Google, Facebook, LogMeIn, Twitter… all those guys are in close proximity here. LinkedIn, too, huge operation here in Dublin as well. And then on the outskirts, we’ve got the likes of Amazon, IBM, Microsoft, and all those guys here.

Kyler Canastra 2:33
It’s a good place to be, for sure.

Rob McGlanaghy 2:34
Great place for marketing. Yeah.

Kyler Canastra 2:36
So can you just tell us a bit more about TIBCO? And your role in the company and what you do?

Rob McGlanaghy 2:42
Of course, yeah. So to put it simply, TIBCO are a company who enable enterprises to connect data sources, unify their data—whether it’s master data, reference data, or metadata—and then to confidently predict outcomes using our analytics- and data science-focused products. Basically, if your company has a data needs, TIBCO can help.

Kyler Canastra 3:02
I was gonna say, like your typical client, for… to work with?

Rob McGlanaghy 3:07
In terms of a typical clients, we have, we have companies spanning all industries. And so we have a lot of retailers out there, too. Um… in terms of connecting to data wanted to know a little bit more about the customers online and their buying habits and things like that. But we really have companies from… of all shapes and sizes out there. And we do find that larger enterprises have more complex issues with big data and want to implement more machine learning and AI kind of style models in place. And we kind of tend to focus on the enterprise-size customers, too.

Kyler Canastra 3:42
That’s great. And your role, I guess, like, what do you do within the world of TIBCO?

Rob McGlanaghy 3:48
So my role as the global campaigns manager for the predict pillar is to create compelling content for our target audience with a focus on demand generation. So I work on the global campaigns team alongside the global campaigns architects for products. And I focus on products like TIBCO data science, TIBCO streaming, and TIBCO Spotfire. We’re very lucky to have really good partners in product marketing too, they’re almost our “partners in crime” in creating that confidence to build it out and work with the right third parties to speak to our target personas.

Kyler Canastra 4:22
Right. So you’re working in a lot of different markets, I’m assuming, no? You’re doing global campaigns, so, all around the world,

Rob McGlanaghy 4:29
Of course, of course. So we primarily focus… Well, we call three key areas: NAME, EMEA and APJ. I know all kind of enterprises have various kind of ways of putting it, but that way how we refer to it, I am I primarily focus on North America at the moment in my role as a global campaigns manager—but naturally being based in EMEA, there is a large share of my time I have been spent on EMEA marketing too. And that’s initially where I started at TIBCO, as well.

Kyler Canastra 4:55
So, how did you start? And TIBCO what was your role initially?

Rob McGlanaghy 5:01
I initially started as a media campaigns manager. And so primarily focusing on carrying a message from our global campaigns and translating it and contextualizing it to where EMEA market and making sure that our local field teams are aware of what we’re doing from a corporate level. And then I was in the role for over a year, and then the opportunity came up to join the global team and to, to get involved in the creation of that global content. And that’s how I stepped up there. And yeah, happy to been there since.

Kyler Canastra 5:32
That’s great. And I guess, random kind of question, but you know, as we’re in a pandemic, now in lockdown, and all these great things, what’s your your daily life at work? What’s it look like now? Because obviously, things are different. And we’re adapting as much as we can.

Rob McGlanaghy 5:48
Yep, so it’s, interesting you ask that… I suppose no, two things… no two days are really the same. I’m lucky in the sense that my mornings are a little bit more where I can get things done. A lot of my partners, I mentioned our product marketing team, they’re based in the US, too. So my, my early, or early evenings to late evenings can be quite busy with calls. But I do have that little bit of free time to myself to get things done and an action some to dos during the course of the day. But generally, I’d start my day looking at the data, the previous days and weeks. So looking at marketing funnel performance from an MEL to opportunity pipeline created. And yeah, really try to understand what’s working, and probably most importantly, what’s not. And then looking at the gaps. Um, so try to understand, when we finished the quarter, where we’ll be [unintelligible] facing, what we need to do to change it, whether it’s positive or negative, and what that’s made up of in between.

Kyler Canastra 6:48
That’s great. And with the time zones, it’s always, I think, cause I’ve worked with enough people around the world, and sometimes it’s good to use it to your advantage. So it’s nice that you have that, the morning to get, you know, collected and look over everything and make sure you know what you want to talk about, especially when you’re communicating with your teams in North America. And we’ve already kind of touched upon this before but the target audience for TIBCO and I just want to elaborate a bit more about that.

