Latest / Big Swing Podcast / Big Swing: Navigating the New Age of Marketing with Tim Lozier | Episode 2

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Big Swing: Navigating the New Age of Marketing with Tim Lozier | Episode 2 · Big Swing Podcast

• Funk Futures Media (00:02.094) All right, big swing episode two, episode one with a guest and we have Tim Lozier which is deeply meaningful for me, actually completely insane. Corey, I remember this a couple of years ago when you took over as VP of sales, head of sales at detection and you were talking. to me about potentially having fun futures come in and do some, you know, lead gen top funnel services to compliment your sales team there and Tim's extensive marketing efforts. And I'll never forget you said, listen, I know this is kind of weird, but there's somebody that I need you to talk to. He's sort of like my, you know, my colleagues sort of my equal here on the marketing side, but his name is Tim Lozier. Corey Scott (01:00.033) Hahaha. Funk Futures Media (01:01.102) I'm like, what? So for those, I'm sure people listening, maybe a smile came to their face. My podcast co-host, my good friend, rest in peace, Tim Lozier. You know, that's like a, it's first of all, it's a unique name, right? The spelling is different. He had like the L-O-S-E-R, which is a tough one. Nobody gets you confused and calls you Tim Lozier as Tim. Corey Scott (01:03.221) Yep. Tim Lozier (01:26.138) I got a few of those growing up though. Funk Futures Media (01:30.254) It's just too it's too easy. It's too easy. But the Z the Z is like it's probably a little bit more common makes it easier You got the eye in there, but I'm like you're kidding. There's I'm gonna be working with a guy named Tim Lozier So it for me it's a bit of a full circle moment here to start a new podcast to have our first guest ever on and We both agreed and made it very clear our first guest to be interviewed is gonna be Tim Lozier. So Hopefully you're smiling down right now Tim Lozier. But this Tim Losers down here with us and we're going to jump into all of the big breakthrough media things all the fun things that you're doing from a marketing perspective in your world. But Corey, why don't you dive into your history a little bit with Tim since you're the one that made the connection between three of us. Corey Scott (02:17.599) Yeah, I think, I think with what you were saying about just the past with, with Tim and me meeting this Tim, at detection, made sense for him to be the first guest, which then ultimately kicks off kind of our first series, right? So this is the first episode of our first series we'll say for, go to market, marketing. As Jeremy mentioned on the last podcast, you know, we might have some play on the words where marketing with the willing gas can mean something completely different. But Jeremy and I know a lot of software folks, a lot of B2B companies where marketing is always a conversation. And so as we have future guests on this show, we thought it would be a great way to kick it off having Tim first. kicking off the go-to-market marketing side of that. So we're glad to have Tim with it. So Tim and I. or is meaningful to me. Tim and I met a couple years ago when we both joined Detection. He was head of marketing. I was head of sales. And we kind of hit it off, you know, kind of that first call Tim, you you reached out to me, you started a month before me, right? And you're like, well, hey, I got to know who my counterpart in crime is going to be, right? For the sales team. And so we had a good 30 minute conversation. I remember I was just sitting at my countertop, you know, just taking a couple of calls, but knew that was important. one because I was going to see how we hit it off on that first call and I knew it was going to really set the stage as we started working together. You know how fluid were we going to be? How much did we see the roadmap together eye to eye or was there going to be a lot of friction and and Corey Scott (04:01.905) second guessing of how we do things or seeing it completely different. But look, it wasn't that man. So we, we spent time in the trenches. I don't think there was a day that went on through the time we were there where we didn't talk. We were always making sure our teams were aligned. And so we just built such a good, you know, bond, a good working relationship, a good friendship, kept that going. And here we are, right? New chapters of our life. But man, I think it was such a critical moment for both of us and how we did everything. So I'm excited to have you on as really our first guest this way of the episode, man. you know, without further ado, we got Tim and I think it's only fair for me to pass the mic over to you, Tim. Tell us a little bit about you. Who is Tim Lozier? Tim Lozier (04:46.196) Yeah, I mean, who is Tim? I mean, I'm honored guys. This is great. mean, look, I love working with both you guys and you know. Funk Futures Media (04:49.441) you is. Tim Lozier (04:58.098) I feel like you guys can't get rid of me and I can't get rid of you, so I guess we're kind of just intertwined here. So it's only fair, right? Man, yeah, I mean, who's Tim Losier, right? I don't know. Let's think about this. Once upon a time, there was a boy from the desert in Tatooine. He wanted to be a Jedi like his father. No, that's not me. No, I'm a... Funk Futures Media (05:02.338) Ha ha! Tim Lozier (05:22.314) I've been around for 25 years in this space. I've always had this overactive imagination and like really just an inability to sit still growing up. And so, you know, as I kind of, you know, grew up and, you know, started thinking about what I wanted to do, I became a marketer. And, you know, I... I'm from Amityville, I'm from New York. So if you guys are horror fans, I live near the Amityville Horror House. In fact, one of my best friends actually lives in the house. It's just pretty cool. yeah. So there's my small claim to fame. Funk Futures Media (05:57.698) What? Corey Scott (05:58.539) Huh? Just starting this off with the bank, dude. Funk Futures Media (06:03.726) Yeah, so maybe you've heard of Amityville. One of my friends lives in the horror house. Alright, so do you go over there? What is this guy just have no fear whatsoever? Tim Lozier (06:12.648) Yeah, we go there all the time. Yeah. In fact, they started doing the Halloween parties again. They used to do the Halloween parties before COVID. They had to have a bouncer and everything. You had to get a wristband because like people would just come and creep all over the place. It was wild. But yeah, that was a lot of fun. Yeah. So yeah, I'm there a lot. And, you know, we go out there and we hang out. Funk Futures Media (06:33.688) So that's just that's wild. So so you I want to go back even further though. So did you grow up in Long Island? Is that is that where you're from? Yeah. Tim Lozier (06:39.966) Yeah, born and raised Long Island, know, and grew up on the water, probably owned a boat before I had a bike and just, you know, we would spend days exploring and doing stuff and then. You know, eventually I went to school down south in Virginia, James