[EO Columbus] Leveraging Local Expertise for Worldwide Business Growth With Cameron Heffernan

Cameron Heffernan is the Chief Marketing Officer at Your B2B Marketing, a globally focused strategic marketing agency. With a rich background as a serial entrepreneur, Cameron’s career spans three continents, reflecting a diverse and expansive professional journey. He is recognized for launching a seven-figure marketing agency that caters to a wide range of clients across the globe. His expertise lies in helping companies articulate their value proposition effectively, supporting their growth, and assisting them in entering new markets.

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

Cameron Heffernan shares what they do at Your B2B Marketing
The importance of finding a niche and focusing on what you do best
How Cameron started his agency and what he did to grow it
Common mistakes made by companies trying to reach international markets
Expanding business globally through localization and tailored marketing strategies
Why Cameron advocates for a multi-channel approach to marketing
The value of simplicity in messaging
How Cameron navigates a virtual team culture
The importance of valuable groups and ongoing learning

In this episode…

Leveraging the expertise and nuances of local markets can be a game-changer in global business growth. But how exactly does one tap into this wealth of localized knowledge to expand successfully on an international scale?

According to Cameron Heffernan, a seasoned global entrepreneur, the key lies in understanding and adapting to the unique cultural and business landscapes of each market. Businesses can significantly enhance their global reach and effectiveness by utilizing a strategy that respects and integrates local insights. Cameron emphasizes why it’s also crucial to use multi-channel strategies, identify your niche to tailor your marketing approach, and use simplicity in your messaging.

In this episode of the Rising Entrepreneurs Podcast, Dr. Jeremy Weisz sits down with Cameron Heffernan, Chief Marketing Officer at Your B2B Marketing, to discuss the intricacies of international market expansion. They delve into the importance of tailoring marketing strategies to diverse cultural contexts, the challenges and triumphs of setting up a global marketing agency, and the indispensable role of local expertise in ensuring successful cross-border operations.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

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Episode Transcript

Intro 0:03

Welcome to the Rising Entrepreneurs Podcast where we feature top founders and entrepreneurs and their journey. Now let’s get started with the show.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz 0:13

Dr. Jeremy Weisz here, founder of inspiredinsider.com where I talk with inspirational entrepreneurs and leaders today is no different. I’ve Cameron Heffernan, who founder of yourb2bmarketing.co, and Cameron and before I formally introduce you, I always like to point out other episodes, people should check out the podcast and we were chatting before hitting record of Cameron’s loves Dan Sullivan, Benjamin Hardy books, so we’re gonna talk about some of his favorites. So some of the past guests who are authorized with Gino Wickman who wrote Traction founded EOS. That was a great episode, Mark Winters wrote co authored Rocket Fuel with Gino Wickman. That’s a really good one, the visionary integrator, I had one of my favorites of all time Chris Voss have Never Split the Difference. One of my favorite books, and there’s many, many more and Cameron, some of your favorites?

Cameron Heffernan 1:05

Well, the I think the Dan Sullivan sort of trilogy with Ben Hardy is up there. One that we had read with my group last summer was The Good Life, which is a combination of work life and how to all integrates and comes together. One that was sitting right here is the Six Thinking Hats, which I enjoyed. And it’s a it’s a short, easy read that makes you look at how you do thinking and how you execute decision making processes and a good one.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz 1:34

Who wrote that one?

Cameron Heffernan 1:36

That is Edward de Bono.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz 1:38

Six Thinking Hats. Hopefully, it’s an audible I added to my list. So thanks. Um, and this so check out more episodes on the podcast. This episode is brought to buy Rise25. At Rise25, we help businesses give to and connect to their dream 100 relationships and how do we do that, we actually help you run your podcast, we’re an easy button for a company to launch and run a podcast and we do the strategy, the strategy, the kind of building the full execution. So Cameron, we call ourselves a magic elves that are running the background and make it look easy for the host and the company. So they can develop amazing relationships, great, great content and run their business. Most importantly, you know, for me, the number one thing in my life is relationships. And I’m always looking at ways to give to my best relationships. And I have found no better way over the past decade to profile the people and companies I most admire and share with the world what they’re working on. So if you’ve thought about podcasting, you should and you have questions that rise25.com To learn more, and I’m excited. And thank you to Ashtan Moore, who kind of formally informally introduced us via EO group. He runs Model B. And as Cameron said, also a lot of bars and restaurants too. That’s right, right. Right. So Cameron Heffernan, he’s a serial entrepreneur, he’s lived and worked on three continents, launched a seven figure marketing agency with clients all over the world, which we’ll see that’s, that’s kind of his special sauce and a specialty. Cameron founded yourb2bmarketing.co. which is globally focused strategic marketing agency. So it helps companies better articulate their value proposition to support their growth and their new market entry. And Cameron, thanks for joining me.