Rob McGlanaghy 7:11
Yeah, so for analytics portfolio, we have two target audience that we like to address. So our primary persona is really the decision-maker at large enterprises like the chief analytics officer, or chief data officer, or sometimes CIO. And then we also have a secondary persona that we create content for. And that’s more so to practitioners, that those sort of companies so that the business analyst, or the data scientists, and variations of those roles. I think that’s something that we really kind of focus on this year is to be very conscious, when we’re creating content, of who it appeals to. I suppose that companies we’re seeing too, and that’s the CIO, the CAO, the CEO, they’re also listening to the teams and a lot of ideas of what tools to purchase next, and things like that, and home from those practitioners who are working day in day out. And honestly, when you’re speaking to the CIO and CTO, they want to know different kind of metrics, as opposed to, as opposed to the data scientist and the practitioner, he wants to know, what’s going to help them succeed in their role.

Kyler Canastra 8:12
Yeah, so you have to like curate the content, depending on who’s gonna read it, essentially.

Rob McGlanaghy 8:17
That’s exactly it, yeah,

Kyler Canastra 8:19
And it’s a great point, you picked up about how this past year we’re kind of listening more to each other. I think that these we just mentioned now, and I think that’s so true, I think we’re more in tune with like how to, especially with content, like curating content, so that it comes off in a way that, you know, is well received, especially during a time where people are very saturated, you know, with content. And many of us have spent hours and hours on the internet, you know, and at home and reading everything. So it’s kind of, you know, it’s good that we’re becoming more aware, even more so than before, of what works and what doesn’t. And what… I don’t know, would be more effective now, in comparison to another time.

Rob McGlanaghy 8:53
Definitely, I think you touched on a really important point, too, in terms of the mediums that we use are kind of changing and evolving each day, as well. I think there’s a certain level of webinar fatigue that has crept in over this time as well.

Kyler Canastra 9:07
The online course or that webinar. We’re all like, “Okay, I’m done.”

Rob McGlanaghy 9:11
Exactly. Exactly. So it has kind of shifted in terms of what we need to do and how we get our message out there. And I think, when you look at it regionally too there are trends of the social kind of aspect of content: the LinkedIn live sessions and things like that they’re becoming a lot more popular. So it’s important to, to go where your target audience are, and speak to them at the right time.

Kyler Canastra 9:31
Yeah, it’s crazy how much like technology has changed in the past year; how we use it. I mean, a lot of these tools existed beforehand, but now we completely use it for totally different reasons, because we’re so dependent on it, than before. I guess going back to your content, I guess, what you write and what you guys do, um, how does your… how do you make your content resonate with so many different audiences around the world?

Rob McGlanaghy 9:53
So at TIBCO I suppose, going back to the point we were just speaking there, I think what really, what we really to focus on is, uh, the content type, who is going to appeal to, and ultimately, as well, the medium that you’re going to use to carry that content to the audience. And I think in our world where we see the relevant data scientist, it is quite similar in Europe and the US, in terms of what they want to achieve in their role and the impact they want to have at their company. But what differs them greatly are the tools they use to consume that information, and most importantly, where they consume that information. Um, something that we noticed too, as well is that there’s a lot of respected voices within the data science community, that kind of vary region on region too.

Kyler Canastra 10:36
Oh, wow.

Rob McGlanaghy 10:37
So culturally, I know… we start working with influencers just a little bit more this year, just to try and understand and speak to our target personas. And they tend to have a following in a specific area. Whereas if I know in North America, using that as an example, we worked with an influencer there, and they primarily had that North American audience.

Kyler Canastra 10:56
Oh, wow.

Rob McGlanaghy 10:57
If we wanted to replicate that in EMEA, you would obviously kind of tweak it a little bit, we’d have to understand someone whose followers were primarily located there.

Kyler Canastra 11:05
So there’s like influencers for data scientists influencers, you’re saying. I didn’t even know that it wasn’t even a thing. I guess, maybe, I’m living under a rock, but I had no idea they existed.