Madison University, like I came in, and I actually came in as like an English major or something like that, I don't know what it was. And so pretty quickly I switched to business because it was like, I wanna be creative, but I wanna make money. And so marketing seemed like the right mix between being able to express your creativity and still kinda be in that business world. Funk Futures Media (07:03.436) Mmm. Tim Lozier (07:24.484) came out on the other side and actually lived in Denver for a while, man. I worked at a design company there, a design software company in Denver, so I was near you, Jeremy. Funk Futures Media (07:36.366) When did you live out here? What years were we talking about? Tim Lozier (07:39.978) Oh, we were, what was it, 2000 to 2003, four, something like that, something that range. And then I moved, I moved back to Long Island. was like, all right, well, let's go back to the roots and come back in here. And, know, you know, got married, had three kids, starting to pay for college and that and all that stuff. It's, know, pretty much never sitting still these days. It's like, it's unbelievable. So it's been, it's been a wild ride coming where I'm coming. The irony is, my Corey Scott (08:09.152) I heard Tim Lozier (08:10.032) my senior in high school, she's looking at JMU at this point. And so I'm like, wow, this is like life repeating itself. But yeah, so just been kinda coming in there and just like, I still haven't been sitting still ever since the beginning. I'm just moving around, just always find something interesting to do. So. Funk Futures Media (08:15.662) That was nice. Funk Futures Media (08:32.13) Nice man. Corey Scott (08:32.289) That's awesome, Tim. See, he saying. Well, and so I think, you know, when you and I were first starting that detection, right, it wasn't so much about your career being in oil and gas. That was obviously, you know, an oil and gas service company. But primarily your focus was B2B software side. Is that right? Tim Lozier (08:33.918) That's Tim. Tim Lozier (08:54.216) Yeah, I mean, so if you think about it, like I came back, you know, I came back to New York and... I think the first company I worked at was a small B2B software startup. It was probably before even SaaS was a thing. So we were like on-prem, we were everything. And so it was bootstrap, just kind of putting everything together, getting scrappy. We built that company from like five million to 40 million in the time that I was there. We exited that company. And I caught the bug. My history has always been going after a BB companies that are in that kind of growth mode, small but mighty, if you will, right? And really looking at industries where there's like a little bit of complexity in the sale. There's a lot of people, the personas and people who are like buying the software, they're kind of a double life, right? responsible for the software and like solving the challenges, but they're actually out there doing it, right? You know, so like I had people like when I worked at ETQ, which was the company I first worked at, you know, you had guys that were on the shop floor and they were also in the back room doing computers. And it's the same thing with detection. You had guys who were, you know, out there in the op center, you know, trying to figure out how to, you know, maximize, you know, their, their compression units. And then, you know, every once in a while they go on a call out and they have to out there. So I always gravitated towards that small kind of, you know, that B2B software that really catered to that almost every man type of persona where people just were doing it. So it's just kind of stuck with me. mean, you know, 25 years later, I'm still, you know, working with companies and still learning how to help them grow and break through from that one, that one area where they come from, you know, a lot of times these smaller companies Tim Lozier (11:00.844) companies right there like network led growth right so they just they started they got a great product they got a decent customer base and they got you know a lot of people that they can work with and they kind of need to break through from just their network to actual market led growth and so that was you know when I kind of decided to start my business I used the term big breakthrough and I'd be lying if I said that Jeremy didn't have a hand in like saying you know kind of inspiring me on that Funk Futures Media (11:04.909) Yeah. Tim Lozier (11:30.764) that one, but how do you break through? How do you break through that barrier of just being like, okay, we're kind of on momentum right now, how do we accelerate? And that's kind of been my gig for the last several years. mean, detection was no different, right? I mean, we were kind of just building that whole program out and it was a lot of fun, so. Funk Futures Media (11:45.891) Yeah. Funk Futures Media (11:51.566) So there's a lot there. without giving away all of the secret sauce, but give us a little bit of tease, how do you do it? And I think this is particularly relevant to me. So maybe you're just talking to me and giving me this advice. But I do think our listeners as well, it's a lot of entrepreneurs, it's a lot of people that are out there hustling, trying to either start their own business or in the throes of the early stages of business, where you're right. It is a lot of. founder led growth, it's referral led growth and the idea of marketing is it's risky. It's possibly putting money into something that might not ever return anything or if it does return something it could take a long time. So how do you balance the you need to do some marketing, you need to effectively break through and go from where you're at today that founder led growth, that referral sort of based Corey Scott (12:20.276) Ahem. Funk Futures Media (12:48.994) you know, business evolution to actually getting exposure to your company, to building a brand, to having companies come to you and do it in a way where you don't have to take a massive risk in bringing on a full blown marketing team to do it. Give me, give me a sense of like, how do you do that? How do you execute when you see a company that is in that founder led window and take them to the next stage? Tim Lozier (13:18.858) I mean some might say you take a big swing. No, I'm fine. Funny, right? Yeah, that's the corny dad version of me. Yes, it's wild. You know, I think the market and like market... Funk Futures Media (13:29.646) We're all dads. Tim Lozier (13:41.426) Marketing and the market has changed like in so many different ways. Like it's evolving every single month practically now with the advent of AI and know different types of marketing that are come out here. And I've talked about this a lot in my own you know my own videos and reels that I've done and know various posts. But you know they're just much more savvy and maybe even they're a little bit more finicky buyers when it comes to you know like looking at markets. Funk Futures Media (13:51.182) Hmm Tim Lozier (14:11.34) So they're very hyper aware of how to find information on their own and what they need. And they're