Cindy Machles is the Co-founder and CEO of Glue Advertising and Public Relations, a full-service advertising agency that assembles talent to meet clients’ immediate goals and growth objectives. A leader and pioneer, Cindy was among the first to apply marketing and branding strategies used in consumer markets to the healthcare industry. In 2022, she was recognized by the Top 100 Innovators and Entrepreneurs Magazine for her initiatives on women’s issues. She is an avid mentor for startups through the Polsky Center for Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the University of Chicago and the CMO for SecureCHEK AI.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
- Cindy Machles shares how Glue Advertising was founded — and how its innovative business model stands out from the competition
- Staying ahead of the newest technology trends
- The challenges Cindy has overcome in her dual roles
- Why communication is integral in marketing and entrepreneurship
- Cindy talks about her work as a mentor for the Polsky Center at the University of Chicago
- Why you should include a CFO on your team
- The key to a good business pitch: read the room
In this episode…
Communication is the backbone of marketing. The best marketing pitches are quick and to the point while wholly communicating whatever it is you’re trying to sell. What other marketing tips can help you thrive?
Entrepreneur and marketing expert Cindy Machles envisioned a strategic and innovative communications company that would disrupt the way marketing companies operated. Thus, Glue was created. Rather than recycle the standard marketing model, Cindy and her business partner provide a better client experience with hands-on leadership, quick response times, and a flawless delivery system that is on time and within budget. When running a marketing agency, your goal is to make your client’s life easier and build their business faster.
In this episode of the Top Business Leaders Show, Chad Franzen welcomes Cindy Machles, Co-founder and CEO of Glue Advertising and Public Relations, to discuss the fundamental elements of marketing and the importance of being a strong communicator. Cindy shares how her company’s business model sets them apart from competing agencies, the challenges she’s overcome in her multiple roles, and the key to a good business pitch.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
- Chad Franzen on LinkedIn
- Rise25
- Email the team at Rise25: support@rise25.com
- Cindy Machles on LinkedIn
- Email Cindy Machles: cindy@glueadvertising.com
- Glue Advertising and Public Relations
- SecureCHEK AI
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Episode Transcript
Intro 0:04
Welcome to the Top Business Leaders Show. Powered by Rise25 media, we featured top founders, executives and business leaders from all over the world.
Chad Franzen 0:20
Chad Franzen here co-host of the Top Business Leaders Show where we feature CEOs, entrepreneurs and top leaders in the business world. This episode is brought to you by Rise25. We help b2b businesses reach their dream relationships and connect with more clients, referrals, and strategic partnerships and get ROI through done for you podcasts. If you have a b2b business and want to build great relationships, there’s no better way to do it than to profile the people in companies you admire. podcast to learn more, go to Rise25.com or email us at support at Rise25.com. Cindy Machles is a brand and business leader. She is co founder and CEO of Glue Advertising, which has been recognized as a top 20 New York agency since 2017. And she herself was recently named a top 100 entrepreneur and Innovator for 2022. She’s an avid mentor to startups through the University of Chicago’s prestigious accelerator, the Polsky Center. And she is CMO of a SaaS company called SecureCHEK AI, which is automating the creation of promotional materials at the push of a button. Hey, Cindy, thank you so much for joining me today. How are you?
Cindy Machles 1:28
I’m great. How are you today?
Chad Franzen 1:30
Good. Thank you. I appreciate your time. So tell me a little bit more about Glue Advertising. You’re a co founder there and what you guys do. So Glue Advertising,
Cindy Machles 1:39
we are almost 10 years old. So Time really flies. And my business partner and I come out of the big conglomerate world, we decided we wanted to have a different kind of agency, one that is more innovative one where senior leaders are more hands on. And one where client needs were first and foremost. And we didn’t have all these big teams. We had people who were if they were working on the business, they were touching the business and adding value. And we have pursued that model since the start. And the verticals are the types of companies that have been attracted to us. In, for example, b2b, we’re working with Office Depot. We are working with BET MGM, we’re working with Citi, and we are working with a number of health care companies that are more mid level, I’m not sure that people would know those names quite as well. But just as exciting as the rest of our portfolio.