Rob McGlanaghy 11:16
It’s, ya no, it’s, it’s something that we looked into a little bit more this year, just to understand, I suppose there’s… there really is influences from… for every aspect of marketing and every industry too. I know it was something that we tried to be more conscious and aware of just to speak to our target personas, I think a lot of those practitioners are always looking to know that the latest tips or tricks or skills or new tool, update what comes with that, I think that that respected kind of their own voice within there, too, when they partner with companies, it’s, it’s generally not kind of salesy as well, it’s something that we kind of try to work on is that when we partner with these influencers, that is quite authentic, we’re looking to add value to the community, as opposed to say, we’re the best at what we do.

Kyler Canastra 12:02
Exactly. It’s so important, too, I think, you know, people are using these platforms, and these, you know, mediums, I guess, to, you know, have, I guess a more human approach to fit certain things and they want to learn about these topics, but not having someone shove information down their throat and kind of say, “you’re the best,” like you said. But I guess another question that just came to my mind now is that, how do you guys conduct research on the certain… so like you said, like, the differences between influencers in EMEA and in North America? Or, how do you… do you have teams that are working there regionally that give you feedback? Or how does that process work?

Rob McGlanaghy 12:35
So we’re very lucky at TIBCO, that a lot of our target personas we actually have in our company. So we allow a huge team of data scientists here. We have a chief analytics officer as well at TIBCO. And our first port of call was really to engage them, and to speak to them about who are the people they look at? And what are the people, the communities that they’re involved in. And I think that was a kind of a starting point for us, too. And then as well, we really just searched through LinkedIn and kind of, yeah, just a general search with our field teams as well… within EMEA, within North America. we primarily piloted this approach in North America, but it’s performed quite well. So it’s, yeah, it’s gonna be something we’ll do more of, too.

Kyler Canastra 13:18
That’s great. And it’s like you did a case study with your own people. It’s like you had firsthand experience, you could ask all the questions that you had. And that’s awesome. And you said, so speaking of like a piece of content, or a campaign that worked really well, what was what’s an example of a campaign that you guys did that worked very well.

Rob McGlanaghy 13:35
So actually, I think the recent the program that I mentioned there was something that really worked for us. So we ran a LinkedIn live session with a respected influencer in the data science and data visualization community. So they had over 140,000 followers on LinkedIn. So quite a sizable community. And we engaged with them in order to run a LinkedIn live session. As I mentioned, we, we wanted to provide value to the community. So what we decided to do is to match the influencer up with a senior data scientist here at TIBCO, in order for her to tell her career journey. So where she started, next steps, how she got to where she is today… And just to add some key nuggets of information and value to the community too. It performed really well for us… 250 or 60, attendees live and a lot more views on demand. But I think from a social media perspective, we are able to attribute new followers to the TIBCO account page and seen spikes and trends of that. So it was mutually beneficial. They got to find out a little bit more from a data scientist in their role and how they got to where they are in their career. Yeah, and we also got that new generation of data scientists interested in TIBCO, and they might ultimately be be those who take trials in the future or use our products in the future too.

Kyler Canastra 14:56
That’s so great. And it’s like you’re offering meaningful content to your audience. If people are looking… not just, yeah, like we said before, you’re not just kind of advertising for yourself, you’re providing them with, with tools to help them in their careers. So they’re gonna be more receptive to that for sure, then, you know, your typical, you know, plenty of advertising that we always see all the time. That’s really great. In terms of like, what social media channels you guys use for, like, do you guys simply use LinkedIn? Or do you use other other channels as well?

Rob McGlanaghy 15:25
Primarily, we do use LinkedIn. We also use Twitter as a medium; they’re our two most successful. We have looked at running different mediums globally, as well. And funny enough, we’ve seen that Facebook is an interesting medium that works well in our community, especially in LATAM, which was a little bit surprising. But yeah, the social media types are used differently in each region, I think. I was speaking to a colleague there in Germany. And interestingly enough, they actually have a German version of LinkedIn that they use. So, in France and Italy and Austria all around, they’re all LinkedIn users. But as soon as you go into Germany, they have their own… own tool, which is very, yeah, does the same function as LinkedIn. But that’s, that’s where they all are.

Kyler Canastra 16:10
No idea about that. So I feel like sometimes I’m like, 65 years old, because I’ve no idea about like anything. I’m like, very, I don’t know, old school, but I guess. I had no idea all these platforms exist. But it is really important too to see like where what people are using, what people like to use and kind of understanding why they use the channels that they use. But also in, I guess, like, we were just talking about a really good campaign you guys did because it was personal. And it brought added value to the whole user experience. But what do you think some companies get wrong when it comes to content marketing? Where do you think they have some flaws or things that could be fixed?