Cameron Heffernan 3:21

Thanks, Jeremy. I’m excited to be here. Looking forward to it.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz 3:24

We’ll dig into the continents thing, but um, just tell people a little bit about yourb2bmarketing.co. And what you do.

Cameron Heffernan 3:32

Your b2b marketing is a strategic communications and marketing agency that helps global businesses scale. And maybe to start with the last part, first, I mean, if any business wants to grow, I think that’s obvious. I think with a lot of mid market companies, b2b companies in particular. There’s a there’s a maybe a deficit there and knowing well, what do we need to do from a marketing perspective? We’re really focused on product development or operations or building and growing team. But where should we start with the marketing and communications to make it clear what we do that’s different, special, unique, we had talked about the Dan Sinclair books, I think the last one that I didn’t read was 10x is Easier to write. And then there,

Dr. Jeremy Weisz 4:21

Dan Sullivan co authored with Benjamin Hardy that way.

Cameron Heffernan 4:24

Yeah. And they talk about what is your unique ability, and really applying that to entrepreneurs, to founders, to owners of companies. And there’s a whole section a whole chapter about that. I think that also applies to companies. And I think that our job as you know, the marketing agency, is to really help them to identify what is there a secret secret sauce was there’s a superpower and to then articulate that.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz 4:54

Love it. Yeah, totally. And so I want to, to get a little granular with this before we dig into because there’s several companies you helped, you know, you branch out into different markets in different countries, which is not an easy feat to do. And we mentioned working on three continents. I know you do a lot of work in, in Europe and in Belgium, what brought you there?

Cameron Heffernan 5:21

I was managing PR and communications for a fortune 500 staffing company in the west coast and needed somebody to come in to run the communications and marketing function in Europe, for I think, 11 countries, seven languages, something like that. So I, they took me over to do that. And that was 2000. Or no, sorry, that was yeah, 2008 2009 Bad timing the economy. But I managed to stay in in Europe, and did some communications consulting work there. And that led to me then founding starting my digital agency when I got back to the US.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz 5:56

So when you first started, what services because you could do a lot of different types of services. Yeah, what were the services you decide to lead with coming out of the gate?

Cameron Heffernan 6:07

I think, you know, if I can go back and do that part of my life over with the knowledge I’ve gained since then it would make it a whole lot easier. I just kind of went with what I knew. And my background, my training, I was a journalist, I worked in technology journalism, and in the West Coast, and that’s where I kind of came from the world changed so much since then. But I feel a lot of those fundamentals are still what we do every day. And we shouldn’t be doing storytelling, identifying with your audience, um, and focusing on what’s important and relevant to them, rather than what matters to us or to the client. And I think as marketers, if we can crack that knot, we’re well on our way to the, you know, successful program. I think what we get the time I just, I was kind of an accidental entrepreneur, I really didn’t know what I was doing. I just kind of went with it. And one day I woke up at about all these people work. It’s been I’ve got a seven figure agency, how did that happen?

Dr. Jeremy Weisz 7:03

What were some of the things you put in place to grow it? Because I feel like there’s a lot of accidental agency owners.