Chad Franzen 2:36
Hey, you mentioned as you were starting Glue Advertising the you weren’t you were interested in kind of creating an agency that was more innovative and put customers first. Can you elaborate on that and how you guys have done that?
Cindy Machles 2:48
Yeah, I think part of what we’ve done is we’ve decided that we are going to do some firsts, particularly in healthcare, which is a sweet spot for us. So for example, one of the ideas that we developed and then brought to market first is, we did the first branded Facebook Live for a healthcare product. And what that means is we had to media train patients, real patients who had a serious disease, in this case, to be able to talk about their personal experience, but at the same time, understand that there are some legal medical regulatory guardrails. And since this, we wanted to have it be live. And we kind of took a leap of faith, and it was amazing. And the results the client got, were something like a 200% increase to traffic to their website page, where it was the website page that was most appropriate for product consideration. So you can’t do much better than that. But you had to do that. Well, you have to try new things. Hmm.
Chad Franzen 3:59
So when you weren’t you when you were getting started, you had all kinds of great ideas, all kinds of great ideas, but I’m sure that the, you know, building a foundation of the agency maybe had some challenges. Can you tell me about the early days and you know, what you did to get clients, things like that?
Cindy Machles 4:14
Well, we were put in business pretty much by a client relationship. Friend of mine had taken a marketing job at a company where he needed support. And so he said to me, come in and pitch and if you pitch as you can be our agency of record if you win, and if you don’t, I could still use your help as a consultant. And to mount that pitch people a lot of times think it’s all about getting clients that starts a company. In this case, it was our friends within our network, the art directors, the copywriters, the editors, so many people we knew who dedicated their time for free to helping us put together that presentation because we really didn’t have the money to pay them with the idea that if we won, we would give them business. And every time we have an opportunity we absolutely do.
Chad Franzen 5:11
Wow, that is awesome. So since that time, you’ve been recognized as a top 20, New York agency, what have you found to maybe be some essential elements when it comes to running an agency,
Cindy Machles 5:24
I think you can never rest on your laurels. It’s very important, in my opinion, that clients see that day in and day out that you are adding value. And it can only be value. That’s the innovation that I talk about, certainly, that’s part of it. But some of the value has to be turning around pieces as quickly as possible, adding ideas to Strategy that’s already in place, but perhaps you can make it a hair better. It has to be something that the clients feel makes their life easier, and builds their businesses faster.
Chad Franzen 6:05
How important is it to stay aware of, you know, new trends out there with technology developing or, you know, developing so quickly, how is important? How important is that.
Cindy Machles 6:16
So you lead right into one of my other roles. So I along with being CEO of Glue, and a co founder, and I’m also a founder and chief marketing officer of a company called SecureCHEK AI. Part of the reason that I got involved in that company is as we know, AI right now is all people are talking about. At the same time, it’s an idea and people are trying to figure out how does that apply to my business. And what we’ve been able to do is take a technology that is infused with AI, and figure out how we can take a client’s approved marketing materials, extract the content, B, have the AI understand what content always needs to travel together, and then import that content into tactical templates. And we can do this virtually at the push of a button. So as you can imagine, the potential to create collateral, which can be extremely expensive and time consuming to potentially create it faster. And to create it more cost effectively, is there and I think that this is huge. And I feel that we and other agencies need to embrace this. So in fact, SecureCHEK AI is not just an idea that is within Glue. It is an idea that I am helping the founders of SecureCHEK AI to market to other agencies and directly to clients.
Chad Franzen 7:46
Wow. So what are the some of the biggest challenges you find yourself having to overcome kind of in those dual roles?