Rob McGlanaghy 16:48
I think what they tried to do and are, I suppose the key consideration that I see sometimes is they don’t focus on the consumer who’s going to consume that piece of content. There should be two separate personas in terms of a decision-maker, the information that they want to see and get from a collateral piece is quite different from a practitioner. I think practitioners want to know what will help them in their daily job? How can they evolve their career by using your tool—whereas a C-level or a decision-maker is interested in how much time will this save my employee for us or for older projects? Or how much money could this potentially save by in terms of analytics, advanced analytics and predicting what’s happening… I think the cost-saving element is more applicable to a certain audience, and that practitioner wants to know what value will I get from from using this tool daily.

Kyler Canastra 17:39
For sure. It’s important to keep that in mind, like obviously, for you, it’s your… you have those two, you know, target personas, and that’s… you’re working towards that. But I also like, I guess, things evolve over time too, like with the personas, so it’s important to really keep up and see what’s going on and kind of stand ahead of the curve, as we would say, no? Your persona, cause things always change. But that’s really interesting to keep that in mind. I think a lot of companies miss out on that. Maybe they’re too focused on one of them and not the other, or they’re kind of missing a really important, you know, audience that really contributed to, you know, even just raising awareness about their company, for sure.

Rob McGlanaghy 18:14
I definitely agree, and I think something that kind of stands out as well is, we’re often kind of, we often very assumptious that the C-level take these decisions, and they’re the decision-makers, so that’s who we should be speaking to. But businesses these days, when you speak to them it very often is that companies or management level, bring a tool their C-level and say, “Hey, this would be really good if we can implement it. It will provide X, Y and Z benefits.” So although the C level are signing that off, it’s actually probes or some decision made… this decision is made at the practitioner level or the management level, and funneled up to the C-level. So it’s a… it’s an interesting mix. And I think when I personally think of it too, if there was something that I wanted to implement at TIBCO or a change that I’d like to make, that I’d have a voice at the table and be able to recommend implementing a certain tool and the value it would bring, and then that would bubble up ultimately, to the C-level to sign. But I was involved in that decision-making process.

Kyler Canastra 19:11
Yeah, I think that’s part of a shift, no? Of like, companies know, in the past 10 years… I feel like we’re shifting more to, you know, not just the typical hierarchy where, you know, that no one gets any vote, like has any say in anything. And I think now we’re kind of, especially with, you know, startups coming up. And you know, it’s a lot more, I don’t know, innovation in that sense, I think that we’re paying more attention to what people have to say. And I think that’s so important when it comes to marketing to, you know, show people, “Hey, like, you know, this tool is great, and it’s gonna help me,” and then the word of mouth is the best advertising, you know, so if someone’s really keen about something, then they’re going to tell someone else and then maybe then be the one to implement this tool. So I think it’s so important to tap into that as well. Which it seems like you guys are doing at TIBCO. if you want to add anything to that, but..

Rob McGlanaghy 19:57
Yeah, definitely I was going to mention I suppose if… As you said, gone are the days of a tool been landed on your desk. I think as well if you think about it, if you’re told that you have to use this brand new tool that’s shiny, and you’ve never seen it before, probably will, we’ll have a little bit of a preconception of how it works, or you might have a preference for something else. So I think in terms of getting that tool adapted, and up to speed and fit for use, I suppose, in companies too, it makes a lot of sense to listen to the end users… listen to your practitioners who will use it…

Kyler Canastra 20:30
They’re the ones who are using it every day.

Rob McGlanaghy 20:32
Exactly. And then it will be successful if they’re bought in,

Kyler Canastra 20:35
For sure, and we’re just I think, in general, listening more to what people have to say, I think. And especially now with social media, and everyone has a voice; everyone has an opinion. So, it’s so important that we, you know, listen to what they have to say and make the changes to better the experience that the user has. But also, I guess, in general, and now we’re talking a lot about trends going on in, you know, 2021… What are some skills do you think are really important for marketers to know today?