very hyper sensitive about giving their information away. even as much as two years ago, we could have gone out and said, okay, well, I'll just put an ad out for a white paper, have them fill out a form, and I got the lead right there. Or they would do a keyword search for a type of software. And your goal was to say, my site's Funk Futures Media (14:18.029) Yeah, yeah. Tim Lozier (14:41.26) it's going to come up and they would schedule a demo right there. But like in some circles, that's still like a thing, right? I mean, it still works. And I would never say like, don't do that. But you know, the way AI has been evolving as part of the arsenal tools that buyers have, they're doing like 80 % of their research before they even like, you even hear from them. So they're out there and they're looking for stuff that you do, but they're not looking at you necessarily. Funk Futures Media (15:05.251) Yeah. Tim Lozier (15:11.18) The thing for a small business, especially if you don't have major brand recognition, is to try and stand out in this crowd where buyers are basically holding all the cards. The shift now is to understand how are they looking for information and make your marketing around that. As an example, chances are, and you guys probably do this, we probably all do this in our personal lives because I know I'm naturally curious and I just ask a billion questions to chat GPT, but they're always just searching like for project management software. They're just not doing it. They're not Googling it, whatever it is. They're probably either going to Google Gemini, chat GPT or whatever, and they're asking, how do I consolidate my projects and filter them by priority and I can view it in all one view? So it's really a question, right? And now you find that even if they did in Google, Gemini takes up about half the page. So if you have a search result, you're not even showing up unless know unless Gemini doesn't have any answers. So if you're not part of that answer you're not going to even be considered. So there's a lot of tools out there that help with that but I think we're moving into this whole idea of answering buyer questions rather than trying to make our pitch. Like it's I always use the phrase know the story that needs to be told not the story you want to because as marketers, we have a story, we have a value prop, even as founders, you know, it's like, this is what my product does, I love it, it's got, you know, this is the value prop that I think I should be telling people. Well, that may not be what people are looking. So, that's the shift. I mean, there's a lot of different things that, you know, you can kind of, you know, drill down into, but I don't wanna get on a tangent yet. I mean, we'll get on a bunch of tangents, I'm sure, but, let's just. Funk Futures Media (16:54.872) Yeah. Corey Scott (17:07.979) Well, Tim, I think there's a couple of things to break down with what you're saying, right? The beginning of it is... If you have startup led, that can be founder led, whatever that founder background or co-founder background comes from, they more techie, more developer, they more product guys, or they more sales centric forward. But what always starts is a little bit of ham and egg and, I know a few people at this company, they'll make sure they give us some meetings and conversations. You're kind of organically good in it. So let's say you get that business to you know, if you have a thousand dollars a year or a couple of million dollars a year, you're eventually, you know, your ceiling's going to be met with how I'm doing it today. Won't get me from half a million to 3 million. So what do I need to do differently in all aspects? And marketing has to come up in that conversation, right? Cause a lot of people think they knew it. They all have opinions to marketing led activities, right? But Tim Lozier (18:00.874) You Corey Scott (18:04.341) there's different ways to go about it. And there's different ways you have to carve this piece out to make sure, you know, your business is growing. Cause what worked for you before doesn't necessarily work to grow it to the next level. So I think that's kind of what you're saying with it on top of now consider that in the buying market has really changed over the years and not just over the years or the decades with it. know, like Jeremy, we talk about going to different conferences and trade shows because that's where you had to go to get information. Like, yeah, it's great to meet people and mingle, but you had to do that to get information. Now you don't necessarily have to have it as much. There's the internet's really blown up, right? And so then you incorporate AI like you were saying, Tim, people are asking more question-based research, not just keyword. Funk Futures Media (18:35.489) Yeah Funk Futures Media (18:40.878) 100%. Corey Scott (18:51.005) research. And so there's probably a lot of marketing folks really kind of trying to tweak how they're going about their marketing, their branding, their messaging, right? To stay top of mind for those prospects. mean, so talk just a little bit. You did, you did give just a little snippet, but maybe just a little bit more because I know probably the listeners are out there thinking of how do I position that to make sure people are doing some. searches in Gemini and they're asking it more question-led to figure that out or doing comparisons of products out there and having, know, AI do the research for them basically that way. You know, what are just a couple things to comment to on that? I know it's a broad question, but just a couple things to think about based on your seat. Tim Lozier (19:28.692) No, no, it's interesting because. You know, there's this whole thing like about the the four P's of marketing, you know, going back to, know, the early rudimentary marketing 101. Right. And, you know, product price place promotion, I think it used to be. Right. There's actually like a new AI version of the four P's. And, you know, I don't think I really coined it. I think I adopted it from something else. But it's problem. It's problem path. proof and promise and so the whole idea is like Find out what their problem is and there's like tools out there now that Like also asked also asks calm is one of them answer the public calm is another one where you can actually put in like your keywords of what your your business does and it'll like spit out what questions people are asking around that so like you're actually also getting like good there's tech out there that'll help you, but you have Funk Futures Media (20:08.526) Hmm. Funk Futures Media (20:30.222) Cool. Tim Lozier (20:35.456) to know what the problem is that people are facing, not what the product can do. never like don't pitch, right? And you kind of say, okay, well, what's the what's the problem? And so you kind of build out that whole entire thing and say, what are the top questions that we want to ask? And you go to your customers, you go to the market, maybe maybe you go to your customer success, success, you get on dong calls or whatever recording tools you have. or whatever and you start listening