Cameron Heffernan 7:13

Hmm. Yeah, I think that’s true. Um, I think I was focused a lot on business development. I’m finding, who are the companies that we no need our solution. Reaching out to them, a lot of it was referral and word of mouth. I then learned how to do a more deliberate sort of proactive business development strategy. Another book that I should mention, is Predictable Revenue. I’m a big believer not approach. He was the guy who at the beginning was instrumental in Salesforce and how it grew and their their marketing and their outreach approach. And that concept of predictable, regular consistent marketing and sales I call the flywheel that we we know these inputs that we’re going to go and develop and build. And these will be the outputs of puts we can get from that it’s not going to happen right away. But over time, if we follow those steps, these things will happen, you know, within this range of certainty. And I think at the beginning, I didn’t have a handle on that. I think a lot of what we do as entrepreneurs is in marketing to actually is let’s try something out. let’s iterate let’s see what works. In the 10x book, they talk a lot about the the courage to fail to try things and, you know, entrepreneurs gain a lot of battle scars from things that they did and didn’t work out and how many things that we’ve done, rather than seen that as a failure and a flop and I should not be doing this as an incentive to pay that’s a great learning experience.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz 8:48

How did you come to the niche that you serve? Because again, with what you do, you can serve a lot of different niches. So talk about the niche that you decide to go after?

Cameron Heffernan 9:00

Yeah, that’s a great question. I think it’s something that I would say to my clients, or prospects, every time that we that we meet with them I look at there are a lot of companies that do X know, right here I am now in central Ohio, there are many companies that are digital media, marketing, multi channel agencies. So we’re never going to be successful. I feel this, I say this to my team, we’re never going to be successful. Just being another agency. You know, another company that makes vanilla ice cream, it’s really good vanilla ice cream. There’s a lot of companies that are doing that a lot of agencies that can do exactly what we do. So it’s I feel it’s better. And again, this is right out of the 10x book and platform is let’s focus on the 20% that we do really, really well. Okay, what’s our special unique ability? What is our superpower, as a team, as an agency? Let’s focus on and develop that. That book starts within talking about how Michelangelo Uh, you know, didn’t just go build David right from scratch, there are other things he did first and other a lot of work and effort that he did to learn what his expertise were why. And I feel that that’s what we’re if we’re doing it well, that’s what we’re doing, you know, we’re really leaning into where are we different, special and unique. And that is working across borders, you know, the knowledge of working in Europe, helping b2b companies from outside of the US to either get a foothold here to enter the US market for the first time, or to do what they’re doing here and grow, you know, some of our customers that are based in Europe, they’ve got more of a, you know, maybe a sales function or a managing director with a limited operations team. They don’t have the marketing, they don’t have the communications. So I feel that our our ability, our strength is to say, you know, give us the keys to the marketing communications car, let us handle that you go and focus on business growth, working with mentoring your team, and we’ll handle that outreach, we’ll make sure that your messaging is on point that your messaging is directed to, again, to the people who really benefit from your unique ability as a company. What type of companies are those typically, I guess one common thread for our my client base currently is that concept of either wanting to reach or work across borders, whether they’re in the US, and they’ve either operations in another region of the world, like Latin America, or they want to, they’re in based in another continent, say, Europe or Asia. And they want to have effective communications and marketing strategy here. So just like if you were to launch a new business, you wouldn’t just let’s say that you’re based in Europe. And you wouldn’t just even if you’re in Ireland, or the UK, it’s not a language that it’s really about, you’re going to start in a new country, you have no credibility, you don’t have the team that’s on the ground that knows that market. So the best thing is that you would be doing as a starting point is looking at, who do we need there on the ground that knows the US market, and let’s work with those people. Just the same as if I were to enter Europe for the first time, how different it would be, you know, GDPR, 22, some odd nation states in the EU, that was one of the biggest differences that I encountered when I worked there. Right from the outset, are the languages, right, Belgium alone is this Belgium is the size of Maryland’s a tiny country, but they have three official language is that okay? And then one of the reasons I was brought over because my my, you know, English communication skills, which, which isn’t really enough to build a career on in this country, but I think it was essential to languages, there are something you have to deal with right out of the gate, and not something that we’re used to here, unless you’re in a specialized business, or a bilingual kind of business, and not something you have to navigate there. It’s clear from the outset.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz 12:51

Um, you know, when you say, when you describe it, for some reason, it pops in my head that it’s a lot of manufacturers that would move. Is that accurate? And other other types of genres of business that you tend to work with that are moving, you know, going going international?