Rob McGlanaghy 21:03
I think there’s two key skills that are hugely important, I think the interpersonal skills is very important, I suppose. It’s not only a marketer’s job to project the voice of the company externally, but also internally, to you’ve got to enable your teams on what the latest programs are going on. When I think of, in our organization, the BDR teams who are switching those leads first… if we’re building a campaign, and we want it to be successful, they need to know what the campaign is about who we’re targeting, why we’re running that. And I think that interpersonal, the interpersonal skills of enabling teams, I think that’s really important. And then the second skill I’d mentioned is around analytics. I think it’s important to be data driven to understand what is working and most importantly, what’s not. And when you look at CVs, or look at, I suppose job descriptions online, there’s not a job description that doesn’t have a data-driven kind of quote, or, I supposed, that required piece there…

Kyler Canastra 22:08
It’s so important. I think those two things and especially motivating your team and kind of getting everyone behind what you’re working on and feeling passionate about it, that’s gonna make a big difference. I think they’re going to put more, you know, effort, and we’re just having a passion behind anything’s gonna make anything turn out better than when you don’t have any.

Rob McGlanaghy 22:25
Definitely. Another thing that we we implement here at TIBCO is the serious decision framework. I am… So it’s kind of a campaign framework that has four unique components of how to run a successful campaign. Today, book it programs into reputation, demand, engagement and enablement. I think if you’re touching all of those aspects of a campaign, true to your programs, it’s bound to be a success.

Kyler Canastra 22:48
For sure. Yeah. Especially enabling and making sure everyone’s Yeah, it’s so important. And I think it’s so easy that we keep, we kind of lose sight of that sometimes we get so caught up. And I think, you know, you just laid it out in three different, you know, three different ways. You get to do this, this and that. And I think sometimes when we get so overwhelmed, so caught up in something, we forget the basics, that I think it’s so important that, you know, we keep these things in mind, and we always go back to what we know. It’s so important.

Rob McGlanaghy 23:14
Definitely, teamwork is always the key.

Kyler Canastra 23:17
Always, teamwork makes the dream work as they say. So it’s super important. And what advice, I guess, would you give to somebody starting now—especially like nowadays, where you know, if you have someone graduating from university or something like that, and the job market is kind of funny, all these things like, what would you give as a piece of advice to somebody.

Rob McGlanaghy 23:37
I think, find, try to find that area that really ignites your passion—whether it’s within marketing world, or from an industry standpoint, and if it’s combination of both, even better. You’ve got so many variations in the marketing relm: content marketing, creative products, demand gen… those roles exists in almost every industry. So if you can really find that niche of what you’re interested in and wanting for that, and just pursue it relentlessly, I think you’ll really reap rewards there.

Kyler Canastra 24:06
I think so, for sure. And it’ll open so many doors. I mean, I think about myself, and you know, I started as a translator, I’m a linguist on paper, right? And I never thought I’d be involved in what I’m doing now. And, I kind of, just because I had that one passion and never thought I would go into marketing or content marketing or doing all the localization, all these different things I’ve had the opportunity to work on. And it all started off as a small passion, that kind of this… is kind of leading me through life. So I think that’s really great that you… that’s a great thing to keep in mind, especially when we’re looking for jobs. You just got to find something that’s going to get you out of bed in the morning and get you passionate and I guess the rest will fall into place. For sure

Rob McGlanaghy 24:41
Exactly. Do… How does the quote goes? Is it like, find a job that you love and you’ll never have to work a day in your life?

Kyler Canastra 24:47
Exactly, I think…

Rob McGlanaghy 24:48
I’ve heard that a couple of times.

Kyler Canastra 24:48
It’s so true. It is very true. Because if not… if you’re not in a job, if you’re in a job that you don’t like, then you should get out of it because your life’s gonna be, you know, not so great. You won’t be so happy every day and… And they won’t be condusive for anybody as well. But as I guess the speaking of getting out of bed and you know, starting your day, what are some daily habits that you attribute to your success that you’d like to share with our audience—especially, you know, in terms of lockdown, where we’ve been kind of stagnant, I guess, we can’t do our normal things.

Rob McGlanaghy 25:18
I think in lockdown, I must admit, one thing that I’ve started to do is really just be more aware of getting outdoors. And I started to treat exercise almost like a meeting that I can’t miss. So I’d have like an era in the day where I’d get outside for a walk or run or cycle or, or just something to get it to get me going, I suppose each day, and that enables me to be more productive, than in the afternoon. I think like podcasts as well, too, I’ve been listening to so many lately, and just hearing all those positive kind of stories and, and thoughts and stuff like that, I think that really helps me then focus on what I want to achieve, ultimately.