for the kind of problems they have and you just start writing your messaging to answer that problem because AI is going to look for that problem and then you're going to put together kind of like a promise of how you're going to fix it, right? So but like how the answer is going to be and so you kind of think about, okay, what's the answer to that and how do you build that answer in a way that's not pitchy because AI is going to sniff that out right away. And so that's like the hardest thing for a lot of people to do is say, okay, how do I create a piece of content, whether it's on my website, whether it's a LinkedIn post, whether it's a webinar, whatever it may be, that's going to be not pitchy about my product. It's going to be more about answering the questions. And then what AI then looks for is proof. Like what examples exist in the world that this is actually true. And so it'll say, okay, if you don't have like customer case studies, Funk Futures Media (21:37.485) Yeah. Funk Futures Media (21:43.982) you Tim Lozier (22:05.196) you don't have ROI information that will back up your claim, it's gonna not validate you, it's not gonna feel like it's trustworthy or creditable. And the last thing is, is the last thing AI usually does, right? It never ends. It usually says, is there something else? It says, would you like me to do this now? Would you like me to compile a list of blah, blah, blah, And so if you don't put together a path for the next steps, Funk Futures Media (22:25.582) Always. Tim Lozier (22:35.276) Call it call to action call it a you know continuation like a guide or whatever it is to kind of drill down into that It just it's that formula that works and it keeps going and going and going and like I think when you're a small growing business and you are Trying to you know get that megaphone out there and make some noise You're gonna want to be able to give more authenticity of your voice and what you're trying to solve for, then, then the, the bigger guys, because they're already kind of stuck in their pitch thing and they're, they have like, you know, the, brand equity that they can, they can use. And I think if you're scrappy enough and you build out that program, you'll be able to get picked up and that's how you get noticed. And, it's moving fast. I mean, a lot of marketers are just trying to keep up themselves. So if you can imagine what these small but mighty businesses like, Funk Futures Media (23:26.446) Mmm. Funk Futures Media (23:30.914) Yeah, I buy that. Tim Lozier (23:34.956) if they're operating on their own, it's tough. mean, it's tough to keep up with it all. But that's just one of many different ways you can go about it, the marketing in terms of in this new world and breakthrough. And you mentioned conferences. It's really funny you mention it because I feel like conferences or let's take the trade show. The days of just kind of showing up with a booth and being able to get seen is kind of like, it's there, but it's like, if you're not there, speaking. I always feel like I always advise. I always say, look, if you're going to go to a show or a conference where you know, like key people are going to be trying to get yourself on the stage somewhere, like on a relevant area, even if it's just a moderation. I remember, Corey, if you remember, like we we did a show with detection and we weren't even like we weren't even presenting. We were just kind of the emcee. don't even know if you remember. Maybe you remember. Corey Scott (24:32.821) Chip. Tim Lozier (24:34.886) We were just the MC, right? And so the CEO of Kinetic was speaking about whatever he was speaking about, you know, just whatever, you know, wonderful things they're doing. And we did a quick spiel, you know, just to talk about what we did. And then after the session, the CEO came up to one of our guys is like, like, I need that. Like, we got to get that. And, you know, like that was... cost us nothing, you know, all of a sudden the CEO of like talking to our guy and we just sat up there and, know, just started doing. So I think it's not so much as like the show up and throw up kind of thing. It's more about how do you insert yourself into the conversation. Funk Futures Media (25:03.928) Yeah. Funk Futures Media (25:18.094) I like that. was there was a few things that you said that really stood out to me. And I think one that that I'm really curious about that I've I've wanted to ask you a sort of a marketing expert is the buyers are far more educated than they've ever been. So at the point in time when they come to your website or they request more information, they're not naive. In fact, they have whatever bias or belief system in place about you before they ever actually talk to you. So the role then of the salesperson or whoever has that initial touch point with them is much different, right? It might be breaking perception or changing the viewpoint of the person since they already sort of have an idea in mind of we think this is what you cost. This is what you work with. This is the value prop that you provide. That that's a much different way to sell than somebody who just says, Corey Scott (26:00.385) you Funk Futures Media (26:16.64) So what do guys do? Which is what it was like for the first 15 years of my career. Right. And I think that provides a unique challenge and probably elevates the role of of good marketers to be able to not only equip the team, but also put them in a position where when somebody does come to them, you've helped create some of those biases for them. Talk a little bit about how that has shifted where the level of education of the buyer right now is so high that when they come to you, you're dealing with a much different sort of beast than you were dealing with 10, 15 years ago. How do you still create success as a marketer when people have their own opinions before they ever talk to you about what you're selling to them? Tim Lozier (27:06.494) Yeah, 100%. especially if the sales are more complex, they think they are, you know, they're ready to roll or they're giving you a lot of objections at that point. This is where and Corey can probably echo this like a thousand percent. This is where you kind of say to yourself, it's not sales and marketing or sales versus marketing. It's really go to market. And what I mean by that is, you know, marketing could, you know, literally bring you in and, you know, and bring that lead in, but... as marketers, we cannot stop that process. We cannot walk away after the, I hand Corey the lead and say, good luck, buddy. And then all of a sudden he's like left to his own devices. I think you need to build out, enablement and tools that are going to help sales. you know, basically, you know, block and tackle along the way. So it's like, used to be like marketing would say, you know, to use the football analogy, right? I'm doing a running play and I, Funk Futures Media (27:49.912) Yeah. Tim Lozier (28:12.76) I hand the football to the running back and it's the running back's job to get to the end zone and I'm just the quarterback sitting there whatever. The reality is is I'm also the offensive line. I'm