Cameron Heffernan 13:08

Yeah, I mean, that’s we do have clients in that space, we’ve got a couple of clients that do either either manufacture, they make their own products or components, or service providers to the manufacturing sector. So we do have clients in that space, pharmaceuticals, as well. We’ve done work there with clients that do contract drug manufacturing, which, you know, it’ll still another side of manufacturing, not the same as industrial manufacturing. But that concept of a product with a with a services providers, I still feel that with those kinds of companies, the challenge is more because you don’t actually make anything. So your content, your marketing your programs, your campaigns need to be related to the value add that you bring your knowledge, your thought leadership talking about trends. Why would you come and work with us when there’s X number of other service providers? You know, no one makes or does anything that’s completely unique. Even Tesla has companies that are now doing something similar. I’m seeing more of Pollstar these days and looking at how is that different from Tesla, you know, no company is the only company that does that.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz 14:18

What are some, I’m sure that people come to you, and some are proactive, and some are not proactive. And they’ve tried going into these markets, and it’s not worked. So what are some of the mistakes you have seen that people make when they try to go international?

Cameron Heffernan 14:35

One would be doing what we’re doing here. Let’s take the example of American company that wants to do more in Europe, doing exactly what we’re doing here and thinking it will work and apply for the European market. Not working with local talent. So the first thing that I would do if I was sitting a company in Western Europe, find someone again, who not how from that book, find someone or a group Whereas in an entity there that already is positioned and knows that the European market knows those challenges knows the market preferences and desires. It’s most tangible when you think of b2c types of companies. So it kind of take that same mindset and apply it to a b2b environment. I remember when I was first in, in Belgium little things that would be different that would that would get you a trip you up, you know, stores are not open very late six or seven in the evening, you’re done. Banks are not open at lunchtime. It’s become more common now recently with all the and Lidl being in the US. For the first time I was in those stores, I wasn’t used to bringing my own bag or having to put the euro coin into the into the trolley. So again, little small examples from a b2c environment. We think with with the b2b business, how can this being different affect what we do what we deliver, your value proposition has to be kind of tailored for that market?

Dr. Jeremy Weisz 16:00

Yeah, I could see how let’s say someone opened a grocery chain in from the US to where you were, and they’re expecting it to be open at 10 or 11. At night, it may be hard to get a workforce to stay there because that’s just not what they’re used to.

Cameron Heffernan 16:13

They’re right, right. And you know, it does work. And I remember, I was living in DC Virginia area and as a popular hamburger chain called Five Guys. And five guys eventually went to a franchise model was all over the world. And so a Five Guys, either in France or Belgium at that fell that that’s really strange. And it but it worked, you know, because the the model was so simple. People loved it. And it just expanded and grew. So it’s a great way to organically grow your business, a lot of a lot of companies think, well, we’re either going to acquire something, or we’re going to just keep doing what we do better and more efficiently. going overseas is again, right out of the 10. Next sort of playbook is a way to step step up, do something different, unique, and you’re growing your business in a way that your competitors might not have thought about.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz 17:00

Let’s talk about an example

Dr. Jeremy Weisz 17:03

of how this plays out and what your recommendations whereas there was a company in Mexico that you did some work with.

Cameron Heffernan 17:10

Yeah, we that’s a longtime client of mine. I worked with them with my previous agency and still are working with them. Currently, there are services providers that don’t do manufacturing themselves, but their clients do. And they specialize in the sort of the mid market space for manufacturing, which can be a huge range, you can still get to be an $80 million company within that size range. And we what we did, I don’t want to give a number because it ages me dates my age, but I wouldn’t say a few years back, we looked at their outreach, and we looked at their website and the materials and thought it’s too much focus on what we’re what we’re trying to convey and express. Remember the book gearing things one of the first books is Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hook, when that ratio was very deliberate, it’s give, give, then ask a three to one sort of mix. You want to give more information and knowledge and expertise than you’re asking for someone to buy your book or go to your webinar or buy a widget. So we kind of overhauled their communications. In that vein, everything was about the pain points of midsize manufacturers, many companies now it’s even more acute with the China situation and global trade and all those different things. But a lot of European and American companies wanted to have a presence in Mexico, to shorten the supply chain to realize this cost savings and to not have to mess with some of the challenges in China. But it’s hard to do it if you’re a mid market company to do it on your own. Because you don’t know what you’re doing there. It’s the first time you’re in the country, the cost to startup is significant. So you go with a service provider that can help facilitate that transition. What we did with my client was to help articulate the relief to those different pain points, white papers, materials about that transition about what can happen if you don’t know what you’re doing, but the length of time it can take you about violations you can get if you haven’t figured that out. And again focus on common emotional pain points of those companies and how our clients solve them. So we turned around all of the pieces the outreach the website and to customer focused into solution that my client offered to those common pain points. The next year, they also do this the timing the market, the economy, etc. But for the first time they got they got three new clients in a year typically a great year was one new client because they’re not a huge company. But it’s they’re big investments for mid market sized companies to make me a multiple millions of dollars over many year period.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz 19:54

That was a good way and that’s pretty huge.