Cindy Machles 7:53
Oh, time or time is always a challenge, because you want to give 100% to everything that you do. And I can’t possibly I’m only one person. I think it’s picking my spots and my opportunities, and also remembering, and we did an edit so people can hear it. But I have a couple of dogs that were barking not long ago. So remembering that the dogs have to go out and be fed, and my adult children who are grown and do live at home. They also they just need to be nurtured by their mother every now and then.
Chad Franzen 8:29
What what’s most challenging about running a successful agency, we talked about some of the key essentials to success. What about challenges?
Cindy Machles 8:37
I think the most significant challenge, and it’s every business is putting the right people in the right seats. And that’s an expression of course, but it’s an expression that means everything. And we have a certain attitude, a glue. And that attitude is always when we finish delivering something for a client. What more can we do? And what more good well, I’m sorry, not what more can we do in that we’re looking to bill you is what more can we do that meets the needs that you still have? And our clients very much appreciate that and it isn’t always easy to build a team where everybody feels that way.
Chad Franzen 9:21
Yeah, what do you do to build that team? How do you create that culture?
Cindy Machles 9:26
It starts at the top. It absolutely starts at the top. And I honest I mean it’s funny when someone said to me the other day, oh Monday morning, and I said Monday morning because I absolutely love my job. I love every aspect of what I do at Glue at SecureCHEK AI. As you mentioned the opening. I’m involved in startups and part of the reason that I do that is it feeds back into everything. It keeps me aware of what’s the latest in areas that At our far field of advertising, and I get to be infected by the enthusiasm of founders who are just starting their careers.
Chad Franzen 10:10
So you want to find the right people, that’s kind of a challenge, is it a challenge for them to keep the right people or once they get there, they’re, you know, that’s what that’s what they’re meant to be.
Cindy Machles 10:18
Listen, it’s always a challenge to keep people as well, I don’t think that you can ever think that someone is going to stay with you forever. I believe when people leave Glue to do something else, they need to go and do something else. And when they stay at Glue, the benefit they get is my business partner and I Alan are very hands on. I love marketing, I love every aspect of marketing. And I make it part of what I do at Glue, not only servicing clients, but also teaching members of my team, so that they can be excellent at the craft of marketing.
Chad Franzen 10:58
So not only are you a you’re a CMO, a marketing expert, you’re a founder of an agency, but you’re also an entrepreneur, and otherwise, tell me about another business, you started your Med Edge.
Cindy Machles 11:09
Yes, your Med Edge. So this is again, a huge unmet need, in my opinion, you have patients who have, for example, rare diseases, and they might not have access to the latest information on those diseases, and they have no idea where to find it. What we’re doing is we’re making available to them information that right now is only available to doctors on the convention floor of major medical meetings, that information is not patient or consumer ready right now. But we are finding key opinion leaders, they can be doctors, they can be other patients, but people who understand emerging trends and who are attending these meetings, we are making them advocates who go on podcasts, and they explained to patients what just happened on the convention floor, what’s new, and what’s different. So those patients that have information, and they can either go to a doctor in their area and have a more productive conversation or find the expert they need to do the best they can with whatever disease they have.
Chad Franzen 12:19
Would you consider yourself more of a marketer or an entrepreneur? Or do they all kind of go hand in hand?
[continue to page 2]
Cindy Machles 12:26
So funny. I think it’s all seamless. I really do. I think of what I think so I think marketing is about communication. Fundamentally, that’s what it is. And I had the creative director years ago now retired, but he would always say to me, if it’s hard for me to develop a creative campaign, then there’s something flawed in the idea. So it’s not that creative campaigns develop themselves. But they start with communication. That just makes sense. So being a good communicator, is what makes me good at marketing. And I think what makes me good as an entrepreneur, and just, I don’t know, just, I think it all starts with that I was a journalism major in college. So my experience from the very beginning was how to write something. And it was mostly to write something that would be appropriate in the newsroom. So it had to be short, it had to be to the point it had to lead with a hook. And that’s essentially what marketing is. And when you’re an entrepreneur, you have to lead with a hook and an idea that entices people to want to come work with you. So it’s all very, very connected.