also blocking and tackling. I'm covering. I'm doing all the things I can do to make sure that running back gets the end zone and you know it's not the most clean analogy but it works and so we're helping build objection handling. We're helping build ROI calculators. hoping to look at every phase in the journey, whether you're you know, whatever, whatever sales model you're using. And we're just trying to figure out how can we help create a level of confidence and trust within that person. Cause they're coming in and they're saying, yeah, I know what you guys do. know. And show me, show me why you're better than the 800 pound gorilla. And so we're, you know, obviously we're continuing Funk Futures Media (29:02.734) Yeah, I know what you do. No, I've even heard that. Yeah. Tim Lozier (29:12.54) market ourselves at a product level with the sales team. And so if you're not lockstep with your sales team and like getting feedback and listening to calls and understanding what's gonna, what, what pivots you have to make as marketers, you're not doing your job down the funnel. And I always say like, you know, again, we're, we're, you know, marketers, especially in the B2B world leads. Yeah, cool. Whatever volume of leads. Yeah, cool. Whatever. It's really about like how much pipeline can you put in the hands of the sales team and how can you help them get down that funnel and give them what they need to be successful? And we've done a lot of cool things. mean, at least Detection and then a couple other companies that I've worked for and with that have kind of personalized a lot of things for these individual companies that are savvy buyers. Corey Scott (30:12.063) Yeah, and I think kind of when that handoff occurs and we're just hitting the circle button on our PlayStation to move from quarterback to offensive line to push it to receiver to make the additional block. It's probably good timing on this for the upcoming Super Bowl stuff. anyways, I digress. When it would come over to the sales team, right? You're doing a great job of that branding, that messaging, creating top of funnel leads, right? But this is where the sales team also has to give you quality feedback, right? After we talk to that individual or share that information, we have to ask the right questions to say, is this even a qualified lead? Are they in a buying position right now? Or are they just truly? you know, window shopping, kicking some tires right now, but right now is not the time. And that's, you know, probably something for a whole nother segment, but at the same time, like understanding where your prospect is in that journey. So if we can understand that on the front end for Tim's group, share that back. What was resonating in that message? How do we make sure, Hey, this is going to be a long buying cycle for this customer. How do we continually put information in front of them that stays valuable to them? It's hitting the key things they're looking for. You're staying top of mind. It's just nurturing that process. Right. So that's why it was never flip it over the fence and here you go, Corey. And then we just run with it. And then I never say anything back to him. Right. It was always continual dialogue and what's working and let's rinse and repeat it. Right. Funk Futures Media (31:30.99) Yeah. Tim Lozier (31:39.316) Yeah, and I don't even take it one step further is. If there is pipeline drop off, what does that look like? And how do you as marketers keep them in the mix, so to speak? So how do you continue to nurture them, right? So a lot of times, as marketers, we'll come at the top of the funnel and we'll give away some free content, whatever it is, and we may nurture them for 60, 90 days until they decide to raise their hand and say, I'm interested. and I want to talk to the sales and then goes through the whole process and then, you know, maybe it drops off and they just either, they either ghost you as a ghost your sales team or they say not now, but later, I'm kind of not in the buying cycle. And then generally nine times out of 10, what happens is it just dies on the fine. Like sales just closes the op and just says, well, all right. You know, but the reality is, like sales should be, you know, marking that flagging that and then mark marketing. Funk Futures Media (32:36.099) Yeah. Tim Lozier (32:43.43) should be going in and doing a whole new nurturing program to say, right, we're going to come back in six months or we're going to just keep sending them just information, good information, nothing pitchy. We're not going to try and pitch them, but like if there's a new webinar out there that we're going to do or we just wrote an article that's relevant to them, we're just going to keep sending it to them because really at the end of the day, if it's relevant content, if it's relevant information, it's unlikely someone's going to be offended by it. You know, I think people People don't want to see ads, right? Nobody in this world wakes up and says, I can't wait to see an ad today. So as marketers, you don't go in and wake up and say, I can't wait to make an ad today. It's just not how it works. I think these days, you can at least get your prospects that have dropped off engaged with by sending them real, credible content and just never stop marketing to them. Funk Futures Media (33:20.046) I'm not that. Funk Futures Media (33:40.782) The one day of the year that people get excited to see ads or commercials is Super Bowl Sunday, of course, which is coming up. So obviously the timing of this podcast is perfect. And I don't even know what it costs now for a 30 second or one minute ad for the Super Bowl, but it's insane, right? Tim Lozier (33:55.846) I think they're up to like five million. I think it's like five million and change. I think that's what it is. I think it's 30 seconds is five million. It's ridiculous. It's something like that. Don't quote me on that. I'm not, that's not my bag, but you know, but I seem to recall it being like ridiculous. So. Yeah, that went over well. Yeah. The PE firm loved that one. I'm sure. Corey Scott (34:00.939) for a minute or 30 seconds. Corey Scott (34:06.911) I remember a few, you know, like... Funk Futures Media (34:15.426) Yeah, detections ad last year, Tim, that you guys did for the circuit vault. That was awesome. That was so good. Yeah. Sorry, Edward. Tim Lozier (34:25.802) You Corey Scott (34:27.745) That's funny. Funk Futures Media (34:29.314) Yeah, so, yeah, I love this. And I think that one of the things you just said that stood out to me is you just broke a perception that I think is important for young marketers and people that want to get into marketing should realize and accept this truth, which is your job does not stop when you get the person to raise their hand and say, I'm ready to have a conversation. It's actually when your job starts. Tim Lozier (34:55.242) Yeah. Funk Futures Media (34:57.73) Right? Because then you are responsible for that nurturing and to make sure that the engagement from the salesperson to the prospect is not just the salesperson trying to make a withdrawal and constantly asking for things from