Cameron Heffernan 19:55

I mean, they’re happy with it. We were happy with it.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz 19:58

So a lifetime value client for them is in the multiple millions. That’s right.

Cameron Heffernan 20:02

That’s right. And it was also that I think it also reinforced the concept of this is the pattern, this is the approach we’re going to do going forward. I’m a big fan of set it and forget it. Yeah, you got to go back and iterate and tweak and refine. But if you can set up a true sales and marketing flywheel, that things are happening, it’s predictable, predictable number of leads, and prospects coming into the funnel. It’s much better to, for everybody, for planning for budgeting for the team, and it’s a real win I can see.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz 20:33

Cameron, how you focus on the pain points, the emotional pain points, the messaging, and creating these assets that can be deployed, what are some of the Levers you pull to get them out into the world to get exposure for the company?

Cameron Heffernan 20:49

I think it depends on a lot of factors, you know, we would we’d always start with engage with a prospect of, you know, what are your goals, we would work with them understand those goals. We know how, what are the KPIs and metrics that we need to put in place to achieve them? What does success look like to you? We would also evaluate where they’re at now, you know, is their messaging clear? Is there value proposition clear that people understand what they’re offering. And we would look at any of those that need to be modified, evaluated, improved. And then we were almost always going to do a multi channel approach. I love doing conferences and events. I think that these days in marketing, there’s value there. Because so many companies have shifted to a full digital approach. There’s, there’s still a value in being on the ground meeting with prospects. We try to tee up as many meetings ahead of time as we can, you know, let’s think of the team as they travel. One of my clients has a conference coming up next month in Europe, you know, three or four people out of the office for a week heading over there. It’s a big investment. So we want to do all we can to set up meetings ahead of time to ensure that the right people coming to me too. And so not everyone wants to or has the appetite to do events and conferences, so we would make a mix of things that are tailored for the client. I think you’ve probably worked with more b2c companies and I have the the marketing and the outreach efforts are going to be different between the two the two sides. I think b2b company is going to learn a lot more b2c companies do they’re typically have bigger budgets, better known brands, better longer track record, brands that people have heard of, can we apply any of those campaigns approaches ideas to a b2b landscape, so whether it’s LinkedIn, email marketing, a cold email, warm email, collateral, so so much these days relies on the social proof that you have a stat and I love to try out is that by the time people have made their buying decision, 70% of people have already decided they want to purchase a certain thing, definitely go out and start to look at what they want to buy. Right. So what’s the last thing you’ve purchased less technology purchase? You’ve made Jeremy

Dr. Jeremy Weisz 23:12

probably an iPad. Okay, well, you

Cameron Heffernan 23:14

know what he wanted, but you probably did some some figuring on Oh, yeah, I

Dr. Jeremy Weisz 23:17

mean, I wanted somebody take notes. I’m like, I’m taking notes right now on this. And I’m a high Fact Finder. So I actually looked at a bunch of options, not just an iPad, which is the remarkable people will recommend that remarkable and some other stuff, but I went with the iPad in the apple pen. So yeah,

Cameron Heffernan 23:36

I got nothing going on. Got that the same device. I’m nerdy about this stuff. I’ll spend time just poring over, my son just bought some air, not air pods, but they were JBL sort of competitor. Let’s try those out. You know, if you lose them, it’s not as costly. We did research we did we spend time on and I think companies that don’t consider that, or they have almost a nonexistent you know, digital footprint or the website that doesn’t really convey what they do. are, you know, they’re doing themselves a disservice. 100%

Dr. Jeremy Weisz 24:06

Um, you mentioned conferences and events, I’m sure you do a lot of advising on that Rome. What are some of the mistakes people make? That you you know, people work with you probably you help them navigate around those, but that you’ve seen people make over and over again, with when doing those because it is a big investment?