Chad Franzen 13:47
Was there something that caused you to go from being a reporter to, you know, a marketer, you know, somebody like that?
Cindy Machles 13:52
Yeah, it was just that, honestly, I come from a small town, Lancaster, Pennsylvania. And I had been in I went to my undergraduate in Boston, and then I was thinking about what’s next. And if I had decided to go the newspaper route, I would have probably been in a smaller town, Lancaster, and I had my sights set on big cities. And I wanted to I thought about, well, what can I use my communication skills to do that will allow me to, frankly, live anywhere I want. I was 20 something at the time, that’s important. And I went to business school and studied marketing. And then my very first job was in San Francisco. And how exciting is that? Yeah, absolutely.
Chad Franzen 14:36
Very exciting. So tell me about your work as a mentor to startups at the University of Chicago at the Polsky Center.
Cindy Machles 14:46
So I am a graduate of Chicago Booth of business school, and within University of Chicago, the Polsky Center. While there are a lot of Booths students who use the Polsky Center to help get there Startups off the ground. The Polsky Center is agnostic to whatever program someone is from within the University of Chicago. And every year they do something called the alumni New Venture Challenge. And what they need is they need what a mentors. I’m a mentor on the East Coast. Right now I’m working with five teams. Last night, in fact, was my night to work with we split the teams because I’m not the only person. So it was my night to work with three of the startups. And those three just happened to be focused in healthcare, doing very interesting things. So they taught me some ideas that I didn’t know. And I was able to use my experience to help guide them as well. And I left it’s, it was five to six, at six o’clock after the meeting ended. I just felt so fulfilled.
Chad Franzen 15:55
Sure, how important is it to you to help to have them see success, like what like, these guys have an incredible idea, and then take that idea and put it into fruition?
Cindy Machles 16:06
I want all of these startups to be successful. The problem is that probably only one will emerge from the East Coast and compete for the finals, which is a monetary prize, which is obviously very significant for these companies. And fortunately, I get to mentor them all I’m not a judge as to who will move forward, I that would be much harder for me, you have
Chad Franzen 16:30
a you have all kinds of brand management experience dating back to, you know, dating back to the 80s. In terms of entrepreneurial. I’m so sorry. It’s very impressive experience, very impressive experience. What uh, what have you learned as an entrepreneur kind of lessons, that you can only learn through experience that maybe you can share with some of these people that you’re mentoring.
Cindy Machles 16:56
This is kind of a funny story. So in our first few months of being in business, I was operating as I always had operated when I was working at Clorox, and Johnson and Johnson and within WPP. And that is focusing on client needs, and not really thinking about the bank account. Because when you work for big companies, you don’t have to think about the bank account. We were doing extremely well and invoicing clients. And for whatever reason, some of our invoices got lost. And all of a sudden, I looked up and checked in on the bank account. And we were doing gangbusters. We’re super busy. Everybody is pushing out great work. And we’re about to run out of money. And that is the lesson of entrepreneurship is cashflow. And you must pay attention to it. Even though that part of the business is my least favorite. Absolutely, I must be on top of it. And fortunately, I have an excellent CFO who makes sure that I don’t lose sight.
Chad Franzen 18:02
And you start out with a CFO or somebody who’s in charge of that even though even if that’s kind of your wheelhouse or do you guys an essential for an entrepreneur to be at least you know, aware of it?
Cindy Machles 18:12
Well, I have a business background. So I am very good when it comes to p&l and balance sheets and the kinds of information that I have to absorb to make sure the business is going well. But I didn’t have in again processes I did have a way to for people to record their hours, I didn’t have a way to send invoices out. That’s not something all of that technology that CFOs today have at their fingertips is not something that was my area of expertise. I am actually a believer in nepotism in the right situations. And so my sister happens to be a Wharton, educated CPA. And she was as my sister available to me. So she came in very early on before I could afford to pay a CFO of her caliber. She’s another one of the unsung heroes of blue success. And today she continues in that role.