them. There needs to be continuous deposits and information and value added pieces of data, whether it's a case study or whether it's something that resonates with them or a press release or a podcast or whatever. that keeps them engaged throughout the process. And that's the salesperson's job, in my opinion. But you're saying it's also the marketing team's job, right? Your job does not stop when you get the lead for the sales team. That's really the beginning of that nurture process. And then depending on which direction they go, it's almost like you've mapped this out to say, all right, well, if they're still trending in the right direction, we still need to give them more information to keep their confidence high. is that when they do ultimately buy their satisfaction is validated and real versus, okay, well, now's not the time they go into this more nurture bucket. They still need to receive bits of information. might be different information that they receive. But I think of all the things that you've said, that really hit home for me, because I view that as the salesperson's job. And I think that as part of what makes you great is that you also see that as the marketer's job or the go-to-market team's job more broadly. And maybe I need to break down the concept of these silos that exist. But I don't know growing up in sales, Corey, I feel like it was separate. Like sales would get mad at marketing and marketing would say, we're doing our job sales team isn't converting. It's this finger pointing. Well, why do they get all this budget to do all this stuff? Like we're the ones that have to do all the work and these leads are shared. And well, the sales team isn't converting this and that needs to be the way of the past, right? Teams need to work in lockstep hand in hand as they go to market team. Tim Lozier (36:45.493) yeah. Tim Lozier (36:49.959) percent. Corey Scott (36:50.965) Well, and it's not expand on this for us, Tim, because I'm leading you a bit. We got to break up the fragmentation as you're saying, Jeremy, right? Our team versus their team versus the other team. And that brings all kinds of culture issues in there too as well. But this shows obviously sales and marketing importance, all the examples and conversation we've laid up, you know, up to this point. But to the examples you were saying, Jeremy and Tim, like, how do you know what to put out there? You have to collaborate with people in the company. So far we've focused on the collaboration between marketing and sales, but is that where it ends? Right? Like you got a product team and a development team on the other side of the table, constantly investing and building into their tech, right? To solve problems and create more desired outcomes for somebody. So you got to be able to stay in touch with part product. just as much as sales to know what's going on to keep all those fresh, you know, new messaging items for the prospects. Right. I don't know. So talk a little bit about that. Right. I know it's it kind of comes back to the intersection why I think it's important for a lot of companies to not devalue market, you know, solid marketing folks because there's such a connection of their role beyond just their their siloed department, Jeremy, like you were saying. Tim Lozier (38:08.554) Yeah, I mean, 100%. Like it, it, goes through everything and you know, it's, um, I, you know, talking to even customer success and finding out what your customers are hearing in the market, talking to product. Everybody has a stake in what the challenges are. And it's funny because, um, you know, I, for, have on my website and I've given it to a couple of clients is like the 50 questions you need to ask. to understand what your buyer is thinking about or talking about. And it does go through, know, top of funnel, top of content, whatever it is, but it also goes through product. It also goes through support. It goes through customer service and you just start going. And everybody has like different perspectives on what a customer is thinking about or what they're doing and how they are interpreting that buying journey. And if you're not getting visibility into any of that, then you may step over yourself and you may say, okay, well, you we don't have this product and we don't have this thing, so we can't market to it. Whereas if you don't know what's going down the product roadmap, then it may be there. It may be something of value. So I think there's a lot to be said about building a cadence, if you will, of getting together with not just sales and marketing. but getting together with the different stakeholders who are holding the different pieces of the whole dynamic and just thinking about how do we leverage the knowledge within our company to make sure that we're putting the best possible version of our story or the story that needs to be told to come back to it to that buyer at every stage in the game. Corey Scott (40:05.557) I mean, you can't, you can't have silos. know we've really kind of focused on like small, small, medium sized type companies, right? Where they can naturally and easily create silos, but you take a step back. Those silos should not exist in any organization of that size, but it's just kind of how the cookie crumbles sometimes. But I mean, you and I would really try to break that down and say, Hey, let's have a meeting, right? Let's not add one just to add one, but we want to bring in product. We were bringing marketing, we can bring in sales. So everyone's kind of staying in touch in real time, right? And what are we hearing on the streets from a sales side? What's marketing working on? So they can feed off of that product can share. what they need to. Customer service can say, I've met with existing accounts. This seems to be the common feedback I'm hearing, right? So we're able to all hear about it and really kind of work alongside each other. I think it was a really good way of breaking that down, Tim, and being on the same page. Tim Lozier (41:01.31) Yeah, and they loved it. By the way, I mean, it wasn't like there was any sort of, all of a sudden there was these aha moments where they're like, wait, you guys are doing what? And then all of a sudden they'll say, you know, well, I was hoping that we could, you know, we could actually promote that webinar inside the product. I'm like, you can? Yeah, we could totally do that. And, you know, and, we'd love to do a product spotlight with you. So like I would get on and, know, just, just by having those meetings, ideas would come up and all of a sudden we'd start doing like customer spotlights or product spotlights. Funk Futures Media (41:18.946) Yeah. Tim Lozier (41:32.332) or we'd start doing these little snippet videos, this digestible content, which is really like reels and like quick hits and something that's under 25 minutes, 30 minutes that people don't have time to sit there for an hour or so, just listen to people drone on and have death by PowerPoint. These are just like little quick hits that you can put on a LinkedIn feed and they're like, this is cool. I think that's the way of the world, right? Funk Futures Media (41:36.578) Yeah. Funk Futures Media (41:58.51) Yeah. Tim Lozier (42:02.252) you can connect with your different stakeholders, you're going to find that they have great ideas. And they'll have all these great insights into how you can connect and build out that go-to-market engine so it's more robust. Funk Futures Media (42:21.068) Yeah, I think content is leverage. And I think every company, anybody who's listening to this, whether it's your own personal brand, or the company that you work for, you should always be thinking about how you can leverage content to further your brand, right? Not just amplifying things from the company that you work for, but actually authentically leaning into your own personal brand. And then building out your company brand in a sort of a fun and creative way. think that at least resonates with me. I think it resonates with a lot of people also understanding people's attention spans are shorter. I've been saying this for a few years, but like, you know, emails, like ever since the advent of Twitter, which was originally 140 characters, I guess it's longer now, but that's all people can really digest in an email, right? So how do you then take all this information you want to share with somebody in a short story? into one paragraph. It's very hard to do that AI doesn't even do that very well. Right? I'm like, make it shorter, make it shorter. Same things I'd say to my sales guys is it's a good email, cut it in half. Well, I don't know. I don't know. You have to do it. I'm not I'm not gonna tell you exactly how but you got to do it. Right? If you want to get them to respond, you need to make it shorter. I want to flip over a little bit to the big swing side of things. What are some of the big swings that you've taken? in your career and maybe it's right now with your own marketing firm that you're you're taking a market but give me some some of the big swings that you've taken in your life and your career Tim. Tim Lozier (43:52.745) Yeah, I mean. I mean, I love the idea of big swings because it just implies so many different things, right? And the reality is, I was thinking about this when before I came on, like, well, it's funny because some of the best sluggers in baseball, right? They got what, 300, 400 average? That means they're connecting maybe 30, 40 % of the time. And so I think it says a lot to the idea of not every swing is gonna connect, but if you keep at it, And even if you're successful half the time, you're better than some of the pros out there. And I think that's kind of a cool way to think about it. But I think it's any big swing you have is taking a risk to get a result. So I've left companies where I was comfortable just to take a risk on some ground up marketing build. Sometimes I was motivated by different things, but other times I was motivated by just thrill. But yeah, I would say reinvigorate. my business, big breakthrough marketing, was one of those, it was a shift, the timing was right for me. And I thought, why not give it a try? Why not carve out my little corner of the world and find these growing B2B tech companies and help them break through that marketing barrier? So yeah, that definitely was one of those big swings. And I think as, If I would give any advice to anybody who's kind of saying, well, what's the big swings I could take as, you know, as a company learning to just, you know, like navigate my way through growth or whatever you want to call it is to take what I would call controlled mistakes. And so like, just go out there and try things. Right. So don't get comfortable with status quo. Don't get comfortable with Tim Lozier (45:54.74) one thing or the other. Everybody says, well, this is working, so let's just keep doing it. Or we've always done this, let's just keep doing it. Just don't be afraid to make these little control mistakes. And what I mean by that is you're going out there and you're trying something different with the expectation that it's not going to interrupt or destroy your brand or anything like that. It's one of those things like it may work, it may not work, but it may make you stand out. Like, I mean, heck, detection. I decided to make a VR game because we couldn't bring a compression skid to a conference. Wasn't like something you could exactly just like put in your in your suitcase. So we were like, heck, let's just do let's let's like get a VR program together. And it had like a CAD drawing of a skid. And we would go through this whole thing. you know, you know, did it did it, you know, change the dynamic? Funk Futures Media (46:32.974) Right. Corey Scott (46:35.837) I'm Funk Futures Media (46:42.158) It's cool. Tim Lozier (46:54.54) of everything? No, but I can tell you what, it made us stand out. mean, people were like jazzed about it if they were into it. mean, again, like some people get on VR and they start getting vertigo, so you have to be careful with that one. But I think there's things that you could do, especially when you're a little company or you're growing and you're that small, mighty company that are trying to break through. You can take some big swings with how you do things differently that maybe other people aren't doing. Funk Futures Media (47:08.152) Yeah Tim Lozier (47:24.46) And like I said, if it doesn't work, that's okay. As long as you understand that, like I'm gonna try it and I'm still gonna, you know, just pivot quickly because there's, you know, there's controlled mistakes where you say to yourself, okay, I'm gonna do this and did it work? No, we pivot. Then there's, you know, we're just gonna keep banging on this and it's gonna work eventually. And then six months down the line, all of a sudden you've burned your budget and you're like, why did this happen? You know, so you have to be very, very, You have to be very controlled about how you approach, you know, new marketing ideas and taking those big swings. So there's a lot of things. Yeah. Funk Futures Media (48:00.482) love it. Yeah, no, we could go on all day. But but we've got a we've got a pivot to the picks segment of the podcast. So with Super Bowl 60 coming up this weekend, Corey, I'm going to turn it over to you. Corey Scott (48:02.593) I love it. Corey Scott (48:18.433) Yeah, well, before I give mine, I thought Tim was going to say one of his biggest swings was being a New York Jets fan. Hold on to that. But hey, but you know what? I said, we went with the Cowboys over here. So yeah, let me give you let me give you a few because it is the Super Bowl. And what makes the Super Bowl fun is a lot of the props. Funk Futures Media (48:24.494) Yeah. Tim Lozier (48:24.946) Yeah, you want me get into that? Funk Futures Media (48:27.854) Cheers. Corey Scott (48:40.459) bets and a lot of things that are out there. So we don't want to just really focus on a side or a total. Honestly, I don't really love a side or a total that much. It's kind of interesting. I might be leaning the pats with the points, Jeremy, but I still think the Seahawks kind of take it, but it'll be interesting. like, George Alani for the Seahawks over one and a half receptions. don't sleep on this guy. and it's one of