Cameron Heffernan 24:25

Yeah, I think that’s a good question. Um, assuming that people understand what you do, and what your value proposition is, and I think it doesn’t just relate to conferences and events. You think I always use this metaphor of when you’re driving down a freeway at 65 miles an hour, and you see a billboard. That’s the level of simplicity I want in our materials, whether it’s above the fold and the homepage, whether it’s a banner at a show Have a simple brochure, digital ad, whatever it might be that level of simplicity, I could explain it to someone who has never been to this industry before and is going to get it. And so messaging needs to be simple and again, has to tie to what is their pain point. Um, so companies that don’t understand or know, their targets their prospects, that’s also a challenge, you know, not fully understanding the needs that your buyers have your potential buyers.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz 25:31

Are there any favorite you know, when you talk about this, and I geek out on copywriting direct response, because it goes back to the fundamental of, of messaging, and speaking to the customer and the pain points in that customer? Are there any resources or people that you’ve studied throughout the year, whether it’s direct response copywriters, marketers, who do you like and you’ve who have you learned from?

Cameron Heffernan 25:54

I think that there’s a couple, I think, the story brand approached Donald Miller and his books, and he built a whole industry around that. And that’s really our focus. Focus on the pain points. People care about their own emotions, so much more than anyone else’s emotions. I mean, that sounds really simple. But keep that in mind. And I try to then challenge the team when we put something together does that Does that satisfy that requirement? Have we addressed the readers pain points, you look at on a b2c landscape, it’s really simple and you got thirst, get a Coke, dinnertime, go to Pizza Hut? And because there are simpler needs, but how can we apply these to a business, a business sort of a b2b environment, fear of failure, inability to grow your business, lack of clarity on what you’re doing all things that we should address from our solution, but you focus first on the on the pain?

Dr. Jeremy Weisz 26:51

How do you going back to the agency part for a second? You know, you have I think virtual teams, right? How do you navigate and create a culture with the virtual team that you have?

Cameron Heffernan 27:06

Good question, I think with my last agency, too, that was part of the equation from the beginning. So we’ve been doing that, and it didn’t seem, it wasn’t foreign to me. So I just kind of went with it. And that’s what we do. Now we get together. With our last strategy planning meeting was in September, we get together three or four times a year, we’re gonna do a brand new workshop in December. I’m the one where I’ve got one teammate who’s in South America, so she’ll join us remotely, but the others, we they come into town, and we get together for a couple of days. And I look at it like we wouldn’t be spending more time regularly if we were in the same place. So I try to replicate that environment as much as I can. And it’s the talking about the divisive issue. I mean, it’s like pineapple on pizza. It’s some people, myself and older people really value Hey, be in the office be together build that cohesion. In younger generation, it’s it’s a harder thing to sell and persuade on there’s value in both. I do love a hybrid environment. And so I try to give a little bit of both to my team.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz 28:14

So one thing you do is you’ll meet a couple times a year actually in person, what do you do from a virtual perspective? Like what is the weekly meeting cadence look like? What do you do on a weekly or monthly basis, we are virtual.

Cameron Heffernan 28:29

It’s a similar to the EOS kind of approach, we do an L 10. meeting we just had an earlier this morning. So we get together once a week with that l 10. Meeting kind of step through it. And we didn’t we haven’t, you know, implemented traction or anything like that, but we’re doing some of the steps. And then we have sort of shorter recall the standup meetings are supposed to be short enough that you can stand to the whole thing later in the week on Thursday and my team is now small enough where I really I’ll go to them and say guys, what do you want to do what works for you? And I think there’s little things that we can do as an agency owners that the team really values that aren’t a huge cost or on a monetary cost that are really valued so I think that they don’t want to add another meeting. They wanted to add a longer sort of strategic brainstorm meeting so we’re gonna do that at once a month too.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz 29:21

Yeah, so you’ll you’ll go to them but there’s a daily stand up you have a level 10 meeting if you’ll know what that is. There is Gino Wickman. There’s a video online that explains actually everything that you do in a level 10 meeting and setting rocks etc. So you can check that out. You know, I want to talk about another example. So we talked about Mexico, there’s another client in Austria and some of the things you did with them.