Chad Franzen 19:12
Is there a proud, particularly proud moment that you’re most proud of a big career success for or a career highlight? And what was a big contributor to getting there?
Cindy Machles 19:24
Sorry, to put you on the spot. Yeah, I’m trying to think if there was I mean, because so many, the milestones along the way, our first client, how huge was that, that we won that pitch? Or when we get some of these name brand companies? How exciting is that? And then we just launched a company in a few months. That is a company that is going to be acquiring other companies that develop payer marketing type materials, and that’s something that we just did a few weeks ago. So I’m kind It’s, it’s almost, when you ask a mother, Which of her children are her favorite, it’s really hard to say, I almost feel as if every one of these milestone moments, you have to take a moment and just feel good about it. So I love the ball.
Chad Franzen 20:18
What is the key to making it a good pitch?
Cindy Machles 20:24
Reading the room. You can whatever presentation you walk into the room with, you have to be prepared to throw it away. And I find that that is something that people, they rehearse the the presentations in front of them. I’ve seen people nose down, almost reading off the slides. And that will never, in my opinion, that will never win a pitch because ideas on a page aren’t good enough. It is the way you relate to others in the room. If you read the fact that someone in the back is seemingly uncomfortable about something that you’re saying, you have to capitalize on that opportunity to say, I want to take a moment because I’m noticing that maybe what I’m saying is not quite what you’re thinking. Can we talk about it? Even in a pitch where you barely know people in the room? You need to get to know them as fast as you
Chad Franzen 21:24
can. So knowing that, how much prep do you do do or what kind of prep do you do?
Cindy Machles 21:30
I actually rehearse my team. But I myself barely rehearse. You’re just I, I don’t know, I pick up well, I mostly I so I do a lot of the debt writing, of course. But so I know the material. But I don’t want to get wed to something that I think I’m going to say. And I don’t want to be stale by the time I get in the room. So I make sure my team needs to be rehearsed because they need to be coordinated and seamless. Everyone needs to understand the handoffs, everyone needs to understand the most important points that we need to make. But I’m there as the emcee. And I’m there to make sure that it’s all working. And I’m going to have some slides to present, of course, but I just I need to make sure that our ideas are getting through. It’s much harder to do on Zoom. Much harder. Yeah, I
Chad Franzen 22:28
could see that. So do you have kind of a? Are you somebody who has that entrepreneurial spirit? Are you are you looking to start something else? Do you see that happening? As we move forward?
Cindy Machles 22:41
At this point in my career, I actually prefer to start something else in a way by working with other entrepreneurs who are starting those things and helping them be successful. That allows me frankly, to have my hands in a lot of different pies.
Chad Franzen 23:00
I have just one more question for you. But tell me how people can find out more about you and everything you have going on?
Cindy Machles 23:07
Well, I’m very active on LinkedIn. So you can reach out to me there of course and connect with me, I’d love that. And otherwise you can reach me directly. And I’m Cindy@glueadvertising.com.
Chad Franzen 23:24
So you have as I just mentioned, you have a lot of stuff going on SecureCHEK AI, you mentioned Glue Advertising, you’re a mentor, you’re an entrepreneurial mentor. Given all of that, what are a few rich, a few of your daily rituals that you find most important kind of what’s in a typical day.
Cindy Machles 23:43
Oh, gosh, most important is 10 o’clock every day, I take a break. And I have a group of gym buddies we used to go to Equinox together. But when Equinox close the first time, we decided instead that every day at 10 o’clock, we were going to do a zoom class. And so my team knows from 10 to 11. I am doing my exercise routine, and it makes the whole day much better. There obviously are days that I can’t, but the days that I can or the days where I feel most productive.
Chad Franzen 24:19
Sounds great. Hey, Cindy has been great to talk to you. Thank you so much. Really appreciate your time and all of your thoughts.
Cindy Machles 24:24
Yeah, thank you for having me.
Outro 24:26
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