those people kind of play, like get a reception first half, second half, get another reception. so I think there's some value there. think Drake may under 46 and a half passing yards in the first quarter teams usually like to play pretty conservatively, not show their hands. Think about two, if see, I'll get the ball first, right. And these teams can run the clock a little bit on a drive. One team might only get one possession, right? But they're not, they're going to want to make sure it's there. And I think Drake might get the points in total, but that first quarter is when I'm watching on an AJ Barner for the Seahawks over two and a half receptions. So there's a little research going on here, obviously beforehand, but wanted to give a couple with it. But look, I think everyone's on the Seahawks. Everyone's on it, but the line is not moving. Funk Futures Media (49:43.992) talk. Corey Scott (49:54.515) So it's kind of interesting to me. I think people are going to start coming, putting it on the Patriots. I don't think they'll let it get to five and a half or six. Four and a half, think is pretty good value in the NFL. Pats haven't put it together as well in offense in the playoffs in a way, but they always find a way, right? And four and a half is still just a lot of points. So that is my breakdown for the Super Bowl. Those are my picks for everybody out there. Funk Futures Media (50:00.846) So. Funk Futures Media (50:18.872) Tim, what about you? You want to just do a game pick? Tim Lozier (50:21.638) Yeah, no, I am not as I did not do any of the Saber metrics here like he's been doing so I'm kind of So here's the deal. Like he said, I'm a jet fan. I'm a long-suffering jet fan So my mantra at this point is anyone but the past So I literally I literally say, you know, that was my mantra and you know I I switched to bills once the once the jets were basically out because I do have a soft spot in my heart for the bills, but Funk Futures Media (50:32.622) man, I'm sorry. Corey Scott (50:35.265) You Funk Futures Media (50:40.568) Fair enough. Tim Lozier (50:51.552) once they left. The other side of the coin for me is like, know, Seahawks, you got Sam Darnold there and he used to be a jet. And it's so funny. I was just joking with Corey before we got on. was like, I feel like everybody who has played at the Jets has moved on to better things. So I like to take credit as the Jets being the... Funk Futures Media (51:10.109) Shit. Tim Lozier (51:14.174) the proving ground and say well I guess if know if the jets you know they leave the jets and all of sudden they get really good so I'm I'm all for Seahawks and I you know I I can't see another Patriots dynasty I just can't god I can't Corey Scott (51:30.674) Hahaha Funk Futures Media (51:30.798) Well, I love it. I love it. So yeah, I'm calling the game so I can't make a pick. No, I'm kidding. I mean, I got the Pats, right? I got the Pats 2017 in this one, taking it down. I have Stefan Diggs that Seahawks play a lot of zone. Diggs tends to play very well against zone. I have his over on four and a half receptions and I have his over on Tim Lozier (51:33.0) Hahaha Corey Scott (51:38.215) curve street over here. Funk Futures Media (51:59.854) 40 yards for this game. I've played both of those. I do think both quarterbacks will have at least one turnover. So I think that's something to consider as far as a bet. But I do think this will be a bit of a grinded out game, bit of a slugfest, little bit lower scoring. And I don't know. I think it'll be tight. But I don't know. This Pats team, something special about them, I think we're going to take it home. So that's my pick. I'm totally not biased or anything like that either. So at least we got that. Corey Scott (52:27.67) Yeah. Corey Scott (52:32.201) No, there's no emotional. It's all a bit with the mind, not the heart. So I get it. I will throw this out there. I'm not about making plays that are like the crazy, like what will the score be? Like guessing the perfect score in these crazy outlines, like either take one side, yes, no, or over, under. But I'll say this, if you think the Seahawks are gonna win, I think they've had Blue Gatorade the last... Funk Futures Media (52:34.156) Nah, nah. No horror whatsoever. Corey Scott (52:58.421) few Super Bowls, so if you want to go to that Gatorade prop situation, go see what the line is on blue Gatorade. Just out there. And don't play heads or tails through the bet. It's a 50-50 thing and you gotta like lay more money. Just pick a friend and say, you take heads, I take tails, whoever wins takes it. So. Funk Futures Media (53:20.002) Yeah. Yeah, the over under on the length of the national anthem is one too. It almost always goes long, right? Because that person really wants to milk that moment, whoever it is, right? Corey Scott (53:32.961) So I listened to this the other day, I thought it was true. They said that stuff, they rehearse it, right? So if you see the line for it come out at like two minutes and then it shifts to 2.02, then people know they rehearsed like, okay, it's going over. So they adjust the line by that one second. And so they would always say, if you see that move, it back down to two minutes, right? Cause it's gonna hit majority of time. Cause it's all timed, it's all rehearsed for that. I was with you for so long and I kept playing the over with people and I'm like, okay, they don't want their 10 minutes of fame obviously to occur. They're trying to keep it under the time and get the game moving. So, I thought that was just interesting to share with it, man. It was funny. Funk Futures Media (54:10.584) Yeah, no doubt. No doubt. Well, anyways. I dig it. Enjoy the game. Tim, where can people find you? What's your what's your website? You on LinkedIn? Where's the best place people want to reach out talk about how maybe they can get their own big breakthrough. Tim Lozier (54:22.443) Yeah, no, I'm on LinkedIn all the time. The website is bigbreakthrough.com, big-breakthrough.com. And you can find me there. Take a look at what I've been doing. I'm usually posting about stuff once a week or so, give or take, and trying to put my content out there and helping people to just understand a little bit more about what it takes to kind of break through that barrier to get into growth so check me out man I'll be around Funk Futures Media (55:00.302) Love it. Love it. Tim lozier with the Z. Thank you for coming on super meaningful to me. You're a good dude. I like all the things you did for detection. A lot of it is still being reused content wise and what both of you put in place there has been has been awesome. So appreciate you coming on the pod today. Corey, you're you're you're doing great, man. You're finding your rhythm and you're crushing it. You don't even need me. Corey Scott (55:01.618) awesome. Corey Scott (55:23.073) No, man, it's not like that. But Tim, it was an honor, man. Glad to have you as the first guest on the podcast for this band. So I'm glad we got to do it with the trio of us. Thanks for coming on, Tim Lozier (55:36.062) Yeah, thanks guys. Have fun. Lot of good times. Corey Scott (55:39.241) Awesome.