Kyler Canastra 25:57
For sure.

Rob McGlanaghy 25:58
And then another small habit that I’ve been trying to get in, in there every day, and it’s just spend five or 10 minutes at the end of each day planning what you’ll do for the next day. I think if you break kind of workloads into small sizable chunks, that will really help you get stuff done.

Kyler Canastra 26:14
For sure. So those are all habits that I love, as well, podcasts and… I think exercise is one thing that I really forced myself to, like, keep a routine with, especially during lockdown, because if not, I would have been like, gone crazy. But I think it does help, you know, make us more productive, and I feel more alert. And you know, it helps, especially in the afternoon, when you have that like… And for you if you work, you know, with clients in North America and your busiest times in the afternoon to be like “on point” to go for those. But no, I think exercise and also to-do lists at the end of the day is something that I started doing, I think probably like a year ago, it helps so much because sometimes you… you know, kind of forget you wake up the next morning and although you’re motivated and ready to go, you forget, what am I supposed to do. So it’s kind of nice to have that list and you kind of put it in sections. And sometimes you… I organize it like by priorities like this is high priority, I need to do it today. But I have some things in the pipeline that I probably need to work on later on. It just keeps like my agenda is like life. So I totally agree with that. I think it’s a great habit. And I just love habits. I think habits keep us productive and keep us more concentrated especially when we’re working.

Rob McGlanaghy 27:18
Definitely.

Kyler Canastra 27:19
And for you. I think you mentioned podcasts and kind of motivational podcasts… I… do you have any like professional role model or source of inspiration that keeps you going? That keeps you motivated?

Rob McGlanaghy 27:29
Um, I think in a professional sense, I’m kind of inspired by a lot of the team that I work with, here at TIBCO. I don’t really have that one particular person. But we some really great people in our demand gen team. I’m really inspired by creative thinkers or… because that really gets me thinking about what I can do differently or how we can make little tweaks to… yeah, to try something different. And I’m hugely usually into sports, too. So there’s a lot of inspirational people in sports in terms of doing things a little bit differently. That really, really appealed to me, too. And I tried to take some of those kind of lessons—although they’re not always applicable, I think there is elements of sports that can affect and, I suppose, life and work in business, too.

Kyler Canastra 28:11
Is there any specific sports person that you can think of off the top of your head that is one of those people for you?

Rob McGlanaghy 28:17
I know, I’m a big Italian football fan. There’s one, there’s one manager there, Carlo Ancelotti, he has a great book that I recently read and it’s all about quiet leadership. So he’s quite a reserved character, he always kind of… when he speaks, you listen, he has that kind of aura about him. And his book goes into detail around how he kind of carved that out for himself, how he garners that respect of the team. So when he speaks, he listens. And I think that’s hugely important. You don’t always have to be the loudest voice in the room to be heard. I think if, if you get your head down and keep working hard, people will respect you. And ultimately, you’ll be successful.

Kyler Canastra 28:57
for sure. And I think that ties into your, you know, your first source of inspiration, which you said is your team. And I think, you know, like taking the time to observe and to listen and to hear what they have to say. And I think everyone’s so different. I think that’s what makes you know, human… humankind amazing, because we’re all so different. But we also learn—and from my own experience, too, I’ve learned so much from just like observing… Okay, like, this person doesn’t do the same thing I would do. But I like what they did. So I want to incorporate that into me. And I think I’ve grown so much just by observing. And I think that’s such a great piece of advice, because we can’t… if we get stuck in our ways, and we don’t change or adapt—something that we’ve learned a lot in the past year—then we won’t move forward. And I think that so important.

Rob McGlanaghy 29:36
Yeah.

Kyler Canastra 29:37
For sure.

Rob McGlanaghy 29:38
It’s hugely important. You’ve always got to be learning just to… if you have that mindset and that openness to, to learn every day and to learn from people around you, I think you’ll really succeed in whatever you pursue,

Kyler Canastra 29:50
For sure, because if we get stuck in our ways, and we’re never gonna learn anything or continue with our careers or grow or we’ll just stay in the same place and you know… we don’t want to be stagnant, for sure. And I guess continuing with the whole recommendations that we’ve been asking, I don’t know if you have any like apps or tools or platforms or books that you recommend to our audience, whether it be marketing or something more personal, especially for, you know, anyone who’s interested in in getting a new campaign or a new marketing strategy up off the ground.