Cameron Heffernan 29:46

Sure. That was that was an interesting client in some ways. That’s a good almost like a poster child sort of client for us. It came through a lot of people are really down on LinkedIn as a channel I can understand why I told they can. But also like email marketing, you and I’ve talked about this how terrible email marketing can be. So if you do it with any, you know, any amount of do it somewhat decently you kind of stand out, right. So I had reached out to somebody on LinkedIn, and he got back to me. And it kind of just evolved from there. His his company is based in Austria, they make Internet of Things, sensors, and we hit it off, he’s in Chicago, he’s got a sales team. But he doesn’t have marketing, he doesn’t have communications. And he has a challenge where he is not the top focus of the European headquarters. So to him, we give a good solution where he has access to the whole team. It’s not just me, in fact, I do very little hands on with that client, the team really runs it. But that’s one of those things that you’re looking at, should I work with an agency or she’s going to hire somebody to do this, there’s pluses and minuses above with an agency, you get access to more senior person, We’re experienced, hopefully guiding the strategy. And you have a whole team of people that supporting them. So that might mean you’re doing you have a copywriter your disposal, someone who knows ads, someone who could do video, someone who’s doing more long form copy, a whole team to build that would be cost prohibitive, and you probably couldn’t get at one one entry level or one mid career person to do all those things. That’s a nice advantage of working with an agency. And that you they can also pull in their expertise, successes, learnings from other clients and bring those into the equation, Hey, should we consider this? We did this with a similar client, and it worked. But we should look at tailoring that for you.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz 31:45

What were some of the things that they were coming to you that they want to know.

Cameron Heffernan 31:51

I don’t know about about you if this is a common thing that you guys hear. But oftentimes, when we work with clients, they’ll say, You’re the marketing agency, you guide and direct us. And that’s a great thing to hear. Because it means they’re showing they understand the content in us. And they’re gonna give us a you know, at least somewhat autonomy to go and try stuff. And I’ll be honest, too, and say, marketing is not in advertising, you place an ad and it runs and it’s out there. You know, it’s gonna happen. It’s in some ways marketing similar, but we don’t know what’s going to work. So always say, let’s try a BNC options or versions. let’s iterate let’s try what works, let’s try different things out, let’s not be afraid to see something that didn’t work. So with them, we proposed their their audience is engineers, very wonky, sort of technical audience. So we do, we did a couple of white papers, we did revealed a couple of decent media partnerships with very esoteric kind of publications that were fruitful. And that’s a nice pattern that I like to do, too. I know that world from my past and journalism and was a good fit with the readers. And as long as the content is valued, you know, as long as the content really has interesting, good takeaway. Yep.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz 33:11

Cameron, first of all, I want to I have one last question before I ask it, just thanks for sharing your journey, your stories. And I love your global perspective, because at least for me, I’m always locked in thinking you asked, and there’s a big world out there so and you help people kind of navigate that big world. And so I want to encourage people to check out yourb2bmarketing.co and learn more about what Cameron’s doing. My last question. And when you mentioned a lot of great books, which I’m definitely gonna check out. So thanks for sharing those. My last question is about, you know, those valuable groups. One of them being Yeah, we’re both in EO, what are some takeaways that you’ve gotten from, from EO and being in a group of like minded entrepreneurs?

Cameron Heffernan 34:03

Um, I’ve gotten so much out of being in EO, I joined 2019. It’s other people who know what you’re dealing with, who can identify with struggles that you’re facing, and people who have overcome what you’re now struggling with, at the moment, you can go to them, and it’s a very open and accessible community. It’s a great way to get insights or suggestions or tips and people do don’t give advice. It’s about sharing experiences. So I’ve seen that this has worked. I have seen that that didn’t work. Yes, you can get new business from it. But it’s not about that. It’s about a community that understand where you’re coming from, can help each other out and sort of has been there before. So I found it a fantastic learning experience. I think in the last couple years, I’ve really committed to ongoing learning know you’re always going to be focusing in iterating and improving and try to do better.

Dr. Jeremy Weisz 34:59

Love it. Cameron, I wanna be the first one to thank you everyone, check out yourb2bmarketing.co and more episodes of the podcast. And thanks, Cameron. Thanks, everyone.

Cameron Heffernan 35:07

Thank you Jeremy. Really appreciate your time. Thanks a lot.

Outro 35:10

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