Rob McGlanaghy 30:19
I think in terms of events and publications. SiriusDecisions are a great independent organization, who run marketing conferences for marketers; so I was really lucky to attend the edition in 2019 in person, in London. And they have had a virtual event going on too last year. And I will be always looking to attend those when I can. And the reason why is they produce great content for marketers, as I mentioned earlier, SiriusDecision campaign framework is something that I found hugely important and helpful for me, in terms of structuring, how I want to bring my campaign to life. In, kind of, they’re kind of a framework, they have four key areas. They have Reputation, which focuses on how can you elevate your brand and the perception of your brand in the eyes of new customers? Demand—how can you generate that demand from those prospects and create content that that drives them to ultimately try the product? Engagement—focus on your customer engagement. I think, when you have a customer there, it’s not job done; there’s always something you need to do, you need to make sure that the tool is sticky, and they’re getting the value that they need from the product. And then finally, that Enablement piece, ensuring that your team internally and externally know why you’re doing things… know the importance of it, so they can really drive the value when they speak. And so that was like one tool that I found that was really important than successful. And I encourage anyone to go and check it out and see if they can…

Kyler Canastra 31:48
And what time of year do they have it? The event?

Rob McGlanaghy 31:51
They usually have it around September/October time frame. I am I’m not too sure of this year’s edition. I think it’s not that tricky time right now for companies to plan whether it’s going to be in person, or will it be virtual? But I haven’t heard…

Kyler Canastra 32:04
Or hybrid? Who knows?

Rob McGlanaghy 32:07
Yeah, exactly.

Kyler Canastra 32:08
The good thing is that, you know, having it online people from around the world can tune in. So you know, hopefully, our listeners one day would be able to even, you know, doesn’t matter if they’re in London, or wherever, they can listen and get the same insight as well.

Rob McGlanaghy 32:20
Definitely, I think there’s been so many huge benefits to the virtual environment for events. But equally, I can’t wait to be able to attend in person or I do want to fly again soon.

Kyler Canastra 32:31
I’m very eager to get moving with that. So hopefully one day, you know, we’ll be back up and running for sure. And do you have any… cause we’re coming to the end of our interview, unfortunately, it’s been a great chat, and great to learn more about your experience and what you have to offer to the world of content marketing. But I was just wondering if you had any final takeaways or parting advice you’d like to give to our listeners.

Rob McGlanaghy 32:52
Um… I think going back to your point, in that, in terms of always be learning; I think that’s a key piece of advice. Be really open minded in whatever you do. I think that will really help anyone be successful. I think most importantly, is don’t be afraid to try things. It’s great. It’s great when things work, but there’s always learning to be had when things don’t work. And it’s important to understand when they don’t work, why they didn’t work and what you could potentially do different to tweak that. I think there’s some kind of important, very high-level insights that a lot of people take away from this.

Kyler Canastra 33:26
For sure. I definitely think, you know, that making a mistake is totally okay. I think it’s something I’ve learned in life. It’s just you make a mistake, you learn from it, and then you can move forward. And you know, okay, I won’t do that again. So it’s so important. Like you said: take risks, put yourself out there, try something new… You never know what the benefits will be after you try it.

Rob McGlanaghy 33:44
Exactly. I think that’s you couldn’t have put it better. Yeah, you’ve got to take the risks. But the important thing is, if they don’t always go how you want them to be, just make sure you learn from them. And that’s the really key piece.

Kyler Canastra 33:55
So important. And for everyone listening, what’s the best way for them to get in touch with you or to keep… I don’t know if you’re active on LinkedIn or anywhere that you’re active that we can follow you on and get in touch.

Rob McGlanaghy 34:07
Yup, LinkedIn is definitely the place to find me when I’m I’m quite active on there. I try to put content there every odd week and… too. Well if there’s anyone out there who wants to drop me a message on chat more. Then my messages are always open, and I’d love to connect with you guys.

Kyler Canastra 34:24
Fantastic. Well, thank you so much again, Rob, for your time and for sharing your insights with us. And thanks everyone for listening in. For more perspectives on the content marketing industry in Europe, definitely check out TheContentMix.com and keep tuning into the podcast for daily interviews with content experts. And I hope to see you guys next time!

Transcribed by https://otter.ai